As part of our ongoing commitment to equality and inclusion, sportscotland has teamed up with STV on their Expert Voices media workshop programme.
The STV Expert Voices initiative is designed to ensure that contributors to STV’s news and current affairs programmes accurately reflect all of the Scottish population and their audiences. The aim is to see more people of colour, more women and more people living with a disability represented on screen.
Participants attend a broadcast media workshop with journalists from STV’s news team to allow them to develop the skills they need to speak with confidence on their area of expertise. It’s also an opportunity to discuss the issues relevant to them, giving STV an insight into subjects that would be of interest to their audience.
Kate McCheyne, Head of Communications for sportscotland, explained why the national agency for sport was so keen to be involved: “We recognise the importance of hearing from the diverse communities that make up the Scottish sporting system, that’s why we have partnered with organisations from underrepresented communities and also work so closely with our Young People’s Sports Panel to ensure we understand the issues and barriers they face.
“We know there are fantastic stories out there of the incredible work being done in clubs and communities across Scotland and the best people to tell those stories are from the communities themselves.
"Through Expert Voices more people will have the skills and confidence to talk about their work, and STV will have a much greater and more diverse pool of experts on sport to call on.”
Nichola Kane, Editor of STV News, explained why they were keen to work with sportscotland on this exciting project:
"Sport is woven into the fabric of Scottish society and these news stories often provoke a passion like no other. At STV we want to reflect that passion but also ensure we’re introducing as many diverse voices from Scottish sport into our news coverage as possible.
"We’re delighted to be working in partnership with sportscotland to help encourage new people to come forward and tell their stories. So far almost 1000 people from across the country have taken part in STV Expert Voices media workshops and it’s important that we keep building on that success, ensuring we have access to a wider range of people who deserve to have their voices heard.”
The next session of Expert Voices takes place on 1 November and over 50 representatives from sportscotland, governing bodies of sport and grassroots clubs have already signed up.
Find out more
About about STV Expert Voices and how you can get involved
About the work of the Young People’s Sport Panel
