A race riot in Lozells? So what's going on?

Violence on the streets of Birmingham was a big story last weekend. Why did some papers get it wrong?

There was trouble - or a riot - depending on how you see these things, in the Lozells district of Birmingham last weekend. It certainly wasn't on the scale of Bradford in 2001 or Brixton 20 years before that, but it was unpleasant and it resulted in death, injury and police with riot shields. By the middle of the week it had gone away - at least from the national press.

The trouble involved conflict and violence between the black and Asian communities in that part of the West Midlands. The catalyst, if not the cause, of the trouble was a rumour promoted in the media. It was said that a 14-year-old black girl had been raped by an Asian gang. The media, in this case, were not the mainstream or establishment outlets, but the community websites and pirate radio stations.

As I write, the rumour is still unsubstantiated. No evidence that this event took place has been presented to the police, and the girl herself has not emerged. I read on Pickled Politics, "an online current affairs magazinethat aims to reflect the political voice of young, progressive British Asians", this contribution:

"I wasn't on the Birmingham demonstration. At the time, I was shopping in Dalston, east London, with my (black) wife, when some dude in a tea cosy and a airhorn thrust a piece of paper at us ... That was the first time I learned of the allegation of serial rape made against members of the Asian business community. Now here is the good news. It seems the good people of Dalston are a lot more sophisticated than our northern brothers and sisters. All around Dalston market there was much talk but little belief that this incident actually took place... Now for the bad news. By the time I got back home later that night, Lozells was already burning."

So this atmosphere was there in Lozells all week and led to the community meeting on the Saturday afternoon, which was followed by the disturbances and the murder of Isiah Young-Sam. Sunday's national newspapers and the broadcast media heard about it on the Saturday night. The Independent on Sunday was the only national Sunday newspaper to treatthe story properly - putting it on the front page. The BBC did well, leading all its overnight bulletins with it. But uthers were less plugged in. Why?

First, there is a belief, particularly in the print media, that when ethnic minority communities are in conflict, traditional readers are little interested.

Second, there is ignorance about the issues - political and religious, to name but two - dividing these communities.

Third, in some areas of the media there is an over-sensitivity to the delicacy of the multi-cultural debate, a fear of "getting it wrong" that can lead to the sometimes risible excesses of political correctness. The events of 7 July have compounded this. An absence of proper ethnic minority representation in the media, particularly regional newspapers, denies them the cultural knowledge that would be so useful in covering these sensitive stories.

This knowledge deficit is addressed in a new Home Office-funded handbook, Reporting Diversity, published by the Society of Editors and the Media Trust. It is endorsed by Sir Trevor McDonald and is sensible rather than overly "PC". Reading it while reflecting about the reporting of the Lozells trouble, provoked the following thoughts:

Does The Daily Telegraph either mean it, or think it helpful, to write: "It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between parts of Birmingham and South Central Los Angeles"?

The trend to link print with the web broadens awareness of websites. Last Tuesday, the Telegraph reported apologies from websites and pirate radio stations for publicising the gang rape allegations which "caused a huge rise in tension between black and Asian communities". On the same day, The Guardian's "Today on the web" spot provided links to several of these websites.

The Birmingham Mail executive running the paper's coverage of the trouble said: "Throughout we've been acutely aware of measuring the tone, content and balance in our reporting. There was always the danger of inciting one sector through headlines, choice of pictures, intros or simply space given over to quoting one community leader."

Responsible, or too careful not to offend? In contrast, the Telegraph drew attention to the BBC website's failure to mention ethnicity until the 14th paragraph of its Lozells report.

Peter Cole is professor of journalism at the University of Sheffield