While some people think the media is out of touch with the concerns of the average American, there is one issue with which many journalists really connect: Jobs.

As an estimated 10,000 journalists of color are convening in Chicago this week for the UNITY convention, many of them are arriving in town in the midst of great turbulence within the industry as many newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, are imposing buyouts and layoffs, broadcast outlets lose market share to the Internet and corporate owners are slashing costs in an effort to keep shareholders’ rates of return high.

“Right now, I am comparing the state of the media industry to the Great Depression,” said Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, the largest organizational member of UNITY: Journalists of Color.

“We are hitting rock bottom as far as image, opportunities, content, diversity and corporate direction,” Ciara told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “As profits shrink, too many media bean counters are trying to do more with less. As a result: Style over substance is a description that applies to both print and broadcast these days.”

In April, the American Society of Newspaper Editors reported approximately 2,400 journalists left newspaper newsrooms in 2007 through buyouts and layoffs. Close to 300 were journalists of color. The news seems to be a bit brighter in broadcasting, however.

The Radio Television News Directors Association, in its 2008 survey, said the percentage of minorities in television news in 2007 stood at 23.6 percent, the second-highest level after peaking in 2001. According to the report, “The percentage of minorities at non-Hispanic stations also rose, but more modestly, coming in third behind 2001 and 2006. And at 9.1, the percentage of minority TV news directors at non-Hispanic stations reached the highest level in the eight years we’ve tracked that statistic.”

Still, the numbers are nowhere near parity when the percentage of the workforce reflects the representation of the communities being served. In the past 18 years, the survey revealed, the minority population in the United States rose 8.1 percent; but the minority workforce in TV news increased 5.8 percent, and the minority workforce in radio was up by just 1 percent.

UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is a coalition of four national associations: NABJ, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National American Journalists Association and the Asian American Journalists Association. The organization challenges the journalism industry to make its staffs reflect the country’s diversity, and it advocates fair and accurate news coverage about people of color.

UNITY also develops programs and links with organizations that help promote its mission and convenes a conference with its member organizations every four years. In 2004, the UNITY conference was held in Washington, D.C. President Bush and his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, appeared at separate events.

This year’s convention will feature an appearance on Sunday by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, a plenary session with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and workshops on a variety of issues including, cultural competence, health, global warming, environmental coverage and digital media.

This year, a town hall-style event with Obama and Republican opponent John McCain initially scheduled for Thursday was canceled because of Obama’s trip to the Middle East and Europe and other commitments made by the McCain campaign. Obama has agreed to appear on Sunday, and UNITY officials were still in negotiations on Tuesday to bring McCain to the convention.

Once it was clear, however, the Thursday session wasn’t happening, NABJ members -- in an association listserv discussion about the retrenchment in the industry -- suggested using the time to discuss options for black journalists who have been hard hit by retrenchment in the industry. Ciara urged the members to form a working committee that will help members throughout the year address the issue.

“I often think of how my father always said, ‘Get a good government job.’ And I always replied, ‘Daddy, newspapers aren't going anywhere,’” said Patrice Gaines, an author and contributor to BlackAmericaWeb.com who has launched a nonprofit near Charlotte, N.C., to help women newly released from prison to get their lives back on track.

“Because I am 59,” she added, “most of my friends are no longer at major newspapers, the places where they basically grew up and thought they would retire from. Most of them have taken the buyouts. For the first time, I would not recommend journalism as a career to younger people.”

Yanick Rice Lamb, associate professor in the Department of Journalism at Howard University and editorial director for Heart & Soul magazine, said mainstream media has not lived up to its pledge to increase diversity in newsrooms across the country to reflect the communities it serves.

“The 24/7 news cycle is forcing all media companies to work smarter to attract readers and viewers,” she told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "Journalists of all backgrounds and ages who can best help their employers accomplish this will have the best chances of success. It also means being flexible and receptive to change, risk and retraining."