How to Incorporate Diversity when Creating TV, Digital and Radio Content

Overview

In this e-Master Class we will explore how to meet the various challenges that public service media programme makers face when trying to create content that appeals to and represents diverse communities.

Over three mornings, faculty member Rubina Pabani will go through the stages of building an inclusive team, finding underrepresented contributors, experts and presenters whose perspectives you don’t often hear and outlining your duty of care once a piece of content is published with them at the heart of it.

Selected guest speakers will help illustrate the different stages. Trainees will have many opportunities to discuss their own challenges with the trainer, guest speakers and European peers.

Currently Head of Short Form at ITN Productions, Rubina Pabani's career has seen her specialize in the ability to find ‘regular people’ who can appear on screen and talk engagingly and movingly about their experiences. Whether it’s finding survivors of sexual assault or Muslim women who wear the niqab, she’s found them and put them on screen. She is a former producer of BBC Three’s award-winning series Things Not to Say which has won wide recognition for the diversity of people and viewpoints it puts on screen. She is also one half of the award-winning podcast Brown Girls Do It Too on BBC Sounds.

Who it's for:

Teams involved in casting people, presenters and experts for programmes.
Programme and channel commissioners who need to think strategically about how to adapt to new challenges of diversity on screen.
Social media managers interested in leveraging the contributions of their audience for audio and video.
Media professionals who feel they could be doing more to encourage contributions from underrepresented groups.

Topics Covered:

How to use inclusive language.
How to improve diversity in programmes (real people, experts & presenters) with methods & processes.
How to crew up behind the screen with diverse voices.
How to look after your contributors once content has published (Duty of Care).

Skills learnt:

Audience: How to cast from diverse audiences and make content that both general and diverse audiences will appreciate.
Editorial: Gain a better insight into the editorial challenges and opportunities of working with diverse contributors.
Innovation: Diverse perspectives and contributors will help you come up with innovative content ideas.
Social Media: Better appreciate the diverse nature of today’s social media audiences to ensure that your content perform well on social media.
Storytelling: Learn to incorporate diverse contributions into your storytelling.
Diversity: Appreciate the strategic importance of understanding and reaching an increasingly changing and diverse audience.

Guest Speakers:

Sonja Verbaarschott, Deputy Chief of NoS Youth News. Sonja will talk about the specific Evita case study, discussing brand versus authenticity and language, accents and communication. She will also specific leanrings from the diversity training at NoS.

Bruno Laforestrie, Director of Mouv’ Radio (Radio France channel for younger audiences) and President of the Diversity & Equality Committee. Bruno will talk about the Egalite 360 programme which aims to include people who are more representative of French society

Format:

3 x 2.5hr live online sessions on Zoom.

Practice:

Between sessions and in their own time, trainees will be asked to draft their personal action plan.

While we encourage trainees to take up the chance to practice what they’ve learned, we understand it may not always be possible because of other commitments outside the e-Master Class. If this is the case, please discuss this with the trainer.