MISREPRESENTATION OF BLACK PEOPLE IN BRITISH CURRENT AFFAIRS PROGRAMMES AND THE IMPACT IT HAS ON SOCIETY IN THE UK.

Ethnic diversity is a significant issue contested every day in the contemporary British public sphere. The public discourse surrounding diversity is established at the crossroad of the countries’ long history of migration, slavery, and recent events that captured public imagination (Firmstone, Georgiou, and Marinkova). The media’s approach to cultural diversities and religious differences is closely linked to the UK’s public imagination and political discourse. Media is an essential tool that influences the majority of the public in Britain and even across the world. With the advancement in technology, mass media profoundly impacts the public as it impacts our assumptions, beliefs, public ideology, and experience. However, studies conducted by several bodies reveal systematic discrimination in the field of media coverage in the UK (Firmstone, Georgiou, and Marinkova). A recent publication from the Creative Diversity Network (CDN) claims that minority groups such as Black, Asian, and minority ethnic community in the UK are underrepresented in media coverage. Deborah Williams, CDN Executive Director, claims that reports collected from five main Diamond broadcasters, namely; BBC, Sky, Channel 4, Channel 5, and ITV, show significant under-representations of marginalized groups (Kanter, 2021). Diamond broadcasters indicate that from approximately two million contributors in the media industry, black communities, Asians, and other minority groups are under-represented in senior-level and decision-making roles in the media broadcast (Offman, 2020). The paper highlights the disparities that black people experience in British media and its impacts on the public.

Since the early 1990s, the British media and news industry has been highly criticized for relatively underrepresenting black and other minority groups. Also, they have been criticized for the way they depict ethnic minorities when they are used. Bias, discrimination, stereotyping, and disempowerment regarding race have been historical issues within several aspects of mainstream media that include advertisement, entertainment, and television news broadcasting, among others (Kanter, 2021). During the early years of broadcast media that date back to the debut of television in 1939, highly practiced racial discrimination in Britain, Europe, and the US (Kanter, 2021). During the beginning era of television, the whites dominantly occupied jobs in the advertisement, news anchoring, and entertainment sector. Additionally, the values and perceptions held by the whites were reflected and produced in the media. The white who were involved in the media predominantly dictated, selected, and presented the formation of the media content (Cushion, Jewell, and Moore). Advertisements for products that were being marketed universally to the Britain public would only depict whites and leave out those of blacks. Since the early utilization of media, how certain ethnic groups are represented is imperative to understand how racism has perpetuated within our society (Cushion, Jewell, and Moore). The Media provides a significant understanding of the patterns, influences, beliefs, and historical contexts of media impacts. Throughout the historical context, mass media in various forms have tended to support discrimination, racial prejudice, stereotype, and domination of certain groups by presenting to the public highly negative, emotionally evoking images of minority groups such as black people. As a result, most black people are often victims of police brutality, imprisonment, unemployed, poor health, and mostly live in poor living conditions (Cushion, Jewell, and Moore).

In the last few years, CDN has published a report proving that minority groups such as black journalists are hindered from accessing senior positions and decision-making roles. Deborah Williams, CDN Executive Director, claims that the data collected from five main Diamond Broadcasters show a significant misrepresentation of BAME groups in KU’s media. The Data collected by Diamond represents about two million contributors for the past four years, indicating a significant underrepresentation of the blacks, Asian, and Minority ethnic groups in various fields of media broadcast (Kanter, 2021). For example, the report shows a decrease from 12.3 to 11.8 percentage of Blacks, Asian and other Minority ethnic groups being represented in off-screen contributors fin 2019-2020 (Kanter, 2021). This figure is below the Britain National Workforce that is estimated to be approximately 13%.

Similarly, in Genres such as drama and other related entertainment, black communities, Asian and other minority groups are underrepresented (Offman, 2020). CDN report shows that these minority groups decreased from 8.6 to 5.9 percent of contributions in 2019-2020. additionally, the report indicates that the seniority roles played by blacks, Asians, and other minority groups are shallow, with data showing only 4.6 percent are series producers, 8.4% directors, producers 9.3%, and writers were 6.5 percent in the year 2020 (Offman, 2020). Furthermore, the report claims that Blacks, Asians, and other minority groups were underrepresented on the on-screen contributors in various television channels. This figure highlights a significant scale of inequality in the media industry. Thus, Deborah Williams calls upon CDN and policymakers to intervene if they build an industry that properly reflects society’s interests, viewers, and aspirations of the public from any geographical background (Kanter, 2021).

Moreover, British media houses have been criticized heavily on the type of stories they are selecting to report to the public. Studies conducted by CDN indicate that black people are often targeted due to their color. The CDN claims that accused black criminals are frequently shown on television or footage of them being held in handcuffs while police officers still hold them. However, none of the accused white criminals are shown on television (Kanter, 2021).CDN study on media broadcast indicates a vital issue in crime reporting that indicates biases where news stories of crimes committed by black citizens are aired comprehensively and in-depth in visual than their counterparts white citizens. About seven to ten stories aired on television, radio, or newspapers related to crime (Spanier, 2020). Besides, the study shows that when black men appeared in news stories, there are high chances of being crime-related. Stories that might feature the achievement or positive community roles black people play in society are rarely published or covered on the news. On the contrary, stories covered on-air or published in magazines or newspapers about white citizens are of positive achievement. The negative stories or crimes stories covered about white communities are less likely to be published (Spanier, 2020).

Misrepresentation of Blacks, Asians and other minority ethnic groups in British media houses has a profound negative impact on the public and society. Media is an essential tool that helps to convey a message to the public, and as it does, it plays a crucial part in changing believes, perceptions, and ideology of every person (Cushion, Jewell, and Moore). However, if the media house is not diverse, it risks presenting biased information that could mislead the public. For example, due to misrepresentation of BLAME communities, there are high possibilities that the news-making process confirms negative representation or stereotype of minority groups even though the media themselves have no such intention. For example, Black communities’ extensive coverage in the press in more than 50% of violence and criminal activity presents a negative picture of black people (Spanier, 2020). Similarly, the extensive coverage of Muslims on entries such as violence and terrorism provides a harmful impact on the Muslim communities as they are often perceived as terrorists.

Additionally, media bias contributes mainly to racism in explicit ways such as Micro-aggression and stereotypes. Racial micro-aggression refers to a commonplace daily verbal that is either intentional or unintentional that communicates hostile, derogatory, or racial insult to an individual or group (Kanter, 2021). On the other hand, stereotype involves prejudices perception of others. For example, since Media generates negative news targeting Black communities and other minority groups on violence and crime. The public perception of black communities changes, and people start to view them as criminals. Hence, Black people face challenges in securing jobs even though they are qualified as they perceive them as criminals.

Due to this profound effects media bias and misrepresentation, it has on black people, Asian and other minority ethnic groups, there is a need for media houses to include individual journalism from this ethnic groups in seniority position (Kanter, 2021). Also, CDN, together with policymakers, should implement policies that encourage equality at the workplace. However, it is also essential to note efforts placed by several media platforms to reduce misrepresentation of BAME in media. For example, several media platforms have introduced BAFTA scholarships programs that provide financial assistance to young people of all ethnic groups willing to participate and enroll in journalism. On the other hand, the media house such as BBC has introduced a homepage that advertises various products from BAME groups across the UK (Pact Diversity Schemes, 2021).

In conclusion, television is a vital tool for conveying messages to the public and changing the perception, attitudes, beliefs, and ideology of the public. However, it is essential to note that media bias profoundly affects the public as it influences systematic racism and stereotypes towards particular minority ethnic groups. This review has focused on investigating cases of misrepresentation of black people in the mass media in Britain. Also, the paper provides impacts of media misrepresentation of black people to the public and the black community. In its finding, the paper claims that black people, Asians, and other minority ethnic groups are underrepresented in several aspects, such as roles and seniority at the media broadcast. Also, the paper argues that there is media bias in news coverage in radios, television, newspaper, or magazines since black people and Muslims are overrepresented in negative entries such as violence, conflict, and terrorism than their counterpart whites. Due to the negative impact media bias and misrepresentation have on the minority ethnic group and the public, there is a need for policymakers and CDN to formulate policies that could address this challenge. Also, since CDN oversees all media broadcasts in Britain, it should encourage all media bodies to develop a mechanism of establishing equal promotion to senior levels that include minority ethnic groups.

Things to inlude before submitting

TALK ABOUT BBC USING THE N WORD INCLUDE CASES OF BRITISH BROADCASTERS USING RACIAL BIAS AND LANGUAGE WHEN DEPICTING BLACK COMMUNITIES, INCLUDE HOW THE LACK OF DIVERSITY WITHIN THE INDUSTRY LEADS TO MISREPRESENTASION, FOCUS MORE ON BRITISH BROADCASTERS RATHER THAN THE MEDIA

Make sure there is clear focus on current affairs television

Show the link between the lack of diversity and the reflection of misrepresentation show how this can be damaging

Bibliography

Cushion, S., Jewell, J. and Moore, K., n.d. Media representations of black young men and boys. [online] Orca.Cardiff.ac.UK. Available at: [Accessed 11 July 2021].

Firmstone, J., Georgiou, M. and Marinova, M., n.d. REPRESENTATION OF MINORITIES IN THE MEDIA: UK. [online] Eprints. White rose. Ac. The UK. Available at: [Accessed 11 July 2021].

Kanter, J., 2021. CDN: BAME Representation Went Backwards In British TV Last Year – Deadline. [online] Deadline.com. Available at: [Accessed 11 July 2021].

Offman, J., 2020. Creative Diversity Network (CDN). [online] Creativediversitynetwork.com. Available at: [Accessed 11 July 2021].

Pact Diversity Schemes, 2021. Schemes for Talent. [online] Diversity.pact.co.uk. Available at: [Accessed 11 July 2021].

Spanier, G., 2020. The BAME screen test: does British TV lack diversity?. [online] Campaignlive.co.uk. Available at: [Accessed 11 July 2021].

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