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How do we see the world? New report on how television and new media portrays the developing world

 

Scene from the TV programme 'Tsunami'

Broadcasters need to take more risks and seek out a wider range of voices if they are to engage audiences with the wider world – these are among the conclusions of a new report, Reflecting the Real World 2, just released by a group of organisations led by the International Broadcasting Trust, and including the One World Broadcasting Trust. You can download the report here.

 

The report’s authors interviewed leading figures from television, new media, and the international development sector, to explore representations of the developing world. They also conducted focus groups with young people, to find out how they learn about events beyond their own borders.

 

These focus groups showed that young people are still getting most of their information on the wider world from television, not from new media and internet video. The authors suggest that broadcasters and NGOs should resist the temptation to direct disproportionate resources to online media.

 

Instead, they recommend that special attention should be paid to new formats and populist drama, which could cater for a wider range of audiences.

 

The report follows on from its predecessor, Reflecting the Real World, which looked at how UK broadcasters and audiences responded to a heightened focus on the developing world, particularly Africa, during 2005. It concluded that there were some good examples of balanced and creative coverage – but it asked whether this could be sustained. Reflecting the Real World 2 addresses this very question.

 

Among the people interviewed was Angus Macqueen, head of documentaries at Channel 4. He said:

“I think we’re pretty damn lazy about the way we make films about the rest of the world but I don’t think that directors, producers or commissioners have addressed the problem of the rest of the world in the same way as they’ve addressed the issue of how you renew documentary at home.”

  

The report was led by the International Broadcasting Trust, in cooperation with the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, Concern Worldwide (UK) and the One World Broadcasting Trust.


 More information on the first report Reflecting the Real World
 

Further Research & Policy Documents

 

BBC's White Paper 'Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK', (2006) a commitment for the next 10 years to show UK audiences and online users the lives, cultures, beliefs and challenges of people around the world - and not just in news but in all genres of programming.

 

Bringing the World to the UK (2005) examines the level and type of factual international programming provided during 2005 by the UK’s five terrestrial public service TV channels, and by the digital channels BBC3, BBC4 and More 4.

 

The World on the Box (2003) quantifies and categorises all factual TV programming on international issues broadcast by the UK's five terrestrial channels and by the digital channels BBC 3 and BBC 4 in 2003. It includes news and non-news.

 

The Live Aid Legacy (2002) the most comprehensive research on how Britain sees the developing world, containing interviews with over one thousand UK adults, visitors from developing countries and expert commentators including Jonathan Dimbleby; Sorious Samura and Paddy Coulter, Reuters, Oxford.