Digiday Research: Nonwhite media and marketing professionals see a much less liberal industry than their white peers

Disparities were greatest in how agencies are perceived. While white respondents overwhelmingly regarded the agency world as liberal, less than 60% of nonwhite respondents described agency culture that way. In fact, nearly one fifth of nonwhite respondents described agency culture as at least somewhat conservative (none of the survey respondents described agencies as “strongly conservative”).

By contrast, about the same percentage of white (62%) and nonwhite respondents (57%) described publisher and media company culture as liberal. The difference was in the matter of degree: Close to 40% of nonwhite respondents described publisher culture as “strongly liberal,” while just 13% of white respondents did.

And as was the case with agencies, a far greater share of nonwhite respondents said that the culture at media companies is conservative.

The respondents’ own political leanings may account somewhat for the disparities. Asked where on the political spectrum they landed themselves, both white (79%) and nonwhite respondents (84%) overwhelmingly described themselves as liberal, though a greater share of nonwhite respondents — 44% — describe themselves as “strongly liberal” than their white counterparts — 37%.