Thursday Study Day Homework

Rupert Murdoch doesn't think Barack Obama racist, says spokesman

Rupert Murdoch has been forced to deny he believes Barack Obama is a racist, after appearing to back the controversial Fox News presenter Glenn Beck's comments about the US president.

The chairman and chief executive of News Corporation said in an interview earlier this week that Obama had made "a very racist comment" and that Beck's views were "right".

"He does not at all, for a minute, think the president is a racist," a News Corp spokesman told the US website Politico.

In the interview with Sky News Australia, Murdoch was asked about the views expressed by contributors to Fox News, including Beck's view that Obama was a racist.

"He [Obama] did make a very racist comment about blacks and whites and so on, which he said in his campaign he would be completely above," Murdoch said.

"That was something which perhaps should not have been said about the president but if you actually look at what he [Beck] was talking about, he was right."

Beck caused uproar in July when he described Obama had "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture".

His remarks were made during a discussion of Obama's reaction to the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr, an African-American Harvard academic.

Murdoch also said in the interview he thought the Obama presidency was going "badly", citing the defection of independent voters in recent elections in Virginia and New Jersey.

Cadbury Dairy Milk ad cleared of racism

The advertising regulator has cleared Cadbury of racism and perpetuating colonial stereotypes of African people in its latest TV advertising campaign.

Cadbury's campaign featured Ghanaian musician Tinny and aimed to promote the chocolate brand's tie-up with the Fairtrade organisation for cocoa from the African nation for its Dairy Milk range.

The Advertising Standards Authority received 29 complaints that the TV campaign was demeaning to African people and perpetuated racial stereotypes.

However, the ASA's council has decided not to formally investigate the complaints. "Although the council acknowledges that Cadbury had used stereotypes in their ads, they felt that the stereotypes were not harmful or offensive," said the ASA, which argued that most ads use some form of stereotype device to get a message across.

Cadbury has steadfastly maintained that the company went to "considerable lengths" to ensure that the ad campaign was culturally sensitive and developed as a "joyous and uplifting portrayal of Ghanaian culture and something which Ghanaians can feel proud of".

In 2007 the ASA banned an ad for Cadbury's Trident chewing gum, which featured a black "dub poet" speaking in rhyme with a strong Caribbean accent, after more than 500 complaints that it was racist.

Nick Griffin to lodge formal complaint with BBC over Question Time

BNP leader Nick Griffin is to lodge a formal complaint and freedom of information request to the BBC over the way his appearance on Question Time was handled.

He will argue that the format of the show was skewed to focus almost solely on the BNP, not wider issues, that the makeup of the audience was primarily anti-BNP and that a broader range of questions were not fielded, a spokesman for the party said.

The BBC has fielded more than 400 calls and emails about Griffin's appearance on Question Time last night – with more than half complaining that the show was biased against the British National Party leader.

BBC online forums were flooded with support for Griffin and attacks on the BBC, the other panellists and the anti-fascist demonstrators outside Television Centre yesterday. However, there were also comments supporting the BBC for its decision to invite Griffin on to the Question Time panel.

Question Time attracted 7.9 million viewers, half the total TV audience for its 10.35pm slot – which is thought to be a record figure for the show.

The BNP spokesman said: "He was not treated the same as other elected politicians [who appear on the show]; it was a completely unfair showing.

"Question Time changed the whole format of the programme. The BNP will be putting in a freedom of information request to the BBC and programme makers to ask about the process of changing the format of the whole programme. [We want to know] why they felt they had to break with the usual format."

He said that the BNP wanted a second outing on Question Time to be "re-run in the correct format". "If people want to be critical, fair enough – they should not dominate the whole programme."

The spokesman added that Question Time had a history of moving locations and that London was too "multicultural" to be fair to the BNP and that perhaps a location like the northwest of England would be an option.

"It is logical: that is where he was elected and an audience would contain a representative cross-section of voters, some of whom may have voted for the BNP," he said. "It would make for a more balanced programme."

Griffin is also keen to challenge Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to a one-on-one debate over Labour policies.

Griffin himself said today he was planning to make a formal complaint to the BBC about last night's show, telling Sky News: "That was not a genuine Question Time; that was a lynch mob."

The media regulator, Ofcom, said it had received a "small number of complaints" about the show – understood to be less than 100 – and was considering whether to launch a formal investigation of whether Question Time breached its broadcast code.

BBC Information, the corporation's call centre, had fielded a total of 416 calls on the controversial show by about noon today. Of these, 243 were complaints of bias against Griffin.

Question Time was filmed late yesterday amid chaotic scenes outside BBC Television Centre as anti-fascist protesters clashed with police, and attracted a record audience of almost eight million viewers.

The BBC also received 114 complaints about Griffin being allowed to appear on the Question Time panel at all. There were a further 59 calls applauding the BBC's decision to have the BNP leader on the show.

Ofcom is understood to have received fewer than 100 complaints and will now make a decision on whether to investigate. The complaints fall under the broadcasting code section on harm and offence.

An Ofcom spokesman said: "Ofcom has received a small number of complaints which are currently being assessed against the broadcasting code."

Under the BBC's complaints procedure, the corporation will respond to the calls after the issues have been discussed with the Question Time programme team. Those who remain unsatisfied with the response can refer their complaint to the BBC's editorial complaints unit.

If they are still not happy with its decision, complainants can take their grievance to the editorial standards committee of the BBC Trust, the corporation's regulatory and governance body.

BBC pressed on racial equality targets

The Commission for Racial Equality chairman, Trevor Phillips, is to call on the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, to enforce strict new rules on the BBC's employment of black and ethnic minorities.

Mr Phillips wants the BBC to be subject to an amendment to the race relations act requiring it to publish information on training, retention rates and complaints, as well as data it already provides on targets and recruitment.

"The duty would make them subject to regulation by the CRE in terms of their programmes for promotion of ethnic minorities - to some extent, the balance of what they broadcast and to a large extent, what they do on training and how they treat different ethnic groups among their staff," Mr Phillips told the BBC's inhouse magazine, Ariel.

"Ultimately, as we have done with the police, we could take compliance action against them."

The BBC currently employs 10.2% of its staff from black and ethnic minorities, and 5.2% of its senior management. Targets for the end of 2007 are 12.5% and 7% respectively.

Mr Phillips said the BBC's targets were still too low.

"It's fine for [the BBC director of television] Jana Bennett to aim for a 10% target on screen, of characters and contributors, because that chimes with, or even exceeds, the percentage of minorities in the national audience.

"But on employment, the pool from which the BBC draws two-thirds of its staff [in cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester] is one-third ethnic minority.

"Do the sums: 10.2% is way underperforming. It's not hideous, but it's not good."

Mr Phillips said BBC News was in danger of failing to address its black and Asian audience because of the under-representation of ethnic minorities.

"There's a whole panoply of rules that govern BBC journalism, all directed to one end, which is to tell the story fairly and comprehensively," he said.

"People tend to focus on that in party political terms, but actually, in modern Britain, the more serious bias is about whether huge chunks of the community are not having their voices heard or their perspectives addressed.

"Newsrooms which are monocultural are in danger of being like comedy that isn't funny. Without cultural knowledge, you don't ask the right questions.

"You can be the most brilliant interviewer, but if the team that's briefing you has no idea about the influence of South Asian culture [in] west London, you can conduct interviews there in the most profound ignorance of what most matters.

"This is not about doing the job better, it's about whether you can do the basic job at all."

The BBC's head of diversity, Andrea Callender, told Ariel: "According to the 2001 census, the percentage of black and minority ethnic people in the UK is 8%. The 12.5% target for 2007 was set by the executive board in recognition that many parts of the BBC are based in metropolitan areas where there is a higher proportion of black and minority ethnic people in the local population."

Research off screen and on screen

On Screen; Didier Drogba spat after exit from Semi-Final in Champions League.



This represents ethnic minorities in a bad light. It’s representing them as bad role models and helps keep them subordinate in sport today. Afterwards he receives a 6 match ban, the most given to a single footballer.

Off screen; 0% of the board of directors of the FA (who run English football) are from ethnic minority decent. They are all white, born from England and upperclass. This connotes that colonialism still exists to a certain extent, in the fact that the people who own the means of production are white, upper class men (as Marxsists and Colonialists argue).

In the cricket squad, from the 30 cricketers only 20% of cricketers are from ethnic minority decent. And only about 2 ethnic minority cricketers are regulars connoting that the ethnic minority players, while there are a handful of cricketers who are ethnic minorities, only one or two cricketers are actually regulars in the team.

Key Issues/Debates with Post Colonialism (Neo Colonialism)

A key issue and debate for Post Colonialism is the fact that Colonialism hasn’t completely disappeared from society. The term is called neo-colonialism. A term often applied to the economic situation of many former colonies after political independence has been secured. A policy whereby a major power uses economic and political means to perpetuate or extend its influence over underdeveloped nations or areas. Neo-colonialist interpretations of economic development in the Third World suggest that, as a budget-saving and humanitarian act, political decolonization nevertheless left in-tact the West's monopolistic control over the production and marketing of goods in the former colonies. By using international law, corporate property rights, and the power of major commercial banks the former colonial powers could retain economic influence and control over their former dependent territories.

In sports this is apparent through the people who own the institutions tend to be white upper-class men. They control everything and if you notice there tends to be a lot of actual athletes who are ethnic minorities. Neo-colonialist theorists argue that these athletes are used to bring money from where they are from. A prime example of this is Ji Sung Park, the Manchester united midfielder who sells a lot of shirts in the Far East. While the fact remains he hardly plays, it can be used as an example of how Colonialism still exists to serve the interests of the upper class so that they make money.

Kwame Nkrumah argues that Neo-Colonialism is the Last Stage of imperialism. Marxists are the ones who argue that Post Colonialism hasn't completely gone from society and it's made to seem gone but in reality it's still present. This is study is important in my study because it looks at if there is a distinction and with this theory it argues that white people still own ethnic minorities is society to a small extent, the extent that managers are white people and chairmen’s are as well.

Post Colonialism

Post colonialism is the thoery in which it looks at the effects and aftermath of a new globalised society after the Colonialism era where everyone is supposedly equal.

Edward coined the term, Orientalism, describing the binary between the Orient and the Occident. This binary, also referred to as the East/West binary, is key in postcolonial theory. Said argued that the Occident could not exist without the Orient, and vice versa. In other words, they are mutually constitutive. Notably, the concept of the East i.e. the Orient was created by the West, suppressing the ability of the Orient to express themselves. Western depictions of the Orient construct an inferior world, a place of backwardness, irrationality, and wildness. This allowed the ‘West’ to identify themselves as the opposite of these characteristics; as a superior world that was progressive, rational, and civil. The West’s claim to knowledge of the East gave the West the power to name, and the power to control. This concept is essential to understanding of colonialism, and therefore recognising postcolonialism.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's main contribution to Postcolonial theory came with her specific definition of the term subaltern. Spivak also introduced terms such as 'essentialism', 'strategic essentialism'. The former term refers to the dangers of reviving subaltern (when you're out of the heirachy in society) voices in ways that might simplify lower groups, creating stereotyped impressions of their diverse group. Spivak however believes that essentialism can sometimes be used strategically by these groups to make it easier for the subaltern to be heard and understood when a clear identity can be created and accepted by the majority. Spivak also created the term 'epistemic violence' which refers to the destruction of non-western ways of knowing and thereby the domination of western ways of understanding. This concept relates to Spivak's "Subaltern must always be caught in translation, never truly expressing herself" because of the destruction and marginalization of her way of understanding.

Frantz Fanon is one of the earliest writers associated with postcolonialism. Fanon analyzed the nature of colonialism and those subjugated by it. He describes colonialism as a source of violence rather than reacting violently against resistors which had been the common view. His portrayal of the systematic relationship between colonialism and its attempts to deny "all attributes of humanity" to those it suppressed laid the groundwork for related critiques of colonial and postcolonial systems.

Post colonialism fits in with my study because it looks at why and how ethnic minorities in sport have come a long way in British society.

To what extent is there a distinction between the representation of ethnic minorities and the majority of atheletes in sports media today?

Media Language: Media Language is important in my study because if I'm to look at the distinction between ethnic minorities and everyone else in sports media then I'm going to have to use my media language to look beneath the surface as the distinction won't be so obvious.

Institution: Will institution affect this? As most people who run the sport institution tend to be upper class, white men then it is very significant to the study. There are key arguments; Mc Quail argues that the upper class uses ethnic minorities to attract teenagers and other ethnic minorities to the sport; Social-cultural theory.

Genre: The genre will be sports, this is because it's interesting to see that while ethnic minorities do play a key role in sports, it's the white upper-class men that own or control them; e.g. nearly all football managers are white, the upper class are usually the chairmen of their sport etc.

Representation: The representation of ethnic minorities are somewhat positive, on one hand they appear to be dominant in sport; there are a lot of ethnic minorities who are footballers, athletes, tennis players, boxers etc. However on the other hand these ethnic minorities are not the ones in power; it's the upper class white men who are; so while we do live in a post-colonialism world, there are some hints of colonialism left.

Audience: The audiences involved tend to be everyone, this links in with Mc Quail who argues that using ethnic minorities is to bring people to watch it, in our globalized world.

Ideologies: The ideology of ethnic minorities in sport is that everyone is equal; we are living in a post-colonialist world. That is why there has to be some ethnic minorities in main-stream sport, e.g. In tennis, football, cricket there has to be as it attracts the mainstream however hunting doesn't as it's mainly for the upper class.

Narrative: In sports there are narratives involving ethnic minorities, there could be something such as the owners supporting a charity in Africa or it could be negative, e.g. in football Didier Drogba swore at the camera after his team lost, there was uproar throughout the country but he then was fined by UEFA and equilibrium was restored.


Social: The social issues with this are the fact that most ethnic minorities in sport still aren't the poster boys; in sports most athletes who are shown are still white. While there is a significant change in the amount of ethnic minorities in sport today, they hardly occupy the important roles.


Historical: The historical issues with this are Colonialism still exists to a certain extent. It's not a huge extent as there are ethnic minorities who play a huge role in sports but also the fact that they are owned by the upper class connotes that it does.

Ethical: While a reason why there are ethnic minorities who have significant roles is due to ethical issues, the fact remains that they are second best to the owners.

Political: The political issues are the fact that ethnic minorities being used a lot in sports could be linked in with Britain looking to be seen as good. A diverse Britain which will make Britain look attractive for foreign interests and more money for the upper classes.

This study fits into the contemporary media landscape because it looks at the effect of post-colonialism and also if colonialism is really gone from society.