Date: 21-24 November 2012
Country: France, Bordeaux
Did you know that a female athlete has 4 more chances to be covered by a female journalist and less than 5% of sport news is produced by female journalists?
Did you know that ethnic minorities represent less than 5% of the main actors in the news? But immigrants alone represent around 10% of the EU population.
This data speaks for itself and shows clearly how some groups of the European population are still excluded from media expression. That is why Council of Europe is organising the MARS European Media Encounter – Media, Diversity & Racism in Sport at IJBA in Bordeaux (France) on 21 – 24 November.
This Encounter will offer the opportunity to more than 100 European journalists to work in pairs in order to produce media reports in which non-discrimination and diversity will have to be considered as angles of media coverage. Through this approach applied to sport media coverage and through this very concrete and practical 4-day session of production, this encounter wants to encourage innovative ways of producing truly inclusive media contents.
Truly inclusive information – where every citizen can contribute as a witness, an actor, a producer, etc. – is crucial for social cohesion and for democratic participation in public debate. Through the sources they use, the subjects they select and the treatment they choose, the media are one of the major actors of the democratic debate in relation to their influence they have on its agenda (what to think about) and its perception (how to think) by public opinion.
Following 17 national or European encounters held since January 2011, the Bordeaux Encounter is included in the framework of the MARS – Media against Racism in Sport joint European Union / Council of Europe programme.