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Many black journalists feel unsupported and their ideas are systematically rejected, 'shocking' research shows Racism is 'mainstream' in the UK newspaper industry, which needs more black people in leadership positions and more racial correspondents to improve diversity in coverage, according to new research. Published by the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) on Tuesday, the report lays bare the challenges facing black journalists in the UK media.
Written by Dr Aida Al-Kaisy, Media Development Advisor at EJN, Structural Racism in UK Newsrooms is based on 27 in-depth interviews with Black journalists and stakeholders who have worked or are currently working in UK newsrooms. major national media worldwide print. , online and broadcast media. media.
Many feel without support, their ideas are routinely rejected, they feel like they don't belong and have no one in a senior position to turn to for unbiased advice, the report warns.
The project, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, is described as a "shocking exposure" of the lack of progress on diversity in the British media, where black journalists make up just 0.2% of staff, compared to the 3% of the British population. , according to a recent breakdown.
White journalists make up 94% of the entire journalism workforce, according to data from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in 2015. There has been no recent comparison of these numbers.
The report says the proportion of black journalists has increased in recent years and there has also been a greater sense of possibility for change since 2020 with further momentum from the Black Lives Matter movement. However, black journalists said that the writing processes remained exclusive and that discrimination was widespread.
"When you walk into a newsroom, it's like apartheid. You're instantly categorized by the color of your skin," one reporter told investigators, echoing a warning in the report that black journalists are "grouped" to cover certain topics.
The report also found that traditional "diversity and inclusion" approaches such as curricula are not working in the UK media as they "do little to address the structural problems of the industry or even the society in general".
He also argues that reporting on racism and structural racism is a way of drawing public attention to the problem. However, a “culture of fear” operates where black people fear losing their jobs if they speak out about the issues they face.
There is a sense that the work of individual black journalists is being co-opted so that media organizations appear to champion diversity, while newsrooms are often seen as hostile environments, the report added.
A black journalist told investigators: “I feel like a shadow of myself in the newsroom. I don't show my personality. I am worried about how they perceive me, whether it is loud or noisy.
Marcus Ryder MBE, Head of External Consultants at the Sir Lenny Henry Center for Media Diversity at the University of Birmingham, said: 'UK news organizations cannot accurately, impartially and objectively report on the world until address racism in their own newsrooms.
"Well that ce rapport approfondi devrait concern all those heads who work in the information industry, the results of the results on the functions of the democratie in our society, those histories are understood and, surtout, who détient le pouvoir pour rendre accounts."
The report's recommendations include a call for senior management to change the composition of newsrooms to reflect improvements in diversity at entry level, as well as in UK society at large.
Recent research from the Reuters Institute and Oxford University shows that in the UK, none of the top ten online and top ten offline media outlets in their sample of 100 headlines had a non-white publisher.
As part of its recommendations, the EJN suggests that more work be done at the organizational level to incentivize media managers to recruit and promote black journalists to leadership positions. The report also called for greater transparency in decision making in all aspects of the information development process.
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