representation in television a2 media critical perspectives

Representation in Television

A2 MediaCritical Perspectives

Points to Consider

• Are there particular fashions associated with young people?

• Is there a different language associated with young people?

• Does the way in which young people dress and act on television effect the way that they are viewed by the public?

Exam Prompt

You need to learn about:

Debates around the idea that our identities are increasingly constructed by, our through, or in response to the media (and arguments against

this notion)

The effects in society of particular kinds of media representation of collective identities

What’s on the box?

Postcode (CBBC, 2011)

• Aimed at 10-12 year old boys• http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/

20/cbbc-postcode-pre-teen-drama

Postcode (CBBC, 2011)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrXy5VAzJE4

• Watch the promo for Postcode• How do you feel young people are

represented? • The BBC said:

• “The filming started in Stockwell, south London, the day after the August riots erupted. It feels edgy – in one

scene the fictional gang members gatecrash a party by climbing over the garden wall.”

Waterloo Road (BBC, 2006 – Present)

Misfits (Channel 4, 2009 - Present)

• Watch the opening of Episode 1 of ‘Misfits’• How does the ‘look’ of each character help to

establish their stereotype?• Do you feel that there are any positive

representations of young people here?

Misfits (E4, 2009 - Present)

• Hateful representations of youth is the real villain

• Aimed at niche audience on E4 (15-35 year olds)• May explain why representation is more

positive

The Inbetweeners (C4, 2008-2010)

Fresh Meat (2011 – Present)

In the Flesh (BBC 3, 2013-)

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00szzcm

Theorists

• Hegemony – Antonio Gramsci• Subcultures – Dick Hebdige• Cohen – Folk Devils • Henry Giroux – Empty Categories• Charles Aclund – Ideology of Protection• Louis Althusser – ideological state apparatus • George Gerbner – ‘mean world syndrome’

cultivation theory • http://www.slideshare.net/jphibbert1979/media-a

nd-collective-identity-theory-revision

Theorists (2)

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/nov/05/british-hoodie-films

• Greg Philo – hoodies as Middle Class fear • Links to Harry Brown (2009) and Eden Lake (2008) &

Attack the Block (2011)• Anglela McRobbie – violence as exercise is demonization

of youth to exert hegemonic model • Interesting piece on moral panic (postmodern moral

panics) http://logic.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/~b114299/young/2000-1/2000_1_Johansson.htm

Organising Theorists