By Blessed Smith
Upon entering the podcast studio, the air of confidence and professionalism that Barbara exuded was unmatched, with her many years of experience becoming exceedingly obvious through the way she carried herself. Emergency makeup bag on deck, Barbara sits down with Wempower to discuss diversity and inclusion, the privilege that native English speakers have, and more, for the third episode of “Behind the Headlines, the missing narratives of women journalists“.
Barbara Serra, born in Italy, is the first non-native English speaker to present a primetime news programme on British television. After having lived in Denmark from ages 8-18 and attending an international school where she learned to speak English, Barbara decided to study in London before working for major media companies such as the BBC, Sky News and Al Jazeera.
Barbara’s interest in journalism- and specifically broadcasting- sprouted during The Persian Gulf War and its very controversial broadcasting on live television.
Fast forward a few years later, Barbara covers her first news story with Sky News which covered the death of Pope John Paul II.
In the present day, Barbara keeps herself busy with her newsletter titled ‘News with a Foreign Accent’ through which she uploads newsletters sharing her views on various topics such as migration, diversity in journalism, the threat of Fascism, all things to do with bilingualism/being second-language English and EU citizens in the UK post-Brexit. The newsletter we have chosen to discuss today highlights the ‘blind spot’ regarding diversity in British Journalism. The piece is called ‘The Barriers Faced by Second-language English Journalists’ and deeply analyses the hardships faced by aspiring journalists who don’t speak English as a first language and have a noticeable ‘foreign’ accent.
Barbara describes English as ‘the language that connects us’ and rejects the notion that our world is interconnected due to the limitations of language and the assumption that everybody understands the English language.
In relation to the newsroom, Barbara Serra theorises that news networks in the UK are hesitant to hire non-native English speakers due to the strong correlation between news and trust. The way that news networks and their audiences interact with each other relies on a foundation built with trust- audiences trust that the news is reliable and has their best interests at heart and the networks do their best to maintain this relationship. According to Barbara, ‘news is about trust. Trust is tribal’. Serra does, however, highlight the nuances within this concept and brings attention to the idea of regional accents and how someone born and bred in the UK may face difficulties if their accent doesn’t fit into the typical southern English way of speaking that is commonly heard on news networks.
Barbara Serra encourages young journalists to ‘work hard [and] consume media’ alongside finding and perfecting their passions. Serra also advises that you challenge yourself by engaging with content that challenges your worldview. She says, ‘If you’ve got three subscriptions make sure that at least one is to a publication you don’t agree with’.
Barbara hopes to ‘hear more voices’ in the future- voices from everyday people and less so from the government. She believes that this is increasing gradually and our team at Wempower would gladly agree.
If you wish to explore more of Barbara’s work, then definitely consider subscribing to her newsletter where she discusses similar issues to the ones addressed in this episode of ‘Behind the Headlines’. And of course, if you want to listen to this discussion in detail, this podcast episode is available on Wempower’s Youtube channel, and as an audio only version on Podbean.
