Journalism’s lack of diversity threatens its long-term future

At least the public agree on one thing in such divisive times: journalists, or the supposedly homogeneous “media”, are to blame for just about everything. These bleak, post-Brexit weeks have underlined the glaring disconnect between downtrodden public and “metropolitan elite” media in startling clarity.

Yet while many of those in the media increasingly realise how disconnected it is from the reality experienced by much of the UK, the barriers stopping those from poorer backgrounds or minorities making it into the country’s newsrooms remain dauntingly high, and may be getting higher.

According to the 2012 Milburn report on social mobility, “journalism has shifted to a greater degree of social exclusivity than any other profession” and it’s little surprise that this year the Sutton Trust found that 51% of Britain’s top 100 journalists went to private school – more than seven times the UK average.

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