The Emory Wheel’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) task force has recorded monthly data on each print week’s newspaper since October 2024. The 2023 task force developed this project to assess diversity and representation across the newspaper’s coverage. DEI uses these results to design and implement initiatives that address representation gaps and inequalities. Topic summaries tend to be skewed towards campus events as the Wheel mainly covers events on campus to highlight the greater Emory community.
Note: This is the first published edition of the Content Report. It combines both print editions for April 2025.
Methodology
The task force designates sections of the newspaper — News, Arts & Life, Opinion and Sports — to different task force members. Their responsibilities include thoroughly reading each article in each section, noting important details about the articles and transmitting that information into a database after careful review. The DEI editors are responsible for reviewing and organizing the information for accuracy.
Summary and Results
The April 2 issue covered eleven campus events and six political topics. Editors also noted mentions of race and ethnicity throughout the writing, including two references to Black and one to Middle Eastern categories. Out of all the political views represented in the issue, there was one democratic viewpoint, two republican viewpoints and one mention of general political tension.
Campus club or organization mentions in this edition include: the department of political science, BLACKSTAR*, Juice, Emory’s baseball team, Emory for Sudan, Emory’s men and women’s swim and dive teams, Emory’s men's and women's tennis teams, The Pathways Center, College Council Pathway Committee, Emory’s softball team, and Everybody Chalks (Everybody Chalks is a solo project but is included under campus clubs to showcase student involvement).
The April 16 coverage overwhelmingly highlighted fifteen campus events and six university administration. Race and ethnicity metrics consisted of two Black, three Middle Eastern, two Palestinian and a combined Palestine and pro-Israeli submission. For political views, there was one Democratic submission, one left submission, one progressive left submission and one pro-Palestine submission. Left and progressive left refer to general liberal ideologies in the context of American politics. Additionally, one was marked as not applicable for this print.
Campus clubs and organizations mentioned include: Emory’s men's and women's golf teams, Student Government Association, Emory Students for Justice in Palestine, Emory’s Faculty Council, Emory’s women’s track and field team, Emory Students for Socialism, Emory’s softball team, Emory School of Law's National Lawyers Guild, and Theater Emory.
These metrics demonstrate general gaps in far-right and centrist political representation within the politics section. Race and ethnicity summaries highlight potential for Pacific Islander, Native American, Asian and Hispanic/Latinx representation in the paper — these metrics have remained consistent since October 2024. For a more diverse topic representation writers and editors at the Wheel might also consider covering more crime, sexuality and research-related topics. Covering these topics would fill gaps in representation. A detailed summary of this report for the April 16 issue is accessible here. Content reports from October 2024 to April 2025 are available here.
The goal of the DEI task force is to have fair and equal representation of events and communities at Emory on the Emory Wheel. If you have suggestions for metrics we should include, please contact us at emorywheeldei@gmail.com.
