Online media appearances

It has become more common to do media appearances from home via the internet. This has the potential to make standing for office more accessible and inclusive for people from under represented groups. However, showing parts of their home can leave activists vulnerable to doxing (where personal information such as an address) is revealed online as a form of harassment. Women who have experienced domestic abuse may also be at risk if they appear in their home on camera.

A media interview via remote video link can sometimes be more informal than appearing in a studio for example. However, it is important that your members feel well supported and well briefed about what they will have to discuss when doing media appearances in this format. Some other actions you could consider to support your members include:

• Give members guidance to remove photos and other personal items from the background when doing media appearances in their own home;
• Provide a party space to do media appearances if the member is uncomfortable with being on camera at home;
• Provide a party branded backdrop that people can use for media appearances at home
• Include online media appearances as part of your media training. Things you might want to cover include setting up and positioning of webcams, lighting, when and how to mute, and how to ensure the member can hear the questions being asked;
• You could consider offering child care so that women with children at home are not excluded from participating.

You should be having a wide range of spokespeople doing interviews. Including women, disabled people, minority ethnic people and the LGBTI community as spokespeople is a great way to show your commitment to equality and diversity. It can be tempting to always ask the same people because you know that they have previously performed well. However, if you do this you might be missing out on other talented people in your organisation who can do just as good a job, but might not have had the opportunity to showcase their skills before.

To increase the diversity of your panellists, you should be using positive actions. For example, you should consider encouraging speakers from over represented groups in the party to always ask who else is appearing on the panel before accepting an invite. If, for example, it’s an all-male panel, have a policy of suggesting a woman in the party to take their place

There is a lot more information about how to make media appearances more inclusive in the ‘Media and Messaging’ section of the Equal Representation Toolkit.

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