The Hope Media Gap

The Hope Gap is a collaborative paper written by The Unmistakables, business leaders, and ED&I practitioners across sectors to address the gap between the promise of social acceptance we know is possible, and the reality of what we are experiencing in our lifetimes.

The report focuses on three critical sectors that shape the societal norms, values, and narratives that influence our expectations and desires for the future. These are business at large, marketing and advertising, and the media. 

Below is an excerpt from our chapter on the media. You can download the full report here:

Imagine a world where journalists and commentators have cultural confidence and are supported by diverse teams that access a range of lived expertise. They operate with the right checks and balances to tackle stories with the nuance and care they deserve, even under tight deadlines. 

Rather than focusing predominantly on negative stories, they reflect reality holistically, with the average front news page showcasing a cross-section of diverse human experiences–both the good and bad. The approach to journalism is free from corporate interests, political agendas, and the systemic pressures of oppression—racism, sexism, and more—that too often shape narratives. 

Profitable journalism relies not on sensationalism and clickbait headlines, but on unbiased, fact-based reporting that resonates across the communities they are intended for. Reflexive reporting is the norm, with articles acknowledging potential gaps in available data instead of jumping to conclusions. Principles of transparency are upheld, clearly showing sources and indicating when pieces are based on opinion.

Just how far away are we from this reality? 

In today’s smartphone-heavy world, we are inundated with the news, whether that’s a BBC alert, tweets, or infographics on Instagram. A constant battle rages between different platforms as they compete for our attention, clicks and the accompanying revenue. Subsequently, there is no shortage of clickbait or alarmist headlines. Given human’s natural negativity bias; the tendency to pay more attention to negative events as a survival instinct, it is no surprise that we feel the world is falling apart. This shapes our understanding of society’s current state and impacts our optimism; the hope we have for things to change.

We define the hope gap in the news industry as a widening divide between the public’s desire for trustworthy, balanced and inclusive reporting and the reality of biased, negative and sensationalist coverage, that subsequently leads to news avoidance and an erosion of trust. 

We’ve felt these pains firsthand in our DEI work– especially when our industry makes headlines. And when you only read headlines, you may be led to believe that DEI is hated - we sometimes feel like this ourselves. So, how can we begin to bridge this hope gap from our unique vantage point in DEI? And what could be the role of the news in driving social acceptance?

What does the current news landscape look like?

In 2024, Ofcom reported that for the first time, online news reading surpassed TV watching as the main source of news consumption, with this trend only increasing among younger generations. In this digital era, with mobile phones heating our pockets and social media platforms flooding us with an unending stream of content, my earnest efforts to stay informed have edged closer to masochism. 

Amid the chaos of COVID-19 in 2020, journalist Karen Ho popularised the term ‘doomscrolling,’ referring to the endless consumption of negative news on social media. I mention this to say that it is no secret that we are becoming tired of the relentless news cycle of negativity. While I don’t completely distance myself from the news entirely, I have noticed a steady decline in my own engagement. I often ponder how different my life would be if I removed myself from social media and news consumption entirely. I find it difficult to remove my own emotions when reading and the constant stream of tragedy and scandal is both gut-wrenching and anxiety-inducing. 

I do believe that staying informed allows us to look beyond ourselves and gain further understanding of the world around us. But I can’t help but feel that at times, the constant stirring of rage and fear in the news serves those who benefit from our momentary anger and our subsequent apathy. It reaffirms the horrors life can bring, normalises pain, and ultimately desensitises viewers. 

The profitability of fear has been at the core of what’s widening the hope gap in the news. It feeds into biased reporting, misinformation and the clickbait culture that affects our everyday lives. This has shown real-life consequences of dissatisfaction, fatigue, and misrepresentation which only perpetuate harmful power dynamics that marginalise many within society. 

What does this all mean for DEI? 

Fear has become a driving force behind many of today’s news media narratives, but even more so for DEI. In a pendulum-like shift, following the global support for anti-racism and DEI following George Floyd’s murder, the last 3 years have seen a growing wave of vocal detractors. This backlash has been especially pronounced in the US, which continues to influence global workplace norms. We’ve seen the rollback of affirmative action in 2023 and bans in Florida for state payments towards DEI programs at universities in early 2024. 

These shifts have had ripple effects around the world, including the UK. Amid fears of litigation and the pressure to cut costs, organisations like Molson Coors, Lowe’s, and Ford have scaled back their DEI commitments. Many businesses, wary of being targeted by vocal detractors in both online and traditional media, have begun to downplay their diversity policies or rebrand them - having DEI under a different name - deeming it too risky in today’s political climate.

Despite the notable gains being made, the acronym ‘DEI’ has become a dog whistle for detractors, framed as a means for coercion and a threat to the status quo. To critics, DEI is exclusionary rather than inclusive, forcing ideological conformity and branding those who resist as intolerant. 

DEI is often seen as an enemy of ‘freedom of speech’ in disguise. We have seen this framing over and over. Perhaps the most high-profile case is from Elon Musk, whose platform X (formerly Twitter) has become a self-proclaimed bastion for freedom of speech (apart from a couple of ideological lapses) and the most notable haven for outspoken disdain for DEI and the “woke agenda” that surrounds it.

If DEI is a core expectation for the workforce, the challenge for the media is to evolve beyond the outrage, sensationalism and misinformation, which seek to derail the progress and intention of these initiatives and start thinking about how to genuinely serve its readership. 

So how can we bridge these opponents of the hope-gap? 

You can download the full report, which includes co-created solutions with ED&I practitioners across industries, here