Representations of Ethnicity

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The media’s representation of ethnicity can prove very powerful as it could be the only experience of other cultures that some audiences will encounter.

If all representation of ethnicity in the media were balanced this would not be a problem. However many representations can rely on negative stereotypes which may adversely affect the way others then perceive a particular ethnic culture.

Ethnicities are often stereotypically represented in news and film. Over several decades, there have been tens of thousands of news items across the world that represent ethnic minorities into three stereotypically negative categories:

• Ethnic minorities as criminals

• Ethnic minorities as a threat

• Ethnic minorities as unimportant

It was found that about half of news stories concerning young black people dealt with them committing crimes - mainly young men and boys. The majority of stories were related to crime, especially violent gang crime. Often, black crime is represented as senseless or as motivated by gang rivalries. The media tends to label race disturbances as riots, implying that they are irrational and conjure up images of rampaging mobs, which in turn justifies a harsh clampdown by the police.

There is little consideration given to the view that such disturbances may be the result of legitimate concerns, such as responses to police and societal racism.

Over the past few recent years, media moral panics have been constructed around:

• Immigrants, who are feared and seen as a threat of their numbers and impact on jobs and welfare services

• Refugees and Asylum seekers, often portrayed as being a threat to British social cohesion and national identity, often blamed for social unrest

• Muslims, who are often portrayed as "terrorists" or the "enemy within"

Many stories focused on terrorism and others focused on the differences between Muslim communities and British society, while stories of Muslims as victims of crime were fairly rare. It was found that there were four negative media messages about Muslims, such as:

• Islam as dangerous and irrational

• Multiculturalism as allowing Muslims to spread their message

• Clash of civilization, with Islam being presented as intolerant, oppressive and misogynistic

• Islam as a threat to the British way of life, with Sharia law.

Some sections of the media imply that white lives are more important than non-white lives. People claim that black victims of crime are not paid as much attention to as white victims of crime. Others may claim that the BBC engages in 'tokenism', which is the belief that Black and Asian actors are cast as presenters or in roles just to give the appearance of ethnic equality, regardless of whether they 'fit' into the role.

The result is that many ethnic minorities do not identify with ethnic minority characters. As a whole, the mainstream media pays little attention to the genuine concerns and interests of ethnic minorities, because the mainstream media is dominated by a metropolitan, liberal, white, male, public school, and Oxbridge educated middle-class elite.

Moving away from the News, an example of stereotypical representations in a different media is the parody 'Citizen Khan' which represents Muslims, as an ethnic group and their integration into a multicultural British society. The show was criticised after the first episode was aired, with the BBC and Ofcom receiving complaints about the representation of Muslims in the show. Those who complained felt it was being stereotypical and insulting to Islam.

Adil Ray, writer and star of the show as well as a British Muslim, defended the show saying:

‘Growing up in a Muslim family in the 1970’s and 80’s I rarely saw families like ours on TV. So I’m pleased to be able to put that right and share a bit of my culture with a wide audience....The biggest most important thing you can do is laugh at yourself. You then negate anything anybody can ever do, it’s the ultimate weapon. If you can laugh at yourself it doesn’t matter what anybody says to you as you’re laughing already.’