Keeping it Diverse

Hello All! This week’s blog is all about diversity in the media. Yay! I know what you’re thinking, lame. But actually it is a very interested topic, and a topic we as viewers AND journalists should pay attention to. The world is made up so many different races, ethnic groups, age groups and much more. We should be representing them in our news. But the sad truth is, here in Halifax we are not. Our assignment was to watch a 1 hour news program and count how many minorities or diverse people were in the program.

I watched the Nova Scotia CBC news cast from 5:30 – 6:30. CBC is Canada’s own station, funded by tax dollars. I figured that this would be the newscast to include diversity. Boy, was I wrong. In the 1 hour of the program, CBC showed 2 people who were minorities. One of the two was a reporter for CBC, Darrell Kite. The second of the two was a black man, who was an employee of Nova Scotia Power. He was shown in a group shot, in the background. I forgot to mention the shot of a group of small children who were playing at a play ground, I guess they may be considered minorities.

Does anyone else feel that this is unacceptable? We as a nation are known as one of the most diverse countries in the world. We pride ourselves on being diverse, and yet we can’t represent that in our news programs? Is this because our news reporters are lazy, and can’t take a little extra time to find someone who isn’t middle aged and white? I don’t know about them, but I walk down any street in Halifax or Dartmouth and see a whole bunch of people who are of a minority.

So I feel like I should be ending this post with a solution, or on a positive note. But let’s face it, there really is not quick fix, and we can’t control what reporters do. But what we as viewers can do, is write in to your local station, express your concern. Complain people! Tell them that it isn’t a proper representation of our nation. Also, us up and coming journalists can change the way reports look. We can take the little bit of extra time and effort to represent all the different people that live around us.

Well folks, that’s my rant for the week,
Untill next week - KP