Report: Diversity still lacking in news & current affairs
New report finds improvement is still needed in newsrooms to reflect the face of Australia, but networks question aspects of the methodology used.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News, Top Stories
More than three quarters of presenters and reporters on Free to Air News & Current Affairs have an Anglo-Celtic background, an industry survey has concluded.
Seven Network had the highest proportion of Anglo-Celtic presenters followed by Nine, ABC, 10, SBS / NITV. While SBS had the highest proportion of Non-European, NITV had the highest in Indigenous talent.
This is the second Who Gets to Tell Australian Stories report released by Media Diversity Australia.
Its study is drawn upon a strict two week period, 1 and 14 June 2022 and comes with strict caveats.
The survey does not include other genres, does not include Foxtel, and as a diversity report excludes data on aspects such as LGBTQI+ and people living with a disability etc.
“For the purposes of this study, cultural diversity was understood as based on a person’s ethnicity and ancestral background,” the survey stated.
However it was able to make comparisons to a 2019 report based on the same parameters.
The overall share of appearances on television by presenters and reporters of Anglo-Celtic background increased slightly from 76% in 2019 to 78% in 2022. The share of appearances on television by presenters and reporters of European cultural background declined to 10%; that of Non-European background rose to 6%. Yet the Non-European category remained the most severely under-represented, particularly on commercial networks. The share of appearances on television by presenters and reporters of Indigenous background improved overall (to 5%) but was inconsistent across networks.
The survey sample included almost 25,000 items broadcast on 103 news and current affairs programs including breakfast news, early evening news, prime time news, late night news, weekend news and news updates, and various current affairs shows, such as Sunrise, The Project, The Drum, Studio 10, Insight, Insiders and 60 Minutes.
None of the commercial networks (Seven Network, Nine and Network 10) had more than 1.3% of appearances by Non-European presenters and reporters. This was deemed a glaring under-representation, given the share of Non-Europeans in the general population is at least 19 times greater, at 25%.
Researchers could not identify a single appearance by an Indigenous presenter or reporter at the Seven Network in the two-week sample period.
The survey also found SBS remains the only network board to have a culturally diverse mix of Indigenous, Anglo-Celtic, European and Non-European members. The SBS board now has two Indigenous members, up from one in 2020. There were no identifiable Indigenous people on other TV network boards.
Other than NITV, which has an all-Indigenous leadership team, Network 10 has the most culturally diverse senior news leadership team. Indigenous representation and cultural diversity among the networks’ senior television news leaders are even worse than the board profiles. Two networks (ABC and Nine) appear to have Anglo-Celtic only senior news leadership teams.
Amongst a range of recommendations, Media Diversity Australia nodded to the international practice which sees media regulators, such as in the UK, requiring media outlets to collect and publish their diversity metrics; better mentorship; supporting regional newsrooms in achieving greater diversity; and media outlets to publish their diversity outcomes to celebrate progress.
But the results have also drawn sharp replies from networks.
According to news.com.au a Seven spokesperson said the data should encompass the entire programming – from current affairs, to reality and entertainment.
Seven pointed to recruitment efforts to employ “professionals from diverse backgrounds across all areas of the business”.
“We hope to work constructively on the next report to ensure that the methodology is more robust and the analysis accurately assesses a representative data set,” a network statement said.
A Nine spokesperson said that while the network acknowledges “there is more work for the industry to do”, they called for the report to reflect the gender diversity observed among their senior teams.
“We have raised concerns on the methodology of this report that has failed to reflect significant diversity, particularly in its reporting of female representation,” the spokesperson said.
“The failure to include, for example, two of the Nine Network’s most senior news executives – the female executive producers of 60 Minutes and A Current Affair, who report directly to the national news director – undermines the credibility of this report on diversity in the media.”
SBS director of news and current affairs Mandi Wicks said it was “disappointing” Arabic and Mandarin bulletins were not included in the report.
In a lengthy response, Gavin Fang, Acting Head of Indigenous, Diversity and Inclusion at ABC said the report barely scratches the surface of who is telling Australian stories at the public broadcaster. He indicated the two week period of news & current affairs was a “very small slice” of the diversity pie.
“Our last workforce snapshot, in September, showed that 25.7% of our content makers across the ABC are from a CALD background, 3.3% are Indigenous and 5.5% self-nominate as people with a disability. In addition, 22.7% of ABC executives are from a CALD background and 55.5% are women,” said Fang.
“The report’s claim that the ABC ‘appear(s) to have exclusively Anglo-Celtic senior television news leadership teams’ is based on information that, strangely, doesn’t include the actual News Executive. For example, it doesn’t include me, and I’m Deputy Director of ABC News, founder of the News Diversity Advisory Group and currently Acting Head of Indigenous, Diversity and Inclusion for the entire ABC.”
7 Responses
What you want in a newsreader is someone who is clear, succinct and can speak English fluently. Surely that should be of most importance.
Over the past decade I have hosted boarders, usually from overseas. I can say none of them watch actual tv, even for news, they usually watch YouTube.
I have noticed there are newsreaders with surnames from my ethnic backround (Maltese), yet I’ve rarely encounterd that on a scripted drama.
The trouble about reports like this is it makes you question whether the diversity is by merit or to boost metrics and that’s not fair on the staff from diverse backgrounds.
Anyone who’s watched ABC News channel would know they have seriously beefed up their on-air talent’s cultural makeup over the last several years. Good to see after previous criticism.
It is hard to take a survey like this seriously when the period conducted was only a very brief period of time and there is no indication if presenters were asked what their cultural background was, which in itself seems discriminatory and biased to me. Furthermore, it sounds like whoever conducted the survey is only justifying their data on looks and nothing else, which harms the results.
Another point you could make is networks would pick the most suited to the job anyway.ABC do a great job especially when it comes to reporters.When there is a story about disability.There is always a reporter that has a disability themselves that will do the story.A couple come to mind with a female that is blind in one eye and another that is missing a right arm
I understand the need for a report like this, but it’s difficult to draw solid conclusions when the underlying data is so heavily prone to bias.
For example, doesn’t it make more sense to compare the networks diversity to that of its audience, rather than the Australian population as a whole? But then under that premise, you could argue the audience makeup could itself already be influenced by the makeup of presenters. Plus as mentioned, only one aspect of diversity is focused on in one specific area of the network.
There’s just so many variables to consider that can change the outcome of the report.
What I find important about statistics and research is where the research is coming from and why. Who has commissioned it and what it their agenda. The responses by the networks indicate that this particular research aimed to derive a certain outcome and that the methodology wasn’t comprehensive.