ABC Radio National breakfast host Patricia Karvelas says newsrooms need more diversity

Radio National broadcaster Patricia Karvelas says there needs to be more diversity in newsrooms, to ensure they are not always run by white males.

ABC Radio National breakfast host Patricia Karvelas. Picture: Aaron Francis

ABC Radio National breakfast host Patricia Karvelas wants to see more diversity in the media landscape to ensure “it’s not always a white man that’s running the newsrooms”.

Speaking at an RMIT journalism event in Melbourne last week, the radio presenter was asked whether she thought there was enough diversity in the media industry.

“I think, yes, it’s great we are doing it on screen. I want to see it in the management structures, I want to see it behind the scenes, I think it’s not just about saying, ‘hey we’ve chosen a person of colour on screen’ and tick, we’ve done diversity,” she told the audience.

“Diversity is when it’s not always a white man that’s running the newsrooms, that to me is diversity and that’s happening but it’s slower.”

The event, which focused on whether political journalism was failing our democracy, was attended by hundreds of people on Thursday.

Karvelas shared the panellists’ stage with former ABC Insiders’ host Barrie Cassidy.

Her comments come as the national broadcaster is continuing its search for a replacement for Gaven Morris, the former director of news, analysis and investigations.

Karvelas also went on to explain that diversity is wide-ranging and covers many different aspects in society.

“Diversity is of course big – there’s racial diversity, there’s sexuality, there’s lots of diversity in that diversity story – and I do believe that life experience shapes the stories that … you are interested in,” she said.

Karvelas warned of the dangers of always using “the same pool of people” in the media, and made reference to the prevalence of “white private school people” in the industry.

“Class was a big question, it was for me always: ‘you sound different, you came from the western suburbs,’ ” she said.

The ABC has an internal “diversity tracker” for staff to record information about people used in stories, including gender and whether they have a disability.

The gender category asks if a male, female or non-binary person was portrayed in their story.

Another category that staff are asked to fill out is whether a person in their story identifies as an Indigenous Australian, are culturally and linguistically diverse, have a disability or are from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Staff are also asked to state whether a person used in a story was from regional Australia.

Karvelas was contacted for comment but did not respond.