Newsrooms need to diversify, but change must be driven from the top

Senior executives need to do more to drive newsrooms to become more diverse and better reflect the communities they serve.

In the next episode of the Making the Media podcast, host Craig Wilson speaks to Deborah Williams, Executive Director of the UK-based Creative Diversity Network. 

Deborah says, “In order for change to really happen, the decision maker has to say they want to make it happen…  The decision maker is usually somebody in the C-suite at executive level, or somebody with a chief at the front of their name, and they are the ones that need to be saying yes. That’s what makes the most difference… Because if your Chief Executive or your Chief Financial Officer says, ‘I want this to happen,’ everybody is going to run at breakneck speed to make it happen.   The Network, which is funded by the UK’s major broadcasters, has a data-driven approach to tracking the issue, but there is a lack of information about diversity within newsrooms. Deborah is also concerned about the implications for disabled people as the industry looks beyond the pandemic.

“It is the talk of ‘back to normal.’ And it’s the talk of recovery. And people not necessarily understanding the implications of what we’ve been through over the last 18 months and the impact of that on our industry, on our creators, [and] particularly on disabled people within [the] television space. And that is keeping me awake. I’m very, very worried because nobody has come to us to have any sort of conversation about the [accommodations  ] for disabled people in our industry as part of [this] ‘back to normal’ and recovery, and that is troublesome.”

Find out more on the next episode of the Making the Media podcast on Monday, October 6th.

 

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