Representations Of Nationalty And Ethnicity In The Media Flashcards
Define representation?
The way in which media constructs aspects of ‘real life’ for audiences
Define construction
- What we are presented with has gone through process of planning, producing, editing, post producing.
- all representation is an illusion of reality
Define context
The specific situation or circumstances of the representation
Define stereotyping
Presenting an uninformed and exaggerated representation of a group or individual
Definitely ideology
A set of ideas or a worldview
Define dominant ideology
- The dominant set of ideas or worldview
- often associated with the elite
What does Barker argue?
A multicultural society welcomes this presence of a range of different groups
What does van dijk argue?
- Found that many groups were presented in a stereotyped way
- discovered that ethnic groups were portrayed in 5 ways
What were the 5 ways ethnic groups were portrayed?
- criminals
- abnormal
- threat
- dependant
- unimportant
How were ethnic groups presented as criminals?
- Word ‘black’ often used in descriptions of criminals but ‘white’ not used in the same way
- Top boy
How are ethnic groups presented as abnormal?
- negative portrayals of abnormal cultural practices often presented in documentaries and soap operas
- blanket terminology used to describe cultural practices which leads to oversimplification of practices
- forced marriage cops
How are ethnic groups presented as a threat?
- tabloids found to present immigrants and asylum seekers as ‘taking scarce jobs’, British ’resources’ and as being a ‘drain’ on the state
- ‘migrants milking Britain’s benefits’
How are ethnic groups presented as dependant?
- less developed countries described as ‘coup war famine syndrome’ with little discussion of their exploitation by western countries
- comic relief
How are ethnic groups portrayed as unimportant?
- priority was given to reporting issues that impact white people
- ‘the forgotten victims of Isis’
