Prize-winning journalist says NZ has long way to go for newsroom diversity

The winner of a journalism diversity award says New Zealand newsrooms need more ethnic diversity.

Indo-Fijian AUT graduate Thakur Ranjit Singh is the 2011 recipient of the Spasifik Magazine Prize and Storyboard Award for Diversity Journalism, honouring his work with Pacific Scoop.

Oceania Media Ltd managing director Innes Logan presented the award earlier this month at Auckland University of Technology's annual industry prize-giving.

“The majority of journalists Spasifik has employed since we began back in 2004 have come through the AUT’s School of Communication Studies," Logan said.

"We’re proud to have sponsored the Storyboard Award Prize for diversity journalism in recent years as it reflects not only our aim to provide a media platform our audience can identify with, but sheds a perspective and greater understanding to a more mainstream audience."

The award is given to a graduating journalist who has shown outstanding reporting of ethnic issues and cultural diversity in New Zealand. 

Changing culture
Singh, a former Fiji Daily Post publisher who recently completed his Masters in Communication Studies with honours, says Auckland is a city with a changing cultural population.

He says in ten to twenty years’ time, more than 50 percent of Auckland’s population will be from an ethnic background.

But he says cultural diversity is not reflected in mainstream media newsrooms. 

“Media should reflect the colour of the country, but unfortunately for New Zealand’s foreign-owned mainstream media, that isn't the case.”

He says New Zealand’s media is “still very white”, and more people from other ethnicities should be encouraged to break into journalism.

Singh has written for a number of publications and news agencies, which include the Pacific Media Centre, New Zealand Herald, Indian Newslink, Fiji Sun and the Fiji Times. He is also involved in Waitakere Indian Association community initiatives.

Many of Singh’s recent stories have focused on Fijian political issues, with his masters thesis analysing the role of the Fiji Times newspaper during the country’s George Speight coup in 2000.

Singh also won a previous award with AUT and Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) for its Pasifika Postgraduate Scholarship in 2009.

He says he is thankful for the support he has received from AUT while studying, and says Professor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre, encouraged him to do his masters degree.

Singh hopes his achievement will encourage others from ethnic backgrounds to pursue studies in diversity reporting, especially in the Pacific Islands.

Singh’s award was presented at AUT’s School of Communications Studies Awards Night by Spasifik Magazine editor Innes Logan.

Diversity 'inspiration'
The Storyboard Award features a carved Papau New Guinean storyboard, gifted from people of the East Sepik province to Dr Robie.

The carving was donated by Dr Robie as “inspirational encouragement” in promoting diversity, and honouring the contributions of the journalist. 

The award displays the names of the past five winners, who include current New Zealand Herald reporter Vaimoana Tapaleao, and TVNZ’s Tagata Pasifika reporter John Pulu.

Last year’s Storyboard Award and Spasifik Magazine Prize winner went to part-Filipino postgraduate student Corazon Miller, who became the award’s first non-Pacific or Maori recipient. 

Singh becomes the first masters student to win the award and he will keep the carving for the year, before it is passed on to the next recipient.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.