Shelley Bishton, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at News UK has urged the industry to ‘Think Twice’ to break down bias.

Speaking at Creative Equals Rise conference, Bishton shared that the organisation has launched its ‘Think Twice’ initiative to drive a culture of inclusivity and help break down biases.

Bishton shared that in 2020 a culturally conscious wave led many organisations and individuals to address our bias. Yet she warned that since then DEI training has taken a knock.

With bias starting as early as six months old, when a baby can start to notice race-based differences, Bishton reminded the audience that we are influencing our children early on with the stereotypes they see in the books they read. She urged the audience to actively work to break down these biases and challenge our own thinking.

News UK’s Think Twice

Daniel Kahneman’s book, ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ uncovers two different systems in our brains. System 1 thinking is fast, intuitive, lazy and emotional, while System 2 is slow, conscious and effortful. “System 2 is what we need to use to start to break down barriers,” says Bishton.

Underlining the harmful nature of bias, Bishton shared her own experience of travelling on an airline with her two sons when a member of airline staff assumed they did not have speedy boarding. Both damaging and harmful, bias is experienced by everyone, but people are afraid to talk about it.

Diversity training programmes have been subject to much criticism as, while they are great at raising awareness, they rarely work in isolation. To implement a strategy that makes a real difference to its overall business, News UK launched ‘Think Twice’ to focus on change that engages System 1 thinking.

News UK’s ‘Think Twice’ monitors the gender of the guests appearing on Times Radio’s One show. By monitoring the gender of guests since 2022, News UK has seen an uptick in the number of female guests on the show. Uncovering the bias that existed within the existing programming, the initiative encouraged people to challenge their own thinking and actively seek to make change and book more female guests onto their shows.

By measuring and making actionable change, the initiative serves to disrupt bias because it interrupts the System 1 brain, and actively challenges people's thinking. Successfully challenging bias to create more inclusive internal structures that influence more inclusive output.

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Photo credit: Bronac McNeill