Branding Images : White Saviorism and Shock Appeals by BBC Three

Sammanfattning: This research has focused on the representation of foreign cultures in four BBCdocumentaries. To be more precise, it looked into how public documentariesportray foreign cultures, specifically within a frame of development aid and whitesaviourism when watching documentaries by BBC Three, a channel which iscentred towards a young audience. Previous research on white saviourism andshock appeals analysed movies, documentaries and aid campaigns. Barely anyhave so far researched representation of minorities, foreign cultures and aid topicsin public documentaries. BBC Three is additionally focused only on a youngaudience and blends tv with social media engagement. This is an interesting angleas youth will be the next policy makers and as they are starting to create theirworldview. The research is based upon a visual and textual analysis, followingHall’s encoding/decoding model. It showed that all four documentaries (2016-2018) misrepresent their “subjects” by focusing more on the presenter’sperspective, e.g. concentrating on their emotional responses, asking loadedquestions, giving their opinions and solutions. All four documentaries alsopresented a simplified local situation through Scott’s shock appeals and a badgood guy perspective (where the presenters address the local government andstand up for the helpless subjects). One can therefore state that youth learn aboutforeign cultures through the eyes of a “North” girl/boy next door presenter basingupon a white saviourism perspective. The research additionally related thefindings to Goodman’s theory on iCare capitalism, the emphasis on creating abrand and self-value out of caring for others so that other’s suffering is turned intoa theatre play. This is also visible through BBC Three’s and the presenters’ socialmedia presence. This research opens the discussion and defines a need toresearch the responsibilities of public channels and the impact on youth whendeveloping opinions, views and stereotypes.