Uncovered: assessing media and communications needs ... - ICAR

Uncovered: assessing media and communications needs and capacity of marginalised communitiesForeword by Neil AmasI have great pleasure introducing this study commissioned by the Media Trust. Uncovered: assessingmedia and communication needs and capacity of marginalised communities examines the abilityof marginalised groups to deal with and infl uence the media, and assesses what might be done toincrease this capacity.The UK media is seen by many, rightly or wrongly, to be insensitive at best, and at worst hostiletowards certain groups of our society, such as faith groups, migrants and asylum seekers, oftenaccused of fomenting negative attitudes amongst ‘mainstream’ society. And yet these groups,identifi ed in the report as ‘hard-to-reach’, excluded and often disadvantaged, are likely to lack thefi nancial capacity or expertise to counter the impact of imbalanced and negative reporting. This reportassesses the media and communication needs of these groups and makes suggestions for thetraining and other activities that might address some of these.There have been many people involved with this research project. I would like to thank AmanuelWoldesus of the Media Trust for his assistance and guidance throughout, and ICAR’s team ofresearchers, Sarah Eldridge, Jonathan Price and Helen Davis. I would also like to express my sincerethanks to Kate Smart, Don Flynn, Cristina Andreatta, Harmit Athwal, Urmi Raval, Bob Satchwell, andNazek Ramadan for their guidance and expertise in the project steering group.The full report is available as download and can be accessed from the Media Trust and ICARwebsites: www.mediatrust.org and www.icar.org.ukNeil AmasDirector of ICAR