Brighton joins campaign to boost and diversify academic voices in the media

The ‘driving academic diversity in our media voices’ campaign is being coordinated by University Alliance (UA) – chaired by Brighton Vice-Chancellor Professor Debra Humphris - and will see its member universities take practical action not only to boost academic engagement with the media, but to increase the presence of those from more diverse backgrounds.

Two positive recent examples featuring Brighton researchers include coverage in The Voice of a new website created by Dr Marlon Moncrieffe to highlight racism within elite cycling, plus ITV news coverage of postgraduate researcher Annie Whilby's increasing profile as a powerful spoken word poet activist.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Debra Humphris

Research has found that fewer than 20% of academics engage with external media, and the campaign will seek to identify and address barriers to wider media engagement. To meet UA's ambitious target, academics will be offered a range of practical support, including free media training and access to a peer-to-peer mentoring network.

UA and its universities will also proactively profile UA experts to the media, with an emphasis on profiling diverse voices. In addition, a new ‘Expert bank’ will be launched on UA’s website and hosted on ExpertFile, from which journalists and other media representatives can search for UA specialists from different academic fields for comment.

The campaign will be launched at an online event taking place on 27 April, where speakers will include Professor Vini Lander (Professor of Race and Education, and Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality at Leeds Beckett University), and Marverine Duffy, Course Director for Journalism and core member of the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University.

University Alliance CEO Vanessa Wilson said:

“Central to UA’s mission is unlocking potential and effecting change, and through this campaign we hope to do our bit to help address the historic under-representation of diverse voices in the media.

Our new Expert bank will make it easier for journalists to reach a diverse range of experts, and the peer network will ensure visibility of role models and accessible mentoring and guidance which along with the training sessions should make a big difference in supporting Alliance academics taking up media opportunities.

This is an ambitious programme of work which will not only support more of our academics to engage with the media, but also raise the collective value and status of applied research undertaken by our universities.”

Justin Shaw, Chief Higher Education consultant with Communications Management, said:

“Having worked as a journalist, university press officer and a media consultant to universities globally over the last 30 years, it has been my professional goal to stimulate greater numbers of academics to recognise the value of media engagement and to support them in the development of these opportunities. My own analysis (sponsored by ExpertFile) has shown that less than a fifth of academic experts are externally and publicly engaged in this way and that there are many barriers to media participation.

The campaign will help to take a major step forward in supporting more academics to be more media involved, to bring valuable insight and evidence on the major concerns of today and tomorrow through media coverage and to ensure we have a diverse representation of academics in the media.

Alliance universities have the ideal mix of experts – often drawing on both their professional career experiences and their academic analysis.”

Peter Evans, CEO ExpertFile said:

“We are delighted to be supporting this important program. We have a shared mission to help connect the media with academic expertise within our universities, and to do more to elevate the voices of diverse experts. With the support of the ExpertFile platform, UA’s campaign will be sector-leading in collectively raising the profile of their member’s expertise and making it easier for journalists and other audiences to reach a more diverse community."