Hello MDA supporters,
It’s been a huge year for MDA and we are grateful to all of you for supporting us through our growth journey. To round off the year we spotlight one of our 2022 Women of Colour mentees, Ruth Brook, who shares insights with us about her mentorship with journalist and author, Mibenge Nsenduluka. We are so thrilled to announce the first 6 winners of our 2023 Summer Fellowship program in partnership with Google News Initiative. We recently celebrated the end of a very successful year at the beautiful Canva space with our members, partners and friends. Introducing the Community Voices Melbourne class of 2022. Get to know another one of our Women of Colour mentees Madison Howarth mentored by the brilliant Director of Indigenous Content at NITV, Tanya Denning-Orman. As the year comes to a close, walk down memory lane with us as we list the impact we’ve had this year and donate now to help us continue our work towards diversifying the Australian media landscape. We have SO much more planned for next year so stay tuned and have yourselves a wonderful festive period!
Being mentored by Mibenge has been a wonderful experience. From our first session, she has been sincere, kind and always willing to listen and answer my questions. She has created a safe space for me to openly express myself without judgment, and that has been invaluable. We have bonded over shared experiences and I am continuing to learn from her vast knowledge of this industry. She has been more than a mentor, she has been a sounding board, a teacher and a friend.
Through the mentorship program, I have truly learned the importance of staying true to myself and my values no matter the circumstance I am faced with. I approach opportunities from the standpoint of ‘Does this align with my values and what I would like to achieve in my career?’. Having those mental check-ins before approaching a situation has really helped me narrow my focus on the kind of work I would like to do and be a part of.
The advice I would offer is to not be afraid to reach out to people in the media industry and ask for help or seek guidance. Sometimes we may think we’re inconveniencing someone or but, in my experience, when I have reached out, people have been more than happy to help and have directed me towards opportunities that have helped me further my career. Sometimes it’s as simple as greeting someone at a networking event, you never know what’s on the other side of a hello.
MDA’s 2023 Summer Fellowships in partnership with Google News Initiative places 12 graduates in various mainstream media outlets nationwide. After careful deliberation and a thorough interview process carried out by our brilliant Director of Special Projects, Simone Amelia Jordan, in collaboration with the respective newsrooms, 12 journalism graduates have been matched with reputable newsrooms around Australia.
Congratulations to the deserving and driven winners of the 2023 Summer Fellowship program. We will be announcing the winners in two parts. The first half of our fellowship winners are as follows:
We are so proud of the winners and can’t wait to see them shaping the future of journalism.
Stay tuned for the second half of our 2023 Summer Fellowship program recipients!
On December 6th, Media Diversity Australia celebrated the end of an action-filled and successful year with our esteemed media members, brilliant advisory board, dedicated staff, state chapter representatives and industry partners at the wonderful Canva space located in the city.
The evening commenced with a heartfelt speech from our CEO, Mariam Veiszadeh retrospectively looking back at the impact MDA has had this year. Our Director of Special Projects, Simone Amelia Jordan also known to emulate “aunty energy” in her approach of mentoring our past and current program graduates presented MDA’s 2022 impact video created by a set of talented TAFE students.
We soon moved on to a nuanced panel discussing how far the Australian media landscape has come in matters of diversity and inclusion and the role MDA has played in it. The interactive panel was moderated by our co-founder, Antoinette Lattouf with an impressive line up of panelists representing our media members.
Our panelists included Marc Fennell (SBS), Dave Chaou (ABC), Brooke Boney (Nine Network), Daniel Doody (Channel 10) and Sharnelle Vella (Seven).
We ended the event with a night of networking, sharing experiences and exchanging anecdotes. A perfect end to an exciting year!
Stay tuned to attend our upcoming events in 2023 – Follow MDA on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram!
Celebrating the Community Voices class of 2022! The thirteen participants from Melbourne were acknowledged last week in a lovely gathering, surrounded by family, friends, and clued-in journalists keen to tap them for future stories.
If you want to know more or add them to your contact list, please message Andrea Ho or Jim Carroll via LinkedIn. Every one of these participants is already an achiever in their community, and they are now ready to speak in news media. We are so proud of them!
A big congratulations to:
Kimberly Mitchiko Clemencio
Emily Fioramonte
Daniel Haile-Michael
Bakr Hawari
Charmaine Hunzwi A FIN
Catherine J.
Dr Harpreet Singh Kandra
Akat Mayoum
Saarah Ozeer
Ruchika Rawat
Anaab Rooble MAICD
Sahema Saberi
Saththiyan Satchithanantham
Thanks to our co-founder Antoinette Lattouf for making a lively and inspiring keynote speech, and Jim Carroll for summing up their big year. And a heartfelt thanks to our project partners, Judith Neilson Institute and to everyone who contributed to this project as a speaker, presenter, support worker.
My favourite part of working with my MDA Mentor is having someone with extensive experience to bounce ideas off and to turn to for support and encouragement. It can be daunting, in the early stages of your career, to come to a crossroads, so to have someone in your corner, offering advice, because they’ve been there, is really reassuring.
Outside of my Mentor, I really admire Brooke Boney. Brooke has had a truly impressive career so far, particularly in the last couple of years. I think she’s a stellar role model for young Blak women in media and I always love seeing her succeed.
Media Diversity Australia’s mission to advocate for the value of cultural diversity within Australian media aligns with the central reason I wanted to work in media in the first place. A lack of diversity in Australia’s media has led to the underrepresentation of diverse stories, particularly First Nations stories told genuinely and truthfully. With more First Nations people and people of colour within the media, at all levels, we’re a step closer to reading and watching stories that more accurately reflect the true picture of this country.
2022 was an action filled year for MDA and we certainly could not have done it without our supporters! Walk down memory lane with us and reflect on the impact we’ve had this year. But we still have a long road ahead and we need your help to continue to champion diversity across the Australian media landscape in 2023 and beyond!
Help MDA continue to have impact and diversify our media landscape. Donate now!
2022 was a huge year for Media Diversity Australia, not only for our team but for our media members, state chapters and supporters who play a vital role in helping us champion diversity across the Australian media landscape.
As the year comes to a close, here are some highlights:
For more information on our programs and resources, visit our website.
As a not-for-profit organisation, we rely on the help of our incredible volunteers. With your financial and volunteer support, we can continue to run programs to support culturally and linguistically diverse journalists, conduct agenda-setting research, run networking events, provide practical solutions for the media industry, and much more. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to support the vital work we do, please click here.
Media Diversity Australia (MDA) is a national not-for-profit organisation led by journalists and media professionals. Australia is culturally and linguistically diverse, and our media should be too. Established in 2017, MDA has a unique role as a champion of cultural diversity in Australian journalism and news media. We have a vision for a media industry with full and equal participation for culturally diverse people at all levels.
