A new research report into how marginalised communities view journalism and how newsrooms can work with them has been released by Media Cymru, following a collaboration with the BBC.
The News For All project sought to look into the disconnect felt by marginalised communities in Cardiff and what changes media companies could make to create a more inclusive environment.
“The inspiration for the work really came from a combination of my research and community organising work,” Shirish Kulkarni, a news research innovation fellow with Media Cymru said.
“On one hand, the data shows a growing number of people choosing not to engage with news. At the same time though, I was seeing marginalised people and communities increasingly desperate for information to help them navigate their daily lives.”
The sessions saw a representative selection from marginalised groups join independent facilitators for in-person sessions. These included surveys on their news habits as well as open discussions designed to uncover how the news made them feel and what they would help them engage more.
“Clearly, the best way to understand what people want and need from journalism is to ask them,” Kulkarni added.
“It sounds simple when you put it like that of course, but who you ask, what you ask and how you ask it are the critical bit. That’s what we wanted to explore, in a community-led way, with News for All.”
Participants in the research spoke about why the avoid the news. Among the reasons given were a lack of representations or negative portrayals of communities, races or religions, with a consensus that they viewed journalism as oppression and similar to other bodies such as the police.
Some actions that participants felt would help improve the relationship between marginalised communities and news outlets included: reporting with them, rather than on them; greater collaboration in the creation of news; and have more journalists embedded in communities so they can give a more rounded view.
Rhiannon White, a facilitator for the research, said: “Journalists should co-create deeply with citizens. Journalists need us to exist, and we could mutually benefit from their work.
“It has to not be exploitative or extractive—that’s the point, though. So, for journalism to exist – for it to be useful, credible, relevant, and useful – journalists should look to understand, collaborate, trust, and be inspired by the citizens they seek to exist for.
“It should be in service to our communities. This shift would be so powerful.”
So, what will the next steps be? The report includes a number of recommendations newsrooms can utilise if they wanted to carry out similar community work with their local communities.
These include taking extra steps to ensure all content published is accurate and ensuring you have expertise from within the community represented among the facilitators.
Amira Hayat, a journalism student and second facilitator on the research, said of the process: “It gives me hope knowing that people and journalists are willing to learn and develop, that communities are passionate about creating journalism that’s more accurate and inclusive.”
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