Representation. Regionality in the Media

You will research texts dealing with the issue of regionalism and comment on how they have been represented in the media. 

·         Key words: Stereotypes, Cliche. Representation.

How people, places and situations are represented is dependent on;

• Costume
• Language / regional identity
• Settings / locations [geographical markers] 

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    Costume/dress, [urban, rural, asbo, wealthy...]

What are the connotations? What do the costumes signify?

Language and regional identity.

Settings/locations [geographical markers] 

 

These settings can possibly say something about the North/South divide. The people that live in the terraced houses can be considered as socially immobile. They will probably live in this street or area for the majority of their lives. See Coronation Street for example.

The ariel picture of London denotes a wealth area with thriving businesses and people that work long into the night.

When analysing a text, state if the characters are Challenging stereotypes?

...Or re-enforcing stereotypes. As in these examples of representation of gender.

What are the impact of the representations on the audiences – are they likely to be negative or positive?

Again, the effects of gender representation is shown here.

Consider how regional stereotypes can often be offensive too.

Remember that all representation is RE-PRESENTATION- the media CONSTRUCTS a representation through MEDIATION & SELECTION. 

How does the audience interpret and respond to the text?

STUART HALL - Audience response

Consider The way different people might put different MEANINGS on to the text:
The media theorist Stuart Hall points out that there are three different types of text readers:

• PREFERRED or DOMINANT READING – What the producers want the audience to get out of the text – something they want the audience to do.
• NEGOTIATED READING – that’s a COMPROMISE between what the producers want you to do, feel sympathetic towards a particular group, and what you might get out of it. For example; 'I like the TV soap Coronation Street but I don’t intend going to Manchester. Ever'.
• OPPOSITIONAL READING – The audience is completely turned off by the text and does the complete opposite of what the producers want – who might do this and why? 

Task 1: Homework for 10.10.14 answers on blogs please

Study the following clip of the TV show Doc Martin.

(a) Suggest two ways in which regionality has been represented in the clip.. 

(b) Examine how audiences from different regions might respond to the clip

             Consider the following points when watching the clip:

•        Can I identify what region the characters/people are from? How?
•       Are people from different regional backgrounds shown as having different interests,          personalities,  attitudes or behaviours? If so, how?
•       Is their regionality represented as being the most important thing in their life?
•       Are people from particular regions portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
•       Are people from particular regions portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than  others? 
•      How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different regional backgrounds?
•      What is the message the clip is trying to portray about regionality?   

Representation. Ethnicity in the media

You will research texts dealing with the issue of ethnicity

and comment on how they have been represented in the media. Eastenders.

Key words: Stereotypes, cliché. Representation.

ETHNICITY ON TV

            

Martha From Dr Who

     The representation of people from different ethnicities has changed massively over the years.  This is probably because the population in Britain has become much more diverse recently and current society is much more used to mixing with people from all different cultures and backgrounds. 

      Here are some examples of very negative generic stereotypes that used to be seen (and in some case still are) in film and tv:

·      White people – often shown as good, pure, heroes, strong, or sometimes racist.

Michael Caine

·      Black people – often shown as exotic, strange, tribal, criminal, poor.

City of God

·      Asian people (Chinese, Korean etc) – often shown mainly as intelligent, submissive (quiet and shy),    nerdy, interested in technology

Hikaru Sulu (Star Trek)

·      Indian people – often shown as being poor, living in large families, very traditional, working in corner  shops

Sikhs

·      Middle Eastern people (arabs etc) – often shown as being terrorists, violent, aggressive, rich

Islamaphobia

·      Immigrants – often shown as being a drain on society, criminals, illegal, bad for Britain, taking British   jobs.

      In TV drama, people from particular ethnicities often have storylines that are centred around their culture.  For example, Indian characters often battle with the clash between British culture and their traditional culture eg: arranged marriages etc. They rarely have storylines that don’t have something to do with their ethnicity.  People also have commented that often people from minority ethnic groups (eg non white) are often portrayed in a very negative way.

    You should consider the following points when watching the clips below:

•        Can I identify what ethnicities the characters/people are? How?
•       Are people from different ethnic backgrounds shown as having different interests, personalities,  attitudes or behaviours? If so, how?
•       Is their ethnicity represented as being the most important thing in their life?
•       Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
•       Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than  others? 
•      How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different ethnic backgrounds?
•      What is the message the clip is trying to portray about ethnicity?   

 

Task 1: Watch the two clips below and write about how people/characters with different ethnicity have been represented. Use the bullet points above but also ask if the stereotypes are positive or negative. Do the characters challenge or conform?

    Eastenders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y094LCAUMTo 

    Spooks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjwvCoiKZ-8

Task 2:
Analyse the clip from Hotel Babylon and consider the points below the link.

    Hotel Babylon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG5GJQjyGo

•    How are the illegal immigrants represented in the extract?
•    How are the Police represented in the extract?
•    Who are the audience encouraged to empathise with?  

Ben from Hotel Babylon

Representation - Sexuality in the Media

You will research texts dealing with the issue of Sexuality

and comment on how they have been represented in the media. Spooks. Hotel Babylon.

Key words: Stereotypes, cliché. Representation.

Sexuality tends to still be represented in terms of stereotypical characters.  

For example:

 Gay Men – camp, feminine, funny, outrageous OR very attractive, and sleep around.

  Lesbian Women – Butch, manly, blunt, man haters.

     Despite changing equality laws and a wider acceptance of different sexualities within much of society, TV has always remained quite conservative as they are scared of offending their viewers.  Heterosexual (straight) characters are represented as the “norm” and homosexual (gay) characters are often represented as being different, strange, or separate from mainstream society.  Some critics say that when TV does feature gay characters, they are never just characters that “happen to be gay.”  Their sexuality always plays a key part in their storylines and they don’t seem to have any issues outside of their sexuality. 

  

I     If you are analysing a text with sexuality as an issue, you should be thinking about the following things  when watching the clip:

•      Can I identify what the sexualities of the characters are?
• 
  
•      Are people of different sexualities shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes,  behaviours?  If so, how?
• 
  
•     Is their sexuality represented as being important in their life?
• 
  
•     Are particular sexualities represented as being normal / powerful / better?  If so, how?
• 
  
•     Are particular sexualities represented as being abnormal?  If so, how?
•      Don’t forget that “straight” is a sexuality too.  Don’t ignore the straight characters as they need to be    analysed too!
• 
  
•      What is the message the clip is trying to portray about sexuality?

            Task 1: 

            Watch the clips below, choose one to write 200 words about how sexuality has been represented.     Use the points above to guide.

  

      Gimme GImme Gimme - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv8Cz0i_VZY

      Flash Forward - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ayQfoNBEk

      Sugar Rush http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyKb5Gx0XQg&list=SL

Representation - Age in the media 7.10.14

You will research texts dealing with the issue of age and comment on how they have been represented in the media.  Eastenders. Skins.

·         Key words: Stereotypes, cliché. Representation.

AGE ON TV

The representation of people of different ages has changed massively over the years.  Up until the 1950’s, there were really only two age groups shown in films and television (adult and child).  This was because that most children left school at a young age and went straight to work and became adults.  

In the 1950’s more young people started staying in education and began leading very different lives from both children and adults and so developed the idea of the “teenager”.

Having said that, there are still some stereotypes associated with different ages:

·      Children – often shown as being young, innocent, naive, pure, sweet, helpless, powerless.

Childhood
British children are often depicted in the British media in positive ways. Content
analyses of media products suggest that eight stereotypes of children are
frequently used by the media.

• As victims of horrendous crimes – some critics of the media have suggested that White children who are victims of crime get more media attention than adults or children from ethnic minority backgrounds.
• As cute – this is a common stereotype found in television commercials for baby products or toilet rolls.
• As little devils – another common stereotype especially found in drama and comedy, e.g. Bart Simpson.
• As brilliant – perhaps as child prodigies or as heroes for saving the life of an adult.
• As brave little angels – suffering from a long-term terminal disease or disability.
• As accessories – stories about celebrities such as Madonna, Angelina Jolie or the Beckhams may focus on how their children humanise them.
• As modern – the media may focus on how children ‘these days’ know so much more ‘at their age’ than previous generations of children.
• As active consumers – television commercials portray children as having a consumer appetite for toys and games. Some family sociologists note that this has led to the emergence of a new family pressure, ‘pester power’, the power of children to train or manipulate their parents to spend money on consumer goods that will increase the children’s status in the eyes of their peers.

·      Teenagers – Often shown as being aggressive, moody, lazy, criminals, hate school.

      It is significant when discussing the films to emphasise that they are representing working class youth, rather than youth generally. Middle class youths are absent from these type of representations.

There is a whole media industry aimed at socially constructing youth in terms of lifestyle and identity. Magazines are produced specifically for young people. Record companies, Internet music download sites, mobile telephone companies and radio stations all specifically target and attempt to shape the musical tastes of young people. Networking sites on the Internet, such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, allow youth to project their identities around the world.

Youth are often portrayed by news media as a social problem, as immoral or anti-authority and consequently constructed as folk devils as part of a moral panic. The majority of moral panics since the 1950s have been manufactured around concerns about young people’s behaviour, such as their membership of specific ‘deviant’ sub-cultures (e.g., teddy boys, hoodies) or because their behaviour (e.g., drug taking or binge drinking) has attracted the disapproval of those in authority.

·      20’s-30’s – Often shown as the ideal age for love, parties, fun, making money, being glamorous and attractive.  In films the heroes are often this age group.

·      Middle Aged – often shown as being past it, unattractive, not aware of popular culture, uncool, boring lives, dominant over others, no real connection to their kids, grumpy.  In films the villains are often from this age group.

·      Elderly – often shown as being unattractive, slow, weak, ill, confused, pathetic, powerless, not important, dependent on others.

Sociological studies show that when the elderly do appear in the media, they tend to be portrayed in the following one-dimensional ways.

• As grumpy – conservative, stubborn and resistant to social change.
• As mentally challenged – suffering from declining mental functions.
• As dependent – helpless and dependent on other younger members of the family or society.
• As a burden – as an economic burden on society (in terms of the costs of pensions and health care to the younger generation) and/or as a physical and social burden on younger members of their families (who have to worry about or care for them).
• As enjoying a second childhood – as reliving their adolescence and engaging in activities that they have always longed to do before they die.

When considering age in a clip, you should be thinking about the following things:

• ·       Can I identify what approximate age the characters are?
• ·      Are people from different age groups shown as having different interests, personalities,      attitudes, behaviours?  If so, how?
• ·      Is their age represented as being important in their life?
• ·      Are people from particular age groups portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
• ·      Are people from particular age groups portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others? 
• ·      How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different age groups?
• ·      What is the message the clip is trying to portray about age?

      Clips with examples of age

Task 1: 

Watch all the clips below, choose one text only to write 200 words about how age has been represented.

      Monarch Of The Glen   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VyjH9HUCt4   

     Eastenders  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ohiEFW2e0

     Blackpool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85qL5ph0J0

   

     Skins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho69_sCkwyI

Task 2: How would you say youth represented in this still from Waterloo Road? Consider the visual codes        we have covered.

Representation - How the media uses representations

A/O You will create a chart of stereotypical characters based on your experience with the media.

Key words: Stereotype

STEREOTYPE

Stereotype - dictionary definition:

A standardised, often simplified, mental picture or attitude that is held in common by members of a group.

A stereotype is a simplification that we use to make sense of a real person or group which is much more complicated. 

In reality, there are many different kinds of Germans who are all individuals, but it is much easier to fool ourselves into believing that all Germans cheat with beach towels and eat strange sausages. The example that I have just given may seem harmless, but in fact it is arguably racist.

Stereotypes are potentially highly dangerous but stereo-typing itself is impossible to avoid — it is a natural function of the human mind — something that we all do in order to survive mentally in the confusing world around us. The following theory explains how it works.

Representation — How we stereotype:

The fact that we naturally see the world in this kind of shorthand way, with connections between different character traits, allows the media to create simplistic representations which we find believable.

Implicit personality theory explains this process.

•       As humans, we use our own unique storehouse of knowledge about people when we judge them.

•       Our past experience is more important than the true features of the actual personality that we are judging — traits exist more in the eye of the beholder than in reality.

•       We have each a system of rules that tells us which characteristics go with other characteristics.

•       We categorise people into types (e.g. workaholic, feminist etc.) to simplify the task of person perception.

•       Once we have in our minds a set of linked traits which seem to us to go together, they form a pattern of connections that can be called a prototype. In other words the mix of traits that we may consider “typical” of feminists are a prototype of what a feminist is like to us.

•       If we encounter someone in reality or in the media who seems to fit neatly into a pro- totype, we feel reassured. It confirms our stereotyped view — we do not need to think further.

•       Also once a few of the traits seem to fit our prototype, we will immediately bundle onto the person the rest of the traits from the prototype even if we do not know if they fit them in reality.

•       Research has shown that if we find people who do not fit into our prototypes, we will form very strong often impressions of them — it is surprising to us and disconcerting — it forces us to think more deeply.

•       On the other hand, if it is at all possible, we will try to twist the truth to fit in with our prototype, often ignoring traits which do not fit into our neatly imagined pattern of characteristics. This will particularly happen as time passes and we have time to forget things that do not fit in. This can lead to enormous differences between our perceptions of people and the reality.

•       All of this distortion happens naturally in our minds before the media have had their chance to simplify and distort. We do a lot of the business of stereotyping ourselves. It is almost as if we conspire with the media to misunderstand the world.

So stereotyping is something that we all do — a natural part of the way our minds work and not in itself necessarily a bad thing.

Be aware that just as with the process of mediation the stereotypes involve selection, organisation and focusing of the complicated reality.

The four parts of a media stereotype

How can the media build a stereotype? With any group of people, there will obviously be an enormous number of things that can be used in a stereotype, but because stereotyping is a form of simplification, normally the most obvious things are used. These are:

1. Appearance — this can include, physical appearance and clothing as well as the sound of the voice. e.g. “all teachers wear dreadful old clothes”

2. Behaviour — typical things that people in this group might do. “Grannies like to knit”

These first two features of media stereotypes are the same when we make our own stereotypes. They simply involve us thinking of something that may be true of some of the group in question and applying it to all.

The third feature of media stereotyping is peculiar to the media:

3. The stereotype is constructed in ways that fit the particular medium.

This is more difficult to understand but it is crucial for you to look for it. TASK: Compare the stereotype of a serial killer by researching the tabloid coverage of Fred West with the treatment of Hannibal Lecter in the film ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.

If you watch a film such as Silence of the Lambs and then look at the tabloid coverage of Fred West, you are seeing the same stereotype (the typical Serial Killer) being used, but there are obviously big differences which will depend on the specifics of the media used:

The film will use close ups of the killer’s leering face, soundtrack music and reaction shots of terrified victims to create their version of the stereotype.

The newspaper will use emotive headlines, blurred pictures of victims and police mug-shots of the killer along with shocking text and interviews with survivors.

In each case the text will create a stereotype which it’s audience will find familiar, but it will do it in very different ways.

4 There will always be a comparison whether real or imaginary with “normal” behaviour.

If you watch a film such as Silence of the Lambs and then lo+ok at the tabloid coverage of Fred West, you are seeing the same stereotype (the typical Serial Killer) being used, but there are obviously big differences which will depend on the specifics of the media used:

The film will use close ups of the killer’s leering face, soundtrack music and reaction shots of terrified victims to create their version of the stereotype.

The features which make up a stereotype are always those which seem somehow different from everyday behaviour. In fact you could almost start any stereotyped description by saying: “this group are different because they...”

Of course the idea of what is normal in any society is an absurdity and therefore in order to make it clear to us that the stereotyped characters are not behaving “normally” there will frequently be “normal” people used to act as a contrast to them.

TASK 1:

Create your own chart of stereotypes based on those that you have encountered in two or more different media (for example, television and newspapers)

Stereotype                                   Appearance            Behaviour            Media examples

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Teenagers (age)
Old people (age)
Irish people (nationality)

Lesbians (sexuality)

Mentally disabled (disability)
Scousers (regionality)
Wimbledon (events)
Australians (nationality)