Definitions:
- Representation-the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way.
- Representation in media- is how media texts deal with and present gender, age, ethnicity, national and regional identity, social issues and events to an audience.
- Stereotypes-These are a simplified representation of a person, groups of people or a place, through basic or obvious characteristics - which are often exaggerated.
-
Counter stereotypes-Are positive stereotypes, they focus on positive elements of a group traditionally represented as bad.
- Identity- is a socially and historically constructed concept. ... Social and cultural identity is linked to issues of power, value systems, and ideology . The media uses representations—images, words, and characters or personae—to convey specific ideas and values related to culture and identity in society.
- Mediation-Every time we encounter a media text, we are not seeing reality, but someone’s version of it.ideology-These are ideas and beliefs, held by media producers, which are often represented in their media texts.Social power-In social science and politics, power is the ability to influence or outright control the behaviour of people. The term "authority" is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure.
-
Hegemony- leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others.
- Regional Identity refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is from. It could refer to a general area such a “North” or “South”, a country such as “English” or “Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or “Manchester.”
-
Working class- Those individuals engaged in manual work, often having low levels of educational achievement. The classic, traditional working class jobs include heavy labouring and factory based work.
- Upper class- The elite class that controls the majority of wealth and power in British society.
- Middle class- Those individuals engaged in non-manual work, often having higher levels of educational achievement. Classic middle class jobs include everything from doctors and lawyers to clerical workers.
Task 2:
UKIP embraces the ideology of hard Euroscepticism, also known as "Eurorejectionism". Euroscepticism means criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It can also mean opposition to and total rejection of the EU.
The photo represents Uk migration as if the Uk has lost all its power and is 'Over-crowed' with
immigrants. The photo is stereotyping the immigrants as mixed race or black people of a certain
nationality and religious people. The photo also represents them to be poor or unhealthy so this could
present that they could be coming in and taking all of the jobs.
Task 3:
you
will be required to copy the common stereotypes and theories used by the media
in the representation of the following groups.
Stereotypes:
- Females: being a housewife, having lots of children, being unemployed, have to constantly be well dressed and have makeup on, be smarter than men, women are submissive to men and are lower in power.
- Males: Cannot cook, cannot clean and cannot look after children, physical work jobs,doctors not nurses,are messy, sex orientated.
- Youth : wear hoodies, have life easy, insecure, easier exams, criminals,drugs,alcohol's, no interest in politics, knifes, phone obsessed, brain dead, can't drive, moody, wear too much makeup, tracksuits.
- Black People: strong, trouble, dance, can't swim, likes chicken, violent, in gangs, 'thugs'
- Essex: fake tan, loud, short temper,short clothes, over-the-top, slang, dumb
- Scottish: alcoholics, argumentative, drug addicts, rugby, gingers, pessimistic, love haggis, always wear kilts, always say 'wee' and 'laddie', bagpipes
- In a 1999 research paper Ann Gould identified 6 key stereotypes in the media’s representation of youth. These are: Rebellious, Artificial tribe, Sexual, Nihilistic, Violent,Self-destructive
Hebdige- "I wrote a book about the importance of style to youth subcultures. I believe media representations of young people portray them as either fun or trouble."
The Inbetweeners series 3, episode 5- stereotypes.
In this episode, there are many stereotypes of what teenage boys think about and do. For example the boys are shown as rude, rebellious and sex orientated. This is shown through how the boys wreck the flowers in peoples gardens and the villages flower sign to change it to a rude,sexual comment. Another stereotype is when Jay is home alone and the narrator says that he is doing "what every teenage boy does when they are home alone". This presents teenage boys as having sex driven minds. This is also shown in the way they sexualised Will's mum. Firstly, they use innuendos my telling her to "bounce up and down " as a 'tip' for playing tennis. Throughout the episode they are shown as immature and reckless One way in which this is shown is how they wanted to throw a party as soon as Will's mum was out of town. Another way is through their use of language, swearing and using immature and un-polite phrases.
Representation of Women:
Representations of women across all
media tend to highlight the following:
•beauty (within narrow conventions)
•size/physique (again, within narrow
conventions)
•sexuality (as expressed by the above)
•emotional (as opposed to intellectual)
dealings
•relationships (as opposed to
independence/freedom)
- Women
are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues)
and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role of
helper (Propp) or
object, passive
rather
than active (Mulvey).
-
Often
their passivity extends to victimhood. Men are still represented as TV drama
characters up to 3 times more frequently than women, and tend to be the
predominant focus of news stories.
Women have often suffered from a Narrow
set
of representations in the media
They are often linked to the domestic situation:
Women as
housewives or mothers OR as
sex objects (sexualised and
objectified) represented to entertain and titillate the male
They
are
shown as…
•Young
•Slim
•Overwhelmingly
white
•Conforming
to our image of ideal beauty (perfect skin, hair and alluring gaze).
Laura Mulvey:
She was a theorist and a feminist. Mulvey, came up with the concept on male gaze
in 1975.
Here Mulvey wrote a very influential essay ‘Visual
pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. Stating that
women are used for visual
pleasure- women are made to seem like sexual objects through
voyeurism.
She argued
that women took the passive part of a film and that all men played an active
part,
in her eye the women were objects
Van Zoonen:
Involves feminism and patriarchy. Van Zoonen
believes the media portray images of
stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views.
The media
does this because they believe it reflects dominant social values (what people
believe
in) and male producers are influenced by this. This is a patriarchy (a
society ran by men for
men) which dominates and oppresses women.
Representation of men:
'Masculinity' is a concept that is
made up of more rigid stereotypes than femininity. Representations of men
across all media tend to focus on the following:
•Strength - physical and intellectual
•Power
•Sexual attractiveness (which may be based
on the above)
•Physique
•Independence (of thought, action,
finances)
Male characters are often represented as
isolated, as not needing to rely on others (the lone
hero). If they submit to
being part of a family, it is often part of the resolution of a
narrative,
rather than an integral factor in the initial balance.
Task 4:
Men and women are presented differently in the same magazine. Tinie Tempah is shown
as strong as he is upright and is seen to have a higher authority. He is also seen as
powerful and smart as he is wearing a suit with a bow-tie and glasses. Lana is portrayed as
a sexual object. It could show her as the typical stereotypes of submissive, suggesting that
she's vulnerable. This could be shown through her scrunched up figure. It is also showing
that women need to look good by having their makeup and hair done to 'attract' men and
perform to society's norms.You can also tell that they have edited her body to make her
look smooth and highlight parts of her body to look shiny. This is influencing that women
have to edit themselves to be accepted.
Regional Identity:
Definition- Regional
Identity
refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is from. It
could refer
to a general area such a “North” or “South”, a
country such as “English” or
“Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or
“Manchester.”
How can you identify regional identity?
– Setting
– Accents
–
Dialogue
– Props
–
Make up
– Class of characters
– Costumes
– Etc.
Examples
•Essex – often shown as being glamorous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying,
being quite stupid
•South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny,
richer, doing middle class jobs such as managers, etc.
•North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less
culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders, etc.
Representation Class:
•Gramsci’s
theory of hegemony can be visualised
as the Middle classes (media,
Judges (rule of law), Public, Education sector
and religious bodies) using their
influence to preserve the status quo.
•The
poor and working class are often represented in an unsympathetic /biased way
(trouble makers, deviant as
a means of preserving the power of the middle and
upper class).
•This
is illustrated in the attached images
•Hegemony
(theory) does not only apply to class it is relevant to gender (patriarchy) and
race…
Middle class (stereotypes):
•Presented
as
educated and successful as well as able to cope with problems,
•Over represented
in the media due to their lifestyle
•Representation
fits
in with the hegemonic ideology of the dominant class in society,
•Representation
justifies
the existing class structure and inequalities by suggesting people
need to
become more competent and successful in order to cope with life.
Working class:
•Presented
in
the stereotypical context of traditional working class communities such
Eastenders and Corrie,
Shameless
•Community
values
often praised but do not reflect reality,
•Working
class
communities have declined with the collapse of traditional industries such
as
coal mining,
•Often
presented
in the context of trouble, undesirable welfare scroungers, unable to cope
with
their delinquent children.
Summary of theories
Nairn
(1988) – Monarchy
•
“Royal Family” concept = niceness, decency, ordinariness,
•
Royal family can be deemed to be “like us” but “not like us” – the queen seen
as ordinary
working mother doing extraordinary things,
Upper
class
•
Mainly represented through the coverage of the monarchy,
•
Seen as well bred and cultured,
•
Represented through their accents, estates, and a taste for shooting and
hunting,
•
Usually represented in costume and period drama.
Representations of poverty and underclass
•
Portrayal usually negative and stereotypical,
•
Portrayed in the form of statistics in news bulletin such as figures of
unemployment,
•
Recent media interest in the labelling of the poor such as “chavs”
which according to
Shildrick and
MacDonald (2007) suggest that the poor are undeserving of sympathy,
•
Hayward and Yar
(2006) – the term chav is
used as an amusing term of abuse for young
poor people
The wording on the headline creates an image of a stereotypical working class
family who are 'vile'. 'Vile' makes them seem like rubbish and not worth our
taxes going towards them. The photo presents them and 'chavy' by them
dressed in tracksuits and cheap clothes. This uses the theory and suggests that
the poor are undeserving of sympathy. The word 'product' suggests they are objects of the
Uk.
Shameless:
The intro to the show cuts scene to scene with a voice over. Firstly, its starts with different
camera shots of flats towers together and then shows a close up of a flat tower. This
implies a stereotype of working or underclass people in council flats and in a tight space-
with most story's being that they have little space with to many people. In the wide shot,
you can see a cloudy dark sky, this creates a dark mood and shows how he place is
miserable. Gallagher, first is shown with his long scruffy hair and his baggy, 'trampy'
clothes with a cigarette to show a stereotypical, underclass person who uses their money to
smoke and buy alcohol as if they were not responsible. Throughout the episode, They are
shown as a dysfunctional family, who are rebellious by making fires, stealing and getting
in trouble with the police. This is shown through the shaky camera. The uses of music
conveys how violence is normalised.
Representations of the working
class
•Newman
(2006)
argues that there are very few situation comedies, television or drama
which
focuses on the everyday lives of working class who constitute a significant
section
of society,
•Newman
argues
that when in the media working class are often depicted in a very non
positive
light dumb buffoons (Homer Simpson) and immature machos (Phil Mitchell),
•Butsch (1992)
– working class portrayed as flawed individuals (benefit cheats, etc.)
Race:
•Representation
of race in the media can consist of the same sort of rigid stereotypes that
constitute gender portrayal.
•Stereotyping
of
race is
seen as more harmful than stereotyping of gender, as media representation may be
the only experience of contact with a particular ethnic group that an audience
may have (especially children and young people)
•Racial
stereotypes are often based on social myth perpetuated down the ages.
- Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role of helper (Propp) or object, passive rather than active (Mulvey).
- Often their passivity extends to victimhood. Men are still represented as TV drama characters up to 3 times more frequently than women, and tend to be the predominant focus of news stories.
Women have often suffered from a Narrow
set
of representations in the media
They are often linked to the domestic situation:
Women as
housewives or mothers OR as
sex objects (sexualised and
objectified) represented to entertain and titillate the male
They
are
shown as…
•Young
•Slim
•Overwhelmingly
white
•Conforming
to our image of ideal beauty (perfect skin, hair and alluring gaze).
Laura Mulvey:
She was a theorist and a feminist. Mulvey, came up with the concept on male gaze in 1975.
Here Mulvey wrote a very influential essay ‘Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. Stating that
women are used for visual pleasure- women are made to seem like sexual objects through
voyeurism.
Laura Mulvey:
She was a theorist and a feminist. Mulvey, came up with the concept on male gaze in 1975.
Here Mulvey wrote a very influential essay ‘Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. Stating that
women are used for visual pleasure- women are made to seem like sexual objects through
voyeurism.
She argued
that women took the passive part of a film and that all men played an active
part,
in her eye the women were objects
Van Zoonen:
Involves feminism and patriarchy. Van Zoonen believes the media portray images of
stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views.
The media does this because they believe it reflects dominant social values (what people believe
in) and male producers are influenced by this. This is a patriarchy (a society ran by men for
men) which dominates and oppresses women.
Representation of men:
'Masculinity' is a concept that is
made up of more rigid stereotypes than femininity. Representations of men
across all media tend to focus on the following:
•Strength - physical and intellectual
•Power
•Sexual attractiveness (which may be based
on the above)
•Physique
•Independence (of thought, action,
finances)
Male characters are often represented as
isolated, as not needing to rely on others (the lone
hero). If they submit to being part of a family, it is often part of the resolution of a
narrative, rather than an integral factor in the initial balance.
hero). If they submit to being part of a family, it is often part of the resolution of a
narrative, rather than an integral factor in the initial balance.
Task 4:
Men and women are presented differently in the same magazine. Tinie Tempah is shown
as strong as he is upright and is seen to have a higher authority. He is also seen as
powerful and smart as he is wearing a suit with a bow-tie and glasses. Lana is portrayed as
a sexual object. It could show her as the typical stereotypes of submissive, suggesting that
she's vulnerable. This could be shown through her scrunched up figure. It is also showing
that women need to look good by having their makeup and hair done to 'attract' men and
perform to society's norms.You can also tell that they have edited her body to make her
look smooth and highlight parts of her body to look shiny. This is influencing that women
have to edit themselves to be accepted.
as strong as he is upright and is seen to have a higher authority. He is also seen as
powerful and smart as he is wearing a suit with a bow-tie and glasses. Lana is portrayed as
a sexual object. It could show her as the typical stereotypes of submissive, suggesting that
she's vulnerable. This could be shown through her scrunched up figure. It is also showing
that women need to look good by having their makeup and hair done to 'attract' men and
perform to society's norms.You can also tell that they have edited her body to make her
look smooth and highlight parts of her body to look shiny. This is influencing that women
have to edit themselves to be accepted.
Regional Identity:
Definition- Regional
Identity
refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is from. It
could refer to a general area such a “North” or “South”, a country such as “English” or
“Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or “Manchester.”
How can you identify regional identity?
– Setting
– Accents
– Dialogue
– Props
– Make up
– Class of characters
– Costumes
– Etc.
Examples
•Essex – often shown as being glamorous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying,
being quite stupid
•South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny,
richer, doing middle class jobs such as managers, etc.
•North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less
culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders, etc.
Representation Class:
•Gramsci’s
theory of hegemony can be visualised
as the Middle classes (media,
Judges (rule of law), Public, Education sector and religious bodies) using their
influence to preserve the status quo.
•The poor and working class are often represented in an unsympathetic /biased way (trouble makers, deviant as
a means of preserving the power of the middle and upper class).
•This is illustrated in the attached images
•Hegemony (theory) does not only apply to class it is relevant to gender (patriarchy) and race…
Middle class (stereotypes):
•Presented as educated and successful as well as able to cope with problems,
•Over represented in the media due to their lifestyle
•Representation fits in with the hegemonic ideology of the dominant class in society,
•Representation justifies the existing class structure and inequalities by suggesting people
need to become more competent and successful in order to cope with life.
Working class:
•Presented in the stereotypical context of traditional working class communities such
Eastenders and Corrie, Shameless
•Community values often praised but do not reflect reality,
•Working class communities have declined with the collapse of traditional industries such
as coal mining,
•Often presented in the context of trouble, undesirable welfare scroungers, unable to cope
with their delinquent children.
Summary of theories
Nairn (1988) – Monarchy
• “Royal Family” concept = niceness, decency, ordinariness,
• Royal family can be deemed to be “like us” but “not like us” – the queen seen as ordinary
working mother doing extraordinary things,
Upper class
• Mainly represented through the coverage of the monarchy,
• Seen as well bred and cultured,
• Represented through their accents, estates, and a taste for shooting and hunting,
• Usually represented in costume and period drama.
Representations of poverty and underclass
• Portrayal usually negative and stereotypical,
• Portrayed in the form of statistics in news bulletin such as figures of unemployment,
• Recent media interest in the labelling of the poor such as “chavs” which according to
Shildrick and MacDonald (2007) suggest that the poor are undeserving of sympathy,
• Hayward and Yar (2006) – the term chav is used as an amusing term of abuse for young
poor people
The wording on the headline creates an image of a stereotypical working class
family who are 'vile'. 'Vile' makes them seem like rubbish and not worth our
taxes going towards them. The photo presents them and 'chavy' by them
dressed in tracksuits and cheap clothes. This uses the theory and suggests that
the poor are undeserving of sympathy. The word 'product' suggests they are objects of the
Uk.
could refer to a general area such a “North” or “South”, a country such as “English” or
“Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or “Manchester.”
How can you identify regional identity?
– Setting
– Accents
– Dialogue
– Props
– Make up
– Class of characters
– Costumes
– Etc.
Examples
•Essex – often shown as being glamorous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying,
being quite stupid
richer, doing middle class jobs such as managers, etc.
•North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less
culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders, etc.
Representation Class:
•Gramsci’s
theory of hegemony can be visualised
as the Middle classes (media,Judges (rule of law), Public, Education sector and religious bodies) using their
influence to preserve the status quo.
•The poor and working class are often represented in an unsympathetic /biased way (trouble makers, deviant as
a means of preserving the power of the middle and upper class).
•This is illustrated in the attached images
•Hegemony (theory) does not only apply to class it is relevant to gender (patriarchy) and race…
•Presented as educated and successful as well as able to cope with problems,
•Over represented in the media due to their lifestyle
•Representation fits in with the hegemonic ideology of the dominant class in society,
•Representation justifies the existing class structure and inequalities by suggesting people
need to become more competent and successful in order to cope with life.
Working class:
•Presented in the stereotypical context of traditional working class communities such
Eastenders and Corrie, Shameless
•Community values often praised but do not reflect reality,
•Working class communities have declined with the collapse of traditional industries such
as coal mining,
•Often presented in the context of trouble, undesirable welfare scroungers, unable to cope
with their delinquent children.
Summary of theories
Nairn (1988) – Monarchy
• “Royal Family” concept = niceness, decency, ordinariness,
• Royal family can be deemed to be “like us” but “not like us” – the queen seen as ordinary
working mother doing extraordinary things,
Upper class
• Mainly represented through the coverage of the monarchy,
• Seen as well bred and cultured,
• Represented through their accents, estates, and a taste for shooting and hunting,
• Usually represented in costume and period drama.
Representations of poverty and underclass
• Portrayal usually negative and stereotypical,
• Portrayed in the form of statistics in news bulletin such as figures of unemployment,
• Recent media interest in the labelling of the poor such as “chavs” which according to
Shildrick and MacDonald (2007) suggest that the poor are undeserving of sympathy,
• Hayward and Yar (2006) – the term chav is used as an amusing term of abuse for young
poor people
The wording on the headline creates an image of a stereotypical working class
family who are 'vile'. 'Vile' makes them seem like rubbish and not worth our
taxes going towards them. The photo presents them and 'chavy' by them
dressed in tracksuits and cheap clothes. This uses the theory and suggests that
the poor are undeserving of sympathy. The word 'product' suggests they are objects of the
Uk.
Shameless:
The intro to the show cuts scene to scene with a voice over. Firstly, its starts with different
camera shots of flats towers together and then shows a close up of a flat tower. This
implies a stereotype of working or underclass people in council flats and in a tight space-
with most story's being that they have little space with to many people. In the wide shot,
you can see a cloudy dark sky, this creates a dark mood and shows how he place is
miserable. Gallagher, first is shown with his long scruffy hair and his baggy, 'trampy'
clothes with a cigarette to show a stereotypical, underclass person who uses their money to
smoke and buy alcohol as if they were not responsible. Throughout the episode, They are
shown as a dysfunctional family, who are rebellious by making fires, stealing and getting
in trouble with the police. This is shown through the shaky camera. The uses of music
conveys how violence is normalised.
Representations of the working class
•Newman (2006) argues that there are very few situation comedies, television or drama
which focuses on the everyday lives of working class who constitute a significant section
of society,
•Newman argues that when in the media working class are often depicted in a very non
positive light dumb buffoons (Homer Simpson) and immature machos (Phil Mitchell),
•Butsch (1992) – working class portrayed as flawed individuals (benefit cheats, etc.)
Representations of the working class
•Newman (2006) argues that there are very few situation comedies, television or drama
which focuses on the everyday lives of working class who constitute a significant section
of society,
•Newman argues that when in the media working class are often depicted in a very non
positive light dumb buffoons (Homer Simpson) and immature machos (Phil Mitchell),
•Butsch (1992) – working class portrayed as flawed individuals (benefit cheats, etc.)
Race:
•Representation of race in the media can consist of the same sort of rigid stereotypes that constitute gender portrayal.
•Stereotyping of race is seen as more harmful than stereotyping of gender, as media representation may be the only experience of contact with a particular ethnic group that an audience may have (especially children and young people)
•Racial stereotypes are often based on social myth perpetuated down the ages.
