Media, Inequality and Representation

In the context of concerns about enduring and entrenched inequalities among groups, this theme explores how media may hinder and promote equity and better representation. Our research examines media production, texts and audiences through the lens of inequality, and considers how more inclusive and equitable media environments and practices might be imagined and brought about in national and international contexts. The theme includes (but is not limited to) research on inequalities and representation related to gender, race, class, age, disability, intersectionality, and international/global structures and flows of communication.

Race and Media Conference: April 2026

The School of Media and Communication hosted the international Race and Media Conference on the 22 and 23 April 2026, preceded by a pre-conference event, social event for early career researchers, and the Roundtable on the Media Image of Africa event.

The conference included 111 papers in total, two keynotes, a plenary session, and 24 panels, including a practice-based session. We welcomed 150 delegates, with around half of the speakers from the UK and half from overseas – mostly colleagues from the US, but also from Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa.

One of the delegates, Amani Braa, Université de Montréal, has written a beautiful blog post on the conference for Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power (one of the generous sponsors).

Amani writes: 'If the Race and Media Conference made one thing clear, it is that the study of race and media is not simply about representation. It is about power. About who gets to define reality, and through which mediums. About how histories are remembered or erased. About how futures are imagined, or foreclosed.' Read Amani’s full blog post here.

The conference organisers were: Anamik Saha, Maitrayee Basu, Israel Campos, Helen Kim, Cindy Ma, Dibyadyuti Roy, and Sara Tafakori.

A group of people stand together and smile for a photograph

Group photograph featuring the organisers of the Race and Media Conference alongside keynote speakers Professor Herman Gray and Professor Paula Chakravartty at the University of Leeds, April 2026. Image credit: Andy Lord.

Research projects

'What’s on?' Rethinking class in the television industry

‘What's on? Rethinking class in the television industry’ is situated in the context of academic, media, and public discussions about social class and the TV industry. From policy concerns about working class access to the sector, through to class as a prominent point of discussion in BAFTA award winners' speeches, class is important to national conversations about TV. Funded by UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

INCLUDE+ Network

INCLUDE+ is a network exploring how social and digital environments can be built, shaped and sustained to enable all people to thrive. The five-year programme of activities (2022-2027) will build a knowledge community around in/equalities in digital society that will comprise industry, academia, the public and third sectors in response to the UKRI Equitable Digital Society theme. Funded by UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Women, Ageing and Machine Learning on Screen

What does ageing on screen look like in UK screen cultures when AI is doing the looking? How inclusive can film and TV become if ML analyses the texts and reports back on visual ageism to industries? When ageing on screen is computed through inclusive research methods, working across disciplines of media and communication, sociology and computer sciences, how can ‘ageing on screen’ become meaningful to researchers and beneficiaries of the research? This research project offers a new exploration for media and screen industries of using machine learning to analyse texts at scale and the algorithm will be open source. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Media, Inequality and Representation