We need to stop being preoccupied with the awards themselves and join in the decision-making
Two weeks ago I sat at the Royal Television Society's Journalism Awards hoping to win an award. The great and the good from British current affairs were there but it was hardly the Oscars. There was no red carpet and no paparazzi . Probably only readers of the back pages of Media Guardian pay it any attention.
As one of the few black people at an awards ceremony not serving food, the same thoughts kept running through my mind. They range from 'Why aren't there more black and Asian people at the ceremony?' to 'Were black and Asian people overlooked in the winners and nominees?' I suppose the bigger question underlying all this, of course, is 'Are the television and film awards ceremonies racist?'
But, hand on heart, when I looked at the list of nominees and winners at the RTS ceremony I couldn't see any glaring omissions - programmes or people who were not nominated that should have been. Tamanna Rahman, an extremely talented Muslim reporter who exposed racism for Panorama, won Young Journalist of the Year, and even though Krishnan Guru-Murthy was pipped at the post for Presenter of the Year everyone knows that it is only a matter of time before he wins an RTS to go along with his Emma (Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy award). The reality is it is very difficult, if not impossible, to make an accusation of racism stick about the RTS awards - or almost any other British media award for that matter.
But for me that misses the point. We often think that when it comes to awards all that matters are the nominees, the winners and the big glittering ceremony. However, we all know award winners who have struggled for work after being 'recognised'. One black producer I can think of, who has more than his fair share of glassware, regularly calls me up looking for work, complaining that no one will employ him. David Upshal, another award-winning black producer, put it best when he recently posted on a Facebook page: 'Plenty of award winners return to a life of anonymity and plenty of the most influential people in TV have never won an award'. The fact is the most important part of an awards ceremony occurs not when everyone is in their rented tuxedos, but in the months running up to the tearful speeches.
Most awards are decided by small groups of industry figures watching, and then discussing, the best of that year's output. This is a chance to meet and 'feel out' fellow insiders. During the course of the discussions you see whether you are on the same 'wavelength', whether you share the same vision, and most importantly whether you have similar editorial judgments. Meetings with your peers, networking and seeing what makes other people tick are worth so much more than a strangely shaped piece of glassware. It is the contacts made in these small groups that decide who gets the next job, who is the executive producer on the next 'landmark' series and who sits on the next media quango. They are a major factor in the lifeblood of many a television career.
The fact is that far too few black and Asian people are involved in these backroom networking sessions and I struggle to answer why that is. Do awards bodies need to make more of an effort to attract a diverse membership? I suspect so. But I have also seen the efforts made by both Bafta and the RTS to widen their membership base. Often nothing is excluding black and Asian people except an annual subscription fee to one or other organisation. It is not uncommon for my white colleagues to be members of at least one television organisation – that definitely isn't the case when it comes to my black friends in television.
As a senior black producer at the BBC, I often think that we all need to be less preoccupied with shiny baubles and the awards themselves and more interested in how the television industry works. There is still racism, and there are still glass ceilings for ethnic minority people working in television but the award ceremonies are not the problem – not engaging with them and understanding how the television industry works is.
The bottom line is, if you want to get ahead, join a committee, whatever your racial make up. Bafta, RTS and all the other award bodies can definitely help your career but you don't need to win an award, or even be nominated, to get that next promotion.
Marcus Ryder is editor, current affairs, BBC Scotland
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