The media has been a constant source of controversy as far as racial issues are concerned. Many share the opinion that some broadcasters, and other tools of the press, are racially biased and therefore when broadcasting a story on a racial or ethnic issue, they may either not tell the whole truth or the story may contain echoes of the broadcasters own racist opinions. Although a majority of racism in the media have targeted black communities, there have been some anti-Semitic broadcasters, and there has been a growing trend in the media during the past few months that have targeted asylum seekers claiming that they are living luxuriously at the expense of the British taxpayer. This essay will look at the history of racism in the media and analyse the ways in which broadcasters and the press treat various minority groups and will try to conclude as to whether broadcasters and the press have improved in the way they treat racial issues and if they deal with racial stories as they would any other news story or whether there is still a bias involved.
             To get a better understanding of why racial issues have such a mixed reaction between various broadcasters and press agents, the origins of racism in the media should be analysed. According to one author, one of the problems that began racism in the media was the word 'immigrant' and all the connotations associated with it:
             Since 1948 when the first post-war West Indian immigrants arrived on the Empire Windrush, the number of black people resident in Britain has risen to more than one million. Though there has in this period been substantial white immigration, the word 'immigrant' has come to be generally employed as a synonym for 'black', thereby excluding the large number of immigrants to Britain who are white and including the large number of black people who were born here. Thus most people would assume that a headline which read 'IMMIGRANT...