Media 1- Age Traditional

Question 1

👶 CHILDHOOD – Negative Representations
📺 Heintz-Knowles

Answer 1

Key idea: Children in TV focus on romance/friends, not school; often shown misbehaving with positive results

Ethnic minorities underrepresented
Girls = affectionate, Boys = aggressive
Example: Kids’ shows like iCarly or Zack & Cody

Question 2

🧑‍🎤 YOUTH – Negative Representations
🧨 Griffin

Answer 2

Key idea: Youth seen as a social problem in 3 ways:

Deviant
Dysfunctional
Deficit (lacking values/skills)
Example: News stories blaming youth for social decline

Question 3

🧑‍🎤 YOUTH – Negative Representations
Wayne

Answer 3

Studied 286 news stories about youth:
28% focused on young celebrities (e.g., footballers).
82% showed youth as criminals or victims (90% violent crime).
Media ignores real issues like housing, education, health, unemployment.
Young people rarely interviewed about their own lives.

Media Example: News coverage often portrays young people linked to crime, not everyday struggles

Question 4

Women in Journalism
Youth Negative

Answer 4

Study focused on how teenage boys are portrayed in newspapers.
Negative language used: ‘thugs’, ‘yobs’, ‘hoodies’, ‘feral’, ‘lout’, ‘menacing’.
More stories about teens and crime than any other topics.
Only 24% of stories about teens and sport were positive; 16% of stories about entertainment were positive.
85% of teens believe the media portrays them badly. Reality TV is seen as more fair.
Teens often distrust other teens due to negative portrayals.

Media Example: Negative press in newspapers vs. more balanced depictions on reality TV.

Question 5

🛵 Cohen

Answer 5

Key idea: Moral panic – Media exaggerated conflict between Mods & Rockers, creating “folk devils”
Link: Based on Becker’s Labelling Theory
Example: Mods/Rockers 1960s media panic

Question 6

Kelly

Answer 6

Research focused on how journalists describe young people involved with the law.
Found three major types of representation:
Dangerous - Young people portrayed as a threat.
In need of protection - Seen as vulnerable or needing care.
Immature - Viewed as not fully developed or lacking maturity.

Media Example: News reports often frame teens either as threats to society, victims of circumstances, or irresponsible.

Question 7

ELDERLY- negative
Landis

Answer 7

Stereotyped
One dimensional
-Grumpy old man
-Mentally deficient
- Sticky old person
- Feisty old woman

Media example: Modern family - Grandad = grumpy old man
Harry Potter- Dumbledore- wise

Question 8

ELDERLY
Cuddy and Fiske

Answer 8

• In US tv 1.5% of characters are elderly
  -Form of comedy
• Media often depicts mental, physical and sexual as ineffective

Question 9

Milner Van Norman and Milner
ELDERLY

Answer 9

• Not portray a balanced view on aging
  -To do this they would need to present challenges of getting older alongside more positive opputunities
  -Active aging
  (link to Clarke and warren)

Question 10

Carrigan and Szmigin’s

Answer 10

Elderly rarely advertised
=Smelly and incontinent