RACISM AND

CULTURAL DIVERSITY
IN THE MASS MEDIA

An overview of research and

examples of good practice
in the EU Member States, 1995-2000

on behalf of the

European Monitoring Centre

on Racism and Xenophobia, Vienna
(EUMC)

by
European Research Centre
on Migration and Ethnic Relations
(ERCOMER)

Edited by Jessika ter Wal

Vienna, February 2002

 DISCLAIMER
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This Report has been carried out by the European Research Centre on Migration
and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER) on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre on
Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). The opinions expressed by the authors do not
necessarily reflect the position of the EUMC.

Reproduction is authorized, except for commercial purposes, provided the source

is acknowledged and the attached text accompanies any reproduction: "This
study has been carried out on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre on
Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). The opinions expressed by the authors do not
necessarily reflect the position of the EUMC."

2
PREFACE
The research interest in analysing the way mass media report on ethnic issues has
increased in the Member States over the last decades. And for this reason the EUMC
decided to bring together the major research reports and their findings over the last
five years in this report "RACISM AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE MASS MEDIA - an
overview of research and examples of good practice in the EU Member States, 1995-
2000".

The project has been carried out by Dr Jessika ter Wal, at Ercomer, Utrecht University,
the Netherlands. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to her for her excellent
work. The report underlines the importance of media research in the area of racism
and diversity.

The mass media, and especially the news media, have an unequivocal position in soci-
ety when it comes to establishing and disseminating common cultural references.
The mass media have an influence on people's attitudes as well as our common
knowledge, but not always in the expected and desired ways.

The active democratic role of the mass media in society can be influenced by a num-
ber of factors. The way the mass media represent, focus and give voice to different
actors and incidents in society could have the unintentional result of strengthening a
racist discourse instead of fighting against it. Mass media reporting is especially sen-
sitive when it comes to ethnic, cultural and religious relations in our society.

The mass media organisations in the Member States take different initiatives to pro-
mote cultural, ethnic and religious diversity, such as developing codes of conduct,
recruiting broadcasters from the migrant and minority communities and training the
personnel from multiethnic societies.

The report has already attracted a lot of interest from researchers, from journalists as
well as from media organisations. I hope that the report will be of practical use to all
those interested in the fight against racism and especially those working in the media.

Beate Winkler

Director of the EUMC

3
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 11
by Jessika ter Wal
1.1 Aims of the study ................................................................ 11
1.2 How the study was conducted ............................................ 12
1.3 Existing international initiatives to promote good practice . 19
1.4 Problems related to the comparability of data .................... 10
1.5 Overview ............................................................................ 23
Table 1. Dimensions, specific media practices, factors and
related types of data ........................................................... 26

2 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................... 31
by Jessika ter Wal
2.1 AN INVENTORY OF THE EXISTING RESEARCH ...................... 32
2.1.1 Disparities in available research ........................................... 32
2.1.2 Type of research and approach ............................................ 33
2.1.3 Ideological differences ........................................................ 34
2.1.4 Coding Methods in Quantitative Research - problems of
reliability ............................................................................. 35
2.1.5 Limits of quantitative analyses and coding .......................... 35
2.2 NEGATIVE NEWS MAKING-RELATED MECHANISMS .............. 36
2.2.1 Media panics and fixed repertoires ...................................... 36
2.2.2 Media and politics ............................................................... 37
2.2.3 Different newspaper types .................................................. 39
2.2.4 News genres selection ........................................................ 40
2.2.5 Problem of reliable information ........................................... 40
2.2.6 Quotation/Source use ......................................................... 40
2.3 COMMON TRENDS IN PORTRAYAL ....................................... 42
2.3.1 Crime themes ..................................................................... 43
2.3.2 Description of problems related to ethnic relations ............. 45
2.3.3 Description of problems related to immigration and asylum 46
2.3.4 Portrayal and perspective ................................................... 47
2.3.5 Focus on special groups and boundary markers .................. 48
2.3.6 Labelling ............................................................................. 50
2.4 DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN MORE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
INSTANCES .......................................................................... 52
2.4.1 Variation depending on media type and genre .................... 52
2.4.2 Subtle and blatant racism .................................................... 53
2.4.3 Different groups .................................................................. 54

4
2.4.4 Headlines ............................................................................ 54
2.5 POSITIONS TOWARDS RACISM AND ANTI-RACISM ............... 55
2.5.1 Right-wing extremism and populism .................................. 57
2.5.2 Racist crimes (violence and harassment) ............................. 58
2.5.3 Anti-racism ......................................................................... 59
2.6 TRACING DEVELOPMENTS ................................................... 61
2.6.1 Subtle/new racism .............................................................. 62
2.6.2 Negative developments ...................................................... 63
2.6.3 Positive developments in thematic change or media
sensitivity ........................................................................... 63
2.6.4 Parallel developments over longer periods of time ............. 66
2.6.5 Development in reporting on specific cases or groups ......... 67
2.7 MEDIA EFFECTS ................................................................... 68
2.8 POSITIVE ACTIONS TO COMBAT RACISM AND PROMOTE
CULTURAL DIVERSITY .......................................................... 71
2.8.1 Codex of conduct ................................................................ 71

3 RECOMMENDATIONS
by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and
Xenophobia ........................................................................ 75
3.1 GENERAL REMARKS.............................................................. 75
3.2 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND MONITORING .... 78
3.3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MEDIA PROFESSIONALS .............. 79
3.3.1 Source use .......................................................................... 79
3.3.2 Sources and participation .................................................... 80
3.3.3 Formats and genres ............................................................ 81
3.3.4 Groups - Portrayal ............................................................... 83
3.4 POLICIES FOR PROMOTING DIVERSITY ................................ 84
3.5 VIGILANCE OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA ...................................... 86
3.6 REFERENCES ........................................................................ 87

4 MEMBER STATE REPORTS .................................................... 89

4.1 BELGIUM (BE) ..................................................................... 90

by Frieda Saeys and Tomas Coppens
4.1.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 90
4.1.2 Representation of Ethnic Minorities in the media ................ 91
4.1.3 Media discourse analysis - 'Debating Diversity ' .................... 97
4.1.4 Actions to combat racism and discrimination in the media . 99
4.1.5 Conclusions ......................................................................... 101
4.1.6 References .......................................................................... 102
4.1.7 Contact addresses ............................................................... 104

5
 4.2 DENMARK (DA) .................................................................. 107
by Mustafa Hussain
4.2.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 107
4.2.2 Portrayal in the mass media ................................................ 107
4.2.3 Recognition of the problem and good practice ................... 117
4.2.4 Concluding remarks ............................................................ 121
4.2.5 References .......................................................................... 122

4.3 GERMANY (DE) ................................................................... 125

by Joachim Trebbe and Tobias Köhler
4.3.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 125
4.3.2 General media practices ...................................................... 127
4.3.3 The reproduction of ethic and racist prejudice .................... 136
4.3.4 Initiatives to promote cultural diversity and combat racism 138
4.3.5 Concluding remarks ............................................................ 143
4.3.6 References .......................................................................... 144
4.3.7 Internet addresses ............................................................... 148

4.4 GREECE (EL) ........................................................................ 149

by Anna Triandafyllidou
4.4.1 A brief introduction to Greece and its minorities ................ 150
4.4.2 Media practices in reporting on ethnic issues ...................... 152
4.4.3 The reproduction of ethnic and racial stereotypes ............... 159
4.4.4 Media initiatives to combat racism ...................................... 164
4.4.5 Conclusions ......................................................................... 165
4.4.6 References .......................................................................... 166
4.4.7 Contact addresses ............................................................... 170

4.5 SPAIN (ES) ........................................................................... 173

by Antonio Miguel Bañon Hernandez
4.5.1 Researchers and research groups ........................................ 174
4.5.2 Research by associations and NGO'S .................................... 183
4.5.3 Initiatives of the media ........................................................ 191
4.5.4 Government and trade unions ............................................. 194
4.5.5 Conclusions ......................................................................... 198
4.5.6 References .......................................................................... 199

4.6 FRANCE (FR) ....................................................................... 203

by Alec G. Hargreaves
4.6.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 203
4.6.2 Media representations ........................................................ 203
4.6.3 Media effects ...................................................................... 209

6
4.6.4 Actions to promote cultural diversity and combat racism ... 211
4.6.5 Conclusions ......................................................................... 214
4.6.6 References .......................................................................... 215
4.6.7 Contact addresses ............................................................... 218

4.7 IRELAND (IR) ....................................................................... 221

by Gary Quinn and Ciarán Ó Mailán
4.7.1 A diverse Ireland ................................................................. 221
4.7.2 Legislative framework for racism and the media ................. 224
4.7.3 Defining ethnic minorities in the news ................................ 226
4.7.4 Common trends .................................................................. 229
4.7.5 Credible sources .................................................................. 232
4.7.6 Journalism constraints and giudelines ................................. 233
4.7.7 Monitoring .......................................................................... 235
4.7.8 Conclusions ......................................................................... 237
4.7.9 References .......................................................................... 237
4.7.10 Contact addresses ............................................................... 238

4.8 ITALY (IT) ............................................................................. 239

by Jessika ter Wal
4.8.1 General media practices ...................................................... 240
4.8.2 Main themes and portrayal ................................................. 241
4.8.3 Initiatives to combat racism and promote cultural diversity 259
4.8.4 Concluding remarks ............................................................ 262
4.8.5 References .......................................................................... 264
4.8.6 Contact addresses ............................................................... 270

4.9 LUXEMBOURG (LU) .............................................................. 273

by Nénad Dubajic
4.9.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 273
4.9.2 General information on media ............................................. 274
4.9.3 Media representations ........................................................ 276
4.9.4 Initiatives to combat racism and promote cultural diversity 278
4.9.5 Concluding remarks ............................................................ 282
4.9.6 References .......................................................................... 284
4.9.7 Contact addresses ............................................................... 286

4.10 THE NETHERLANDS (NE) ..................................................... 287

by Ineke van der Valk
4.10.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 287
4.10.2 Research overview until 1997 .............................................. 288
4.10.3 Portrayal of ethic minorities ................................................ 290

7
 4.10.4 Studies on media effects ..................................................... 296
4.10.5 Initiatives to promote diversity and balanced reporting ...... 298
4.10.6 Concluding remarks ............................................................ 302
4.10.7 References .......................................................................... 304
4.10.8 Contact addresses ............................................................... 308

4.11 AUSTRIA (OE) ...................................................................... 311

by Alexander Joskowicz
4.11.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 311
4.11.2 The media market and its regulations on reporting ............. 312
4.11.3 Ethnic and racial stereotypes in the media .......................... 314
4.11.4 Initiatives to promote cultural diversity and combat racism 322
4.11.5 References .......................................................................... 324

4.12 PORTUGAL (PO) .................................................................. 327

by Anabela Franqueira
4.12.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 327
4.12.2 The reprensentation of immigrants and ethnic minorities ... 335
4.12.3 Positive actions to promote cultural diversity and combat
racism ................................................................................. 340
4.12.4 Concluding remarks ............................................................ 347
4.12.5 References .......................................................................... 348

4.13 FINLAND (SU) ...................................................................... 351

by Karina Horsti
4.13.1 Introduction: Cultural diversity in Finland ............................ 351
4.13.2 Establishing the field of ethnic studies ................................ 352
4.13.3 The reproduction of ethnic stereotypes in the media .......... 354
4.13.4 The role of journalistic practises and routines ..................... 364
4.13.5 Media use by immigrants .................................................... 366
4.13.6 Initiatives for more balanced reporting ............................... 367
4.13.7 References .......................................................................... 369

4.14 SWEDEN (SV) ..................................................................... 373

by Ylva Brune
4.14.1 General findings on news coverage ..................................... 373
4.14.2 News media depictions of racism and Xenophobia .............. 381
4.14.3 Initiatives to promote cultural diversity in the media and to
improve news reporting ...................................................... 387
4.14.4 Education and vocational training ....................................... 390
4.14.5 Conclusions ......................................................................... 390
4.14.6 References .......................................................................... 391

8
4.15 UNITED KINGDOM (UK) ...................................................... 395
by Paul Statham
4.15.1 Introduction - research context in Britain ............................ 395
4.15.2 Coverage, topics and sources .............................................. 399
4.15.3 Themes, framing and labelling ............................................ 406
4.15.4 Media initiatives to promote cultural diversity .................... 411
4.15.5 The need for politically relevant research ............................ 416
4.15.6 References .......................................................................... 418

5 APPENDIX ............................................................................ 421

5.1 CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK ......... 421
by Jessika ter Wal
5.1.1 The concept of racism ......................................................... 334
5.2 Media and racism ................................................................ 423
5.2.1 Studying media treatment of racism ................................... 423
5.2.2 Racism, denial and anti-racism ............................................ 424
5.2.3 Prejudiced attitudes and social representations .................. 425
5.3 MAIN THEORETICAL APPROACHES ...................................... 426
5.3.1 Minorities and the media’ approach..................................... 427
5.3.2 News-making approach ....................................................... 429
5.3.3 Social constructionist approach ........................................... 432
5.3.4 Discourse analytical approach.............................................. 434
5.3.5 News and public attitudes approach .................................... 436
5.3.6 Other approaches ................................................................ 440
5.3.7 Summary............................................................................. 441
5.4 METHODS FOR ANALYSIS .................................................... 441
5.4.1 Extensive analysis and case studies ...................................... 442
5.4.2 Content analysis .................................................................. 444
5.4.3 News-making related questions........................................... 447
5.4.4 Social construction .............................................................. 447
5.4.5 Discourse analysis................................................................ 448
5.4.6 Public attitudes.................................................................... 453
5.5 REFERENCES ........................................................................ 454
5.6 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS – AUTHORS' ADDRESSES ............... 458

9
4.15 UNITED KINGDOM (UK)
Paul Statham
European Centre for Political Communications (EurPolCom),
Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds

This report summarises recent research on the media and 'race' and
cultural diversity in Britain125. Overall the general impression is that
there has been an improvement in standards of journalism regard-
ing the representation of minorities relative to previous decades.
There is a broad range of coverage of issues relating to immigration
and ethnic relations across the full spectrum of broadcasting and
print media. Even tabloid newspapers give significant news space
to minorities as sources and claims-makers. Although about three
quarters of all media coverage carries broadly anti-racist themes,
some newspapers, and in particular the Daily Mail, take an anti-
immigrant stance that sometimes becomes expressed in images
that stigmatise migrants and refugees. Regarding institutional ini-
tiatives, public and private sector broadcasting has implemented
self-monitoring of output and attempted to monitor and address
the under-representation of minorities employed in the media, with
mixed results. The institutional structure of newspapers, which are
heavily top-down in authority, hinders such developments.

4.15.1 INTRODUCTION - RESEARCH CONTEXT IN BRITAIN

4.15.1.1 CULTURAL STUDIES AND THE 'RACIST MEDIA' THESIS

Prior to the 1995-2000 period, much research on racism in the

British media focused specifically on the use of language and
images by the media, which were seen as both representing and

125 Although this is a British case, its actual focus tends to be England-centric, as England
tends to be the focus of the national media as well as the part of the UK where a large
proportion of ethnic minorities live, and on which research in this field is concentrated.
In principle we cover England Scotland and Wales, whereas Northern Ireland is exclud-
ed altogether due to the specifically different conditions and policies in that part of the
country in relation to the sectarian divide and ethnic conflict

395
 reproducing racism within British society. Taking a cue from the
seminal work of Stuart Hall, several accounts of racism in the media
that appeared from cultural studies in the 1980s took up an activist
anti-racist position and strongly condemned the representation of
minorities by the British media (e.g. Gordon and Rosengren, 1989;
Searle, 1989; Murray, 1989; Jones, 1982). Seeing British 'race rela-
tions' politics as inherently racist and a symptom of a crisis of hege-
mony in the postcolonial epoch, the media in general and the press
in particular were selected as a principal culprit in the reproduction
of this 'racist Britain'. For example, Gordon and Rosenberg's conclu-
sions leave little doubt as to who is to blame in their eyes (1989:68):

'The implications of a racist press for society in general and for

threatened minorities in particular are extremely serious. As a
major opinion-former, acting both on policy-makers and upon
those for whom policy is made and practised, a racist press plays
a very significant role in maintaining, strengthening and justify-
ing racism at all levels of society, providing a cover for racist activ-
ity, especially racist violence. In press reporting of 'race' matters
we have seen the manipulation of 'popular' fears and suspicions
and the creation of a climate of opinion where such racists activi-
ty becomes normalised and encouraged.'

Such claims that the press is inherently racist, and a perpetuator of

racism to the extent of even being a potential cause of racist vio-
lence, and promoter of 'popular' racist beliefs are highly con-
tentious. Furthermore, they were often made on the basis of scant
empirical evidence, and at best, by repeating the same well known
examples, without information on the extent to which such cases
were representative of the norm. Although such perspectives were
influential in British studies of the media and 'race' in the 1980s,
their limited theoretical perspective of the role of the media in
everyday life and their anti-racist campaigning agenda, provide few
empirical research materials for assessing the actual 'state of affairs'
of media coverage and representation of ethnic minorities. This
makes it difficult to use them to compare the past situation to
today, and to gauge whether there have been significant improve-
ments. Instead perhaps the major impact of this research was a
political rather than an academic one - it popularised the message

396
in the British 'race relations' and liberal-thinking circles that the
media was strongly causally linked to the perpetuation of racism in
society.

4.15.1.2 TOWARD AN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH AGENDA ON

RACIAL,CULTURAL, ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
IN THE MEDIA?
Escaping the tautological proposition perpetuated by cultural stud-
ies that 'the media is always racist' would require reference to
empirical studies, that over time and by media type, charted and
analysed the thematic contents of the messages carried by the
media when covering issues relating to migrants and minorities. In
addition, to address even more complex questions relating to soci-
ety, such as whether media coverage and representation con-
tributes to the level of racial violence in a society, or the perceptions
held by the public, would require a much more sophisticated type
of analysis than simply looking at media messages. For example, it
would require studying the relevant actors and processes of cogni-
tion. As the level and depth of existing research in Britain on the
media reporting of 'race-related' issues has been somewhat limited
in recent times, the trends and indications outlined in this report
are drawn from the available evidence that is collated from a rather
patchy and unsystematic field.126

One factor about which most commentators agree is that there has
been a general overall improvement in the media coverage and
representation of migrants and minorities in Britain. Yasmin
Alibhai-Brown, a journalist at the Independent newspaper and
researcher at the Institute of Public Policy Research, sums up the
current state of affairs (1998: 116):

126 Omitted from this overview will be the important recent theoretical work by Charles
Husband (1998) on the 'multi-ethnic' public sphere and citizenship. This report is self-
consciously biased toward the available empirically based research and does not report
on theoretical developments in the field. Also case studies which typically focus on a
single minority group and make general claims about the role of media in minority
identity formation are omitted as their findings tend to be theoretically speculative
rather than empirically grounded.

397
 'Many features of the earlier period remain stubbornly in place.
Immigration is still discussed in terms of numbers and problems,
'black' families are still pathologised and 'Asians' in general only
considered worthy of media interest if they can be shown to be
'culturally backward', if they are victims of racism or, less fre-
quently, if they have made good as hard working immigrants….
But even in the 1990s only the most pessimistic would argue that
nothing has changed. Most obviously it has, and in the direction
that was sought by those who were campaigning back in the
1970s and 1980s.'

Moving beyond such informed insider-hearsay, other more sub-

stantive empirical research on the media coverage of issues of
immigration, 'race' and ethnic minorities has pointed toward the
following findings: an overall 'not guilty' verdict from a study that
aimed to judge the contents of media reporting on 'race' in the
1997 British election against the charges of reproducing racial
stereotypes and marginalising minority and anti-racist voices (Law,
et al. 1997); British migrants and minorities receiving significant
news space to make their own political claims in the press
(Statham, 1999); a greater level of representation of minorities on
British television programmes compared to earlier times
(Cumberbatch, 1996); but difficulties in producing ethnic minority
programming (Cottle, 1997) and limitations in employing minori-
ties at senior levels within the broadcasting industry (Ouaj, 1999),
in part due to the increasing market-driven commercial pressures
facing public and independent broadcasting. Key findings of this
empirical research deserve highlighting and will be drawn together
to form the basis of this report. As we are forced to draw from sec-
ondary research sources, there are of course limitations to the
scope of the report. We cannot report on missing information, but
a concerted effort has been made to tie the research, which does
exist into a coherent overall picture. The report on media and cul-
tural diversity is in three sections: coverage, topics and sources;
themes, framing and labelling; and media initiatives for promoting
cultural diversity.

398
4.15.2 COVERAGE, TOPICS AND SOURCES

4.15.2.1 NEWS COVERAGE

Within the time span under consideration, the Law et al. study
(1997), commissioned by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE)
provides an overview of the levels and types of coverage of issues
relating to immigration and ethnic relations across a broad spec-
trum of newsprint media and broadcasting. Here a content analysis
was undertaken for six months from November 1996 to May 1997,
covering the main television news programmes and/or commen-
tary programmes on the four terrestrial channels (BBC1 news, ITN
news, C4 news, BBC2 Newsnight) and a satellite channel (SKY
news); the main news bulletins and/or programmes on radio (BBC
Radio 1 news, BBC Radio 4 Today, BBC Radio 5 news, INR news); and
seven national daily newspapers and their Sunday equivalents
(Times / Sunday Times, Guardian / Observer, Telegraph / Sunday
Telegraph, Independent / Independent on Sunday, Mail / Mail on
Sunday, Sun / News of the World, Mirror / People) and two region-
al dailies (London Evening Standard, Yorkshire Evening Post).
Although this study covered a wide range of media sources, an
important caveat to bear in mind when evaluating the findings is
that it was drawn from a period of six months. The time period was
special in that it encompassed the reporting in the run up to the
national election of 1997, and so may differ from that of more 'nor-
mal' periods of politics, and secondly, it may be unrepresentative of
general reporting due to the effects of particular important events
in the field which occurred by chance during the selected time
span. Nonetheless, the Law et al. report analysed the main themes
and interpretative frames in 1,295 news items, and so remains an
important source of information for this summary, as it is both
quantitative and qualitative and falls in the middle of the time peri-
od under review. 127

Regarding the overall levels of coverage on 'race' and immigration,

for radio broadcasting the overwhelming source of coverage on the
topic is the BBC Radio 4 Today programme which had 142 items,
compared to 29 on BBC Radio 5, 17 on BBC Radio 1, and only four

399
 on the Independent Radio News. For television broadcasting, the
public broadcaster's main TV news programme on BBC1 accounts
for the highest proportion of coverage on immigration and ethnic
relations issues, with 42 items in the period, followed by Channel 4's
34 items, BBC2 Newsnight's 33 items, and then by the Satellite SKY
News' 23 items, and lastly, the main news programme on ITV with
only 16 (Law et al., 1997:7). Although it is difficult to compare these
programmes directly due to their different functions in the news
agenda, and the length of time and news space which they have
available, it is nonetheless possible to draw some general observa-
tions. First, it seems that public broadcasting (BBC) in general gives
more coverage to ethnic relations and immigration issues than
independent broadcasting. In part this may be due to the official
obligation of all state bodies in Britain under the Race Relations Acts
to promote equal opportunities, which indirectly affects the state
broadcaster in its self-definition of its duties. A second point to
observe is that specialised news programmes which are more like-
ly to be watched or heard by political elites -BBC Radio 4 Today,
BBC1 News, BBC2 Newsnight and the Independent Channel 4
News- are also likely to have a higher proportion of coverage on
these issues than the other more populist formats of broadcasting
such as Radio 1 or SKY news.

Regarding coverage by the news print media, the same study found
that the highest proportion of coverage on race/immigration was
by the Guardian / Observer with 211 items, which is significantly
higher than the Mail / Sunday Mail (142), Independent / Sunday
Independent (138), Telegraph / Sunday Telegraph (130), Times /
127 A six months sample is obviously not as definitive as a five-year sample, but it is a suf-
ficiently long time-span to have confidence about the accuracy of the findings relating
to the differences in media representation. Also the fact that it was an pre-election
period holds for all the different media types. They are all likely to follow election top-
ics more closely, and so is not going to distort differences in the representation of the
race and immigration issues. Regarding distortions due to specific high profile events
in the six months period, it is worth noting that even when key events from the
race/immigration issue field become high on the mainstream political agenda -such as
the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry- this may have an effect on the overall quantity of
reporting compared to other times, and influence the topical focus (e.g. racial attacks
instead of asylum) compared to other times, but it should not alter the different ways
in which different media report about such issues.

400
Sunday Times (127), and three and four times higher than the
tabloids Mirror / Sunday Mirror (61) and Sun / News of the World
(49) and the local papers London Evening Standard (68) and
Yorkshire Evening Post (29) (Law et al., 1997:7). This distribution
shows that in crude terms broadsheet newspapers carry more cov-
erage than the tabloids and local newspapers. In addition, the high
level of attention for this type of issue by the Guardian / Observer
may be indicative of the newspaper taking an editorial lead on such
issues, which fit into the newspaper's own self definition of a centre-
left liberal agenda.

4.15.2.2 NEWS TOPICS

The Law et al. findings give a similar distribution to those of a study
funded by the eEconomic Social Research Council 'Racist
Sentiments Movements and the Mass Media' and conducted by Paul
Statham and David Morrison at the Institute of Communications
Studies at the University of Leeds (ESRC Final Report 1999).
Although principally focused on the political mobilisation of minori-
ties, anti-racist, and xenophobic movements, from a social move-
ments perspective, this study also conducted a detailed compara-
tive content analysis of the national press coverage of migrations
and ethnic relations issues in six national newspapers (Monday,
Wednesday, Friday editions) for the whole year 1995, resulting in an
overall sample of 1,264 articles. As part of a much broader study,
the aim was to determine whether tabloid versus broadsheet or
political affiliation-left/right-were factors in determining the levels
and topics of reporting on migration and ethnic relations. General
findings of the Racist Sentiments project can be summarised with
reference to Table 1, which gives the coverage of the newspapers in
relation to general aggregate categories of main topics in the news.

401
 Table 1. Newspaper coverage of migration and ethnic relations in
national daily newspapers, 1995.
Guardian Times Mail Express Sun Mirror
Immigration/
Asylum issues 36.7% 46.4% 54.6% 40.7% 31.6% 16.8%
EU Common
borders 1.6% 1.1% 2.5% 2.0% 5.2% 2.1%
UK National
borders 2.9% 4.9% 5.0% 6.2% 1.7% -
Policies for
foreigners/i
mmigrants 15.4% 23.5% 29.3% 19.1% 20.1% 10.5%
Policies for
refugees/
asylum 16.8% 16.9% 17.8% 13.4% 4.6% 4.2%
Institutional
minority issues 16.0% 17.5% 24.4% 22.7% 33.4% 31.6%
Judicial provision
for minorities 1.6% 3.8% 9.1% 9.3% 6.9% 14.7%
State provision
for minorities 5.6% 6.6% 9.5% 7.7% 19.0% 4.2%
Police control 6.4% 3.8% 2.9% 1.6% 2.3% 3.2%
Crime and minorities 2.4% 3.3% 2.9% 4.1% 5.2% 9.5
Racist/anti-rracist
activism issues 39.8% 29.5% 17.3% 34.5% 28.1% 51.6%
Racial attacks/
violence 9.3% 3.8% 6.6% 5.2% 5.2% 7.3%
Racial abuse 21.5% 12.6% 3.7% 12.4% 10.9% 15.8%
Extreme right/
activism 5.9% 6.0% 2.1% 8.8% 6.9% 21.1%
Ethnic minority
activism 1.3% 5.5% 3.7% 5.1% 4.0% 5.3%
Anti-racist activism 0.5% 0.5% - 0.5% - -
Minority extremist
activism 1.3% 1.1% 1.2% 2.5% 1.1% 2.1%
National Identity
(majority/minority)
cleavage issues 5.4% 6.6% 3.3% 1.6% 5.7% 0.0%
Other issues 2.1% 0.0% 0.4% 0.5% 1.2% 0.0%
Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
N (articles) 376 183 242 194 174 95

A first point to note from Table 1 is that issues relating to immigra-

tion and asylum politics are a strong thematic focus for all newspa-
pers except the left-wing tabloid Mirror, which in any case, had a

402
much lower level of reporting than the other newspapers. This was
particularly the case for the centre-right broadsheets Times and
Mail where this topic accounted for about a half of all reporting, and
was principally focused on policy issues pertaining to the treatment
of immigrants and foreigners (Times 23.5%, Mail 29.3%). It would
appear that the Mail in particular takes immigration and asylum as
a campaign issue, as 11.6% of all its articles were editorials com-
pared to only 1.6% in the Times. In contrast, the centre-left broad-
sheet, Guardian, focused more attention on issues relating to racist
and anti-racist activism in civil society (39.8%), and among these on
racial abuse and anti-Semitism in particular (21.5%). This shows a
difference in internal focus by the broadsheet newspapers on
themes in the migration field: the centre-right affiliated newspa-
pers are more likely to report on immigration and asylum issues,
and the centre-left broadsheets more on the civil society issues of
combating racist acts in the public domain, and campaigning by
minorities themselves toward such aims.

With the exception of the Daily Mail, stories about racial attacks and
violence and incidents of racial abuse are the main topic of more
than 15% of the coverage of all the other newspapers. This indicates
that racial attacks, violence, and incidents of racial abuse are treat-
ed in such a way that they achieve a prominent place on the news
agenda. However, activism by anti-racist movements in the public
domain was hardly the main topic of any news, whereas -again with
the exception of the Mail- ethnic minority activism was less likely to
be a main news topic than extreme right activism in all newspapers.
However, this should not be taken as an indication that ethnic
minorities do not receive news space for articulating their demands
when they are reported in the news, or that they receive less space
than the extreme Right (see below).

Regarding the tabloid newspapers, the right-leaning Sun carried

twice as much coverage as the left-leaning Mirror. Indeed the Sun
had the same overall level of coverage as the broadsheet Times.
Half of the coverage of the Mirror focused on issues of activism in
civil society relation to the immigration/race field, and more than a
fifth of its coverage (21.1%) focused on the activities of the extreme
Right. This may be taken as an indication of the Mirror newspaper

403
 taking this as a campaign issue. In contrast to the Mirror, the Sun
has a more complete overall coverage of the range of themes in the
race/immigration issue-field. The Sun focuses a third of its attention
on the institutional questions of provision for minorities, and in par-
ticular, state provision for minorities (19.0%), which can be seen as
an issue on which the newspaper takes a lead - though not neces-
sarily a pro-minority one. It is worth pointing out that issues of
crime and minorities were not significantly more prominent as a
topic in the news coverage of the Sun than in other newspapers.
This seems to contradict conventional interpretations put forward
by previous research in the 1980s -specifically that from a cultural
studies background described earlier-, which blamed the Sun in
particular for linking minorities with crime.128

Interviews with editors and journalists indicated that differences in

newspaper reporting on race and immigration were the likely out-
comes of the different general editorial positions and institutional
self-understandings of the newspapers own position. Newspapers
do not have specialist reporters who cover a 'race' beat129 in the
same way that they have an 'environmental' beat. Issues relating to
immigration and ethnic relations are subsumed into the general
reporting practices and covered by Home Affairs, Crime and Law
correspondents. Thus that a paper sees itself as a 'pro-Police' news-
paper or has good relationships and sources within the Home Office
affects the way that issues relating to 'race' are reported. Barriers to
more positive representations of minorities may be an outcome of
general institutionalised and established reporting practices that
are more open to views expressed by other types of actors, and offi-
cial sources in particular.

128 This could of course be due to an 'improvement' of reporting by the Sun compared to
earlier times. This was the reason given by a Sun journalist in response to this query.
129 Lowe and Morrison (1984) showed how a group or 'news beat' of environmental
reporters emerged in response to the salience of environmental issues in the 1980s.
The beginnings of such a process may be witnessed in the increasing sections on 'race'
within British newspapers since the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. As yet however, this has
been limited to certain newspapers and reporters, such as Gary Younge in the
Guardian, and is not a general trend, though it may become one if race remains high
on the political agenda.

404
4.15.2.3 NEWS SOURCES

A further aim of the Racist Sentiments Project was to determine the

relative amount of space given to different types of actors (institu-
tional; civil society; movement activist) to make political claims as
'sources' in news reports, in order to understand whether or not the
newspapers favoured representing specific sources. The major sub-
stantive finding was that although the newspapers varied consider-
ably in the ways they themselves presented 'race' and immigration
issues, there was considerable similarity in the proportion of space
that was given to 'sources' to make claims about the topic in news
reports. This finding is rather counterintuitive. It is demonstrated by
comparing two very different types of newspaper. According to the
findings, although the overall level of reporting in the centre-left
broadsheet Guardian was more than twice as high as for the right-
leaning tabloid Sun, both newspapers attributed proportionally
similar amounts of space to different types of 'source' claims-mak-
ers: e.g., government/executive source claims-Guardian 21.1%, Sun
23.3%; ethnic minority source claims - Guardian 18.6%, Sun 16.3%;
extreme right source claims - Guardian 1.7%, Sun 2.3%. Thus, it is
not the case that minorities are not given news space in a populist
paper such as the Sun to voice their own demands. On the contrary,
they were the second highest category of actors who were given
space to voice their own political demands (16.3% of all demands)
in news reports, receiving less than only the government (23.3%),
and more than legislative actors (13.9%), the judiciary (9.3%),
police (5.8%), and state race relations bodies (5.8%), and even eight
times more than the extreme Right and racist actors (2.3%). This
finding can be taken as evidence for a probable improvement in the
news coverage by the Sun130 , whereby regardless of the newspa-
per's own editorial position, it maintains a sufficient level of objec-
tivity that minority actors are able to be heard on the set of issues
about them. It is not the case that the Sun simply brackets the opin-
ions of minorities out of the public domain.

130 It is of course only possible to make suppositions here in the absence of detailed sub-
stantive comparative work on the qualitative aspects of media representation. The
available qualitative detail from the Law et al. study is described below.

405
 Another finding is that although the extreme Right activism was a
more prominent news topic for reporting than minority activism in
five of the six newspapers (see above), the trend is significantly
reversed when considering the actual amount of space allowed to
both actors to voice their demands. In all six newspapers, ethnic
minorities were the sources of political claims between four and
ten times more often than the extreme Right. This confirms that
the pariah status of the extreme Right within the public domain is
one that is upheld by the newsprint media. Conversely, it indicates
that ethnic minorities in Britain are treated by the media as a signif-
icant and legitimate source for making claims in relation to the
political issues about them. A similar finding which confirms this is
in the research by the Law et al. which found that ethnic minorities
and related organisations were the primary actors in 23% of the
news items that were studied (1997: 37).

Lastly, we turn to anti-racist organisations; that is, organisations

from the majority society who mobilise against racism and discrim-
ination. Anti-racist organisations were very rarely used as sources,
however this is most likely related to the specialist function that the
anti-racist movement plays in the public domain. In comparison to
other European countries, the relatively small size of the British
anti-racist movement propre, should be seen against the back-
ground of a general state-sponsored climate of mainstream anti-
racism that is embodied in the state-sponsored concept of Race
Relations and racial equality.131

4.15.3 THEMES, FRAMING AND LABELLING

Turning now to the important qualitative aspect of how the news
media portray issues relating to the field of immigration and ethnic
relations, Law et al. present as a key finding of their research that
three quarters of the news items which they analysed conveyed a
broadly anti-racist message; that is, were news items with media
frames 'which seek to expose and criticise racist attitudes, state-
ments, actions and policies, which address the concerns of immi-

131 See Statham, (2001), on British antiracism; Koopmans and Statham, (2000), for a com-
parison of anti-racism in Britain and Germany.

406
grant and minority ethnic groups and show their contribution to
British society, and which embrace an inclusive view of multi-cul-
tural British identity' (Law et al., 1997:18). This study sees the dom-
inant frame in the messages produced by the British media, as
'Racism is wrong', whereby the impartiality of the journalist does
not prevent the basic message getting across that racism is morally
wrong. The repetition of this basic tenet occurred across the news
in different types of media, and across a wide range of different
types of stories referring to different political, social, and institu-
tional dimensions of the race/immigration issue field. Clearly, such
findings indicate that the standard norm for British media reporting
is in general to perpetuate anti-racist stances that are in fact in line
with the official policy stance of the state on Race Relations. A more
detailed breakdown of findings is given in Table 2, which has been
constructed from the Law et al. data.

The key finding here is that almost four tenths of all coverage
(37.6%) of all news items actively exposed racism and racial dis-
crimination, and that this high figure holds across broadcasting and
print media, with the popular tabloid press having the highest pro-
portion of coverage that exposed racism (44.7%). This last point
confirms the earlier finding that the British tabloid press no longer
seem to merit the overtly racist tag that they were given by studies
in the early 1980s. Nonetheless, tabloids do still carry a higher pro-
portion of negative items than the other forms of media (33.3%
compared to 23.6% for broadsheets, 16.1% for radio, and 12.9% for
TV) , but in part this higher level of both pro- and anti- positions
may be due to the polemical style of the tabloid news genre. Overall
it is clear that the tabloid press takes a general anti-racist position,
and that only a few tabloid news items constituted a 'denial dis-
course' denying the existence of racism (1.6%) as their main theme,
a figure that was even lower than the broadsheets (2.4%).

This overall anti-racist position of the tabloid press, however,

appears to relate principally to British ethnic minorities and does
not extend to immigrants and asylum-seekers. Indeed the only vari-
ation across the overall pattern of media positions is that tabloids
take up a strongly anti-immigrant stance (11.6% anti-immigrant
themes versus 2.8% pro-immigrant themes) whereas the broad-

407
 sheet press, radio and television carry more pro- than anti-immi-
grant themes.

Of the anti-immigrant themes carried by the media about a quarter

were stories demanding the reduction of migrant rights, whereas a
further quarter claimed that they were a burden on the welfare
state, and an eighth identified migrants themselves as being dis-
honest (e.g. using false passports) and 'bogus'. Here surveying
some of the headlines shows that the overall anti-racist tones of the
media are not extended by some of the press to migrants:

Table 2. Thematic framing in news coverage (adapted from Law et

al. data, 1997:18,21).
Tabloid Broadsheet Radio Television All
Immigration
+ Pro-immigrant 2.8% 7.4% 22.4% 14.9% 9.3%
- Anti-immigrant 11.6% 4.3% 5.2% 4.7% 6.3%
General election
+ Pro-minorities 10.0% 15.7% 9.9% 20.9% 14.1%
- Anti-minorities 3.4% 2.8% 0.5% 2.7% 2.6%
Racism
+ Exposing 44.7% 34.2% 39.1% 35.1% 37.6%
- Denying 1.6% 2.4% 2.6% 1.4% 2.1%
Social Value
+ Assets 3.8% 6.5% 2.1% 0.7% 4.5%
- Problems 14.1% 12.3% 7.8% 4.1% 11.1%
Multicultural Britain
+ For 1.9% 3.9% 2.1% 1.4% 2.9%
- Against 1.3% 1.3% - - 0.9%
Opportunities
+ Improve 3.1% 5.7% 5.2% 10.8% 5.6%
- Restrict 1.3% 0.5% - - 0.5%
Other 0.6% 3.2% 3.2% 3.4% 6.4%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100.0%
Overall Proportion
of Negative Items 33.3% 23.6% 16.1% 12.9% 23.6%
305/1295 N

You Pay, a scrounger stays - Daily Mail 15/4/97

£250,000 bill for aids immigrant 'too ill to leave' - Daily Telegraph
15/4/97
Bogus refugees who plane-hop to Britain - Daily Mail 7/4/97
Cheating migrants grave fiddle - News of the World 30/3/97

408
In this anti-immigrant discourse, the migrants themselves are often
stigmatised as 'cheats', 'bogus', ungrateful, and as 'scroungers' with
scant elaboration given to the conditions which bring about
refugees and the need for migrants to move to Britain. In many
cases this amounts to 'blaming the victim'. Especially the Daily Mail
takes a clear anti-immigration (the process) stance that in populist
formats of representation often translates into an anti-immigrant
(the people) stance. It is worth pointing out that in the run up to the
last election, 'race' and immigration were not issues that became
overtly politicised and subject to party competition. The study by
Law et al. even shows that general election coverage was a strongly
pro-minority (14.1% of themes pro- compared to only 2.1% anti-
minority) discourse, with political parties aiming to attract the
minority vote (1997: 27). More recently, the Opposition
Conservative Party under leader William Hague has publicly thema-
tised issues relating to immigration and asylum by taking an anti-
asylum-seeker position. As Labour were forced to respond, this has
led to populist stances being taken up by some politicians of both
major parties, expressing anti-immigration sentiments and using
the same language and metaphors as those which have resonated
in some sections of the press over the last years. To a certain extent,
it appears that immigrants and asylum-seekers now receive the
same type of stigmatising coverage, which 'Black' and 'Asian'
minorities received fifteen years ago. This suggests that the criteria
for newspapers to include groups within their vision of the British
community has changed over time and is now applied on the basis
of citizenship, so that British minorities are no longer an 'outgroup'
but to a certain extent are included in the 'we' who are defined in
opposition to 'them' the foreigners. This highlights that despite a
relative level of autonomy, the media agenda in the long term very
much follows the political agenda in its evaluation of 'race' and
immigration.

There are, of course, still exceptions to the overall improvements in

the media representation of British ethnic minorities. Law et al.
(1997:31) found that in cases of particularly heinous crimes where
minorities are involved, some reporting still falls back into the now
apparently 'outdated' mode of stigmatisation that to a certain
extent implies a causal link between ethnic background and the

409
 crime. Thus for example, the Daily Mail under the headlines report-
ed the gang rape of a tourist by a group of ethnic minority youths:

Trophy rape by teenage jackals - Daily Mail 12/4/97

Spawning the teenage savages - Daily Mail 19/4/97

One wonders whether white rapists would have been referred to as

'jackals' or 'savages'. In general, however, such forms of representa-
tion seem to be present in only a minority of cases, and by a small
number of newspapers.

A further point is that according to Law et al., there were relatively

few themes referring to multiculturalism in Britain. Among these
multicultural themes, they found three times as many valuing Islam
as those that were anti-Islam. As the overall sample numbers are
low, not too much should be read into this, but the available evi-
dence suggests that the British media is not a promoter of
Islamophobia as has been suggested in some quarters (see e.g.
Brown, 2000). Of course, it may be that multicultural issues appear
in other issue fields, such as education, and that Muslims are prob-
lematised by the media in relation to such issues, and that this has
not been captured by the Law study. Further research is necessary
on the media treatment of Islam before it is possible to draw con-
crete conclusions on this.

Lastly, concerning the labels given to minorities, according to the

Law et al. study (1997: 39), groups were most often referred to by
racial references, with most references being to 'black' or white.
'Asian' was a more common usage than religious references, such as
Muslim, Hindu or Sikh, and there was very little usage of homeland
national identities, such as Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi. Afro-
Caribbean and West Indian were hardly used at all. These findings
simply underline that the officially sponsored categories in British
Race Relations politics of 'black' and 'Asian' are the predominant
forms of identification for minorities that are used by the media.

410
4.15.4 MEDIA INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE CULTURAL
DIVERSITY

4.15.4.1 REGULATORY FRAMEWORK, SELF-REGULATORY

MECHANISMS, AND INSTITUTIONAL PRACTICES

In Britain, the regulatory framework has given greater priority to

curbing racially offensive items in recent years. Most fields of media
and public relations now have established codes of practice.
Members of the public can make complaints to regulatory bodies
over issues involving negative or objectionable portrayals of 'race',
that are, in turn, judged against codes of practice. Statutory bodies
including the Independent Television Commission (ITC),
Broadcasting Standards Council (BSC), Radio Authority, and the
British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) internal complaints
process for broadcasting, and the Press Complaints Commission
(PCC) for the newsprint media, have a duty to ensure that such
codes of practice are met. In 1995, both the Advertising Standards
Authority and the Institute of Public Relations included specific ref-
erences to racial offence in their codes of practice. Establishing such
codes of conduct has been a key area of activity by the Commission
for Racial Equality and should be seen in a positive light. However,
despite pronouncements by Lord Wakeman, Chair of the PCC, that
his body 'won't tolerate newspapers that treat racial minorities in an
offensive manner' (cited CRE web page), such bodies remain rather
toothless. As far as the law may affect journalists, they may be pros-
ecuted under the 1986 Public Order Act for displaying, publishing,
or distributing 'written material that is threatening, abusive, or
insulting if he (the journalist) intends thereby to stir up racial hatred
or if, having regard to all circumstances, racial hatred is likely to be
stirred up thereby' (Welsh and Greenwood, 1999). Clearly such
legal provisions do not extend toward influencing how minorities
are represented in the press beyond the most extreme cases, such
as overtly racist propaganda.

The National Union of Journalists does have a set of guidelines,

which it expects its members to keep. However, in interviews by the
author with several journalists and editors from the British press,

411
 none actually referred to the NUJ guidelines. In fact, most journal-
ists fall back on what they called professional 'common sense' that
was acquired from previously writing about immigration and 'race'
issues, and gaining knowledge about the subject matter as part of
the investigative process.

In general, most journalists and editors from a wide range of news-

papers agreed that the overall portrayal of minorities had improved
from the 1980s, and saw this as related to general processes of
change within British society. For example, a Sun journalist pointed
out that as many Sun readers were 'black', and that since the news-
paper saw itself now as the paper of the 'working man' rather than
the 'white working class', it was no longer likely to stigmatise 'black'
people unless colour or 'race' was an important element in the
story. Furthermore, he stated that the marriage of the owner
Rupert Murdoch's daughter to a 'black' man probably had an effect.
Similarly, another newspaper with a reputation for stigmatising
'black' people, the Daily Mail, was the newspaper that took the
lead in naming and exposing the alleged perpetrators of the mur-
dered 'black' youth Stephen Lawrence. Several journalists to me by
the anecdote, that Stephen Lawrence's father was decorating the
house of the editor of the Daily Mail, and that as a result the editor
came to the decision that these were ordinary people who had
been done a great injustice explained this out of character step by
the Mail.

Whatever the truth behind such claims, it is clear that newspaper

organisations do not have a 'democratic' institutional structure
when it comes to editorial decisions. Power comes very much from
the top-down, which means that owners and editors need to be
influenced to bring about changes. Although this means that there
can be at times St. Paul-style dramatic conversions in newspaper
positions on 'race', in general it is very difficult for changes in news-
paper and editorial stances to be brought about from bottom-up
initiatives by journalists. Instead, incremental change in reporting
appears to have simply kept apace with (or a pace behind) general
changes and perceptions that have occurred within British society.
It is also worth pointing out that the Mail's position on the Lawrence
case was exceptional, and is more likely to turn out to be 'an excep-

412
tion that proves the rule' rather than a new dawn of 'race-conscious'
sensitivity in reporting by the newspaper.

The broadcasting media have taken internal initiatives to address

improving the presentation of minorities. For example, the
renewed licence issued to Channel 4 by the ITC in 1998 includes a
commitment for at least three hours multicultural programming a
week, some at peak times (ITC notes No.36 December 1998). In
addition, some independent television companies such as Granada
and London Weekend Television have implemented their own pro-
gramme portrayal policies that are monitored by working groups.
The BBC has implemented similar internal initiatives. However, mar-
ket-driven commercial changes affecting the industry have created
a difficult climate for producers wishing to advance minority pro-
gramming (Cottle, 1997). Although the 1990 Broadcasting Act
does not refer to the representation of ethnic minorities in general
programming, both the ITC and BBC have sponsored research to
assess such issues. The 1996 report found a higher representation
of minorities than in 1989/90. Six per cent of all characters in UK
productions were from ethnic minorities and this rose to 26% for
serious factual programming. In fiction, 39 per cent of characters
were from minorities, but more than four times as many were Afro-
Caribbeans than 'Asians'. Lastly, although minorities were more
likely to be represented as unemployed or working class, they were
less likely to be represented as criminals than whites (Cumberbatch,
1996). In 1999, the ITC and BBC jointly commissioned a further
report from the University of Leicester, which indicates at least a
degree of ongoing commitment for independent research that
monitors performance on minority representation. Lastly, in
October 2000, BBC, ITV, and Channels 4 and 5 launched the
'Cultural Diversity Network', aiming to increase minority represen-
tation both on screen and behind the scenes (Guardian 13th
October, 2000). To be effective and move beyond mere exhorta-
tion such initiatives will have to be given weight within the broad-
casting institutions.

413
 4.15.4.2 EMPLOYMENT IN THE MEDIA

As yet there have been virtually no initiatives to recruit journalists

from ethnic minorities. In 1995, out of approximately 5,000 staff
journalists on national newspapers, fewer than thirty came from
minority backgrounds, and there were no 'black' or 'Asian' editors,
regular critics, or columnists. Since then, there have been a few lim-
ited changes, with the Financial Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail and
the Guardian / Observer now having a number of 'black' and 'Asian'
staff (Alibhai-Brown, 1998:118). This can in part be accounted for
by the fact that recruitment of journalists for national newspapers
tends to be done on an informal basis, rather then through formal
advertisements and interviews, which makes journalism somewhat
of an insider clique that is difficult to penetrate.

The public broadcasting corporation BBC is by far the industry's

largest employer and undertakes a special obligation to reflect the
diversity of British society. One way to achieve this is by employing
minorities, and since 1989 the BBC has been setting targets for the
proportion of staff that should come from ethnic minorities for
each directorate. Initially the aim was to reach a target of 8% by the
year 2000, which would reflect the projected composition of British
minorities. Network Television, Radio, and News and Current
Affairs, and the World Service (English language) should reflect the
'ethnic composition' of the nation, regional broadcasting that of the
specific region, and non-output directorates the composition of the
areas from which they recruit staff (Ouaj, 1999: 44-5). At first, it
appears that these attempts achieved some limited successes in
increasing the numbers of ethnic minorities employed by the BBC,
however the drastic reductions in the overall number of staff
brought about by changes in the industry affected these initiatives;
consequently, between the 1995/6 and 1996/7 year, many of the
directorates showed an actual decline in the proportion of minority
employees (BBC Annual Report 1996/7). Nonetheless, these find-
ings are somewhat tempered by those on the proportion of ethnic
minorities in management positions at the BBC. According to the
annual report 1997/8 figures, these show at least some potential to
approach their proposed targets, with Homes Services employing
7.4% (target 8%), World Service 21.8% (target 8%), and in the

414
Regions: Scotland 1.3% (target 2%), Wales 1.5% (target 2%), North
3% (target 4%), South 2.8 (target 4.7%), Midlands & East 5.1% (tar-
get 6%) (Ouaj, 1999:46).

Table 3. Minorities among Staff of Independent Television

Companies.
Independent Ethnic Minorities Ethnic Minorities Ethnic Minorities
Television at in in
Companies Management Level Total Staff Total Staff
1999 1995 1999
Licensee No. % of % of staff No. % of
managers staff
Anglia 0 0 1.5 14 2.3
Border 0 0 0.9 1 0
Carlton 3 3.2 6.5 54 9.6
Central 0 0 4.2 34 3.8
Channel 0 0 1.0 3 4
Grampian 0 0 1.1 1 0.8
Granada 1 1 1.8 51 3
HTV 1 2.3 3.0 9 2
LWT 24 7.9 8.0 89 8.3
Meridian 1 1.8 3.0 8 1.9
Scottish 3 2.1 1.7 8 1.4
Tyne Tees 0 0 1.7 3 1.3
Ulster 0 0 1.3 0 0
Westcountry 1 3.3 1.8 2 1.1
Yorkshire 1 1.6 1.4 20 2
GMTV 3 3 5.3 22 7.3
Channel 4 37 7.6 9.0 77 9.4
Channel 5 5 4.5 - 18 7.4
source: adapted from ITC web page for 1999 (http://www.itc.org.uk), and Ouaj,
1999: 48 for 1995.

Independent Television companies have also enacted monitoring

initiatives. As Table 3 shows, there is a broad regional difference in
the extent to which independent television companies have been
successful in raising their proportion of minority employees. Those
in London areas, which have the highest concentration of minority
populations, such as Carlton and LWT, have increased their overall
minority staff levels to approaching ten per cent. Indeed in 1999,
LWT won the Diverse Broadcaster of the Year award at the
Windrush Achievement Awards for ethnic minority productions.
Carlton, Granada, LWT, and Meridian have ethnic minority training

415
 schemes. According to the ITC, though, ethnic minorities in gener-
al are still heavily concentrated in non-managerial and non-pro-
gramme positions and are still represented well below population
levels.

4.15.4.3 GOOD PRACTICES AWARDS AND EVENTS

In 1992, the Commission for Racial Equality launched its Race in the
Media Awards to 'encourage more informed coverage of race rela-
tions issues' (Ross, 1996: 148). The CRE continues with an annual
set of awards to encourage good journalistic practice, but this is, of
course, more of a symbolic ritual than an effective measure toward
achieving such aims. Finally, in late 2000, the charity presswise
(http://www.presswise.org.uk) set up the Refugees, Asylum-seek-
ers and the Mass Media (RAM) programme. This issues guidelines to
journalists for covering sensitive topics relating to asylum and pro-
duces an e-mail bulletin monitoring recent incidents of reporting,
and in 2001 will hold events that are designed to raise awareness
(http://www.ramproject.org.uk). This initiative has also been
backed by the NUJ which is encouraging its 30,000 members to
spend time with refugee organisations, and report sympathetically
on the plight of refugees and asylum seekers. However noble and
worthy such initiatives are, they remain voluntary and would only
become really effective if they received the backing of the media
institutions themselves.

4.15.5 THE NEED FOR POLITICALLY RELEVANT RESEARCH

ON MEDIA AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY
This report has attempted to merge the various strands of second-
ary information that are available on media and cultural diversity in
Britain into a coherent picture of the current 'state of affairs'. As I
have already summarised the main findings at the beginning of the
report, I propose in these concluding remarks to point out the need
for a future research agenda that will produce practical and politi-
cally relevant contributions to our knowledge of this field.

At present there has been little recent systematic research on the

mediated contents and messages that appear in the public domain.

416
A significant contribution would be made to our understanding if
an ongoing system of monitoring were undertaken, based on a
sample across different types of media, and that provided a data-
set that charted the thematic contents of topics, and the qualitative
way in which they were reported, over time. Such an undertaking
would require substantial funding, but with correct sampling need
not be excessively expensive. Only by knowing what is actually
empirically present in the media landscape at the macro-level will
we be in a position of knowing whether it is a problem that needs
addressing. At present we run the risk of having a plethora of case
studies about individual topics, but being unable to place where
these pieces fit within the overall jigsaw. Without adequate scien-
tific information it is difficult to make the correct policy proposals.
A second point worth making is that it is important that research
also moves beyond simply looking at media messages. Our knowl-
edge of the topic would be seriously strengthened by research proj-
ects that linked media messages systematically to actors and social
relationships, whether this relates to production (media institu-
tions, journalistic practices, source relations etc.) or reception
(audience cognition).

Thirdly, and following on from the second point, an important

advance would be made by a research agenda that was structured
to study the relationship between media agendas and the political
agenda. Much current research has been overly media-centric in its
approach, and has tended to fall back on rather simplistic stimu-
lus/response models of cognition when referring to the impact of
media coverage on either audiences or alternatively on the political
domain. New innovative theoretical steps need to be taken which
link up the media and political agendas, and the role of the public
sphere, and then such advances should be backed up by empirical
investigation.

A fourth area for further potential exploitation is systematic cross-

national comparative research. Greater understanding of the pecu-
liarities of the British case could be gained by comparing experi-
ences with those of other countries. This is particularly important in
the field of migration and ethnic relations where there are clearly
very different conceptions of the topic in different countries, that

417
 arise from different forms of attributing citizenship, as well as dif-
ferent media and political traditions.

There is still a lot of improvement to be made in many aspects

regarding media and cultural diversity in Britain. In taking the nec-
essary steps forward the academic world has an important role to
play in providing the basis of knowledge from which politicians can
draw to take action.

4.15.6 REFERENCES
Alibhai-Brown, Y. (1998). 'The media and race relations', in T. Blackstone,
B. Parekh, and P. Sanders, eds. Race Relations in Britain. A developing
agenda. London: Routledge.
Brown, M. D. (2000). 'Conceptualising Racism and Islamophobia', in J. ter
Wal and M. Verkuyten, eds. Comparative Perspectives on Racism.
Aldershot: Ashgate.
Cottle, S. (1997). Television and Ethnic Minorities: Producers' Perspectives.
Aldershot: Avebury.
Cumberbatch, G. (1996). 'Ethnic Minorities on Television', in Channels of
Diversity, London: CRE Seminar Report.
Cumberbatch, G. and S. Woods, with C. Stephenson, M. Boyle, A. Smith,
and S. Gauntlett (1996). Ethnic Minorities on Television. A Report for
the ITC. London: ITC.
Gordon, P. and D. Rosenberg (1989). Daily Racism. The press and black
people in Britain. London: The Runnymede Trust.
Husband, C. (1998). 'Differentiated citizenship and the multi-ethnic public
sphere' The Journal of International Communication 5(1&2):134-148.
Jones, C. (1982). Race and the Media: Thirty Years' Misunderstanding.
London: Commission for Racial Equality.
Koopmans, R. and P. Statham (2000). 'Political Claims-making Against
Racism and Discrimination in Britain and Germany', in J. ter Wal and M.
Verkuyten (Eds.) Comparative Perspectives on Racism. Aldershot:
Ashgate.
Law, I. with M. Svennevig and D. E. Morrison (1997). Privilege and Silence.
'Race' in the British News during the General Election campaign, 1997.
Research Report for the Commission for Racial Equality. Leeds:
University of Leeds Press.

418
Lowe P.D. and D.E. Morrison (1984). 'Bad news or good news: environ-
mental politics and the mass media.' Sociological Review 32:75-90.
Murray, N. (1989). Anti-racists and other Demons: the Press and Ideology
in Thatcher's Britain. Race and Class Pamphlet no.12. London: Institute
of Race Relations.
Ouaj, J. (1999). More Colour in the Media. Employment and access to the
television industry in Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands and
Finland. Utrecht: The European Institute for the Media
Ross, K. (1996). Black and White Media. Black Images in Popular Film and
Television. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Searle, C. (1989). Your Daily Dose: Racism and the Sun. London: Campaign
for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
Statham, P. (1999). 'Political Mobilisation by Minorities in Britain: a nega-
tive feedback of 'race relations'?' Journal of Ethnic and Migration
Studies 25(4):597-626.
Statham, P. (2001). 'Constructing Signs of Altruism?: Anti-racist and Pro-
migrant challenges in Britain' in Giugni M. and Passy F. eds. Political
Altruism? New York: Rowman and Littlefield
Statham, P. and D. E. Morrison 1999. Final Report to the Economic and
Social Research Council for Project 'Racist Sentiments Movements and
the Mass Media: A Mediated Xenophobia' (R000236558),
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ics/racist-m.htm
Welsh, T. and W. Greenwood 1999. McNae's Essential Law for Journalists.
London: Butterworths.

Internet addresses:

BBC - Annual Reports - http://www.bbc.co.uk

ITC - Notes and Annual Reports - http://www.itc.co.uk
Commission for Racial Equality - http://www.cre.gov.uk

419