(Highlighted parts are in green)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-diversity/minority-report
Minority Report
The media has never been more alive to minority issues. But does that mean there is no longer a need to cater specifically for niche groups?
Haroon Sadique
The Guardian
The idea of separate media for minorities may seem to be something of an anachronism in 2009. Chicken tikka masala is the UK's favourite dish, hip-hop and R'n'B regularly top the pop charts and gay culture is embraced by TV programmes such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
But when black journalism pioneer Claudia Jones launched the West Indian Gazette in the UK in 1958, black immigrants were widely viewed as second-class citizens and denied equal access to employment and housing. Similarly, when Gay News was founded in 1972, homosexuality had only just been legalised. Discrimination and homophobia were still rife and mainstream media coverage of minorities still scarce in the 1980s when The Voice, aimed at Britain's black community, Asian website Eastern Eye, the Asian radio station Sunrise and the Pink Paper were all launched. But the universal condemnation of BNP leader Nick Griffin by the mainstream media after his appearance on Question Time shows how much things have moved on. And while Jan Moir's article on Stephen Gately was proof that the mainstream media can still get it wrong, the response to it indicated how far opinions have changed.
Integration or marginalisation?
But far from aiding integration, could specialist media, which has expanded in recent years to take in recently arrived communities from Eastern Europe, actually be obstructing integration and tolerance?
Lester Holloway, editor of New Nation, believes the newspaper's closure this year was partly because non first-generation black people are concerned about "pigeonholing" themselves by reading such publications. While people not wishing to be defined by their skin colour may sound like a good thing, Holloway thinks this is a misunderstanding of specialist media. He says black media is about "a different image of self" than the "sports and reality-tv" stereotypes in mainstream media. For example, the recently published black power list features a number of people never mentioned in the mainstream press.
Those operating in the minority media today cite perceived negativity in the mainstream media as a reason niche channels and publications are necessary.
The BBC announced the closure of its Asian programmes unit earlier this year, saying "departments catering specifically for particular minority groups are no longer required" because the representation of different communities had become an integral part of its commissioning process. But it still produces BBC Asian Network and the black music station 1Xtra.
"It's really important Sky 1 better reflects those who subscribe to it," says Stuart Murphy, director of programmes for Sky 1, 2 and 3. "That means hiring people on and off screen from all ethnic backgrounds. This isn't about being politically correct, because I'm not particularly politically correct - it's about being in touch with modern Britain and in touch with our subscribers. It's basic commercial sense."
But it has been a tough year for minority media. New Nation closed - although its name has been bought - and its stablemate the Eastern Eye was only saved after being bought out. The Pink Paper halted its print edition, surviving as a website only, and the Club Asia radio station went into administration.
Sanjay Shabi, from CultureCom, a division of the MediaCom advertising agency designed to help companies reach ethnic minorities, says that in tough times, "fringe and peripheral areas are the first to go. It raises the question whether [ethnic minority media] should be viewed as fringe."
Competition from different types of media may have hit the minority media harder. Internet and satellite TV have changed minorities' consumption of media, according to Myra Georgiou, a lecturer in Media and Communications at LSE. Research by Ofcom a few years ago indicated that ethnic minorities used the internet and listened to digital radio more than the UK as a whole. Foreign language media is also proliferating."Minorities have become more media savvy," says Georgiou.
BBC Asian Network head of programmes Husain Husaini agrees. Minority media was no different to other media catering for specialist interests, he says. "There's lots of angling magazines and sports specialist stations. No one says they're in danger of being ghetto-ised."
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