Black Marks

Minority Ethnic Audiences and Media

Karen Ross, Peter Playdon

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138723993
• eBook ISBN: 9781351755962
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This title was first published in 2001. This text brings together a collection of empirical studies focusing on the relationships which minority ethnic audiences have with and to media texts, both mainstream and minority. The media which comprise the focus for the essays include television, film, advertising, magazines and the press. The field of media studies has moved beyond the model of media consumer as passive recipient towards individuals and groups who are altogether more engaged, responsive and critical. But studies of the interactive media consumer often fail to consider the specific characteristics of "race" and ethnicity which come into play for minority ethnic audiences, and this book aims to add to the limited knowledge of the ways in which ethnic markers intervene in textual understanding and contestation.

PART I
MINORITY AUDIENCES AND MAJORITY MEDIA

1 White Media, Black Audience: Diversity and Dissonance on British Television

KAREN ROSS

I cannot think of a single TV programme from this country where I have seen the major role taken by a black person and this is a problem. They use television in a racist, stereotypical way to keep our people down and flood us with sad and bad news. (James, London)

Introduction

In Britain, although two of the four principal terrestrial television channels have discrete departments dedicated to producing and/or commissioning programmes for black minority viewers, the attitudes and beliefs of those viewers have never (before) been canvassed in any systematic way. Unlike in America, where concern over the representation of non-white Americans (for example, Dines and Humez (eds), 1995; Gray, 1995; Wilson II & Gutierrez, 1995; hooks, 1996; Gandy Jnr., 1998) has provoked a number of studies into the views of minority communities (Fife, 1987; Gray, 1989, Ziegler and White, 1990; Gray, 1995), private and piecemeal public protest amongst minority ethnic viewers in Britain and a growing body of work which looks at the representation of minority ethnic communities in mass media (for example, Hartmann & Husband, 1976; Young, 1995; Ross, 1997) has not been followed by concerted institutional action.¹

The research on which this essay is based, therefore, represents an almost unprecedented exploration of a great diversity of black minority voices articulating a variety of views on the ways in which ‘race’ and ethnicity are represented, but whose views nonetheless cohere in consensus around a number of highly significant and important aspects of minority ethnic representation.

The discussion which follows, then, makes the fundamental assumption that diversity in/and difference exists, both as rhetorical device and, as importantly, lived reality. But I also want to state, categorically, that my position is informed by a belief that there are messages and images which, through their repetitive display and unproblematic usage, promote a particular understanding of minority ethnic communities which impact negatively on white viewers and influence their thinking about minority ethnic communities in their own social world. Moreover, that those words and images have the same impact on many members of white mainstream society such that it is possible to talk about their reception by an audience, not just by individual viewers. In other words, media do matter.

As I do believe that it is possible to comprehend of an audience segment, at least, if not the homogeneous audience which we used to think existed, I therefore also believe that there is value in working with groups of audiences who share particular characteristics and who also believe that the sharing of a particular characteristic makes it possible to talk of them as an audience sub-set which, for my purposes, is the sub-set of minority ethnic viewers. It is the views of members of this group of media consumers which inform the remainder of this essay, which captures not just the sense of ‘we’ but also the ‘I’ voice which all too often gets obscured in the rush to try and give weight to a particular view by discussing the particular issue in aggregate terms. The discussion considers the ways in which minority ethnic viewers interact with television images and explores the perceptions which members of different minority ethnic groups hold towards mainstream televisual output.

Research Methodology

In the mid-1990s, the BBC commissioned the Centre for Mass Communication Research at Leicester University to undertake an audience reception study with minority ethnic audiences in order to identify how such viewers regarded the portrayal of ‘race’ and ethnicity on television and their views on the way in which minority ethnic communities were portrayed across the spectrum of TV programming, to include both fictional and factual shows. It is notoriously difficult, if not completely invidious, to try and identify ‘representatives’ of any group, let alone attempt to locate ‘typical’ black or Asian² viewers and indeed, part of the explicit strategy of the baseline study was precisely to explode the notion of a homogenous ‘black’ community and to speak instead of diverse and multiple identifications.³ The research team, together with the BBC, therefore decided to advertise for participants, thus ensuring that respondents self-identified as fitting the criteria for inclusion – the advertisements called for ‘Black’ and ‘Asian’ viewers to take part in a study about television and ‘race.’ Using census data, 10 locations⁴ were selected which had significant concentrations of Britain's predominant ethnic minority groups and were geographically spread. Approximately 150 community groups and associations were contacted in these areas and an advert was also placed in The Voice, Britain's best-selling black newspaper. It should be noted that most of the respondents to The Voice advert were based in London, so the capital city was the site of a number of focus groups. As a result of these two publicity strategies, 353 people took part in the study, organised in 35 focus groups. The ethnic mix of participants largely reflected that of the minority populations in Britain as a whole, with slightly more than half the sample coming from Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi communities and slightly less than half claiming African, African Caribbean or other ‘black’ identities.

Once participation had been agreed with focus group organisers either community workers or Voice readers – the groups were set up and run in community centres or in private residences. All community groups who responded positively to the invitation to take part in the study subsequently did so – no selection criteria were used to include or reject groups.⁵ Similarly, all individuals who responded to the various advertising strategies took part in the study, largely by attending a local focus group or by completing a questionnaire. All participants were paid to take part in the study: all completed a short questionnaire and most also kept a television diary for seven days prior to the group discussion and this combination of questionnaire, diary and taped interview yielded an abundant and rich data source. The focus groups themselves were facilitated by members of the research team and were tape-recorded.⁶ What follows is a discussion of the main findings of this study, together with some thoughts on how the reactions of minority ethnic audiences towards television might be usefully incorporated into broadcasting policy in the future.

Mainstream Programming and Minority Ethnic Characterisations

All the focus groups began by discussing participants’ favourite programmes and this general discussion, in nearly every case, proceeded very rapidly to a consideration of the minority ethnic characters in those shows. Sometimes this happened almost immediately, for example if a participant said that s/he liked programmes which featured minority ethnic people or, more usually, when discussions moved to the topic of soap operas. Whatever the circumstance, a desire to talk about the representation of Black and Asian communities in both fiction and non-fiction programmes dominated discussion in all the focus groups and informed the messages that groups had for broadcasters at the end of their deliberations. It is for this reason that the substantive element of this essay concentrates on the very specific race-oriented themes which spontaneously emerged from the group discussion.

‘Race’ as Stereotype

For most viewers, although the number of Black and Asian people on television had improved over the past few years, there was still dissatisfaction with the range of characterisations and their marginalisation in a so-called multicultural society, particularly in programmes set in geographical locations where minority ethnic communities are highly visible in ‘real’ life but almost entirely absent in fictional programming.

There are two issues here. Firstly we’re negated by our absence: in a whole range of programming we just don’t appear. Then when black people are shown, it's all crime and disaster. Things like EastEnders try but there are so many things wrong with so many of its black characters. (Josie, London)

A number of specific criticisms about Black and Asian characterisations in mainstream programmes emerged from the study which can be described as follows. Characters are rarely perceived as realistic, are never properly integrated into the community they inhabit and are mostly peripheral to the main action. When the viewer is allowed into a Black or Asian character's home, there is no ornament or decoration or picture which suggests the personality or history of its incumbent. Crucially, there is nothing culturally distinctive in their homes, no signs of a provenance outside white mainstream culture. What often irritated viewers was a lack of cultural authenticity, where Muslim characters had Hindu names or where a Caribbean elder was seen eating the ‘wrong’ food or where individuals are shown doing something completely against what viewers believed to be the ‘acceptable’ cultural norms.

Characters in Two-Dimensions

As a matter of routine, Black and Asian characters are rarely shown associating with other members of their family, so they are never allowed to develop as fully-rounded characters with mothers and fathers, partners, sisters, children. They are destined to act out stereotypical roles which do not reflect the broad diversity of ‘real’ experiences. Where are the Asian doctors, Black lawyers and accountants in small screen visions of ‘multicultural’ Britain? Where is that reality represented? The exception to this kind of isolation is when an entire family is introduced into a programme's storyline, but even here they are never allowed to be an ordinary family, but must always be the Black or Asian family. There is always something distinctive about them, something deviant and they are never allowed to stay in the cast for too long.

For Asian audiences especially, there were considerable and strong differences of opinion over ‘Asian’ characters in soaps in ways which were not replicated in discussions with Black viewers. Broadly, the divisions were between older Asian viewers who believe that characters are often too westernised, whereas younger people feel that they represent more realistic portraits and show clearly the synergies between different cultural communities. Gillespie's work with young Punjabis in London found exactly the same contradictions in operation between her interviewees and their parents (Gillespie, 1992, 1995).

It is interesting to note that many of the older South Asian respondents liked Australian soap imports such as Neighbours and Home and Away in preference to their more ‘realistic’ British counterparts precisely because they perceived them to be ‘safe’ and ‘nice’ with ‘no sex or bad language.’ But of course, this is the safety of the highly sanitised and considerably distanced ‘other’: Neighbours no more represents an authentic Australian reality than Cosby reflects actual American society and the abiding power of racist colonial discourse is subtly encoded to insinuate itself as cultural norm. Where are the stories of ‘ordinary’ Aboriginal peoples or Torres Straits Islanders in the rosy world of Ramsey Street? Where are the storylines of Anglo-Asian relationships which are so troubling Prime Minister John Howard's administration in real-time Australia? Many of the younger South Asian viewers in the study, on the other hand, liked watching British soaps for precisely the reason that they could be used to rehearse possible strategies in their own lives, looking to soap narratives to gauge the bounds of ‘acceptable’ behaviour. Some mentioned wanting their parents to watch soaps with them so that they could understand some of the complexities of their own lives without their having to raise issues more explicitly themselves.

I don’t like those attitudes because programmes have very negative effects. We are Asian and our culture is very different and those stories go against our culture. In EastEnders, something happened to the Asian family which doesn’t happen in all families and this might be an encouragement to teenagers. Television shouldn’t show that because it is a medium which should be giving us good programmes with moral values. (Shireen, Birmingham)

With Gita and Sanjay, they are very westernised and we’re nothing like that. They are trying to change us into westerners which we’re not. They shouldn’t do that. They should leave us to be ourselves. In that way, the message gets across to people that they have their ways and we have ours. (Sourayya, Leicester)

I think Gita and Sanjay are quite realistic. Their stories really describe what it's like. But Gita can be a bit dull sometimes. (Farida, Birmingham)

Where's the Caribbean food, the rice and peas? They’ve got Jules Tavernier, the grandfather, eating beans on toast. They don’t eat that in Trinidad. (Anne, London)

The Ubiquity of ‘Racism’ in Storylines

As well as criticisms around specific characters and character types, there was also concern over the storylines in which Black and Asian characters feature. Racism is regularly rehearsed as a suitable topic in soaps, driven as they are by controversy and melodrama. While many viewers are quite satisfied with the use of themes such as racism and discrimination within narratives, believing that the introduction of such themes in storylines enables the issues to be played out in ways which are ‘safe’ for the majority audience, there are resentments about the way in which minority ethnic characters are then made to deal with situations.

You remember when they [EastEnders] had that problem with the skinheads and all they did was to have Alan, Steve and Sanjay getting drunk. That's not very positive. It really irritated me. Waiting around until midnight with a baseball bat. That was a very negative portrayal of how black people handle racism, getting out a bottle of Cinzano Bianco and knocking it back. It was really bad. (Janet, London)

Amongst African Caribbean viewers, there were very strong criticisms that in popular police series like The Bill, the minority ethnic characters are nearly always criminals of some kind. When minority ethnic police officers do figure prominently, it is usually because ‘race’ is a theme in a particular episode or else they have been drafted in to deal with a problem in a particular minority ethnic community, bringing with them their first-hand knowledge of ‘their own’ people and having to run the usual gamut of abuse from the ‘black’ criminal fraternity.

On-Screen Relationships – Black-on-Black as Taboo

In most shows, particularly soaps, minority ethnic characters are usually shown with white partners. On the very rare occasions when minority ethnic actors are ‘allowed’ to have ‘black’ partners on screen, the woma...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Part I: Minority Audiences and Majority Media
• Part II: Negotiating Identity Through Alternative Media Use
• Index