Broadcasting of the BBC Documentary The Secret Policeman Essay Example for Free

Broadcasting of the BBC Documentary The cryptic Policeman EssayOn Tuesday 21st October 2003, the BBCs infotainment The unknown Policeman was broadcast to approximately 5 million viewers in Britain. Mark Daly, an hole-and-corner(prenominal) reporter had spent seven months present as a fellow trainee at the Bruche National Training Centre in Cheshire to film an expos on racialism among police recruits. The film not lonesome(prenominal) provided evidence of police racism only when also highlighted the sterile re largessations of foreboding(a) identity at heart western sandwich ideology.In this essay I propose to investigate how the British medias representation of blackamoors has, rather than reflecting reality, constructed it. My research predominantly focuses on evidence gathered from racial reports and theories of the eighties until the present day and examines the evolution, if any, within race representation in the media. Pre-1980s exemplar studies be generally omitted because of the rapid victimisation of discussion of racial issues as a reaction to the brutal riots of that decade. Additionally, the institutional and individual stereotyping revealed within The occult Policeman butt joint be directly related to prevalent issues specifically within the media of the previous twain decades. Controversially, I ultimately aim to depict The secret Policeman as a symbol of progress in Black representation within Britain.The use of the term Black bastard and Nigger isnt racialistThe hush-hush Policemans inclusion of a clip of racist remarks by the Police Federations Representative in 1983 is an dead-on(prenominal) reflection of the racial turmoil that Britains Institutions and communities were in. Black lawlessness was an image that dominated the Press reporting on riots from 1980 85. A predominantly Black riot against at Bristols police haul in 1980 was followed by win con faceational outbreaks in 1981. The first two years of riots ga ined Britains (particularly young) West Indian community the reputation for universe notorious for muggings, assaults and murders2 but nonetheless presented a slight initial interest into the ken of the underlying causes. The weighing machine of Britains urban unrest between these years varied dependably but the sequence of violence later on 1980 forced the political agenda to include an examination of the origins of the protests. The Press employed Brixton (1981) to highlight the need for enhance Government economic policies As we condemn the senseless terror we also condemn the deep pose social puzzleswhich spawned them.From 1983 to 1985 Britains poor and predominantly West Indian and Asian neighbourhoods experienced social disturbances, as was the case in 1981. Once more than, the media endorsed the riots as the criminal acts of nigrify, inner-city youths but this time they were not linked to ethnic in stirity, onerousness or socio-economic frustration but only to the B lacks position in society and their undermining of the law and cultural traditions of the nonage communities themselves. The British presss reaction to the prominence of riots particularly during 1985 was to reduction both generally to examine the reasons for them and specifically to consider ethnical inequality as a cause. Subjects of immigration, housing, employment, social facilities and race relations within the civic governing that were central to the causes of the urban violence, were abandoned for crude simplifications that represented Blacks as the sole initiators of the violence. The criminal identity with which the media had labeled Blacks was not wholly fictitious. Anecdotal evidence of provocative quotes and repetition of unreliable stories would al ways operate within a dominant regime of truth4. Crimes involving Blacks were given disproportionate coverage that suggested a behavioural generalisation that would never be suggested of snowys. Stereotyping was not the o nly form of racism more undercoverly the press would exclude or misconstrue statistics such as those that showed Blacks to be twice as likely to be out of work out as their counterparts. The coverage of Tottenhams 1985 riot gave less subjectity to the death of a lack woman than the turn out disturbances in which a police constable was murdered. The policemans role as a victim totally overshadowed the wail of the aggressor that the Black fatality was consigned to.The perspective within which coloured plenty are presented as common members of society has become increasingly overshadowed by a discussion perspective in which they are presented as a problem.Teun. A. Van Dijk was highly influenced by Hartmann and Husbands early study of racism in the press which cogitate the above labelling of Blacks. According to Van Dijk the riots were topicalized in a style recognisable across the entire media front the event, the causes and the consequences. Contrary to using these journalis tic traits to investigate all areas of the riots, Britains media manipulated it as a mode of reporting on selective data. The event was exposit as the attacks of mobs of black youths in order to maintain the stimulus one time the disturbance was over the primary definition of the cause of the riots was in terms of Black criminality in preference to the inner city conditions. Finally, the exoneration of Institutional Britain was enabled through and through the reports focus into future containment, policing and inquiries. The report excogitation of Black mob, Black crime and Black prevention was typical of a whole generations instinctive flack to Black Britain. The medias response to the 1980s riots created and regurgitated images of Black male criminals. Blacks in non-race stories were not considered newsworthy. Encouragingly by the 1980s Black was on the political agenda however by 1985 it had been relegated from the social issue some commentators had perceived, via a social p roblem to a social evil. If the medias hegemonic reports and editorials in the 1980s were classed as a barely disguise belief in White supremacy, The Secret Policeman strangely that that attitude to Blacks is as strong straight off as ever it was then.Im a firm believer that Pakis create racism.Most Asians carry knives.The thing in capital of the United Kingdom is, the majority of street robbery is BlackIn 1982 the Commission for Racial Equality promulgated the first code of practice on eliminating variation and promoting equal opportunities, which was speedily identified by a Daily Telegraph editorial as bossy nonsense. Arguably the code of practice was counter-productive. Attacks on anti-racist and equal rights movements were at their height during the period of 1983 to 1986, when Black became Britains pretext for social disturbances. Resistance towards such movements was accused of inspiration racial tension through excessive political correctness. For much of the press, racis m was a manufactured problem of the anti-racist left, found in social science research programmes, anti-racist projects and multi-cultural gentility. The anti-racist social learning process created accusations of anti-English indoctrination thus posing a threat to White elitism, dominance and control. Thatchers Institutionally right-wing Britain defined itself as a fighter of the attacks from the left that they believed favoured special treatment of multicultural Britain. Significantly, the fast Government response to The Secret Policeman undercover investigation was given by the home secretary David Blunkett, who criticised the BBC for their intent to create, not report, a storyas a covert stunt to get aidAccording to the Guardians most late statistics, ethnic minorities make up 9% of the UKs population. In more urban areas such as Greater Manchester where The Secret Policeman was filmed, this percentage is believed to work figures as high as 30%. However, the documentary sho wed Warrington police educational activity base to consist of 118 color and one Asian recruit. Notably, Black great deal in are massively under-represented in Parliament. New Western societies still show many forms of institutional and everyday discrimination that David Blunkett arguably hoped to dismiss with a akin response to the 1980s critical analysis of racist exposs. Over a month before The Secret Policeman was broadcast, John Gieve, the permanent Secretary at the Home note wrote to the BBC a letter that they described as unprecedented pressure to bully them into withdrawing the programme. The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police also intimidate the BBC with the threat of a Hutton-style inquiry that could destroy the BBCs relationship with the police. Mark Dalys work within the police force was cut short when arrested on suspicion of deception and damaging police property charges were dropped when embarrassingly for the police, the universal were informed of the institutional racism.The Observer newspaper considered the Whitehall and police resistance worthy of its front-page advertise Home Office tried to axe BBC police race expos. Headlines are carefully devised as a pithy abstraction of the story. They quickly impart knowledge in a way which facilitates both understanding and recall. The headlines of news reports virtually ethnic affairs summarize events that the medias white academics, teachers, writers and political activists define as relevant to white and black readers interests. The medias manipulation of headlines dramatized the 1980s anti-racism only to emphasise the Western ideology of Black negativity. For example the Telegraphs conspicuous headline bossy nonsense clearly established the tedium felt by the author towards the issue of tackling racism. The Observers recent negative portrayal of institutional antagonists of anti-racism reveals a positive shift from the medias earlier resentment towards the anti-racist movements. So what is the ideological implication of the shift from 1980s resentment to the Observers stance? How is the exposure of racism in right aways society a sign of improved race-relations? Who is to blame for todays existing racism?Is it the BBCs fault this has happened?BBC Radio One questioned both the province of the police and the media in the revelation of The Secret Policeman. Radio One criticised the constable of North Wales for his reference to the hysterical neurosis related to terrorism, extremist Muslims and asylum as the rationale for increased racist views. Blaming society, it commented, was no option for police professionals who should concentrate on training and challenge prejudice15. Is the BBCs accusation equitable or is pardoning society a means of pardoning the media to ultimately pardon itself?How we are seen determines in part how we are treated how we treat others is base on how we see them such seeing comes from representation.16Traditionally founded on Rei thian ideas of independence, access and expression, the BBC aimed to inform, educate and entertain the masses. The BBC devised itself an identity as the national cultural institution that would represent Britains universal through Britains voice. In a statement followers the arrest of Mark Daly, the BBC reflected the all-purpose mission they were founded upon We believe this to be a matter of significant public interest17. The BBC, in essence, the media, is a powerful realm of social whiteness that manipulates the patterns of inter-elite communication. The ethnic minorities in Britain even today remain concentrated in relatively few areas. As a result huge be of the White majority rely almost exclusively on the media for knowledge of issues concerning their Black counterparts. The formations and continuance of White attitudes are therefore highly reliant upon the medias portrayal of race-relations most often found in the news. The news is an everyday routine structure, and in li teral terms can be defined as a classical realist text. However, Nichols recognises that the reality of news takes precedence over the news of reality18, thus enabling it to empower, or dis-empower its subject. In these terms the subject is Black and the empowerment is integral to the serious issue of Black nationhood and identity. When reality is represented, its former unequivocal status becomes ambiguous news is static but its context is not. For example, patterns of race reporting can attach themselves to the wider subjects of Black British existence, a procedure that Sarita Malik terms leitmotif. During the 1980s riots, the Black identity was frequently referred to in terms of former race-related violence. Leitmotifs thus manipulated the reality to familiarise the White-eye with often-unrelated parables of Black anger that consequently created a distorted mis-information about the original conflict. In contrast, representing reality can be equally deceitful through a negation of context. The news according to Malik is best at representing what and why but regularly fails to recognise the socio-political argumentation behind it. In terms of race relations of the last two decades Britains media tends to focus excessively on the wider context of Black struggle yet too seldom on the social context that fuels this struggle. The BBCs determination to resist Governmental and Federal pressures and broadcast The Secret Policeman implied a positive shift in its allegiance to the White ruling classes. Although this documentary was yet another portrayal of the problem-orientated Black, uniquely the revolting19 and Appalling, racist revelations20 were more optimistically acknowledged as White.The television documentary is based on questions of identity that engage with the face of relationships between subject, audience and the television camera or narrator. The cinematography is used as a tool of power in which the spectator is lured into believing they are a o bserving a record of untouched and immediate reality. But reality, as clarified previously, can be more ambiguous than anticipated. In fact, the illusion that a documentary allows the subject to speak for itself without moralising or judging is, like the news, a powerful status to possess. Documentaries are the most likely genre to directly address socio-political affairs and on the rare occasion of the medias attention to multicultural development it is most probable they will be used. Unfortunately, documentaries of the 1950s were emotive, sentimental and practically umbrageous and similarly.The 1960s gave little hope for a genre increasingly lacking in sensitivity and awareness towards the Black subject. In contrast to the pathos of the 1950s White pity toward Blacks, the 1960s employed tones of hostility, idolize and conflict. Thus, the erratic history of the socialist documentary was influential and manipulative towards the enhancement of Governmental attacks that ran adjacen t to the anti-racist campaigns of the 1980s. The development of light and cheap video recording equipment has made the video diary an accessible and extremely habitual style of documentary since the late 1990s a development that enabled the BBC to produce The Secret Policeman. Improved camera technology initiated independent film-making and in effect greater social analysis during the 1990s, but this was not the only continuity in televisions social eye. Governmental, cultural and economic forces were evolving towards todays individualistic, consumerist and multicultural society television had to keep pace. The documentary shifted from social generalisations to pluralism and for the first time society was eclipsed by individualism and lifestyle. Although the 1990s showed much resistance to an increasingly cross-cultural and mixed-race Britain, the definition of society and Britishness undoubtedly required re-examination.Isnt it good how memories dont fade? He Steven Lawrence fuckin g deserve it and his mum and dad are a fucking pair of spongers.PC Rob Pullings acclamation of the murderers and satire of the family of black student Steven Lawrence shocked viewers of The Secret Policeman. Lawrences mother was particularly disheartened, stating, that, after all this time, people still held those views.22 The stereotyping of Black people as spongers or scroungers is one that was upheld and confirmed during the rioting period of the 1980s. The Diasporas constitute a threat to Britain as a consequence of its deficiency in resources and increasing immigration outlets. In 1968 Enoch Powell suggested a much favoured but conclusively rejected topic relatable to Thatchers new 1980s, right wing government that of repatriation. Repatriation essentially warned Blacks to behave or go home. Powell returned to his theme in the wake of the 1985 Handsworth riots to create a temper of racist opinion. Immigration had become among the most prominent Press subjects, during which , one tabloid claimed that immigrants cost the taxpayer billions of pounds. Black people were constituted as the eudaemonia states problem that added to taxation through an exploitation of the White supremacist welfare state. In 1984, the News of the World printed the headline 476 a week for waiter Abdul. The Daily Mail picked up on this story, printing a day later Jobless Abdullife of luxury in hotelsat the taxpayers expense.24 The actuality of this story is that the 476 earnings that was referred to was an inclusive sum covering the cost of housing Abdul, his wife and his six children. More enkindlely, Abdul Bari was a British citizen.In 1999, six years after the Lawrence incident, Sir William Macpherson undertook a high profile investigation into the racism and discrimination in the Metropolitan Police Force.His Report coined the phrase institutional racism. This triggered discussions of discrimination within Britains leading institutions the police, the media, the education sy stem and the government. Following the Lawrence enquiry huge numbers of police were forced to undertake intensive training in racial equality and similar, revised programmes are ongoing today. One police force in Britain sent 40 000 employees on race training days within the last year, but Pullings overt racism raises questions of the efficacy of the Home Offices current strategy of challenging prejudice.In the concluding chapter of her book Representing Black in Britain, Sarita Malik makes a discouragingly negative, albeit honest assertion that the accepted sentiment that racist Britain is in decline is somewhat false. By this, she suggests that racism in the media, as in other public sectors, has merely been concealed. Malik proposed that transparent representations could emerge only through more diverse, aesthetically innovative and accurate portrayals of Blacks. More relevantly to The Secret Policeman, Malik highlighted the need for a rethink of the constituent parts that compo se Britains media resources, employment and ultimately its national heritage. Whilst the number of Blacks and ethnic minorities on British television has increased dramatically particularly in urban based soaps such as Holby City and Eastenders the production teams and editors continue to favour Whites. My premise that The Secret Policemen established an interesting relationship with the development of British media was formed whilst listening to a Radio Four news programme. It suggested that The Secret Policeman provided hard evidence that racism had gone underground. The programme concluded that although the police understood the shoulds and shouldnts of racial procedures, impartiality was never entrenched in their hearts and minds. Consistently with my research, the social learning process of the media has potentially played a huge role in PC Pullings racist prejudices and discrimination. Racism is not connatural after all it is learned. So how is it that I feel confident to p ropose The Secret Policeman as evidence of enhanced race-relations within the media?The role of the media is not isolated, but connected in numerous ways to the elites in general this time it stood alone. The BBC assumed the role of the anti-racist and confronted the majority. The Secret Policeman exposed to huge public numbers, the long-standing stereotypes of the ruling-race and gave scope for investigating the origins of such beliefs. More positively the documentary received instant and drastic responses from both the public and the institutions. The Home Office immediately introduced plans for new police integrity tests and understood the need for societal change.The medias willingness to scrutinise and criticise the racism revealed in The Secret Policeman marked a complete replacement from the attacks on anti-racism evident in the 1980s. The Secret Policeman has served a distinctive purpose. It has illustrated what has long been apparent but too rarely admitted White power is dangerously flawed.BIBLIOGRAPHYFerguson, Robert. Representing Race, 1998. Arnold LondonGordon, Paul Rosenberg, David. The Press and black people in Britain, 1989. Runnymede Trust NottinghamMalik, Sarita. Representing Black in Britain, 2002. Sage LondonSolomos, John. Race and Racism in coetaneous Britain, 1989. Macmillan LondonTroyna, Barry. Public awareness and the media, 1981. Commission for Racial Equality LondonVan Dijk, Tuen A. Racism and the Press, 1991. Routledge London and New York