Ambassador: Deborah Gabriel
- Current role:
- Academic (teaching and research)
- Institution:
- University of Salford
- Discipline:
- Arts and humanities
Biography
I am a postgraduate (PhD) researcher at the University of Salford, a journalism lecturer, journalist and director of a social enterprise that aims to widen access to journalism for groups under-represented as journalists in the UK mainstream news media. It is called People with Voices
What motivated you to engage with the public?
I believe that public engagement by higher education (HE) institutions and the individuals within them is an important mechanism for connecting universities with the communities around them. HE institutions are already part of the community since many students, lecturers and support staff often live within the local community of their university. HE institutions are therefore part of the social, cultural and economic landscape. They play a vital role in the local and national economy, in terms of producing graduates for the local and national employment market, carrying out important research that benefits public and private sector organisations and that can inform public policy. I am keen to play a role in public engagement at HE level both to promote it within my university amongst colleagues and students and also as a means of sharing the doctoral study that I am undertaking with the public, since I intend for my research both to inform public policy and to inspire and motivate individuals and communities. I feel that it is important that academic research is not just disseminated to an academic audience.
Describe the Public Engagement work you have done
To date I have used my knowledge, skills and experience in journalism to encourage and support the participation in the news media of the groups most under-represented as journalists. These are people from working class, black and minority ethnic backgrounds, according to the Journalism Training Forum. I believe that individuals and communities can be empowered by becoming producers of news and representing themselves. I created People with Voices in 2009 as way of sharing my knowledge and experience gained through academic learning and journalistic practice.
