One of my earliest tasks as Channel 4’s newly appointed viewers’ editor was to oversee the commissioning of a large scale study on diversity. Undertaken over the last year, the research explores a core part of the channel’s remit – appealing to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society.

It has been a lengthy, but fascinating project which culminated last week with the publication of two reports – one on the research itself, and a sister report, written by Trevor Phillips of Equate, into what the broadcast industry should do to address what some viewers see as poor representation.

Follow the links below to read either report:

Race, Representation and the Media – Channel 4

Superdiversity: TV’s Newest Reality – Trevor Phillips

For me, the two most interesting findings of our research into diversity were that:

• Ethnic minority groups think that the broadcasters fall some way short of their expectations in representing their communities on air. This contrasts with the views of white viewers, who thought that the broadcasters were doing a reasonable job
• Viewers thought that there was a link between the quality of representation and diversity in the broadcasting industry – if they thought that representation was poor, they tended to assume that the people making the programmes were not very diverse

No doubt the industry will now go into a huddle and debate the reports and Trevor’s recommendations at length. In the meantime, I would be really interested to hear whether you agree or disagree with the findings of the research.