Growing up from the roots


Efforts are being made to make newsrooms more reflective of society. Could this transform journalism? Neil Merrick reports


W


hat should a newsroom look like? After more than a year in which many journalists worked from home, the inclination to see it as a physical space with desks and PCs is not as great as before.


But if journalism is to become more diverse and serve


communities better, there is probably a need to think differently about the newsroom for other reasons. According to the Office for National Statistics, about 92% of


journalists are white, compared with 88% of the overall UK workforce. A study by the National Council for the Training of Journalists in early 2021 found that 75% of journalists had a parent in one of the three highest occupational groups. What can be done? The People’s Newsroom, launched in September by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), is calling for a radical rethink regarding who is likely to become a journalist, the way news operations work and how stories are generated. According to Shirish Kulkarni, a freelance broadcaster who


works part time at TBIJ, the principle behind the campaign is to think of journalists as facilitators rather than gatekeepers. Only when the media better reflects wider society will fewer


stories be skewed in a way that portrays some groups in a negative fashion, he says. “It’s about making it possible for anyone in a community to tell their own stories.” That is exactly what Sharzia Ali is doing at We are Wales, a


community journalism project based in the Swansea area. During the past year, she and others have produced a series of short videos showing the contribution people from black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities, including refugees, are making during the pandemic. A graduate from Cardiff University’s school of journalism,


Ali previously worked for That’s TV in South Wales where, initially at least, she was the only journalist from an ethnic minority background. When she began reporting on arts events and other stories that were of interest to people from


12 | theJournalist “


ethnic minorities, she uncovered an audience that was amazed to see itself featuring positively in the local media. “We often see ourselves misrepresented in the media,” explains Ali. “The idea is to represent ethnic minority communities in a way that we are respected. Stories will be told by ethnic minorities for ethnic minorities.” The next step is to create a people’s


newsroom in the Swansea area that reflects the needs and interests of the city’s different communities. TBIJ is joining forces with the Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team, the organisation behind We are Wales, to research what exactly this should look like, and how it might be set up in 2022. Megan Lucero, director of the bureau, says the aim of the


campaign is to find ways of creating and sustaining community newsrooms with journalists or would-be journalists from a wider range of backgrounds. “We are not trying to evangelise about a set model. It’s about incubating and kick-starting,” she says. If journalism is to become more diverse and more


democratic, media ownership must be factored in. But one of the most important things is to break down barriers so people thinking of a career in journalism are not deterred by negative reporting of their community in sections of the media. “When you see a profession harm your community, people


We don’t get involved in ritual shaming of lower-income groups who are in some sort of trouble


say ’that’s not or me’,” says Lucero. “If we don’t have diverse newsrooms and there is a lack of diversity in ownership, it trickles down into the actual product.” In Glasgow, Rhiannon Davies is editor-in-chief of a quarterly


print magazine set up in 2020 with people from Govanhill, a multicultural community (see box). The first edition of Greater Govanhill appeared in December 2020, with some articles published in eight languages. Following an initial crowdfunder, the magazine and website are paid for through advertising, membership and grants. Many articles are written by volunteers without any journalistic experience. Freelance journalists are paid for articles. “We are empowering people to tell their own stories in their own words,” says Davies.


ILLUSTRATION: STEPHEN COLLINS


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