How Have Race Issues been treated by Broadcasters and the Pr
The media has been a constant source of controversy as far as racial issues are concerned. Many share the opinion that some broadcasters, and other tools of the press, are racially biased and therefore when broadcasting a story on a racial or ethnic issue, they may either not tell the whole truth or the story may contain echoes of the broadcasters own racist opinions. Although a majority of racism in the media have targeted black communities, there have been some anti-Semitic broadcasters, and there has been a growing trend in the media during the past few months that have targeted asylum seekers claiming that they are living luxuriously at the expense of the British taxpayer. This essay will look at the history of racism in the media and analyse the ways in which broadcasters and the press treat various minority groups and will try to conclude as to whether broadcasters and the press have improved in the way they treat racial issues and if they deal with racial stories as they would any other news story or whether there is still a bias involved. To get a better understanding of why racial issues have such a mixed reaction between various broadcasters and press agents, the origins of racism in the media should be analysed. A
There are also more recent instances of misrepresentation of other ethnic minorities in the media. Mohammed Al Fayed, for example, is constantly put in a negative light by the media. He is frequently ridiculed and the continuous rejection of his application for British citizenship has become a running media joke. Although there are other reasons for this, his ethnicity plays a part in it. So far, the essay has only looked at negative aspects of the way broadcasters and the press treat racial issues. So, is there a positive side? In a sense, there is. If there was a survey to see which news broadcaster first came to mind, many would say Trevor Macdonald. There have also been various sanctions and regulations that have been put into place by institutions such as the BBC to ensure that there is no racism in their news items. However, there is a downside to both of these plusses. Firstly, Trevor Macdonald may in fact be the only black newsreader that people can recall and secondly, the anti-racists sanctions cannot be that powerful if newspapers can still air their personal views to the public. As previously mentioned, there has been a growing trend in the media that has been moving towards blaming asylum seekers for the increasing social problems in Britain at the moment. The racist overtones in newspapers that contain articles on asylum seekers is alarming. Although asylum seekers are now immigrating from various different countries, the media racism is centred on those who come particularly from Eastern Europe. Although the general public seem themselves to be rebelling against the seemingly luxurious lifestyles that they are told these asylum seekers receive, certain government officials and newspapers only enhance these opinions: It seems that the only recent radical change in the media for black people has been the technological advances that have come with the Internet. On the Internet, black people, and indeed other ethnic minorities, finally have an outlet with which to have their say. In an Internet paper on media racism and stereotypes entitled 'The Chronicle', the writer's highlight some of the problems underlying racism in the media. Among them is the fact that many media professionals are white middle class people who live in areas dominated by similar people. They therefore have a very limited understanding of the social problems that accompany crime in areas dominated by black people and they have very few black colleagues to explain otherwise. 'Hence, when crucial decisions are made in the newsroom about what stories to select, what priority to give them and how to present a story, blacks are non-existent. The judgements and choices made
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Approximate Word count = 1816
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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