Host Maria Teresa Kumar talks to Kate McCarthy, the Director of the Women's Media Center SheSource, and Akiba Solomon, the Editorial Director of Colorlines, about the need for more women -- and women of color -- in U.S. newsrooms.

Julie Burton, president of the Women’s Media Center, explains the impact of women, on average, writing only a third of stories at major newspapers. “Media tells us our roles in society — it tells us who we are and what we can be,” Ms. Burton said in an introduction to the report. “This new report tells us who matters and what is important to media — and it is not women.”

The Women’s Media Center just released its annual re-port — and it breaks down a wealth of scary yet import-ant statistics on how women in journalism are represented across media platforms compared to their male colleagues. The numbers cast a bleak shadow on the future of journal-ism for aspiring newswomen

Political coverage has an enormous impact on elections — which are the main or only time this country has a national dia-logue about its direction — and women should have an equal ability to ask questions and shape coverage,” center co-found-er Gloria Steinem wrote The Associated Press in an email.

Two high-profile roles previously held by women — Diane Sawyer of ABC News and Jill Abramson of The New York Times—were changed in 2014,” said Julie Burton, presi-dent of the Women’s Media Center. “These veteran jour-nalists were in positions of power at media giants, shaping, directing and delivering news. Both women were replaced by men.’

Julie Burton, president of WMC, broke down their find-ings in the report’s introduction: Women, who are more than half the population, are assigned to report stories at a substantially lower rate than men. In evening broadcast news, women are on-camera 32 percent of the time; in print news, women report 37 percent of the stories; on the Inter-net, women write 42 percent of the news; and on the wires, women garner only 38 percent of the bylines.

“Our research shows that women, who are more than half of the population, write only a third of the stories. Media tells us our roles in society — it tells us who we are and what we can be. This new report shows us who matters and what is important to media — and clearly, as of right now, it is not women,” center president Julie Burton said in a statement.