The Pass the Mic project has successfully secured funding from the Joseph Rowentree Charitable Trust.
The year long funding will support a number of activities to provide development opportunities for women of colour in Scotland who are interested in being more involved as commentators in Scotland’s media, but crucially, will focus on challenging the status quo in Scotland’s newspapers, TV news and radio. Women of colour may be in the minority across Scotland’s population, but even a proportionate number of this minority are not represented in media, our expertise are overlooked. Too often we are talked about, rather than talked to, or given the platform to talk for ourselves.
As a consequence, damaging tropes about women of colour are reinforced by media, on many occassions issues related to sexism and racism overlook our existence completely and instead make assumptions about our experiences or minimise our realities. This must change.
This funding will kick off on the 1st of September and will support Pass the Mic to grow. We will do this through:
- Media monitoring research – we will be analyising media across all platform to investigate who is doing the talking and writing and what issues are being covered. This will help us hold media to account on the invisibility of the issues which impact women of colour’s lives and on the extent of the under-representation of women of colour expert.
- Research on what women of colour want to see change in the media, what development opportunities they are looking for and how inclusive and accountable cultures can be created across media.
- We will be delivering development sessions (likely to be online) which are informed by what women of colour experts want and will support the development of media contacts and networks by hosting introductions and interviews with editors and reporters.
- The funding will include paid commissions for women of colour with media partners – the topics will be set by women of colour on their area of expertise and/or lived experience.
We are really excited about the next year, and want to make sure the delivery of this project is well informed and leaves a real legacy for change. If you have ideas or want to be more involed in it – drop us a line!