International Journalism Festival, Perugia, Italy
I’ll be a panelist on a panel on ageism in journalism. From the event moderator: “How often have we heard that journalism is a young person's game? Why does our industry frequently make it clear it doesn't welcome older employees? For a newsroom to be truly representative of society; should we not accommodate older and experienced journalists? And are we doing our audiences a disservice by consistently skewing our content to a younger demographic? Not to mention, women are frequently bearing the burden of age discrimination in news organisations, with infamous cases of female TV presenters being taken off air when their sex appeal is perceived to be waning. So with "How Millennials or Gen Z-friendly is this story/treatment?" a dominant agenda-setting question, how can we make sure that we're not abandoning both ageing audiences and newsroom staff in pursuit of genuine diversity?”
