The Media and the Riots: big debate

Young people and media practitioners are to get the chance to meet and air their views at a conference probing whether media coverage of Black people during the August riots in England was biased.

The Media and the Riots Conference, is to be held on Saturday 26 November from 10am-3pm at the London College of Communication, in south London.

Many Black people, particularly young ones I have spoken with, think the riots were badly reported, with those involved not interviewed and nasty stereotypes about them being used by journalists in a biased way. The conference is being hosted jointly by the Citizen Journalism Educational Trust, and The-Latest.com, which I edit. It’s being organised entirely by volunteers and is not funded, so we’re relying on donations and delegates fees to pay for the event.

Academic David Starkey, a highly paid darling of television studios because of his outrageous comments, caused uproar when, virtually unchallenged by a TV presenter, he claimed “whites have become Black" and that this widespread acceptance of "a particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture" had led to the rioting. And the BBC had to apologise after presenter Fiona Armstrong wrongly accused veteran broadcaster Darcus Howe of having been a rioter in the past. Now Radio Five Live is playing catch-up with live discussion about the riots being broadcast from Tottenham. The difference with our conference is that it will be made by the people affected and for them.

It will deal with vital questions like:

• How objective was the reporting of the disturbances?
• Did the mainstream broadcast media like the BBC, ITV and Sky allow their own reporters’ moral attitudes to the emotive events seep into the reporting and how were young people involved in the disturbances stereotyped?
• Did the news media allow themselves to be manipulated by politicians and police who mobilised a huge PR operation to peddle an agenda that was heavy on law and order crack downs but light on social and economic causes?
• Did news media collude with police, for instance, by spreading misinformation and demonising Mark Duggan, the Black, male victim of the fatal shooting by police in Tottenham that sparked the disturbances, fuelling a sense of alienation and distrust among Black people, poor people and the youth?
• Were the voices of the rioters and looters themselves reported?

Citizen journalists, big media workers, scholars, bloggers, young people and community activists will be attending.

There will be breakout sessions, including one with a working title Young Voices, which will be run by young people from the areas affected by the uprisings.

The concept is for the event to be informative, educative and practical with plenary and breakout sessions. We will produce a report, perhaps in multi-media format, after the conference that can be used as a tool for better reporting by journalists and people in the community alike.

Marc Wadsworth

Marc Wadsworth is a journalist, university lecturer and editor of www.the-latest.com