Training in diversity reporting

(Emailed 20 June 2007)
I found Ali Bell’s coverage of Arlene Morgan perceptive and thoughtful – until I got to the quote from me and the query about what I meant.
Ali Bell is surely being disingenuous. My meaning (I thought) was clear enough – train journalists in diversity reporting as they enter the occupation and make change from the bottom-up (as well as approaching the problem of patchy diversity reporting from the top-down).
I devote a lot of my time at the Journalists Training Organisation (JTO) working at these issues. Comments like Bell’s are understandable, I guess, since to her I probably represent the big bad media. Of course, I see myself as a facilitator working for positive change. Hopefully, any changes the JTO can make will eventually convince cynics like Ms Bell that not everyone is blind to the iniquities of what is happening.
Jim Tucker
Executive Director
NZ Journalists Training Organisation
Wellington
Ali Bell – BroadsWord: Seeking the ‘other’ voices of the nation