Media is about communication, and as a deaf woman, hailing from a working class background, I probably don’t fit the bill of what many consider as a ‘standard media type’. But the mould must be broken – over 50 years ago it was difficult to get a media job if you weren’t male, white and well-spoken.

This has now changed somewhat, but we can’t sit back and let others take responsibility for that. We have to get out there and create change ourselves. Everything I’ve been able to achieve in my career is a result of my experiences – facing up to barriers, the prejudice of others, learning to overcome them, learning lessons early on, learning to adapt.

I hate being told I can’t do something because I am deaf. I’m lucky: my hearing mother and the teachers in my primary school for the deaf were always telling me that I could do anything I wanted to do, despite what others may have said.

There are ways around things, alterations that can be made, adaptations, if necessary. I prefer to make the decision whether I can or can’t do something – rather than someone making the decisions based on the limitations they assume I have because I am deaf. We’re lucky to be in an era where technology and media can combine to make access more possible, providing many different arenas for our talents.

My career journey has been varied and colourful, and while I never thought about working in the media, it feels so natural that I am here doing what I am doing.

Two years ago, I was hired by See Hear. Stretching back to 1981, the BBC’s See Hear programme has provided deaf people with a unique opportunity to reach out regarding issues that affect our everyday lives: employment, education and health to give a few examples. It also raises the profile, visibility and awareness of our community – so I jumped at the chance of being involved.

As well as filming, having meetings, and doing the bricks and mortar research that is the backbone of any programme, I spend quite a bit of time on the phone, haggling for interviews (I am very persistent), gathering information, arranging meetings etc. My interpreters are an essential part of this, as they act as my ears and voice on the phone using a headset and interpreting– acting as a bridge between British Sign Language and spoken English.

For our next See Hear programme, I’ve been squeezing out information to untangle the complicated and highly confidential UN inquiry that the UK is facing into possible violations of disabled and deaf people’s human rights. 

I recently survived a public order training course with the Met Police: a whole day of dodging petrol bombs and ducking glass bottles being thrown at me. I’ve been on the streets of London filming deaf people protesting against proposed cuts as the programme investigates people’s concerns about the new government’s next five years.

And as for that prestigious nomination…?

“E…r…i…k…a…J…o...n…e…s”

I was stunned. As the interpreter signed the winner’s name – my name! – it took everything I had not to trip up on my way to the stage!

In receiving the Royal Television Society’s Flying Futures Talent Award, I really hope that it shows that, even though I may be a young, deaf woman, I can do just as well as any other person.

Erika Jones is a researcher on See Hear and one of the presenters on See Hear Deaf News. 

The latest episode of See Hear, season 35 is availble to watch in BBC iPlayer. For information on upcoming broadcasts, visit the See Hear website. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

From the moment I set foot in the favelas, I fell in love with them.

I’ve rarely been anywhere in the world that’s so instantly welcoming.

Kids would come dancing after me asking cheerily whether I’d been born in the snow – was that why my skin was so white and I was sweating so much?

The only argument I ever had in a favela was with Rocky – the hero of episode one – over who was going to pay for two enormous roast chickens he insisted on feeding us an hour after we’d had breakfast.

They were elevenses, favela-style, typical of the generosity you find there.

Of course, the warnings aren’t based on fairy tales.

Many favelas are under the control of drug traffickers, who always kept their distance from us, muttering jokes no doubt at our expense.

Our problem was that we had to find a way to film them - because you could only appreciate the courage of our characters once you saw that they maintain their good humour in a landscape of street stalls selling crack 24 hours a day.

After six months, we still hadn’t got permission from the drug traffickers to film.

For our last attempt, I picked a favela where the guns were plentiful but where we’d already passed days waiting for the boss to give the OK.

That day, our luck was in: he was throwing a barbecue and, lulled by sun and beer, in genial humour.

“You’ve got 10 minutes,” he said. “But if you film anyone’s faces, you’re in trouble.”

I’ll never forget the tension of those 10 minutes.

Just 10 minutes to get the vital shots of the series in the centre of a circle of curious teenage gunmen.

Ten minutes and 24 seconds later, we turned off our cameras. I was a wreck.

We went to thank the boss. He fixed me with a piercing stare.

This was it, I thought. He’d changed his mind, he wanted us to destroy the footage. Worse yet, he wanted to destroy us.

Sweating, I bowed my head before his gaze.

“You look hot,” he said. “Bring this guy a beer.”

That’s the spirit of the favelas, summed up in one of their famous sayings: Estamos Juntos. We’re in it, together.

Edward Watts is the director of Welcome To Rio.

Welcome To Rio is on Tuesday, 27 May on BBC Two and BBC Two HD. For further programme times please see the episode guide.

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Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

As a young British Indian and journalist, I wanted to go to India to uncover the reality of life for women there, six months after a young medical student was brutally gang-raped on board a bus in the Indian capital Delhi.

The story made international headlines and shocked the world.

I have visited India many times and spent time there. As my ancestral homeland, India is a fascinating place.

Full of rich culture and colour, its spiritual vibrancy can be seen everywhere and I feel a deep sense of belonging here.

Whilst filming for the documentary, I met many brave young girls and women willing to share their personal experiences of harassment and violence.

I met with a 15-year-old acid attack victim from Bihar and a 21-year-old woman who was severely molested and stripped of her clothes after attending a friend's birthday party.

At the orphanage I didn’t know what to expect. I walked in and was met with the most incredible young Indian girls.

Thirty or more, there were tiny baby girls to young teenagers. Some were bold - laughing and singing, others were coy, hiding and playing with their toys.

Full of heart and soul, I had never seen such warm smiles. I was truly taken aback.

Girls in this home have been abandoned by their parents for various reasons, be they economic or fear for their future and marriage prospects.

But all their stories boil down to one main reason: being a girl. There's a common mindset throughout India that a girl is a burden.

In a deep-rooted culture, sons are raised superior to daughters. Boys are seen as the ones that can only provide for the family and carry on the lineage.

Demands for dowry can translate into parents struggling to fulfill their final duty, their daughter's rite of passage at the time of marriage. It's no wonder then girls are abandoned.

Veena aunty, who runs the orphanage, raises each girl child as her own, educates them, inspires them and teaches them to stand on their own two feet. When coming of age, she can also find them a husband and a loving family - without demands for dowry.

As a proud parent, she gives each precious girl away in marriage as her own.

Whatever bitter personal story they all shared with me, the love oozing from every corner of this orphanage makes it a truly sweet, humble abode.

In Hindi there's a well-known phrase that a daughter is the goddess of her family and home - 'Ghar ki Lakshmi'. 

This place was a home to many Lakshmis. Beautiful and intelligent, respected and sacred.

Heena, one of the oldest in the orphanage, now 21, has been there for 17 years. Heena told me her mother gave her and her sister up to the orphanage, saying she could no longer raise them - but kept Heena's brother.

I asked Heena if she would ever like to see her mother again.

She said No, this is my home. These girls are all my sisters. I have over 30 sisters! We shared a few tears, hugged and smiled together.

These wonderful individuals have proved being born a girl child in India is not a curse, she is not a burden or a weaker sex, from the day she is born to the last breath of her life.

I've shared their heartache, heard disturbing tales and witnessed a fighting spirit within them all. A burning desire to rise up, face every challenge, overcome it and stand tall.

Radha Bedi is the presenter of India: A Dangerous Place To Be A Woman.

India: A Dangerous Place To Be A Woman is on at 9pm on Thursday, 27 June on BBC Three. For further programme times, please see the upcoming broadcasts page.

If you, or someone you know, is affected by the issues raised in this programme, please see the information and support page for details of organisations which can help.

More on India: A Dangerous Place To Be A Woman
BBC Radio 4: Radha Bedi on Woman's Hour
Huffington Post: The blog: India: A Dangerous Place To Be A Woman

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

In such a vast country, how did you find the right contributors?
I hired my producer Lauren Mucciolo and the two of us set out on a road trip across America meeting children. We started in New York and New Jersey and then went to San Francisco, Phoenix and Dallas and the outlaying areas of Chicago, which took us to the Quad Cities and the heart of America. We visited schools and after-school clubs, we went to food pantries and family shelters. In all we must have met over 500 kids. We needed to combine articulate kids with some kind of narrative. Often we’d meet great kids but then their parents wouldn’t want to be filmed or for some reason access was lost. The kids we settled on were amongst the most articulate but it was important that their stories complemented each other.

Johnny expresses at the beginning that when you're poor, you don't want people to know. What persuaded him and the other contributors to talk about it on TV?
The opportunity to have a voice. All the kids were intelligent beyond their years and knew that the only way to change things was for people to start speaking out. Johnny told me that he was so empowered by the process that he no longer hides the fact the family are struggling and readily accepted second-hand football gear at the school when it was on offer. This encouraged others to do the same, so then people started to show an interest in what life in shelter was like rather than just teasing him for being in one.

Did you prepare the parents for listening to what their children might say in honesty about them to camera?
Yes, right from the beginning I told the parents and the children that this would only work if the children could say as they felt, openly and honestly. The trust the parents put in Lauren and I was amazing and carried over to the kids who then felt free to speak their minds. Once it was finished I sat with each family and showed them the film and asked them watch it first then judge it after. Each parent was worried about the other families. So Tom and Classie (Johnny's parents) felt that Barbara and Kaylie had it tougher than them and then Sera's mum was worried for Johnny as he was in a shelter and they knew what that was like. They showed concern for each other’s suffering which I thought showed such humility.

Why do Kaylie’s family still keep one of their dogs when they’re made homeless?
Because they were trying to find a home for it rather than taking it to the pound as well. Luckily a family relative took him in.

Would you like to do a follow up documentary with these people in a few years’ time?
I will of course be in contact with these families for quite a while as I am very fond of them all. Whether a follow up is made really depends on what’s happened to the kids and whether by then they are interested in doing such a thing.

Can you give some insight into how parents who are almost starving can also seemingly still be heavy?
The problem is healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables are much more expensive than cheap poor quality food. When you are running to a tight budget, 20 burgers for £1 is a tempting option. Also when you are living in a position where things are spiralling downward, your life is in crisis mode so you are often living a day at a time. Budgeting sensibly or looking for the healthy option is the last thing on your mind when you are about to be evicted or have your utilities cut off.

Which moment of filming touched you most?
When Kaylie was in the garden shed with a tear in her eye, so confused about whether she should spend time with her dog Nala who was about to go to the pound, or her friends she may never see again as she was also about to move to a motel in a different state. I was also torn apart at the pound, not because Kaylie lost Nala so much but more because she tried so very hard to be brave and even make light of the situation by joking about Nala not liking baths. So when her mum said she couldn’t keep the collar and lead and this triggered her to lose it after having been very, very strong, I too shed a tear as I tried to keep the camera steady.

Jezza Neumann is the director of America's Poor Kids.

America's Poor Kids is part of This World on BBC Two at 9pm on Wednesday, 6 March. For further programme times, please see the upcoming broadcasts page.