Media Represenations

Question 1

How does media represent Age

Answer 1

Childhood:
Children are viewed positively

Youth (15-20s):
Portrayed as problems
Wayne found the media encourages fear of the youth
+ Moral Panics of youths, Hoodies EG

Elderly:
Ivan - old people are often under represented or seen as an undesirable state or represented as:
Third Age - Livley/ Fourth Age - lazy

White Et Al states: “the media is out of touch with an ageing society”

Research in media and age is limited and may highlight the low status on the demographic

Question 2

How does media represent Gender
(Girl Guides, Traditional Ideals)

Answer 2

FEMALE REPRESENTATION
Patriarchal Ideology:
Encourages women to accept a subordinate position
+ Promoted traditional ideals

Girl Guides - 39% of girls reported feeling unhappy of their online image

Tuchman - *Symbolic Annihilation:
- Women’s achievements are often not reported or condemned

Coverage of womens sport shows evidence of the Male Gaze

MALE REPRESENTATION
Retributive Masculinity:
- Promotes misogyny in males and reasserts traditional masculine authority

Postmodernism:
Bauman - choice of identity
Gauntlet - media today challenge traditional definitions
Vs
Traditional Ideals are reinforced
(Retributive Masculinity)

Question 3

How does the media represent Social Class

Answer 3

Neo-Marxist - media ensures CULTURAL HEGEMONY of the dominant capitalist class

Middle class are over-represented
Seen as:
- Educated Experts
- Functioning families

Working-Class are underrepresented
- Dumb and stupid
- source of trouble

Representation of Poverty
- Dangerous
- Entertaining (Jeremy Kyle)
- Failures

Can Link M/C representation to News Values

GUMG - W/c are represented as dignified and challenges inequality

Question 4

How does the media represent Ethnicity
(Van Dijk, Akinti, Nittle)

Answer 4

The media represent EMGs as partaking in Sports and Criminal Activities
- Marcus Rashford — Mobb Deep

• Akinti argues that TV coverage focuses on black underachievement
• Nittle argues of cultural appropriation, E.G Kim Kard wearing Fulani Braids

Van Dijk - conducted a content analysis and shown Black Communities are represented in a Negative Light

They see EMGs as:
1) Criminals - Van Dijk
2) Moral Panics - Hall PTC
3) As a threat - Islamaphobia

Hall - Policing the Crisis:
Portrayed black men as muggers
This Created a Divide and Rule

4) As Abnormal - different norms
5) As unimportant - Yt are more import
6) As dependent
7) As Invisible - arnt shown enough on TV and when they are it’s because they “should be there”

Question 5

How does media represent Sexuality

Answer 5

• Symbolic Annihilation: media rarely portrays gay characters

Homosexuals in media have had a stereotyped personality: Craig
- Camp - over the top
- Deviant - seen as evil
- AIDS - “gay plague”

Gauntlet argues that things are however slowly changing

Gill states homosexuals in media are displayed as stylish and attractive to women, not men?

Hegemonic masculine and feminine stereotypes
- heterosexual women are seen as sex objects for men

Question 6

How does the media represent Disability

Answer 6

Shakespeare argues disability should be seen as social construction
- society should change for disability not the other way around

Stereotypes are reinforced by symbolic annihilation
Barnes identified recurring stereotypes:
- As pathetic
- As evil - villains in James Bond
- As Super Cripples - having superpowers
- As an object of ridicule - laughed at

Bryant - disabled people are seen as “scrounges”

Sancho - all viewers were irritated by a lack of reality of perception of disabled people

Roper suggests programs such as children in need create guilt for able - bodied people