Ethnicity

 Theorist Sarita Malik points out the obvious in her essay ‘The Construction of Black and Asian Ethnicities in British Film and Television (1998;’ “The word ‘race’ in the cultural and political terrain has almost universally been aligned with Black and Asian people, as though they are the only racial groups that ‘own’ an ethnicity… Whiteness has been naturalized, as though it is an invisible ‘norm.’ When it is of course an ethnic group like any other.

1)    Examination – relationship between audiences of the media and the messages they transmit.

-       Theorists focus on issues around ‘textuality’ and ‘context’ by analysing how various media forms choose to select and present information on different racial groups.

2)    Investigation – possible connections between the consumers of media images and those in control of its output

-       Dynamics between ownership, control and content

-       Focuses on the ‘process’ of media production and considers wider social, political and economic implications of the media

-       It is connected with issues of authorship and examines whether those in control of output (largely white middle class men) effects the type of images the media produces.

Functionalist Vs The Marxist

1)    The functionalist view, argues that program makers ‘cater for what the public wants’ and simply reflects attitudes, tastes and opinions on ethnicity

2)    The Marxist view is that those in the control of the media output shape how audiences view race.

Equal opportunities

-Following viewer complaints and general criticism, this concept was taken seriously by the BBC in 1977 when the committee ruled that; ‘liberal pluralism’ must be the ethos behind programming in order to ensure ‘Good broadcasting’ would reflect the competing demands of a society which was increasingly multi-racial and pluralist’ (BBC charter 1977)

Liberal Pluralism – A philosophy and political principle that argues for the universality (“sameness”) of humanity

This does of course scream ‘STEREOTYPING,’ and as Malik argues they are; “palatable because they help us to decode people. They simplify the world and its subjects. Thus the ‘Asian immigrant’ or the ‘Black mugger’ tells us more than just that; our stream of consciousness builds on the basic information (issues of language, cultural values, social background etc automatically follow) to create detailed (though not necessarily accurate) profiles of what a person constitutes.

“We often find it easier to blame/focus on the stereotypes than appropriate blame on those who control them…the way we use stereotypes in cultural production is as revealing as which stereotypes we choose to represent. Stereotypes, in themselves, are not necessarily offensive or harmful, but the interests they can serve and the context in which they are used can be.” (Malik 1998).

Mise en Scene

Stereotype that all gang members are black (Malik 1998) “black mugger” and have a gun and the majority of police officers are white.

Includes one or two black police officers – equal oppoturtunties (BBC charter 1977)

Inner city London, flat block – usually people of ethnic origin – it shows these people live in not very nice houses with mess and graffiti every where, like a squat.

Doors have no windows because it’s a dangerous area and they may get smashed.

People in charge are white reflects that people high in media output are largely white middle class men (Malik 1998)

Black person in tracksuit – lower class

Black people causing trouble – shown because people don’t want things to be too politically correct (sivanandan 1983)