The High Viz project: Creating diverse communities within Journalism

  • Terry Finnigan: Head of student Attainment, London College of Fashion
  • Josephine Collins: Course Leader BA Fashion Journalism, London College of Fashion

Abstract

There are an increasing number of students of colour choosing to study creative subjects such as journalism and yet the large majority of the staff employed to teach the subject remain white, as do most of the people working in the media. There also remain significant disparities in degree attainment for home students of colour compared to their white counterparts within the HE sector. (Richards & Finnigan 2015, Alexander & Arday 2015). The High Viz intervention at UAL which took place over two years (2015-17) was distinctive and innovative as it worked across two courses in two different colleges, that shared a similar subject discipline, Journalism. The two courses were BA Fashion Journalism at LCF and BA Journalism at LCC. A model was developed of working across the subject area that had long lasting benefits for all students and staff, through significant changes in pedagogy and curriculum.

The first year of the project was taken up with the two staff teams across the colleges meeting up to reflect on their course attainment and to share how diverse their curriculum already was and discuss changes that could be implemented. Students were invited from the course and had the opportunity to feed into this process with ideas for possible interventions going forward which reflected the diversity of the students. These were lectures with successful media industry professionals of colour, cross course mentoring and the production of the printed magazine Hi Vis created by the students. The three interventions were successfully completed in the second year and also a short film was created as part of the evaluation. Within the two colleges there have been lasting changes. Staff continue to collaborate across the two courses and continue with the student mentoring. The more diverse approach to the curriculum has been integrated more into the subject area and disseminated across the Media programme. Although this intervention came with a relatively high proportion of support costs this may be justifiable over a longer period ensuring that efforts are made to maximise co-learning and sharing of good practice.

References

Alexander, C. & Arday, J. (2015) Aiming Higher: Race Inequality and Diversity in the Academy, Runnymede, London
Richards, A. & Finnigan, T. (2016) Embedding Equality and Diversity in the Curriculum: an Art and Design practitioner’s guide.