5 Target books

Jewkes, Y. (2004). Media and Crime. London: Sage

This book particualarly talks about how ethnic minorities who are involved within crime are being falsely targeted within the media.


Casey, Bernadette (2002)Television Studies Key concepts. London Routledge
Page 232
'Tesa Perkins suggests that stereotypes can often express something about real social relations '

' The continuing dominance of the televison industries by white middle class men has led to the recognition of the link between stereotyping and the relative lack of minority groups working in television'.

Thes quotes help as I will be focusing on the representation of black youths within Cinema adverts and within Television. These quotations offer me another side of the arguement.

Williams, Kevin(2003): Understanding Media Theor. London. Arnold Publishers.

Page 166

'The 'hypodermic modle' assumed media effects were simple and direct a casual connection existing between what people see, hear and read in the media and their knowledges, attitudes and behaviour'.

This qoutation offers me contextual analysis sorrounding the issues with the bias representation of black youths, thus using the 'hyperdomic model' adds sophistication to my essay.

Hayward, Susan (2000): Cinema Studies Key concepts. London, Routledge

'Iconography for audiences to follow the narrative, so characters where stereotyped'

Since my linked production is to create two cinema adverts which this particular book and quotation will allow me to understand how black youths are a target of a bias representation within cinema and how I could create a more positive representation.

5 Target websites

Black Youth and Mass Media: Current Research and Emerging Questions

http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/prba/perspectives/winter2000/cwatkins.pdf

Anti-Gun Campaign targets teens

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5377114.stm

Black and Minority and Ethnic groups

https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/2299/1125/1/901210.pdf

Can Gramsci's theory of hegemony help us to understand the representation of ethnic minorities in western television and cinema?

http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-rol6.htm

The Criminalisation and Demonisation of Hoodies

http://dissertations.port.ac.uk/218/01/PhippsA.pdf

Links useful to my critical investigation

The use of Stereotypes and Representation of Black People As Monkeys and Inferior in Western Cinema

http://www.blackinkmedia.co.za/node/11

BLACK AND ASIAN YOUTH REPRESENTATION

http://byempowerment.blogspot.com/2007/03/black-and-asian-youth-representation_22.html

A social representation isn't a quiet one.

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/2443/1/A_social_representation_is_not_a_quiet_thing_%28LSERO%29.pdf

Whoy do black youths do crime? 1 xtra

http://www.ligali.org/pdf/www_bbc_co_uk_1xtra_tx_black_crime.pdf

Bibliography study....x

Laughey, Dan (2009): Media Theories and Approaches: Harpenden, Herts: Kamera Books This book is by Dr Dan Laughey, and is a senior lecturer in media and culture at Leeds University. He has mainly written about different aspects of the media, in a more micro outlook and wider context e.g. political influences.

Page 70- 71 Representation.

'Representation is the is the process of depicting real things, people, places, events'
' British cultural theorist Stuart Hall shows how real meanings are never fixed but always contested’
‘ representation and reality are not mutually exclusive’
‘don’t convey fixed meanings’
‘it is wrong to assume that a state of anarchy wherein everyone is free to interpret in our lives’.
‘Most of us grow up with shared beliefs, shard language, shared hopes and aspirations’

These quotations particularly are useful as Laughey directly addresses the wider context. Specifically speaking this does not link directly to the bias representation of the British media towards Back youths, however, looking at the wider context will not only give my essay more depth and marks but it gives a greater understanding as to why audiences tend to belive in what the media portray as being black, because of the fact we ‘have shared beliefs’.

Mckee, Alan (2003): Textual Analysis A beginners guide. London: Sage

Page 63 ‘What’s interpretation got to do with it? ‘

‘the ways in which different members of different cultures may make sense of a text will vary just as much as the way in which they make sense of the world around them’.

Again, this isn’t specifically linked to the representation of black youths, however, looking from a wider context- this provides reasons as to why the reception of the stories are formed from different cultures. Therefore, raising the debate as to whether it is actually the fault of the institutions- or whether the reception received from the texts is partly from the ideologies of the institution. Finally, raising many debates as to whether the content of the cinema adverts and newspapers are actually value free (objective) or value laden (subjective) baring in mind that media intuitions such as the ‘The Sun’ are not obligated to print information that can be related to all types of ethnicities and cultures within society, like the BBC have to conform to.


Manovich, Lev (2001): The Language of New Media: Massachusetts: MIT Press Page 15

‘As the case with all cultural representations, new media representations are also inevitably biased’
Page 16
‘They represent and construct features of a physical at the expense of others.
Page 17
‘Image interface’ – referring to how images are an illusion created by the newspaper – or media corporations.

Since I am looking at the representations of black youths, I felt it was important to look at the cultural representations and how new media acted as a pedestal in which cultural audiences can be segregated from society and be considered as the ‘other’. ‘Image Interface’ I felt that this makes my essay more sophisticated as having this term gives many meanings as to what the institutions intentions are by the use of ‘image interface’ and how much this anchors the entire story and influence the reception of the text.

Bennett, Peter, Slater, Jerry & Wall, Peter (2006): A2 Media Studies The Essential Introduction. Oxon : Routledge

Chapter 4 Representation page 74

'integral part of all human communication’

Page 78

Woodard 1997:145

‘Discourses and systems of representation construct places from which individuals can position themselves from which they speak... the media can be seen as providing us with the information which tells us what it feels like to occupy a particular subject position- the streetwise teenager, the upwardly mobile worker or the caring parent’.

Ross (2000)

‘The lack of positive role models and the way in which black minority characters are routinely stereotyped contribute to feelings of low self esteem and failure, especially among young black minority children...

'because most black minority children in Britain were born in the country, their knowledge of ‘home’ is very limited, gleaned from what their relatives tell them and of course form television.’

These quotes very much into how minorities- who are the subordinate groups within media- are represented differently, due to their background. Furthermore, looking at how society has made link to society and the effect it has had.

Osgerby, Bill (2004): Youth Media: Oxon Routledge

Page 107

Hechinger and Fred Hinchinger (1962) ' It is through the mass media that the images and desires of teen-agers are at once standardized and distorted'.

Lipsitz (1994)

'Today's youth culture proceeds from a different proceeds from a different premise. Instead of standing outside society, it tries to work through it'.

These quotations speak from an outsiders point of view and look further into how this representations as youths as a whole are treated within society.

Strinati, Dominic (2000): An introduction to studying popular culture: Oxon Routledge

Page 238

'Mass media as a type of designer ideology, Harvey (theorist) images dominate narrative'

This quotation is significant and important as this provides a simple yet meaningful insight as to how negative representations are created in the first place.

Rayner, Phillip & Wall, Peter (2006): The essential introduction for AQA: Oxon Routledge

'Subjective'

This term refers to how media texts are created that wouldn't normallty be exposed within the media as it would be highly contradicting. therefore, 'Subjective' refers to the actually writing and creating the text applied with thier own ideologies and beliefs and use that to create an interpretation.

Storey, John (2005): Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, An Introduction

'Race and Rascism'

These terms are both titles of debates within society, as to whether institutions are just reffering to their race or being racist.

Articles...x

The silenced majority

Since January, the term knife crime has been used more than 1,500 times by the national press - and it is a fair bet that most media images associated with these figures will be of young black men. Unsurprisingly, this is leading to a growing sense of frustration among black community leaders, academics and, not least, black youngsters themselves, over what they see as blatant misrepresentation.

Black youths who fit this media stereotype represent a tiny fraction of the young black population as a whole, they argue, and while negative stories about black teenagers are almost guaranteed headlines, the positive achievements of black youth go largely ignored.

This trend has consequences beyond creating an unbalanced picture. Numerous studies have shown a clear link between media furore and draconian policy-making, says Kjartan Sveinsson, the author of a Runnymede Trust report on the ways in which popular understandings of race and crime influence media reporting, and vice versa. "The tragedy is this can increase racial tension on the street and do little to stem the violence," he says.

Which in turn, of course, leads to further reports of violence, and the circle continues. In April 2007, for instance, after a number of high-profile shootings in south London, Tony Blair made a speech to the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce. Was he perhaps responding to media pressure when he asked: "When are we going to start saying this [gang crime] is a problem amongst a section of the black community and not, for reasons of political correctness, pretend it has nothing to do with it?"

There was no ambiguity when David Cameron spoke after the death of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool, singling out the media by saying: "Deaths by fists, knives and guns are becoming a regular feature of British news ... these murders must draw a line in the sand."

In Manchester, one group of black teenagers, who believe they should have made headlines for the right reasons, are angry at their treatment by the media. So much so they have published an open letter on the subject (see below

The Reclaim project began as a pilot in the autumn of 2007 at Urbis, an exhibition centre in Manchester, to work with 12-14-year-old boys from Moss Side and other perceived trouble spots in the city. The idea was spawned as a reaction to rising youth violence and the negative portrayal of young people, especially from the African-Caribbean community.

The project involves six months of intensive mentoring and events, including working with local statutory bodies and creative and sports providers. Self-development, discipline and anger-management courses form part of the syllabus, along with teamwork and respect for legitimate authority. Children on the project have drawn up an advisory document on combating gun and knife crime and presented it to Gordon Brown.

The scheme has been a remarkable success - and Reclaim has become synonymous with a powerful youth voice. Its story should be positive, but some of the young people involved feel they have been either ignored or that when journalists have turned up, most have only wanted to question them on guns and gangs.

In particular, some of the boys were unhappy about their treatment at the hands of a production company filming a documentary. They say they had understood it would be about their involvement with Reclaim, but the interviewer constantly brought up the subject of guns and gangs.

Fair representation?

On one occasion, the boys had been to a formal meeting and were wearing suits. According to 14-year-old Akeim, he and other boys were asked to go home and change into tracksuits and hooded tops and were then interviewed in the park where a 15-year-old boy, Jessie James, was murdered. Another boy, Amari, says the programme, shown on Channel 4 in July, failed to include a single mention of the Reclaim project and "was all about Jessie James". The interviewer asked whether he, or any of the other boys, had ever shot anybody, or been shot at, Amari says.

C4 says the producers "strongly feel" the young men were accurately and fairly represented in the short film, which was shown as part of a season of programmes about gun and knife crime. The boys were filmed where they said they regularly spend their time and were happy to be interviewed in those locations. They were not asked to dress in a way they wouldn't normally, and there was no intention or attempt to portray the young people as stereotypical or negative characters, the broadcaster says.

Professor Gus John, a fellow of the Institute of Education at the University of London, works closely with families affected by violence in Manchester. "When blac black males with k youths read about themselves," he says, "it goes something like this: you are a persistently under-performing group; you are six times more likely to be excluded from school and be a young offender; you may already be in a gang, or likely to join one. The likely causes of your condition are: absentee fathers; absence of positive role models; and being surrounded by women who cannot control or motivate you. You aim too low and do not believe people like you can succeed."

Cracker creator blasts 'chav' TV

Studio bosses 'ridicule white working classes'

One of Britain's most celebrated screenwriters has launched a blistering attack on the makers of so-called trash TV, accusing them of exploiting the white, working classes for their own amusement and entertainment.

Jimmy McGovern, who created Cracker and acclaimed dramas including Hillsborough, condemned 'latte-drinking, pesto-eating middle-class' TV executives, saying their treatment of Britain's working classes was not only patronising and offensive but also potentially dangerous. At a debate titled Chav TV at the Edinburgh Television Festival, panellists discussed whether the white working class was the only group left that it was acceptable to ridicule openly.

Reality television shows such as Wife Swap, Big Brother and the confessional Jeremy Kyle Show, which tend to rely on working-class participants in search of fame or fortune, were the focus of most criticism. But the portrayal of the working classes in comedy programmes such as Little Britain and dramas like Shameless were also debated.

McGovern accused industry executives of treating their audience with contempt: 'Normally, they would look to people on the left to speak up for them, but they haven't. Because they're not sexy. Unlike black lesbians, white, working-class men aren't sexy. So they are either ignored or patronised.

'I am delighted to see the state ITV are in. It is simply because they have utter contempt for their audience. These executives don't sit around and say, what kind of intelligent, informative, thought-provoking programmes would we like to watch? They think, what will the ignorant plebs that watch our channel want to see? They have total contempt for their audience, which is largely working class.' His comments come after Charles Allen, ITV's chief executive, who will step down in October, defended his much-criticised tenure at Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster. Speaking at the prestigious MacTaggart Lecture, Allen, who was ousted following investor dismay at ITV's flagging share price, admitted that some of ITV's problems were 'self-inflicted'.

However, he said the channel would only thrive if his successor sorted out 'the public service broadcasting hand tied behind our back and the CRR [the Contract Rights Renewal system, which limits the amount ITV1 can charge advertisers] gun to our head'.

Selina stokes a diversity debate that needs addressing.

It will come as a surprise to few but a delight to many that Selina Scott is suing Five over ageism in its refusal to hire her for a maternity cover role and choice of younger presenters instead. It is a delight not because Five is worse than anyone else in this respect, but because it stokes a debate which urgently needs to be taken more seriously. Casual sexism, ageism and racism are the collective dirty secret of the vast majority of media institutions, and they represent as much of an industrial challenge as they do a moral one.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission's Report on Sex and Power, published last week, drew a depressing picture for women in the workplace. In general the progression of women at the highest level in the workplace is pitiful and the media are no exception: only 13.6% of national newspaper editors (including the Herald and Western Mail) are women; only 10% of media FTSE's 350 companies have women at the helm; and at the BBC, which has often been held as an exemplar of diversity, women of make up less than 30%most senior management positions. It puts into context Jeremy Paxman's deranged rant about the white male in television. Ethnic minority representation is even worse.

A couple of weeks ago Pat Younge, former BBC head of sports programmes and planning who left to work for Discovery in the US, caused a stir at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival by saying that diversity targets should be like financial targets - you don't hit them, you get fired. I have to say that as board champion for diversity at Guardian News and Media I would currently be firing myself and most of the board for some missed targets. But Younge is right - because diversity targets are not just a feelgood add-on, they are vital to the health of any media business. The temptation to hire in one's own image for most managers is as irresistible as it is subliminal - which is why there are a lot of opinionated women working in digital management at the Guardian, and why we all need targets to remind us to look beyond the mirror.
On screen, any number of unconventional-looking ageing blokes (Jeremy Clarkson, Jonathan Ross, Chris Moyles, Alan Sugar, Adrian Chiles, Jeremy Paxman, Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan) are paid at a top rate for the talent they possess beyond their appearance. For women it is an altogether different story - appearance and age are clearly factors in choosing female presenters in a way that they aren't for men.

The media should be deeply concerned about this un-diversity - not because it represents moral turpitude on our part, but because it represents bloody awful business sense. What is happening to the UK population at the moment? It is ethnically diversifying, and it is ageing. It is also the case that it is, as of the 2001 Census, marginally more female than it is male. And we live longer - so older women, and non-white potential audiences are on the rise. In London, the major urban conurbation and key market for so many media brands, the population is around 37% ethnically diverse, yet this is nowhere near reflected in the management structures of media companies. Or indeed in their on-screen or in-paper representation.

How though, can you hope to address audiences for which you have no instinctive feel, and towards which you show casual discrimination? We are all in danger of becoming irrelevant to the changing demographics of our target audience at a time when holding any kind of audience is key to survival. If white men are so good at solving business problems - and given that they represent well over 80% of FTSE 100 directors we can speculate that this is a skill they must possess in measure - then I'm surprised they haven't grasped this one already.

Coursework homework...xx

Critical Investigation- 'Black youths are a target of a negative and misguided representation within British mainstream media.' To what extent is this statement true?

Linked production- 'Two minute cinema adverts that raises awareness of the dangers of misrepresentation that reflectsa different approach by showing this group in a new more positive light.'

The silenced majority

Constant media stories about gang crime create a depressing and unbalanced picture of black youngsters. So why are their positive achievements ignored?

Published Monday 25th August 2008

Since January, the term knife crime has been used more than 1,500 times by the national press - and it is a fair bet that most media images associated with these figures will be of young black men. Unsurprisingly, this is leading to a growing sense of frustration among black community leaders, academics and, not least, black youngsters themselves, over what they see as blatant misrepresentation.

Black youths who fit this media stereotype represent a tiny fraction of the young black population as a whole, they argue, and while negative stories about black teenagers are almost guaranteed headlines, the positive achievements of black youth go largely ignored.

This trend has consequences beyond creating an unbalanced picture. Numerous studies have shown a clear link between media furore and draconian policy-making, says Kjartan Sveinsson, the author of a Runnymede Trust report on the ways in which popular understandings of race and crime influence media reporting, and vice versa. "The tragedy is this can increase racial tension on the street and do little to stem the violence," he says.

Which in turn, of course, leads to further reports of violence, and the circle continues. In April 2007, for instance, after a number of high-profile shootings in south London, Tony Blair made a speech to the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce. Was he perhaps responding to media pressure when he asked: "When are we going to start saying this [gang crime] is a problem amongst a section of the black community and not, for reasons of political correctness, pretend it has nothing to do with it?"

There was no ambiguity when David Cameron spoke after the death of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool, singling out the media by saying: "Deaths by fists, knives and guns are becoming a regular feature of British news ... these murders must draw a line in the sand."

In Manchester, one group of black teenagers, who believe they should have made headlines for the right reasons, are angry at their treatment by the media. So much so they have published an open letter on the subject (see below

The Reclaim project began as a pilot in the autumn of 2007 at Urbis, an exhibition centre in Manchester, to work with 12-14-year-old boys from Moss Side and other perceived trouble spots in the city. The idea was spawned as a reaction to rising youth violence and the negative portrayal of young people, especially from the African-Caribbean community.

The project involves six months of intensive mentoring and events, including working with local statutory bodies and creative and sports providers. Self-development, discipline and anger-management courses form part of the syllabus, along with teamwork and respect for legitimate authority. Children on the project have drawn up an advisory document on combating gun and knife crime and presented it to Gordon Brown.

The scheme has been a remarkable success - and Reclaim has become synonymous with a powerful youth voice. Its story should be positive, but some of the young people involved feel they have been either ignored or that when journalists have turned up, most have only wanted to question them on guns and gangs.

In particular, some of the boys were unhappy about their treatment at the hands of a production company filming a documentary. They say they had understood it would be about their involvement with Reclaim, but the interviewer constantly brought up the subject of guns and gangs.

Fair representation?

On one occasion, the boys had been to a formal meeting and were wearing suits. According to 14-year-old Akeim, he and other boys were asked to go home and change into tracksuits and hooded tops and were then interviewed in the park where a 15-year-old boy, Jessie James, was murdered. Another boy, Amari, says the programme, shown on Channel 4 in July, failed to include a single mention of the Reclaim project and "was all about Jessie James". The interviewer asked whether he, or any of the other boys, had ever shot anybody, or been shot at, Amari says.

C4 says the producers "strongly feel" the young men were accurately and fairly represented in the short film, which was shown as part of a season of programmes about gun and knife crime. The boys were filmed where they said they regularly spend their time and were happy to be interviewed in those locations. They were not asked to dress in a way they wouldn't normally, and there was no intention or attempt to portray the young people as stereotypical or negative characters, the broadcaster says.

Professor Gus John, a fellow of the Institute of Education at the University of London, works closely with families affected by violence in Manchester. "When black youths read about themselves," he says, "it goes something like this: you are a persistently under-performing group; you are six times more likely to be excluded from school and be a young offender; you may already be in a gang, or likely to join one. The likely causes of your condition are: absentee fathers; absence of positive role models; and being surrounded by women who cannot control or motivate you. You aim too low and do not believe people like you can succeed."

Yet the reality, John says, is that there are a large number of young black males with high aspirations, who have a focus on learning and who succeed. "Often, these young men come from the same background as those who are underachieving at school, or involved with the criminal justice system. It is a sad fact that we seldom hear about these young people."

Reclaim's open letter

"We are a group of 14-year-old boys from the Reclaim project; since the project started, we have been approached by so many different newspapers, magazines and TV companies, most of who want to talk to us about guns and knives and gangs. We keep trying to explain that we are not involved in gangs and crime; we're black boys doing positive things in this area - and then journalists go away, as they tell us that's not the story people are interested in ...

The project has changed our lives in so many ways. We now consider ourselves reliable, respectable, articulate and creative young black men. We have been set difficult challenges and worked hard to achieve them. We have written a manifesto for our area and given up our weekends to distribute it, display it and explain it to the adult members of our community. We have put on parties for vulnerable members of our community, lobbied the leader of our council and spoken in front of hundreds of people ...

Negative stories of young black boys as criminals, or victims of crime, reinforces the idea that this is the reality for black people. Some young black boys will try and live up to the images they see in the media. Adults constantly criticise teenagers for being irresponsible, but the way the media tries to represent our area as if everyone was a drugs runner or gangster is totally irresponsible and morally wrong."

Article #2

Entertaining or exploitative?

Today's UK launch of Black Entertainment Television has raised high expectations. Finally, the black community will have a main media outlet of its own. That can only be a good thing, can't it? Well, not necessarily. BET may be promising to deliver "black cultural content to the world", but the question is "of what kind?"

If BET America is anything to go by, anyone hoping that the channel will improve the representation of black people in the UK media is likely to end up sorely disappointed.

Black and urban youth are the target audience for BET, an American cable channel founded by African-American media mogul Robert L Johnson in 1980. While music programmes such as the popular 106 & Park and Sunday morning gospel shows are pretty harmless, the dominance of hip-hop videos and original programming which promote misogynist, consumerist, violent and stereotypical images of black people has earned BET the moniker Black Exploitation Television.

Last year, the channel came under fire from the African-American community, including film-maker Spike Lee and religious leaders, over Hot Ghetto Mess (later renamed We Got To Do Better), a programme which featured black people in a range of highly embarrassing situations.

Two big companies withdrew their advertising, supporting critics' claims that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes. Such is the strength of feeling in some sections of the African-American community, that a protest is being held tomorrow outside the home of Debra Lee, BET's chairman and chief executive.

Supporters of the channel argue that BET's only responsibility is to provide entertainment. However, when that is at the expense of a community already struggling under the weight of a host of social issues, that is a big problem.

With gun crime on the rise, does the UK really need BET to bring us programmes such as American Gangster?

The UK is in need of greater black representation in the media and a network such as BET appears to be the perfect answer. BET is excellent at representing black people. However, this just happens to be in the worst possible light. I'll be sticking with the BBC.

Lola Adesioye is a US-based writer, specialising in issues affecting the black community

The right ethnic mix

Introducing the Masoods to EastEnders is the latest attempt to make TV more diverse - on-screen and off.

The director shouts "Cut!" - and wardrobe, props and make-up people swarm the set. One of the principal actors beckons me over and asks: "Can you pronounce it for us again?" As I say "Alhumdulillah" (praise to God) the rest of the cast repeat it over and over until they are satisfied it sounds right. In the meantime, I am pulled into a discussion about the Indian sweets on set: are they the right ones; by tradition, which character would give them to whom?

I am not on the set of a British Asian film, but rather at the studios of EastEnders. For six months I have been working as one of a group of occasional consultants: looking over scripts, sometimes being on set, and advising on aspects of British Asian culture relating to the Masoods.

Playing unsafe

Albert Square's previous Asian family, the Ferreiras, were criticised as boring and unrealistic - their first names were a mixture of Muslim and Hindu, their surname was Portuguese. "We admittedly came under the spotlight with the Ferreiras," says John Yorke, the BBC's controller of drama production. "We played safe with them and ultimately didn't give them good story lines. We're certainly not doing that with the Masoods, but the devil is in the detail and now pretty much everything we write for them that has a cultural or religious aspect is checked."

While the Ferreiras were "safe", the Masoods' current story line is at the other end of the scale - with the elder son, Syed, embarking on a gay affair. "Part of the reason we chose the Masoods is that it does present us with a whole new set of taboos," admits Yorke. However, he says merely being able to feature such an issue is a positive sign. "Post 9/11, Muslim characters in drama became either saint or terrorist - there was no middle ground. But the fact that we can now actually do a gay Muslim story line is testament to exactly how much we've moved on."

EastEnders is the third most popular series among ethnic minorities, according to Barb, the audience ratings body, behind The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent: on average 43% of the non-white TV viewing audience watch the programme. It also has a long history of featuring black and Asian characters: the first episode included a Turkish cafe owner.

And although cliched roles in soaps and primetime dramas also still exist, ethnic minority representation in drama has advanced across the board over the last decade or so with dramas such as the recent Moses Jones, which focused on issues in London's Ugandan community, and characters such as Anwar in Skins.

But Coronation Street's key Asian character, Dev, is rarely seen through the prism of his religion, and Channel 4's Hollyoaks takes a similar approach with its black and Asian characters. Does that make characters less realistic? Lucy Allan, series producer on Hollyoaks, says the show is keen not to hammer home ethnicity. "We recently had a skin bleaching story line around one of our female Asian characters, and obviously that is a culturally specific issue and it had a big reaction; some viewers were shocked, others identified with it. But as a rule we don't look at any of our ethnic minority characters in terms of just their ethnicity, and if the online viewer forums are anything to go by, we've got it right."

Research and consultation are employed by most broadcasters when it comes to black and Asian characters. But while this is a short cut to accuracy, it would perhaps not be necessary if there were more off-screen talent diversity.

Ade Rawcliffe, diversity and talent manager for Channel 4, believes there is still not enough representation behind the camera. "We're trying hard to make it easier to get in, to make it not about who your dad is, but there is still a way to go. There is no shortage of people from minorities looking to get into the industry, but finding and nurturing that talent is key."

Black Doctor Who

For Ben Stephenson, the BBC's controller of drama commissioning, on-screen representation is potentially even more important than off-screen in terms of attracting minorities to the industry. "The more on-screen we can do with minorities, the more those groups will feel like television is a realistic part of their experience and therefore a career option for them."

Stephenson insists that desire for more minority representation was not behind the casting of a black actor as Friar Tuck in Robin Hood. "Obviously you wouldn't cast a black actress in the role of, say, Margaret Thatcher but in a fantasy series like Robin Hood you've got leeway to play around with the characters. Similarly with Doctor Who - it's the least of our concerns whether the Doctor is black or white, it really is just about who is right for the part."

Yorke agrees that on-screen portrayal has improved, but acknowledges that diversity in the off-screen teams is still an issue. "We're working hard to rectify that, and what we really need is a long-term strategic investment in talent."

Things are changing - but given that one writer recently asked me "exactly how this praying five times a day works", there is some way to go before the industry can be sure that a lack of off-screen diversity is no longer an issue.

France's burka barrier

The controversy over the full-face veil in France has excluded the people it most concerns – the women who wear it.

For a week now, the hundred or so French women who wear the sitar (a veil that covers the face, incorrectly referred to as the burka) or the niqab have been at the heart of the French political debate. Nicolas Sarkozy made a speech to parliament stating that the burka was not welcome in France as it was incompatible with women's rights and adding that France shouldn't be afraid to defend its values. A new commission has been set up to determine the best ways to combat the adoption of the full veil, and will eventually propose a law banning it from public spaces.

The role of the state today is different to the one it had in 2004, when a law made it illegal to wear the hijab in schools. This isn't about the republic aiming to preserve the neutrality of its secular institutions by forbidding pupils to wear religious symbols. This time, it is about intervening directly in the private choice of women, because that choice would be incompatible with living in France. The different opinions generated by the debate reveal the difficulties faced by the French state over the past 50 years in determining how best to accommodate its 5 million Muslims.

In France, the niqab is considered a threat to women's rights. This is the president's position. Even a woman who freely chooses to wear it doesn't have a place in France. She automatically becomes a consenting victim who is unworthy of any solidarity. A year ago, a Moroccan woman who wore the niqab was refused French nationality, a decision blamed on her "submission to her husband and her religious misogynist doctrine". But to punish women and not think about ways to fight their male oppressors makes little sense; it goes against the idea that French laws must be the same for everyone.

For others, the niqab is a deviation from genuine French Islam, which is open and tolerant. For the majority of French Muslims, the culprit is salafism – a fundamentalist branch of Islam imported from Saudi Arabia that has about 5,000 followers in France. The Conseil Français du Culte Musulman (French Council of Muslim Worship), the organisation responsible for Islam in France, explains that Islam doesn't prescribe the niqab and that wearing it is a cultural choice. However, the full veil's very existence challenges the official Islam adopted in France, and is one of the consequences of Muslim leaders' failure to ensure the integration of veiled young women after the 2004 law, and to protect the Muslim community from the many Islamophobic acts which followed.

Increasingly, veiled young women chose to look inwards, withdraw from society and benefit from the networks of solidarity offered by salafism, rather than fighting for their choice in the political sphere. The choice to wear the niqab is often linked to the breakdown of the French social model of integration, rather than religious radicalisation stemming from disadvantaged neighbourhoods under the control of extremist or terrorist movements – which is the alarmist argument of Ni Putes Ni Soumises, the group founded by Fadela Amara, who joined the government when Sarkozy created his cabinet and whose street credibility is greater among politicians than it is in the banlieues.

The terms of the debate have changed since 2004. The feminist movements and the left, in particular, now say they reject the ghettoisation effect a ban on the burka would have on women wearing it. France's official position appears isolated when Denmark and Belgium are welcoming their first veiled elected politicians and Obama is reminding the world, in his Cairo speech, that western countries should not tell Muslim women what to wear. France's European neighbours debate the burka with more caution. In those countries, it is not the cultural or religious values of the burka that are being discussed, but legislation around security issues and identification.

What the burka crisis underlines is that the debate on Muslim women's empowerment is crucial. But it has to be conducted with the participation of those who are primarily concerned and also be useful to citizens as a whole, rather than simply reinforcing the political class and its electoral objectives.

Hideously diverse Britain: the mosque that became a symbol

An apology to start because this is a bit complicated. These things often are. We are in Station Road, Harrow, not far from Wembley stadium. People are filing in and out of the local mosque for prayers. It's early evening. Ramadan. Soon they will break the fast.

And as they do, many are still talking about last Friday, when their mosque became the centre of world attention. The BBC was there, CNN, al-Jazeera, the Iranian-funded Press TV. Their mosque, and the one being built next door, was suddenly a focal point for self-styled white warriors against Islamic extremism, anti-fascists and youths in the mood for a punch-up. It became a symbol, which was a shame. The Muslims of Harrow just wanted it to be their mosque.

Mehmood Hussain, busy in his curry takeaway, says Harrow became the stage for someone else's play. "We've seen people come and go but things have always been quite harmonious. That's why, despite a lot of provocation, the community survived."

The new mosque, grand with five storeys, was to be picketed by the English Defence League, which said it would house a Sharia court. It won't. But that didn't matter. When the EDL went cool, another far-right faction, Stop the Islamisation of Europe, said it would demonstrate instead.

It's quiet here now, with a yellow-jacketed security man on duty, but there were 2,000 people here last week. Police were hit by bricks and bottles. Ten people were arrested but only one was a far-righter, mainly because they didn't get much further than the tube station. The others were Asian, mostly Muslim youths. None from Harrow. One white man found himself confronted by youths who said he was BNP or CIA. He sought refuge in the civic centre. He was BBC.

Ajmal Masroor, a London imam who appealed for calm beside the Jewish leader of Harrow Council, says Harrow has closed ranks but is bristling still: at far-righters, at the anti-fascists with "their own agenda", and at the Muslim youths who came looking for "cheap thrills". Everyone came, now everyone has gone. Everyone's diminished. On these days, no one wins.

Cadbury Dairy Milk ad cleared of racism

The advertising regulator has cleared Cadbury of racism and perpetuating colonial stereotypes of African people in its latest TV advertising campaign.

Cadbury's campaign featured Ghanaian musician Tinny and aimed to promote the chocolate brand's tie-up with the Fairtrade organisation for cocoa from the African nation for its Dairy Milk range.

The Advertising Standards Authority received 29 complaints that the TV campaign was demeaning to African people and perpetuated racial stereotypes.

However, the ASA's council has decided not to formally investigate the complaints. "Although the council acknowledges that Cadbury had used stereotypes in their ads, they felt that the stereotypes were not harmful or offensive," said the ASA, which argued that most ads use some form of stereotype device to get a message across.

Cadbury has steadfastly maintained that the company went to "considerable lengths" to ensure that the ad campaign was culturally sensitive and developed as a "joyous and uplifting portrayal of Ghanaian culture and something which Ghanaians can feel proud of".

In 2007 the ASA banned an ad for Cadbury's Trident chewing gum, which featured a black "dub poet" speaking in rhyme with a strong Caribbean accent, after more than 500 complaints that it was racist.

On screen Vs Off Screen representation...x

Critical Investigation- 'Black teenagers are a target to a negative and misconstruded representation within British media'. To what extent is this statement true?



On Screen













On screen representations are quite stereotypical as the setting of the location of this BBC 3 show 'West 10 LDN' focuses on the struggles of black youths, further reinforcing that black youths are under class and un-educated and are incapable of maintaining educational success. In addition, from the violence to the music. were all stereotypical devices used to portray the everyday lives of black teenagers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/17/gangs-youth-crime



Off Screen....

'Statistics show that young black people are overrepresented at every stage of the criminal justice system. However, it is important to place this in perspective. In 84.7% of offences in 2004-05 involving young offenders aged 10-17, the young people involved classified their ethnicity as white. Over 92% of young black people in the year 2003-04 were not subject to disposals in the youth justice system'

These statistics are highly significant as the critical investigation further raises an arguement that black youths are in fact subjected to a negative representation, and clearly the dominant representation is the on screen representation as the access to digital television is hugely superior to the traditonal consumerism of newspapers.

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmhaff/181/18105.htm

Half Term work..x

Half term homework

Critical investigation- 'Black youths are a target of a negative and a misconstrued representation within British media'. To what extent is this statement true?

Linked production- A cinema advert lasting 1-min reflecting a different approach on black young teenagers within society, acting in a way in which the media wouldn't associate with.

Migrain analysis

Media Language-In order for the cinema advert to emphatically create a moving and dissimilar effect to other cinema adverts; and as a production as a whole, media language is essential that I use this tool throughout. The different use of camera angels such as a high shot to show black teenagers within our advert are a crucial and effective way that black teenagers are independent and dominant figures; rather that low angle shots to make them seem inferior by the media. The mise- en –scene is particularly crucial to us as the entire picture within each frame continuously shows the audience that black teenagers are not thieves and violent intolerable human beings, and taking into account all aspects of media language (setting, props, camera angels, actors etc) these aspects will make our production more noticeable and unconventional and overall more powerful and interesting.

Institution- considering that as a group our linked production is a moving image text, it would be necessary to look at how news institutions portray black teenagers as violent teens who take out their anger on innocent people due to their troubled background. Therefore, I'd be looking at how Channel 4 news portrays black teens and use their interpretation as a guidline as to how I would portray a more different view.

Genre- the genre of the entire production as a whole would be a drama combined with documentary as the different uses of genre are: on one hand creating a shock effect and an engaging one with the use of drama: however, providing knowledge and facts with the use of documentary to make the entire production more proffessional, valid and unbiased.

Representation- the representation is a highly signifcant tool within my production to continuously compare the moral panic and the generic stereotypical representation made by the dominat figures within the media (Channel 4 CEO'S) therefore the passive representation given off the audience makes black teenagers and ethnic minorities as whole seem inferior by the superior figures within the media.

Audience- the audience that I would be targeting would be the more older generation of audiences as they are the more dominant and passive audience who would accept this representation made by institutions as correct and truthful, as society 20-40 years ago didn't seem this corrupt (according to the media) therefore targeting the more adult older age audiences would truly make my production more engaging and interesting.

Ideologies- the ideologies of my production as a whole would be to 'not judge a book by its front cover' and not to become passive audience as the unfair representation within the media is not serving a purpose for the sake of reporting news it is infact a way in which exxagerated stories are a fast way to make money and gain power within the media as the media plays a highly influential role within society today.

Narrative- there particularly is no narrative within contempary news however, taking into account the linked production and the generic flow of information the narration would be similar to Propps theory- where the media institutions are the villians and the black teenagers are the heroes and the state of chaos would the the moral panic and then the hero (within the linked production) would dissprove and challenge the moral panic and act in a completely different way and the equilibrium would be reached.

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/cuts leave black youths to die/2433332

SHEP

Social...
The main social issues that link in with my production: are issues that created the bias and false representation of black youths by society, because the media are known for exaggerating the stories that simplyaren't what it seems. Gun crime, gangs conflicts & knife crime are the main issues within black youth's lives today, it seems that because of this representation the big news co-operations: (knowing of their influence within soceity) still do not use that ability but portray the inability of news co-operations and cannot report news that will highlight the seriousness and try to prevent this issue from commencing. Therfore, indiviually and as a group, we found this a gap within the media that we could exploit and use to our advantage and represent a completely different side to black youths.

Historical...
Historically this is linked in with the entire race as a whole: on a larger scale black people have been facing an upheaval struggle for equal rights, perhaps this struggle influences the media's easy ability to write negative stories about black teenagers. With events within history such as the Civil Rights Movement has a major impact on how black youths and particularly black people are portrayed within local and global news. Taking these points into account: again individually and as a group this will play a huge role into completely disproving all the stereotypes that have been created and use the Civil Rights Movement in a positive way to show the the together and powerful community that black people have within the 21st century.

Economical.....
In terms of the economy: and due to the minimal amounts that are invested into youths, it seems that this hasn't worked in the favour black youths. Within my production I would use the significance of black youths/families that are resided within lower class areas such as estates, tower blocks & and use the significant numbers to perhaps show the reason why black youths are portrayed negatively within the media: perhaps because of the large amounts of black people that reside within these areas; the media have used this to make an excuse as for why there are such representations.

Political....
Politics are perhaps the most interesting and significant sides for and to my production, as the overwhelming amounts of gun and knife crime statistics, it seems that politicians and their parties do not hesitate and take it upon themselves that this is the case. In addition, another focus on political influences of this particular steerotype is the lack of times that a politician has actually been seen within these estates and communities trying to solve and find a resolution tothe growing problem: however this is not the case: one would assume that as an unbiased and people serving groups such as politicians: surely they are meant to be finding and helping find a resolution? rather than ignoring it and hiding it from the truth and believing the media.

This study fits in with the contempary media landscape because it is such a profound and serious issue that showng a different perspective will ultimately grab audiences attention.