WE ARE AS DIVERSE AS OUR NUMBER, EACH OF US INDIVIDUALS WITH OUR OWN STORIES TO TELL, YET SO OFTEN THOSE STORIES GO UNTOLD...
The media is a powerful everyday tool to inform, entertain, inspire, report, investigate and campaign. It surrounds us – from billboards to television programmes, news stands to radio, and every corner online. What we read and hear shapes our worldview, influences our opin
ions, and forms part of our identities. Yet too many voices seem to be missing from these conversations. Older women are elbowed off our television screens in favour of younger faces. Working class voices are rarely heard, neither are the views of people without academic qualifications. Those who do stick their heads above the parapet are often bullied and abused for their differences, instead of celebrated for their achievements. And while some progress is being made, representations of ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and LGBTs are often tokenistic and unrepresentative. A recent investigation into the comments left on news articles on the Guardian website concluded that:
“Although the majority of regular opinion writers are white men, we found that those who experienced the highest levels of abuse and dismissive trolling were not. The 10 regular writers who got the most abuse were eight women (four white and four non-white) and two black men. Two of the women and one of the men were gay. And of the eight women in the “top 10”, one was Muslim and one Jewish.”
We have set up the Diversity In Media awards to recognise and celebrate the voices that accurately reflect the society we live in. To encourage and inspire people to pursue a career in the media by shining a light on role models and best practice. To be proud of our voices, and to speak up, for ourselves, our communities and for others. This is more than just a glitz and glamour award ceremony, however. Diversity In Media will also be sponsoring education opportunities for a number of aspiring media trainees, to not only celebrate our current unsung media heroes, but to actively diversify the voices we hear, and to create opportunities, share platforms, and help break down the barriers to being heard and represented.
