BBC Manchester, Oxford Road by night. Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-2.0.Do television and radio in the UK have a problem with social class? There is increasing concern that they do – in content, staffing, and corporate management. Tim Hincks, former President of Endemol Shine Group, said in the BAFTA Television Lecture in 2015 that television in the UK was “hideously middle class”. Sharon White, Chief Executive of Ofcom, the industry regulator, reported last year that many people felt the BBC was "overly focused on middle-aged, middle-class audiences". Rhian Jones has argued that the BBC needs to care about class. The industry is beginning to respond, but it faces significant challenges.
A panel at the Royal Television Society Convention in Cambridge this year revealed a broad range of concerns regarding class in television. Ofcom released a report coincident with the Convention reporting on diversity and equal opportunities in television. While Ofcom focused on race, gender and disability, it also reported on broadcasters’ initiatives to promote social mobility. Ofcom added that it will explore what new information can be provided on social background.
Broadcasters, including the BBC, have recently begun to address social class in terms of diversity. Undoubtedly, this has been aided by existing initiatives on diversity with reference principally to gender, race, disability, age and sexual orientation. Much of this engagement with class seems tentative and in development. Some commentators are concerned variously with ‘class’, ‘socioeconomic background’, or ‘social mobility’. Different variables are proposed to measure class. Proponents tend to rely exclusively on a metrics-based approach.
