Public service media and race relations in postcolonial Britain
BBC and immigrant programming, 1965–1988
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11267063 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julia Giese (0000-0002-7870-7327), Diwas Bisht (0000-0002-8667-8984, Loughborough University), Aswin Punathambekar (0000-0003-0273-6348, University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1210-1224 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Media Culture & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/01634437231155563 |
| OpenAlex | W4324142270 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
This article explores how British Asians negotiated the politics of race in the formative years of British broadcasting from the 1960s to the 1980s. Marked by significant changes within the BBC and British society at large, this period saw the first institutional initiatives oriented towards Caribbean and Asian communities. Drawing on primary research materials from the BBC Written Archives, we analyse the Immigrant Programmes Unit and the Immigrant Programme Advisory Committees as sites where ideas of race, ethnicity and citizenship were continually debated and worked out. We argue that the BBC functioned as a profoundly asymmetrical contact zone in which British Asians’ efforts to counter assimilationist ideas and programmes were stymied by senior managers working with deeply ingrained ideas of cultural, ethnic and racial differences. Immigrants would be accommodated, but in ways that would not challenge the viewing habits of the majority or imagine solidarities across racial, ethnic and national lines
Citizenship · Cultural assimilation · Ethnic group · Immigration · Media studies · Multiculturalism · Political science · Politics · Race (biology · Racialization · Sociology · Anthropology · Australian History and Society · Gender Studies · Law
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |