Philip Lewis has already established his place as a journalist. The 30-year-old senior front page editor of HuffPost has interviewed celebrities such as Bill Nye and Giancarlo Esposito, co-authored a book on former U.S Secretary of Education Betsy Devos, amassed almost 200,000 followers on Twitter, and even participated in a celebrity basketball game for charity.

courtesy: Philip Lewis, 2015.

The Detroit native credits one thing as the start of his success: his 2015 fellowship with HuffPost. “That internship definitely was the catalyst of my career,” he said. "It was life-changing."

As a young Black man trying to navigate a tough job market in the steadily decimating field of journalism, Lewis considers himself lucky to have even gotten the fellowship. Fellowships and internships provide the competitive edge that young professionals need to break into the business. However, access to those opportunities is typically reserved for the rich, white and privileged.

“That fellowship definitely was the catalyst of my career... It was life-changing.”

— Philip Lewis.

Studies show that there is blatant underrepresentation of BIPOC and working-class journalists as a direct result of reinforced class inequities and credentialism in newsrooms. Unfortunately for those trying to break into the industry, the gate-keeping begins at entry-level opportunities.

In September 2021, the Washington Post released the application for its Summer internship program. Typically geared towards junior and senior undergraduate students, requirements to apply include enrollment in a degree program, a “positive and adaptable attitude,” and “at least one year of major newsroom experience.” Twitter erupted with swift condemnation of the lofty prerequisite saying that it defeats the purpose of an internship altogether by preventing students from trying to get their foot in the door in the industry.

Former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien added to the backlash by tweeting that the college students who already have prior experience in a major newsroom by their junior year most likely have it because their “daddy is probably employed there.” Los Angeles Times senior editor Matt Brennan observed that even he would not have qualified for the internship two years ago, as his first experience in a major newsroom is the job that he currently has. And senior Washington correspondent for the Independent, Eric Michael Garcia noted that the “unnecessarily vague net” cast by the Washington Post “cuts off and limits countless people from community college students to people from smaller colleges and hometowns.”

The Washington Post eventually walked back its requirements by changing the “major newsroom experience” qualification from required to “strongly preferred,” but many pointed out that its initial listing shone a light on an already well-known issue: Journalism has a diversity problem.

Pew Research Center reports that with 77% of employees (including writers, reporters, editors, and photographers) identifying as non-Hispanic white men, the newsroom is less diverse than U.S workers overall. But the disparity in race and gender isn’t the only issue. Education, specifically an Ivy-league education, continues to be a defining factor in the success of an aspiring journalist’s career. In 2019, the Asian American Journalists Association released a report that showed that the majority of intern and entry-level journalists that worked in major news outlets came from the same cluster of schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania. There are some exceptions, however. Including Stanford, Columbia, and the University of Chicago.

These statistics are unsurprising to journalism student Omar Rashad. The 22-year-old says his aspiration for a career in journalism was discouraged in an advising meeting with a journalism industry executive. Rashad says the executive effectively told him that an internship offer was unlikely because he was enrolled in a community college.

Courtesy: Omar Rashad, 2020.

“I felt gutted,” Rashad said. “I cried later that day.” The first-generation American knew that he wanted to be a journalist ever since high school when he witnessed unfair reporting being made about his community after suffering a hate crime. Rashad had dreams of attending the University of Southern California. However, his acceptance to the prestigious institution was followed by a hefty cost summation that he was not able to afford. To avoid having to take out six-figure loans, Rashad opted to go to community college and eventually transfer to a four-year university. He wrote extensively while at school and had an impressive amount of clips to submit for an internship. However, according to the executive he met with at a journalism convention, his talented writing could only partially help.

“My economic status kept me from attending an elite private university, which also kept me from obtaining an internship.”

— Omar Rashad.

The executive told Rashad that had he attended a school like USC, he probably would have gotten an internship. “I was perplexed,” Rashad wrote in an op-ed for Poynter.org. “My economic status kept me from attending an elite private university, which also kept me from obtaining an internship.” While Rashad was eventually able to secure an internship, he recalls the situation as a painful reminder that the journalism field has always thrived on elitism. "Journalism is an uphill battle. There are a lot of people who are going to assume things about me, a lot of people who are going to stigmatize me for my background, and it definitely made me question whether this was a field that I want to be in. And I still question that."

For "ABC News Live" associate producer Lataya Rothmiller, her career is a result of a successful pivot. When she realized that she wouldn't be able to cover the costs to sustain herself during unpaid internships, she decided to stay local. "I decided that I was going to intern within the clubs on my campus," she said. "I was able to ger really involved in those enough that those counted as an internship."

“Sometimes I wonder about the opportunities that I would have had if I had these big name internships or fellowships.”

— Lataya Rothmiller.

However, Rothmiller still thinks about what could have been had those prestigious positions been a bit more attainable. "Sometimes I wonder about the opportunities, you know, that I would have had if I had those big name internships or fellowships."

Courtesy: Lataya Rothmiller, 2021.

The lack of racial, educational, socio-economic, and gender diversity in the news is severely felt. Major outlets like the New York Times have had to issue apologies for producing content riddled with racial stereotypes of Asian-Americans, and others like CNN have faced backlash for ‘tone-deaf’ reporting regarding mental health.

While there has been an influx of racial, gender, and socio-economic reckonings across the U.S., the journalism field remains relatively untouched. Criticisms of classism, racism, and elitism within the newsroom are not new phenomenons with little to no change beyond the printed apology. "This is not a new thing," Rashad said. "And the fact that we don't recognize or acknowledge these compounding barriers [within journalism and academia] means that we're okay with how they are. We're okay with our systems and don't want to improve them."

Lewis' fellowship experience, however, is one that shows that not all is lost, and he is quick to remind newsrooms that anyone, regardless of race, socio-economic standing, or education level, can become journalists. "Journalism is ultimately a trade. It can be taught. No one was more green than me when I started, and I learned because someone took a chance on me. People can learn. They just need to be given the chance."