The Guardian’s Commitment to Fight Racism and Gender Inequality

How the Guardian Newspaper Reported Gender Issues between 14th and 20th of April 2018

Between 14th and 20th

of this month, the Guardian carried stories concerning race and gender issues in the world. The stories are featured on the “Gender” and ”Race” Segments in the newspaper. The nature of articles published in the newspaper demonstrates that the Guardian has a policy that does not support racism or gender discrimination. The paper highlights some of the steps that authorities have taken in fighting racism and gender discrimination in the community. Evidently, the media is one the tools that the society can use reducing cases of discrimination based on either gender and race. When you read the articles in the Guardian, it is evident that this newspaper does not confine itself to the racial and gender issues of Britain. The paper addresses racism and gender inequality as acts that are meted to the global society.

During the past week, the Guardian

has demonstrated its outstanding commitment to the need to fight racism. In 1968 when Enoch Powell gave his racist speech, the Guardian was at the forefront in criticizing other media stations that gave Powell the opportunity to propagate the racist sentiments. Durham reveals that established media outlets such as the BBC were among those that allowed Powell’s speech to be broadcasted to masses (7). During this time, there were no legal frameworks to fight racial tendencies in the society. In the 1960s, anti-racial movements were led by people who volunteered to end racism. To demonstrated its commitment to racial messages in the media, the Guardian in this week still carried out an article about the demerits of the Powell speech. What this means is that the newspaper has not deviated from its policy that abhors racism.

The Guardian considers racism and gender inequality to a concern of the global society. Unlike other media platforms that report local stories on gender and racial discrimination, with the Guardian, the newspaper concentrates on internationalizing the issue. For instance, between the 14th and 15th of April 2018, the newspaper was part of the media companies that highlighted the story of an eight-year (Asifa Bano) old Indian girl who was raped and killed (See Figure 1).  Evidently, for the Guardian to decide and highlight this story, it means that paper is not concerned with media coverage, but it has some ethical considerations that it supports.

Figure 1, An Image in the Guardian about the rape of an Indian girl

The Guardian does not support racial and gender discrimination for the sake of political expediency. Between the 14th and 20th April 2018, the paper addressed the issue of anti-Semitism. Among those people who propagated Anti-Semitism attacks were political leaders from strong parties. Evidently, the Guardian

carries an article where it is recorded that some of the leaders from the Labor Party in the United Kingdom were in support of the Anti-Semitism campaign. The Jewish communities are among the minority in the UK. Contrarily, the Labor Party has existed for a long time in the political history of the UK. What this means is that political leaders from Labor Party influence the business sector. As such, by publishing stories about how some Labor Party officials were propagating Anti-Semitism policy, then the newspaper demonstrates its boldness. The media is an avenue that most politicians use in advancing propaganda for the sake of political mileage, and in return, the media benefits from business deals and favoritism (Landerer 240). However, the exposure by the Guardian on how some labor officials participate in fueling Anti-Semitism culture demonstrates its apolitical nature in the fight against injustices such as racism and gender inequality.

The Guardian does not fear multinationals when covering stories about racial and gender discrimination. International organizations are some of the significant business partners for media houses. Considerably, multinationals advertise most of their products and services in the media. As such, most media practitioners focus on maintaining a cordial relationship with these multinationals. What this means is that in some cases newspapers would fail to report on stories that appear to disparage the reputation of international businesses. Most media owners fear that if they publish damaging stories, they are likely to compromise the chances of achieving their profit targets (Gillet-Monjarret 88). What this means is that media organizations tend to conceal some stories for the sake of financial returns. However, the Guardian has published stories on cases of racism and gender discrimination in some of the influential multinationals.  First, the newspaper reported about the arrest of two African Americans at Philadelphia Starbucks. Starbucks is one of the food outlets with an expansive network.  The implication of this is that Starbucks has a lot of advertising opportunities that can increase the profitability of the Guardian. As such, the decision by Guardian to publish a story is an indication that the Newspaper has a strong policy against racism. Apart from the story about Starbucks, the Guardian has an article on a Secaucus LA Fitness Club

which expelled Americans of African origin. Further, the Guardian reports about some of the influential companies that have failed in ensuring that is gender equity in the boardrooms. In the story, ”Persimmon, BP, and Tui among those warned that investors are ‘becoming restless,” the Guardian takes a bold step of naming some of the multinationals that have not addressed the policy of gender balance in the hiring of employees (See Figure 2). In the article, it is even indicated that some of the investors had threatened to shun the named companies.

Figure 2, Report on Gender Bias in some companies

Guardian demonstrates its unwavering disapproval of racism and gender discrimination by highlighting on some historical examples. Between 14th and 20th

of April 2018, the newspaper has revisited stories on ”The Stephen Lawrence Case” and ”Wind rush Compensation.”

Considerably, such stories provide historical information about racial discrimination. It is important to note that these historical stories do not cause a lot of traffic. However, the decision to illuminate in these cases proves that the Guardian has anti-racism policy which is meant to enforce. Such stories conjure memories of injustices that people experienced in the past. With such an approach, the society gets some lessons that could make them avoid the racial behavior.

Concisely, the period between 14th and 20th April 2018 proves that the Guardian is one those media practitioners that are focused on discouraging racial and gender discriminations. The articles published during this time are unequivocal on the subject of race and gender. The articles show that the team at the Guardian does not compromise the ethics of race and gender because of politics or business deals.

Works Cited

Durham, Martin. ”Right and the Problem of Political Space.” The Failure of British Fascism: The Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition (2016): 81.

Gillet-Monjarret, Claire. ”Assurance of sustainability information: a study of media pressure.” Accounting in Europe12.1 (2015): 87-105.

Landerer, Nino. ”Rethinking the logics: A conceptual framework for the mediatization of politics.” Communication Theory 23.3 (2013): 239-258.