[csaa-forum] Beyond benign diversity in media industry and scholarship - 13 October workshop - UNSW Media Futures Hub

[Tanja Dreher]

Beyond benign diversity in media industry and scholarship



The Media Futures Hub at UNSW presents a fully hybrid workshop to discuss the limitations and alternatives to diversity debates and initiatives in media institutions and in media and communications scholarship.



Friday 13 October

12.30 – 3.30pm

UNSW Kensington campus, Sydney and online (Teams link with moderated chat/QandA)



Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfHUApWV7fp81WlneoRmKVWQ2SL3sOfKFy0Llb5x7nSxFsSjA/viewform



Please register by 30 September, so that the event team can distribute the suggested readings and full further details ahead of the workshop.



Convenors: Tanja Dreher (UNSW) and Sukhmani Khorana (UNSW)



Recent years have seen various and continuing ‘media reckonings’ on racism and diversity, from #oscarssowhite to #IStandWithStan. The resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests across the globe in in 2020 brought renewed attention to media racism in Australia and internationally. Resurgent Sinophobia and anti-Asian racism in the context of the global covid19 pandemic and entrenched and violent Islamophobia highlighted again by the 2019 massacre in Christchurch, Aotearoa/New Zealand, have heightened ‘media diversity debates’ and calls to decolonise media and/or support media anti-racism (Saha, 2020; Titley, 2019). The earlier #Oscarssowhite movement focused on screen media sparked momentum for diversity and inclusion initiatives across media industries. Meanwhile international interventions such as #communicationsowhite have demonstrated that concerns around media, racism and diversity are highly relevant within media and communication studies as well as in media institutions (Chakravarty et al 2018, Ng et al 2020).

The upsurge in media diversity debates and initiatives in response to these cultural reckonings has also prompted critiques and cautionary notes. Too often, the aim of greater diversity has been premised on the limiting assumption that media and those work in it must ‘reflect’ the demographics of the nation state. The media reckoning prompted by Stan Grant’s resignation from the ABC in 2023 followed decades of diversity initiatives at the public broadcasters. Christine Dunbar-Hester argues; “diversity” is a timid framing. What would change if the conversation was directed towards justice instead? Much is at stake here and “diversity” offers too little’ (2021). These cautions resonate with Sara Ahmed’s highly influential work, On Being Included (2020), focused on diversity work in higher education institutions. Ahmed explores the gap between symbolic commitments to diversity and the experience of diversity workers, arguing that racism can be obscured by the institutionalisation of diversity.

This workshop aims to generate discussion on strategies, traditions and imaginaries beyond timid versions of diversity and the limitations of parity of representation. Two select suggested readings/listenings will be circulated prior to the workshop for all participants to prepare.

This workshop is presented by the Media Futures Hub at UNSW https://mediafutureshub.org/. For any further details re the workshop, please contact Tanja Dreher at t.dreher at unsw.edu.au


Dr Tanja Dreher (she/her)

Associate Professor | School of Arts and Media

Co-Director Media Futures Hub<https://mediafutureshub.org/>

University of New South Wales

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