Media Representations

Media Representations

1. Representations of Age

   • Children
     • Up to the age of 14 - depicted in fairly positive ways, often figure as consumers of toys and games in advertising, or comedy sources in sitcoms.
     • Children's Express monitored national newspaper output for one week. They found 'seven deadly stereotypes' of children:
       • E.g. Cute kids - providing the feel-good factor in advertising and other stories.
       • E.g. Little devils - stories of evil children and young hooligans, often in comedies and drama.
   • Youth
     • Subject of negative media stereotyping: rebellious and selfish problem group in society - troublemakers fuelled by drugs and alcohol (anti-social behaviour).
     • Women in Journalism (2009) - teenage boys most frequently appeared in the media in stories about crime + commonly descrived as 'thugs', 'heartless' and 'frightening'.
     • The media provide the only source of information about events, therefore distorting people's attitudes, giving misleading impressions of young people as a whole.
     • Cohen (2002) - argues young people are relatively powerless + easily identifiable group to blame for society's ills. Young people have often been used as scapegoats by the media to create a sense of unity in society, by whipping a moral panic among the public against folk devils who allegedly pose a threat to society. Unites public against a common 'enemy' + encouraging them to support tough action against them = labels and stereotypes of troublesome.
   • Older People
     • Either largely invisible in the media or represented negatively.
     • Cuddy and Fiske - in the US, TV portrayed 1.5% of its characters as elderly, with most of them in minor roles or appearing as figures of fun and comic relief.
     • Negative stereotyping - old age is represented as an undesirable state, e.g. being a burden, stubborn and grumpy are typical stereotypes.
     • White et al (2012) - found that older viewers thought they tended to be stereotyped on TV - lack of representation of middle-aged and older women on TV. Accused the media of being 'insulting' and 'out of step' with the ageing society. Focus on their incapacity, their reluctance to move with the times and their tendency to moan.

2. Representations of Social Class

   • Mainstream Media Gaze
     • Representation of social class are filtered through the eyes of the rich and powerful upper-class media owners + the m/c professionals who produce media content.
     • Results in more favourable stereotypes of the upper and middle-class, than the poor w/c.
   • Class is Lifestyle Choice
     • Lawler - suggests 'taste' is used as a symbol of class identity. People's lives are seen as shaped by their individual choices and tastes in consumer goods they buy to form their lifestyles.
   • Media News Values
     • Means news about the rich and famous are more likely to be reported than similar stories about the w/c,
     • McKendrick et al - content analysis of UK media output - found poverty was a marginal issue, comprising on a small proportion of media output.
   • Media Gives Different Representations of Different Social Classes
     • Weltman - across a range of media formats, w/c people are devalued relative to the m/c.
     • Marxists + Neo-Marxists = 'Glasgow Media Group' emphasise that media representations reflect the interests of the powerful.
   • Jones (2011): We're All Middle-Class Now
     • Values and lifestyles of the m/c as the norm, to which everyone can aspire.
     • Celebrating the lifestyle of the upper and m/c - "the worries and interests of the well-off, should be important to us".
     • The w/c and the poor underclass are presented as abnormal or deviant.
   • Representations of the Working-Class
     • Curran & Seaton (2010) - argue that the content of newspapers aimed at w/c audiences, suggests the w/c has little or no interest in public affairs + is predominantly interested in over-dramatized, exaggerated or made up human interest stories etc.
     • As Dumb and Stupid Buffoons: Butsch - argued that TV creates a persistent image of the w/c as figures of fun- flawed individuals, who are immature, irresponsible, lacking common sense etc.
     • As a Source of Trouble and Conflict: Undesirable welfare scroungers, lone parents and inadequate who are unable to cope with their uncontrollable delinquent children.

3. Representations of Ethnicity

   • General Features
     • Ethnic minorities = under-represented in senior management + producing programmes. Neo-Marxists point to the way representations of minority ethnic groups are therefore filtered through the gaze of the predominantly white m/c dominated media establishment,
     • Cumberbatch et al: Analysis of popular TV programmes across 3 genres + 4 channels in 2013-14. Found just over 1 in 7 was filled by a person from an ethnic minority group. Black African Carribeans were over-represented + South Asians were under-represented.
     • Minority interests and representations are ghettoized - marginalised and featured mostly in specialised programmes on minority group issues.
     • Malik (2002): African carribeans are more likely to be in light-hearted roles.

4. Gender

   • Under-representation of women in the media industry
     • Under represented in positions + influence in management of the media industry.
     • IWNF (2010): Found that in the UK news companies, women were marginalised in newsrooms and decision-making hierarchies (glass ceiling).
     • Women in Journalism (2011): 74% of news journalists on national newspapers were men and twice as many male editors as women.
   • The Male Gaze
     • Neo-marxists/Marxists/Radical feminist qriters: representations of gender are filtered through the media gaze of the predominantly male-dominated media establishment.
     • Mulvey: Where men look at women as sexual objects, with images of women focusing on their physical appearance/sexuality + using camera angles that focus on women's sex appeal.
   • Under-representation and stereotyping in media content