Media Representation

Media Representation

1. Childhood:

   • Children are represented in positive ways in the media. Children are represented in six reoccurring stereotypes.
     • Cute: Commonly found in TV adverts selling baby products.
     • Little devils: Found in comedy and sitcoms.
     • Brilliant: Very intelligent children or children that have been heroic.
     • Brave little angels: Children with illnesses that are long term or terminal.
     • Accessories: Children can humanise celebrities or politicians in the public eye.
     • Modern: Children are very different to 'the good old days'.

2. Youth:

   • Young people: are seen as a problem group because the media portrays them as vandals. The media tends not to praise the youth for their positive achievements.
   • Cohen: Found that youths were blamed for all problems in society and were used as a scapegoat. Focusing on the negative aspects of young people means that the media ignore the real societal problems facing young people today.
   • Wayne et al: argue that many of the problems that have been caused by the government are ignored in the media such as, youth unemployment, youth homelessness and mental health.

3. Elderly:

   • Older people are represented in the media in quite negative ways, It is argued that older people are stereotyped more than any other group. These stereotypes include being grumpy and a burden to society.
   • Age Concern: The charity group Age Concern highlight that elderly people are underrepresented in the media, making them appear invisible in modern society. In fact opposite of this is occurring in society due to an ageing population and increased life expectancy.

4. Social Class:

   • The working class: The media often represent the working class in a stereotypical context such as on soaps like Eastenders and Coronation Street. British soaps show close knit working class communities but in reality these communities have collapsed.
   • Working class communities: Dodd and Dodd argue that instead, these communities are now threatened by criminal and racist forces.
   • TV news: GUMG found that TV news is bisaed with regard to social class and reflects the interests of powerful groups. The coverage of the miners' strike in the 1980s illustrates this. GUMG argue that the overall impression by the media was that the workers caused the strikes. This dominant view shows the working class in a negatuve way.
   • Lawler: argues that the media purposefully stigmatises the working class as 'white trash'. Images shows them wearing tracksuits and taking part in anti social behaviour. Lawler argues that this neutralises public concern about the groups.

5. Ethnicity:

   • Minorities: In the media, ethnic minorities are portrayed as a 'problem' and they are reported as the cause of crime and social disorder. Can Dijk looked at the reporting of ethnic minorities between 1985 and 1989 and found that: White citizens were reported positively and non-whites were reported negatively.
   • Racial stereotypes: There are many racial stereotypes in the media. Ethnic minorities are often portrayed in a negative way, such as: Criminals. Sufferers of AIDS in Africa. Underachievers in school.
   • Moral panics: There have been many moral panica about ethnic minorities including Muslims, immigrants and refugees.
   • Tokenism: Some sociologists discuss the use of tokenism in the media. This is when a TV programme will over represent ethnic minority groups. This is regardless of whether or not the ethnic minority authentically fits into the story being told.
   • Muslims: Muslims are often portrayed as the enemy within the press. Poole argues that Muslims are demonised in the news and presented as a threat to society. The group are often associated in the news with fundamentalism.

6. Gender

   • Femininity:
     • Women have previously been stereotyped into four main categories by the media: Housewife and mother. Domestic servant. Domestic consumer. Sex object.
     • Working women: Feminists argue that when women are shown to be working outside of the home they experience problems. This suggests to audiences that women can't have it all and it pushes them back into submissive expressive roles.
     • The 'male gaze': refers to the way in which the camera 'eyes up' women in a sexual way to provide erotic pleasure for men. Women become objects for male desire and are often placed in programmes to be glamorous and to be saved by men.
     • Symbolic annihilation: Women also suffer from symbolic annihilation. Tuchman et al sued this term to describe the way female achievements are not reported, trivialised or condemned by the media. If women do appear in the news they are either celebrities or have been saved by a man in some way.
     • Changes: However, things are changing, there are many examples of more positive images of women in today's media. This reflects the cultural change in women's positions in society over the last 25 years.
   • Masculinity:
     • Traditional media stereotypes for men include: The joker. The jock. The strong silent type. The big shot. The action hero. The buffoon.
     • The 'new man': emerged in media representations in the 1980s. Magazines such as GQ, Marxism and FHM, aimed at middle class males, showed men getting in touch with their feminine side. Sociologists refer to this as the 'metro sedxual' male.
     • The 'metro sexual' male: This man wears designer clothes, has skins care products, etc. and it is argued that this reflects changes in social attitudes to masculinity.
     • Retributive masculinity: However, others suggest there has been an increase in retributive masculinity. Newer magazines such as, Zoo and Nut appear to reject metro sexuality and reassert traditional masculinity by promoting 'birds, booze and balls'.

7. Sexuality:

   • Homosexuals have typically been represented in the media via negative stereotypes. However, thinga are changing and more gay male and lesbian characters' feature in dramas, films and soaps.
   • Homosexuality: was illegal until 1967 in Britin. Homosexuals are subjected to periodic moral panics regarding their supposedly 'unnatural' practices.
   • Gay men: are often represented in the media as: Effeminate and camp. Deviant. Flamboyant. Funny.
   • Gay women: are often represented in the media as: Butch. Aggressive. OR lesibians for male satisfaction.
   • Dyer: argues that "a major fact about being gay is that it doesn't show" meaning that in order for TV and film to represent homosexuality on screen they tend to over exaggerate tereotypical features. This leads to negative labelling in society.
   • Wider representation: These negative stereotypes mean thart homosexuals are suffering from symbolic annihilation as only one aspect of their identity is being portrayed. However, thigs are changing; more gay male and lesbian characters' feature in dramas, films and soaps, such as Brokeback Mountain and Glee.

8. Disability:

   • Models of disability:
     • Medical model: This model views disability as a product of impairment.
     • Social model: This model views disability as the outcome of social barriers. The main focus on this model is the obstacles and discrimination that people with disabilities face.
   • Representations of disability:
     • An object of ridicule: Disabled people are often laughed at in comedies.
     • As a burden: Television documentaries and news features often focus on carers rather than the disabled.
     • Barnes:
       • As sexually abnormal: It is assumed by the media representations that the disabled do not have sexual feelings.
       • As ordinary or normal: Barnes argues that the media rarely portray disabled people as normal people who happen to have an impairment.
       • As pitiable and pathetic: Barnes claims that this stereotype has grown in popularity in recent years because of television appeals.
       • As sinister and evil: Disabled people are often portrayed as criminals or monsters.
   • Shakespeare: argues that such stereotypes are crude and one dimensional. In his opinion negative stereotypes such as those outlined by Barnes perpetuate the ignorance that exists in society with regards to disability.