So, here we are completing our finals, just weeks away from clutching a BA and donning our mortarboard hats and graduation gowns with pride. As we prepare to thrust ourselves into the world of journalism and pitch ourselves to potential employers, it’s got me thinking that perhaps the hardest work is yet to come.
Around the globe media industries are taking a sobering look at the absence of representation within their workforce. The soul-searching that followed the tragic killing of George Floyd may have added impetus here, at least as it pertains to race. But what about the other categories?
Five years ago the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom set targets to improve workforce diversity by 2020. On gender, it managed to fulfil its commitment to an equal split of men and women across tits own organisation, and for women to make up 40% of senior roles. It also sought to increase the proportion of colleagues from minority ethnic backgrounds in senior roles from 9% to 13%. I was delighted to see Ofcom was named by The Times as a Top 50 Employer for Women, exceeding its target for women in senior roles. However, as we have seen, goals don’t always mean guarantees, and senior minority ethnic representation was 2% lower than an already under ambitious target of 13%. How then can Ofcom point regulatory fingers at other organisations when its own is still very much unrepresentative?
So we have seen some promising signs of improvement and organisational change of this kind cannot happen overnight. But I am still very much concerned with its pace, particularly for disabled talent like me who remain consistently underrepresented even with all the efforts to diversify. It took five years to close the gender gap for women at Ofcom. How much longer I ask will it take for disabled people?
Reports have identified the television industry in particular as falling short of expectation. The stark disparity in representation was for disabled workers, and this remains the case.
Doubling Disability (DD) – a new initiative led by the Creative Diversity Network (CDN) backed by the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Sky, Channel 5/Viacom, ITN, Pact and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – aimed to double the percentage of disabled people working in British television by 2020.
My concerns about the continuing low percentage of disabled people working both on and off screen are shared in reports for CDN’s DIAMOND diversity monitoring system. The most recent figures suggest that just 4.5% of those working off-screen in the UK’s television industry are disabled, compared to the 18% figure for the population. Just 4.1% of senior roles were filled by disabled people, so it’s no coincidence then that just 5% of on-screen contributions were made by disabled people.
UK Broadcasters pledged to double these numbers by the end of last year with the Doubling Disability initiative. Yet due to the devastating effects of Covid-19 this goal has been extended till the end of 2021. But considering the latest Ofcom figures released at the start of the year, it seems unlikely they would have hit those targets anyway. Out of eight of the biggest broadcasters, only three (ITV, Sky and Global) increased the representation of disabled people at an “all-colleague” level last year. While this is progress, in each case the improvement was from a very low starting point, and only took them up to 7%, 4% and 3% respectively, nowhere near doubling the figures.
All these diversity targets are currently set nationwide, whereas higher expectations should be set for metroplitan cities such as London and Bristol, which are more diverse anyway, making the 20% benchmark too low. I also suggest accountability that goes beyond the shame associated with having your poor diversity figures published in a report. These organisations should be hit where it hurts, which is in their pockets, by being fined instead.
And finally, but most importantly, regulators need to stop assigning the lowest expectations for employment to disabled talent. Disabled people make up one fifth of the population and are the most rapidly expanding minority group, that anyone can join at any time due to illness, age or circumstance. Yet we currently make up less than one eighth of the TV industry, on average. Why then is the benchmark for disability set so low, and why is it that matters of gender and race take precedence? All matters of diversity are of equal importance, but at present there appears to be minority bias, even within the weak efforts to diversify.
The figures are very disheartening, and the disparity is evident whenever you scroll down all those predictable mainly posh white faces who make up the ‘team’ at most media companies.
Ok I realise that the media industry is at a crossroads as titles struggle to attract audiences. But at present the industry looks more like the establishment it should be holding to account than the people it is supposed to represent. So it’s no wonder that the next generation don’t respond well to the mainstream media.
Diversifying the industry will be a gift that keeps on giving – both by helping regain the trust of a younger more diverse audience; and by generating more money via that new audience – as outlined in June Sarpong’s influential book Diversify – six degrees of integration.
Let’s take a leaf out of her book and use this as a golden opportunity to enrich the news we deliver and the programs we make by finally tapping into an under-resourced, often overlooked pool of talent.
But we must remember that this issue of diversity isn’t new, but systemic. And it could become even worse due to the unequal effects of Covid-19. It will therefore take an enormous collective effort for the industry to hold space for representation on all levels.
We must remember that we all have to play a part in pushing for this change, even in our climb. So, if you’re lucky enough to gain a position in the industry, don’t forget to send the stair lift back down for disabled talent that all too often goes unnoticed.
