Ethnicity

MS1 REPRESENTATION:

Please RESPECT each other’s opinions! Be aware of views that may cause offence!

Bigotry is not acceptable and WILL be challenged!

POTENTIAL…

LEARNING OUTCOMES – BY THE END OF THIS SESSION YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:

1) Describe the difference between ETHNICITY and RACE

2) Identify issues surrounding the stereotyping of ethnic minority groups in the media

3) Give at least three examples of media texts that offer a dominant and alternative representation of ethnicity in the media

4) Explain what ‘tokenism’ is and why it is problematic, giving at least two examples

Which ethnicity do you see?

Can you recall the last time you saw a sikh represented in the media?

Do you think sikhs are often represented POSITIVELY or NEGATIVELY

in the media?

Which ethnicity do you see?

When was the last time you recall seeing this ethnicity represented in the media?

Do you think Romany gypsies are often represented POSITIVELY or NEGATIVELY?

Which ethnicity do you see?

When was the last time you recall seeing this ethnicity represented in the media?

Do you think people of mixed race are often represented POSITIVELY or

NEGATIVELY?

Which ethnicity do you see?

When was the last time you recall seeing this ethnicity represented in the media?

Do you think Chinese people are often represented POSITIVELY or NEGATIVELY?

Which ethnicity do you see?

When was the last time you recall seeing this ethnicity represented in the media?

Do you think Muslims are often represented POSITIVELY or

NEGATIVELY?

When examining ethnicity we need to consider:Who is being representedHow our understanding other ethniciti es is formed by

media representati onsHow representati ons evolve over ti me, but are based on

historical background, for example, the impact of the slave trade on contemporary representati ons of black Africa characters

The impact of stereotypes on diff erent sectors of the audience

REPRESENTATION OF ETHNICITY

What is the difference between ETHNICITY and RACE?

Your ethnicity refers to your CULTURAL IDENTITY. This could be shown by:

Your RACE is defined by the fact that you descend from a common ancestor giving you a clear set of racial characteristics, e.g. your skin colour or facial features

How did people from other cultures used to be portrayed in the British media?

Often ‘foreignness’ was emphasised - and laughed at.

This type of comedy is no longer accepted on British television.

Representation in the 1970s:

TV shows like Love Thy Neighbour and Til Death Us Do Part dealt with the issue of the increase in immigration.

The Fast Show: Channel 9 Why do you think this sketch was criticized?

Goodness Gracious Me Who are we laughing at?

In the media today…

Evidence suggests that despite some progress, ethnic minorities are generally under-represented or are represented in stereotyped and negative ways across a range of media content.

Activity 2: Representation of ethnic minorities is, by and large, based on stereotypes. (In pairs, 3 mins) Can you think of recent examples of media texts that offer stereotypical portrayals of black culture?

WHY do you think such stereotypes (a) are created and (b) continue?

In his study, Alvarado (1987) identi fi ed the following stereotypes:

Exotic Dangerous Humorous Pitied

ALVARADO’S THEORY (1987)

The problem with stereotyping ethnicity in the media Part 1: Reinforcing prejudices.

What will happen to the

audience’s view of that ethnicity?

The audience encounter this

ethnicity mainly

through media

Media portrays an

ethnic stereotype

You could argue that the media’s misrepresentations of ethnicity are more harmful than, for example, gender stereotypes.

This is because some audiences may only encounter this ethnic group through the media.

So what you get is…

1. Stereotyp

e represent

ed in media text

2. Audience decode

text

3. Audience maintain narrow view

REPRESENTATIONS TODAY: BLACK BRITISH

In parti cular, newspapers and television programmes have a tendency to present ethnic minoriti es as problem or to associate Black people with physical rather than intellectual acti viti es and to neglect, and even ignore, racism and the inequaliti es that result from it.

Representation of Ethnicity –TV Drama: extract: Top Boy season 1 ep 1. (2011) Channel 4 Top Boy 2011 (season 1 ep

1) Channel 4

Watch the next section of Series 1 Episode 1 of ‘Top Boy’ (4oD, available on Youtube).

Deconstruct the codes used to create the representations (audio, visual, technical)

How is the representation constructed?

Link this to theory. (Alvarado) – dangerous/pitied

Consider audience. Why is this representation constructed?

RECAP: LEARNING OUTCOMES – BY THE END OF THIS SESSION YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:

1) Describe the difference between ETHNICITY and RACE

2) Identify issues surrounding the stereotyping of ethnic minority groups in the media

3) Give at least three examples of media texts that offer a dominant and alternative representation of ethnicity in the media

4) Explain what ‘tokenism’ is and why it is problematic, giving at least two examples

•Technial/visual: Establishing crane shot: Showing where these characters are growing up (Hackney, London). The council estate informs the audience there are many people crammed into one space, connoting poverty and the struggle for life the characters face.

• The location helps to inform the genre - gritty urban realism.

• This analysis also reinforces Alvarado’s Theory of dangerous/pitied (1987). The characters are victims of their environment.

In “Top Boy (2011)”, Dushane and Sully represent black people to be ’dangerous’ as they are associated with gangs, violence and drug-use. But, Ra’nell represents the ‘pity’ category as he is left to provide for himself as his mother is taken into a mental hospital.

•This reinforces Dyers (1992) utopia of intensity, audiences are unlikely to have guns pointed in their faces and this text gives them the intensity missing from their everyday lives. The iconography of the gun connoting danger/death/violence/power is further reinforced by the character looking down the barrel of it, this not only reinforces the guns iconographic signifiers but also Alvarado’s Theory of the dangerous (1987) and Earp and Katz’s (1999) theory of violent males.

Tokenism is a form of under-representati on.

Minority groups are represented but at a minimum ‘token’ level or not at all

‘Token’ characters oft en have a reduced role or capacity in comparison to characters who fi t with the dominant group.

Creates an illusion of equal representati on

TOKENISM

The problem with stereotyping ethnicity in the media – Part 2: Tokenism

…Nicki Minaj in 2011 is only the SECOND black woman to be selected as Cosmo (USA)’s cover star in 3 years!

What is tokenism?

Write down YOUR definition…

Did you notice the same cover line copy is used to anchor both images?...

In May 2013, Alesha Dixon criticises magazines for refusing to put a black model on the cover….

Tokenism is a problem because:

1. When tokenism is used, the minority group that are represented have no real power.

2. The ‘difference’ of the minority group from the ‘norm’ becomes a central issue in the text.

3. Tokenism can also reinforce stereotypes. ..

. …For example, soap operas have conventionally focused on stereotypical aspects of ethnic culture.

But is invisibility worse?

Or ethnic minorities always in the background, never leading?

Content analysis of tens of thousands of news items across the world over several decades confirms that news representations of ethnic minorities can be categorised into several stereotypically negative news.

CriminalsThreat – Islamophopbia InvisibleDependent

THE NEWS AND REPRESENTATION OF MUSLIMS: VAN DIJK (1991)

Despite positi ve development of representati on in the media. Since the events of 9/11 there has been a growth in ‘Islamophobia’ – linking of Islam with violence and fear

Media texts have perpetuated this negati ve stereotype through the use of crude and exaggerated stereotypes.

Stereotype: Asian people as terrorists, ‘outsiders’ and problemati c.

ISLAMOPHOBIA

Islamaphobia

How does the headline represent ethnicity? What does the headline assume about the readership and their attitude to the issue? 

How are the representati ons constructed? E.g. visual and technical codes

Is Four Lions funny? If so, what kinds of comedy does it explore? If it isn’t funny what stops you laughing?

How might the representati on aff ect the audience? Think about oppositi onal readings of the text

Does it create a positi ve/negati ve/stereotypical representati on of ethnic minoriti es?

REPRESENTATION OF ETHNICITY: FOUR LIONS (2010) CHRIS MORRIS

Four Lions is a controversial, low budget British black comedy, which deals with issues of ethnicity and identity in contemporary multi-cultural Britain. Four Lions directed by Chris Morris, is a comedy about ‘wannabe-terrorists’ in Britain. Omar, Waj, Barry, Faisal and Hassan are brought together to portray their relationship with extremism in the Muslim faith.Four Lions Trailer 2010

Alternati ve Representati on of Ethnicity - Briti sh Muslims break with stereotype to dance to Pharrell's 'Happy' (2014)

People of all ages, sizes and skin colours take to the streets in an unashamedly positi ve message about how Muslim people are just as normal, fun and energeti c as everybody else.

Produced by Honesty Policy, the video was inspired by the large scale Happy Day movement pioneered by Pharrell and the United Nati ons.

The company said of the producti on: "This video is to show the world despite the negati ve press, stereotypes and discriminati on we are burdened with we should respond with smiles and joy, not anger."

htt p://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/374993/VIDEO-Muslims-dancing-to-Pharrell-Williams-s-Happy-song-goes-viral

ALTERNATIVE REPRESENTATION OF ETHNICITY

In December 2013, Coronation Street introduced its first Muslim family.

Eastenders introduced the Masoods in 2007

REPRESENTATION OF ETHNICITY IN SOAP OPERAS

Until 2007, Eastenders was criticised by the Commission for Racial Equality for not representing the true ethnic make-up of the East End of London.

The issue with Soap operas: Eastenders attempts to represent the diverse nature of society, as a microcosm. The soap opera is aimed to create drama and scandal leaving the audience with a cliff-hanger or an unresolved story. Therefore the very nature of the program often leads to negative and morally deviant characters.

Do you think the representations in soap operas are examples of tokenism ? Are the representations positive or negative?

NEXT SESSION

• In the next session you will undertake a representation mock exam exercise. Answering the question…

• ‘With reference to your own detailed examples discuss the representation of ethnicity in the media today ‘

• What you must include in any representati on questi on introducti on….- What is representati on– define it- What is mediati on? - What is dominant ideology and how does

this occur?- What are stereotypes?- Why does the media use stereotypes so

oft en?- Give an overview of the main stereotypes

for that group/event/issue, e.g. Alvarado 4 types, negati ve

IN PAIRS: INTRODUCTIONS TO REPRESENTATION ESSAY

By defi niti on, al l media texts are re-presentati ons of real ity. Media texts construct meanings about the world – a picture, a fi lm, a television programme or a newspaper arti cle re-presents the world to help audiences make sense of it .

During the process of mediati on any media text can carry and convey ideological messages. The media text can be encoded with meaning by the producers which in turn are decoded by the audience.

The media oft en uses famil iar stereotypes in texts. A stereotype is a simplifi ed representati on of human appearance, character and bel iefs. A stereotype becomes establ ished through years or representati on in the media.

However, i t is important to note that without the media, our percepti on of real ity would be very l imited, and that we, as an audience, need these arti fi cial texts to mediate our view of the world, in other words we need the media to make sense of real ity. Therefore representati on is a fl uid, two-way process: producers positi on a text somewhere in relati on to real ity and audiences assess a text on its relati onship to real ity.

INTRODUCTION

a) Introduce the case study:

Four lions (2011) is a controversial Briti sh fi lm directed by Chris Morris that focuses upon four hopeless Asian suicide bombers (Omar, Waj, Faisal, Barry and Hassan) living in the north of England and making plans to bomb the UK.

WRITING ABOUT CASE STUDIES

b) Outline the representati on within the media text.At the beginning of the fi lm the four characters appear to fi t one of the traditi onal stereotypes of Asian men that we oft en see in the media – The Terrorist (evil, clever and calculated, serious and brutal – oft en very religious.)

However as the fi lm progresses we begin to realise that Morris’ representati on is actually challenging this stereotype by the use of sati re (Comedy genre) and the characters appear stupid, inept and their plans to bomb the London Marathon fall apart due to their idiocy. We laugh atthe idea of the stereotype.

WRITING ABOUT CASE STUDIES

This is where you need to include evidence (key scenes) from the media text to supportthe previous points – don’t forget to useyour VAT codes!

PROVE YOUR POINT!

d) Then fi nally ( to get the top marks) you need to explore WHY the producer represented this group this way.

Morris has deliberately aimed to get us to laugh at theidea ( and our preconcepti ons) that all young Asian menare terrorists-trying to get the white Briti sh audience to see the truth!

He does this though the use of Comedy (sati re.)

Could link to the issue of Islamaphobia in Briti shsociety.

Are you a member of an ethnic minority?

If not, imagine you are for a moment.

What could be the IMPACT upon you if you rarely saw YOUR culture represented in the media?

How might that UNDER representation make you feel?

One man who has recently challenged this is Lenny Henry:

The comedian-turned-actor recently delivered the 2014 BAFTA Television Lecture.

Listen to his argument (BAME stands for Black and Minority Ethnic) and complete the questions.

Lenny Henry interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBrX7fBkjv8Lynx Make Love not War advert (2014)

Context and purpose of the media text? Are there any noticeable absences from the text? What has been left out? Who produced the representation? How might the representation affect the audience? Think about oppositional readings of the text Does it create a positive/negative/stereotypical representation of ethnic minorities?