Topic 3 - Media Representations: Age, Class & Ethnicity Flashcards
How are children (up to the age of 14 represented in the media?
Positively
How are the youth (age 15-20s) presented in the media?
Negatively: frequently subject to negative stereotyping and are portrayed as rebellious and a selfish problem group in society.
What are some AO3 evaluations of youths in the media?
“New sociology of childhood” theory from families and households shows that children are not passive puppets and are active agents who play a big part in society. This means that the media over time may be forced to change their traditional stereotypes of young people.
How does the media represent older people (50s onwards)
Negatively or invisible as they are massively under represented in the media. Cuddy and Fiske (2004) showed that in the USA, TV portrayed just 1.5% of its characters as elderly with most of them in minor roles and that older adults were more likely than any other age group to appear in television and film as figures of fun and comic relief usually based on impaired mental, physical or sexual capacities.
What does the Centre for Ageing Better (2023) say about older people in the media?
The association of words such as ‘elderly’ with ‘vunerable’ or phrases such as ‘boomers have it better than millennials’ all create a negative and unrealistic view of later life.
What did Biggs find about older people in the media?
TV sitcoms presented older people in similarly negative ways such as being forgetful. Elderly people suffer from negative stereotypes in the media more than any other identifiable social group apart from the youth. Old age represented as undesirable. Some stereotypes include; poor, ill-health, a burden and forgetful.
What do Szmigin and Carrigan (2000) say about older people in the media?
Found that some were wary of using models in their advertisements they considered might alienate younger audiences.
What does White et al say about older people in the media?
Found that older viewers thought they tended to be stereotyped and that there was a lack of representation of middle aged and older women on TV.
What are some AO3 evaluations of older people in the media?
Centre for Ageing Better (2023) campaigns and hopes that IPSO will add age to Clause 12 of its Editors Code of Practice which focuses on avoiding discrimination.
Szmigin and Carrigan (2000) - we can expect more positive and more representations of older generations in the media. This is because there is a growing number or older people in the population with money to spend.
Lee et al (2007) noted that older adults in advertisements are generally presented positively, as healthy, active people with a wide range of interests, enjoying a ‘golden age’.
What does the study by Children’s express identify about children’s stereotypes in the media?
Seven prevalent stereotypes in the media:
1. Kids as victims
2. Cute kids
3. Little devils
4. Kids are brilliant
5. Kids as accessories
6. Kids these days
7. Little angels
What did MORI for Young People Now’s magazine conclude in 2005 about youths in the media?
MORI for Young People Now magazine showed that the majority of stories about young people were negative with just 12% positive and 40% of articles about young people focused on crime, vandalism and anti-social behaviour.
What did the survey by Women in Journalism (2009) conclude about youths in the media?
Survey by Women in Journalism 2009 found that teenage boys most frequently appeared in the media in stories about crime and were most commonly described using terms like ‘yobs’, ‘thugs’ and ‘feral’.
What did Cuddy and Fiske (2004) show about older people in the media?
In the USA, TV portrayed just 1.5% of its characters as elderly with most of them in minor roles and that older adults were more likely than any other age group to appear in television and film as figures of fun and comic relief usually based on impaired mental, physical or sexual capacities.
