Stan Grant says Australian television is “lamentably white”
Stan Grant raises the issue of a lack of Indigenous faces in news and current affairs.
- Published by David Knox
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SKY News presenter Stan Grant was written a piece in today’s Australian about the lack of Indigenous faces in news and current affairs.
Previously working for CNN alongside diverse colleagues, Grant says Australian television is “lamentably white”:
“There is a convenient expectation that if young indigenous journos enter the organisation they will be channelled into indigenous program units. It is a cop out,” he suggests.
“If there are those who do aspire to be the Washington Correspondent or the science reporter or economics specialist then they certainly are not being nurtured or promoted.
“As I write there is no indigenous person serving as an ABC foreign correspondent or anchor of a major prime time program, no Four Corners reporter.
“Yes, there are some sprinkled through the organisation, the odd voice on radio news or current affairs the occasional indigenous face on TV news but nowhere near enough and certainly not in significant roles.”
Of course, Australia has an entire channel dedicated to Indigenous television, but most viewers aren’t even aware it exists, let alone sample any of its content.
You can read more here.
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- Tagged with Four Corners, Sky News
3 Responses
I can understand that the Indigenous aren’t as greatly represented in media as roughly it is only around 3% of the Australian population.
Whilst people identifying as having Asian background make up 12% (Census) but other than ABC and SBS, people of colour are hardly ever represented in the media.
One of the few indigenous news people i see daily is the Ten eyewitness News Anchor in Perth Narelda Jacobs and I think she is great.
I think he makes a fair point. Indigenous folk deserve greater representation and exposure across all aspects of our lives and not just stereotyped ‘traditional areas’