number of asian american men in newsrooms improves

Back in 2002, the Asian American Journalists Association released a study documenting the underrepresentation Asian American men in television news. Women greatly outnumbered men in newsrooms and journalism school classrooms. Blame the Connie Chung Syndrome, perhaps.

In 2004, to combat this statistic, a team of AAJA members released a DVD entitled The Men of AAJA: A DVD Showcase. No, not a calendar pictorial. The video featured the on-air work of 60 Asian American broadcast journalists, with the goal of raising the profile of men already on the air and recruiting aspiring journalists to follow them. In 2006, they released More than a Job: Broadcast Journalism, a recruitment video featuring six Asian American journalists showing and talking about the work they love.

Today, good news. The number of Asian American men on the air in the top 25 markets has increased by 73 percent. There were 22 Asian American men on the air in the top 25 markets in 2002. There are now 38: AAJA Uses DVD to Recruit, Retain Broadcast Journalists.

The number of Asian American women has also increased 84 percent in these markets, 84 in 2002 compared to 129 in 2008. And the ratio of Asian American women to men in these markets has also improved. In 2002, the ratio was 3.82 to 1. In 2008, the ratio is 3.39 to 1. Now maybe they really should make those calendars.