Broadcasting of the BBC Documentary ‘The Secret Policeman’ Essay

On Tuesday 21st October 2003, the BBCs documentary The sneaking(a) policeman was broadcast to approximately 5 billion viewing audience in Britain. Mark Daly, an underground reporter had spent septette months present as a fellow trainee at the Bruche National prepargon Centre in Cheshire to moving-picture show an expos on racialism among law of nature recruits. The film non only provided distinguish of police racism notwithstanding in any case highlighted the stereotypical representations of dense identity inwardly westsideern ideology.In this act I propose to suss out how the British medias representation of erosives has, quite a than reflecting domain, constructed it. My research pre ascendently focuses on evidence gathered from racial reports and theories of the 1980s until the present day and examines the growth, if any, deep down race representation in the media. Pre-1980s case studies argon in the main omitted because of the rapid development of discussio n of racial leaves as a reaction to the brutal riots of that decade. Additionally, the institutional and individual stereotyping revealed within The Secret Policeman can be directly related to predominant issues specifically within the media of the previous two decades. Controversially, I in the long run check to depict The Secret Policeman as a symbol of proficiency in bleak representation within Britain.The use of the term coloured bastard and Nigger isnt antiblackThe Secret Policemans inclusion of a clip of racist remarks by the Police confederacys Representative in 1983 is an accurate reflection of the racial fervour that Britains Institutions and communities were in. nasty lawlessness was an image that dominated the conspire coverage on riots from 1980 85. A predominantly Black riot against at Bristols police force in 1980 was followed by further confrontational step upbreaks in 1981. The first two years of riots gained Britains ( fall aparticularly young) West In dian confederation the reputation for being notorious for muggings, assaults and murders2 only n angiotensin-converting enzymetheless presented a slight initial interest into the aw arness of the underlying causes. The scale of Britains urban unrest between these years varied considerably but the sequence of violence after 1980 forced the political agenda to implicate an examination of the origins of the protests. The struggle employed Brixton (1981) to highlight the need for enhanced governing body economic policies As we de call attentionate the senseless terror we also condemn the deep seated genial problemswhich spawned them.From 1983 to 1985 Britains poor and predominantly West Indian and Asian neighbourhoods experienced well-disposed disturbances, as was the case in 1981. Once more, the media endorsed the riots as the miserable acts of black, inner-city youths but this time they were not conjugated to social in equating, op begion or socio-economic frustration but o nly to the Blacks home in parliamentary procedure and their undermining of the law and cultural traditions of the minority communities themselves. The British presss reaction to the prominence of riots particularly during 1985 was to decline 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 authorities that were rudimentary to the causes of the urban violence, were aban male parented for crude simplifications that represented Blacks as the sole initiators of the violence. The criminal identity with which the media had labelled Blacks was not wholly fictitious. Anecdotal evidence of incitive quotes and repetition of unreliable stories would always operate within a dominant regime of truth4. Crimes involving Blacks were given disproportionate coverage that suggested a behavioral generalisation that would never be suggested o f bloodlesss. Stereotyping was not the only form of racism more covertly the press would exclude or misconstrue statistics lots(prenominal) as those that showed Blacks to be twice as promising to be out of get as their counterparts. The coverage of Tottenhams 1985 riot gave less advancement to the death of a lack woman than the ensuing disturbances in which a police police constable was murdered. The policemans role as a victim totally overshadowed the mourning of the aggressor that the Black fatality was consigned to.The situation within which coloured wad are presented as ordinary members of ball club has become increasingly overshadowed by a intelligence information perspective in which they are presented as a problem.Teun. A. Van Dijk was highly influenced by Hartmann and keep ups 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 ev ent, the causes and the consequences. Contrary to using these journalistic traits to investigate all areas of the riots, Britains media manipulated it as a means of reporting on selective data. The event was described as the attacks of mobs of black youths in nine to maintain the stimulus once the disturbance was over the primary commentary of the cause of the riots was in terms of Black criminality in gustation to the inner city conditions. Finally, the exoneration of Institutional Britain was enabled through the reports focus into future containment, policing and inquiries. The report pattern of Black mob, Black criminal offense and Black prevention was typical of a whole generations instinctive approach 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 intelligence operationworthy. Encouragingly by the 1980s Black was on the political agenda however by 1985 it had b een relegated from the social issue some commentators had perceived, via a social problem to a social evil. If the medias hegemonic reports and editorials in the 1980s were classed as a barely disguised touch sensation in snow-clad supremacy, The Secret Policeman strangely that that attitude to Blacks is as strong at present as ever it was then.Im a firm believer that Pakis create racism.Most Asians carry knives.The topic in London is, the majority of street robbery is BlackIn 1982 the Commission for Racial Equality published the first code of approach pattern on eliminating discrimination 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 halt of 1983 to 1986, when Black became Britains pretext for social disturbances. Resistance towards such(prenominal) movements was impeach of stirring racial tension through excessive political correctness. For much of the press, racism was a manufactured problem of the anti-racist left, found in social science research programmes, anti-racist projects and multi-cultural education. The anti-racist social learning process created accusations of anti-English indoctrination thus posing a threat to White elitism, dominance and control. Thatchers Institutionally rightfield Britain defined itself as a protagonist of the attacks from the left that they believed favoured special discussion of multicultural Britain. Significantly, the immediate 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 land attentionAccording to the Guardians most recent 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 roll figures as high as 30%. However, the documentary showed Warrington police knowledge base to consist of 118 white and one Asian recruit. Notably, Black mint 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 preempt with a similar response to the 1980s critical analysis of racist exposs. Over a month before The Secret Policeman was broadcast, fundament Gieve, the permanent Secretary at the Home Office wrote to the BBC a earn that they described as unprecedented pressure to bully them into withdrawing the programme. The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police also intimidated the BBC with the threat of a Hutton-style enquiry that could destroy the BBCs relationship with the police. Mark Dalys work within the police force was cut short when arrested on doubt of deception and damaging police p roperty charges were dropped when embarrassingly for the police, the populace were cognizant of the institutional racism.The observer naturalspaper considered the Whitehall and police resistance worthy of its front-page publicise Home Office tried to axe BBC police race expos. Headlines are carefully devised as a pithy synopsis of the story. They quickly expect knowledge in a way which facilitates both understanding and recall. The headlines of news reports about 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 utilization of headlines dramatized the 1980s anti-racism only to emphasise the Western ideology of Black negativity. For grammatical case the Telegraphs conspicuous headline bossy nonsense clearly open the tedium felt by the author towards the issue of tackling racism. The Observers recent negative portrayal of institutional antagonists of a nti-racism reveals a authoritative shift from the medias earlier resentment towards the anti-racist movements. So what is the ideological consequence of the shift from 1980s resentment to the Observers stance? How is the photograph of racism in todays purchase order 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 responsibility of the police and the media in the revelation of The Secret Policeman. Radio One criticised the constable of North Wales for his seed to the hysteria related to terrorism, extremist Muslims and asylum as the rationale for increase racist views. Blaming ships company, it commented, was no option for police professionals who should concentrate on reading 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 w e treat others is based on how we see them such seeing comes from representation.16Traditionally founded on Reithian ideas of independence, access and expression, the BBC aimed to inform, educate and sustain the masses. The BBC devised itself an identity as the national cultural institution that would represent Britains public through Britains voice. In a statement chase 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 reigning 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 numbers of the White majority rely around 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 por trayal of race-relations most oft found in the news. The news is an everyday routine structure, and in veridical terms can be defined as a pure realist text. However, Nichols have sexs that the earthly concern 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 originator unequivocal status becomes ambiguous news is static but its range 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 choler that consequently created a distorted mis -information about the original conflict. In contrast, representing reality can be equally deceitful through a negation of setting. The news according to Malik is best at representing what and why but regularly fails to recognise the socio-political reasoning behind it. In terms of race relations of the decease 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 decision 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 noisome19 and Appalling, racist revelations20 were more optimistically acknowledged as White.The television documentary is based on questions of identity that engage with the reflection of relationships between subject, audience and the camera or narrator. The cinematography is used as a tool of authority in which the spectator is lured into believing they are a observing a record of untouched and immediate reality. however 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 sagacity 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 reason of the medias attention to multicultural development it is most probable they get out be used. Unfortunately, documentaries of the 1950s were emotive, sentimental and practically vague and similarly.The 1960s gave brusque hope for a genre increasingly lacking in predisposition and awareness towards the Black subject. In contrast to the pathos of the 1950s White pity toward Blacks, the 1960s employed tones of hostility, fear and conflict. Thus, the erratic history of the co llectivised documentary was influential and manipulative towards the enhancement of Governmental attacks that ran adjacent 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 popular style of documentary since the late 1990s a development that enabled the BBC to produce The Secret Policeman. Improved camera applied science 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 fucking deserved it and his mum and dad are a fucking pair of spongers.PC Rob drags acclamation of the murderers and derision 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 posed a threat to Britain as a consequence of its deficiency in resources and increasing immigration numbers. 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 ri ots to create a climate 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 welfare states problem that added to taxation through an evolution 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, produce a day later Jobless Abdullife of luxury in hotelsat the taxpayers expense.24 The actuality of this story is that the 476 payment that was referred to was an inclusive sum finishing the cost of housing Abdul, his wife and his six children. More interestingly, Abdul Bari was a British citizen.In 1999, six years after the Lawrence incident, Sir William Macpherson undertook a high visibleness investigation into the racism and discrimination in the Metropolitan Police Force.His encompass coined the phrase institutional raci sm. This triggered discussions of discrimination within Britains leaders institutions the police, the media, the education system 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 proficient assertion that the accepted sentiment that racist Britain is in decline is reasonably false. By this, she suggests that racism in the media, as in other public sectors, has merely been concealed. Malik proposed that truthful representations could emerge only through more diverse, aesthetically innovative and accurate portraya ls of Blacks. More relevantly to The Secret Policeman, Malik highlighted the need for a rethink of the constituent parts that compose Britains media resources, employment and ultimately its national heritage. Whilst the number of Blacks and ethnic minorities on British television has change magnitude 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 play a huge role in PC Pullings racist prejudices and discrimination. racialism is not innate after all it is learned. So how is it that I feel confident to propose The Secret Policeman as evidence of enhanced race-relations within the media?The role of the media is not isolated, but machine-accessible in numerous ways to the elites in general this time it stood alone. The BBC fictional 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 here and now 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 inventory and criticise the racism revealed in The Secret Policeman marked a complete reversal from the attacks on anti-racism evident in th e 1980s. The Secret Policeman has served a distinctive purpose. It has illustrated what has long been apparent but too seldom 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 Contemporary Britain, 1989. Macmillan LondonTroyna, Barry. worldly concern awareness and the media, 1981. Commission for Racial Equality LondonVan Dijk, Tuen A. Racism and the Press, 1991. Routledge London and New York