Not a Pretty Picture: Ethnic Minority Views of Television

In the UK, ethnic minorities made up over 5% of the population but were hardly represented in terrestrial broadcast television. Not a Pretty Picture investigates the issue of TV and ethnic minority viewers at the time, finding that TV was a white medium, predominantly controlled by whites, portraying white culture and denying non-whites a voice.

Format: Hardback
Length: 120 pages
Publication date: 24 February 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Ethnic minorities in the UK made up over 5% of the population in 1996, yet they were hardly represented in the hundreds of hours of terrestrial broadcast television each week. While the overt racism of The Black and White Minstrel Show had ended, more subtle forms of racism were being piped into our living rooms through an endless stream of white-dominated programming. Comedies and soaps portrayed non-whites as a sort of joke, while serious programmes focused on the negative aspects of ethnicity, such as race as a problem, cultural clashes, and language barriers. The message was clear: not being white equated to not being normal.

For many years, critics of popular television argued that this imbalance was harmful. The lack of positive non-white TV role models for children to identify with was leading to growing alienation and disaffection among ethnic minorities. They increasingly defined themselves in opposition to white institutions, turning towards separate channels, such as narrow-casting, to meet their own TV needs.

Not a Pretty Picture, a groundbreaking book published in 1996, investigated the whole issue of TV and ethnic minority viewers at the time. Based on extensive survey research and interviews with actual viewers, the book provided a damning assessment of the state of television and its impact on ethnic minority communities. The conclusions were clear: for most of Britain's ethnic minority communities, TV was a white medium, predominantly controlled by whites, portraying white culture and denying non-whites a voice.

However, Not a Pretty Picture also provided a voice for these views and a valuable insight into the way ethnic minorities saw TV. Today, the book can be read in its historical context, to see how far we have come, as well as what still needs to be done. It serves as a reminder of the importance of diversity and representation in the media, and the need to challenge and dismantle the systemic barriers that perpetuate inequality and discrimination.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032234519