Media Representations

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  • Created by: Maddy
  • Created on: 22-04-17 10:51
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  • Media Representations
    • Age
      • 7 deadly stereotypes of children
        • Kids as victims
        • Cute kids
        • Little Devils
        • Child Genius
        • Kids as Acessories
        • Kids as Nostalgia
        • Little Angels
      • Teenagers
        • Teenagers are generally presented negatively in the media
          • MORI - 57% of articles about teenagers are negative,40% are focused on crime
            • Teenage boys most commonly seen in the media as feral, thugs or evil
            • young people are relatively powerless so are easy to create moral panics about
              • however, they also use a lot of social media so citizen journalism can combat this
      • Old People
        • Only appear in 1.5% of roles and usually as figures of fun (Cuddy and Fiske)
          • Often stereotyped as being poor, having ill health and being uninterested in sex
        • There are double standards, with men being seen in a positive light and to have much younger sexal partners. Women rarely get a major role past 40 because they are meant to be forever young and beautiful,e.g Arlene Phillips being replaced by Alesha Dixon
          • However growing power of the grey pound means that there are more positive representations
            • E.g. National treasures like Sir David Attenburgh are elderly
            • Also, depends on geographic location with non western cultures seeing the elderly as wise
    • Gender
      • Women are massively under represented, both on screen and off- 60% of management positions were filled with men
        • Gives a male gaze to the media
        • Women in Journalism - men count for 84% of lead articles
      • Connell - media stereotypes are constructed by hegemonic masculinity and femininity
      • Wolf and tebbel - the beauty myth
      • GIRLS ATTITUDES SURVEY
      • New York film academy - Women make up 30.8% of speaking characters,28.8% of women wear sexually revealing clothes and only 10.7% of films feature a gender balanced cast
      • Wolf and Tebbel 5 stereotypes : WAG,SEX OBJECT, SUPERMUM,  ANGEL                ,BALLBREAKER,THE VICTIM
      • Ferguson -teen magazines created a cult of femininity including looking good and being a wife
      • Men - Seen as being in more powerful positions
      • Children Now - media messages about masculinity
      • Things have kinda just been made worse for all as men are judged aganist stereotyped ideals
        • Breaking stereotypes - the hunger games but this is still seen as abnormal.
          • Gauntlett - as always says that things are improving
            • Definitely more women but in some cases it is tokenism where they have got the job just because of the need for gender balance
    • Class
      • The working class
        • Generally under-represented in the media
          • Curran and Seaton claim that working class newspapers assume that they aren't interested in politics accept from personalities and are interested in celebrity lifestyles
            • 4 main stereotypes of the working class
              • Dumb and stupid buffoons which devalues their culture
              • As a source of conflict or as welfare scroungers
              • Romanticised working class communities
              • As chavs, this stereotype totally devalues their culture
      • Middle class
        • Massively over represented, they are the primary definers
          • Generally presented in a positive light as well educated and successful
            • These representations reflect the ideology of a middle class media establishment
    • Ethnicity
      • minorities are massively underrepresented in a media context
        • Cumberbatch et al - 1 in 7 roles are filled by BAME actor
        • Marginalised by the mainstream media
        • Muslim has become a stigmatised identity
        • Blacks and Asians more likely to be in supporting roles than lead roles
          • more likely to be in non professional jobs
      • Used as scapegoats for social problems - Hall et al
      • Seen as a threat to 'british values'
      • As taking jobs
      • As benefit 'Scroungers'
      • As coming from countries that need help
      • However, Zoe Hanna is seen to be successful
      • There are Tv shows aimed at a minority audience but it could be argued that this reinforces differnces
    • Disability
      • You have the Biomedical view (Bulsara) and the social constructionist view (Shakespeare and Barnes)
      • Disability is a physical or mental impairment which has a long term adverse effect on someone's life
      • They are massively symbolically annihilated - 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 20 children are classified as disabled
        • Cumberbatch et al- they appear in 2.5% of TV roles despite being 1 in 5 in the real world
          • Most of the time they are appearing with a physical impairment
      • Ageman - carried out research that found that they are symbolically annihilated and representations mostly stick to the medical model
      • Disability has become a stigmatised identity
      • However, soaps are beginning to show a more positive view of mental health,e.g Doctors introducing a Psychiatrist
      • Barnes - 10 stereotypes:    1) pitiable   2) Object of curiosity 3) violent 4) evil 5) super cripple 6) laughable 7) own worst enemy 8) Burden 9) sexually abnormal 10) unable to participate
    • Sexuality
      • Hetereosexuality seen as normal, homosexuality seen as other
      • Homosexuality is usually the only part of the character
      • Stereotyped as being Camp, too macho and responsible for AIDS, generally a figure of fun
      • Gay images still aimed at a heterosexual audience,e.g nikon advert
      • Soaps have openly gay characters , good for breaking stereotypes

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