Representations - Done

Question 1

What are the 6 different groups or people that are represented by the media?

Answer 1

Ethnicity
Gender
Sexuality
Class
Disability
Age

Question 2

How are ethnic minorities represented by the media?

Answer 2

Media contributes too and reinforces racist stereotypes, AKINTI - media focuses too little on the positive and too much on the negative. Some of the stereotypes are:
- black people as criminals
- moral panics - black muggers = devil folks
- van dijk says black people seen as a threat to society same with Muslims
- tokenism = include a black person for the sake of having one

Question 3

What are some of the changing representations of ethnicity in the media

Answer 3

• Since 1991 there are more BAME characters in tv, also more minorities in things like presenting
• still are negatives - since the majority of journalists are white, they assume white is normal so devalue minorities

Question 4

How are females represented in the media

Answer 4

• SYMBOLIC ANNIHILATION - women’s achievement is ignored by the media as its patriarchal - men are shown as powerful and women as housewives, mothers or objects = Mulvey male gaze. Wolf comes up with the term beauty myth - women have to constantly change appearance to benefit male gaze

Question 5

What are the changing representations of gender in the media

Answer 5

Women - the media empowers women their roles are now tough + powerful.
Men - are becoming sexualised, told to be considerate and understanding of women now

Question 6

What are typical stereotypes of gender in the media?

Answer 6

Female - WAGs, sex objects, supermum, angel, ball breaker, victim
Male - joker, jock, big shot, strong silent type, action hero, buffoon

Question 7

What are the theoretical explanations of gender representations in the media?

Answer 7

Pluralists - stereotypes are results of audiences - the media is driven by the audience
LF - media reps are the product of the under representation of women
Marxists + MF - reps are put in place in order to make a profit
RF - media reps are the result of needing to reproduce patriarchy

Question 8

How are men represented in the media? 

Answer 8

Children now group - males are violent, leaders, problems solvers, funny, confident, highly masculine, mostly shown in work + successful. They are mostly shown in positions of power - mostly the choice for hosts. Older women shown rarely with young men, but the opposite for older men and young women.

Question 9

How old is disability represented in the media?

Answer 9

Pitiable or pathetic - often represented as totally dependent on others or in need of pity, often shown as evil e.g. bond films.
Object of ridicule - disabled often the butt of the jokes - learning difficulties or speech impairments

Question 10

How has a representation of disability changed in the media?

Answer 10

Watson et al - media coverage from 04/05 - 10/11 in newspapers found significant increase in reporting for disability, reporting for sympathy had also fallen, groups with mental disabilities was particularly negative due to the label welfare scroungers, articles on disability benefit fraud increased

Question 11

How is homosexuality represented in the media?

Answer 11

Stonewall - symbolic annihilation - 5% of media include a lesbian and gay is a 36% of this was negative
Craig - 3 types of homosexuals, camp (non threatening), macho (exaggerating masculinity and turning male clothing into erotic symbols), evil or devious - aids epidemic.

Question 12

How is homosexualitys representation in the media changing?

Answer 12

Pink pound - cheetah how big the group is, the media is not responding to the interest through the market and advertisement.
Representations of trans characters - increase in trans-characters
 New media - content is much more LGBT due to it being user generated, also makes way for homophobia

Question 13

How is heterosexuality represented in the media?

Answer 13

Females - mulvey - male gaze, batched or et al - girls defined by physical attractiveness,females discuss, sex whilst men boast it
Males - increase in male objectification, men are now sexualised by women also

Question 14

How are the youth portrayed in the media?

Answer 14

• media shapes, their content around youth interests - make up the majority. Portrayed mainly negatively, represented as rebellious, and a problem group, who are fuelled by drugs and alcohol, they are antisocial criminals.
• cohen - youth are easy to stereotype, they are powerless and easy to play blame for problems

Question 15

What are the theoretical explanations of changing representation of age?

Answer 15

Pluralist: media representations reflect reality
Functionalism: representations are form of boundary maintenance
Interactionism: labelling is a threat by the elderly on the young
Neo-Marxist: media sources are mostly elderly, so negatively stereotype that youth
Post modern: negative representations are a small amount of media

Question 16

How are children portrayed by the media?

Answer 16

• Children express found seven stereotypes of children in the media : victims, cute, little devils, brilliant, accessories, kids these days, angels
• Most representation of kids are positive and show them telling the truth
• pester power

Question 17

How are representations of age, changing in the media?

Answer 17

 youth: more positive representational because they dominate media, they can change stereotypes through citizen journalism.
old age: despite not being shown much when they are it’s typically positive

Question 18

How are the elderly portrayed by the media?

Answer 18

Elderly are often negatively represented or just invisible, only 1.5% of characters are elderly and they tend to have minor roles. Old age is represented as undesirable – the scene is grumpy or a burden. Older men get more important roles than elderly women e.g. Harrison ford.

Question 19

How is the middle class represented by the media?

Answer 19

They are more overrepresented than the very rich. Many programs and advertisements are only aimed at upper-class middle-class due to budgets, characters in TV shows are typically middle-class, their culture is seen as normal they are dominant in the media.

Question 20

How are the very rich represented by the media?

Answer 20

Often treated the slabs - narin - the Royal family are an example, the life is treated like a soap opera - media has large interests in small aspects of their life - small events in their life are treated like national events. Interests are also overrepresented, despite being a small portion of the population.

Question 21

How are people in poverty represented in the media?

Answer 21

 The media focuses on stats rather than individual stories, there isn’t a lot of exploration to the causes of poverty. Cohen says the link between wealth and poverty is ignored. poverty is also used as entertainment, for example, shameless.

Question 22

How is the working class represented by the media? 

Answer 22

Newman - working-class represented as a problem - their lives are represented as problematic, Jone demonisation of working-class in book “Chav” , working-class are represented as an intelligent and shallow serious content for middle-class, or Shalloway is further working-class. Working-class are showed as flawed in dramas also shown as the salt of the Earth - simple, but decent normal people (condescending)