From the lense of the working class: The BBC Three Documentary

On the 16th of February 2016, BBC Three went off the air for the last time. This meant that the youth brand has changed the type of content that they create, with a focus predominantly on developing the comedy and documentary genres. Where hour-long documentary had been a centerpiece of linear BBC Three (with a prime 9 p.m. timeslot), these shorter running times increased the genre’s spreadability. (Woods 2018) This blog will therefore explore how by being on a digital platform, BBC Three is now able to connect with the voices of the working class in a far more personal way.

The personal experiences of the working class are being constructed in Our Borough: Love and Hustle (BBC Three, 2019). This type of programming follows the Director-General of the BBC’s ‘Where next?’ speech, outlining a vision to personalize the BBC in ways that reflected ‘how our audiences are changing’. (Hall 2013) This is achieved from following multiple stories of the youth in London, specifically Tottenham. The opening of the documentary uses distance to provide a structural perspective of action that will occur by using a newsreader’s voiceover, describing “a murder investigation after a man was found with gunshot wounds in North London”. This shows the media’s coverage of events to put a context to the political content that will be discussed in the show. However, the text then aligns with the individual narrative of people living in Tottenham, specifically King George, a 21-year-old student from the area who is the central individual that the narrative is based around. He explains “The TV had its opinion but no one asked us what we thought”. In a montage sequence, the diversity existing in Tottenham is shown, constructing the argument that there is more to their lives than what is shown in the headlines. The audience follows King’s personal struggle and his voiceover of the stories of his neighbours in Tottenham, showing how an argument is created through his voiceover. The documentary uses multiple perspectives of people in King’s local neighbourhood in order to reinforce similar arguments and ideologies thus giving a voice to the working class and to show stories that aren’t in the news.

One of the stories that is shared argues that the police are prejudice towards the black youth in North London, following the story on 16-year-old Kaymari, who is targeted and regularly stopped and searched by the police. The documentary attempts to make “Truth Claims” (Fox 2018: 6), an element of the documentary that is marshalled in order to make something appear more accurate, by the use of video footage caught on a phone camera by Kaymari’s mother. It shows her son being stopped and searched by plain-clothed police officers. However, this footage clearly shows how “The notion of objectivity long associated with the documentary film is a myth” (Fox 2018: 3) because this camera footage is clearly framed by a voiceover of Kaymari’s mother explaining the events whilst the recording plays. She describes her son as “visibly petrified” which positions her son as being unfairly treated and there is also clear bias as the victim is her son. An eerie one-note drone sound also is playing in the back of this footage which emphasises the emotion of fear. The purpose of this video footage is to expose and establish a negative point of view of the police.

The point of view of the footage is reinforced by a conversation between Kaymari and his mother, where close up shots show their emotional reaction to the events. By cutting back to the victim and witness, the audience is able to see the direct effects police prejudice has and multiple levels of witness confirm the accuracy of the story.

To conclude, the argument being constructed in Our Borough: Love and Hustle is that there is an alternative story of the personal lives of the working-class people living in Tottenham by the use of voiceover and truth claims. This is achieved by approaching controversial political issues that have been exploited in the media by providing alternative information, to create a different point of view of the working class that young BBC Three audiences would want to be represented.

Bibliography

Fox, Broderick. (2018) Documentary media: history, theory, practice, 2nd ed (New York: Routledge), pp. 1-19.

‘Director-General Tony Hall unveils his vision for the BBC’, BBC, 8 October 2013, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/speeches/2013/tony-hall-vision.html> accessed 1 February 2020.

Woods, Faye. 2018. "BBC Three: Youth Television and Platform Neutral Public Service Broadcasting." In . 1st ed., 297-307: Routledge.

Teleography

‘Love’, Our Borough: Love and Hustle, (BBC Three, 2019).

By Harriet Baldwin