age revised Flashcards
childhood - positive stereotypes
6 stereotypes - content analysis
cute, little devils, brilliant, brave little angels, accessories, modern
however - vary according to gender, social class or ethnicity eg muslim representations
childhood - pro-social actions
Heintz-Knowles - content analysis of American TV - many children portrayed as motivated by peer relationships and sport - rarely issues such as family issues
most representations also - positive and show them engaged in pro-social actions eg telling the truth
HOWEVER - sociological studies focused on media representations of children in UK is quite limited - most studies are american - cultural differences in presentations
children - negative - active consumers
marxists - represented in TV adverts - socialise them into becoming active consumers
Evan and Chandler - new family pressure - pester power
children pressurise parents into buying unnecessary products - false needs - marcuse
marxists - creates anxiety for poorer parents - new media increases pressure
children - negative - media turn against non-conforming children
media overtly turn on children who do not confirm
the killers of Jamie Bulger - the sun held petitions to increase the sentence for the killers
teenagers - moral panics
youth often portrayed by new media as social problem - folk devils and part of moral panics
majority of moral panics since 1950s - centred around young people eg hoodies
teenagers - negative
wayne et al - carried out content analysis - 28% 82% young people victims or perpetrators of violent crime - negative representations distract from real problems young people face eg mental health
charlotte kelly - conducted research on language used journalists to describe young people who comes into contact with law - dangerous, need protection or are immature
HOWEVER - some documentaries do portray the complex issues young people face today, such as the recent increase of schools documentaries eg educating greater manchester
functionalist perspective of representation of young people
media representations normalise and maintain social boundaries and expected behaviour
alongside other agencies of social control - the family, education and religion - the mass media functions to equip children and young people with appropriate norms and values required to be good citizens
form of boundary maintenance for young people
pluralist perspective on representation of young people
media representations simply reflect social reality - young people commit more crime and deviance than any other social group
crime is newsworthy
interactionist perspective of young people
young people are frequently labelled by older generations as a threat to social stability because they often challenge their authority
media representations and moral panics surrounding youth crime are attempts at social control
Cohen - young people identified as folk devils - young people conform to media stereotypes (deviancy amplification) - gain status
postmodernist perspective of representations of young people
media-saturated society - negative portrayals only small aspect of media representations - actually diverse and pluralistic
role of new media - young people are creators - citizen journalism - Jenkins
symbolic annihilation of the elderly
emphasis on youth and beauty in TV - aging is undesirable - being old is stigmatised identity
Cuddy and Fiske - only 1.5% of characters on British TV were elderly
Charity - Age Concern - elderly are underrepresented across mass media - portrayed in 3 ways
- grumpy
- mentally challenged
- burden
symbolic annihilation of elderly women
feminists - argued elderly women rarely included in mainstream TV and film datas but men are
radical feminist Sontag - double standard of aging
normalised in hollywood for male celebrities to date younger women
Keanu Reeves and Alexandra Grant - applauded for having girlfriend his own age - 11 year age gap - simply because she has grey hair - labelled as old
elderly - accurate and sympathetic portrayals
recent research suggests that media producers are gradually reinventing how they portray the elderly - group now have more disposable income - grey pound
Lee et al - representation of elderly in adverts is still fairly low - 15% but majority of adverts portray elderly as golden agers who are active and healthy
elderly - the grey pound
companies increasingly using media to advertise towards elderly due to their higher disposable income
depicting elderly couples as happy, healthy consumers hoping to enrich lives through products - PM
eg 2015 John Lewis advert
grey pound evaluation
beauty products adverts often airbrush elderly women, or use young models for anti-ageing cream
- the olay advert featuring the model Twiggy was banned due to airbrushing in 2009
marxists - form of exploitation leading to false class consciousness in elderly communities
