Manchester University Press - Adjusting the contrast

This volume looks at a range of texts and practices that address race and its relationship with television. The chapters explore television policy and the management of race, how transnationalism can diminish racial diversity, historical questions of representation, the myth of a multicultural England and more. They also provide analyses of programmes such as Doctor Who, Shoot the Messenger, Desi DNA, Survivors and Top Boy, all of which are considered in the context of the broadcast environments that helped to create them. While efforts have been made to put diverse portrayals on screen, there are still significant problems with the stories being told.

Reviews

'Adjusting the Contrast makes a meaningful intervention into the whiteness that historically characterises much of UK television studies [.]with this rigorous, engaging and eclectic collection, Malik, Newton and their contributors play an important part in the ongoing project to decolonise British television studies.'
Hannah Hamad, Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, Vol. 13, No. 4 (2018)

Introduction - Sarita Malik and Darrell M. Newton
1 A little Brit different? BBC America and transnational constructs of Britishness - Darrell M. Newton
2 Scheduling race - Anamik Saha
3 Reframing the 1950s: race and representation in recent British television - James Burton
4 Black British drama, losses and gains: the case of Shoot the Messenger - Sarita Malik
5 The iconic ghetto on British television: Black representation and Top Boy - Kehinde Andrews
6 Whiteness, normativity and the ongoing racial Other: imperial fictions: Doctor Who, post-racial slavery and other liberal humanist fantasies - Susana Loza
7 Myth of a multicultural England in BBC's Luther - Nicole M. Jackson
8 Framing The Fosters: jokes, racism and Black and Asian voices in British comedy television - Gavin Schaffer
Index

Editors

Sarita Malik is Professor of Media, Culture and Communications at Brunel University

Darrell M. Newton is Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire