“If a fight had broken out, or if one person had drawn a knife, the event would be front-page news. Such are the news values of my honourable profession”.
[1]An investigation into the UK news media’s tendency to create moral panics and reinforce stereotypes when reflecting black teenagers.
Black youth in the UK society today are often represented negatively linked with crime or deviant behaviour. To what extent is this true?“The two concepts most commonly used to discuss representation are ‘biased’ and the ‘stereotype’.”
[2] The news plays a very important role within society, chiefly because it is seen to allow people to gain ‘important’ information that they should be ‘aware’ of. Consequently, if biased and stereotypical views are portrayed through the image of the news, it is very likely that the audience viewing this therefore would agree with this stereotyped or biased view. Accordingly, this would link to the ‘hypodermic needle theory’, which essentially refers to the idea that the audience are directly affected by what they witness within the media (the news), for example the view that most hooded teenagers are involved with gun and knife crime, the audience therefore are manipulated to agree with the opinions and ideologies promoted. Referring to the negative portrayal of black youths within the media it is debated here whether or not these stereotypes are true, in every respect who is behind what is shown on TV and mainstream media and also, to a further extent how this stereotype is constructed within entertainment films such as ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Adulthood’, music, soaps but most crucially the UK contemporary news.
Leading theorist Stuart Hall (1972-79) identified that there were three main stereotypes linked with the ‘black man’ that were continually reinforced throughout the media. These were “the slave figure, the native figure, the clown or entertainer”.
[3] “The native figure connotes barbarism and savagery”.
[4] This specific figure identifies what is often portrayed in contemporary news, the main examples would be black youth involved with knife crime or illegal drugs. “Black people are still eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people”.
[5] Police have the right to stop and search a person if they assume they have a weapon or illegal drugs, therefore if the majority of those being stopped and search are of a black ethnicity it shows what stereotypes and biased views are therefore directly linked to what is shown on TV, for example UK contemporary news broadcasting this evidence. Barbarism and savagery is a common representation, promoting the idea of violence and incorrect behaviour amongst the ‘other’. The audience viewing these stereotyped figures of black male teenagers within the UK news are likely to become more prejudiced as a result as it is seen as ‘normal’ for those of this specific ethnicity to behave like this, resulting in a ‘moral panic’. For that reason, could it be argued that the media controls people’s thoughts and opinions? “The media has the potential to marginalise such groups and give a rise to social prejudices”.
[6] This quote defines that the audience can be easily influenced, so with a negative portrayal and representation of black male teenagers consistently shown across the news, it may become very likely that the audience has ‘prejudice’ or ‘negative’ views upon this particular group of people.
Joseph Harker, a specialist writer for ‘The Guardian Newspaper’, stated: “When it comes to imagery surrounding black youngsters, I'm used to the relentlessly negative – knife crime, underachievement, family breakdown, we've all seen it.”
[7] This negative portrayal is therefore automatically directed to the audience. Galtung and Ruge’s theory effectively showed the main ‘news values’ that a news piece must have. An illustration of a value they identified was the key element of “threshold- How big an event is? Is it big enough to make it into the news?”
[8] By design, the impact of not having a “big enough event” representing black people, the consistency of a negative portrayal is broadcasted rather than an optimistic representation. "You're in the media: will you be writing about this?" asked one person of me after the ceremony. And I thought: if a fight had broken out, or if one person had drawn a knife, the event would be front-page news. Such are the news values of my honourable profession.”
[9] This article proved that specific news values must be dependant when writing a news story in order to gain the audience’s attention and to indirectly support the ‘normal’ stereotype that we expect to be shown.
Galtung and Ruge also focused on the news value of “reference to elite nations”.
[10] This was where the news focuses on cultural proximity – the media pay attention to important people. Anyone the media pay attention to must be important (this links to cult of the celebrity)”.
[11] The main argument from this would be that with the black teen celebrities portrayal in the UK are more negative portrayals rather than positive portrayals. An example of this would be of those involved with the “Grime” music. The lyrics and purpose of this music often relate to gun and knife crime as well as gangs, sex and drugs. Therefore the influence of this music may encourage black male teenagers to look up to the artists and see them to a certain extent as role models. “Negative stories about black teenagers are almost guaranteed headlines; the positive achievements of black youth go largely ignored.”
[12] Celebrities such as Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder represent the positive representation of successful black teenagers raised in the hard working streets of London. Both artists do not have stereotypical backgrounds; however is their success ever broadcast through the UK news or mainstream media.
UK films that represent black male teenagers such as the successful ‘Kidulthood’ can also be quite judgmental and stereotypical through their stereotyping, the main example for this would be by the costumes used, for example low jeans with hoodies. This will therefore automatically connote the rebel - like attitude that most black teenagers are linked with. Would it be fair to say English films are not highly successful throughout the world? English films are very reliant upon their home audience as many are not globally successful, does this therefore mean that representations within their films must be conventionally gritty and not go against the negative stereotype that UK audiences have come to expect?
"’Kidulthood’ takes you deep into London's unseen and delivers a gritty, hard-hitting reflection of what life is really like for 21st century teenagers."
[13] This film involves gun and knife crime as well as sex, drugs and alcohol. The black male teenagers within the film are strongly linked with all these categories. Does this consequently create more of a moral panic within society, due to the reason that this ‘typical’ stereotype is being portrayed within films like this and to what degree would the impact of this storyline have on the audience? On the other hand, according to Auteur theory, it could it be argued that the film is mostly dependant on the director’s views and personal thoughts, as the director has the main choice of what is shown within the film. Filmmaker Menhaj Huda said that “between finishing production and awaiting distribution I was constantly aware of incidents and issues reported in the news that directly paralleled those in the film.”
[14] Once more, the news reports shown on TV impinge on how people visualise black male teenagers and what type of behaviour they expect from them. The mise en scene throughout the film also approaches a negative and stereotypical view of where black teenagers are ‘expected’ to live, the main example being working class estates or council houses. This is predominately also the environment shown throughout the news, when a ‘knife’ or ‘gun’ crime incident has occurred.“ For many years there were very few images of black British people on television, and those images which did exist were of blacks as ‘problems’ or as ‘victims’”.
[15] In the year 1975, the first black UK film was created- ‘Pressure’. “The film focuses on one black teenager, and his attempt to find his way in a white-dominated society - his sense of alienation grows”.
[16] Due to the main reasoning that this film was the first black UK film to be made, it would be expected that a film such as ‘Kidulthood’ that was made in the year 2006 (31 years after) would show a progressive change within society rather than a quite comparable storyline, as a result this kind of media text would influence the audience that the same enduring stereotype of ‘black male teenagers’ will forever remain the same?
Films that have a meaningful storyline reflecting black teenagers usually consist of the same codes and conventions. “There is a recurrence of derogatory stereotypes in cinema concerning black culture. American films such as Boyz, N the Hood, Menace II Society and Clockers also portrayed black males, particularly youths in a negative light.”
[17] Due to the repetition of negative representations within films this will create a further moral panic within society. If these stereotypes are formed within films, it is more likely that the audience will agree with this stereotype and to a certain extent believe that all the black youth are like this stereotype. In addition to this, black teenagers could therefore have an outcome of self fulfilling prophecy- where they live up to their stereotype and allow others to believe that they were right.In contrast with the Auteur theory, similarly with the UK News, it could be dependent on who writes the news stories. “Every news story is influenced by the attitudes and background of its interviewers, writers, photographers and editors"
[18] Could this prove that news reports have an institution behind them? If continuous negative representations of black male teenagers are broadcasted or published regularly, the moral panic will therefore rise as well as social prejudices among this group of people.Audience theory refers to the “behaviour of audiences with regard to media texts and how they react to them”. The main example of this would be the uses and gratification theory. This can be referred to as personal identification and also finding out about the world and the events that affect them. For example, gun and knife crime taking place in the UK, would have the reaction of the killings mostly being done by young black people, therefore concluding with the idea that these crimes are linked with this particular group of people.
The PCC (Press Complaints Commission) focuses on abusive or incorrect actions that have been taken out by the press involved with the Media. In March 2010 Rod Liddle was negatively targeted after making an outburst remark concerning the black ethnicity. Liddle claimed “that the "overwhelming majority" of violent crime in London was carried out by young African-Caribbean men”.
[19] Liddle was not severely punished as his opinions were taken personally. Does this therefore mean that a celebrity has the right to express their negative and personal views across the media, in this case through Lidless personal blog. Liddle’s views can either influence others or have a very strong hatred view. From others that believe his words were unprofessional.
The People's March, supported by Crime Stoppers, was done to show their support for the parents of gun and knife crime victims. However this event was hardly shown across the media platforms. Choice FM is a dedicated black radio station and shows support to the stop of gun and knife crime. This therefore can be linked to the Marxist theory that suggests that the bourgeoisie are able to make the public have a reaction to what is shown to a higher advantage within the media. In this case more gun and knife crime attacks being reported live within UK contemporary global news, rather than more than a thousand black people marching in order of good justice.Throughout the years, there are many differences and changes that have been involved within the UK news. The reason for this is because it allows me to investigate the racist and stereotypical differences between a tabloid and broadsheet paper, and also how tabloid newspapers stereotype against black teenagers from the past compared to today's modern day. The main example to analyse is a 1993 article on the murder charges of the Stephen Lawrence case. “As Nelson Mandela told us, 'Black lives are cheap'.”
[20] Could this influence the view that news stories mainly focus on when the lives of black people are involved with crime and violence rather than being the winners and successful? The article puts into perspective the position of black people within society, as it proved that young black teenagers may feel they have no justice over police officers, therefore causing moral panics in society that the UK police force is racist. Therefore the main change within this particular text would be the idea of justice not being given to black youth when involved with crime or the police. Films such as ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Adulthood’ associate with the view that black teenagers don't get justice when involved in crime. For example in Kidulthood, when a young black teenager dies, the murder only suffers 4 years in jail rather than life. The contemporary UK News that is broadcasted on TV may differ as certain story lines are broadcasted in order to show people what they need to know, “its constructed versions of events usually serve dominant interests".
[21] This therefore shows what kind of impact this will have on an audience as they are only shown relevant information rather than fair and realistic views that commence society today.
To conclude this essay, it could be argued that the dominant ideology would be the idea that all black teenagers are bad and involved with crime. The idea that negative representations are being represented throughout contemporary UK news gain a moral panic within society on the belief that all black teenagers are associated with their typical stereotype. As a result black male teens could therefore live up to their stereotype by taking out specific crimes as well as the audience having social prejudiced views upon this particular group. The sensationalised view upon black male teens therefore create a moral panic from the view that all black male teenagers commit crime, due to the small amount of ‘good’ stories published or broadcasted within contemporary news.Word Count - 2446
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/london-black-children-awards[2] Williams, K. (2003). P.123
[3] Hall, S. (1972). P. 78
[4] Ibid. P.79.
[5] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/30/black-asian-stop-search-police-terrorism[6] Williams, K. (2003). p. 123
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/london-black-children-awards[8] Hall, K. (2008). p. 102
[9] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/london-black-children-awards[10] Hall, K. (2008). p. 102
[11] Ibid. p.102
[12] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/25/race.knifecrime[13] http://www.filmeducation.org/resources/film_library/getfilm.php?film=1604[14] http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/film/Kidulthood.pdf
[15] Beulah. A. (1998). p. 101.
[16] http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/480497/index.html[17] http://www.internetjournalofcriminology.com/Ndubuisi%20-%20Phenomena%20of%20Black%20Youth%20Crime%20and%20Media%20Reporting.pdf[18] Geoff, B. (2008). p. 103
[19] http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/29/rod-liddle-pcc-spectator
[20] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1993/jul/30/lawrence.ukcrime[21] Branston, Gill (2003) : The Media Students Book. New York: Routledge
