Media Representations

Media Representation -

Representation

Representation is how media texts deal with and present gender, age, ethnicity, national and regional identity, social issues and events to an audience. 

 Stereotypes

These are a simplified representation of a person, groups of people or a place, through basic or obvious characteristics - which are often exaggerated.              

Counter stereotypes-

•Are  positive stereotypes. They Focus on positive elements of a group traditionally represented as bad.

Identity.

 is a socially and historically constructed concept. ... Social and cultural identity is inextricably linked to issues of power, value systems, and ideology . The media uses representations—images, words, and characters or personae—to convey specific ideas and values related to culture and identity in society.

Mediation.

Every time we encounter a media text, we are not seeing reality, but someone’s version of it. 

Ideology

These are ideas and beliefs, held by media producers, which are often represented in their media texts.

Social power

In social science and politics, power is the ability to influence or outright control the behaviour of people. The term "authority" is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure.

Hegemony 
Leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others. Hegemony is a way to describe people or ideas that become—and seek to remain—dominant in society.The development of the term “hegemony” in media studies follows the work of Antonio Gramsci and Stuart Hall

Task 2 Brexit- How Uk migration is represented ?

Uk migration in this picture is represented as a majority of Muslim and Asian culture trying to come into our country. It is trying to say how Great Britain being involved in the European Union has let all these people into our Country and how we need to gain back control. The reason I feel that they may have viewed migration as this 'culture' is because of the stereotypes that come with them and there is also a great deal of Islamphobia - dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force. This is due to world events being led by someone of this culture for e.g 9/11 and the Twin towers being attacked, ISIS terrorist organisation and Osama Bin Laden, leading to many people in fear of their lives and wary that these stereotypes might be the same for all of them.

Task 3: you will be required to copy the common stereotypes and theories used by the media in the representation of the following groups.

Youth/Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Race, Regional identity

Youth - 

In a 1999 research paper Ann Gould identified 6 key stereotypes in the media’s representation of youth. These are:

•Rebellious

•Artificial tribe

•Sexual

•Nihilistic

•Violent

•Self-destructive 

Inbetweeners episode 'Will is home alone'  -

    In this episode of The Inbetweeners it represents the younger generation as just trying to have a laugh and being mischievous. We see how the stereotypes of younger men are shown to just wanting to sexualise everything, vandalising for a laugh, wanting to turn everything into a joke, swearing constantly and always winding each other up. This can be seen when Will's mother talks about the new Wii and Will's friends: Simon, Jay and Neil all wind him up by flirting with his mother as they find her very attractive. This shows how they love to sexualise a women. Then we also see how they are mischievous by kicking the flowerbeds and also rearranging the flowers to spell some inappropriate words because they find it funny. This reflects on the stereotypical ideas 

Representations of women across all media tend tohighlight the following:

•beauty (within narrow conventions) 

•size/physique (again, within narrow conventions)

•sexuality (as expressed by the above)

•emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings

•relationships (as opposed to independence/

  freedom)

Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. Often their passivity extends to victimhood. Men are still represented as TV drama characters up to 3 times more frequently than women, and tend to be the predominant focus of news stories.

     They are often linked to the domestic situation- 

    – Women as housewives or mothers

    –OR as sex objects (sexualised and objectified) represented to entertain and titillate the male 

     In Magazines and Adverts they are shown to be Young, Slim, Overwhelmingly white, Conforming to our image of ideal beauty (perfect skin, hair and alluring gaze).

     Laura Mulvey:

     She was a theorist and a feminist. Mulvey, came up with the concept on male gaze in 1975. Here Mulvey wrote a very influential essay ‘Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. Stating that women are used for visual pleasure- women are made to seem like sexual objects through voyeurism. she argued that women took the passive part of a film and that all men played an active part, in her eye the women were objects.

'Masculinity' is a concept that is made up of more rigid stereotypes than femininity. Representations of men across all media tend to focus on the following:

      •Strength - physical and intellectual

      •Power

      •Sexual attractiveness (which may be based on the above)

      •Physique

      •Independence (of thought, action, finances)

     Male characters are often represented as isolated, as not needing to rely on others (the lone hero). If they submit to being part of a family, it is often part of the resolution of a narrative, rather than an integral factor in the initial balance. It is interesting to note that the male physique is becoming more important a part of representations of masculinity

Masculinity and Violence

One area that has been the focus of much study is the relationship between males and violence in the media.

Earp and Katz (1999) studies male representations in the media and found “a widespread and disturbing equation of masculinity and pathological control and violence.”

They claim that the media is responsible for a steady stream of images that define ‘manhood’ as connected with violence, dominance and control - and create it as a normal and accepted part of masculinity. 

The Metrosexual

•One recent development in the representations of masculinity is the Metrosexual ( mid 1990’s)

•The young single man with a high disposable income, living in the city - as it is near to the best shops. Metrosexual man is not gay but is often confused with being homosexual.

•He is objectified and sexualised (turned into a sex object) which goes against traditional representations of masculinity.

Task 4 media representations of male and females

In this magazine we see how Men and Women are represented differently. We see how stereotypes effect the magazines and how they are viewed. In the mens we see how Tinie Tempah is smartly dressed in a black suit and tie. Looking very powerful and it looks like he owns a lot of money. This can show how the stereotypes of men are reflected by how we see him looking powerful and the positioning of his physique looks like he has a lot of independence. However in the Women's magazine we see Lana Del Ray is objectified by wearing no clothes and sitting covering her body. This could suggest that she looks weaker than the man and the director may have done this to sell more copies as she is viewed in a sexualised way. She appears to meet the criteria of a stereotypical women who is flawless, slim, being controlled and can even look somewhat emotional by the way she has been positioned.

In conclusion the difference between both magazines is that they have reflected the typical stereotypes of men and women and this means that people who view this magazine may also feel pressured into looking a certain way. This then continues the cycle of how men and women are viewed differently as the next generation will then think this is how you have to look too. 

Regional Identity -

Definition - Regional identity refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is from. It could refer to a general area such as 'north', 'Scottish' or specific towns such as 'London' or 'Manchester'.  You can identity regional identity by: 

- Setting 

- Accents 

- Dialogue 

- Props 

- Make up 

- Class of characters

- Costumes 

Examples - 

•Essex – often shown as being glamourous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying, being quite stupid

•South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny, richer, doing middle class jobs such as managers, etc.

•North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders, etc.

Representation Class -

Gramsci’s theory of hegemony can be visualised as the Middle classes (media, Judges (rule of law), Public, Education sector and religious bodies) using their influence to preserve the status quo.  The poor and working class are often represented in an unsympathetic /biased way (trouble makers, deviant as a means of preserving the power of the middle and upper class).This is illustrated in the attached imagesHegemony (theory) does not only apply to class it is relevant to gender (patriarchy) and race… 

Media Representations of social class:

Summary of theories

Nairn (1988) – Monarchy

• “Royal Family” concept = niceness, decency, ordinariness,

• Royal family can be deemed to be “like us” but “not like us” – the queen seen as

ordinary working mother doing extraordinary things,

Upper class-

• Mainly represented through the coverage of the monarchy,

• Seen as well bred and cultured,

• Represented through their accents, estates, and a taste for shooting and hunting,

• Usually represented in costume and period drama.

Representations of poverty and underclass- 

 • Portrayal usually negative and stereotypical,

 • Portrayed in the form of statistics in news bulletin such as figures of unemployment,

 • Recent media interest in the labelling of the poor such as “chavs” which according to Shildrick and MacDonald (2007) suggest that the poor are undeserving of sympathy,

• Hayward and Yar (2006) – the term chav is used as an amusing term of abuse for young poor people

Middle class -
•Presented as educated and successful as well as able to cope with problems,
•Over represented in the media due to their lifestyle
•Representation fits in with the hegemonic ideology of the dominant class in society,

 Representation justifies the existing class structure and inequalities by suggesting people need to become more competent and successful in order to cope with life

Working class -
•Newman (2006) argues that there are very few situation comedies, television or drama which focuses on the everyday lives of working class who constitute a significant section of society,
•Newman argues that when in the media working class are often depicted in a very non positive light dumb buffoons (Homer Simpson) and immature machos (Phil Mitchell),
•Butsch (1992) – working class portrayed as flawed individuals (benefit cheats, etc.)