Making ethnic minority programmes inside the BBC: professional pragmatics and cultural containment

Abstract

The BBC has publicly committed itself to enhancing the representation of Britain's ethnic minorities. This article examines the production context and professional aims informing the production of ethnic minority programmes by ethnic minority producers inside the corporation. With the help of producer testimonies it offers critical insights into the relatively closed world of the BBC, its corporate ethos and programme making environment and examines the professional pragmatics of producers who steer a course through a complex of institutional and cultural constraints. The concept of professional pragmatics is developed throughout the article and refers to the ways in which producers practically manage and professionally rationalize their programme making activities as well as the mantle of `professionalism' adopted by producers in their dealings with colleagues and community contacts. The examination of professional pragmatics helps reveal exactly how it is that corporate commitment to multicultural programme production and producers' stated aims to the same can become undermined in practice.