As a media organization, KUT and KUTX have a responsibility to reflect the diverse culture, issues and lives of residents of Central Texas and the state. We believe KUT, as a member of a free and independent press, has a critical role in the battle against racism, spotlighting inequity and lifting the voices of overlooked and underserved communities. And we believe KUTX, as a key voice in the Austin and Texas music scene, can also combat racism by broadening cultural understanding, exposing listeners to new cultures and communities through music, and amplifying the voices of diverse artists.
The commitment of KUT and KUTX must go beyond what’s on the airwaves, to every aspect of our organization, from content to membership and audience engagement to business practices and hiring. You can find more about all of our efforts here, as part of a continuously evolving action plan to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in our content, community outreach, and workplace.
Our goal in the workplace is to achieve a level of ethnic, racial and gender diversity that reflects our community. A workforce that has Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, LGBTQ and people with disabilities employees allows us to understand our community and audience needs better, leading to better journalism, engagement and service. As of July 2020, KUT and KUTX are still lagging behind the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos in representation of diverse communities.
To improve our representation, KUT and KUTX have committed to a recruiting and hiring process that you can find here. We are members of NPR’s Public Media Village and Think. Public. Media recruitment measures, and engage with industry groups that support employees of color, LGBTQ and disabilities. KUT & KUTX also offer internships geared toward developing a pipeline of diverse talent for public media, and the station participates in job fairs and other outreach.
KUT and KUTX work with a community advisory board that is reflective of many attributes of diversity, including racial and ethnic, gender, age, geographic and diversity of subject matter expertise. This board provides advice and direction on community issues and the station’s public service strategy.
KUT and KUTX are licensees of the University of Texas at Austin. The organization is housed within the Moody College of Communications, and is engaged in the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, found here.
In 2019 and 2020 so far KUT and KUTX added more people of color to leadership ranks and staff; launched a project to translate coverage into Spanish, hosted virtual panels with hundreds of audience views on race and policing and Severing the Roots of Racism; and created a multimedia series about people who have moved to Austin from all over the world. The station’s daily newsmagazine, Texas Standard, did more than 175 stories where race and identity played a pivotal role, from culture to exploring racial justice protests in a small town.
KUTX explores music of all genres, and regularly features Black and Latino artists in its Artist of the Month series. In 2019 KUTX took the popular hip hop show The Breaks into a podcast format. The station also participated in a public radio ‘Songs for Change’ effort celebrating the anti-racism protest movements.
