Representation of ethnicity in TV dramas

1. REPRESENTATION OF
ETHNICITY IN TV DRAMAS.
By Henry Hardman

2. REPRESENTATION OF ETHNICITY IN
HOTEL BABYLON
• Ethnic minorities, illegal immigrants, in hotel Babylon are marked as more
secretive and mysterious than the mainstream group of people, white
English, it is as if it is ‘Us Vs Them’. This supports that the illegal immigrant has
an exotic way about him very different to the average person. This could be
the reason that immigration has caused wide spread panic across most
countries.
• Ethnicity and panic has been around for ages, one of the first films to pick up
on this is, Enoch Powell’s, ‘Rivers of blood. This is because of the Bradford riots
which mainly involved black young males who used weapons to cause mass
terror such as knifes and caused panic in ‘gangs’.

3. REPRESENTATION OF ETHNICITY IN
NEWS PAPERS AND HOTEL BABYLON
• The sun news paper has made a list of ‘Britain's most wanted criminals’, you
will be interested to know that there are hardly any white people on here,
this is because it is one of the biggest newspaper companies and they want
to get as many viewings as they can, this may mean the most wanted
criminals may be white instead of black. The common view of the Sun’s
readership is that they are largely male, working class and white.
• This idea has lead Britain in to believing that almost all ethnic minority groups
are dangerous and will mob up to get you, another stereotype is that black
people are single handily more powerful and physically stronger than the
average white man, providing more evidence that ethnic minority groups
are persecuted.

4. REPRESENTATION OF ETHNICITY IN
TV SHOWS AND HOTEL BABYLON
• The representation of illegal immigrants has featured in several TV dramas
now and it’s evident that at least two shows, ’The Bill’ and ’Prime Suspect
'the police in these shows are seemed to be more sympathetic towards
white and mainstream groups but when it comes to dealing with ethnic
minorities they are far more stricter and will give them a much more severe
punishment. This suggests that the police are trying much harder to keep
mainstream groups safe from ethnic minorities as they see them as a threat
to wider society.
• But within these films it is evident that the illegal immigrants need far more
protection than mainstream groups they are also in need of much more
sympathy but they don’t get it from everyday people they only get
sympathy from people within their ethnic groups.