How to Lose Friends & Influence White People

So...Podcast John Mckenna

Why are all television newsreaders blonde?

This is something Antoinette asked herself when she was at the gym almost 4 years ago and confronted with a sea of blonde newsreaders across every news show that was being broadcast. She looked from the TV to the people in the gym and saw people of all cultural backgrounds. She saw that the media was failing to represent Australia’s diverse community.

In that moment, Antoinette conceived the idea of Media Diversity Australia, a not-for-profit that advocates for more meaningful diversity within Australian media.

Antoinette Lattouf is a Senior Journalist at Network 10, the Co-Founder/Director of Media Diversity Australia and is in the process of adding author to the list. She has built a successful career in Australian media, and as a woman of colour, has experienced firsthand the need for more cultural diversity within the industry.

‘We pat ourselves on the back for being a multicultural country, but we’re only multicultural to a certain point. There are certain institutions where that diversity isn’t allowed to prosper.’ Antoinette Lattouf

She believes that the Australian media needs to do more work to reflect its audience and is a vocal advocate for increased diverse cultural representation.

An exciting element of her advocacy is the upcoming release of her book How to Lose Friends and Influence White People. Antoinette’s ‘cheeky’ take on a book that has been read by generations of people is set to upheave some cultural tension, raise more than a few eyebrows, and make lots of people uncomfortable.

And why? Because it’s important to provide a guide on how to navigate this complicated conversation, to challenge the status quo, and to provide the voice the Australian media has neglected.

Is Antoinette scared of the potential backlash? Nope. She’s charging forward, brave and ready. She says, ‘If I don’t push myself out of my comfort zone, how can I ask others to do the same?’.