Media News - Thursday, July 17, 2008

Diversify or die: Equality chief’s stark message to broadcasting industry

A continuing failure to reflect ethnic diversity by "overwhelmingly white" broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 must be urgently addressed if they are to survive in the digital age, according to a study. The report, commissioned by Channel 4 from Trevor Phillips in the wake of last year's Celebrity Big Brother racism row, calls for a financial levy on every TV show to fund schemes aimed at fostering diversity. Twenty-five years after Channel 4 was set up, partly with the aim of giving minorities a voice, and seven years after Greg Dyke, then BBC director general, described the corporation as "hideously white", Phillips found too little had changed. Phillips, a broadcaster and chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was paid to write the report in a private capacity. He commissioned research that found most white viewers felt broadcasters were doing a satisfactory job in representing multicultural Britain, but all other ethnic groups felt their performance was "very poor". The report accused mainstream broadcasters of tokenism and stereotyping, screening exaggerated and extreme representations of minority communities, failing to reflect modern ethnic minority culture, and of fostering a lack of black and Asian people in positions of power within the media. Key criticisms included reference to characters in soaps that perpetuated stereotypes, such as the Asian cornershop owner in Coronation Street or a black single mother in EastEnders with two children by two different fathers. Pointing out that there was only one non-white face in this week's MediaGuardian 100 power list, for which he was on the panel, he said the industry needed to find a "broadcasting solution" rather than a political one. (The Guardian)

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