6 great ideas to make Indian media more inclusive: The Media Rumble’s closing panel

How diverse are our Indian newsrooms, and why does it matter? 

This question anchored The Media Rumble’s closing panel, ‘Inclusive Media: Representation, Responsibility and Reform’, powered by the High Commission of Canada.

Moderated by Newslaundry CEO Abhinandan Sekhri, the discussion included The News Minute editor-in-chief Dhanya Rajendran, The Wire editor Seema Chishti, The Hindu diplomatic affairs editor Suhasini Haidar, and multimedia artiste Anurag Minus Verma.

While gender diversity in newsrooms has made some progress, panelists agreed that the question of caste remains largely unaddressed. As Seema pointed out, caste is a “big question to confront” and “guilt is a great starting point”.

From that conversation between the panelists and the audience emerged six concrete ideas to make Indian media more inclusive.

Know who is in the room 

Before changing anything, newsrooms need to acknowledge who is in power. In Indian newsrooms, the decision-making roles mostly belong to upper castes, and creating a diversity index to document this imbalance could be the first step. 

“When it comes to women, we are seeing a lot of women in positions where they decide what the story is going to be…Things have gotten better for women. I wish they had gotten better for some of the other stratifications,” said Suhasini.

Begin with classrooms 

As Dhanya observed, caste exclusion in journalism starts much before the workspace. “We found that Dalits aren’t even registering for journalism courses,” she said, pointing to high fees, low pay, and unwelcoming industry environments. Newsrooms should make efforts to help colleges take in more students from marginalised communities, subsidise their fees and ensure they get jobs or at least basic training, she said.

Jugal Purohit from the Collective Newsroom shared how a targeted diversity programme worked for them. Instead of advertising just on the website, they identified smaller colleges in smaller towns and advertised job openings specifically. 

Be specific while hiring 

If newsrooms have to be diverse, job descriptions need to clearly invite applications from marginalised communities. Anurag said that if organisations make that clear, applicants wouldn’t mind disclosing their identities. 

Dhanya pointed out that merely encouraging applicants from marginalised backgrounds may not be enough and the newsroom must make it clear what it expects. “Many Dalit reporters…don’t want to cover only Dalit stories…Hiring has to be very specific…or again we will face this problem of trying to gauge who we should take.”

Build mentorship programmes 

The panel noted that people from marginalised backgrounds often get left out without proper mentorship once they enter the newsrooms. Structured mentorship programmes and membership-based mentoring networks can help young journalists learn and find their place.

Anurag suggested introducing an incentive or an award for diverse newsrooms. Jugal Purohit added that giving organisations the opportunity to publicly showcase their progress could motivate others to follow.

Abhinandan endorsed the idea but flagged the hurdles. “Our experience with collecting the data has been a struggle. It is like extracting a molar from a jaw,” he said. 

Make it the language of the market 

Diversity is strategic. There have been several studies in the US which show that audiences engage more with inclusive newsrooms. If India too has similar studies linking inclusivity with the market, that could be an incentive for change. 

Anurag pointed out that newsrooms have to acknowledge the benefits of diversity. “Maybe when there is more data around it…efficiency changes when there are more gazes around it from gender, caste and class views. When we have that cultural conversation…then people in the newsroom will think that yes, it will benefit my organisation.”

Hire for perspective 

Instead of limiting opportunities to those with journalism degrees, newsrooms should consider hiring subject experts too and train them to tell stories. This could expand both expertise and representation.

This could also work in an environment where fewer people from marginalised backgrounds are applying for jobs as well as for seats in journalism colleges.

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