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Friday, 29th March 2024
 

CHALLENGES FOR MEDIA INDUSTRY

 The Guardian and The Observer have done what few organisations dare to do - be honest about diversity and the challenges they face - you can read their article in full by clicking the link. It is a newspaper owned by a Charitable Trust and hence is a type of public enterprise. The issues they face include:

  • Poor ethnic diversity among staff
  • Poor editorial diversity in the reporting of news and its scope and breadth of analysis
  • Lack of motivation of ethnic staff and low morale
  • Lack of community engagement

Quotes from the article:

"Some staff are more cynical. One wrote: "There is a liberal 'façade' presented to the outside world but indoors it feels coldly conservative on this issue [diversity] and it's agonising and very painful to be so unrepresented at senior management in this company."

"Can Guardian News & Media turn the corner? Well, we have a new Head of Diversity, Yasir Mirza, who has been getting his feet under the table and looking at how we can make a real difference going forward, and expand the understanding of diversity throughout the organisation. Mirza wants to put diversity at the heart of Guardian News & Media's business strategy, embedding the social, business, and legal case across all departments. "

There is clearly a tall order for Mr. Mirza, but he seems to have the right level of management support to help catalyse the culture change.

Diverse Ethics knows that this is the present day reality of many large organisations in Britain, not just media companies. We have discovered this through our research, travels and meetings with leaders and managers. What we have also found however, is a reluctance to admit to this situation, and a deep level of management illiteracy and ignorance about the scale of the problems, and the opportunities lost through a lack of diversity. Sustainable change cannot begin unless there is an open acceptance and a genuine desire to change. This requires leadership and commitment from the very top.

We at Diverse Ethics are keen to help organisations who want to make the culture change, and are seeking expert advice to do so.

Dr. Atul Shah, Diverse Ethics

Article added on 1st February 2010 at 9:59am
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