Black people are often subject to racial stereotypes in TV documentaries and lack editorial control in the commissioning of “Black programming”, according to new research.
Commissioned by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, the report examined 275 documentary programmes between April 26 and May 21 last year, after numerous broadcasters like the BBC and Sky made pledges to increase their diversity on-and-off screen following the death of George Floyd.
The report found that race and racism were the leading topics when a documentary featured a Black person, followed by crime in second and music in third.
“The representation of Black people is not varied or nuanced enough,” the report reads.
Black professionals working on the documentaries also expressed concern that the commissioning of “Black programming” is still mostly seen through the interests of white commissioners. They believe the issue is compounded by a lack of career progression among Black media workers to positions of editorial control and commissioning power.
The report also states Black documentary filmmakers often have to push back against stereotypical representations of Black people on projects, and that Black voices are often pigeon-holed into talking about race.
Black production company owners were also not given the same opportunities as non-Black production company owners, the research found.
Maxine Watson, executive producer and former BBC commissioner, who contributed her thoughts on Black representation in the industry, said: “When TV talks about a ‘broad audience’ they are really talking about the broad white audience. So that means making sure niche or targeted subjects are done in a way that will appeal to that audience.”
She added: “It’s easy for people to deal with tropes about particular groups of people because that’s what the media does. They believe the audience will understand crime and the urban music scene or sport and racism. It’s not that you shouldn’t cover those subjects but there’s nuance and there’s subtlety in all of it that is often missed and more than that there are so many untold stories that don’t fall into those tropes we should be looking at.”
Patrick Younge, co-founder and co-managing director of Cardiff Productions, said: “You can put Black people on soap operas or a Black person on the panel of every panel show, the numbers can rise really easily, it’s not hard at all. But whose story are they telling and from what perspective? That hasn’t really changed.”
The report, titled ‘Black In Fact – Beyond The White Gaze’, was conducted by documentary filmmaker Cherish Oteka.
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