emma essay

Emma Campbell 11006180
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................2
Britishness and the Commissionfor Racial Equality Study ............................................................... 2
People and Britishness.................................................................................................................. 3
Citizenship and Britishness............................................................................................................ 4
National Symbols and Britishness ..................................................................................................5
Values and Attitudes, and Britishness ............................................................................................ 6
Cultural Habits and Britishness......................................................................................................7
Britishness outside of the UK........................................................................................................7
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography............................................................................................................................... 10

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Introduction
Britain has an ever-changing multicultural demography throughout the three countries within
it: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Linguistically, Britain is a predominantly
homogenous English speaking area,yet ethnically, it is a heterogeneous area. According to the 2011
Census data, 91.2% of respondents said all members of the household over 16 years old have English
as their main language in the household (Census,2011). Further to this, the Census data also revealed
that 19.5% of respondents revealed their ethnic group to be something other than
English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British, contradicting the statement above (Census, 2011). This
raises the issue of what being British actually is; in other words, what constitutes Britishness?
Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not as simple as the question perhaps insinuates;
the concept of Britishness is a much more complex and contradictory term. This complexity is caused
by the multicultural demography; therefore the word Britishness can be inclusive yet still
distinguishes Britishness from other national identities. Thus we arrive at a term which is perhaps
impossible to define conclusively, yet can be defined as a subjective entity in a number of various
dimensions. This subjectivity then reflects in the media and how individuals perceive the messages
encoded in the media itself. These messages can be manipulated to create both positive and negative
views of Britishness through the language choices made, or they can be misinterpreted when decoded
by the reader. This further distorts and adds to the plethora of definitions associated with Britishness
and further adds to the already difficult task of defining the term.
The purpose of this essay is to explore and critically examine a number of definitions related
to Britishness and their validity in the contemporary, ever-changing demography of Britain.
Furthermore, this essay will also analyse how the media constructs an image and definition of what is
British and the influence this has on public perceptions of Britishness.
The essay will begin by exploring the multifaceted plethora of definitions and associations of
Britishness and the ongoing changes occurring with relation to the changing demographic of Great
Britain, thus creating difficulty when attempting to find a static definition, with particular, initial
relation to some of the eight dimensions as a result of the Commission for Racial Equality study. It
will further consider how the media used language to construct Britishness for these definitions and
analyse how the language affects public perspectives with specific examples taken from such media
outlets.
Britishness and the Commission for Racial Equality Study
When we first begin to search for a definition for Britishness, “we start with the assumption
that Britishness, like any other concept denoting a social identity, is very much a fluid concept, which

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can be associated with a range of different, and indeed contradictory, meanings” (Commission for
Racial Equality, 2005). Although there is this element of fluidity, it must also be accepted that
Britishness is “grounded in a particular historical, political, economic, social, ideological and cultural
reality” (Commission for Racial Equality, 2005).
One of the most pertinent studies in the ongoing debate of how to define Britishness was
conducted by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) in 2005. Although the sample was small in
terms of being representative for the British population, there were equal proportions of Scottish,
Welsh and English participants of both genders and varying generations of immigrants thus being a
highly representative sample. Further to this, the participants were of various ethnic backgrounds,
further diversifying the sample. It could be argued that the sample may be outdated due to it being
conducted almost 10 years ago although the variety in the participant sample would suggest it could
still be considered representative as an initial thought. Further to this, each focus group included
members of a specific ethnicity, and was facilitated by a researcher of a similar ethnicity thus creating
a more relaxed environment and resulting in more honest responses. These arguments reinforce this
study to be highly salient for this essay,although other opinions will also be considered throughout.
People and Britishness
The most salient area which arose as a result of the CRE study was who actually constitutes
as British: the British People. One important perspective from the CRE study was that to be British is
exclusively for white people (Commission for Racial Equality, 2005). This viewpoint is reinforced by
Campbell, 2008, who suggests that “‘whiteness’ often serves as a synonym for Britishness” and the
two terms are “inextricably connected” (Campbell, 2008). This perspective would suggest an ethnic
national identity whereby the national identity is constrained by shared heritage and ancestry
(Roshwald, 2006). This interchangeable terminology appears in the media on a regular basis. Paton
(2014) wrote an article for The Telegraph using the term ‘too white’ in the headline and ‘too British’
later in a quote taken from a member of the public. This influences readers to view these terms as
synonyms rather than ‘white’ as race and ‘British’ as an umbrella term for the people of Britain. This
manipulation blurs terms which are referring to completely separate concepts. The Express journalist,
West (2014), also covered this story, yet used the term ‘English’. This again influences the reader and
“entails the creation of an “other” who is made to stand [for] (…) absolute difference” (Campbell,
2008). Therefore,the language of these articles is somewhat English and/or white exclusive and thus
constructs Britishness as something which it is not: Purely English and white. Although these terms
are used interchangeably, in reality, they insinuate very different concepts.
On the contrary, the CRE also raised the opposing view that to be British is to hold a UK
passport and therefore includes people from a diverse range of ethnic origins (Commission for Racial

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Equality, 2005). Amara (2014) wrote an article for The Independent citing ‘ethnic minority’ and
‘Britons of all backgrounds’ in the headline. The use of these terms together suggests a more inclusive
use of ‘Britons’, influencing readers to see this relation and thus seeing Britishness as including ethnic
minorities. Thus, here the language constructs Britishness and a diverse identity, and in an accepting
and perhaps inclusive way.
However,the definition of being British as holding a UK passport also has drawbacks.
According to the government website (gov.uk, 2014), British citizenship is based upon a number of
things including passing a ‘Life in the UK’ test for example, thus a passport is not necessarily
essential to the British identity. Heath and Roberts argue on this perspective that being British is more
complex than a mere “official category” (Heath & Roberts,n.d.). Instead it fulfils a desire for a sense
of belonging and thus an “attachment to the state” (Heath & Roberts,n.d.). It could therefore be
argued that the people themselves are not important, but instead the attachment they feel towards
being British which is most salient.
Citizenship and Britishness
British citizenship is not the only perspective on citizenship in the UK. The indigenous British
population are further distinguishing themselves as English, Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh,
something which is segregated from the wider, multi-ethnic term, British. In 1707, the Act of Union
linked together the nations of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England (Richards, 2004)
creating this notion of British unity. Yet now, Britain as a group of interweaved nations is somewhat
dissolving (Richards, 2004), particularly with the Scottish Independent Movement of recent. Kumar
(2010) argues that Englishness, as a subcategory of Britishness, is more important that both Scottish
and Welsh, but is this really the case? With the recent Scottish referendum, it is clear that Scotland
feel their national identity to be highly important in their community. In an article for The Scotsman
by Peterkin (2014), the segregation of Scotland versus the rest of Britain is evident. There is no
mention of ‘British’, only ‘Scotland’, ‘Scottish’ and ‘North of the Boarder’. Although this is expected
in a Scottish newspaper article written by a Scottish journalist, it could be argued that the language
used creates an inclusive perspective for Scottish readers,and an outsider’s perspective for non-
Scottish readers,suggesting that the indigenous population of Britain is segregating along the
boarders and thus perhaps a segregating nation, thus manipulating the reader’s perspective of Britain.
On the other hand, Richards (2004) argues that the English are being lost in the separation of
Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England as they have such a close bond with Britishness which
is, in his opinion, disintegrating. This argument is based on the fact while Scotland have the Kilt and
Tartan as their national costume, the English have no national dress, and while Wales celebrates St
David’s Day, the English do not celebrate St Georges Day (Richards, 2004). Yet there are a number

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of things which are considered quintessentially English, and thus would argue the English are not lost,
they are merely a different contributing strand of British. For example, the English are a football,
cricket and rugby nation (Commission for Racial Equality, 2005) – something which will be explored
later in this essay.
This further dissection of the citizenship in Britain suggests that Britishness is perhaps a ‘dual
nationality’ for the indigenous population over their more salient national identity of Scottish, Welsh,
Northern Irish or English. Thus defining Britishness becomes increasingly difficult when many
indigenous Britons are distinguishing themselves from each other as Scottish, Northern Irish, Welsh
or English rather than as an inclusive ‘British’.
National Symbols and Britishness
People and their citizenship are only two dimensions of what British can be defined by.
Britishness is further symbolised by a number of iconic concepts such as the Union Jack, The Royal
Family, Parliament, Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, among others (Commission for Racial
Equality, 2005). Many of these are recognised all over the world and even many British people would
name the above as symbols of the British identity. However,how far do these icons go in representing
Britain as a whole? Many icons on the list above are London-centric, thus are not salient for those
across the north of the country, or Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Ward (2012) argues the
“Beefeaters as an icon of Britishness”, yet they have very little relation to Scotland or Wales. In an
article for The Telegraph, Hannen (2013) mentions how the British monarchy is one of the first things
people from outside of Britain associate with Britain: “The Crown defines our brand” (Hannen, 2013).
In this perspective, the language of the media portrays a very much royalist and patriotic view of the
British and thus Britishness, something which is, on some level, quintessentially a British trait. The
language further insinuates that the Royal family are a representation of Britishness, which for many
people is not the case.
In contrast, Tatchell (2012) argues that instead of clinging to this ethnic national identity
based on a shared heritage, which in turn would include the monarchy, Britain should be moving
towards a more civic national identity (Tatchell, 2012) whereby Britishness would be based on shared
values and duties (Roshwald, 2006), something which will be explored later in this essay. Tatchell
(2012) discusses how the Royal Family “more than anyone else, are deemed to symbolise British
tradition and identity” and British people celebrate the Royal family instead of celebrating other
elements of Britishness such as scientists, artists and so forth. Furthermore, Tatchell argues that the
Royal family are “out-of-touch with modern multicultural Britain” (Tatchell, 2012). He says that the
demographic of Britain is so ethnically diverse yet the Royal family remains wholly white in race,and
the charities and community groups visited by members of the Royal family are “rarely black ones
and never gay ones”. The language of this article portrays the royal family in a negative way,and as

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somewhat segregated from minority groups in Britain, and perhaps a representation of a purist,
predominantly white British society, constructing an unaccepting identity within Britishness. This
leads to the conclusion that the modern, and more accepted British identity is not synonymous with
the Royal family, instead Britishness should be based upon a civic national identity: that is, shared
rights, values and duties, and loyalty to a territory (Roshwald, 2006). Further to this, the language of
the article, in particular the examples above, construct Britishness to be represented by the Royal
family which is somewhat incorrect.
Values and Attitudes, and Britishness
The CRE study revealed traits associated with the civic national identity. The first would be
the values and attitudes of the British people. Firstly there were some positive aspects including
respect for the law and upholding human rights. However some negative aspects were also
highlighted namely drunkenness, hooliganism and yobbishness. Paxman (2007) links this
drunkenness to football fans. He says “they see fighting and drunkenness as part of their birthright. It
is the way they proclaim their identity”. The identity they may be attempting to construct is one of a
football fan from Britain, or England. Instead, they are forming a representation of Britishness to
those outside Britain.
This concept of Britishness and being a drunk hooligan is very much apparent in various
media outlets. For example, Huggler (2014) wrote an article based upon another German article about
drunk Britons and the German perception of these. Both articles construct a drunk, sexual and
overweight image of the typical Briton abroad. For example, the German article labels British women
as suffering from ‘underwear amnesia’ in relation to sexual favours, ‘Welsh wandering hands’ to
describe more sexual actions, and ‘balcony leg’ to describe the Britons jumping into a pool from their
balconies (Huggler, 2014). All of this behaviour can be related to some level of hooliganism on the
disruptive dimension. Further to this, the article discusses ‘vodka cough’ as a result of drinking too
much cheap alcohol which, inevitably, results in the hooligan behaviour listed about which clearly
stems from drunkenness (Huggler, 2014). All of the terms to describe the British as mentioned above,
along with being overweight, casts a negative shadow over the British in the media – in particular the
German media. These terms construct Britishness in a certain negative light and thus influence the
reader to see Britishness and the British people in this negative light also. This use of negative phrases
and negative language denotes Britishness to be founded upon this alcoholic, disruptive and, at times,
violent culture, thus manipulating readers into a false representation. Further to this, by using the
same negative language in the British media article, it could anger the British opinion of their identity
to German people, thus creating a barrier between nations. This example alone is a representation of
how influential the media can be.

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Cultural Habits and Britishness
Along with football, among other sports, Britishness is also associated with food. Ashley et
al. (2004) suggests “the link between Britishness and a “nice cup of tea” is (…) well established,
taken-for-granted, and very much a part of the ‘national culture’”. They further highlight foods such
as a full English breakfast,roast dinner, fish-n-chips, scones and so forth to be part of the “core
national diet” (Ashley et al., 2004) and thus, quintessentially British. In recent years however,more
adventurous foods have been brought to prominence as characteristically British – namely a curry. It
has become so far salient to the British gastronomic landscape that it has officially been proclaimed a
national dish, and Britain now celebrates National Curry Week (National Curry Week, 2014). Parker
(2014) discusses that we now have ‘British Indian’ dishes. This term is used to describe dishes which
originated in Britain such as a “Korma, Tikka Masala and Lamb Rogan” (Parker,2014). This is a
suggestion that curry is an integrated part of Britain and thus forms the British identity. The language,
such as ‘British Indian’ depicts an integrated dynamic in the British identity. It insinuates tolerance,
acceptance and integration, along with promoting diversity in Britishness, thus showing how language
can reinforce a really positive message about Britishness and their identity.
Britishness outside of the UK
Throughout this essay,the concept of Britishness has been considered from the British
perspective through data collected by the CRE. This essay has briefly touched on the opinions of the
rest of the world about Britishness, but there are clearly more opinions in this. The Telegraph posted a
series of videos about what Europe think about British people. In particular, the first video at the top
of the page is what they consider to be strange about British people. Many answers were salient with
those given as responses to the CRE study such as cups of tea,beer, food and so forth (The Telegraph,
2014). Interestingly, a number of answers which were not responses in the CRE study such as banter,
being apologetic, small talk and the class system, many of which are British traits (The Telegraph,
2014). The fact that the European participants labelled these traits as strange yet the British CRE
study participants labelled many of these are quintessentially British suggests that Britishness is
something which is agreed on at some level across nations. This concept of Europe thinking our
normal traits as strange is interesting. It insinuates that what is thought of as strange outside of Britain
is what Britishness is proud of, perhaps suggesting the nation is unique in what is characteristically
British. The language in the article is interesting because many in the video have the same view: the
British have strange traits and traditions. However,to a British person, it suggests a uniqueness, and
thus something to be proud of.

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Overall, it is clear that Britishness is a term with a multitude of definitions, each salient with
different people from various different backgrounds. It could be said that this suggests Britishness is a
subjective entity that can vary from person to person yet is also constant between various people of
various backgrounds also. Although the individual opinions, both negative and positive, vary, the
dimensions such as people, citizenship and so forth are constants across these suggesting there is not
one single definition for Britishness, but in fact a plethora of valid and correct definitions held within
larger, vague constraints.
Further to this, it is clear the media use various language, such as using ‘white’ and ‘English’,
for example, in place of British, to insinuate a specific dimension of Britishness to influence the
reader. Moreover,language is used in the media to manipulate how Britishness is perceived by the
readers,for example the article about Britons abroad from the German perspective. This manipulation
makes Britishness even more difficult to define due to the fact that the media may change their
construction of Britishness from article to article in order to have the reader see a specific perspective.
Thus it could be argued that the media has as many constructions of Britishness as definitions.
Conclusion
Throughout this essay,the term Britishness and its definitions have been explored with
contradictory opinions alongside. The essay further examined how this concept of Britishness is
portrayed in the media, with specific relation to how language constructs these opinions and
definitions regarding the British identity.
From this essay,it is clear Britishness is a multidimensional term with a number of definitions
which perhaps represent the many different perspectives of the many different people within Britain
who feel, to some degree,British. This confirms Britishness is a subjective entity which varies from
person to person, place to place, situation to situation. This subjectivity is exploited in the media.
Many terms which are associated with various definitions of Britishness are adopted in media articles
to influence and mould the audience to follow or believe a certain perspective on the concept of
Britishness, whether it is to feel some form of national pride or to reject a certain ethnic minority as
not wholly British. Thus, being British and Britishness must be taken and used with a level of caution
due to this subjectivity.
Further to this, the media use language in many ways in order to construct many different
constructions of Britishness depending on the story and position held by the journalist. Thus it could
be argued that Britishness can be many different things depending on the intentions of the journalists
and the perceptions of the reader.
Of course, this essay is not completely conclusive on the subject of Britishness due to the
complexity and enormity of the term. Further to this, it cannot have a definitive definition due to the

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demographic of the UK changing constantly, thus what constitutes as British changes with this.
Instead, theorists and researchers must therefore keep updated with this changing definition. What is
constant however is the fluidity and flexibility the term allows for the user. Overall, the term
Britishness is a ‘user friendly’ and subjective term which is suitable for use by any person who feels
any affiliation to being British.

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