IBT - Screening The World (2008)

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SCrEENINgTHE worLd

children’s, factual and news

HOw UK bROadcaSteRS PORtRayedtHe wIdeR wORLd In 2007-8MaRtIn ScOtt



INTroduCTIoN 1

CHApTEr 1 2

InteRnatIOnaL cHILdRen’S PROGRaMMInG 2007

CHApTEr 2 10

InteRnatIOnaL factUaL PROGRaMMInG 2007

CHApTEr 3 20

cOnStRUctInG Kenya: HOw tHe UK bROadcaSt MedIa

cOVeRed tHe POSt eLectIOn VIOLence In Kenya

DFID is committed to building the support

or development needed to bring an end

to global poverty. This work begins at

home. The broadcast media has a vital

role to play in bringing a air and accurate

account o complex issues such as poverty,

trade, confict and climate change to our

television screens, in ormats that appeal

to and engage UK audiences o all ages.

The latest Screening the World research,

unded by DFID, highlights important

issues about international coverage on our

television screens. I hope it will encourage

broadcasters to look seriously at how they can

do more to help the British public become

better inormed about the wider world.

gillian Men

Prlimr Ur Srr o S

or Iriol dvlopm

ForEword

rESEArCH CoMMISSIoNEd By IBT, FuNdEd By

THE dEpArTMENT For INTErNATIoNAL dEvELopMENT

CoNTENTS



introduction

IBT has commissioned this new research

because it addresses the international content

o three key genres – children’s, actual and

news – which are crucial to the uture o public

service broadcasting. Television is the main

source o inormation about the wider world or

most people in the UK. Yet, as this research

shows, there are some worrying trends, with

a narrowing o the range o countries, stories

and voices eaturing in international coverage.

Children’s programming is particularly at

risk. As global citizens, children need access

to inormation about the lives and cultures o

people in other countries and television has

a vital role to play in providing this. In chapter

1, or the rst time, we measure the nature

and volume o children’s programming with

international content, in order to have a clearer

understanding o what inormation about

the wider world is available or children on

television in the UK.

Despite the prolieration o TV channels

aimed at children, programming aboutthe United States dominates, and without

the BBC there would be very little diversity

in international coverage. The ndings

highlight the central role played by just two

programmes, Blue Peter and Newsround .

I current trends continue, children in the

UK will nd that television, which has the

potential to open their eyes to the rest o the

world, will instead limit their horizons andunderstanding. It’s a critical situation which

requires urgent action.

The second chapter o this report is the

latest instalment in a unique longitudinal

study, rst commissioned by IBT in 1989,

which has tracked the changing nature o

international actual programming on UK

television. The statistics or 2007 show that

BBC2 and Channel 4 dominate, but there is

a continuing migration o international actual

programming to digital channels, where they

are less likely to reach wide audiences.

The results also suggest that programming

oten alls into global stereotypes as

international coverage o the United States

and Europe was dominated by crime and

travel respectively, and Arica by wildlie

and the Middle East by confict.

Chapter three explores some o the

issues raised by the coverage o the post

election violence in Kenya and highlights the

diculties which UK broadcasters ace in

reporting a ast moving and complex news

story. The audience was unprepared and

the early reporting provided little context

and too much emphasis on tribal causes.

This ‘broad brush’ approach in the rst ewdays ramed the way in which UK viewers

understood subsequent events, even though

later coverage revealed a more complex

picture. Reporters should think about how

they can provide more context in the early

coverage o a crisis and broadcasters need to

acknowledge that audiences want more than

simply bad news and to continue to look or

creative ways o broadening the news agenda.

Mark Galloway

Director, International Broadcasting Trust



cHAPtEr 1intErnAtionAl cHildrEn’sProgrAmming 2007

Newsround , BBC1



Children’s television is seen as under threat

and an infuential coalition headed by Save

Kids’ TV is calling on the Government to takeurgent action. One o their concerns is the

dominance o North American programming

and the ear that it will lead to cultural

homogeny, limiting children’s understanding

o the wider world. As global citizens,

children need access to inormation about

the lives and cultures o people in other

countries. Television has a vital role to play

in providing this.The purpose o this study – the rst o its

kind – is to measure the nature and volume

o children’s programming with international

content, in order to have a clearer

understanding o what inormation about

the wider world is available or children on

television in the UK.

The results or the terrestrial channels

demonstrate the dominance o NorthAmerica and the key role the BBC plays

by maintaining a diversity o international

coverage. O the 19 digital channels studied

only 7 had any developing world coverage

over the two week period we sampled. The

report also highlights the signicant role

played by Blue Peter and Newsround . Blue

Peter’s coverage o developing countries

was greater and more diverse than the

output o ITV1, Channel 4 or FIVE.

ExEcutivE summAry



service broadcasters have had no quota or children’s output,

with children’s treated in the same way as many other public

service broadcasting (PSB) genres such as religion, arts and

drama. In 2007 ITV1 and FIVE signicantly reduced theircommitment to children’s programming and the BBC is now the

main commissioner o UK-made children’s programming.

One o the concerns expressed by consumer groups is the eect

o the dominance o North American programming. It is eared this

will lead to cultural homogeny, which could impair the development

o children in the UK, both culturally and socially, and limit their

understanding o the world around them. It is also eared that low

cost imports rom the US will increasingly undermine the desire by

broadcasters to commission new children’s programming made in

the UK despite the act it is more culturally relevant to the audience.

I UK citizens, both adults and children, are to have a well-rounded,

inormed understanding o the world they live in, they need access to

inormation about the lives and cultures o people in other countries.

UK television has a vital role to play in providing this inormation.

The purpose o the research presented in this chapter is to measure

the nature and volume o international children’s programming

on UK television in order to have a clearer understanding o what

inormation about the wider world is available to children on TV.

To capture as wide a range o inormation about programmes

with international content that are made or children, this

study has looked at three elements o television content

during 2007: terrestrial channels’ output, digital channels’

output and Blue Peter and Newsround , both on the BBC.

KEy FindingsThe results or terrestrial channels demonstrate the dominance

o North America, (46% o all international children’s

programming) and the crucial role o the BBC in providing a

diverse range o new international children’s programming.

O the 19 digital channels investigated during the 2 week

sample period, only 7 channels had any developing country

programming at all. This amounted to only 7% o all international

programming which was overwhelmingly dominated by North

America. North America was ound to be the ocus o 79% o

all international children’s programming over this period.

The results or Blue Peter and Newsround demonstrate the vital

role that both programmes play, in providing diverse content about thewider world outside the US and UK. Blue Peter’s coverage o developing

countries was greater and more varied than ITV1, Channel 4 or FIVE

during 2007. One note o caution, however, is that with audiences o

around 400,000 (see section on Viewing Figures below) or both Blue

Peter and Newsround , the impact they have is less than it once was.

introductionChildren’s television has been at the heart o the UK’s public service

broadcasting system or over ty years but is now under scrutiny

as a genre which is in decline, and some would say, ‘in crisis’.In 2007, the communications regulator, Ocom published a report

which has been instrumental in infuencing IBT to commission this

research. The Future o Children’s Television Programming examined

what is being broadcast on TV or children in the UK and what viewers

think o it. The research presented in this chapter provides, or the

rst time, objective evidence on the volume and nature o children’s

programming with international content on UK television. We hope that

this report will contribute to the debate about the uture o children’s

television in the UK and ocus attention on the crucial issue o the

way in which the wider world is presented to the next generation.

A wealth o research indicates that high quality programming can

have a positive eect on children’s development and stimulate their

interest in the world around them. This has always been a key element

o the public value behind programmes like Blue Peter , Magpie ,

Wise Up! , Rainbow , Art Attack and How! The list o entertaining,

educative shows which are in the archive is a long one. However,

the list o such programmes currently being made is much shorter.

From the Ocom report, it can be seen that despite the rise in the

number o hours o programming or children, there are concerns that

the quality, range and diversity o that programming is diminishing.

Programming on commercial children’s channels was especially

ound to be lacking in diversity, weighted towards animation which

makes up 67% o their output. Ocom’s audience research indicates

that there is a signicant gap between parents’ expectations o

children’s programming and what is actually on air. It concludes that:“While a clear majority o parents regard public service

programming or children as very important, less than hal

think it is being delivered satisactorily, especially in refecting a

range o cultures and opinions rom around the UK.” (The Future of

Children’s Television Programming: Research Report, Ofcom, 2007, page 1)

There are a number o actors which have contributed to this

decline in high quality, diverse UK-produced programming.

Between 1998 and 2007 the number o dedicated children’s

channels in the UK increased rom 6 to 25. By 2007, 90% o

households with children had multi-channel television. Today nearly

6 times the amount o children’s programming is transmitted as in

1998. As a result o growing competition or advertising revenueand an increasingly ragmented audience, share and budgets

per hour have allen and broadcasters are now less able to und

original programming or children. Since 2001 Ocom ound that

investment in children’s programming had allen by 17%, while

investment in television production as whole had risen by 4%.

Since the Communications Act in 2003 commercial public



sape 1:ne ieaa che’ Pa teeachae a 2007

Figure 1 appears to illustrate the dominance o ITV1 in providingnew international children’s programming on terrestrial channels

with twice as much programming as BBC1. However, none o ITV1’s

rst-run international children’s programming was actual and it was

dominated by acquisitions rom North America, with animations such

as Bratz , a series based on the doll ranchise o the same name. Only

3%, or 3.3 hours o ITV1’s international children’s coverage was o

the developing world due to 8 new episodes o the animated series

The Emperor’s New School , set in parts o the old Inca Empire.

Channel 4 and FIVE had even smaller amounts o developing

country content than ITV1, with 1.8 hours and 1.4 hours respectively.

However, the international children’s output on these two channels

was entirely ree rom animations with programmes such as Take

away my Takeaway on Channel 4 which showed teenagers travelling

to the country rom which their avourite takeaway originates and

the wildlie programme Michaela’s Wild Challenge on FIVE.

The most striking eature o BBC1 and BBC2’s coverage

is that it was dominated by developing country programming.

Examples include Serious Andes on BBC1 which is an

observational documentary ollowing a group o children as they

attempted to climb the Andes and Mama Mirabelle’s Home

Movies on BBC2 which is an animated series about wildlie

around the world. Between them BBC1 and BBC2 had 88% o

all new developing country children’s programming in 2007.

To give some context to the data in gure 1, it is interesting to

note that there was three times as much new international adult

actual content, as discussed in chapter two o this report, as

there was new international children’s programming, in 2007.

Figure 2 highlights the dominance o North America with 46% oall new international children’s programming as well as the lack o

coverage o certain regions o the world such as Oceania (5%), Arica

(2%) and the Middle East (0.2%). In the entire year, there was only

one new children’s programme about the Middle East which was a

hal hour episode o Take Away my Takeaway on Channel 4. By

contrast, with programmes such as Power Rangers on ITV1, The O.C.

on Channel 4 and Hannah Montana on FIVE, North America had by

ar the greatest amount o new international children’s output on ITV1

(47%), Channel 4 (92%) and FIVE (72%). Interestingly, only

8% o the BBC’s new international children’s coverage was about

North America.

BBC1’s coverage was the most diverse. With programmes like

Mortied , a comedy set in Australia, Serious Andes shot in Ecuador

and Roman Mysteries , a antasy drama set in ancient Rome, new

international children’s programming on BBC1 covered every

continent. On BBC2 the two regions which received the most

coverage were Latin America and Arica with output including

the animated wildlie programme, Mama Mirabella’s Home

Movies and the mystery/adventure series, Escape rom Scorpion

Island which is set on a tropical island and lmed in Brazil.

These results clearly demonstrate both the dominance o

North America in new international children’s programming

on the terrestrial channels and the important role o the

BBC in maintaining a diversity o international coverage.

Figure 1: New international and developing country programming on the 5 terrestrial channelsin 2007

BBC1 BBC2 ITV1 Channel4 FIVE

Original developing country output Original developed country output (including various/other)

P r o g r a m m e H o u r s

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

Figure 2: Percentage o new international children’s programming on terrestrial channelsin 2007 covering dierent regions o the world.

North America 46%

Various/other 15%

Europe 12%

Asia 11%

Latin America 9%

Oceania 5%

Africa 2%

Middle East 0.2%

Figure 3: Number o programme hours o developed and developing country children’s programming on 19 digital channels or 2 sample weeks in 2007

Developing Developed and Various/Other


200

180

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

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sape 2:A ieaa che’ Pa 19 da chae 2 ape eek 2007

Figure 3 illustrates two important ndings. Firstly, the distinct lacko developing country children’s programming on digital channels.

12 o the 19 channels examined showed no developing country

children’s programming at all over the two week sample period. O the

7 channels that did show programming set in the developing world

only 2 o these, Disney and Disney Cinemagic, showed more than

5 hours, and it consisted entirely o animation, such as Tarzan and

Aladdin , which are likely to give only a very supercial impression o

the developing world. Overall, developing country programming made

up just 7% o all international programming and approximately 1.3%

o all children’s programming over these 2 sample weeks. The only

new developing country children’s programming in the sample period

was 5 episodes o Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movie s on CBeebies.

The second eature o children’s coverage illustrated

in Figure 3 is that the amount o international children’s

programming varied dramatically between channels. While

Jetix and Disney had around 190 hours over the two week

period there were 9 channels that had ewer than 20 hours.

With 79% o children’s programming set in North America,

gure 4 demonstrates the extent to which international children’s

programming on digital channels in 2007 was dominated by

this one region. Examples o North American programming

include Saved by the Bell on Nickelodeon and Spiderman and

Power Rangers on Jetix. North America also received the most

coverage o any region on 14 o the 19 channels studied.Programmes categorised as ‘various/other’ received the

second most coverage with 11% o all international programme

hours. Output in this category included programmes which were

set in several locations or where the exact location o a particular

episode could not be determined because o lack o available

data, such as Dora the Explorer on Nick Jr. It is likely that this

category contains a small proportion o programming set in

parts o the developing world but disaggregating this category

would not have had a signicant impact on the results.

The remaining 10% o international coverage was set in Arica,

Oceania, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. There was no

programming at all which covered Asia. Only 5 channels had any

coverage o Arica with episodes o Tarzan and Timon and Pumba on

Disney Cinemagic making up two thirds o this coverage. Australia

was the only country in Oceania to receive any coverage and just

eatured on 4 channels with programmes such as The All New

Sleepover Club on Nick Replay. Only 5 channels showed coverage

o Europe including Jetix which had the new actual programme

The Making o Ratatouille shot in Paris. Latin America only received

coverage on two channels, Disney and Disney Cinemagic, consisting

Serious Andes , BBC1

Figure 4: Percentage o international children’s programming or dierent regions o theworld on digital channels in 2007, over 2 sample weeks

North America 79%

Various Other 11%

Africa 3%

Europe 2%

Latin America andthe Caribean 2%

Oceania 2%

Middle East 1%



o just two programmes, The Emperor’s New School and Brandy

and Mr Whisker s. The Caribbean received no coverage at all.

Coverage o the Middle East was shared between just our channels

and consisted mostly o episodes o Aladdin on Disney Cinemagic.

Although they contributed two o the smallest amounts o

international and developing country children’s programming,

output on CBBC and CBeebies did cover the widest range o

regions. Mamma Mirabella’s Home Movies and The Koala Brothers

on CBeebies reerred to Arica and Australia, while on CBBC

Fergus McPhail , Friends and Heroes and Even Stevens reerred

to Australia, the Middle East and North America. Our Planet on

CBeebies which is a documentary series examining issues that

aect the natural world was one o only two actual programmes

set in a oreign location shown over the sample period.

sape 3:ieaa ce Blue Peter a Newsround 2007Blue Peter

The international content o Blue Peter was identied in three

dierent ways. Firstly, by the number o complete programmes shot

in a oreign location. During 2007, 9 complete programmes, each

24 minutes in duration, were shot in 6 dierent countries. Examples

included Blue Peter on Ice in Sweden, Jungle Survival in Bolivia

and Sand, Scree and Scrums in Namibia. Secondly, international

content was identied by the number o short location reports which

covered other countries. In total, 25 such lms were shown totalling2.5 hours, and shot in 9 dierent countries. These included Camel

Farmer in Oman, Geth in Venice and Ugandan Monkeys . Finally, there

were 8 studio eatures which directly related to oreign countries or

international themes such as Civilisations’ Response to Global Warming .

In total, there were 6.5 hours o international programming on

Blue Peter in 2007 which amounted to approximately 10% o its

total content. O this, 4 hours comprised developing country content.

This represents more new children’s coverage o the developing

world than ITV1, Channel 4 or FIVE. By eaturing content rom North

America, Latin America, Arica, Asia, Europe and Oceania, Blue

Peter also covered more regions than any other terrestrial or digital

channel during their respective sample periods, except BBC1.

Objectively dening what is international content or children is

o course problematic because much o what they watch is set in

imaginary worlds which may share similarities with real locations

but not be actually accurate. Thereore, although it is not a eature

o coverage that is quantiable, the real nature o actual content

produced by programmes like Blue Peter about the wider world

is signicant since children will gain a more accurate impression

o what everyday lie is like in Arica rom the Blue Peter itemAnna and her Bike , about the lie o a young girl in Malawi, than

rom an animation set in a generic ‘Arica’ such as Tarzan .

These results demonstrate not only the important contribution

that Blue Peter makes to providing developing country children’s

programming but also highlight the chronic lack o such programming

on almost all other channels.

Newsround

The results rom two weeks o listings o output rom Newsround

show that the programme had at least one international report

every other day.

Over the 14 days analysed, Newsround had 8 international reportsin 7 programmes about 2 dierent countries (Iraq and Vietnam). The

pegs or these were the anniversary o the war in Iraq and a typhoon

in Vietnam.

The coverage o Iraq included background to the current situation,

reports on the lives o children in Baghdad and a report on children

in the UK who have parents serving in Iraq. The stories rom Vietnam

Blue Peter , BBC1



covered the news as it played out that week and included a report on

the impact the typhoon had.

In both cases, rather than being isolated reports about one-o

events, the reports on both countries ran over several consecutive days

showing the genesis o the impact o the typhoon in Vietnam and ve

dierent aspects o the confict in Iraq. This type o coverage helps

children to build up a more rounded impression o what everyday lie

is like in these countries compared to the traditional news approach.

viEwing FigurEsThe viewing gures in tables 1 and 2 are or the two sampled weeks

and demonstrate two points. Firstly, the vital role that BBC1, and

in particular, Blue Peter and Newsround , play in providing content

or children. Secondly, the relatively low viewing gures that eventhe most popular children’s programmes now receive on terrestrial

television in an increasingly crowded multi-channel environment.

Raven BBC1

Title Day Viewers Channel(millions)

Blue Peter Mon 0.51 BBC1

Newsround Thu 0.50 BBC1

The Scooby Doo Show Mon 0.49 BBC1

My Parents are Aliens Tue 0.48 ITV1

Newsround Tue 0.48 BBC1

Newsround Wed 0.48 BBC1

Grange Hill Mon 0.48 BBC1Even Stevens Thu 0.47 BBC1

The Scooby Doo Show Wed 0.47 BBC1

Newsround Mon 0.47 BBC1

Title Day Viewers Channel

(millions)

The Sarah Jane Adventures Mon 0.44 BBC1

Newsround Mon 0.38 BBC1

Newsround Thu 0.38 BBC1

Blue Peter Tue 0.34 BBC1

Chute! Thu 0.33 BBC1

Best o Friends Thu 0.33 BBC1

Newsround Fri 0.33 BBC1

Trapped Fri 0.33 BBC1

Thumb Wrestling Mon 0.32 BBC1

Newsround Tue 0.32 BBC1

Table 1: Top ten children’s programmes or week ending 20/03/07(source - Broadcast Magazine)

Table 2: Top ten children’s programmes or week ending 14/10/07(source - Broadcast Magazine)

conclusionThis research into the international content o children’s programmes

in 2007 conrms that the BBC has become the overwhelmingly

dominant provider o public service broadcasting or children in the

UK. There is a real danger that this over-reliance on the BBC will lead

to an even greater lack o variety in programming and a diminishing

diversity o viewpoints.

Across all the channels, there’s also a striking dominance o

North American programming and a chronic lack o programmes

about other parts o the world. As children in the UK grow up in anincreasingly globalised and interconnected world, television has a

vital role to play, in helping them to understand the wider world. The

dominance o North America will only serve to limit their understanding

and, i the trend continues, ultimately lead to a cultural homogeny.



mEtHodologyMeasuring the amount o international programming that is primarily

directed at children is problematic. Characteristics o children’s television

such as the low level o actual programming, the setting o storiesin imaginary worlds and the blurring o boundaries between genres,

make it more dicult to dierentiate ‘international content’ as opposed

to UK content. Thereore, in a departure rom previous IBT research

which has ocused on actual output, we have decided to analyse

all children’s content or international themes and subject matter. In

order to gauge the international content o children’s programming as

ully as possible three complementary approaches have been used.

sape 1:whe pae BBc1, BBc2, itv1, chae 4 a FivE he ee ea 2007Despite the range o digital channels available, terrestrial channels

still play an important part in the viewing habits o children in the

UK. Consequently, all new international children’s programming

was recorded rom the ve main terrestrial channels using publicly

available listings such as Radio Times and the same methodology

as or the adult actual study (see chapter 2). These results were

also cross-checked with the relevant broadcasters. Only new

children’s programming was recorded – ie programmes having

their rst run on UK television, regardless o origination.

sape 2:whe pae a he’ a hae a eek ape pe

Last year’s Ocom report on the uture o children’s programmingound that 90% o homes with children in have multi-channel

television. However, the vast number o channels makes recording

total output challenging, so a sample rom two weeks was recorded.

19 children’s channels available on a children’s Sky package were

included in the study. Two weeks rom the months o March and

October were selected to avoid school holidays – March 17-23 2007

and October 6-12 2007. The data was collected rom Digiguide,

analysed and was then subject to cross-checking with most o the

relevant broadcasters. We were unable to veriy results with Disney

or Turner. Although the results rom this sample period give us an

indication o the amount o international children’s content on digital

channels, there are signicant limitations to such a small sample size.In the two week sample period there were virtually no new

international children’s programmes on the 19 digital channels.

In order to provide meaningul data rom which to draw

conclusions about the nature o children’s programming repeats

were also included in the study o digital programming.

sape 3:ieaa e Newsround a Blue Peter 2007Although no previous IBT study has included the international

content o magazine programmes it was elt that Blue Peter and Newsround both made such a signicant contribution to

international coverage or children that it was important that they

were included. Blue Peter was able to provide listings o the entire

content o every programme in 2007. From this, the amount

o international content was then determined. Newsround was

able to provide listings o international content or the 2 sample

weeks which were covered in the analysis o digital channels.

dEFinitionsInternational children’s programming: Programming directed

at children (aged 16 and under) and whose principal themes

are explicitly and directly related to countries outside the

United Kingdom (including animated programmes).

Developing country children’s programming: Programming

directed at children (aged 16 and under) and whose

principal themes are explicitly and directly related to

developing countries (including animated programmes).

These denitions have been devised in an eort to exclude

‘amily’ programming which may be watched by children

but which is not intended solely or them, such as Dr Who .

In order to classiy animated programmes as ‘international’,

a distinction is made between those which are elt to o er

signicant opportunity or inormation takeaway about real,

rather than ctional, places. Using this distinction, programmes

such as Bratz and Power Rangers have been included whileprogrammes such as Spongebob Squarepants have not. Deciding

which programmes could be dened as ‘international’ was

done in consultation with all o the relevant broadcasters.



cHAPtEr 2intErnAtionAl FActuAlProgrAmming2007

Paul Merton in China , FIVE



The ndings presented in this chapter are

the result o a unique longitudinal study, rst

commissioned by IBT in 1989, which hastracked the changing nature o international

actual programming on UK television.

These statistics or 2007 show that BBC2

had the largest amount o international

actual programming, ollowed closely by

Channel 4. They also provide evidence o a

continuing migration o international actual

programming to digital channels, with

More4 now making a signicant contributionto the overall total with almost twice as much

international actual output as ITV1. This is

a signicant trend as the digital channels

have smaller audiences and their output is

mainly watched by viewers who intentionally

seek it out. Programmes on the terrestrial

channels are more likely to reach a wider

audience. Overall, international coverage

was dominated by North America andEurope, with these regions characterised

by high levels o programming about crime

and travel respectively. By comparison,

Arica received little coverage and that was

dominated by wildlie programming.

ExEcutivE summAry



o the our main terrestrial channels was the third lowest recorded

at just 227.4 hours. Developing country actual content on

digital channels now makes up the highest ever percentage o

total output at 24%. As with gure 1, these results show urtherconsolidation o the trend or international actual content to

migrate rom the main terrestrial channels to digital channels.

Although the contribution o FIVE, BBC3 and BBC4 to developing

country actual programming has remained airly consistent, in 2007

all three channels made their biggest contribution to developing

country programming. Also, total developing country actual

output has risen by 44% since 2003. It now accounts or 39% o

international actual content, the highest proportion since 1996/97.

The break down o results by channel in gure 3 shows

which channels had the greatest and least overall content in

2007 and the relative amount o developing country actual

programming. BBC2 had the largest amount o both international

and developing country actual output, ollowed closely by

Channel 4 which had only 10.1 hours less international actual

output but a considerably smaller proportion o developing

country output. ITV1 had almost no developing country actual

output and only BBC3 had less international actual coverage.

BBC1, BBC4, Channel 4 and FIVE all had very similar amounts

o developing country actual output, ranging rom 52.3 hours onBBC4 to 66 hours on Channel 4. Apart rom BBC3, all channels had

more coverage o developed countries than developing countries.

Figure 3 also illustrates the signicant amount o international

and developing country actual programming that the digital

channels provided. With a range o Storyville documentaries, the

Why Democracy season and programmes such as Indian School

and Bombay Railway , BBC4 had the ourth highest amount o

international actual programming and more developing country

actual programming than BBC1. Although BBC3 had lit tle developed

country actual programming, the two series Last Man Standing

and Fat Men Can’t Hunt helped it to almost 25 hours o developing

country actual programming. With programming like War Oratorio

and a week o documentaries in the China Rising series, More4 had

almost twice as much international actual output as ITV1 and only

17 hours less developed country actual programming than BBC1.

Banged Up Abroad , FIVE

Figure 3: Total hours o developed and developing country actual programming or eachchannel in 2007

Total hours o developed country actual programming

Total hours o developing country actual programming


250

200

150

100

50

0

B B C 1

B B C 2 I T

V 1

C h a n n e l 4 F I

V E B B

C 3 B B

C 4

M o r e 4

Figure 2: Total hours o developing country actual programming since 1989/90

BBC1, BBC2, ITV, C4 FIVE BBC3 and 4 More4


450

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

1 9 8 9

- 9 0

1 9 9 1

- 9 2

1 9 9 3

- 9 4

1 9 9 6

- 9 7

1 9 9 8

- 9 9

2 0 0 0

- 0 1

2 0 0 3

2 0 0 5

2 0 0 7



As gure 4 shows, the international actual output o BBC1

and BBC2 have mirrored each other since 2000/01 with

peaks in both 2000/01 and 2005 (with the Arica Lives season)

and troughs in 2003. The gures or both channels in 2007represent a levelling out o output at around 120 and 220 hours

respectively. Over the last seven years, BBC2 has had at least

79 hours more international actual output than BBC1.

The 2007 results or ITV1 show a considerable drop in international

actual output rom a previously very consistent amount o around 130

hours to a record low o just 35.3 hours. It is likely that the change in

methodology or this study had a disproportionate impact on ITV1 and

the gure or ITV1 was articially high in previous years because the

methodology allowed the inclusion o reality shows shot abroad such

as I’m a Celebrity…Get me out o Here! . This year’s research suggests

ITV1 has almost entirely abandoned any commitment to providing

signicant coverage o the wider world and particularly developing

countries. The only developing country actual programmes on ITV1

in 2007 were Commando on the Front Line , Tonight with Trevor

McDonald: Mind the Gap Year , 21UP South Arica , Bethlehem: No

Room or Peace and The South Bank Show: Isabel Allende in Chile .

As gure 4 also shows, ater a steep decline in coverage rom

302.1 hours in 2000/01 to 222.3 hours in 2003, the international

actual output o Channel 4 has remained remarkably stable with

an increase o only 1.5 hours rom 2005 to 2007. While it had

the highest international actual output o any channel in both

2000/01 and 2003, BBC2 had more in 2005 and 2007.

Although FIVE had the third highest amount o international

actual output in 2007 with 151.9 hours, this represents a

drop o 37% since 2000/01. Its developing country output

included Paul Merton in China , Search or the Lost Treasures

o Aghanistan and Macintyre: Edge o Existence.

Taken together, the three digital channels have shown the most

striking change in output which has increased by 61% since 2003when their contribution was rst recorded. In 2007, their total

international actual output was only one hour less than BBC2’s.

Figure 5 shows that the ‘soter’ programme topics including

miscellaneous, travel, religion culture and arts, history and wildlie

were the ve topics with the greatest output. ‘Harder’ topics

such as confict and disaster, development, environment and

human rights and politics had the least amount o programme

hours. The two most common topics, miscellaneous and travel,

collectively took up 40% o all actual programming, which shows

the extent to which actual UK television output relating to the

rest o the world is still dominated by ‘sot’ programming such

as Holiday on BBC1 and A Place in the Sun on Channel 4.

Politics and development, environment and human rights made up

less than 7% o all international actual programming. They included

various episodes o Dispatches on Channel 4 such as The Indian

Miracle? and several programmes on BBC4 rom the Why Democracy

season such as The Iron Ladies o Liberia and The Kawasaki Candidate .

It’s striking that the BBC and Channel 4 both had international

actual output covering every one o the nine topics, whereas

60% o ITV1’s coverage related to travel and miscellaneous

and 74% o FIVE’s to wildlie, crime and miscellaneous.

For the rst time in this longitudinal study we have looked at

which parts o the world are covered by broadcasters. As gure

6 shows, not surprisingly, North America had the most overall

international actual output, largely due to content on Channel 4

Figure 4: International and developing country actual programme hours by channel,2000/01 – 2007


350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

BBC1 BBC2 ITV1 C4 FIVE Digital Channels

2000/01Developing

2000/01Developed

2003Developing

2003Developed

2005Developing

2005Developed

2007Developing

2007Developed

Figure 5: Programme hours or each topic covered in international actual programming oreach broadcaster in 2007

BBC1, 2, 3 and 4 ITV1 C4 and More4 FIVE


200

180

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

M i s c e l l a

n e o u s

T r a v e l

R e l i g i o n ,

C u l u

r e

a n d A r t s

H

i s t o r y

W

i l d l i

e C r i m

e

C o n f i c t

a n d D

i s a s t e

r

D e v e l o p m e

n t , E n v i r

o n m e

n t

a n d H

u m a n R

i g h t s

P o l i t i c s

Figure 6: Total actual coverage o each region o the world and by each broadcasterin 2007

BBC1, 2, 3 and 4 ITV1 C4 and More4 FIVE


250

200

150

100

50

0

N o r t h A

m e r i c a

E u r o p

e A s i a

A r i c a

L a t i n A m

e r i c a

a n d C a r i

b b e a n

O c e a n i a

M i d d l e E a

s t

V a r i o u s / O

t h e r



and FIVE. 34% o all international coverage on FIVE was o North

America. Europe received the second most coverage, mostly

because o Channel 4 and More4 output such as A Place in the

Sun . Between them North America and Europe had 47% o allinternational actual coverage.

Asia received the third most coverage, largely due to the amount

o coverage on the our BBC channels. This included Indian School

and numerous actual programmes rom the India and Pakistan ‘07

season such as Calcutta Uncovered and Lost World o the Raj . The

BBC had more coverage o Asia than any other region.

15

Meet the Natives , Channel 4

21Up , ITV1

Interestingly, with programmes like Mission Arica and Long

Way Down , Arica received nearly as much coverage as North

America on the BBC channels. However, because there was

relatively little coverage o Arica on ITV1, Channel 4 and FIVEthe total amount o international actual programming about

Arica was less than hal that o North America and Europe.

Latin America and the Caribbean, Oceania and the Middle East

received the least coverage overall and the least or virtually every

broadcaster. Together these three regions had only 14% o all

international actual output.



Coverage o Europe was dominated by travel shows almost

entirely set in Southern Europe, such as Living in the Sun on

BBC1 and A Place in Spain on Channel 4. Other signicant topics

about Europe included history (17%), miscellaneous (13%) andreligion, culture and arts (11%). Programmes included Peter

and Dan Snow – 20th Century Battleelds on BBC2, Virgin

School on Channel 4 and Masterpieces o Vienna on BBC4.

Coverage was not evenly spread throughout the continent as

almost hal the countries in Europe received no coverage.

As gure 7 shows, or Asia the most common topics

were history (21%), religion, culture and arts (21%), and

miscellaneous (14%). Programmes included Jonathan Ross’s

Japanorama on BBC3, and Travels with My Camera on More4.

South East Asia was dominated by wildlie programmes such

as Orangutan Diary and Expedition Borneo , both on BBC1.

40% o actual coverage o Arica was about wildlie and 40%

o all wildlie programming was in Arica. Programmes included

Lemur Island on FIVE and Meerkat Manor on BBC2. East and

southern Arica received the majority o Arica’s coverage with

programmes such as Saari School on BBC2 and Vet Saari on

BBC1. East Arica received ar more coverage about development,

environment and human rights than any other place in the world,

largely due to Millionaires’ Mission on Channel 4 and Mission

Arica on BBC1. Interestingly, west, north and central Arica

received less than 10% o Arican coverage between them and

only 4.5% o coverage o Arica was about confict and disaster.

South America took up 59% o all international actual

coverage o Latin America and the Caribbean. With programmes

such as Banged up Abroad on FIVE and The Hairy Biker Ride Again on BBC2, South American coverage was characterised by

miscellaneous (21%) and religion, culture and arts (21%). The

Caribbean was dominated by history (31%), wildlie (26%) and

religion, culture and arts (28%), with programmes such as Wild

Caribbean on BBC2 and Cuba! Arica! Revolution! on BBC4.

Central America received only 13% o Latin American coverage.

Australia and New Zealand had 66% o coverage o Oceania.

60% o Australia and New Zealand’s coverage related to travel.

Coverage o Melanesia was dominated by religion, culture and arts,

largely as a result o Meet the Natives on Channel 4 and Return o

the Tribe on FIVE.

37% o output about the Middle East related to confict anddisaster with programmes such as Bethlehem: No Room or Peace

on ITV1 and various episodes o Unreported World on Channel 4

and Panorama on BBC1.

Most o these results about the way dierent parts o the world

are portrayed on UK actual programming may not be surprising

– the act that Latin America and the Caribbean receive little

As gure 7 illustrates, the most common topics or North America

were miscellaneous (37%), religion, culture and arts (19%), crime

(12%), history (11%) and travel (10%). Programmes included Bill

Oddie Back in the USA on BBC2, Property Ladder USA on More4and Jessie James: The True Story on FIVE. Interestingly, 43% o

all international crime programming was about North America.

Figure 7: Programme topics used to cover each region in 2007

Politics Development, Environment and Human rights Confict and Disaster Crime

Wildlie Religion, Culture and Arts History Travel Miscellaneous

N o r t h

A m e

r i c a

E u r o p

e A s i a

A r i c a

L a t i n A

m e r i c a

a n d C a r i b b e

a n O c

e a n i a

M i d d l e E a

s t

V a r i o u s

/ O t h e

r


250.0

200.0

150.0

100.0

50.0

0.0

The South Bank Show: Isabel Allende in Chile , ITV1



coverage, Arica is shown largely as a place o wildlie and the

Middle East as a region o confict and disaster. But providing this

data enables us to begin to explore the link between television

content and audience understanding o other parts o the world.For example, the act that the UK public generally knows very little

about Latin America and the Caribbean may be related to the low

level o television coverage.

cThe longitudinal element o this research reveals some striking

trends. International actual programming on the our main terrestrial

channels has now reached its lowest overall level since 1989-90.

The increasing levels o output on BBC3, BBC4 and More4 point to

the migration o international actual content to digital channels. And

Millionaires’ Mission, Channel 4

the collapse in recorded programme hours o international and

developing country actual programming on ITV1 is striking.

It is encouraging that BBC2 and Channel 4 maintain relatively

high levels o international and developing country actual output.However, the results show that output across the channels is

dominated by the same programme topics and regions o the world

are oten covered in stereotypical ways. I television is to refect the

increasingly globalised lives that people in the UK live, then new and

diverse ways o bringing the world to the UK must be ound. Indeed,

i the BBC is to ull its commitment to ‘bring the world to the UK’

and Channel 4 its new remit ‘to challenge people to see the world

dierently’ then programming about the Middle East should ocus

on more than just confict and programming about Arica on more

than just wildlie.

Mission Africa , BBC1



mEtHodologyAs there have been many changes in programme genres

and styles since the IBT reports began in 1989, so the

methodology being used had become increasingly out o

date. It was decided, thereore, that some alterations should

be made. Although this makes comparisons with the datarom previous reports less reliable, because current aairs

and relevant UK based programming has now been included

and reality programming shot abroad but with little or no

relevance to the country has now been excluded, the overall

totals have remained very much as they would have been.

daaIncluded within the survey is all new actual programming:

• broadcast on BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and

FIVE, and on BBC3, BBC4 and More4

• between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2007

• which meets the denition of factual international

programming or developing country actual given below.

deFor the purposes o identiying and categorising relevant

programming, the ollowing denitions were used:

Factual international programming

All non-news actual programming in which the principal themes

are explicitly and directly related to a country or countries

outside the UK (whether it was shot in the UK or abroad).

Developing country actual programming

All non-news actual programming in which the principal

themes are explicitly and directly related to a developing countryor countries (whether it was shot in the UK or abroad).

These denitions have been changed rom the ones used

in previous reports so that programmes which are shot in

oreign countries but which have no content relating to that

country, such as I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out O Here!

do not qualiy or inclusion. However, programmes such

as Meet the Natives which do provide content relating to

oreign countries but which are lmed in the UK, can now be

included. Current aairs programmes are not distinguished

rom actual programming because such a distinction

is no longer considered valuable or this research.

Developing Countries

As with all previous IBT studies, this report relies on the classication

o developing countries used by the United Nations Development

Programme. The World Population Programme classications o

dierent regions o the world are also used where appropriate.

Pae hMost sections o this report use ‘programme hours’ as the main

indicators. Where a programme met the criteria described in this

methodology, the entire time o the programme was counted. For

programmes broadcast on commercial channels, 10% o programme

time was deducted to allow or commercial breaks and trailers.

i/eOpen University, school programmes, the Learning Zone, repeats

and ‘omnibus’ collations were not included in this research. For the

rst time programmes consisting solely or mainly o archive material

are included. This is done in order to account or programming that

relies heavily on archive material but which uses this material to

convey new meanings. The genre o programmes collating clips

o real lie ootage rom other countries, such as CCTV ootage,

was included. Arts and culture programming was included, but

programmes eaturing celebrity subjects, where the culture o their

home country was not examined, were excluded. Music shows

recorded overseas but consisting o perormance only were not

included. Those which blended musical perormance with other

material on the culture or society o the country concerned were

included. Studio programmes such as Newsnight were not included

because the inormation required to identiy every piece o

international content was not available.

seThe data was collected rom publicly available listings sources

such as the Radio Times , but was then subject to rigorous

cross-checking with the broadcasters, who have co-operated

closely in order to veriy the inormation needed or correct

classication o individual programmes. We would like tothank all the broadcasters or their help and co-operation.

ie aeeProgrammes were categorised into the ollowing broad issue bands:

• Conict and Disaster: comprising international and civil

war, global security, terrorism, crime and civil unrest

within the past ten years, and both historical and

contemporary natural and man-made catastrophes.

• Crime: all aspects o crime, criminal activity and investigation,

including CCTV and police video compilations.

• Development, Environment and Human Rights issues.

• History: actual programmes telling stories which took place overten years ago (in order to distinguish the ‘History’ category rom

‘Confict and Disaster,’ in the case o war documentaries). This

category also comprised archaeology, and included standard

documentaries made up o archival ootage and ‘talking head’

interviews, i the historical subject matter was placed outside

the UK.



Since it was launched in October 2001 the CBA-DFID Broadcast Media

Scheme has provided support or UK based programme makers who

aim to ‘refect the real world’ to the UK television audience.

The cost o researching and developing programme proposals to

submit to broadcasters in the hope o a commission is substantial

and it is inevitably cheaper and less risky to research a programme

idea in Durham than in Delhi. But by reducing this nancial risk orproducers, the CBA-DFID Broadcast Media Scheme works to

increase the volume o programme ideas set in and about the

developing world that are submitted to UK commissioning editors.

The Scheme is unded by DFID but run by a small team rom the

Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA), thereby enabling

producers to maintain their editorial independence. Support is given

either via the idea specic Programme Development Fund or the

person specic Travel Bursary Fund. The Scheme also provides

programme makers with practical support, such as fight, visa and

health inormation and proessional contacts, via the global network

o CBA member broadcasters.

Since 2001, 159 programme ideas have been supported via the

Scheme. 40 o the 95 projects awarded support rom the Programme

Development Fund have so ar either been broadcast or

commissioned, a commissioning success rate o 44% compared to

an industry average o 7%. To put this in context, in 2007 ITV1

broadcast just 9 actual programmes about the developing world,

FIVE broadcast 68 and Channel 4 broadcast 105.

Over the 6 years that the Travel Bursary Fund has been running,

64 awards have been granted giving 70 dierent programme makers

an opportunity to research international programme ideas. 41 o these

awards have already resulted in at least one broadcast programme

with many awards resulting in multi media coverage across the UK.

In 2007, Channel 4 broadcast a series o short documentaries

supported by the Scheme that celebrated Indian independence. Made in India was shown in peak time and attracted an audience o 1.2

million per episode. The Scheme also worked with the BBC to send 5

non-journalists rom the UK to rediscover their amily roots and ties in

India and Pakistan. Output rom the 5 bursars was used or TV, radio

and online coverage o the anniversary o Indian independence.

Travel bursar, Alison Pinkney, rom Lion Television, was one o the

team o producers who developed and lmed Indian School shown on

BBC4 and BBC2 during 2007. This series ollowed rom the success

o Arican School , also developed by a travel bursar rom the Scheme.

Extensive media coverage resulted rom multi media journalist

Susan Schulman’s bursary trip to Sierra Leone during 2007.

War Oratorio was a eature length musical lm, broadcast onMore4 in 2007. Filmed in Aghanistan, Uganda and Kashmir the lm

combined the language o musical perormance and documentary

to tell the real stories o people caught up in the maelstrom o war.

Sally-Ann Wilson. Project Director

Indian School, BBC4

cBA-dFid BroAdcAst mEdiA scHEmE

• Miscellaneous: comprising lightweight human interest

topics, observational documentaries or docu-soaps, science

and medicine less easily classiable programmes.

• Politics: comprising elections and political change, political

economics, and political analysis within the past 10 years.

•Religion, Culture and Arts including anthropology.

• Travel: all variations on the travel/adventure/holiday programme.

• Wildlife and natural history: shows mainly about animals.

Purely reconstituted footage of animals was distinguished

from animal programmes examining their environmental and

human contexts, which would fall into the ‘Development,

Environment and Human Rights’ category.



cHAPtEr 3constructing KEnyA:How tHE uK BroAdcAst mEdiAcovErEd tHE Post-ElEctionviolEncE in KEnyA



This report explores some o the issues

raised by the coverage o the violence in

Kenya and highlights the diculties whichUK broadcasters ace in reporting a ast

moving a complex news story. The audience

was unprepared or the crisis and the early

reporting provided little context and too

much emphasis on tribal causes. This

‘broad brush’ approach in the rst ew

days ramed the way in which UK viewers

understood subsequent events, even though

later coverage revealed a more complexpicture. Broadcasters acknowledge that

mistakes were made – or example running

out o date pictures on a loop which

suggested the violence was ongoing when

it was not. With the content rom UK

broadcasters now being watched around

the world, reporters need to be sensitive to

local issues and contexts. Graphic images

including body parts and infammatorylanguage eel very dierent to a local

audience in the midst o a crisis compared

to an international audience watching rom

a distance.

21

ExEcutivE summAry



introductionCovering the violence which broke out in Kenya ater the disputed

elections posed a number o challenges or UK broadcasters. Since

television news is the main source o inormation or most UK citizensabout the wider world, the way in which such an important Arican

news story is reported is likely to have a signicant impact on how UK

audiences perceive Arica. This report explores some o the issues

raised by the coverage and highlights the diculties broadcasters

ace in covering a complex and ast moving news story. It is based on

a series o interviews conducted once the violence had subsided, with

broadcasters, journalists and commentators in the UK and in Kenya.

An ill PrEPArEd AudiEncEFor many o the interviewees, their initial concern with the coverage

was that the UK public was remarkably ill prepared or the events that

took place ater the election because o the way in which Kenya had

been ‘constructed’ previously by the UK media. Michael Holman,

ormer Arica editor o the Financial Times argues that ‘or many

people [in the UK], Kenya is Arica and Arica is Kenya… Kenya

is the iconic Arican state… You’ve got almost the happy image o

Arica as a place o sun, sea and sur’. This is why, he believes,

when the violence broke out, UK audiences were so unprepared

or it and ‘to have this vision o Kenya destroyed has really been

quite traumatic’. A senior BBC journalist agrees that ‘there was little

preparation or the audience or what was going to happen’. The

immediate question this raises, according to Holman, is ‘how did

we ever come to think o Kenya as such a stable, prosperous, law

abiding country? The press in general have got quite a lot to answer to

because they create the illusion that … they are now knocking down’.

In an article in the Financial Times in June 2007 Kenya was

said to have a ‘sprightly’ economy that is ‘beginning to thrive’

with a political regime that has ‘inspired resh optimism in the

country’. The author, Barney Jopson, described a country wherepolitics had been successully de-linked rom economics and

announced that ‘while industry battens down the hatches in

many Arican countries ahead o polls, business condence in

Kenya appears to be growing’. In the same week, the Economist

presented an entirely dierent view, observing that ‘Kenya’s

general state o disrepair is striking. Tens o billions o dollars

o aid have been spent, yet in many respects the country’s

inrastructure is worse than it was 40 years ago … Kenya

oten eels like a country that cannot cope’. Holman cites this

article in the Economist as one o the ew examples o accurate

reporting about Kenya in the UK press beore the election.

morE BAd nEwsThe second theme that emerges rom our interviews is the

issue o which stories are covered and why. The build up to the

Kenyan election was relatively peaceul and the election itsel,

with images o people queuing to vote, appeared to represent

a story o democratic success in Arica. Yet this was barely

mentioned by the UK media. Deborah Rayner rom Channel

4 News acknowledges that ‘the actual election itsel didn’t

get sucient coverage’ and a BBC journalist told us ‘we know

that people… in Arican journalism were trying to get news

organisations interested in the election. But there was – I am

told – little interest’. Similarly, when the violence subsided and a

peace deal was signed, the UK media coverage was minimal.

22

‘th eek’ ee ha h

h aa a keh a be epe hepa e hh’mke we, BBc ne, 2.1.08

‘Pa e hae epeba he aee e’Kae Ae, BBc ne, 30.12.07



Tim Singleton, Foreign Editor at ITV News, explains the

lack o coverage beore the violence began by arguing that

‘news is only news when something happens and I don’t think

our viewers would have orgiven us i we had done lengthypieces in December about the build up to the elections’.

The argument that the only news viewers are interested in is

bad news was rejected by almost every other interviewee. Beatrice

Karanja, a Kenyan journalist, argues that such a view ‘assumes the

British public are thick’. She points to the relatively large diaspora

populations in the UK and the act that UK citizens travel widely,

to make the point that audiences are worldly enough to want to

know about more than just confict and violence. Sally-Ann Wilson

Project Director o the CBA – DFID Broadcast Media Scheme

points to numerous pieces o research such as Refecting the Real

World 1 and 2 , Live Aid Legacy , Making Sense o the World and

Viewing the World , all o which document audience rustration

with the broadcast news media’s ocus on bad news and highlight

the desire o audiences to be given a more complete picture o

the world. Sinead Rocks, the editor o Newsround says that their

audience research demonstrates that what both adults and children

really want to see rom news media is something unexpected.

Singleton deends ITV News arguing that ‘perhaps you are

open to the accusation that you only report on the country when

things go bad but that’s news.… Unortunately we don’t live in a

media world where everything gets equal attention all o the time.

That is just not realistic’. Rocks disagrees, suggesting that ‘you

can conound expectations because every news programme has

room or eatures or investigations or stories that are o interest to

the audience that may not necessarily be in the news that day’.

inAdEquAciEs in EArly covErAgEThe issue o greatest concern to interviewees was the character o

the early coverage o the violence and particularly the emphasis

on tribalism. As Helen Palmer, Global media ocer at Oxamargues, coverage ‘ell very quickly into the ‘Arica is a tribal basket

case scenario’ without explaining the wider context’. Paul Mason

rom Newsnight agrees that ‘they were too ready to categorise

it as an ethnic confict ’. For Holman, the church massacre at

Eldoret received disproportionate coverage because ‘once again

it ullled the stereotypes o an Arica that is driven by bloodlust

and tribalism’. Firoze Manji rom Fahamu, the Arican human

rights network, believes ‘it is institutional racism. When they see

two Aricans ghting, they look no urther than tribalism’.

Tim Marshall rom Sky News deends the initial ocus on tribalism.

‘Yes it is tribalism and actually I would stand by that. I think then what

actually happened has born that out. Sometimes there is a sort o

media angst that doesn’t want to go down that line, but it clearly was

related to tribalism… The essential truth is that [there were] very stark

images o people being killed with machete blows simply because they

were rom the wrong tribal or ethnic background. That is undeniable.

It is recorded on camera. That is the brutal truth o what happened’.

As BBC journalist Adam Mynott says, ‘it would be ludicrous to

suggest [tribalism] wasn’t a actor and a big actor in all aspects o

Kenyan lives’. All interviewees agree with this but many also stress

the importance o highlighting other explanations and complexities

such as the role o land rights, poverty, corruption, hopes or

democracy and resource allocation. Without this wider context,

Palmer argues, we can not get ‘beyond this stereotypical picture

o Aricans running around with machetes killing each other’.

‘th, he e ae e Aa’ abe eae’Kae Ae, BBc ne, 2.1.08

‘the k ae ea a,

hk ba, ha hake pe b eh paa (ahee)’Jaha me, chae 4 ne, 3.1.08



Mynott believes ‘it is all down to the balance and nuance and

getting the emphasis right. It’s a complex picture and should not be

looked at in one dimension’. Fellow BBC journalist Mason agrees: ‘I

think a lot o people in journalism also eel like me that you have tounderstand the complexity, understand the deep social roots o the

resource allocation problem. To many Kenyans it looks like the Kikuyu

elite allocated all the resources to itsel. You have to understand that in

order to explain the ethnic violence, not to condone it but to explain it’.

Marshall says the coverage did evolve: ‘In the rst couple

o days you are immediately assessing something and you

are also operating out o a lot o the news agency wire stu’.

He says this is typical o how broadcasters cover this kind o

story. ‘In the rst couple o days you are going to get the broad

brush, basic lines and then the complexities... I don’t think we

should beat ourselves up too much about the coverage’.

The act that coverage improved over time is accepted by almost all

o our interviewees but they oer dierent explanations. Many blame

the ‘re ghting’ approach o some broadcasters. ‘They don’t do their

research properly, they don’t speak to the right people and they fy

rom the UK with no political or historical [background]’ (Karanja). ‘I

think it’s the classic scenario o people jetting in rom outside vs. the

experts on the ground. Certainly people like Adam Mynott at the BBC

know the situation very well and explain the context very well… When

they few an anchor out rom London and got him to tell us what he

saw on the way rom the airport – I don’t think that was particularly

illuminating’ (Palmer). According to a senior BBC journalist ‘there is a

tendency or editors to slot Arican stories into something simplistic.

And you can understand it. I you are given a choice o reporting the

latest negotiations between politicians nobody in the UK has heard

o, or a human interest story that symbolises the confict, you are

going to choose the latter’. One British reporter who was in Kenya

during the violence told us ‘a huge amount o international press

arrived who had basically come there with the question, knowingnothing about it, which tribe is ghting who? Which tribe doesn’t like

the others? Tell me which tribe is it? You can’t [just] blame editors i

the culture o journalists is ‘all Arican conficts are about tribes”.

Although Palmer is encouraged by the improved Kenyan coverage,

she believes the early reporting had serious consequences. ‘While

it is great to have the more nuanced analysis coming through, the

initial ramework o the story is set by the opening ew days’.

When asked about the practicalities o reporting the Kenyan

crisis, Marshall points to the dicultly acing broadcasters in

explaining complex stories in a short amount o time. ‘In terms

o TV news or a mass audience, you can’t go into every nuance

o tribal background that broadsheet newspapers can do in their

2000 words’. But or Firoze Manji rom Fahamu, the lack o context

in the early coverage was a serious ailure. ‘When a crisis occurs,

the principal role o the media should be to provide the necessary

empirical background immediately so that it provides the context or

interpreting events that are taking place’. Newsround editor Sinead

Rocks agrees. ‘Our obligation is to give as many acts as possible

but also to contextualise things. We treated it the way we treated

any story, just to bring it down to a very actual level and to explain

things as clearly as we can. A lot o news services just report a story

and assume a great deal o prior knowledge – now we obviously

can’t do that’. By adopting this approach, Newsround managed

to provide coverage that did not rely on the single explanation

o tribalism even with severe time and resource constraints.

‘Kea’ ha h peepa ae a Aaf. B he ’ peea he p a aeep e a aeapa ea hhhae bee ahe’Pa ma, BBc ne, 3.1.08

‘thee h ae e he daa nab, h a a be

hake eah a ba a e ahee. He e ea he ee’Jaha me, chae 4 ne, 3.1.08



Deborah Rayner rom Channel 4 News believes the choice

o the team is critical. She says she was only able to send a

team o ve people, but these were ‘ve people who really know

what they are talking about... Sometimes on these big storiespeople get fung out and it could be their very rst assignment’.

Channel 4 also had the benet o Lindsey Hilsum who knows

Kenya well. Beore fying to Kenya hersel she sent briengs

to the team on issues such as Kenya’s history and the correct

pronunciation o the names o the dierent tribes. ‘Then we

hired locally, very careully. That is something Channel 4 News

always does, you hire the very best people you can and you

listen to them… we were very careul to hire a mix o tribes’.

inciting or insEnsitivE?The most serious claim made by interviewees is that certain

characteristics o the international media’s content could be

responsible or inciting or exacerbating some o the violence

in Kenya. A ew days ater the violence had started, Wachira

Waruru rom the Media Council o Kenya issued a statement

urging the international media to show restraint in the naming

o communities involved because, he argued, ‘ this only

goes to uel and infame already heightened emotions’.

Helen Palmer believes that because the international media ‘ran

out o date pictures on a loop, they suggest the violence was ongoing

when it was not ’. Sylvia Mwichuli, rom the UNDP in Kenya argues

that this can make people believe that the violence being committed

against their tribe is worse than in reality, which can help perpetuate

the violence. ‘Because Kenyans were so stressed out, every time you

see… the media you are not sure i they are [pictures] or today or

or yesterday but you see as i it is today’. Adam Mynott is ‘ashamed

to say’ that the BBC also used out o date ootage on a loop but

added ‘I can sort o understand it rom an editorial point o view…

the most exciting pictures are the ones you stick on’. Mason addsthat ‘the continuous loop o something being shown is a problem

and something I think editors need to think about [particularly

because] Kenyans are not that used to 24 hour rolling news’.

Several respondents claim that the nature o the coverage

suggested that violence was occurring in more places than

it actually was. ‘Some o the international media gave the

impression that the whole o Kenya has been on re or the last

ve or six weeks and that is very misleading. Eighty percent

o the country has been largely unaected’ (Mynott).

Tim Marshall, rom Sky, concedes that ‘where I do think [they have]

got a point is about the stu on a loop, especially i your not paying

close attention to the words… and I also think that it is incumbent

upon us to point out that this is happening in a relatively small

geographical area o a large country. I hope we did point that out but I

am conscious o the power o the image and people are watching and

you hear ‘Kenya’, you see violence and that’s your image o it. I see

that point… We have a responsibility to put the pictures into context,

we try and do it, we don’t always succeed… everyone’s allible’.

Making a reliable assessment o whether or not the international

media infamed the situation is beyond the capacity o this research.

As Tim Singleton rom ITV News argues, ‘you’ve got pictures o

people hacking each other to death, political leaders accusing each

other o genocide, I don’t think you need us to stir it up’. Beatrice

Karanja believes that those people involved in the violence are

unlikely to have had access to television, that local radio stations

‘Ha be ee bheeke aa’oa ge, BBc ne, 9.1.08

‘i h Aa aape,

ahe e he a.H b ha bee hee 10 a a ’ bee eapae’oa ge, BBc ne, 9.1.08



played a more important role in inciting violence and that much

o the violence was pre-planned. ‘It is blaming the media or

human instinct or or something that is already going to happen’.

But what this debate does highlight is the act that as the UKmedia reaches more audiences around the globe, journalists and

editors will need increasingly to engage with context specic issues.

grAPHic imAgEsWachira Waruru, who chairs the Media Council o Kenya,

warned the international media about the use o graphic images

which ‘only serve to take away the dignity o Kenyans who are

at the moment going through very hard and traumatic times’.

In his interview with us, he added that ‘when watching the

news… about violent acts in Europe or America… you don’t

see dead bodies, you don’t see body parts… you don’t see

nearly dying people… The international media should apply the

same principles when covering confict here in our country’.

Marshall deends Sky’s use o images: ‘We specialise in

eye witness reporting. To be rank, that is as worthy i not

more worthy to show the world what is really happening

than it is to spend your time stroking your chin, having these

intellectual debates about what’s going on. The history o our

proession shows that the more you are able to expose the

truth – earlier on – the quicker international action is taken’.

Singleton believes ITV News did show restraint: ‘There were

some agency pictures o people literally being hacked to death.

We never showed the point o death. In the Kenyan instance we

showed the start o the attacks on them and then news roze the

picture and moved on and said the pictures are too graphic to see’.

inFlAmmAtory lAnguAgESome interviewees expressed concern that the language used

by reporters was o ten sensationalist and inappropriate. Palmer

believes that ‘the language that some o the UK journalists usedwas very apocalyptic, it was very much ‘Kenya is nished, it’s

going down the tubes right now’. Sky News came in or criticism.

For example, Emma Hurd told viewers that ‘the appetite or

bloodshed here doesn’t seem to be waning’ (29.1.08). The BBC’s

Adam Mynott spoke o ‘a renzy o savage brutality’ (26.1.08)

while ITV News reported that ‘the police are caught between two

tribes whose thirst or blood has not been sated’ (28.01.08).

Tim Singleton denies that the phrase ‘thirst or blood’ was

inappropriate. ‘I think it is hard to exaggerate the brutality o

some o the deaths o the people in these riots’. Singleton’s

view is that ‘we always strive to use the best language – but

sometimes in dicult circumstances it is easy to drit into cliché

and exaggeration, but to accuse the media o stoking up the issue

through insensitive language – I don’t think that really holds water’.

There is clearly a danger that the initial coverage, characterised

by graphic images o dead and mutilated bodies with accompanying

language reporting that ‘human beings were butchered like animals’

(Ola Guerin, BBC News), then becomes the rame o reerence which

the audience uses to understand all the subsequent coverage.

‘i a a ez aae ba,pepe naaha eeaake a ahe b be ahee kea epa’Aa m, BBc ne, 27.1.08

‘Kea ba e

he ee. tbe he aae hae. i’ e j ab he ee’Kae Ae, BBc ne, 28.1.08



intErviEwEEs Michael Holman – Former Arica Editor,

Financial Times

Beatrice Karanja – Kenyan journalistFiroze Manji – Director, Fahamu

Tim Marshall – Foreign Aairs Editor, Sky News

Paul Mason – BBC Newsnight Correspondent

David Mugonyi – Reporter, The Nation, Kenya

Sylvia Mwichuli – Arica Communications Co-

ordinator or the UN Millenniun Campaign

Adam Mynott – BBC East Arica Correspondent

Helen Palmer – Global media ofcer, Oxam

Deborah Rayner – Senior Foreign Editor, Channel 4 News

Sinead Rocks – Editor, Newsround

Tim Singleton – Foreign Editor, ITV News

Wachira Waruru – Chair, Media Council o Kenya

Sally-Ann Wilson – Project Director, CBA-

DFID Broadcast Media Scheme

conclusion And rEcommEndAtions

Although this chapter ocuses just on Kenya, it raises broader

concerns about the nature o international news coverage in general.

Reporting a ast moving and complex news story is challenging butaudiences need to be provided with as much context as possible

in order to understand the signicance o events, as they unold.

The audience was unprepared or the crisis and the early

reporting provided little context and too much emphasis on tribal

causes. Broadcasters need to be aware that a ‘broad brush’

approach in the rst ew days o coverage o an international

crisis rames the way audiences understand subsequent

events, even i later coverage provides more detail and a wider

range o voices. Reporters should give thought to how they

can provide more context in the early coverage o a crisis.

There is also a continuing contradiction between research

that points to a wide ranging audience appetite or engaging

news stories about a variety o international issues and

the assumption by some broadcasters that audiences

are only interested in ‘bad news’. Covering o the agenda

stories are a vital way o providing the context, alternative

perspectives and variety that audiences say they want.

With the content rom UK broadcasters reaching ever increasing

parts o the world, broadcasters should be sensitive to local

issues and contexts. Graphic images and infammatory language

eel very dierent to a local audience in the midst o a crisis,

compared to an international audience watching rom a distance.

‘the appee bhe heee’ ee be a’Ea H, sk ne, 29.1.08

‘we ee a l a aKk, he a aa, ha he ae be’Ea H, sk ne, 30.1.08



AcKnowlEdgEmEntsThis report was written by Martin Scott and edited by Mark Galloway

and Sophie Chalk. Our thanks to all the broadcasters who worked

with us to veriy the statistics quoted in the report, to all the

interviewees who spoke to us about Kenya, and to DFID or unding

this research project. Design by birdy.

rEFlEcting tHE rEAl world?The frst report in this series was published in June 2006. It included

interviews with broadcasters and research exploring how audiencesresponded to dierent genres o programming about the developingworld.

Copies can be downloaded at www.ibt.org.uk or www.cba.org.uk

rEFlEcting tHE rEAl world 2The second in a series o research reports published by IBT, thislooked at how UK television and new media portrayed developingcountries. Based on a series o interviews with broadcasters, newmedia specialists and commentators, the report also includedaudience research examining the viewing habits o young people.Published in September 2007.

Copies can be downloaded at www.ibt.org.uk or www.cba.org.uk



International Broadcasting TrustCAN Mezzanine32-36 Loman StreetLondon SE1 0EH

IBT - Screening The World (2008)

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