Staff Buy-In
Once you’ve completed a thorough analysis of your workflow and planned your interventions, consider how you can inspire staff participation. Keep in mind that some staff may have experienced diversity initiatives in the past, with varying degrees of success, and maybe skeptical about how new interventions will be different. Others may feel overwhelmed by the introduction of an additional priority, given current demands on their time and attention. Still, others may not immediately recognize why increasing women as sources should be a priority of their own. Keep the follow best practices in mind.
1) Choose a Good Name
Work with your headline writers to find a catchy name for the initiative. A clever title will make it easier to remind people about the effort and talk about the initiative in meetings without having to explain it repeatedly. It can also serve as a powerful call-to-action.
“What was nice about Breaking the Habit as a title is it’s an easy hashtag. I would go into our slack channel where people were pitching things and write #BreakingtheHabit and everyone would know exactly what I meant without me having to say ‘why do you have five white men in your story?” I discovered that language was a big barrier. People would get really defensive. No one knew the right language to use without getting everyone’s backs up. We are all language people, so language is big.”
#BreakingtheHabit
#MirroredInMedia
#ReflectReality
2) Make an Announcement
Once you know the interventions you want to introduce, send an impactful message to all staff. Keep in mind the potential for resistance. Some may feel cynical or think they are being asked to source by quota or being told what to write. Others may feel overwhelmed with existing deadlines and priorities. Take your time to construct your message to strike the right tone and avoid miscommunication, including seeking feedback from peers. Make sure the message communicates the reason for the effort, that leadership is making it a priority, and what resources are being put behind it.
“Give a good reason. Give a reason that makes sense to them in their day, because you know it is going to cause them a little more work. Explain why it matters to them individually and for the organization.”
— Irene Gentle, Editor at the Toronto Star
3) Keep Up Communication
To ensure staff participation, plan periodic communications with the newsroom to remind people about the goal and to regularly report out the progress the team is making. Invite staff to share challenges, approaches, resources, and instances where they have had success. In time, you’ll find little planning is required to develop this messaging as staff contribute content.
"How you communicate with and reward people is very important. We had emails to congratulate people when they were successful and to help explain strategies to those that were struggling. It requires constant follow up. If you have a presentation and leave it like that, it’s likely people will go back to their old ways, not because they are not committed, but because they have so much to do. We now have a 30-minute meeting on Fridays, standing up. We ask, ‘what was a story with women that performed well this week? Why? How did you do it?’ I made a point of getting the producers involved because if you just have the service editors it won't cascade down as well as you like. This created a bit of a collegiate atmosphere. People started saying, ‘I never thought of that’ or ‘that is interesting, can I do it’?”
— Julianna Iootty, Head of Asia Region, BBC World Service
4) Build Momentum from the Bottom Up
While the commitment and support of a newsroom’s top leadership is critical, success may be better achieved when participation in new activities is built gradually from the ground up. Introduce activities that are voluntary and start by engaging a small group of staff (your champions) who you think will inspire their colleagues.
Don’t try to convince the nay-sayers or staff who are less enthusiastic. Instead focus on supporting and reporting out the progress of staff who bring their energy to the effort, and trust that others will catch on.
A reporter interviews women in Ethiopia for a radio program about HIV/AIDs. Photo credit: Internews
5) Celebrate Success
Staff are encouraged to take part when they can see their colleagues participating and having success. Showing that progress is possible is important to maintaining momentum.
During their Breaking the Habit 2.0 initiative, the Globe and Mail sent a note around the newsroom highlighting a story by education reporter, Caroline Alphonso. After specifically asking the teacher’s union to recommend a female teacher qualified to speak to the issue of class size, Caroline found a great lead source, and the story went A1.
Source: After specifically asking the teacher’s union to recommend a female teacher qualified to speak to the issue of class size, Globe and Mail reprter Caroline Alphonso found a great lead source
“Another thing that helps to reinforce the message is to point to work and significant new stories that source women. We had a reporter do a story on how a certain type of bond fund manager was outperforming her peers (Women Are Winning in Bond Funds, Why Aren’t There More of Them?, April, 2018.) Reporters went to some effort to identify sources we had never previously spoken to and ended up finding a great story that otherwise wouldn’t have been told.”
6) Reward Staff
Look for ways to reward staff who make progress towards inclusion. Consider including diversity goals as part of performance evaluations in a way that rewards progress but isn’t punitive. At the Globe and Mail, the visuals team has four key goals that they aspire to and include in performance evaluations.
In addition to a focus on impact journalism, subscription growth and understanding audience analytics, staff evaluations consider diversity of voices and persons in stories. Another approach is to prioritize stories that reflect women and diversity by giving them greater visibility in the publication.
Source: Internews, Environmental Journalism Network, Nepal
7) Host a Speaker Series
By inviting guest speakers into the newsroom to share strategies for inclusion and gender equality, you not only provide staff with professional development opportunities, you keep the conversation around inclusion fresh.
As Kathy English, Public Editor at the Toronto Star explains, “People are grateful for anything that is a training exercise that makes you stop and think about your work, and how you do your work.”
As part of their Mirrored in Media initiative the Toronto Star organized a Brown Bag with Shari Graydon from Informed Opinions. Shari presented strategies for cultivating women as sources, when women may express reluctance.
Source: Shari Graydon, Founder of Informed Opinions provides tips for reporters at the Toronto Star to include more women as sources in their stories
Mel White from the Ontario Public Service’s Inclusive Diversity Office and Cynthia Vukets, BMO’s diversity and inclusion officer, share how the media influences power structures. – Mirrored in Media, at the Toronto Star.
8) Consider Developing a Sourcing Protocol
Set clear guidelines for how staff are expected to include sources in their stories. Dedicate time to going over this protocol during a reporter’s on-boarding or any newsroom specific training. This way staff will be more likely to see gender balance in sourcing as a core part of their job.
By Laxmi Parthasarathy
COO, Global Press
Global Press is an international media organization that trains and employs local female reporters to produce ethical, accurate journalism from the world’s least-covered places. Laxmi Parthasarathy from Global Press Institute shares their standards for sourcing diverse voices in their stories.
Diversity in our staff and diversity in the sources we include in our stories lead to more accurate reporting. In addition to incorporating the voice of women, we make certain our reporters know that a story is not complete without a minimum of four source types:
Newsmaker – a person who is doing something newsworthy in his or her community.
Stakeholder – person, people or groups who are affected by or have a direct interest in an issue or situation.
Affiliate – a person with a close tie to another source who can verify information and provide additional details about past actions, emotions or insights.
Verifier – a person who is not affiliated with another source, but shares expertise on a topic and can independently verify data, impact or other information.
Other possible sources are also explored such as:
Expert – a person with great proximity to or knowledge of a topic, issue or area.
Government Official – a person who is employed by and recognized as a member of a government body, party or ministry. They do not have to be an elected official.
Opponent – a person who offers a different and contradictory point of view to another source in the story.
This requirement is the first step to ensure stories are complete, balanced and accurate.
