Representations

Representations

Ethnicity

Ethnicity is defined by a set of genetic and cultural characterised

Representations of ethnicity in the media can consist of rigid stereotypes that are similar to gender portrayal

There is a need for more accurate portrayal of ethnicity

Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Morgan freeman all have big non-stereotypical roles in media

There are many negative represaintations of black people in media

Common representations of ethnicity

African men and women

·     Gangster

·     Token black guy

·     Impoverished

·     Criminal

·     Victim

·     Hero

Asian

·     Intelligent

·     Martial arts

·     Obsessed with electronics

·     Quirky or weird

·     Lack emotion

·     Women can be seen as ditzy in some cases

Middle Eastern(Arabic) decent

·     Terrorists/violent

·     Very religious

·     Physically strong

·     Strict/stern/not a push over

·     Serious

·     Victims

·     Villains/rarely seen as heroes

White

·     Powerful: physically/intellectual

·     Often the hero

·     Serial killer

·     In charge (dominant race)

·     Lead role-protagonist

Representations of sexuality

·     Heterosexuality-Most common type

·     Homosexuality-Gay and Lesbian

Heterosexual women

·     Loving/respectable/average

·     Promiscuous

·     Frigid

·     Pure

·     Alternative

Heterosexual man

·     Respectable

·     Promiscuous

·     Ladies’ man

·     Bumbling man

Homosexual women

·     Monogamous

·     Promiscuous

·     Embarrassed (In the closet)

·     Bitch

Homosexual man

·     Promiscuous

·     Monogamous

·     Overbearing

·    

Embarrassed

Class and Status

1.  Poor/moneyless/bum

2.  Lower class

3.  Lower middle class

4.  Working class

5.  Upper middle class

6.  Upper middle class

7.  Upper class

8.  Elite/rich/millionaire

Status Symbols

·     Clothing or lack of it

·     Cars

·     Jewellery

·     Brands

·     Houses/mansions

·     Gadgets

Physical ability/Disability

1.  Paralysed

2.  Amputee

3.  Deaf

4.  Blind

5.  Cancer

6.  Aids

7.  Superheroes

8.  Star athletes 

Why are they showing the disability?

Regional identity

o  Costumes

o  Setting

o  Staging/acting

o  Depiction

Selection: Whatever ends up on the screen or in

Construction: Media texts have been created in a specific way to portray a message/representation

Mediation: Mediation is the process by which a media text represents an idea, issue or event to an audience. We are given a version of reality which has been altered    

Dominant representation: A dominant representation is one which is repeated across the media over time  

Binary opposition:is the idea that for every hero they will have a polar opposite in this case is the villain  

The representation of men and women.

Gender is perhaps the basic category we use for sorting human beings, and it is a key issue when discussing representation.

Many objects, not just humans, are represented by the media as being particularly masculine or feminine - particularly in advertising - and we grow up with an awareness of what constitutes 'appropriate' characteristics for each gender.

■Feminism has been around for over 30

years yet media representations of women

are worryingly the same.

Representations of women across all

media tend to Highlight

■beauty

■size/physique

■sexuality

■emotional dealings

■relationships 

■Women are often represented as

being part of a context (family, friends,

colleagues) and working/thinking as

part of a team.

■In drama, they tend to take the role

of helper (Propp) or object, passive

rather than active.

■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.

■Representations of men across

all media tend to focus on the

following:

■Strength - physical and

intellectual

■Power & Success

■Sexual attractiveness - Physique

■Independence

Masculine

■Rebellious teen

■Senile old woman/man

■Cradle robbing woman

■Male in a mid-life crisis

■Middle-age woman clinging to her youth

■Silly old man

■Social group in school (nerd, popular etc)

■And the list goes on.

■Thanks to the media, we appear to live in an age obsessed world: a world obsessed with youth and its attendant beauty. Old people are often subject to the most rigid stereotypes of all (old = ugly, weak, stupid). The future looks pretty bleak for all of us.

■The representation of older ages in the media today is as equally a controversial area as that of young people.

■Ageing is not always seen positively and older people are often constructed in a very stereotypical way

Older people are represented in media as

1. funny
2. second childhood
3. grumpy
4. rude