‘Neutrality Comes From Inside Us’: British-Asian and Indian Perspectives on Television News after 11 September

Abstract

This paper focuses on responses to the viewing of television news channels during and after 11 September 2001 by a sample of Indian viewers in Bombay and British-Asian viewers in South-East England. Viewers’ perceptions of neutrality, bias, reliability and vested interests within news channels and organisations are discussed, alongside the manner in which issues of gender, age and religion impact on the meanings made from and imputed to the news coverage of the attacks on America and Afghanistan. As well as considering the ways in which multilingual and sometimes transnational families experience television news in the contemporary arena, the paper addresses questions about the political significance and social impact of news broadcasts within communities with pre-existing beliefs and world views. We argue that the ways in which many so-called ‘international’ news channels covered issues of blame, evidence and retribution with regard to the Twin Tower and Pentagon attacks raised levels of tension, increased communal dislikes and reinforced pre-existing animosities against Muslim communities across the world.