Media diversity rules: Analysing the talent chosen by student radio journalists covering Islam

  • Nasya Bahfen
  • Alexandra Wake

Abstract

The ethnic composition of the Australian population, coupled with the pursuit of a multicultural society at the official level (Ho, 1990) emphasises the nature of the audience for Australia’s media—an audience that is ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse. Yet the content and coverage of the mainstream media does not reflect that diversity particularly in relation to Arabs and Muslims. There are few guidelines for journalism professionals and despite attempts to increase the number of journalists from Muslim or Arab backgrounds in mainstream newsrooms there appears to have been no major paradigm shifts in the way newsrooms cover stories related to Islam. Journalism students at a university in Melbourne completed two newsroom production sessions for one of the city’s major community radio stations, as part of their assessment in a semester-long subject. The researchers examined the students’ choices of interviewee and coded all bulletins produced over a six week broadcast period in 2010. The data will be used to formulate a baseline for the future study of the diversity of talent used by journalism students in the subject, and to see what lessons may be contained for journalism educators, in the breakdown of stories chosen by students and the composition of interviewees contacted by the students.

Downloads

Metrics

PDF views
443
Published
31-10-2011
How to Cite
Bahfen, N., & Wake, A. (2011). Media diversity rules: Analysing the talent chosen by student radio journalists covering Islam. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 17(2), 92-108. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v17i2.353
Crossref
0
Scopus
6
Lee J.Y. (2024)
The gap between journalists’ and audiences’ perceptions of reporting on diversity. Journalism,
10.1177/14648849241287623
Fulton J. (2024)
‘You can’t be what you can’t see’: A pilot study of reflections on diversity and inclusion in the news media. Australian Journalism Review, 46(1), 53-72.
10.1386/AJR_00148_1
Park S. (2023)
News Representation and Sense of Belonging Among Multicultural Audiences. Media and Communication, 11(4), 264-273.
10.17645/mac.v11i4.7002
Weng E. (2021)
Blessed be the educated journalist: Reflections on a religious literacy gap in the field of journalism. Australian Journalism Review, 43(1), 81-97.
10.1386/ajr_00058_1
Bahfen N. (2019)
1950s vibe, 21st century audience: Australia’s dearth of onscreen diversity. Pacific Journalism Review, 25(1-2), 29-38.
10.24135/pjr.v25i1and2.479
Wake A. (2016)
Redefining radio: Implications for journalism education in an era of digital audio storytelling. Radio Journal, 14(2), 231-242.
10.1386/rjao.14.2.231_1