A National Journal article published November 23 examines why even with the recent boom in podcasts, there’s still a lack of underrepresented minorities in tech. Jason Loviglio, an expert in media and radio studies and associate professor and chair of media and communication studies, attended the 2015 Podcast Movement in Texas earlier this year and noticed a lack of diversity among podcasters at the conference.

“It felt very main­stream white,” said Loviglio in the National Journal article. “What I saw at the con­fer­ence did seem like the obstacles, or re­quire­ments, or trends, or cul­ture of pod­cast­ing at that mo­ment had the po­ten­tial to mar­gin­al­ize minor­it­ies and people who lack cap­it­al for some of these things.”

Because podcasts are still a recent phenomenon, Loviglio commented in the article that he expects diversity among podcast hosts and producers will increase as time goes on and more podcasts are developed.

“If it does be­come something big then there will be very cre­at­ive ways that dif­fer­ent com­munit­ies in the coun­try and around the world change it to make it work.”

Read “Four essential podcasts that will help you break into tech” in National Journal. For more information about Loviglio’s experience at the Podcast Movement last summer, read this previous UMBC news story.

Image: Jason Loviglio (far right) speaks at College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences faculty event. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.