ABSTRACT
The chapter examines how proposed solutions to the lack of diversity in British newsrooms risk reproducing the same inequalities they claim to address. Simply adding more Muslim journalists to the payroll does not wholly mitigate anti-Muslim bias within newspapers nor guarantee fairer and more balanced reporting of stories involving Muslims. Drawing directly on interviews with Muslim journalists, the chapter reflects on how a cultural change is required alongside diversity measures. This involves recognising that the heterogeneity of Muslim journalists reflects the wider heterogeneity of Britain’s Muslim communities – a concept often overlooked within newspapers coverage itself. The lessons learnt from the interviews with local journalists and their very different conceptualisations of who their audiences are and their relationships with them present ways to report on Muslims that include, rather than exclude, them as an integral part of their social imaginary. This demonstrates how an alignment between newspapers’ structural or institutional cultures and journalistic agency can lead to more proactive and inclusive ways of reporting on Muslim communities.
