Media shapes dominant opinions and attitudes. What we think about a topic, and often about other people, is hugely influenced by the media we consume. Whether it is climate change, Brexit, IndyRef or immigration the way an issue is covered and which opinions inform media make (and sometimes breaks) the society we’re in.
One not-so-small example – the pervasive relationship of public opinion and media on just one topic (Brexit) has become the focus of numerous PhDs and academic articles dedicated to analysing the extent of the media’s influence on the outcome of the EU Referendum – on just one online journal database, my last search produced 1758 articles on the topic.
Given this importance and influence, we need focus on the cultures within media and the extent to which it is closed to new, diverse and challenging voices. There are a number of initiatives working on doing exactly this and shifting the status quo; Gender Equal Media Scotland lists a range of them, including Pass the Mic.
The Pass the Mic project is about the who, the what and the how within media.
The Who: This one is obvious. The project website now has over 130 women of colour experts across a range of sectors and lived experience. The point of this is for media to see the expertise they are missing and source quotes, interviews and input from new people who have historically been overlooked. It is crucially about the representation of women of colour and them being respected as experts in a wide range of areas, combatting the discriminatory myths that persist of what Black, Asian, Hispanic, Latina, Arab, or mixed-race women are or can be.
The What: The website of experts and the funded paid commissions for women of colour are beyond simply visibility for the sake of visibility, it is also about widening “what” is being talked or written about. Increasing the number of women of colour in media is being pursued with the hope that there is a more competent balance in what media approaches us to discuss; more factual conversations about racism or sexism, and balanced with women of colour being asked for their input beyond these particular experiences if their expertise are in other areas – whether that’s engineering or the environment.
The How: Perhaps the hardest to shift, but the most necessary, is how the end product of commentary is produced. In the content itself, too often we read or watch debates which are given false equivalence; climate change deniers perceived to be on par with climate change scientists or increasingly often; the experience of racism being countered in “debate” by a representative of the far-right. This aspect of commentary is what many women of colour have said time and again, puts them off taking part, despite their voices being so critical; because often their own wellbeing is put on the line by participating in these types of “debates”. Alongside this issue, the decisions made about “how” an article or media piece is put together can either help or hinder the involvement of women of colour, or can dispel or entrench stereotypes or discriminatory attitudes. A recent example of this was the disproportionate inclusion of South Asian and East Asian communities in images used in articles related to Covid-19 and in particular lockdown restrictions or the contravening of restrictions despite there being no evidence whatsoever that these communities were less likely to abide by lockdown rules. These choices made (consciously or not) harm the trust communities of colour have in media and reinforce negative attitudes towards them.
Pass the Mic is an ambitious project to challenge the representation of women of colour, but it is approaching it with pragmatism by both sourcing the expertise that media have not sourced themselves and challenging the cultures across multiple levels of Scottish media; we want to work both at the individual and system level – because we want to make a tangible difference. Get involved.