FAIR MEDIABritish Blacks Challenge The Nation’s Newsrooms

TIRED OF THE ELITE WHITES ONLYMEDIA CULTURE,

BRUISED BY THE MEDIAFALSE CLAIMS THAT

FUELLED THE SUMMER2011 DISTURBANCES IN

TOTTENHAM,BLACKS ARE ARGUING

FOR OPEN JOURNALISMTHAT EVERYONE CAN BE A

PART OFBy Thomas L Blair

Publishing Information

An imprint of Editions Blairtb@thechronicle.demon.co.ukA division of Chronicle world Publishing, Hertford,England©Thomas L Blair 1 April 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrievalsystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording orotherwise), without the written permission of thecopyright holder. Exceptions as permitted under theCopyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The greatest care has been taken in producing thispublication; however, the author will endeavour toacknowledge errors or omissions.ISBN 978-1-908480-02-6

Categories: British journalism, Black journalists,Black and minority ethnic communities, media, politicaland social sciences, race relations, Britain

Preface

FAIR MEDIA JUSTICE CHALLENGEUK newsrooms stand accused of betraying multi-

cultural Britain. This charge comes in the wake of arecent damning indictment by the New Statesman in2012. The evidence unnerved some editors ofmetropolitan dailies and Sundays who are concernedabout the potential fallout for the reputation of the mediathat is seeking to show it has recovered from recentcontroversies.

Yet, there still is no change in the paltry numbers ofBlack and minority ethnic journalists. No respite in themisrepresentation of Black communities that fuel racetensions.

Black journalists and community leaders haveredoubled their challenge to the whites-only culture inBritish newsrooms. Their best opinions, case studiesand personal histories in this collection are an antidoteagainst a media culture where white commentatorsdictate what is good for Black people.

The collection sets out their views on how thenation’s newsrooms can do things differently.

On hiring practices, for instance, dismantlingthe structure of restrictive policies isessential.

On misrepresenting Black people, newsroomsneed to learn how to report on Blackcommunities and youth without the persistentuse of negative stereotypes andunsubstantiated rumours that fuel socialtensions.

Indeed, the media must abandon the pretence thatthey can report for the whole society, let alone BlackBritain.

When “race rows” deepen after careless mediaclaims, it’s time for change.

When every story about welfare crackdowns, riots,crime, poverty and homelessness starts with a coweringBlack face of deviance, it’s time for change.

And when Black people can never be shown inceaseless struggle for advancement and creativity even

in the hardest times, something’s wrong in thenewsrooms, then it’s damn sure time for change, rootand branch.

So let’s go further on the road to media change.Political effort at the highest levels is long overdue.

To be sure, fundamental change in the relationbetween newsrooms and Black communities will haveto go beyond remedial procedures, crocodile tears andlip service grudgingly given. Real change comes whenthere is a change in power, attitude and style. That iswhy:

We need an Independent inquiry into the UKmedia anti-Black hiring practices andmisrepresenting Black communities.

Evidence shows the moribund PressComplaints Commission has proved useless inredressing these legitimate grievances.

Moreover, significantly, the Leveson inquiryinto scandalous press relations with thepublic, police and politicians, has saidnothing about unfair media practices againstBlack journalists and communities.

Indeed, government can take action on errant mediaand uphold its obligations under international humanrights laws to protect historically discriminated groups,such as Blacks. Decisions may be partly based on proofof corporate responsibility for causing race hate, alarmor distress

Hence, the call for concerted political effort for analternative inquiry based on a national FAIR MEDIASocial Justice Challenge. This will target what manyregard as widespread and systemic discriminatorypractices in hiring and reporting on Black communities.

Chart your own road map in the FAIR MEDIAJustice Challenge:

Construct effective arguments for analternative inquiry into media discriminationand malpractice***

Critically assess editorial attitudes to Blackjournalists and communities

Join the debate about racism in the media, andhuman rights

Understand how the media fuel “race riots,”and learn how to respond to it.

Recognise how to implement the FAIRMEDIA Justice Challenge

On the broadest level, the FAIR MEDIA JusticeChallenge will strengthen interaction betweencommunities and the media. The result will be a newmore authentic, high quality resource of news productionfor 21st century journalists.

Thomas L Blair, Chronicleworld.org, EditionsBlair, ©2012

NotesNewsroom sites broadly include newspapers, radio

stations, TV and satellite channels as well as audioand video content that offer opportunities to join thenational and global debate. It also refers to agenciessupplying content to news websites, mobile phones andother wireless handheld devices. However, populistmedia sites that incite racial hatred anddiscrimination are excluded.

The New Statesman Minority Report “Are themedia racist?” can be found athttp://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2012/01/white-pages-press-ethnic

This FAIR MEDIA e-book is sourced from theChronicleworld.org, the premier online newsmagazine serving Black Britain and Afro-Europe ©1997-2012

The current Lord Justice Leveson inquiry examinesthe relationship of the press with the public, policeand politicians, under the Inquiries Act 2005, withpowers to summon witnesses.

Notes on the authorProf Blair is a cyber-scholar and edits the

Chronicleworld.org, the foremost online news journalon Black communities of Caribbean and Africanheritage in Britain and Europe. Founded in November1997, he offers readers information and commentary onthe problems and prospects for creative renewal.

In addition to FAIR MEDIA, his other books in theEditions Blair E-book series debate serious topics in thepublic realm in the Black world of the USA, Africa,Britain and Europe:

The Audacity of Cyberspace – on Blackcommunities crossing the digital divide;

Pillars of Change – on Black rebel youth andintellectuals challenge la belle France;

Les Piliers du Changement – French translation ofPillars of Change.

Table of Contents

Preface – FAIR MEDIA Justice Challenge

Notes on the author

Baroness and Bishop back call for UKmedia democracy. To be both fair and free,the British press needs to have more Blackjournalists on staff and to do a better job ofcovering minority communities, said BaronessPatricia Scotland of the House of Lords,Bishop of Stepney John Mugabi Sentamu.

What colour is the news? Black and Asianfaces are rare among Britain's “news breed”,the journalists who gather and process thenation's news. Twelve to 20 Black journalistswere employed during the mid-1990s innational newspapers, out of a workforce of3000, said Dr. Beulah Ainley, author of BlackJournalists, White Media, the only academicstudy of the topic.

Reporting On Race - Britain’s RawestMedia Nerve. What you don’t hear muchabout are the complaints by Afro-Britishpeople. Two major concerns arediscriminatory hiring practices and theunrelenting prejudices and negativestereotypes they face in the popular,mainstream media.

Revealed: How UK media fuelled raceprejudice. Power, class and the old school tieexplain much about media resistance tochange – just as Prof Stuart said decades ago.“Broadly speaking, the media exist in a veryclose, sympathetic relationship to power andestablished values”. Furthermore, “theyfavour a consensus view of any problem: theyreflect overwhelmingly middle class attitudesand experience. This unfits them for anauthentic portrayal of the Black communityand its problems”.

Street-wise or Media Lynching? This must

explain why faulty media coverage is thesubtext of riotous times. The veteran Blackjournalist Marc Wadsworth asks: Did thenewsrooms spread misinformation anddemonise Mark Duggan, the Black, malevictim of the fatal shooting by police inTottenham? Organiser of the Media and theRiots mass meeting want to know: Did newsreporters fuel the disturbances and condemnBlack people, the poor and disaffected youth?

End-piece: Promoting a FAIR MEDIAChallenge for Britain’s newsrooms. Newevidence shows little has changed in decades,according to the 2012 New Statesman’sMinority Report “Are the media racist?” Hence, Black nobles, academics, journalists,students, politicians, community leaders andmedia activists have set new goals fornewsrooms. This is especially required whereissues of race are played out in the publicsphere, said Gary Younge, the Blackjournalist on the Guardian. The Challenge isto pursue direct results with commitment and

controlled focus. This invokes the broaderview that equality and fairness should be theintegral foundations of a free press, aninformed public and meaningful civicparticipation.

Speakers from the UK media democracy conference, from left toright:-Top row: Marc Wadsworth, Kevin Scott, Dr Beulah AinleyMiddle row: Lionel Morrison, Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, RtRev. John Mugabi Sentamu, Bishop of Stepney, Chief Inspectorof Police Dalton McConneyBottom row: Linda Bellos, Adam Clayton Powell III, NevilleLawrence of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust

Baroness and Bishop back callfor UK media democracy

To be both fair and free, the British press needs tohave more Black journalists on staff and to do a betterjob of covering minority communities.

That was the message of a report, “What colour isthe news?”, strongly supported by Baroness PatriciaScotland of the House of Lords, Bishop of Stepney JohnMugabi Sentamu, and Black community leaders andjournalists at a discussion at the Freedom ForumEuropean Centre, London, on Dec 7, 1998.

The report, researched by The Chronicle inconjunction with the Centre, found evidence ofwidespread discriminatory practises, despite claims byeditors that they are “colour-blind” in hiring andpromoting Black journalists.

Worrying trends of exclusion andmisrepresentation of Black people

Journalists of African, Caribbean and Asian descent

account for less than 2 per cent of the professional staffin UK newsrooms, though minorities make up at least 6per cent of the population.

Only a few dozen Blacks are among the 3,000 staffjournalists on national newspapers. Moreover, onceinside the newsrooms, minority journalists' promotionprospects are poor, the report states.

Researchers seeking explanations for this situationran into a wall of silence from editors and newsexecutives. Within the BBC and the independenttelevision companies, they found signs of “diversityfatigue”, a drastic slowdown in equality actions bymanagers. Journalism schools, for their part, showed noevidence of equality policies in their course literature oron their web sites.

Mounting protests by Black journalists andnotables

Prominent Blacks in the media have recently becomemore outspoken about the problem. ITV news presenterTrevor McDonald, of African-Caribbean heritage, said:“Historically, there has always been an imbalance.However, in the past, there was not the number of

people knocking at the door as there is now. This is theperiod of the crucial test.”

Baroness Scotland, Bishop Sentamu, chief inspectorof police Dalton McConney, and a ranking civil servantBarbara Tomlin-Lindsay expressed their concern. Theywere all troubled by what they saw as media unfairness,sensationalism and bias towards Black people.

Working professional journalists speak outVeteran journalist Marc Wadsworth and Linda

Bellos of the newly formed Black Media traininginstitute urged the media to do more to promote diversityin their ranks. Dr Beulah Ainley, author of BlackJournalism, White Media (1998), the only academicstudy of the topic, said “The media have for months beenreporting, the Stephen Lawrence inquiry (into theracialist murder of Black youth in London) and theunder-representation of Black people in the police. Theyfail to report that they employ even fewer Black peoplethan the police.”

Speakers also noted the Black community's flaggingconfidence in the press. Neville Lawrence, father ofStephen, recalled his distress that no daily papers

mentioned his son's death, yet headlines at the timelamented the maltreatment of a stray dog. The initial lackof press interest triggered his determination to get hisson's death reported and his killers found.

Positive action called forThe need to rebuild confidence in the media is

particularly obvious in London, where most BlackBritons live and where the major national newsorganisations are located. One in five Londoners is froman ethnic minority, and the figure rises to two in five insome parts of the capital.

“Getting more Black students into journalismschools and jobs must be the key to improving the mediain the future,” commented senior trainer and educatorLionel Morrison, of the Black Members' Council,National Union of Journalists.

Positive action training goals in the US wereoutlined by visiting African American journalists, KevinScott of NBC and Adam Clayton Powell III, vice-president for technology, The Freedom Forum, Virginia.Powell described the Forum's John Chips Quinnscholars program as one way in which “students of

colour” have the chance to pursue journalism careers.Participants agreed that follow-up efforts could

include bringing together newsroom managers,journalism educators and funding bodies to develop atraining program for Black journalists in Britainmodelled on the Chips Quinn initiative.

What colour is the news?

Issues of race go straight to the heart of the UKmedia. Britain's newsrooms -- in print, radio, televisionand on the Internet -- lag far behind in recruitment ofBlack staff at every level. Yet, racial disadvantage inhiring and promotion is patently obvious in newsroomsand the journalism schools that feed the industry. This“blind-to-Blacks” syndrome threatens to undermineclaims of objectivity in the nation's press corps. Boldnew action plans piloted in the USA can help medialeaders meet the challenges of diversity and democracy.

Race facts and fictionAsk any newspaper or TV editor about “race” and

you will get the standard reply: “Colour doesn't matterin journalism newsrooms; we hire on the basis ofmerit.” However, the weight of research and anecdotalinformation proves the contrary.

Black and Asian faces are rare among Britain's“news breed”, the journalists who gather and processthe nation's news. Twelve to 20 Black journalists were

employed during the mid-1990s in national newspapers,out of a workforce of 3000, says Dr. Beulah Ainley,author of Black Journalists, White Media, the onlyacademic study of the topic.

Probably only 1.8 per cent of the members of theNational Association of Journalists union, are non-white, according to the NUJ Journalist magazineDecember 1998. Black, Asian, and Arab journalistscomprised 2 per cent in the first industry-wide study byveteran journalist Anthony Delano and John Henninghamfor the London College of Printing in 1995. This figurewas considered “disproportionately low” compared tothe national minority population of 5.26 per cent. AlexPascall, chairperson of the National Union of JournalistsBlack Members Council, estimates there were fewerthan 260 Black men and women in the 27,000-memberunion during a similar period.

Provincial newspapers are reported to have aparticularly dismal record of accomplishment, says Dr.Ainley. Only fifteen out of 8,000 journalists working inlocal or provincial papers are Black, she says. In theWest Midlands, where thousands of Black immigrantshave settled since the 1960s, most papers do not have a

single Black journalist.

“Race” in the media is linked to violence,danger and crime

Once inside the hallowed newsrooms, job mobilityis limited. Racial prejudice impedes minority progress,say Black journalists interviewed by Delano andHenningham. The Commission for Racial Equality, therace relations watchdog agency, confirms the bleakcareer prospects. The CRE observes that fewmainstream British newspapers “have Black or Asianeditors and very few have Black and Asian journalists”.

Wall of silenceNews editors will find it hard to refute these

findings. A 1998 study of sixty newspapers exposed awall of silence, according to a diversity researchproject by The Chronicle Internet magazine and TheFreedom Forum European Centre. The majority chosenot to respond or reveal figures on Black and ethnicminority representation among their journalists.

Of 10 replies from national and provincialnewspapers, two expressed regrets for being too busy to

reply. Two said they do not keep records of staff byethnicity. One felt the issues raised by a request forinformation “are too complex for numbers”, and anotherstated tersely “we choose on the basis of merit only”.

“Colour-blindness” accounts for this reluctance torespond, it is claimed. Editors and managers maygenuinely believe in hiring the person most suitable forthe job, without regard to colour. However, this notionhas been challenged since the 1970s by campaigningBlack groups such as the Black Media WorkersAssociation led by Dianne Abbott, now Labour MP, theNUJ-backed Race Relations Working Party and theBlack Journalists' Association. In the light of thisvigorous rebuttal, notions of “suitability” are at besthighly subjective measures often used by editors to denyBlacks entry or promotion.

In the strongest language so far from a workingjournalist, Kamal Ahmed, media editor of The Guardian,has spoken out against “casual racism” in today'sjournalism. He has “condemned the lack of opportunitiesfor Black journalists on national and regionalnewspapers” in a speech reported in the Press Gazette30 October 1998.

No practical stepsWhen challenged with this evidence of all-white

newsrooms editors do nothing practical to change thesituation, says Dr. Ainley. They avoid consultation withrelevant agencies such as the NUJ-Black MembersCouncil and the Commission for Racial Equality. Mosthave failed to respond on three occasions to ourenquiries, says Chris Myant, head of the CRE pressoffice.

In a classic textbook example of “blaming thevictim”, editors often reproach Black people for beingunqualified or not coming forward with applications.However, focus groups of Black journalists organisedby the Chronicle-Forum diversity project reject theseallegations. One freelance journalist, who declined to benamed for fear of affecting her slim job prospects,stated, with some bitterness: “I have a relevantacademic background and have made dozens ofapplications for training and jobs, but was neveraccepted”.

The fact of the matter is that editor's ignore the“hundreds of well-educated Black people looking forsuch opportunities”, says Ainley. A survey of Black

journalists carried out at the London School ofEconomics found that “Not only did Black people applyfor journalism training and jobs but they did so formonths and sometimes years”, says the NUJ Journalist,December 1998.

Furthermore, “while the education system is stillfailing many Black people, those applying forjournalism courses and jobs are well-qualified, with 85per cent having at least one degree, compared with 70per cent of others”, as Ainley explains in her book BlackJournalists, White Media.

Clearly, Blacks have a harder row to hoe thanwhites do. A survey reported in the Journalist found that“80 per cent of Black journalists had a degree,compared with 60 per cent of other journalists. Yet, lessthan 2 per cent were accepted on mainstream coursesand jobs.”

From these observations, the print industry has oneglaring characteristic. It is virtually untouched by the seachange of Government policies to combat racism. Sofar, media leaders seem exempt from urgent demands forBlack recruits levelled at the police, social services,teaching and the courts. In the words of the Journalist,

media reporting on the Stephen Lawrence inquiry havetargeted the under-representation of Black people in thepolice. However, they fail to report that they employeven fewer Black people than the police.”

Race and Television newsroomsTelevision newsrooms have changed from the

colour-bar era of the 1960s, in sharp contrast tonewspapers. Now, the British Broadcasting Corporationand some independent television companies claimadherence to equality principles. Black personalities,such as the journalists and television presenters TrevorMcDonald and Trevor Phillips, are in the top ranks,along with some Black and Asian editors, producers andtechnicians.

The BBC has the firmest commitment to hiringgreater numbers of minorities. Targeting them has beenpracticed for a decade. Now, matching job recruitmentto the proportion of minorities in the population is amajor goal. By the year 2000, the BBC wants to recruitan estimated 8 per cent of its staff from Black andminority ethnic people.

Departing BBC director general, John Birt, fostered

the view that equality of opportunity has a key place inthe corporation's role as a public service broadcaster.Under his leadership, the BBC aimed to be morerepresentative of contemporary British society in itsprogrammes and jobs.

Highly placed executives were urged to monitorminority recruitment in employment, purchasing,marketing and community involvement. “We need to bemore successful in getting ethnic minority staff to moveup the organisation into senior decision-making roles”,he said. This is a tall order for his successor, GregDyke, who takes the helm of the broadcasting industry'sbiggest employer and the largest news corps in theworld - with more than 2000 journalists and bureaux in50 countries

The facts betray this avowed commitment to greaterdiversity, however. Continued review of BBC annualreports, shows the BBC is actually employing fewerethnic minorities in the majority of its directorates andregions covered. Clearly, there is evidence of diversityfatigue in the upper echelons of the BBC. Managers arefailing to keep up the momentum of their commitments torace equality practices. These are alarming findings,

says Jim Pines, author of the UK contribution to a majortrans-European study of media employment titled MoreColour in the Media.

Minority employment is derisory in the newsroomsof the non-BBC commercial companies licensed by theIndependent Television Commission, says Pines, and insome cases numbers are declining. The companies, withtheir £1.7 billion worth of advertisements and networkof stations, have less than 1 per cent minorityemployees. Three-quarters of the ITV network hadfewer than 10 ethnic minority workers in programmedepartments, including four with none at all. StageScreen & Radio, the broadcasting trade union journal,called the findings “a national disgrace”.

Reality check neededProminent Black British media personalities have

become far more outspoken in response to this litany offaults. Trevor McDonald, when asked to about theabsence of Blacks in the media by Kamal Ahmed of theGuardian, replied, “Historically there has always beenan imbalance. However, in the past there was not thenumber of people knocking at the door as there is now.

This is the period of the crucial test”.What broadcasting needs is a “reality check”, says

Trevor Phillips who started out working on LondonWeekend television in the early 1980s. BBC andindependent companies need to address the ills of thetelevision industry, he said in his 1998 lecture to theRoyal Television Society titled Are There Colour Barsin a Digital Universe?

Racial disadvantage in broadcasting newsrooms isnow a worrying trend. Burhan Wazir, writing in TheGuardian, warns, “Britain's leading broadcasters areincreasingly failing to employ staff from ethnic minoritybackgrounds”. This British malaise in broadcasting hasbrought comments from continental observers. JamilOuaj, co-ordinator of the More Colour in the Mediaproject for the European Institute for the Media based inDusseldorf, concludes that “If the subject of fairtreatment of ethnic minorities in the media is to be takenseriously...it is also necessary to create seriousstructures which will ensure the monitoring and supportof equal opportunities”.

Trans-Atlantic contrasts

British and European newsrooms must seem likedinosaurs to their colleagues across the Atlantic. InAmerica, all-white newsrooms are no longeracceptable, according to the American Society ofNewspaper Editors. The breakthrough for minorityjournalists came at least 35 years ago.

Spiralling 1960s urban riots shocked the US newsmedia out of its complacency. So did the 1968 Kernercommission report calling for more Black participationin the media and wider coverage. This was at a timewhen 80 per cent of the US dailies employed nojournalists of colour, and less than 1 per cent of thenation's journalists were African-American. Thecommission criticised the “shockingly backward”discriminatory hiring and promotion practices of thejournalism industry. It also condemned the media for“failing to portray the Negro as a matter of routine andin the context of the total society”.

The US newspapers finally faced up to change, saysthe Media Studies Journal at Columbia University. TheASNE urged members to set goals for minorityemployment that matched minority representation in theUS population by the year 2000.

Now is the time to anticipate opportunitiesand change

Britain need not go through the same traumas as riot-prone America. However, few UK media leaders andpower holders can be sanguine. Reports increase ofmounting pessimism among Black youth at deterioratingrace relations, heavy-handed police surveillance, anddeclining job opportunities. Clearly, British newsroomscan no longer be run as private and racially exclusiveclubs. And there are several reasons why this is so.

Five decades after large-scale African Caribbeanand Asian immigrant settlement, editors and advertisersmust take into account a new set of demographic andmarketing factors. The media public is growing morediverse in interests and demands. This is especially truewhere Blacks and Asians are significant parts of themedia readership and consumer population. Today, onein five Londoners are from an ethnic minority. In 25years, it will probably be one in three, according todemographers.

Political changes will soon have dramatic effects incities where the large majority of racial minorities live.The forthcoming elections for new US-style mayor's in

British cities is a turning point in recent urban history.More aggressive street-level politics and new politicalhierarchies will result. Future newsgathering will takeplace in keenly fought, ethnically mixed constituencies.Reporters will need new social and civic bearings tocover city life and trends.

Act for positive change in the mediaUnder these dynamic conditions, old certainties will

crumble. The colour line that allows a mere 12 to 20Black journalists on national newspapers, out of aworkforce of 3000, can no longer hold. In a nation ofsome six per cent minority population, editors will needto expand and deepen the pool of journalistic talent tocope with reporting change.

Newsgathering organisations will have to improvetheir race equality employment practices. Managers willneed a new set of human resource development tools todiagnose and analyse areas for action. The main mediatrade associations --the Newspaper PublishersAssociation, Society of Newspaper Editors, and theGuild of Editors - should be encouraged to sanctiondelinquent newspapers. Media regulatory bodies could

invoke similar actions to spur positive action in theindustry.

Change must also come in the journalism schoolsthat feed graduates into the industry's newsrooms. Datafrom national education agencies, the Universities andColleges Admission Service (UCAS) and the HigherEducation Statistics Agency (HESA), confirm thatminority students are under-represented in first degreeand postgraduate journalism courses. They are lesslikely than white candidates to gain admission tocourses.

Requests to the schools by the Chronicle andFreedom Forum diversity researcher were met withstony silence. Not one of the top six schools and smallertraining programmes replied to enquiries about minorityenrolment. Further, none shows any evidence of equalopportunity policies in their course literature andInternet web sites. Not one has published equality actionplans and targets.

Unless significantly more Black Britons areencouraged into the educational and career pipeline, aneven larger under-representation will be apparent incoming years.

In these circumstances, where both the news industryand journalism schools show a “race-deficit” somethingneeds to be done to ensure that aspiring Black andminority ethnic journalists get into the profession andmake their contributions.

The Chips Quinn initiativeIn America, a decade-old internship program to

bring diversity to newsrooms has shown remarkableresults. The John Chips Quinn scholars program of TheFreedom Forum has successfully recruited “students ofcolour” at journalism schools for professionaljournalism careers. They gain intensive training in thecraft of news coverage at annual summer programmesnamed for the managing editor of the Poughkeepsie(N.Y.) Journal who died in 1990.

Commitment to news staff diversity and counteringdiversity fatigue are the twin forces driving the ChipsQuinn initiative. Participants are drawn from AfricanAmerican, Hispanic, Asian American and NativeAmerican backgrounds. Their diversity insights, alongwith newly acquired reporting, editing and computerskills, make them eminently employable. They are

supported with bursaries, newspaper internships, andreceive a $1000 scholarship for successful completion.Starting with six scholars in 1991, there are 250 alumnito date.

In addition, a newly introduced programme attractsjournalism students during the academic year. They takea semester off from their regular studies to undergo thekind of training, mentoring, and work placements thatcan open doors to newsrooms nationwide.

Beneath the philanthropic and social objectives is afirm goal that minority students understand very well.“Chips had the benefit of professional and familycontacts that led him through career opportunities”, sayshis father John C. Quinn. “But he could not find a similarnetwork of minority talent as he strove to diversify hisstaff. This program seeks to fulfil that goal.”

Felix Gutierrez, who is responsible for theprogramme, added his voice to these founding principlesat the Quinn scholar’s class meeting of 1997. “Werecognise that the business-as-usual attitude will notsuffice... We do need to make affirmative efforts for themedia to be racially inclusive to represent all cultures.”

Piloting diversity in UK journalism

Positive action for greater newsroom and classroomdiversity, like the Chips Quinn idea, deserves a trial inBritain. It could provide a means to help British Blacksto gain professional journalism training, develop theirself-esteem after decades of exclusion, and qualify them.“Moves to increase the number of Black journaliststhrough special training grants and other means need tobe supported,” says journalism lecturer at CityUniversity Richard Keeble in his book The NewspapersHandbook.

We know that old patterns of journalistic exclusionwon't work - practically or ethically. Pierre Bourdieu,the French sociologist, puts it clearly in his book OnTelevision and Journalism. There is little room intomorrow's world for journalists afflicted by “mentalclosure” and “narcissistic complacency”.

Moreover, the narrow range of talents andexperiences from which journalists are presently drawnmakes them vulnerable to errors in reporting practiceand editorial judgement. All-white newsrooms andjournalism schools restrict creative responses to newscoverage in multi-cultural societies. Overall, the effectof under-representation of minorities in the media

workforce and media content is dangerous to thedevelopment of society and democracy.

Showing that diversity can work is the answer to theJeremiahs. Diversity offers the media industry anopportunity to expand its audience and meet newconsumer needs. Diversity need not be viewed as a“problem”; it is an opportunity to practice goodjournalism. Diversity improves the product - the news -and by so doing helps improve democracy.

Of course, vigorous leadership by media owners andcontrollers is necessary to achieve diversity goals. Toparaphrase US General Colin Powell's message toBritain's armed forces, news organisations must committhemselves to minority hiring. Responsibility for doingthis lies squarely on the shoulders of senior members ofthe media industry - in print, radio, television andonline.

The prototypes for success are at hand. In thevanguard are special training programmes and strategiesto recruit, promote and retain minority staff. Leadersshould require no less than zero tolerance ofdiscrimination, and close monitoring of the performanceand attitudes of senior managers.

Reporting on race: Britain’srawest media nerve

Claims of media bias are a common enoughoccurrence these days. Disgruntled politicians, Palaceflunkies, errant footballers and coked-up celebrities takeit out on journalists all the time. Even the great and thegood — nobles, parliamentarians, bishops and judges inall their finery — react in anger to unwarranted presscriticism and abuse.

But what you don’t hear much about are thecomplaints by Afro-British people against theunrelenting prejudices and negative stereotypes theyface in the popular, mainstream media. It appears tothem as if journalists, editors and media owners havetaken a step back in time.

For 70 years, the same old mediaprejudices

Headlined stories conjure up images of rawCaribbean immigrants fresh off the postwar Windrush

boat decades ago rather the aspiring urbanites andLondoners that many of them are today.

To a certain degree, there is a good reason for racialminorities to think their perspectives are at best warpedby the media or, worse, not heard at all. Why? Theanswer lies, in large part, in the media’s image as“white, male and middle class”. Greg Dyke, whendirector general of the BBC, acknowledged that thepowerful, globe-girdling news organisation was“hideously white”.

Furthermore, media studies suggest that journalists,editors and media owners don’t see their race as anessential feature of their identities. Strange. However,Black youth of the hip-hop generation, see the dominantmedia are most certainly Caucasian, or you might say,Anglo-Saxon, and speak for a white nation, whichexpects all others to conform to its ways.

Measuring impactsThe evidence shows that understanding race and the

media is one crucial barometer of the quality of pressreporting and its effect on public attitudes and viewsabout Black people. Hence, continuous monitoring of the

press — newspapers, radio, TV and online – isessential.

Those who know media journalism say it’s time fora reality check. Therefore, we’ve woven issues of raceand the media into this web blog. We aim to helpcounter the perceived biases and to give communities,experts, and their allies, a web site to propose solutionsand appropriate actions.

Historic media prejudiceIt is worth stating the fundamental issue at stake

here. When the modern settlers from the Caribbean andlater from Africa arrived in Britain, they faced, in largepart, a hostile press.

Experts like senior journalist Beryl Ainley andProfessor of cultural studies Stuart Hall have helped usto target the race-linked press themes. CRIME,DRUGS, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION OFFENCES, wereroutinely regarded as BLACK CRIMES. Newspaperheadlines made it apparent that it was a “colouredperson who did it” – a practice for which the press hasoften been criticised.

The paradox is that prejudice in the newsrooms,

despite modest gains in race equality, is stillunambiguously negative. RIOTS, VIOLENCE, CRIME,DRUG TRAFFICING, WELFARE SCROUNGERS andBENEFIT CHEATS – scream the headlines of today’spress, all coloured-coded “Black”.

Time for changeThe research evidence shows that the media

reinforces stereotyped thinking about race, colour andclass. They can inflame public fears and racial hatredand fuel the rise of racist, neo-Nazi parties and far-rightorganisations.

There is a groundswell of opposing views led byBlack newspapers, radio and TV, and the BlackMembers Council of the National Union of Journalists.They are demanding fundamental changes in mediapower, attitude and style. Online scholars and activists,citizen journalists and bloggers have increasingly addedtheir support.

Change must start in the media boardrooms andreach right down to the news desks. “Hiring practices atall levels should reflect the diverse groups in society”,say many. Nothing less than this is needed if the media

industries and the colleges and journalism schools thatfeed them are to overcome their pervasive reputation ofinequality.

Shaping media ethicsProfessional journalists cannot be complacent about

their social role. A serious critique of the mass media’shandling of race relations is long overdue.

Moreover, this is no idle observation. The influenceof the press upon public attitudes and morals is so greatat the present that the “race question” ought not to beregarded indifferently. Urgently needed are principlesand guidelines for the most socially sensitive “bestmedia practices”.

Questions to answerThe good spirit of the public, the press and their

readers and viewers must be roused in order to curb theworst media excesses. Here are some key questions forcomment and debate.

In your opinion, is the press behaving improperly onrace issues? What are your pet peeves about mediareporting on Black communities? Are guidelines neededto curb the excesses in media representation of

minorities?The most powerful leaders and media owners and

editors must be drawn into resolving race-media issues;chief among them is Rupert Murdoch, head of a $48bnmedia empire, including the Sun, the Times and BkyB inthe UK.

Should media bias be more firmly targeted by mediaethics groups such as the MediaWise Trust, and closelymonitored by the watchdog agencies: the PressComplaints Authority, the Broadcasting StandardsCommission and Ofcom?

What lessons can be learned from “Fair Media”advocates in America, the civil rights leaders, publicaffairs groups, and journalist organisations thatchallenge biases in the media industry?

Revealed: How UK mediafuelled race prejudice

Backed by a centuries old news tradition, withthousands of print titles, a solid platform of radio andtelevision programming, and a growing Internet onlinepresence, most UK journalists would firmly proclaim,“We in Britain are proud of our tradition of a freepress.”

However, the hard news is that the mass media - TV,radio, newspapers, magazines and on the Internet - arefree to be prejudiced in covering Black communities.And free to maintain closed doors to Black and minorityethnic journalists.

These failings of the British media are not new.They were identified and called into question almostthirty years ago by Jamaican-born Stuart Hall, then afellow at the Contemporary Cultural Studies Centre,Birmingham University. He told a visibly shocked BBCtelevision audience in November 1971 “there issomething radically wrong with the way Blackimmigrants - West Indians, Asians and Africans -are

handled by and presented on the mass media”.

Black images debateNineteen seventy-one was a year of heightened

emotions for him. He was painfully aware that thetexture and tone of Black images in the media hadworsened. His newly gained powers to act as directorof contemporary cultural studies at the University ofBirmingham boosted his confidence. Late in the year, onthe crest of academic success, he contributed a powerfulstatement on “Black Men, White Media” to a BBCtelevision debate on racial images.

Negative racial images cannot not be resolved by “afew more Black faces on the screen, or by an extradocumentary or two on immigrant problems,” said Hall.Nor could the causes be traced simply to “casualdiscrimination on racial matters within the broadcastingorganisations”.

Warming to his subject, he said: “Its roots lie deepwithin the broadcasting structures themselves, and goodliberal broadcasters, as well as bad racialist ones, areboth constrained by these structures.

Established scenario of white over Black

Class, race and power all play a part in mediaorganisations and Hall outlined a convincing scenario asfollows:

“Broadly speaking, the media exist in a very close,sympathetic relationship to power and establishedvalues. They favour a consensus view of any problem:they reflect overwhelmingly middle class attitudes andexperience. This unfits them for an authentic portrayal ofthe Black community and its problems.

“The media tend to favour an in-group of chums,experts, privileged witnesses, middle men - whereasBlacks are predominantly an out-group, outside theconsensus.

Moreover, “The media reflect organized majorityand minority viewpoints - whereas Blacks are relativelyunorganized. The media are sensitive to middle classways of life - whereas Blacks belong to the skilled andsemi-skilled working class.

“The media favour the articulate - whereas Blacksare relatively un-articulate, and their anger andfrustration often out-runs the terms of polite debate.

“Above all, the media are defensive about thesacred institutions of society - whereas Black people

encounter problems in these sensitive power-areas:employment, public discrimination, housing,parliamentary legislation, local government, law andorder, the police.”

Conflicts of interestNo one has so compellingly and carefully dissected

how the British media's acclaimed freedoms mask itspowers to hurt and deprive defenceless Black people.Understanding the conflict of interest between the mediaand Black people is fundamental, said Hall.

“The mass media play a crucial role in defining theproblems and issues of public concern. They are themain channels of public discourse in our segregatedsociety. They transmit stereotypes of one group to othergroups. They attach feelings and emotions to problems.They set the terms in which problems are defined as'central' or 'marginal.'“

What is more, this marginalisation is not of recentorigin; it has historic precedents, said Hall. He knew, asdid Eric Williams, Trinidadian author of the canonicalwork Capitalism and Slavery, that the “sugar and slavemen” - London's wealthy West India lobby - were

favoured customers of the Bank of England. Hence, hesaid:

“My own view is that Black people have had aninvisible presence for centuries in British history: theyhave been the hidden component in the fate and fortuneof Britain as a world-imperial power. In the verymoment when that world-historical role is beingdiminished, Blacks have come in large numbers to workand live in what is laughingly called the 'host' society.They have always been - and are now visibly - centralto the society's “quarrel with itself.” You exclude themfrom access at considerable peril to society as awhole.”

Pernicious view of “Black problems” masspersuasion

Hall's tenacity was extraordinary. He cited a rangeof charges against media broadcasting that suggest apernicious form of mass indoctrination.

“When Blacks appear in the documentary/currentaffairs part of broadcasting, they are always attached tosome 'immigrant issue': they have to be involved insome crisis or drama to become visible actors to the

media. However, problem-centred programmes likethese select and process participants in terms of veryrigid programme-formulae.

“Blacks participate, then, in broadcasts defined bythe media as 'Black' problems: and they do so withinconstraints, given in the very professional definition ofwhat constitutes 'good television', by the producersthemselves. It is very rare indeed to see a programmewhere Blacks themselves have defined the problem asthey see it. Now it matters a great deal whether studiodiscussions are based on the premise that Black peopleconstitute a problem for Mr. Enoch Powell [whoappealed to racial hatred], or that Enoch Powellconstitutes a problem for Black people.”

Hall traces this false “Black problem” agenda to itssource. “Such programmes are inevitably based on theliberal consensus assumption that we are all proceeding,slowly but inevitably, towards a racially integratedsociety”. But not many Blacks would agree with thisassumption, Hall suggested.

“Actually, for Blacks, this premise of integration is ahighly problematic question. There is much moreevidence that Britain is, slowly but inevitably, drifting

towards the creation of a permanent Black minority ofsecond-class citizens, large numbers of them living inpoverty and deprivation, and subject to discriminationas a group.

The media's view of Black people contrasts sharplywith the views held by Blacks about themselves. It isplain to see, says Hall that “The liberal postulate about'integration' is a politician's and broadcaster's utopia.No Black group would, realistically, choose thisframework for a discussion of its problems. But, notonly is this more realistic view never made theconsensual basis of broadcasting, but it is extremely rareto see on television an examination of the realconditions on the ground, in the Black/whitecommunities, from which integration or its opposite -permanent conflict - might emerge.”

Real issues maskedAs a result, the media ignores the real issues with

which Black people must contend says Hall.“This is because the media, on the whole, naturally

gravitate to the liberal middle-ground: they find conflictand oppression - the real conditions of Black existence -

difficult and awkward. They tend to redefine allproblems as failures in communication.

“There has been little, attempt either in drama,documentary or features to explore and express the rich,complex, diverse and troubled experience of Blacks.There have been few, if any, programmes sufficiently intouch with the grass roots of Black opinion to recreate inbroadcasting terms how the world looks from thatposition.

“The broadcasting formulae seem to inhibit ordinarypeople talking in their own terms about their ownexperience to the rest of society. The visible debate,therefore, about Blacks, conducted in terms primarily setup by the race relations industry, leaves the vast,invisible majority of Blacks untouched andunrepresented. They are a repressed part of what - fromthe viewpoint of the, broadcasting studios - is virtually'unknown country'.

Indeed, “When the debate does surface, it isvirtually impossible to hear any but a handful of middleclass Blacks - like me - and spokesmen for the Blackcommunity - like most of the people in this studiospeaking for the rest.

“On the whole, less articulate Blacks aremercilessly processed and patronised when they doappear on the screen. What inhibitions, what constraints,what forms of self-censorship, what shallowness ofsocial contacts ensure that the media will be so deeplyunrepresentative of the ordinary men and women in thissociety?

Besides, “Blacks are not puppets attached by stringsto some set of issues defined as 'Black problems.' Theyform a natural minority in any cross-section of opinionfrom a large industrial city in England. They arecrucially affected by everything that affects the rest ofthe society - education, welfare, common market, lawand order. They have a right to access when thesequestions are being discussed.”

Growing Black consciousnessThen Hall took his audience beyond conventional

assumptions of the media. Emerging Black communities,with their distinctive viewpoints and problems, areentering the arena of media discourse.

“In recent years, there has been, within the Blackcommunities, a growing sense of identification with

Black consciousness and culture, with movements forliberation amongst Black countries and minoritieselsewhere, and a growing impulsion to link informalsegregation in Britain with more overt forms of racismelsewhere. Just as there has been a powerful thrusttowards defining Britain as naturally and inevitablywhite.'

“Now neither of these strands in public opinion aregoing to disappear because such controversial attitudesand conflicts are difficult for broadcasters to handle.Where such attitudes exist among Blacks - and they do -they must be allowed clear expression: without thebroadcasters silently labelling them 'Black power' andtherefore 'extremist' and therefore 'wrong' and thereforeexcluding them, or 'cooling them out' in the studio. Thethrust towards Black consciousness - like the thrusttowards more overt racism - are deeply rooted in thereal historical situation: they won't disappear becausethey affront broadcasting's liberal sensibilities.”

Media reinforce stereotypesReturning to his theme Black Men, White Media,

Hall spoke directly about key targets of Black concern:

the drama and entertainment programmes that reinforcestereotypes. These, he said exert a much stronger impacton the formation of popular attitudes than current affairsprogrammes.

Indeed, “Children's television, for example, is still'whiter than white.' The affluent thrillers have morestereotyped Black villains and problem families persquare footage than they ought to in a society that isconfronting an extremely dangerous problem.

Moreover, “My impression is that this whole area ofdrama, serials and entertainment is treated as 'routinebroadcasting' where, the race question is concerned: yetit may be precisely here where the fundamental damageis being done.

“The important point about television entertainmentis that it educates the popular consciousness informally;by dealing with real-life problems and situations infictional terms, it creates images without appearing todo so. And it powerfully attaches feelings and emotionsto these images - feelings which can then be triggeredoff in more explosive situations.”

Fatal flaws

Hall's analysis reveals fatal flaws in the self-righteous beliefs of journalists. He also previewstopical issues of “institutional racism” experienced bymany Black people as he concludes:

“What concerns me is the unwitting biases, thehidden premises, the invisible attitudes and loyalties, theconcealed links between broadcasting and power,broadcasting and class which prevent the media fromarticulating this experience in clear and authentic terms.

“I doubt whether a little tinkering with the scheduleswill do here. I believe the constraints are written in tobroadcasting structures as we presently have them: and Ibelieve that, if the situation does not rapidly change,broadcasters, like politicians, will face a massivewithdrawal of confidence from the invisible half - Blackand white - in the society: a silent revolt of theaudience.”

Prof Stuart Hall's achievement lies in the rationalintensity he brought to the 1970's race-media debate. Hispolitically potent arguments are just as central to ourcontemporary media concerns. These range from errantpress freedom and the role of class, power, andinstitutional racism to the most intricate questions of

minority images and employment in the press andjournalism schools, and from mass disinformation andpropaganda to serious violations of media ethics. Allwrapped up, as Pierre Bourdieu said: in “mentalclosure” and “narcissistic complacency”.

Today, with mounting criticism of negative Blackimages and under-representation in the media, Hall'sbrilliant analysis helps us to understand why colour-coded newsrooms and views of modern society must bechanged.

(Stuart Hall holds an MA from Merton College,Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar. He came toprominence at the Centre for Cultural Studies atBirmingham University and thereafter as Professor ofSociology at the Open University from 1979. He haswritten or contributed to key works on culture, mediastudies and politics. Grateful acknowledgement is due tothe publishers of Savacou, Journal of the CaribbeanArtists Movement, vol. 9/10, 1974, in which the articleBlack Men, White Media by Stuart Hall appeared.)

Street-Wise Or MediaLynching?

Newsrooms not “criminal youth” incited August2011 disturbances, panel inquiry reports

Most Britons of goodwill welcome the report of thegovernment’s riot inquiry panel on the summer riotsacross the UK last year. They also say yes to the calmingpleas of David Lammy, the Black MP, in his book Out ofthe Ashes, a plea for peace in strife-torn, multi-racialTottenham, London.

However, the media’s coverage is the subtext ofriotous times. Did the newsrooms spread misinformationand demonise Mark Duggan, the Black, male victim ofthe fatal shooting by police in Tottenham? Did newsreporters fuel the disturbances and condemn Blackpeople, the poor and disaffected youth?

“Many Black people, particularly young ones, I havespoken with think the “riots” were badly reported”, saidMarc Wadsworth, organiser of the Media and the Riotsmass meeting in November 2011, The veteran Blacknewsman and editor of The-Latest.com, a citizen’s

online journal, said “Youth dispute the nasty stereotypesabout them being used by biased journalists”.

Evidence in the inquiry report published 28 Marchby the Riots Communities and Victims Panel confirmsthe media’s viral violence. Breaking news tickers ofmajor news outlets spread unsubstantiated rumoursabout “criminal and Black rioters”. The 24-hour newscoverage on BBC News and Sky News exaggerated theextent of rioting in their areas, said Josh Halliday in theGuardian Media online 28 March. Their unrelentingscaremongering actually directed people to trouble spotsand “helped fuel the disorder in London and other UKcities”, according to the panel.

Thus, we arrive at an alarming conclusion. UKnewsrooms must change -- from reporters to editors tonews channels, media companies and investors to thepublic broadcaster BBC. Media journalists incited thedisturbances not youth and Blackberry’s, Twitter,Facebook and social networks, as falsely claimed. TheGuardian and the London School of Economics studyconfirmed this in 2011, based on interviews with 270rioters and an analysis of 2.6m riot-related tweets. Wemust conclude that the rolling news coverage of the

disturbances was more like a media lynching thanobjective reportage.

The evidence suggests that the media’s stewardshipof the news requires urgent review, especially inperiods of urban crisis. Politicians at the highest levelsshould act against media disenfranchisement of Blackpeople.

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat MP, Deputy PrimeMinister and patron of the inquiry panel, must address acrucial national issue: why is there no equality and fewBlack people in the nation’s media? Why deny accessto skills and perspectives that only they have in aglobalising multi-cultural nation?

Mr Clegg could use his good offices to launch amedia fair play investigation. The media chiefs must sitdown together with society’s civil rights guardians.Among them the equalities and local governmentministers, Equality and Human Rights Commission andthe government’s ethnic minorities advisory committee.Partners should include Black and inner city communityrepresentatives and Liberty, the campaigning protectorof civil liberties and human rights for everyone.

Furthermore, Clegg should follow his own precedent

for media change. He celebrated Lord Scarman’s callfor “direct coordinated attack on racial disadvantage”following the Brixton disturbances in 1981. Thirty yearson, Clegg was moved to say, “Real equality is not justthe absence of prejudice. It is the existence of fairnessand opportunity too”.

Promoting Fair Practices inBritain’s newsrooms

When media newsrooms consistently refuse to hireBlack journalists and end misrepresentation of Blackcommunities they are failing in their civic engagement,and people have the right to complain and seek remedialaction. Why?

The pattern is persistent. Statistics for 2012show that “Black and ethnic minorities arestill largely absent from the opinion pages,senior executive roles and staff jobs in themedia,” the New Statesman Minority Report“Are the media racist?” article. The liberal-left papers did better than their centre-rightcounterparts did but not by much, the NewStatesman discovered.

The pattern infects the key areas of thenewsrooms. Researchers found that four outof 48 columnists in the Guardian/Observer

were non-white; for theIndependent/Independent on Sunday it wasone out of 34 columnists. All others had noBlack journalists of any consequence on theirstaff]. This “damning indictment” in a diverseurban society, concludes: ethnic minoritiesare absent from the “columnists who occupy,specifically, the prime real estate that is anewspaper's “comment and opinion” pages”.See http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2012/01/white-pages-press-ethnic

Exclusion and misrepresentation reachesinto the highest echelons. Rafael Behr, chiefpolitical commentator of The New Statesman,questions whether journalists with privilegedaccess to the corridors of parliament canreport fairly on the politics of race when theyare “almost exclusively white, forty somethingmen”. There is “something mildly ridiculousabout a bunch of white men sitting in all-whitenewsrooms, asking white journalists on theirstaff if they knew any Black people who mightwant to write about how racism is no longer

such an issue”, said Behr in the NewStatesman.)

This litany of media ills is serious, systemicand dangerous. The cries for improved lifechances still echoing from riot-tornTottenham, London in August 2011, spur thedrive for remedial actions and change in everypart of the media – national, regional and city,and radio and television and the new socialmedia.

We need to get the message across that “amore diverse newsroom means betterreporting and better stories”.This is theview of Marc Wadsworth, in “Mediacoverage of riots “biased” by Elizabeth Pearsin The Voice December 8-14, 2011.Furthermore, Wadsworth, an online editor ofThe-Latest citizen’s journal and lecturer injournalism at London’s City University, said,“It is just unthinkable and very backwards thatnewsrooms in this country still do not reflect

the racial make-up of our population”.

Therefore, we have to conclude that a mediaindustry that knows almost absolutely nothing of thelives led by African and Afro-Caribbean citizens inBritain – and cares less --is a national scandal. Racepreference for whites in the media is not anunderstandable cloning of elitism and skin-colour.Moreover, it is not simply a lapse in editorialcompetence or executive responsibility. Indeed, it is nota mere blip on the journalist’s otherwise “objective”laptop. Whatever it is, however, continueddiscriminatory race preference is an unworthy,unrestrained blemish on the media. And this requiresBlack journalists and communities to move forward asagents of media change. They must:

Keep their eyes on the prize: their equalitygoals, values and desired outcomes. Andmake media bosses, editors and reportersaccept and support new views and actionswith appropriate resources. Indeed, not onlyin news reports but also in key subsectors:such as advertising, technology and computer

games, crafts and design, fashion, film andvideo -- and from arts to politics, business tonon-profit management, innovation toengineering.

Promote the interests of the new Black andminority ethnic consumers that will beincreasingly a significant media market. Thisfollows from the tremendous racial, cultural,demographic and political changes that havetaken place in the last 60 years. More than twoand a half million Black and Asian peoplelive in Britain [out of estimated 61.8 millionin 2009]. Non-white populations range from19 to 40 percent in cities like Leicester,Birmingham, Manchester and the nation’scapital London, according to the Home OfficeStatistics 2005 www.statistics.gov.uk. Makesure that media managers and journalists opentheir doors and their eyes to the changingpopulation profile.

Use the social media to link each person in anetworked campaign to influence the media

newsrooms. This will encourage a moreresponsible presentation of diversity and afreshness that will win younger, andespecially minority readers.

Create, regularly review and act on aninventory of integrity measures of newsroomsbehaviour. How accountable is the media ofyour choice? How open is it? Is self-regulation working? Will new media laws andethics decrease the chance for discrimination?Apply yearly legal, legislative and ethical toshow where the newsroom stands on fairmedia hiring practices and community issues.

Set the agenda buttons clicking in a range ofcharities and media fairness organisations.Some to seek legal redress by altering thelaw. Others to promote change throughimproved education and training. Still othersto concentrate on raising public awareness.Urge media professionals and journalists’unions to start training, video streaming andE-learning courses. Mobilise campaigns for

greater powers of press regulation and toughersanction over errant publishers by themoribund press watchdog Press ComplaintsCommission.

Finally, create Black journalists associationsand alliances of media consumer readers,users and viewers to lobby the press andGovernment. They need to listen to,understand and act on central media issues ofpublic interest. This is widely acknowledgedby the Collective of Professional BlackJournalists and the Media Trust charity led byJon Snow, newscaster on Channel 4, in theconference report Lawrence, Macpherson andthe media – a new beginning?

Black nobles, academics, journalists, students,politicians, community leaders and media activists haveset new goals for newsrooms where issues of race areplayed out in the public sphere. They have called fortruth-telling about the major media and politicaldebacles that affect the ordinary lives of Black people.

The Challenge is to pursue direct results with

commitment and controlled focus. This invokes thebroader view that equality and fairness should be theintegral foundations of a free press, an informed publicand meaningful civic participation.

Thus, the Black presence in the media serves awider social purpose -- call it Open journalism “thateveryone can be a part of.” It has value too, said GaryYounge, the Black reporter for the Guardian in Commentand Debate, Guardian Monday 26 March 2012, p. 18. “The readers should be part of the storytelling process,and the interactivity keeps us honest”,