Reflecting Reality in Toronto, Canada
A close look at Canada’s leading online news media reveals that the aggregate ratio of female and male sources is estimated to be 28% and 72% respectively.
Overview
Between March and July 2019, The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star worked with Reflect Reality staff to test a suite of strategies to increase female expert sources, as well as the diversity of sources beyond gender. Both newsrooms are well positioned to share expertise given their ongoing commitment to both advancing representation in their coverage, and their experience implementing gender equality initiatives. Staff at both newsrooms indicated they felt the time was right for a renewed focus on diversity of voice.
In March, both newsrooms consulted extensively with Reflect Reality and members of the United for News coalition to identify existing best practices and activities to launch as part of their pilot initiatives. The activities launched in April and the project leaders from both newsrooms participated on regular check-in calls with the Reflect Reality team to share feedback on successes and challenges.
While both newsrooms focused on gender, they each had an additional focus on increasing diversity of sources more broadly, including ethnic and cultural diversity. Toronto is considered one of the most multicultural cities in the world with over half of its residents belonging to one of several dozen visible minority groups (Canada, 2016 Census). In Toronto the need for and commitment to equal representation of women in the news goes together with equal representation of ethnic and cultural diversity.
Read More About the Pilots
Key Learnings
In July, after the pilot activities had been underway for four months, the Reflect Reality team spent two days in Toronto visiting the newsrooms and meeting with staff across departments, including news, sports, obits, visuals, social media, editors, etc. Interviews were conducted with over a dozen staff to gather insights on the pilot activities and impact. There was remarkable congruity in their feedback.
Tracking is critical
Both The Globe and the Star engaged in benchmarking and tracking work during their pilots. Almost all the people we spoke with highlighted tracking as the key driver of change. Building diversity and meaningful longitudinal data is a process that inherently takes time. The power of tracking is that it serves as a daily reminder to newsroom staff to act.
“You achieve what you measure”
Source: The Globe and Mail
Count only what you can control
The Toronto pilots confirmed that the key to measuring success is to track only the sources that are within your control to change. This is a core strategy developed by the BBC’s 50:50 Project. Because breaking news coverage of certain topics, such as elections, major political scandals or sports story, necessitate reporters go to specific sources (who are often men), tracking these instances complicates the measurement of progress. This was the case for both The Globe and the Toronto Star, which both tracked all voices – including sources that they could not change, such as politicians, public officials, or sports stars. The start and end numbers of their counts did not show a meaningful difference, as they were inclusive of news days dominated by male news makers out of their control. While this gave them a full picture of the gender balance of their content, it gave them little insight into the impact of their efforts. Thus, a key learning that resulted from both pilots was to count only the sources where the reporters can make a choice.
Be strategic when announcing the initiatives
Both newsrooms took their time developing the initial messaging to the newsroom announcing, Breaking the Habit 2.0 and Mirrored in Media. In launching an initiative, it’s important to get staff buy-in, generate excitement, and address everything from skepticism to workload.
Be aware that some staff may have experienced failed efforts in the past or might misinterpret the effort as part of a quota system. Others may not immediately understand the reasons behind the initiative. After carefully drafting their messages, the pilot leaders at both newsrooms asked peers to weigh in on the language.
Leadership is key, but momentum is built from the bottom
Almost all staff indicated that for an effort to be successful the staff must understand that the newsroom leadership considers it a priority. When leadership makes it clear to staff that they are paying attention to diversity, it gives staff the license to dedicate more of their time. At the same time, both The Globe and The Star were careful to make their activities voluntary. Participation in the activities grew as the few staff who were initially enthusiastic about the effort shared their experience and successes with each-other.
“Our goal was to have it bubble up from the bottom, rather than pushed down – that is when things are a success.”
Industry must promote women
Staff at both newsrooms point out that there’s a disparity of women empowered to speak to the media in some industries. Reporters stressed that companies and their PR departments need to make a concerted effort to diversify their spokespeople.
Leverage the entire newsroom
A successful strategy observed at The Star and The Globe was the ability to incorporate a variety of staff and departments in the effort. Beyond individual reporters, a number of people in the newsroom ultimately influence which sources are used. At The Globe, the visuals team helped flag articles that lacked diverse sources. At the Star, staff in the social media department served as important conduits for finding diverse community voices.
“I wanted to do something the entire newsroom could participate in.”
