traditional age representations

Question 1

Heintz and Knowles - childhood

Answer 1

Found 3 main representations about children in TV shows:
- Children motivated by peer relationships and romance, less by religion and education
- Ethnic minority children underrepresented
- Those who engage in anti - social behaviours had positive outcomes

e.g. Hannah Montanna white cast em underrepresented

Question 2

Griffin - youth

Answer 2

media represented youth 3 ways:
Dysfunctional
Suffering a deficit
Deviant

E.g. Euphoria

Question 3

Women in journalism - youth

Answer 3

examined how teenage boys presented in national + local newspapers. Found following three things:
- negative language used to describe e.g. ‘thugs’ ‘hoodies’
- More stories about teens + crime than any other topic
- Few stories showed teen boys in a good light
example - Daily Mail Britain’s top police chief : “Time to lock up teen thugs”

Question 4

Wayne - youth

Answer 4

Young people were main subject of 286 stories found. Found that 82% of stories focused on young people as either perpetrators or victims of crime. These representations ignore different ways of how young people are affected by housing, education, health etc

example - Daily Mail headlines “ UK teens worst behaved in Europe”

Question 5

Kelly - youth

Answer 5

conducted research on language used by journalists to describe young people who came in contact with law + found three types of representation:
- dangerous
- in need of protection
- immature

“children killing children- teen knife crime epidemic”

Question 6

Cohen - youth

Answer 6

study on folk devils and + moral panics shows media depicts youth as dangerous + deviant
example - Mods and Rockers’
Presents young people as aggressive + always looking for a fight - creates sense of moral panic

Question 7

Cuddy and Fiske - elderly

Answer 7

US TV programmes portrayed just 1.5% of characters as elderly - minor roles. Media depicted their mental, physical and sexual capacities as ineffective

Abe Simpson (from the TV show The Simpsons)- who is portrayed as forgetful, physically inactive, as not in control of his mental state (mentally deficient) etc.

Question 8

Milner et al - elderly

Answer 8

media don’t portray balanced view of ageing to do this they would need to present the challenges of getting older alongside the more positive opportunities associated with ageing such as active ageing.

example link to clarke and warren

Question 9

Carrigan and Szmigan - elderly

Answer 9

although increase in number of elderly people - media barely represents elderly. Presented as smelly + incontinent

Question 10

Landis - elderly

Answer 10

identified number of stereotypes in representations of older people e.g.
Grumpy old man
depressed/lonely
example - Dumbledore