AS Media StudiesExam – Section A

Representation (2)

WALTUnderstand key terminology to use for the

exam.

Be able to anlalyse the Disability

Age

Ethnicity

StarterYour presentations of sexuality should have been

emailed to me.

Media Key Terms Ideologies – these are a system of ideas and

ideals, these could be social or political and could be conscious beliefs or unconscious beliefs. These beliefs are established by the dominant class and are accepted by low classes often used as a form of control.

Hegemony – This word refers to a dominant set of ideologies represented by the Media that are presented as normal / staus quo and are therefore accepted by society. These ideologies are often used as a form of control as a power structure so the structure could enforce status of the middle class over the working class.

GenderWhat are the hegemonic ideologies of Gender?

Discussion

What are the hegemonic ideologies of Sexuality?Discussion

Disability Key facts about

disability.

There are 770,000 disabled children in the UK under the age of 16.

Nearly one in five working adults in Britain have a disability – 7 million or 18.6%

Identify what are the potential types of disabilities we may discuss?

Representation of Disability

Characters with disability

Which of the stereotypes are being represented by these characters with disability?

Sinister or Evil - amputee He has metallic hand because he lost his natural hands

due to radiation.

He is a ‘mad’ scientist working for SPECTRE, the criminal organization dedicated to terrorism and extortion.

A common viewpoint of the character Dr No, is that he is sinister and Evil. obviously he is meant to be portrayed as the Antagonist, but as the film is from 1962, it suggests that people who have a physical disability are easy to be shown as the Bad guy, and it adds to the reason why we are meant to disapprove of this particular character.

It says quite a lot that the first Bond Villain has a physical disability, suggesting at the time of the making of the film, to pick/choose disabled people to be the villains was an easy choice, and quite a common view of the main population to go against/disapprove of physically disabled people on a public level?

Laughable - dwarfism ‘Life’s Too Short’- writer Ricky

GervaisPotrayed as laughable and pitiful

often his own worse enemy.

‘Warwick is a dwarf but he’s still a person and it wasn’t a nasty joke’.

‘It’s not chasing controversy; it’s making light of a real-life situation. It’s just entertainment. A bit of fun

Pitiful and Pathetic - Deformity Joseph Merrick, he suffered from proteus syndrome

which according to Wikipedia “causes skin overgrowth and atypical bone development, often accompanied by tumours over half the body”.

  As Shakespeare said (1999;64) “impairment is

made the most important thing” and disabled characters are “objectified and distanced from the audience”. John is portrayed as a pitiable human being, in one of the scenes he screams “I’m not an elephant, I’m not an animal, I’m a human being” which is his biggest dream to be perceived as a human not weird creature. Character of John Merrick is shown as a laughable one – he’s treated like a thing by an owner of a ‘Freak Show’

Example ScenesForrest Gumphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJh59vZ8ccc

Inbetweenershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obfpDPxP0cA

Hannibal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zfqh2OxGFg

ControversyGlee has been getting a lot of

negative attention for casting a non-disabled actor to play paraplegic Artie. This is, of course, nothing new, though it would be nice if we were actually making progress towards hiring more actors with disabilities. Kevin McHale, the actor who plays Artie, has defended the show saying that it is the same as a straight actor playing a gay character.

TerminologyAbleismAbleism – are the practices and dominant attitudes in

society that devalue and limit the potential of persons with disabilities.

a set of practices and beliefs that assign inferior value (worth) to people who have developmental, emotional, physical or psychiatric disabilities. 

This term is used to describe a hegemonic ideology – a dominant view point within society.

Should this attitude be stopped?

RepresentationThe next subject we are going to explore is:

Age

Childhood There are 8 stereotypes: As victims of horrendous crimes – some critics of the media have suggested that White children

who are victims of crime get more media attention than adults or children from ethnic minority backgrounds.

As cute – this is a common stereotype found in television commercials for baby products or toilet rolls.

As little devils – another common stereotype especially found in drama and comedy, e.g. Bart Simpson.

As brilliant – perhaps as child prodigies or as heroes for saving the life of an adult. As brave little angels – suffering from a long-term terminal disease or disability. As accessories – stories about celebrities such as Madonna, Angelina Jolie or the Beckhams may

focus on how their children humanise them. As modern – the media may focus on how children ‘these days’ know so much more ‘at their age’

than previous generations of children. As active consumers – television commercials portray children as having a consumer appetite for

toys and games. Some family sociologists note that this has led to the emergence of a new family pressure, ‘pester power’, the power of children to train or manipulate their parents to spend money on consumer goods that will increase the children’s status in the eyes of their peers.

Childhood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmbXGLF5-TY

Youth There is a whole media industry aimed at socially constructing

youth in terms of lifestyle and identity. Magazines are produced specifically for young people. Record companies, Internet music download sites, mobile telephone companies and radio stations all specifically target and attempt to shape the musical tastes of young people. Networking sites on the Internet, such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, allow youth to project their identities around the world.

Youth are often portrayed by news media as a social problem, as immoral or anti-authority and consequently constructed as folk devils as part of a moral panic. The majority of moral panics since the 1950s have been manufactured around concerns about young people’s behaviour, such as their membership of specific ‘deviant’ sub-cultures (e.g., teddy boys, hoodies) or because their behaviour (e.g., drug taking or binge drinking) has attracted the disapproval of those in authority.

YouthMost common words to describ youth in UK

Newspapers in 2008 were yobs, thugs, sick feral, hoddie, louts, evil, frightening, scum.

Over half the stories in the paper were crimes committed by teenagers.

Consider how shows / films present youth.

Youth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLRNXJa_buU

Youth examplesClip Montagehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC-u1vA7_qo

Laurenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV1zK8zRCPo

This is England 86https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df1Zcec1qBs

ElderlyThere are a range of stereotypes used to describe them:

As grumpy – conservative, stubborn and resistant to social change. As mentally challenged – suffering from declining mental functions. As dependent – helpless and dependent on other younger members of

the family or society. As a burden – as an economic burden on society (in terms of the costs

of pensions and health care to the younger generation) and/or as a physical and social burden on younger members of their families (who have to worry about or care for them).

As enjoying a second childhood – as reliving their adolescence and engaging in activities that they have always longed to do before they die

Elderly

Example ClipsNanhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCklKO1_jPs

Skinshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSsGuh4Ajhk

How is age being depicted is this a positive or negative representation?

Representation

The next subject we are going to explore is:

Regional Identity

Regional IdentityWhat kind of regional identities do you know?

Regional Identity refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is from. It could refer to a general area such a “north” or “south”, a country such as “English” or “Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or “Manchester.”

There are several regional stereotypes widely seen on television:

Scottish – often shown as being money obsessed, won’t pay for anything, drinks a lot of alcohol, loves the outdoors, wears kilts, eats haggis, quite aggressive and violent

Welsh –Often shown as living in the middle of the countryside, with people making jokes about them “shagging sheep”

Irish – often shown as living in the countryside, working in rural areas such as farms, being very religious, being good at dancing and singing, very friendly but less intelligent

English – often shown as being racist, obsessed with beer and football living in London. Sometimes the stereotype goes in the opposite direction of showing English people as very rich, posh, happy, living in castles and being very “royal.”

London – There are 2 main stereotypes of Londoners. One is that they are often shown as being rich, posh, snobby, upper class, Hugh Grant types from central or west london. The other is that they often shown as being from north, east or south London, poor, common, lower class, criminalistic, violent “Kidulthood” style

Manchester / Newcastle / Liverpool – Often shown as being “chavs”, wearing fake designer labels, or tracksuits, drinking a lot, being aggressive, uneducated, criminals

Essex – often shown as being glamourous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying, being quite stupid

Yorkshire – Often shown as living in rural countryside, with rolling hills and cobbled streets, being quite old fashioned

Cornwall / Somerset – Often shown as being “backwards”, living in rural areas, working on farms

South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny, richer, doing middle class jobs such as managers etc

North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders etc

If you get “regional identity” as an issue in the exam, you should be considering the

way that region is being shown is it positive or negative depiction also consider the hardships being faced y the characters