Tuning in to Diversity 2004

Shamanee Kempadoo provides a summary of this "working conference" which sought to address strategies for change on the issue of media and diversity. The strategies that were discussed at the conference were prepared in advance by EquaMedia and partners as a way to develop a European ‘roadmap for change’ that would seek to carry out diversity policies in the European media industry. The organising committee of the conference selected 150 delegates from European Union states based on their expertise, field of work and commitment for change.

Kempadoo opened with "it is great... to see practitioners and theorists, stakeholders and change agents brought together from such different walks of life, with varying levels of expertise and experience; among others NGO’s, researchers from various institutes and those working in the media on national, regional and community levels."

She noted that at one of the workgroups, the differences between countries and local situations were first identified and referred to by others at the workshop (she added "obviously, there were also other, more individual differences which also have played a role during the discussions..") They are:

• The availability of resources and opportunities at all levels
• The political context
• The level of interaction between groups in society
• The history of immigration
• The media system
• The vocational orientation and training system

Kempadoo outlines the various plans of action that emerged from the conference in this order:

• Workshop 6. Minority Community Media
• Workshop 4. Role, Skills and Tasks of Diversity Desks in National Public Channels
• Workshop 3. Managing Expectations
  
  The workshop participants broke their session down into 3 separate sub-groups: Training and Networking, Language and Communication and Partnerships in the Media
• Workshop 9. Towards a European Week of Media and Minorities
• Workshop 7. Media Education and Vocational Orientation
• Workshop 5. How to Reach Young and Intercultural Audiences
• Workshop 1. Journalistic Intercultural Media Competencies
• Workshop 2. Review of Progress on Media and Diversity Research
• Workshop 8. NGO’s as Change Agents Through the Media
• Workshop 10. Closed Session of E-mediate

In her concluding remarks, Kempadoo mentions that many workgroups agreed to set up websites or follow-up with each other later. She ends with these words: "In ten or twenty years there will be other diversity 'issues' to be dealt with. But also another generation to deal with them; a generation that, hopefully, sees itself represented by the media and itself works in the media, as journalists, programme makers, editors and experts. And not experts who have to be fished out of a handbook, used by journalists when they need to find someone to give an opinion on a 'minority issue', chosen by dint of their ethnicity, gender, age or other such defining category. But experts because they have the knowledge, the proficiency and the professionalism. This would indeed constitute a definite step forward on this road for change that has been mapped out by all of you here."