13 - Race and Ethnicity in the Media

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The bulk of this chapter will analyse in detail two examples of recent press coverage: one of asylum and in particular unrest in detention, and the other the voluntary flight/abduction of Misbah Rana from Scotland to Pakistan. The two case studies are interesting in and of themselves, but they also throw up more general questions.

Before embarking on the case studies, the chapter starts with some general thoughts on other aspects of the topic. The definition of race and ethnicity is complex, and certainly no less so in the Scottish context than elsewhere. Although the two words are often used interchangeably, it is generally agreed that while race is a biological, physiological attribute, ethnicity is broader and takes in other aspects of identity such as shared language or shared religion. Key to this difference is the fact that ethnicity takes in one's own experience or identity, that is, we could say that while race is an objective phenomenon, ethnicity is to some extent a subjective one. This renders yet more problematic the fact that so much of what is written in the press and elsewhere about people who are members of ethnic-minority communities is written from an apparently objective stance by members of majority communities.