How Diversity Could Have Solved Media Bias in the General Election

There is a story that in the 1980’s Alcoa, now the world’s largest aluminium company, was in trouble. 

The work culture was broken, riven with industrial disputes; profits were falling and they were producing bad aluminium with lots of flaws.

It was thought the company was beyond repair and in a downward spiral.

In desperation they appointed a new CEO, Paul O’Neill. 

Everyone expected O’Neill to be like the previous CEOs and announce how he was going to concentrate on profits and increase worker efficiency. After all, that is what shareholders wanted.

Instead he said he would make factory safety his number one priority, and set a goal to achieve zero injuries.

He not only reached that goal, but today, Alcoa is one of the most profitable and efficient companies in the world.

The secret? O’Neill realised that worker safety was an indication of how everything was operating. Injuries are actually a real issue in aluminium production as you have hot molten and heavy machinery everywhere.

In O’Neill’s eyes, accidents were a sign of workers not following standard procedures every time. Accidents were a sign that machinery was not being updated and repaired when it was meant to be. Accidents were a sign managers were not concentrating on getting the best out of their team but taking shortcuts.  The high number of accidents were a warning sign of far deeper problems.

The secret was to get safety right - and everything would, and did, fall into place.

So why am I telling you this story about aluminium and safety on a blog about diversity in the media?

Well as I am sure you may have noticed last week the UK had a General Election. And the BBC, and other broadcasters, are currently defending themselves against charges of media bias and poor editorial judgement throughout the election campaign.

In my view, the issue of diversity in the newsroom is analogous to safety in the aluminium factory.

If you are getting diversity wrong it is a warning signals that there are deeper issues. If you get diversity right everything else falls into line.

Before the UK’s General Election the diversity warning signals were going off loud and clear.

In the weeks and months leading up to the General Election, broadcasters made a raft of editorial mistakes around diversity - from ignoring important stories by marginalised communities such as Grenfell tower until it was literally burning down, to the Naga Munchetty affair in which it is widely acknowledged the BBC made a terrible editorial mistake in judging her in breach of their editorial guidelines.

But instead of seeing these issues as foreshadowing far deeper editorial problems, the BBC and others, brushed them aside as “diversity” problems, marginal to the main news.

But they are not. Diversity problems are indicative of deeper problems. Why?

Recognising and aiming for diversity is understanding that that there can be multiple perspectives on a single issue and if you can’t recognise those perspectives, let alone balance them, chances are you will make mistakes under the heat and scrutiny of a General Election.

Reporting a General Election requires making extremely difficult editorial judgement calls. Similarly reporting diversity also requires making hard difficult judgement calls. The inability of some media organisations to call racism what it is - racism, and instead always put the word in quotation marks is an indication that the media organisation is uncomfortable in making difficult judgement calls.

The brilliant work of Raheem Sterling and Jamelia in highlighting how journalists often take lazy approaches when reporting race and and stories involving black protagonists doesn’t just shine a light on prejudices it also shines a light on how journalists are prone to group think.

I could go on but suffice to say I believe these examples illustrate how news organisations must get diversity right if they want to keep their journalistic standards high.

Diversity and inclusion is not about simply wanting to get a few more ethnic minorities and disabled people in the newsroom.  It is about fundamentally shifting a whole newsrooms’ approach to how it covers the news.

Get it right, and just like getting safety right at Alcoa, British broadcasters could become the best and most profitable in the world. 

Award Ceremonies Hold the Secret to Diversity - But Don't Look At The Stage

On Sunday 1st December Sir Lenny Henry delivered a speech at the Rose d'Or, an international award ceremony, celebrating the best television from around the world. I worked with him to draft the speech, which outlines how award ceremonies not only reveal the true diversity of the industry but also how they can be used to increase diversity and inclusion. The speech is published in full below...   

Good evening ladies, gentlemen, producers, directors, writers and actors.

And a heartfelt welcome to everyone here who contributes in all the different ways to make the magic of television.

It is truly an honour to be here tonight.

I love the Rose d’Or, it combines two of my personal passions; great television and great diversity.

We all know the Rose d’Or for celebrating brilliant television but sometimes we overlook its other purpose - showcasing international diversity. 

It has been celebrating this movement, long before it became the popular rallying call that it is today.

For me the Rose d’Or is the perfect living and breathing illustration of why inclusion is so important.

I believe society is built on story telling - the stories we tell about ourselves and to each other. We understand our neighbours, our past, our present, and where we are going by the stories we tell.

More importantly when we limit who is given a platform to tell their stories we are all the poorer. We understand each others’ lived experience less and it can lead to misunderstanding, xenophobia and create the kind of environment where prejudice can easily flourish.

Being an international award ceremony the Rose d’Or understands the universal importance of celebrating stories from different parts of the world and puts our own reality and experience in a broader context. 

But I still want us to think about how we can make our industry better.

And so I want to talk about diversity - whether it’s by country, gender, religion or ethnicity. 

I want you to imagine a world where people from Spain were not allowed to tell their stories and instead the British decided what we should know about Spain and directed, wrote and produced ninety percent of their television. 

I don’t think Spain would be particularly happy with this imaginary scenario. 

However this is how it can feel for far too many people when we talk about ethnic diversity, or disability or gender within our respective countries. When it comes to television, it can feel as if other people are telling our stories.

For example:

If we look at the UK only 13.6% of working directors are women.

That means women’s stories are either being ignored or being directed disproportionately by men.

The same applies to black and Asian people. Only 2.3% of UK television is made by directors of colour.

And only 0.3% of people working in the film industry are disabled.

Now i’m quoting British figures, but there are similar excluded groups in every country and we are all the poorer for it.

So why am I telling you this tonight?

Well I believe award ceremonies can play a crucial role in addressing the situation. 

The fact is award ceremonies cast a light on the industry. But i am not talking about the nominees and the winners.

If you want to know what our industry really looks like take your eyes off the stage and just look around the room. 

This stage where the awards are being given out and the handful of nominees is merely the tip of an iceberg.

The other eighty percent of that iceberg are sat in the audience. 

The channel controllers, commissioners, television executives, even the media regulators are all here at award ceremonies like this one.

They may not receive any awards, but they are crucial to our industry. not a single winner would be possible without them tonight. 

Everybody might focus on the stars who go home with the gongs, but if we want to change things, we can’t do it by concentrating just on the tip of the iceberg. We do it by looking at the eighty percent whose contribution is rarely acknowledged at these ceremonies.

This is definitely not a criticism of anyone here today. He said hurriedly. I don’t want my next role to be Lenny Henry: unblocking the toilets at Nandos. 

But we need to make sure the decision makers, the people behind the camera are as diverse as possible. 

So what can award ceremonies like the Rose d’Or do to improve the industry?

Well here are just two ideas i want everyone to think about .

Award ceremonies are not just about celebrating achievements. they are also about business. 

They are about making connections. 

Meeting potential business partners.

Award ceremonies are the fuel that keeps our industry running.

To put it simply they are the biggest networking events of the year.

So if we want diversity to flourish we need to make sure that our networking is more inclusive. 

How do we do that?

Here’s idea number 1.

If you are one of the media execs who bought tickets today how diverse was the group of people you brought with you? 

A good rule of thumb is; less like Downton Abbey and more like Narcos. Have you seen it? That show is so diverse the whitest thing in it is the cocaine. 

Make a commitment to ensure your guests reflect the society you are working in. Have you invited people of colour? What is your mix of male, female and non binary guests? And are there any disabled people in your group? All things to think about.

Now that’s the easy job.

Here’s the second thing i want us all to do:

Tonight is an international celebration. 

This idea of representation is a tough nut to crack and no one country has all the answers. But internationally I believe we do.

So while we are toasting the winners and networking, let’s also talk about diversity and what does and doesn’t work in our respective countries. Let’s learn from each other.

For example the French film council has brought in new funding rules to try and help increase the number of women directors and writers.

Parts of the US are giving film and television tax breaks to productions meeting diversity criteria.

This should be an international race to the top.

I want people to be boasting that their country is the best country for female directors and tell us how they did it.

I want people bragging that their country has the most screenwriters of colour and what was the most effective means to make it happen.

I know you think we’ve been here before and we have – isn’t it bloody tedious? So to stop us having the same conversation year after year, let’s start seeing true diversity, not as a problem to be solved, but as an ambition to be realized. 

Together we can make our industry the most inclusive in the world.

Beautiful, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, producers, directors, actors even the writers - let us all celebrate our great industry tonight, both onscreen and, crucially, behind the camera. 

Carl Jung said "you are what you do, not what you say you do." Let's stop talking and start doing. 

Thank you for listening.

(The speech is printed by kind permission of Sir Lenny Henry)