TV turn-off?
Does TV coverage of developing countries and the people who live there reflect our interconnected, widely-travelled, ethnically diverse population? Martin Scott investigates.
Television is lagging a long way behind its audiences. The UK has an increasingly ethnically diverse population, and people travel abroad for work, leisure and gap years. We consume music, food, clothes and media from around the world, and have interests and hobbies which connect us to a range of different places. Yet what we see on television doesn’t reflect this.
This was the conclusion of a recent piece of research, The World in Focus. The study asked how TV, as people’s main source of information about the wider world, portrays developing countries and show these interconnections. Are we being given enough or the right information and impressions of the rest of the world and our place in it?
Commissioned by the CBA–DFID Broadcast Media Scheme and the International Broadcasting Trust, The World in Focus found that coverage of the wider world – in both news and most other genres – does not reflect our range of connections with other parts of the world and our curiosity about how people in other countries lead their lives.
“NEWS COVERAGE IS LIMITED”
For example, ‘international’ television news focuses on a very limited number of stories and countries – just three countries (USA, Australia and Israel) accounted for over half of all international news – and the USA dominates the international agenda. By contrast, developments in Iraq, Sri Lanka, Latin America and the Caribbean received relatively little coverage, as did various ‘good news’ stories about parts of the world which are usually only reported during a crisis (Somalia, Darfur and Southern Sudan). During the two week sample period there was only one news item which could be considered about ‘development’ across all 30 television, radio and online bulletins in the study. This was a story on Al Jazeera English about the successful attempts of the new mayor of Lagos, Nigeria, to tackle corruption.
Developing countries are still treated differently than more developed ones. News reports about developing countries are more likely to include the voices of people outside the country, less likely to have a reporter on location and significantly more likely to be covered as one-off features.
The issue-focused, one-off nature of coverage of developing countries was found to be a major influence in dictating people’s stereotypical views about them. One participant in the series of focus groups that the study was based on described the developing world as “malnutrition and pot-bellied young children desperate for help with flies on their faces”. This was not an unusual opinion.
“PEOPLE AVOID DOCUMENTARIES”
Although documentaries and current affairs strands are highly valued and respected by audiences, most people avoid them. As one participant said, “Sure I want to learn and have an understanding of the world but I’m not sitting there to be educated or learning to pass an exam. I’ve got to be entertained as well.”
Many audiences were put off from watching factual programmes trailed as being about developing countries because it was felt to be “worthy” and “difficult viewing”. Programmes were much more appealing if they highlighted potential connections to audiences’ own lives. In the research process, many participants discovered that there are programmes about the developing countries which did interest them, but that they do not find out about them due to lack of promotion or because they are relegated to the margins of the schedule.
“MOVIES & NOVELS CHANGE PERCEPTIONS”
However, what did change audiences’ perceptions of developing countries, were feature films and literary fiction like Blood Diamond, Slumdog Millionaire, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
“I read the book A Thousand Splendid Suns which really made me engage with Afghanistan,” said one participant. “After that, every time I heard about Afghanistan on the TV, I listened and looked. I suddenly started to think about these people as people. Before it was way over my head and I wasn’t really interested.”
“TV DRAMAS LACK AMBITION”
Unfortunately, television dramas have failed to achieve the same kind of impact. Programmes, such as, The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (BBC1) and Wild at Heart (ITV1) are interpreted as “soft” feel-good Sunday dramas where the “exotic” location might add colour to the story, but not in a way which challenges stereotypes about developing countries. Most people felt there has been a distinct lack of ambition from broadcasters in searching out ideas for dramas set in developing countries.
“REALITY & TRAVEL GET THE PLAUDITS”
Almost everyone expressed a strong desire to see more coverage of stories which lay somewhere in between “squalor and safari”, stories which they described as “real life”, “normal” and “everyday lives”. Two genres in particular were found to offer this: reality TV formats and travel documentaries.
Travel documentaries such as Tribe (BBC2), Long Way Down (BBC2) and Ross Kemp in Afghanistan (Sky1) offer audiences a different view of countries and often produce greater empathy and deeper cultural understanding. “It’s better when you see a presenter actually go in and live within the surroundings even if it is just for a few weeks, rather than a documentary where they are just showing you the facts,” one participant said. “It’s difficult to get emotion until you see someone live with a family.”
For some people, reality TV formats set in developing countries offer an entertaining way of understanding everyday life, and also of making connections with their own lives. The same participants found other entertainment formats could use a developing world setting to “take them to places” which they might not otherwise go to. As one participant commented: “Top Gear is a programme about cars, but they went up and down Vietnam. That way I’m getting the main programme but I’m getting the bit on the side as well. If they were coming at you with the information it would probably overpower you and you’d turn off.”
Martin Scott is a lecturer in media and international development in the Department of International Development at the University of East Anglia, and author of the World in Focus. Get copies of the report from: