Media and Diversity The work of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights in the field

1. Media and Diversity The work of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights in the field

2. Recent activities of the FRA • Development of Diversity Toolkit for broadcasters (cooperation with the European Broadcasting Union)  published in January 2008 • Research project on press coverage of minorities  to be published in 2010 • Cooperation FRA - Council of Europe  development of human rights training package for schools of journalism

3. Diversity Toolkit • FRA - EBU cooperation (involving practitioners) • train the trainer concept • available languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Greek • If you are interested in the Toolkit and related activities: aydan.iyiguengoer@fra.europa.eu

4. Research project • Topic: Coverage of minorities in the printed press • Important role of printed press in shaping views • Question of quality of media reporting on minorities • Danger of: • Reinforcement of prejudice • Reproduction of a segregated view of society • Representation of minorities as a threat to society

5. The mass media play a crucial role in defining the problems and issues of public concern. They are the main channels of public discourse in our segregated society. They transmit stereotypes of one group to other groups. They attach feelings and emotions to problems. They set the terms in which problems are defined as 'central' or 'marginal’. (Stuart Hall, British sociologist, 1971)

6. What is innovative about this project? Multinational project design Highest possible level of comparability The whole newspapers are analyzed Advisory group of media professionals installed: to ensure positive impact on the media

7. How was the study carried out? • Surveyed countries: Spain, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, UK • Four nationally circulated daily mainstream print newspapers per country • Selection of newspapers was based on coverage, quality, and political orientation • Data collection periods: 4 non-consecutive weeks in 2008

8. Selected media

9. Some basic figures • 43,741articles were coded • 30,421 articles used for detailed content analysis • 2,145 articles (of the 30,421) contained minority related content • 15,166 references to human or institutional actors • 4,095 references to ‘speakers’ (i.e. actors given a voice) • 11,071 references to ‘other actors’

10. KEY FINDINGS:How strongly are minority issues and actors represented? • Minority related content (MRC) was found in 3% of headlines and 7% of article bodies • Half of MRC articles were about domestic issues; the other half about international issues or issues with both an international and domestic dimension • MRC Articles were at average longer than Non-MRC articles.

11. KEY FINDINGS:Who is given voice in articles? • Almost two thirds of speakers (i.e., actors who are directly or indirectly quoted) from the majority population. • 90% of “Experts” from the majority population. • Speakers with explicit majority background were quoted at average 4 times per article; • Speakers with explicit minority background were quoted only 2,5 times per article. • However, 26% of minority speakers (14% of majority speakers)were first mentioned in the headline

12. KEY FINDINGS: Do women have a say on minority issues? • 80 per cent of speakers were male. • Male actors particularly dominant • (i) in tabloids and freesheets, • (ii) among actors representing minority or anti-racist organisations • (iii) among majority actors, • (iv) in the sports section, the international affairs section, the economics & financial news, on the front page and in opinion articles, • (v) and in press agency articles.

13. KEY FINDINGS:Which minority actors are represented in which contexts? • Most frequently mentioned minority actors: (1) Actors with ‘Asian’ background, (2) Roma, (3) ‘Arab’/Northern African actors • Minorities most visible in International affairs, sports and national affairs sections, • Minorities absent from finance and economics section. • Types of minorities most frequently represented : (1) religious minorities, (2) immigrants, (3) minority ethnic populations • ‘Asian’ actors strongly represented in relation to violence and crime • ‘Arab’/Northern Africans strongly represented in relation to war and terrorism • Roma strongly represented in relation to arts & culture (nut also to a certain extent in relation to violence & crime)

14. KEY FINDINGS:Are positive, negative or neutral attributes used in the representation of actors? • Among minorities, • diaspora groups most favourably represented • followed by minority ethnic populations • and temporary migrants. • Religious minorities were the least favourably represented type of minority group. • Among specific minority populations, Turks, Arabs, and Roma were least favourably represented.

15. KEY FINDINGS:What impact has authorship on the representation of minorities? • Articles by authors, who are not journalists of the respective newspaper: lower rate of negative representation of minorities than articles by internal journalists • Letters to the editor were an exception to this • Articles by press agencies: to a high amount neutral • Among non-neutral press agency articles: share of negative representation of minorities significantly above the average

16. KEY FINDINGS:Difference between headlines and articles as a whole? • Headlines at average more negatively connotated towards minorities than the articles as a whole • Representation of minorities was more likely to be negative in articles and headlines of tabloids than in freesheets and broadsheets

17. KEY FINDINGS:Terminology and attributes to name groups • 20 times more negative terms or phrases in relation to Muslims (e.g. radical, fanatic, fundamentalist, terrorist) than positive ones (e.g. peaceful, moderate) • For immigrants negative terms (e.g. criminal, illegal, invasion) 13 times more present than positive ones (e.g. desirable, valuable), with more than 80 per cent of references being neutral. • In relation to Jews, almost 90 per cent of terms or phrases were neutral, and of the remaining 10 per cent, positive and negative terms or phrases were evenly balanced. • Terminology used in relation to asylum seekers was either neutral (96 per cent) or negative (4 per cent)

18. Discussion issues • Should media audiences always be given what they expect? • What is the added value of knowing about the ethnic or national background of a person? • How important are minority voices when reporting on minority-related issues? How can the voices of minorities be better included in reporting?

19. Discussion issues • Why are women strongly underrepresented in newspaper content dealing with minority-related subjects? And how could this be overcome? • How can reporting reflect the diversity of our societies? And how can reporting overcome creating “us” and “them” groups? • How can media professionals avoid that verbal language and images create misunderstanding or non-understanding?

20. Discussion issues • What are the shortcomings of short news items and how important is the inclusion of background information? • Can an unbalanced headline be levelled out by a balanced article? • How can headlines catch attention without using stereotypes?

21. FRA advice • Importance of human rights related education and training of media professionals  Increasing the potential of journalists to provide quality work • Importance of an open culture of debate within media  Ensuring that media can fulfil their role as reliable and critical information source. • Importance of human rights related media education at school Increase media literacy

22. Thank you for your attention 