Nina Nannar has explained that in recent years, broadcasters are doing more to promote ethnic and class diversity – but there is still a lot more to be done.
The ITV Arts Editor started her journey in the broadcasting industry in the late 1980s, heading straight into the BBC after completing her university degree but says the help of mentors made it easier for her.
Since launching her career, the Scunthorpe-born broadcaster has worked on the likes of Midlands Today, Children in Need and BBC News’s 2000 Today.
After leaving the BBC in 2001, Nina joined ITN as the media and arts correspondent on ITV News, before becoming Arts Editor in 2017.
(Image: Sunday Mercury)
Speaking to the Daily Star at the National Diversity Awards, Nina said: “I started at the end of the 80s, I left university and went straight into the BBC.
“I joined newsrooms where I was the only person that looked like me, that was really hard, I had to adapt, I had to compromise to make people accept me being the same as them.
“I’ve always had a manager somewhere who has believed in me and given me an opportunity, if I hadn’t had somebody supporting me like that, I don’t know how far I would have got.”
She continued: “It’s been really hard, I think those of us who started in the 80s, I’d like to think we’ve made it smoother and easier for people that have followed because television does look a lot different now.
(Image: Getty Images)
“There’s not enough people in the decision-making process but we’re still working on that, I think that diversity is about class diversity.
“I’m brown but I’m also working class and I’m northern, so I brought all my minority things with me and I’m still Arts Editor at ITV News, sometimes I still find that a bit gobsmacking that I made it and we’ve got to make it easier for more people to make it, so thank God we talk about this stuff today.
“It’s been a long time coming, we need to get on it, we need to get better, it’s not finished yet.”
(Image: Sunday Mercury)
Reflecting on ethnic diversity, she went on to say: “We’ve got to get people in managerial positions because they’re the people making those really big decisions but that will change, that will get better.
“The way TV looks now compared to 10 years ago, it’s staggeringly different, now we switch on our dramas and it’s a family drama and the family happens to be black, being black isn’t part of the storyline, that’s a real breakthrough.
“We’ve got to keep having the conversation, we’ve got to keep talking about it, personally, I’d like to see a lot more working-class people in our national newsrooms.
“That’s a problem, we’ve not cracked that yet, we need to give more people from those backgrounds, it’s people from the north, give them a bit of a voice, I was born in Scunthorpe for God’s sake, I want to hear more regional accents.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
