Lecture - Race in the Media (Real Media)

This evening I attended a talk hosted by Real Media about Race in the Media. Real Media is an alternative media organisation that aims to broadcast news stories that tend to be ignored by the mainstream press.

Real Media is a cooperative of journalists dedicated to public interest journalism and challenging mass media distortion. We believe the large media organisations, as they currently exist, largely serve the interest of a small establishment – their owners, their advertisers and the governments that they get most of their information from. This pattern of ownership and structure results in a narrowing window of debate and the decline of public interest journalism. We exist to challenge this state of affairs.http://realmedia.press/real-media/about-us/

Although the talk was quite journalism based, I still found the issues raised to be interesting and relevant to all aspects of the media.

Maya Goodfellow (Media Diversified)

• 94% of journalists in the media are white
• White males tend to get paid more
• We don't see ourselves represented
• This enforces the ideology that whiteness is the norm
• The media doesn't just create stereotypes but reflects those present in society
• We are presented with the idea of whiteness in opposition to "the other"
• The backlash of Brexit featured attacks on numerous people of colour
  - highlights how many consider the British identity to be tied with whiteness
• Scientific racism being rejected whilst cultural racism embraced (in media)
• We need education on racism/history to move forward
• Recommended reading: The Good Immigrant
• The Grammar of Racism Stuart Hall

Roxley Foley (Aboriginal activist)

• UK always linked to Australia
• 'The White Australian Policy' aims to keep Australia 'pure'
• Nazi Dreamtime (book)
• One of the highest levels of media ownership
• News claims of mass sexual predators in aboriginal communities
  - police raided them
• Aboriginal land passed over
• Aboriginals considered a "burden"
• Death (murder) in custody
• ABC news concealing info/evidence 
• Bill Leak - mocking events in cartoon

Anu Henriques (from Skin Deep Magazine)

• People of colour connoted as homogenous within the media
• They're often tokenised
• Important to consider who curates our culture
  i.e. white media creators will tell white stories
• Alternative media - allows POC to tell their stories in own words
• The media not just for entertainment
• Doesn't just have to talk about race
• Anu prefers to present POC in positive ways not negative
  - troubled by viral videos of POC being killed
  - subsequently shared images of success stories (Serena Williams wining grand slam) 
• Slow journalism - constantly expect news
  - We need more 'non-reaction' news - beyond clickbait
• Delayed gratification
  - we need more in depth analysis of issues
  - discuss why the problems are occurring
• Success o Black Lives Matter
  - pushing for policy change

Joseph Guthrie (Media Diversified)

• Racial issues are not just exclusive to the US
• "Travel is the best educator" - Akala
• Separatism - they already have an interpretation in mind
• British media - over simplification of issues
  - The media fails to properly analyse what's happening in terms of race
  - Worried they'll face backlash
• Our police aren't as militarised as US but those from BAME backgrounds are still more likely to die in police custody

Final thoughts:

As a woman of colour aiming towards working within the media, I feel like it is my duty to be able to tell my own experiences. This is why I am likely to include black, female characters within my own project. As Anu said, these discourses don't even need to particularly be about race and issues surrounding it, but just the inclusion of minorities helps a great deal. I think it's important to be able to present people of colour without negative connotations in order to help change the way they're treated in society.