As I only mentioned about representation of gender, i'll add
more to that content regarding different representations;
2)AGE:
Media representations of different groups of people based on
age (i.e. children, adolescents and the elderly), also generalise and
categorise people on the basis of stereotypes.
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.
Youth
There are generally two very broad ways in which young
people have been targeted and portrayed by the media in Britain.
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.
Wayne et al. (2008) conducted a content analysis of 2130
news items across all the main television channels during May 2006. They found
that young people were mainly represented as a violent threat to society. They
found that it was very rare for news items to feature a young person’s
perspective or opinion. They note that the media only delivers a
one-dimensional picture of youth, one that encourages fear and condemnation
rather than understanding. Moreover, they argue that it distracts from the real
problems that young people face in the modern world such as homelessness, not
being able to get onto the housing ladder, unemployment or mental health and
that these might be caused by society’s, or the government’s, failure to take
the problems of youth seriously.
The elderly
Research focusing on media representations of the elderly
suggests that age is not the only factor that impacts on the way the media
portrays people aged 65 and over. Newman (2006) notes that upper class and
middle class elderly people are often portrayed in television and film dramas
as occupying high-status roles as world leaders, judges, politicians, experts
and business executives. Moreover, news programmes seem to work on the
assumption that an older male with grey in his hair and lines on his face
somehow exudes the necessary authority to impart the news.
However, female newscasters, such as Anna Ford, have long
complained that these older men are often paired with attractive young females,
while older women newsreaders are often exiled to radio. Leading female film
and television stars are also often relegated to character parts once their
looks and bodies are perceived to be on the wane, which seems to be after the
age of 40.
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.
However, recent research suggests that media producers may
be gradually reinventing how they deal with the elderly, especially as they
realise that this group may have disposable incomes, i.e. extra money to spend
on consumer goods.
3)
ETHNICITY:
Race, ethnicity and colour, like sex, comprise sets of
genetically defined, biological characteristics. However, as with gender, there
are also cultural elements in those defining characteristics.
Representation of race in the media can consist of the same
sort of rigid stereotypes that constitute gender portrayal. However,
stereotyping of race is seen as more harmful than stereotyping of gender, as
media representation may constitute the only experience of contact with a
particular ethnic group that an audience (particularly an audience of children)
may have. Racial stereotypes are often based on social myth, perpetuated down
the ages. Thus, the media depiction of, say, Native American Indians, might
provide a child with their only experience of Native American Indian culture
and characters, and may provide that child with a set of narrow prejudices
which will not be challenged elsewhere within their experience.
The need for a more accurate portrayal of the diversity of
different races is a priority for political agendas, but, as ever, it seems as
though it will take a while for political thinking to filter through to TV
programme and film-making. Hollywood movies seem to be particular offenders
when it comes to lazy racial stereotypes.
African-American
Representation
A lot of work on Race & Media has focused on the
representation of black men and women. This has partly been because there is a
strong African-American counter-culture which provides viable alternative role
models and demands that they are represented, and partly because some of the
early racial stereotypes were so obvious and offensive.
Little Black Sambo (1935)— demonstrates rigid, reductive
stereotyping. But back in 1935 it was seen as harmless entertainment. If
nothing else, this clip helps show the tremendous cultural shift that has
occurred, as this kind of representation is no longer acceptable.
The Coon Caricature— from the Museum of Racist Memorabilia
In recent years, the success of actors as diverse as Denzel
Washington, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Taraji P. Henson, Naomie Harris, Laurence
Fishburne, Keke Palmer and Morgan Freeman in roles across the board has meant
that black characters in movies and on TV are no longer 'stock' types. Some of
the time. However, there are many negative representations of black people,
portrayals which seem deliberately designed to inflame the fear and hatred of
other cultures - how positive a representation is the archetypal
African-American gangsta? Yet these are representations coming from within
black culture itself...
·
Stop Whining About the Media - is black
representation now 'proportional'?
·
The Persistent Issue of Black Representation on
Television and why more roles won't fix a thing
·
I Know Black People— effective satire from Dave
Chappelle
·
Latinos and Asians
Attention is now being paid to the representation of other
ethnic groups, notably Asian Americans and Latinos, who represent a much larger
proportion of the US population than their TV coverage would suggest. Things
are changing, but not fast enough.
Race on UK
TV
Racism on TV in the UK exploded as a global issue in 2007,
as Shilpa Shetty was subjected to vicious racial slurs by her (white)
housemates. As Shetty is a well-loved Bollywood star, there was an outcry in India,
and there were widespread objections to both her treatment and Channel 4's
decision to broadcast it. A record 40,000+ complaints were logged by the
broadcasters' watchdog, OFCOM. The row reached the House of Commons, and became
part of a national debate on the undercurrents in the UK's supposedly
multi-cultural society. Subsequently, Channel 4 became very sensitive when it
came to allegations of racism, and housemate Emily Parr was speedily removed
from the non-celebrity house later that year for using a racial epithet.
However, race remains a hot button issue on UK TV, both in
fiction and non-fiction programming, largely because it's always going to
attract headlines — and sell copies of theDaily Mail. Race is inextricably
tangled with the immigration issue and questions of national identity. What
does it mean to be British in the 2010s? Given that modern Britain is populated
by a diverse range of people, do national media outlets represent different
colours and ethnicities proportionally? Fairly? Whether it's an "all
black" episode of Eastendersor a hard-hitting edition of Panorama about
teenage racists on a London housing estate, there will continue to be heated
discussions about how different races are represented, and how that
representation affects the way people treat each other in reality.
4)
SEXUALITY:
Homosexuality
KEY POINT -
Bachelor found that being gay was not generally integrated
into mainstream media representations. Rather, when it did appear, e.g. in
television drama, it was represented mainly as a source of anxiety or embarrassment,
or it was seen as a target for teasing and bullying. The study also found that,
in mainstream young people’s media, lesbianism was completely invisible
Media representations of sexuality in Britain are
overwhelmingly heterosexual in character. Gerbner (2002) argues that the media
participate in the symbolic annihilation of gays and lesbians by negatively
stereotyping them, by rarely portraying them realistically, or by not
portraying them at all. Craig (1992) suggests that when homosexual characters are
portrayed in the media, e.g. in popular drama, they are often stereotyped as
having particular amusing or negative psychological and social characteristics.
·
Campness – this is one of the most widely used
gay representations, found mainly in the entertainment media. The camp persona
reinforces negative views of gay sexuality by being somewhere in between male
and female.
·
Macho – a look that exaggerates masculinity and
which is regarded by heterosexual men as threatening because it subverts
traditional ideas of masculinity.
·
Deviant – gays may be stereotyped as deviants,
as evil or as devious in television drama, as sexual predators or as people who
feel tremendous guilt about their sexuality. In many cases, gay characters are
completely defined by the ‘problem’ of their sexuality and homosexuality is
often constructed to appear morally wrong.
Responsible for AIDS – Watney has illustrated how British
news coverage of AIDS in the 1980s stereotyped gay people as carriers of a gay
plague. He argues that news coverage of AIDS reflected mainstream society’s
fear and dislike of the gay community and resulted in unsympathetic accounts
that strongly implied that homosexual AIDS sufferers only had their own
‘immoral and unnatural’ behaviour to blame for their condition or death.
Gauntlett argues that lesbian, gay and bisexual people are
still under-represented in much of the mainstream media, but things are slowly
changing for the better. Gauntlett suggests that tolerance of sexual diversity
is slowly growing in society, and images of diverse sexual identities with
which audiences are unfamiliar may assist in making the population generally
more comfortable with these alternative sexual lifestyles.
5) CLASS
AND STATUS:
Representations
of the monarchy
Nairn (1988) notes that contemporary media coverage of the
monarchy has focused positively on every trivial detail of their lives, turning
the Queen and her family into an on-going soap opera, but with a glamour and
mystique far greater than any other media personality. Furthermore, mass media
representations of the Queen are also aimed at reinforcing a sense of national
identity, in that she is portrayed as the ultimate symbol of the nation.
Consequently, the media regards royal events, such as weddings and funerals, as
national events.
Representations
of the upper class and wealth
Neo-Marxists argue that mass media representations of social
class tend to celebrate hierarchy andwealth. Those who benefit from these
processes, i.e. the monarchy, the upper class and the very wealthy, generally
receive a positive press as celebrities who are somehow deserving of their
position. The British mass media hardly ever portray the upper classes in a
critical light, nor do they often draw any serious attention to inequalities in
wealth and pay or the overrepresentation of public-school products in positions
of power.
Newman (2006) argues that the media focus very positively on
the concerns of the wealthy and the privileged. He notes that the media
over-focuses on consumer items such as luxury cars, costly holiday spots and
fashion accessories that only the wealthy can afford. He also notes the
enormous amount of print and broadcast media dedicated to daily business news
and stock market quotations, despite the fact that few people in Britain own
stocks and shares.
Representations
of the middle classes
Four broad sociological observations can be made with regard
to mass mediarepresentations of the middle classes. The middle class are
over-represented on TV dramas and situation comedies.Part of the British
newspaper market is specifically aimed at the middle classes and their
consumption, tastes and interests, e.g. the Daily Mail.
The content of newspapers such as the Daily Mail suggests
that journalists believe that the middle classes of middle England are
generally anxious about the decline of moral standards in society and that they
are proud of their British identity and heritage. It is assumed that their
readership feels threatened by alien influences such as the Euro, asylum
seekers and terrorism. Consequently, newspapers, such as the Daily Mail, often
crusade on behalf of the middle classes and initiate moral panics on issues
such as video nasties, paedophilia and asylum seekers.
Most of the creative personnel in the media are themselves
middle class. In news and current affairs, the middle classes dominate
positions of authority – the ‘expert’ is invariably middle class.
Representations
of the working class
Newman argues that when news organisations focus on the
working class, it is generally to label them as a problem, e.g. as welfare
cheats, drug addicts or criminals. Working class groups, e.g. youth
sub-cultures such as mods or skinheads, are often the subject of moral panics,
whilst reporting of issues such as poverty, unemployment or single-parent
families often suggests that personal inadequacy is the main cause of these
social problems, rather than government policies or poor business practices.
Studies of industrial relations reporting by the Glasgow University Media Group
suggest that the media portray ‘unreasonable’ workers as making trouble for
‘reasonable’ employers.
Curran and Seaton (2003) note that newspapers aimed at
working class audiences assume that they are uninterested in serious analysis
of either the political or social organisation of British society. Political
debate is often reduced simplistically to conflict between personalities. The
content of newspapers such as The Sun and the Daily Star assumes that such
audiences want to read about celebrity gossip and lifestyles, trivial human
interest stories and sport.
6) PHYSICAL
DISABILITY:
Barnes (1992) argues that mass media representations of
disability have generally been oppressive and negative. People with
disabilities are rarely presented as people with their own identities. Barnes
notes several common media representations of people with disabilities.
·
In need of pity and charity – Barnes claims that
this stereotype has grown in popularity in recent years because of television
appeals such as Children in Need.
·
As victims – Barnes found that when people with
disabilities are featured in television drama, they are three times more likely
than able-bodied characters to be killed off.
·
As villains – people with disabilities are often
portrayed as criminals or monsters, e.g. villains in James Bond films often
have a physical impairment.
·
As super-cripples – Barnes notes that people
with disabilities are often portrayed as having special powers or as overcoming
their impairment and poverty. In Hollywood films, the impaired male body is
often visually represented as a perfect physical specimen in a wheelchair. Ross
notes that disability issues have to be sensational, unexpected or heroic in
order to be interpreted by journalists as newsworthy and reported on.
·
As a burden – television documentaries and news
features often focus on carers rather than the people with disabilities.
·
As sexually abnormal – it is assumed by media
representations that people with disabilities do not have sexual feelings or
that they are sexually degenerate.
·
As incapable of participating fully in community
life – Barnes calls this the stereotype of omission and notes that people with
disabilities are rarely shown as integral and productive members of the
community such as students, teachers or parents.
·
As ordinary or normal – Barnes argues that the
media rarely portray people with disabilities as normal people who just happen
to have a disability. They consequently fail to reflect the real, everyday
experience of disability.
7) REGIONAL
IDENTITY:
National identity is a complex issue – people may disagree
about what makes a national identity or that it exists at all!Other factors may
also be related to identity – Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Religion, Class and
Sexuality. These make the concept of a national identity even more
complicated.This is also complicated by the idea of Regional Identity as
well.Everyone will think according to the things they have been taught and how
are they brought up!
Taken from
various sources;
http://mediarevision.wordpress.com/representation/representation-of-regional-and-national-identities/
http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=race
http://www.slideshare.net/MediaStudiesSaltash/representation-of-ethnicity-10793441
http://revisionworld.co.uk/a2-level-level-revision/sociology/mass-media-0/media-representations-age-social-class-ethnicity-gender-sexuality-and-disability
