| Description | A prime motivation for the collection of material by Vanley Burke was his need to see a better representation of black people. A large part of this was monitoring how black people were represented by the media, the white mainstream media as well as the black media.
The series is divided into two main subsections: (/1) Radio and Television, and (/2) Print Media.
/1 contains material such as correspondence, promotional material for events, post scripts, and related material for television and radio production relating to, containing, or produced by black people in Britain. This subsection also contains some material relating to the involvement of Vanley Burke and fellow Birmingham photographer, Pogus Caesar, in an edition of "Black on Black" as part of a series of programmes. There is also some promotional material for a talk by Burke on 'Images of Black People' held in London. This section also contains some promotional material for black Birmingham based pirate radio station, PCRL, and also press clippings regarding its subsequent demise.
/2 contains magazines, newspapers and press clippings of various print media. This subseries is further divided into subgroups according to the type of media, considering the respective target markets and purpose of production. These include:
/2/1: 'Black Magazines', generally comprising glossy fashion and lifestyle publications, targeting a largely black female market, internationally, nationally and locally;
/2/2: 'Black and Asian British Press', comprising a selection of newspapers published by Black or Asian press companies, targeting a black and Asian market, aiming to represent the respective community's experience in Britain, as well as reporting the news stories felt to be in demand by these communities and neglected by mainstream British press;
/2/3: 'Black People represented in the Press', contains material Burke has collected to assess the images of black people in mainstream press during the period. Burke has asserted that he wished to collect the newspapers that featured a black person on the front page. The final subdivision of 'Black and Asian British Press' (/2/2) contains this material, although not all items necessarily feature a black person on the front page, the section contains newspapers and press clippings of articles that portray or report on a story regarding a black person, some international, mostly local. Of the publications included in the subseries, there are many prominent titles, such as US based black lifestyle magazines 'Ebony' and 'Essence', as well as black British women's fashion publication, 'Pride'. The files also contain some issues of Birmingham based black women's lifestyle publications 'BBJ' and 'Survival'. Of the press titles, there is 'The Voice', 'New Nation', black British newspapers, as well as 'Asian Eye', a British Asian newspaper. The 'Black People Represented in the Press' subsection also contains a variety of mainstream local and national titles, including 'Birmingham Evening Mail', as well as the 'Daily Mail' and 'The Independent', among others. |