Do we still need black British media?

Su Chang looks at whether the black British media is still relevant.

What is the role then of black British media in a diverse society today? Traditional black audiences, characterised by an immigrant experience in the 1950s and 60s, have raised second and third generations of Africans and Caribbeans in Britain who have rarely known their parents’ country and the issue for black British media is staying relevant to them.

‘I don’t think we need our own black British media,’ stresses Anne, pointing out that media should not have a colour to it.

Dotun Adebayo, no I don’t think we need….if…’’

But sometimes, yes, because we need a media to tell culture.
Aaron: if we don’t present us positively who will?
Steve: understand the culture
Dotun:why black people make a lot of noise
Henry: BBC don’t offer intellectual black presenter a job because they are not the stereotype that they expected from black Britons.
Steve: they don’t run it well even axe many
Henry:they don’t trailer ethnic programmes well




Despite a black presence in the UK dating back centuries, the question of integration continues to trouble the black population: where does it stand in contemporary Britain?

White doll and black doll trailer

Black people are over represented in the prison population. Research from the Department for Education and Skills shows that only a third of boys from black Caribbean and black other backgrounds achieved five or more A*-C grades at GCSE (and equivalent) in 2005, compared to 50% of white British boys. Black pupils are three times more likely to be excluded from school than their white peers. Working black Caribbean women are 8 percentage points more likely to have a degree than white women. Yet only 9% of Black Caribbean women are managers/senior managers, compared to 11% of white women, according to research from the Equal Opportunities Commission. All of this suggests that the black population is on the outside of British society looking in.

When asked if there is a need for black media, many people agree that they need. But when asked what black media they know and how often they pay attention to it, the answer turns to another way.

Vox pop answers.

For black editors, it is important that they highlight cultural differences, not only by the existence of a black media, but also by its content. But how to attract their readers and audience are challenging.

Anne: magazine for black woman’s make up; family…
Arron: no
Dele: I read news from internet but not from …
Dotun: daughter no


Born after the Brixton riots when black British people expressed rage at social exclusion and treatment at the hands of the police, The Voice, Britain’s leading black newspaper, ran front page stories about the boy…

It also dropped its slogan ‘Britain’s best black newspaper’ from its masthead to widen its readership to other ethnic minorities, raise its advertising prospects, and increase circulation.

steve‘The challenge is to redefine black media, “because

Henry, Britain is changing, especially the black community,’

The future of the voice: circulation declines suffering from their success,says Steve Pope, editor of news at The Voice.

The voice became a little bit old. We are To develop on line.

The paper’s historical mission was to express an African-Caribbean perspective on issues as its communities

Black newspapers are suffering a major decline in circulation after peaking in the 1990s. The impact of black-run satellite and cable television such as BEN TV and OBE has been limited and there has been a shift towards more niche offerings based on the internet.

Aaron and Dele: good idea to have an internet TV station





A key issue facing black British editorial and commercial management is persuading advertisers to spend money with them and target a distinctive audience.

Henry: advertising attraction not public funding because we want to be more preneur.

More of the black media is turning to the internet to publish content and reach disparate groups, but attracting sufficient advertising to remain commercially viable is still the ultimate challenge.

But it is hard to prove our circulation and persuade the ad.
Henry: we have …audience…


Henry,‘News gathering is very expensive. We take news from the sky.’



Dele:‘I am from Africa… There are two ways of living, animal and human being. Yes some people don’t care but as a human being, we have to think, to remind ourself that some of the problems that we have today are because we have lost our culture. If there’s no culture, we’re lost as a people. Strength comes from culture, but that doesn’t mean that culture needs to conflict with other cultures. There is no reason why people can’t live side by side. I’m thinking what if we all black hair, yellow face…’

Henry Bonsu, co-founder of Colourful Radio, a speech-led radio station on the internet, says that there is still a role for black British media because it can deliver accurate representation of black concerns. ‘If we are still to be relevant, we need to have a strong agenda and be distinctive from the mainstream which has more power,’ he says.

Mainstream media companies, which had previously ignored black people, pose serious competition for the black British media because of the growing interest in ethnic minority audiences, as staff and as consumers.

“I believe the mainstream media can never “represent” us,‘Their workforce may become more diverse; they may become better at reflecting black life in its diversity, but their role in catering for everyone will mean they can never be a substitute for having a black media.’