Writing for Broadcast Journalists by Thompson Rick;

Author:Thompson, Rick;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Humanities
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2010-08-31T00:00:00+00:00

Race

For many years, all the major broadcasters in Britain have followed their own guidelines on references to race, colour and religion. In essence, they all say that a person’s colour, ethnic origin or religious allegiance should be mentioned only if it is absolutely relevant to the story. Most will agree that this policy is fair and sensible. It avoids stereotyping and the promotion of prejudice. But under pressure of deadlines, some irrelevant ethnic references can slip through. ‘The record lottery winner is James Smith, a black bus driver from Salford.’ Always ask yourself whether you would use the adjective ‘white’ in the same circumstances. It’s a more serious mistake if you are reporting crime. Many members of ethnic minority groups are infuriated if they hear something like, ‘a grandmother has been mugged by two black youths’, because they know the journalist would not have written ‘… by two white youths’, and the report is therefore perpetuating a stereotype.

Take extra care with police descriptions of incidents. ‘The car was driven by a West Indian male’ may be what the duty sergeant tells you, but it would be completely unacceptable to broadcast it that way. First, ‘West Indian’ is almost certainly wrong – he was probably British. Secondly, the colour/nationality/ethnic background of the suspect/witness – black, African-Caribbean – is only relevant if it is part of a given description. ‘The police are searching for a tall, black man in his thirties. He’s described as heavily built, with a moustache and short hair.’ Similarly, descriptions of white people the police are hoping to find should always include the skin colour; ‘He’s described as white …’ etc.

Note that the word ‘ethnic’ can be misused. The editor of the BBC’s African and Caribbean programme unit in Birmingham issued guidance to his producers, which said ‘It is correct to refer to people from ethnic minorities. But don’t be tempted to shorten it to “ethnics”, which black and Asian people dislike, and is meaningless. We’re all ethnic.’

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