'Tackling Communalism in Leicester in a Transnational World' – What’s the Role for Independent and Community Media?
The Better Together report confronts Leicester with difficult questions about social fragmentation, polarisation and the erosion of common ground. It describes how divisions centred on religion, national affiliation and identity were able to harden, while a shared civic purpose weakened. It asks how communalism can be addressed in a transnational world shaped by digital amplification and internationalised misinformation.
For those working in local, independent and community media, this is not an abstract policy question. It is a question about responsibility.
Join Our Discussion to Review the Report and to Consider What Next
Wednesday 18 March 2026
Arrivals from 5.45pm
Start time 6.00pm
Innovation Centre, De Montfort University, 49 Oxford Street, Leicester LE1 5XY
Questions We Will Be Asking
Have we, collectively, done enough to strengthen social integration and mutual understanding?
Have our platforms fostered shared civic identity, or have we operated in parallel, segmented spaces that mirror the city’s divisions?
Have we provided the trusted, secular and place-based forums that enable residents to discuss significant concerns without being exploited by misinformation circulating far beyond Leicester?
This meeting invites media leaders in Leicester to pause and reflect. Not to defend existing practice, but to examine it honestly.
We will ask where local media has contributed to cohesion, and where it may have fallen short. To consider what civic investment, collaboration and structural change might now be required.
The session will be facilitated by Shumaila Jaffery, researcher at the University of Leeds and former BBC World Service reporter. Shumaila is researching the role of media in the events of 2022 and will guide a structured discussion on what trusted local media should look like in a city navigating diversity, transnational pressures and fragile trust.
If you lead, manage or shape local media in Leicester, your voice matters. The question is not whether media has influence. The question is whether we are prepared to use that influence to rebuild common purpose in the city we share.