Research Shows Black Voices and Stories Practically Nonexistent in Mainstream News Media

By Aoife Etherson

A recent report by Women in Journalism has brought to attention for many the lack of diversity in the UK’s media landscape. The researchers at Women in Journalism analysed the print and media content produced by major institutions for a complete week, and found that major newspapers, popular television channels, and radio stations were severely lacking when it came to content produced by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) contributors. 

While a week-long data set is certainly not exhaustive, what sets it apart from other surveys is that it looks across three main forms of journalism – print, TV and radio. Women in Journalism’s hope is that this research snapshot will encourage media organisations to monitor diversity more closely and to use their findings as a baseline to dramatically increase representation.

Key findings in the report show that over the course of a week, there was not a single news story written by a Black reporter on the front page of any of the UK’s newspapers. During the same monitored time period, only 6 news stories written by BAME journalists made it to the front page of a UK newspaper. This highlights the drastic lack of diversity when it comes to the UK’s print media, and in response to the findings, Women in Journalism’s Eleanor Mills remarks:

“The media becomes a distorting lens not a reflective mirror when the media teams who cover stories do not reflect the diverse make-up of our society. It is time for decisive change.”

In regards to the UK’s broadcast material, whilst television presenters remain fairly diverse, BAME TV reporters only make up 12%. These statistics become even more disappointing when there is a focus placed on female experts on TV channels, with only 30% of 877 expert guests appearing on prime-time television news programmes throughout the monitored time period being women. 

When it comes to diverse representation in the world of radio, the situation remains subpar. The findings show that out of a total 723 reporters that were featured on UK radio stations, only a shocking 2% were Black contributors, with the remaining 92% being white. The lack of diversity continues with greater disparity in relation to female reporters, with a shocking total of 4 Black women appearing in radio news reports. 

The findings by Women in Journalism indicate that BAME experts are often included in prime-time radio news segments to speak about issues and stories related to race. Out of a total 130 BAME experts that were featured on radio news, 1/3 of them covered race related topics. Although BAME contributors and experts alike should be given priority over white professionals to speak about issues they know most about, it is the lack of space for them to speak about anything beyond their race which shows a worrying lack of diversity within the UK’s media landscape. 

You can read the full report here.