Media Representations

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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Media Representations

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