BBC Radio 4 PM: Broadcasting Britishness

17th June 2008 | Said Business School, University of Oxford

A transcript of a report by the PM programme on the conference, 'Broadcasting Britishness? Identity, Diversity and the Role of the National Media', featuring Martin Moore, Director of the MST.

In the ongoing debate about Britishness, what role should the media play? How accurate is the picture of Britain painted by broadcasters and the press? A conference in Oxford has been trying to find some answers. Reporting for PM, Christopher Landau.

Christopher Landau: When the Culture Minister Margaret Hodge criticised the Proms for failing to attract enough of its audience from minorities, the Britishness debate re-ignited, the question being whether a multi-cultural Britain was comfortable with any of its historic traditions.

Among the media leaders gathered here in Oxford, the talk is about what it means for the media accurately to represent Britain’s minorities. One newspaper editor told me strictly off the record that it was no surprise the press largely targets white British readers when they remain the overwhelming majority of potential purchasers, but does that approach have unintended consequences, particularly in minority communities?

Navid Aktar: There has been this gradual drifting away and alienation from mainstream media and in its place we’re really building these ‘digital ghettos’”.

CL: Navid Aktar is editor of a niche Muslim website.

NA: What we don’t seem to able to do is produce indigenous media which is actually reflective of both being perhaps Muslim and British. You need to have the right people doing it, but also you need to be very conscious about the right messages coming out in terms of cohesion, so that people do feel that they are a part of this society and that they can also contribute to the bigger issues.

CL: That potential sense of alienation isn’t just about race or religion, a media overwhelming based in London cannot offer a full sense of Britishness, according to Martin Moore, Director of the Media Standards Trust.

Martin Moore: It makes an enormous difference if the journalist comes from the place that they are reporting from, and more and more these days journalists don’t come from the places that they are reporting from. People notice that, people notice that because you don’t see them around, you don’t see their faces, they don’t see your face and therefore they don’t feel as responsible, they don’t feel as obliged to be responsible in the way that they report that area, and that’s a problem.

CL: And its one the government is well aware of, according to Culture Minister, Margaret Hodge.

Margaret Hodge: Much of the audience research that we did in the build up to the BBC charter process demonstrated that there were communities in Britain, who make up part of modern Britain, who felt that they weren’t sufficiently represented in the media as a whole, and that’s in a number of ways. They weren’t perhaps represented as much as they wanted to be, in things like the soaps, Coronation Street, EastEnders... So I think we’ve still got a way to go to really enjoy the diversity of cultures which makes up the vary varied pattern of Britain today.

CL: And in a sense does that mean that broadcasters and the media have a role if you like in promoting that idea of the cohesive community?

MH: I think there is a really crucial role for the media in the broadest sense, and for arts and culture, in the widest sense, to bring people together in exploring these difficult issues.

CL: Is there a danger, though, that as the media fragments and perhaps particularly immigrant communities looks to media sourced from their country of origin, actually those shared experiences become fewer?

MH: There are some tensions aren’t there, there, about greater opportunities for more platforms and more channels but perhaps a change of culture which means sharing that, at the same time, becomes more difficult. I think that it’s a challenge that those responsible for providing content in the media should grasp and think about as we think about what occasions can bring people together.