Newsroom diversity demands real actions instead of lip services

Media leaders should stop seeing diversity as a “nice to have” and treat it as a a “must have” instead. That was determined by the latest study titled “Are Journalists Today’s Coal Miners? The Struggle for Talent and Diversity in Modern Newsrooms”, published on 15 July by the Reuters Institute in cooperation with the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. The research investigated 28 news organisations and journalism schools in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. “Journalists must reach out to audiences that are becoming more and more diverse while newsrooms must be made attractive to a young and diverse talent…

Journalists’ organisations on the front line to tackle gender equality and online harassment

Around 30 journalists and journalists’ representatives from 20 European countries attended the workshop on “Increasing gender equality and diversity in the workplace” on 28 and 29 May in Istanbul, Turkey. Co-organised by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), the workshop aimed to provide best practices and concrete tools to improve equality between male and female journalists, improve diversity in the newsroom and counter growing online harrassment. Journalists’ unions and professional associations are best placed to initiate the change when it comes to closing the gender pay gap, improving work-life balance, fighting stereotypes in…

Public service media in focus in Bucharest

Around 40 journalists and journalists’ representatives from 24 European countries attended the workshop on “Modernising public service media (PSM) through innovation and dialogue” on 4 and 5 March in Bucharest. Co-organised by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Romanian trade union FAIR – Media Sind, and with support of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) the workshop addressed the challenge for public service media to adapt to the changing way of consuming and creating news and media. Workshop on 'Modernising public service media through innovation and dialogue' just started! Thank you Fair @MediaSind and @ro2019eu for the opening remarks…

Migrants and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in media

A collaboration of a team of media scholars, Jakob-Moritz Eberla, Christine E. Meltzerb, Tobias Heidenreicha, Beatrice Herreroc, Nora Theorind, Fabienne Linda, Rosa Berganzac, Hajo G. Boomgaardena, Christian Schemerb, and Jesper Strömbäckd, resulted in a publication “European media discourse on migration and its effects: a literature review“, which sets to explore the landscape of media research covering the media discourse on immigration and its effects across Europe. The literature review addresses a general problem of under-representation and depicting migrants as delinquents or criminals. Although, media framing differs for specific migrant groups and used discourses, immigration coverage is often negative and conflict-centered, the publication shows. Repetitive exposure to negative messages on migrants leads to…

#Media Against Hate: EFJ launches a Europe-wide campaign to counter hate speech in the media

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has today launched together with partners ARTICLE 19, Media Diversity Institute (MDI), Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA), Cooperazione per lo Sviluppo dei Paesi Emergenti (COSPE), Community Media Institute (COMMIT), Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) a Europe-wide campaign Media Against Hate, to counter hate speech and discrimation in the media. The media and journalists play a crucial role in influencing both policy-making and societal opinion on migration and refugees. As hate speech and stereotypes targeting migrants and refugees proliferate across Europe, balanced and fair media reporting is needed more than ever. Despite some good journalism practices…

Expertalia: A tool for journalists to diversify sources

The Belgian Association of Professional Journalists (AJP), a member of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) launched a web tool Expertalia, an expert directory for media professionals with the aim to diversify media sources in media reporting. The initiative, supported by the Federation Wallonia-Brussels, aims to bring more equality and diversity in the use of experts by the media. Expertalia is a tool targeting at journalists with the aim to renew their sources of information by offering new experts from a diverse background. To date, Expertalia lists 200 experts in various fields (science, law, economics, society, etc), active in research,…

New media entrepreneurs with diversity inclusiveness spirit wanted

You plan to create your own multimedia platform? You are a journalist committed to the inclusion of diversity in media? In the framework of its mentoring programme Div-A (Diversity Accelerator), the Council of Europe will help and fund ten individuals and/or teams from the Council of Europe countries to develop their ideas. Div-A aims at testing a new approach to rendering the media landscape in Europe more inclusive with regard to cultural diversity and more balanced in relation to diversity issues. An international team of new media experts – including the German Krautreporter, the Hungarian Direkt 36, the Greek Athens Live, the French Sport et Handicaps…

Webinar: Deeper perspectives on migration and asylum

It is always easy to report on migration and asylum issues as it requires journalists to be unbiased while still reflecting the human side of the story. If you are a journalist looking for inspiration for passionate journalism on the issue of migration, this online course will be useful for you to further your reporting on the issue. This online course is organised by the Germany based institution, torial academy. It aims to connect migration experts, researchers and journalists from Europe and Africa providing them information and pathways to quality resources. The course will consist of five live web-video-conference discussions. These will…

US digital-media workers are seeking to unionize

Update (20.08.2015) The European Federation of Journalists sent today a letter to Politico CEO Jim VandeHei expressing its concern about news reports suggesting that Mike Elk, Labor reporter at Politico and co-author of the Louisville Statement, has been fired. Politico confirmed, on Thursday, Mike Elk’s departure, saying it has “nothing to do with his union activities”. Supported by his union, Mike Elk replied that he is on vacation until September 1st: he considers he is still an employee of Politico. ———- Over 12,000 jobs have disappeared from the US media industry, over the last decade. But according to Pew Research Center’s count, 5,000 full-time…

Belgium: Less than 18% of people interviewed by journalists are women

A study led by the Belgian association of professional journalists (AJP, EFJ affiliate) on diversity and equality shows that women make less than 18% of people interviewed in French speaking dailies, which is 5 times less than men. The new figures show no progress in this field since the last survey conducted in 2011 by AJP and are below the world average of 24% across all media. Women are rarely quoted in information related to sports (7%), politics (18%), environment (16%) or in news analysis. The study also shows that women have greater presence in areas such as education (37%), health and well-being…

Mediane Box for Media Diversity officially launched in Brussels

On 12 – 14 November, the Council of Europe (CoE) has launched a new toolbox for media professionals at the final encounter of a EU and CoE funded project on Media in Europe for Diversity Inclusiveness (MEDIANE) with partnering organistions* including the European Federation of Journalists. The toolbox called “MEDIANE Box” was developed based on the hundreds of media professionals who have participated throughout the two-year project led by the CoE. The MEDIANE Box aims at supporting media professionals to include diversity in their daily work and production. It is considered as a self-monitoring tool to monitor the capacities of the media and…