Tag Archives: diversity

BBC, Warner execs talk up diversity

Executives from the BBC, WarnerMedia and Amazon have outlined their diversity strategies after a year in which the ethnic and gender imbalances in the media industry have come under fresh scrutiny.

Miranda Wayland

In a session titled Tribune for Heads of Diversity and Inclusion at the digital version of the MipTV event, WarnerMedia chief enterprise inclusion officer Christy Haubegger outlined the steps needed to increase diversity.

“If you want to win once, set a goal. If you want to win, create a system,” Haubegger said. “We’ve been looking at inclusion not just in our workforce but in our storytelling, making our showrunners and creative leaders really understand. This year we launched an eight-hour programme to do just that and we’re looking forward to doing more of that.”

Similarly, BBC head of creative diversity Miranda Wayland described how the UK pubcaster has taken steps to change the way it looks at inclusion. “We created a creative allies toolkit for our commissioning teams to show individuals how they can support minorities,” she said. “We’ve also been trying to get better embedded with our programme makers so they can see the benefits.”

Latasha is head of global diversity, equity and inclusion at Amazon Studios, the production and distribution subsidiary of the US retail giant. Like the others, she believes diversity is a company-wide issue that starts with the hiring process.

“If you’re not getting enough diversity at the interview stage, you need to be asking yourself if the process is too homogenous,” Gillespie said. “Your interviewees should never be the same race or gender.”

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