Developing a new agenda: international reporting by women of colour

"The advantage of being a new journalist is that it will encourage the young ones," says Sabika Shah Povia, an Italian print and broadcast journalist.

She was speaking at a virtual event about international reporting by women journalists of colour, held by Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University.

In her latest column in The Journal of Media & Diversity, Shah Povia writes about growing up in Italy with Pakistani heritage - a country, she notes, with a five per cent of immigration population matched by a five per cent Muslim population. Though Italians perceive this number to be much higher than the reality. As a second generation immigrant, she falls in both camps.

Her path into a journalism career has not been much smoother. She describes an industry where women of colour are considered novelties and novices despite (in her case) more than a decade of reporting experience. She calls on her news industry to be more pluralistic and less prejudiced.

But Italian media also has complicated relationships with the political sphere. Broadcast media, she says, tends to pit right-wing views against left-wing, leaving little room for actual discourse. Newspapers strongly align themselves with the influential politicians of the day, who often provide the loudest commentary on immigrant and refugee communities.

The media has an enormous responsibility in shaping how these groups of people are perceived by society, but the status quo is not challenged by traditional media.

New media is offering new hope, she adds, and women of colour are being given more opportunities in newsrooms. But most of this progress has been made in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement. She says it should not have taken an American moment to spark change in Italian attitudes and standards.

The problem that comes with progress in terms of diversity is the 'othering' that follows - black and brown reporters being pigeonholed to the 'black and brown' stories.

Italian-Ghanaian journalist writer Dhjara Kan puts it another way: "they only call you when they need you".

Her experience in Italy has been similar, describing a white industry machine that works perfectly well without black cogs turning the wheels. In other words, black women need to be in indispensable top positions for success to have been made. That is yet to be the case.

Kan also has a column in the Journal of Media & Diversity, with her attention locking in on Italy's inability to recognise its own racism. Without diversifying the media, she fears this important self-reckoning will not happen. She urges patience and warns young reporters not to be discouraged or desperate.

This is not an exclusively Italian problem, though. Reim Higazi is a half-Austrian, half-Egyptian broadcaster and the founder of a youth radio station.

She provides examples from her past which show the conscious and unconscious tokenistic attitudes in that industry. From colleagues who have not been able to provide a diverse set of contacts when trying to help with stories, from qualified, foreign scientific journalists who have been saddled with doing the weather. Her colleague ultimately left because there was no opportunity to progress.

One of the ways to get opportunities sometimes lies in making yourself known or creating your own opportunity. When the Austrian Broadcast Corporation (ORF) hired a new general director, Higazi took the initiative to email and put herself up for a diversity officer role at the company.

As a result, she was invited to be part of a sub-group to discuss internal diversity strategies. Change is slow in big companies. But if a news organisation can start a TikTok account in a bid to reflect younger audiences, it means it can take steps to reflect its diverse audiences in other ways too. And that includes racial diversity.

"Don't let anybody define you, you define you," were Higazi's parting words of advice.

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