Race in the News

188 Pages·2002·1.28 MB·English

by  Ian Law (auth.)

Race in the News
Also by Ian Law
Racism, Ethnicity and Social Policy
Local Government and Thatcherism
(with H. Butcher, R. Leach and M. Mullard)
The Local Politics of Race
(with G. Ben-Tovim, J. Gabriel and K. Stredder)
Race and Housing in Liverpool
Racial Disadvantage in Liverpool
(with G. Ben-Tovim, V. Brown, D. Clay, L. Loy and
P. Torkington)
A History of Race and Racism in Liverpool, 1660±1950
(with J. Henfrey)
Race in the News

Ian Law
Q Ian Law 2002
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002 978-0-333-74074-3
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First published 2002 by
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ISBN 978-0-333-74075-0 ISBN 978-0-230-50999-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230509993
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Law, Ian.
Race in the news/Ian Law.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Mass media and race relations. I. Title.
P94.5.M55 .L38 2001
305.8Ðdc21 2001036526
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
Contents

List of Tables vii

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction 1

1 Conceptualising and Evaluating Racism in

Media Representation 11

Introduction 11

Conceptualising racism: three frameworks for media analysis 20

Frameworks for measuring negative attribution 24

Whitecentrism 25

Mimetic accuracy 29

Eurocentrism 29

Racialised voices 30

Conclusion 34

2 British News: The `Great Anti-Racist Show?' 36

Introduction: the death of racism or a case to answer? 36

Race in the British news: a case study 43

Themes and messages: the dominance of anti-racist news 46

Race-news themes 47

Race-news messages 49

Detailed composition of race-news messages 53

Racism and discrimination: expose or deny? 53

Immigration and asylum-seekers: stay or go? 58

General Election: woo the vote or play the race card? 61

Minority groups: social problem or a national asset? 66

Taking action: improving or restricting opportunities? 70

Mono- or multicultural Britain? 72

Case study summary 73

Conclusion 75

3 Bashing the Bias: Rape, Migration and Naming 77

Introduction 77

Race, rape and crime 78

Black gang-bangers and the Muslim underclass 78

Race and rape in US news 86

v
vi Contents
Immigration 89

Bias and prejudice 96

Naming racial and ethnic groups 103

Conclusion 107

4 Anti-Racism and the News 111

Introduction 111

The Stephen Lawrence case 116

Case summary (1993±7) 116

Media coverage 116

Media attacks on the white youths' right to silence 117

News advocacy of racial justice and anti-racism 117

Giving voice to a black mother 118

The Daily Mail 119

Context and explanation 120

Conclusion 121

Exposing institutional racism 123

Military racism 124

Fashion industry racism 127

Exposing racism in US news 129

News actors 132

Improving space for minority voices 132

Agendas for action 134

Conclusion 135

5 Citizenship, Positive Action and the News Media 138

Citizenship tests 138

Positive action 139

Background 139

Legal context and emerging initiatives 143

Employment, training and institutional racism in the media 145

Strategic difficulties 149

Managing implementation 151

Conclusion 153

Conclusion 157

Summary of key themes 157

Institutional racism in news organisations 164

References 167

Index 176
List of Tables

1.1 Whiteness: categories and alternative strategies 28

1.2 Impartiality of news and current-affairs

programmes on the four main broadcast

channels in relation to ethnic minorities 32

1.3 Acceptability of racist terms of abuse 33

2.1 Media output selected for analysis 44

2.2 Themes by media type (%) 48

2.3 Key messages in race and news coverage 51

2.4 Pro-migrant and anti-migrant messages by

media type (%) 52

2.5 Items exposing racism and racial discrimination 53

2.6 Competing immigration discourse 59

2.7 General Election discourse 62

2.8 Messages about the presence of minority ethnic

groups in society 67

2.9 Doing something about `it': intervention discourses 71

2.10 Contesting Britishness 72

4.1 Minority news actors 133

5.1 Ethnic minority journalists on London-based national

newspapers 146

vii
Acknowledgements

This book developed from a research project funded by the Commis-
sion for Racial Equality which was concerned to examine the repre-
sentation of race in the British news during the General Election of
1997. I would therefore like to thank the CRE for funding this project
and for those CRE staff who have been involved in the development,
implementation and dissemination of this research including Herman
Ouseley, Colin Hann, Chris Myant, Greville Percival and Marjorie
Thompson.
I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Institute of Commu-
nication Studies, David Morrison and Michael Svennevig, for their
help and assistance with methodology and project design. Despite
`going my own way' in writing up the project, their help at an early
stage was invaluable. In addition discussion with Paul Statham was
particularly helpful.
In the massive task of data collection undertaken on the initial
project, which covered 18 news sources, 7 days a week for 6 months,
particular thanks go to technical staff in Communication Studies,
the team of coders based in the Department of Sociology and Social
Policy and particularly Bimal Bhanu for assistance in managing this
task.
I have also been particularly lucky to have been working in a
stimulating and supportive environment at Leeds, and here I would
like to thank Malcolm Harrison, Carl Hylton, Debbie Phillips, Jo
Goodey, Ray Pawson, Alan Deacon, Carol Smart, Kirk Mann, Max
Silverman, Mick Gidley and all those associated with the Centre for
Ethnicity and Racism Studies. Also, thanks to Marco Martinelli for
encouraging my work on positive action through invitations to sem-
inars in New York and Liege. Joint work with Malcolm Harrison and
Max Silverman on the production of positive action papers contrib-
uted directly to Chapter 5 in this book, and many thanks to them for
their cooperation. Thanks also to Dario Melossi for the opportunity to
present and discuss material from Chapter 4 at an ISA conference at
the University of Bologna, and for his comments. Thanks also to the
unknown reviewers for their valuable comments. While in the USA
completing this manuscript, I would also like to thank Jennifer Glass,
viii
Acknowledgements ix
Mary Smith, Jim Price and Kevin Leicht at the Department of Soci-
ology, University of Iowa for their kindness and assistance.
On a more personal note, this book could have not been completed
without the love and support of Jude, in spite of her traumatic acci-
dent, and also Sebastian and Alexander. This book is particularly
dedicated to Sebastian given his interest and aspirations in the world
of journalism.
Ian Law
The author and publishers wish to thank the following for permission
to reproduce copyright material: Independent Television Commission
for material from Television: Ethnic Minorities Views; and the Broad-
casting Standards Commission for material form its 1991 Annual
Survey. Every effort has been made to contact all the copyright-
holders. but if any have been inadvertently omitted the publishers
will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the earliest
opportunity.