Marina Kalkanis, CEO, M2A Media, discusses why she believes a diverse and inclusive culture will benefit the broadcasting industry as a whole
Author:
ContributorPublish date:
Mar 8, 2018Social count:
0
Marina Kalkanis, CEO, M2A Media, discusses why she believes a diverse and inclusive culture will benefit the broadcasting industry as a whole
0
SHARES
I started working in technology in the mid-1980s; more than 30 years ago. My early career was working on management information, billing and trading systems in the City of London. I moved into the media and broadcasting sector in 2003 when I joined BBC Technology.
Moving from the City to the BBC, I was pleasantly surprised to find a more diverse workforce and less hierarchical work culture. But what I did find was that media organisations were not very comfortable with technology. The prevailing attitude was to classify staff as either creative or technical, but never both.
Unsurprisingly, the women in the workforce gravitated towards the creative and editorial roles and the technology teams were almost exclusively men. So sadly the ratio of men to women in technical teams at the BBC was no better than at the other places I had worked and sometimes even worse.
The stereotyping of roles that reinforced the idea that creative people were bad at technology and technical people were not creative meant that a gulf grew up between the two. There was poor communication and trust. As a member of the technology team I felt there was a constant sense of disappointment that we couldn't understand what the creative teams wanted and much less deliver it.
Perhaps because of this lack of communication the idea took hold that if the tech team built the right foundations and abstractions the creative team could create their own outcomes. Projects extended for years trying to build these foundations without delivering any usable outcomes.
Then came the explosion of digital online. The speed of change was now measured in months or weeks as new apps were created for online and smartphones. Two major changes happened at this same time; the wide scale adoption of agile methodology and product management. Suddenly, the technology behind the delivery of media was as important as the programmes themselves.
Working at the BBC at this time was extremely exciting. The BBC was a leader in delivering a complete online TV and radio catch-up service with iPlayer. The BBC was also forward thinking in how it engaged online and quickly rolled out iPlayer on smart phones and developed a presence on social media.
These changes in the software development process meant creative and technical teams came together into product teams and new roles in product management, design, front end development and user experience started to blend creative with technical. Communication became mandatory with daily standups, regular planning, design sessions and retrospectives.
I'd like to say that at this point, the number of women in technical roles greatly increased but unfortunately that hasn't happened. Most engineering teams are still 90 per cent men and finding female software engineers is still a challenge.
From my 30 years of experience working in technology, it's clear that there aren't any inherent differences between male and female minds that make technology more challenging for women. I see two other factors at play: unconscious bias and inherent cultural biases. Culturally, there is clear evidence that we point our boys toward technology and our girls towards creativity.
The other issue is unconscious bias. We have in our minds a "type" that is good at technology and typically it has little cross over with how we stereotype women. When I started in technology the geek type hadn't been established and so it was easier for those around me to accept that I could be good at technology without being a geek. Now I believe its harder.
Many of the senior women in technology I've worked with started their careers in the more creative or interactive roles. They became responsible for managing tech teams as they progressed as leaders. In order to manage tech teams well they learnt the processes of building technology and how to communicate to the tech staff.
I've worked with some very successful women tech leaders and their success challenges a widespread misconception of what it means to be a technology leader.
However, women are still horribly under represented in technology, making up just 17 per cent of those working in the sector in the UK. But while change is not moving at the pace that we would like, at least there is a steadily growing awareness of the issue.
It is imperative that we continue to support women in the broadcast technology sector, not least because it is now well known that organisations that perform better overall are those which give women the same opportunities as men. A diverse and inclusive working culture will benefit not only women, but the industry as a whole. That is good for everyone.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
17/10/2025
Austin PBS has recently upgraded its facility-wide communications infrastructure, deploying Clear-Com 's Eclipse HX, FreeSpeak II beltpacks, and V-Series ...
17/10/2025
ZEISS announces an open call for the closed BETA testing phase of CinCraft Virtual Lens Technology, the innovative digital tool that brings authentic lens chara...
17/10/2025
Situated in the town of Kokkola, Centria University of Applied Sciences offers higher education across five core fields: engineering, business, social and healt...
17/10/2025
Public information channel in Georgia, USA, to implement a powerful, simple, and cost-effective playout automation platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, co...
17/10/2025
HBO Max is reporting that it has launched in 15 new markets, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macau, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, boosting the streaming serv...
17/10/2025
Netflix said it will make a major push into video podcasts, inking a wide-ranging deal with Spotify through which it will offer 16 podcasts in the U.S. starting...
17/10/2025
Lexington, Ky. As part of a push to highlight its advanced advertising capabilities, Viamedia has launched a new AI-powered ad tech platform and officially rebr...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK QuickLink has announced the release of StudioPro Version 4, which the company is calling the most significant upgrade yet to its flagship video product...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, Calif. Apple and NBCUniversal said they will sell Apple TV and Peacock streaming bundles to U.S. subscribers starting Oct. 20....
Marina Kalkanis, CEO, M2A Media, discusses why she believes a diverse and inclusive culture will benefit the broadcasting industry as a whole
