Disability Theories

Barnes (1992) argues that mass media representations of disability have generally been oppressive and negative. People with disabilities are rarely presented as people with their own identities. Barnes notes several common media representations of people with disabilities.

• In need of pity and charity – Barnes claims that this stereotype has grown in popularity in recent years because of television appeals such as Children in Need.
• As victims – Barnes found that when people with disabilities are featured in television drama, they are three times more likely than able-bodied characters to be killed off.
• As villains – people with disabilities are often portrayed as criminals or monsters, e.g. villains in James Bond films often have a physical impairment.
• As super-cripples – Barnes notes that people with disabilities are often portrayed as having special powers or as overcoming their impairment and poverty. In Hollywood films, the impaired male body is often visually represented as a perfect physical specimen in a wheelchair. Ross notes that disability issues have to be sensational, unexpected or heroic in order to be interpreted by journalists as newsworthy and reported on.
• As a burden – television documentaries and news features often focus on carers rather than the people with disabilities.
• As sexually abnormal – it is assumed by media representations that people with disabilities do not have sexual feelings or that they are sexually degenerate.
• As incapable of participating fully in community life – Barnes calls this the stereotype of omission and notes that people with disabilities are rarely shown as integral and productive members of the community such as students, teachers or parents.
• As ordinary or normal – Barnes argues that the media rarely portray people with disabilities as normal people who just happen to have a disability. They consequently fail to reflect the real, everyday experience of disability.

Roper (2003) suggests that mass media representations of disability on telethons can create problems for people with disabilities and suggests that telethons over-rely on ‘cute’ children who are not that representative of the range of people with disabilities in Britain. Roper argues that telethons are primarily aimed at encouraging the general public to alleviate their guilt and their relief that they are not disabled, by giving money rather than informing the general public of the facts about disability.

Karpf (1988) suggests that there is a need for charities, but that telethons act to keep the audience in the position of givers and to keep recipients in their place as grateful and dependent. Karpf notes that telethons are about entertaining the public, rather than helping us to understand the everyday realities of what it is like to have a disability. Consequently, these media representations merely confirm social prejudices about people with disabilities, e.g. that they are dependent on the help of able-bodied people.

Class and Status Theories

Key Point - Mass media representations of social classes rarely focus on the social tensions or class conflict that some critical sociologists see as underpinning society.

Representations of the monarchy

Nairn (1988) notes that contemporary media coverage of the monarchy has focused positively on every trivial detail of their lives, turning the Queen and her family into an on-going soap opera, but with a glamour and mystique far greater than any other media personality. Furthermore, mass media representations of the Queen are also aimed at reinforcing a sense of national identity, in that she is portrayed as the ultimate symbol of the nation. Consequently, the media regards royal events, such as weddings and funerals, as national events.

Representations of the upper class and wealth

Neo-Marxists argue that mass media representations of social class tend to celebrate hierarchy and wealth. Those who benefit from these processes, i.e. the monarchy, the upper class and the very wealthy, generally receive a positive press as celebrities who are somehow deserving of their position. The British mass media hardly ever portray the upper classes in a critical light, nor do they often draw any serious attention to inequalities in wealth and pay or the overrepresentation of public-school products in positions of power.

Newman (2006) argues that the media focus very positively on the concerns of the wealthy and the privileged. He notes that the media over-focuses on consumer items such as luxury cars, costly holiday spots and fashion accessories that only the wealthy can afford. He also notes the enormous amount of print and broadcast media dedicated to daily business news and stock market quotations, despite the fact that few people in Britain own stocks and shares.

Representations of the middle classes

Four broad sociological observations can be made with regard to mass media representations of the middle classes.

• The middle class are over-represented on TV dramas and situation comedies.
• Part of the British newspaper market is specifically aimed at the middle classes and their consumption, tastes and interests, e.g. the Daily Mail.
• The content of newspapers such as the Daily Mail suggests that journalists believe that the middle classes of middle England are generally anxious about the decline of moral standards in society and that they are proud of their British identity and heritage. It is assumed that their readership feels threatened by alien influences such as the Euro, asylum seekers and terrorism. Consequently, newspapers, such as the Daily Mail, often crusade on behalf of the middle classes and initiate moral panics on issues such as video nasties, paedophilia and asylum seekers.
• Most of the creative personnel in the media are themselves middle class. In news and current affairs, the middle classes dominate positions of authority – the ‘expert’ is invariably middle class.

Representations of the working class

Newman argues that when news organisations focus on the working class, it is generally to label them as a problem, e.g. as welfare cheats, drug addicts or criminals. Working class groups, e.g. youth sub-cultures such as mods or skinheads, are often the subject of moral panics, whilst reporting of issues such as poverty, unemployment or single-parent families often suggests that personal inadequacy is the main cause of these social problems, rather than government policies or poor business practices. Studies of industrial relations reporting by the Glasgow University Media Group suggest that the media portray ‘unreasonable’ workers as making trouble for ‘reasonable’ employers.

Curran and Seaton (2003) note that newspapers aimed at working class audiences assume that they are uninterested in serious analysis of either the political or social organisation of British society. Political debate is often reduced simplistically to conflict between personalities. The content of newspapers such as The Sun and the Daily Star assumes that such audiences want to read about celebrity gossip and lifestyles, trivial human interest stories and sport.

Representations of poverty

Key Point - Newman argues that when the news media turn their attention to the most destitute, the portrayals are often negative or stereotypical. Often, the poor are portrayed in statistical rather than in human terms by news bulletins that focus on the numbers unemployed or on benefits, rather than the individual suffering and personal indignities of poverty.

McKendrick et al. (2008) studied a week’s output of mainstream media in 2007 and concluded that coverage of poverty is marginal in British media, in that the causes and consequences of poverty were very rarely explored across the news, documentaries or drama. Dramas such as Shameless presented a sanitised picture of poverty, despite featuring characters who were economically deprived, whilst family issue-based programmes such as The Jeremy Kyle Show treated poverty as an aspect of entertainment. Cohen notes that the media often fails to see the connection between deprivation and wealth.

Age Theories

Media representations of different groups of people based on age (i.e. children, adolescents and the elderly), also generalise and categorise people on the basis of stereotypes.

Childhood

British children are often depicted in the British media in positive ways. Content analyses of media products suggest that eight stereotypes of children are frequently used by the media.

• 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.

Youth

There are generally two very broad ways in which young people have been targeted and portrayed by the media in Britain.

• 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.

Wayne et al. (2008) conducted a content analysis of 2130 news items across all the main television channels during May 2006. They found that young people were mainly represented as a violent threat to society. They found that it was very rare for news items to feature a young person’s perspective or opinion. They note that the media only delivers a one-dimensional picture of youth, one that encourages fear and condemnation rather than understanding. Moreover, they argue that it distracts from the real problems that young people face in the modern world such as homelessness, not being able to get onto the housing ladder, unemployment or mental health and that these might be caused by society’s, or the government’s, failure to take the problems of youth seriously.

The elderly

Research focusing on media representations of the elderly suggests that age is not the only factor that impacts on the way the media portrays people aged 65 and over. Newman (2006) notes that upper class and middle class elderly people are often portrayed in television and film dramas as occupying high-status roles as world leaders, judges, politicians, experts and business executives. Moreover, news programmes seem to work on the assumption that an older male with grey in his hair and lines on his face somehow exudes the necessary authority to impart the news.

However, female newscasters, such as Anna Ford, have long complained that these older men are often paired with attractive young females, while older women newsreaders are often exiled to radio. Leading female film and television stars are also often relegated to character parts once their looks and bodies are perceived to be on the wane, which seems to be after the age of 40.

Sociological studies show that when the elderly do appear in the media, they tend to be portrayed in the following one-dimensional ways.

• 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.

However, recent research suggests that media producers may be gradually reinventing how they deal with the elderly, especially as they realise that this group may have disposable incomes, i.e. extra money to spend on consumer goods.

Gender Theories

Almy et al. (1984) - Media representations of gender reinforce culturally dominant (hegemonic) ideas about gender which represent males as dominant and females as subordinate. Media representations not only stereotype masculinity and femininity into fairly limited forms of behaviour, but also provide gender role models that males and females are encouraged to aspire to.

However, Gauntlett (2008) points out that sociological analysis of media representations needs to be cautious, because of the sheer diversity of media in Britain.

Traditional media representations of femininity

Women are generally represented in a narrow range of social roles by various types of media, whilst men are shown performing a full range of social and occupational roles. Tunstall (2000) argues that media representations emphasise women’s domestic, sexual, consumer and marital activities to the exclusion of all else. The media generally ignore the fact that a majority of British women go out to work. Men, on the other hand, are seldom presented nude or defined by their marital or family status.

• Working women are often portrayed as unfulfilled, unattractive, possibly unstable and unable to sustain relationships. It is often implied that working mothers, rather than working fathers, are guilty of the emotional neglect of their children.
• Tuchman et al. (1978) used the term symbolic annihilation to describe the way in which women’s achievements are often not reported, or are condemned or trivialised by the mass media. Often their achievements are presented as less important than their looks and sex appeal. Newbold’s research (2002) into television sport presentation shows that what little coverage of women’s sport there is tends to sexualise, trivialise and devalue women’s sporting accomplishments.
• Research into women’s magazines suggests that they strongly encourage women to conform to ideological patriarchal ideals that confirm their subordinate position compared with men. Ferguson (1983) conducted a content analysis of women’s magazines from between 1949 and 1974, and 1979 and 1980. She notes that such magazines are organised around a cult of femininity, which promotes a traditional ideal where excellence is achieved through caring for others, the family, marriage and appearance. However, Ferguson’s ideas were challenged by Winship (1987), who argued that women’s magazines generally play a supportive and positive role in the lives of women. Winship argues that such magazines present women with a broader range of options than ever before and that they tackle problems that have been largely ignored by the male-dominated media, such as domestic violence and child abuse.
• Wolf (1990) suggests that the images of women used by the media present women as sex objects to be consumed by what Mulvey calls the male gaze. According to Kilbourne (1995), this media representation presents women as mannequins: tall and thin, often US size zero, with very long legs, perfect teeth and hair, and skin without a blemish in sight. Wolf notes that the media encourage women to view their bodies as a project in constant need of improvement.
• Content analysis of teenage magazines in Britain indicates that almost 70% of the content and images focus on beauty and fashion, compared with only 12% focused on education or careers. Many encourage the idea that slimness=happiness and consequently Orbach (1991) suggests that such media imagery creates the potential for eating disorders.

The media as empowering women

Key Point - Sociologists have noted the increasing number of positive female roles emerging, especially in television drama and films. It is argued that these reflect the social and cultural changes that females have experienced in the last 25 years, especially the feminisation of the economy, which has meant that women are now more likely to have aspirational attitudes, a positive attitude towards education, careers and an independent income. Westwood claims that we are now seeing more transgressive (i.e. going beyond gendered expectations) female roles on British television as a result.

Gill (2008) argues that the depiction of women in advertising has changed from women as passive objects of the male gaze, to active, independent and sexually powerful agents. Gauntlett (2008) argues that magazines aimed at young women emphasise that women must do their own thing and be themselves, whilst female pop stars, like Lady Gaga, sing about financial and emotional independence. This set of media messages from a range of sources suggest that women can be tough and independent whilst being ‘sexy’.

Traditional media representations of masculinity

Easthope (1986) argues that a variety of media, especially Hollywood films and computer games, transmit the view that masculinity based on strength, aggression, competition and violence is biologically determined and, therefore, a natural goal for boys to achieve.

However, the 1980s saw the emergence of a new breed of glossy magazines aimed at middle class young men, such as GQ, Maxim and FHM. The content of such magazines often suggested that:

• men are emotionally vulnerable
• they should be more in touch with their emotions or feminine side
• they should treat women as equals
• they should care more about their appearance
• active fatherhood is an experience worth having.

These magazines were seen by some commentators as evidence of a new type of masculinity – the new man. Media representations of this new type of masculinity led to post-modern sociologists speculating that masculinity was responding to the growing economic independence and assertiveness of women. The media trumpeted the metrosexual male, a type of masculinity that was focused on appearance and fashion and which championed masculine values as caring and generous. The metrosexual male was thought to be in touch with his feminine side, useful around the home and considerate towards his female partner.

However, Gauntlett argues that there are still plenty of magazines aimed at men which sexually objectify women and stress images of men as traditionally masculine. Rutherford suggests that these magazines are symbolic of what he calls retributive masculinity – an attempt to reassert traditional masculine authority by celebrating traditionally male concerns in their content, i.e. ‘birds, booze and football’.

Whannel (2002) notes that mass media stories about and images of David Beckham are contradictory, in that they stress Beckham as representative of both metrosexual and retributive versions of masculinity. Whannel notes that media representations of Beckham are fluid – his good looks, his football skills, competitive spirit and his commitment mark him out as a traditional ‘real man’. However, this image has been balanced with alternative media representations that stress his metrosexuality, particularly his emotional commitment to his family and the fact that he spends a great deal of time, effort and money on his image.

Theoretical perspectives on media representations of gender

Liberal feminism

Liberal feminists believe that media representations lag behind the reality of social and economic conditions. However, they acknowledge that representations of women have changed significantly for the better in the last thirty years. Some liberal feminists have noted that women’s progress as media professionals has slowed down in recent years. The majority of media owners are male and influential positions within the media such as media executives, newspaper editors, senior journalists, producers, television and film directors, and heads of television programming are also dominated by males.

Marxist and socialist feminism

Marxist, or socialist, feminists believe that the roots of the stereotypical images of men and women in the media are economic. They are a by-product of the need of media conglomerates in capitalist societies to make a profit. The male-dominated media aim to attract the largest audience possible and this leads to an emphasis on the traditional roles of men and women in sitcoms, game shows and soap operas. The alternative images of women encouraged by feminism, e.g. as assertive career women, do not fit easily into this type of media content and consequently such women are ignored, devalued or treated critically.

The media emphasis on women’s bodies as projects is the result of the growth of the cosmetic and diet product industries. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth $100 billion a year in the USA. Marxists note that the marketing strategies of these industries deliberately manipulate women’s anxieties so that they can be exploited as consumers of body-related products.

Radical feminism

Radical feminists argue that traditional hegemonic images of femininity are deliberately transmitted by a male-dominated media to keep women oppressed into a narrow range of roles. This creates a form of false consciousness in women and deters them from making the most of the opportunities available to them and consequently men’s patriarchal power is rarely challenged. Radical feminists believe that it is no coincidence that, at the same time as women are achieving greater social, political and professional equality, media products symbolically relegate them to subordinate positions as sex objects or motherhousewives.

Post-modernism

Gauntlett (2008) focuses on the relationship between the mass media and identity and argues that the mass media today challenge traditional definitions of gender and are actually a force for social change. There has also been a new emphasis in men’s media on men’s emotions and problems, which has challenged masculine ideals such as toughness and emotional reticence. As a result, the media are now providing alternative gendered images and ideas, which are producing a greater diversity of choices for people in constructing their gender identities.

Sexuality Theories

Homosexuality

Key Point - Batchelor found that being gay was not generally integrated into mainstream media representations. Rather, when it did appear, e.g. in television drama, it was represented mainly as a source of anxiety or embarrassment, or it was seen as a target for teasing and bullying. The study also found that, in mainstream young people’s media, lesbianism was completely invisible.

Media representations of sexuality in Britain are overwhelmingly heterosexual in character. Gerbner (2002) argues that the media participate in the symbolic annihilation of gays and lesbians by negatively stereotyping them, by rarely portraying them realistically, or by not portraying them at all. Craig (1992) suggests that when homosexual characters are portrayed in the media, e.g. in popular drama, they are often stereotyped as having particular amusing or negative psychological and social characteristics.

• Campness – this is one of the most widely used gay representations, found mainly in the entertainment media. The camp persona reinforces negative views of gay sexuality by being somewhere in between male and female.
• Macho – a look that exaggerates masculinity and which is regarded by heterosexual men as threatening because it subverts traditional ideas of masculinity.
• Deviant – gays may be stereotyped as deviants, as evil or as devious in television drama, as sexual predators or as people who feel tremendous guilt about their sexuality. In many cases, gay characters are completely defined by the ‘problem’ of their sexuality and homosexuality is often constructed to appear morally wrong.
• Responsible for AIDS – Watney has illustrated how British news coverage of AIDS in the 1980s stereotyped gay people as carriers of a gay plague. He argues that news coverage of AIDS reflected mainstream society’s fear and dislike of the gay community and resulted in unsympathetic accounts that strongly implied that homosexual AIDS sufferers only had their own ‘immoral and unnatural’ behaviour to blame for their condition or death.

Gauntlett argues that lesbian, gay and bisexual people are still under-represented in much of the mainstream media, but things are slowly changing for the better. Gauntlett suggests that tolerance of sexual diversity is slowly growing in society, and images of diverse sexual identities with which audiences are unfamiliar may assist in making the population generally more comfortable with these alternative sexual lifestyles.

Ethnicity Theories

Key Point - Many sociologists believe that media representations of ethnic minority groups are problematic because they contribute to the reinforcement of negative racist stereotypes. Media representations of ethnic minorities may be undermining the concept of a tolerant multicultural society and perpetuating social divisions based on colour, ethnicity and religion.

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. In particular, newspapers and television news have a tendency to present ethnic minorities as a problem or to associate Black people with physical rather than intellectual activities and to neglect, and even ignore, racism and the inequalities that result from it.

Stereotypical representations

Akinti (2003) argues that television coverage of ethnic minorities over focuses on crime, AIDS in Africa and Black children’s under-achievement in schools, whilst ignoring the culture and interests of a huge Black audience and their rich contribution to British society. Akinti claims that news about Black communities always seems to be ‘bad news’.

Van Dijk’s (1991) content analysis of tens of thousands of news items across the world over several decades confirms that news representations of Black people can be categorised into several types of stereotypically negative news.

• Ethnic minorities as criminals – Black crime is the most frequent issue found in media news coverage of ethnic minorities. Van Dijk found that Black people, particularly African-Caribbeans, tend to be portrayed as criminals, especially in the tabloid press and more recently as members of organised gangs that push drugs and violently defend urban territories.
• Ethnic minorities and moral panics – Watson (2008) notes that moral panics often result from media stereotyping of Black people as potentially criminal. This effect was first brought to sociological attention by Hall’s classic study of a 1970s moral panic that was constructed around the folk devil of the ‘Black mugger’. Further moral panics have developed around rap music, e.g. in 2003, ‘gangsta rap’ lyrics came under attack for contributing to an increase in gun crime.
• Ethnic minorities as a threat – ethnic minorities are often portrayed as a threat to the majority White culture. It is suggested by some media that immigrants and asylum seekers are only interested in living in Britain because they wish to take fraudulent advantage of Britain’s ‘generous’ welfare state. Poole (2000), pre 9/11, argued that Islam has always been demonised and distorted by the Western media. It has traditionally been portrayed as a threat to Western interests. Representations of Islam have been predominantly negative and Muslims have been stereotyped as backward, extremist, fundamentalist and misogynist.
• Ethnic minorities as dependent – news stories about less developed countries tend to focus on a ‘coup-war-famine-starvation syndrome’. Often such stories imply that the causes of the problems experienced by developing countries are self-inflicted – that they are the result of stupidity, tribal conflict, too many babies, laziness, corruption and unstable political regimes. External causes such as colonialism, tied aid, transnational exploitation and the unfair terms of world trade are rarely discussed by the British media.
• Ethnic minorities as abnormal – the cultural practices of ethnic minorities are often called into question and labelled as deviant or abnormal. Many Asian people believe that the media treatment of arranged marriages was often inaccurate and did not reflect the way that the system had changed over time. Ameli et al. (2007) note that media discussion around the issue of the wearing of the hijab and the veil is also problematic, often suggesting that it is somehow an inferior form of dress compared with Western female dress codes and that it is unnecessary and problematic. It is often portrayed as a patriarchal and oppressive form of control that exemplifies the misogyny of Islam and symbolises the alleged subordinate position of women in Islam.
• Ethnic minorities as unimportant – Van Dijk notes that some sections of the media imply that the lives of White people are somehow more important than the lives of non-White people. News items about disasters in developing countries are often restricted to a few lines or words unless there are also White or British victims. Moreover, Sir Ian Blair, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, claimed that institutionalised racism was present in the British media in the way they reported death from violent crime. He noted that Black and Asian victims of violent death did not get the same attention as White victims. However, the murder of the Black teenager Stephen Lawrence by White racists in 1993 received high-profile coverage, both on television and in the press.
• Ethnic minorities as invisible – in 2005, a BBC News Online survey noted that Black and Asian people were represented as newscasters and television journalists, but the range of roles that ethnic minority actors play in television drama is very limited and often reflects low status, e.g. Africans may play cleaners or Asians may play shopkeepers. Ethnic minority audiences were also very hostile towards tokenism – the idea that programmes contain characters from ethnic minority groups purely because they ‘should’. Ethnic minority audiences complain that Black and Asian people are rarely shown as ordinary citizens who just happen to be Black or Asian.

Media professionals from ethnic minority backgrounds have responded to these inequalities and prejudices by developing media institutions and agencies that specifically target the interests and concerns of ethnic-minority audiences. There is a range of homegrown media agencies that are owned, managed and controlled by ethnic minorities themselves, including newspapers and magazines, e.g. Eastern Eye, Snoop, The Voice, etc, and radio stations such as Sunrise Radio, Asian FX, etc.

Exemplar Answer for Ethnicity (2015)

Clip

In the history of TV Dramas, ethnicity has been portrayed in a number of ways. As suggested by Akinti (2003), ethnic minorities are often portrayed negatively without sufficient coverage of the livelihood and positive cultural aspects to ethnic minorities lives in the media. However, as Treme shows, this is not always the case, as demonstrated though the camerawork, mise-en-scene, editing and soundtrack used by Anderson.

As shown through the mise-en-scene in the extract, the characters who would usually be attributed to the cause of crime and societal issues (that is to say the stereotypical view of black people in the media) are not linked to crime. In fact, the use of a trumpet and the materials being used to make into clothes at the end of the clip, highlights how the black people in this extract are portrayed as civilised, peaceful people who have no links to crime. In sharp contrast, the white Americans sat in the living room of a high class and high status house are shown to be smoking and drinking cocktails which leads the audience to view them as more criminalised and ambiguous than the ethnic minorities. On top of this when comparing the homes of the various characters we can conclude that the white people are richer and more sophisticated than the black people when comparing it to the poorer community they are shown to be living in. This is furthered when contrasting the clothing of each ethnic group. The white people are demonstrated as wearing expensive clothing and jewellery whereas the black men are wearing fairly scruffy and less expensive clothing. In some aspects this conforms to the conventional view that white people are in better paid jobs and consequently live more upper class lives.

Brad Andersen also uses sounds in the extract to generate a view that the black ‘ethnic minority’ is less sophisticated than the white people. Through the use of dialogue such as “It’s a contradiction in terms”, the perspective of the white people appears to be that they are well educated. This is also furthered and shown by the fact that the Doctor, who says “ You need to lose 200 pounds” is likewise white and in a high paid job. In contrast the black men at the beginning, and similarly the couple at the end of the extract, are constructed by Andersen to have culturally alternate lives to the white people. This is shown by diegetic colloquialisms and the accent and tone of which they speak in. Moreover when one of the white ladies says, “You don’t have to sell marijuana to get revenue”, it becomes apparent that white people are linked to high-profile crimes. This conforms to the view that crimes committed by white people are usually to a larger scale than the petty crimes attributed to ethnic minorities.

Camerawork is also used in the extract to construct the representation of ethnicity. When introducing the hospital clinic, a pan is used to establish the setting. As a result of this pan, it becomes clear that the majority of people in the waiting room are black or of a different culture to the American majority, this symbolises how the ethnic minority are reliant upon well-educated white people to care for them. However, contradicting this construction, long shots are used at the end of the extract to show the black couple making clothes – it then becomes apparent that this is being done to raise money for other people, hence implying that help is provided by ethnic minorities, consequently opposing the stereotypical views of society – furthermore the establishing shot at the beginning of the extract generates a view that this neighbourhood is run down and poor – two black people are then shown, in the background, to be walking along a path. This leads a viewer to presume they live there, and, as an implication, this establishing extreme long shot represents ethnic minorities to be living in squalid and poor conditions. For this reason, some would argue that they are portrayed as a burden on society as a result.

Finally editing is used by Andersen to construct representations of ethnicity. The use of cross cutting throughout the whole extract allows a viewer to compare the lives and culture of different ethnicities. For instance, we can compare the squalid conditions black people are shown to live in at the beginning to the more sophisticated upper class conditions of white people that follow the first scene and this starts constructing representations of a difference in class, status and wealth. But, cutting from a long shot of the white women in the restaurant to an extreme long shot and then to a close-up of the woman’s face clearly shows how she is frustrated with having to work. Then later cutting this to a shot- reverse shot scene of the two black people making clothes with no such expression of frustration demonstrates how perhaps black ethnic groups work harder and are more committed to work than white ethnic groups and hence, in many aspects being a counter-type to usual perspectives.

In summary, it is therefore apparent that the view of Akinti, previously referenced, is conformed and opposed to, in this media extract. Ethnic divisions are apparent in this extract, such as the separation in wealth of one ethnic group to another, and the dependency of one upon the other, yet the negative views usually attributed to ethnic minorities are not clearly expressed in this extract. In fact, in some aspects the audience feels pity for the ethnic minorities, hence showing the construction of counter typical views.

Representations of Sexuality

Sexuality

• A person's sexual orientation or preference

Heterosexual Male Stereotypes:

• Tough
• Protector
• Leader
• High status
• Dominant
• High paying jobs

Heterosexual Female Stereotypes:

• Weak
• Girly
• Feminine
• Damsel-like
• Emotional
• Subordinate

Stereotypes

• Depend on shared cultural knowledge
• A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Homosexual Male Stereotypes

• Camp
• Girly
• Promiscuous
• Feminine
• Desire to be women
• Characters are condemned to a life alone without children
• Mothers regret being so close to their mothers which is what "made them gay"
• "Just a phase"
• Sexual
• Only concerned with sex
• Flamboyant
• Feared, pitied or being true subject of laughter
• Involved in the fashion, material design or hair styling
• Suffering with family rejection
• Lisp
• Not sporty
• Over emotional
• Have all female friends

Homosexual Female Stereotypes

• Butch
• Feminist
• Short hair
• Hate men
• Masculine
• Aggressive or mouthy
• Sexual
• Sport or military orientated jobs
• Pursuing heterosexual women

General Homosexual Stereotypes

• Despite changes in legislation, TV has remained conservative to avoid offending viewers
• Homosexuals are represented as different, strange, separate from society
• Characters that are gay only "happen to be gay"
• Sexuality plays a key role in the story line and don't have problems outside of sexuality
• Those who are homosexual or other are not religious
• All have some form of STI
• Don't want to be in a long-term relationship
• Constantly preach about their cause "unnecessarily"
• Usually white
• Always a masculine and a feminine partner
• Suffering rejection

Examples of Gay Characters in the Media:

Teen Wolf

Danny & Ethan - Gay

Mason & Corey - Gay

How To Get Away With Murder

Connor & Oliver - Gay

The Shannara Chronicals

Eretria - Bisexual

Will and Grace

Will & Vince - Gay

Jack - Gay

Scandal

Cyrus - Gay

Empire

Jamal - Gay

Mimi - Lesbian

Camilla - Bisexual

Textual analysis of Clip:

Editing

• Shot duration being very quick and only focusing on the crotch area, kissing and torsos conform to the promiscuous stereotypes
• Jump cut to talking in the car talking about being soft - stereotype
• Eye line match - I'll have a lager - counter stereotype
• Cut aways to crotch shot - sexual
• Cut away and eyeliner match to drag queen - conforms to stereotype of wanting to be a woman

Camera

• Downward tilt to show full body of dancer with oiled body, conforms to promiscuous stereotype
• High angle camera shots depict dancers in high power being in their element and natural state

Mise en scene

• All topless men on podium and many men kissing and dancing flirtatiously, conforms to promiscuity stereotype
• People dressing like women, conform to wanting to be woman stereotype
• Very low lighting - reflects the confusion of the main character being in a place that he is unfamiliar with

Sound

• Non-diegetic music of the club that is introduced at the conversation in the work place then sound brigand to the club makes the music a symbol of promiscuity

Essay Question: How Overall Trends Link to Personal Experiences

Decline in UK Cinema Attendance

• Frequency of cinema outings
• 3 or 4 visits to the cinema a month 
• Imax
• Yes, once

Ways of media consumption

• Other ways to consume media 
• Streaming - convenience on the go

Piracy

• Refers to the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted content that is then sold at substantially lower prices in the 'grey' market. 
• Effects 
• 30% of the UK population are involved in piracy 
• Costs the UK industry £500m a year 
• Cinemas are losing £220m a year 
• Affects independents more than the big 6 
• Ways the industry responds to piracy 
• Phase out of DVD and Blu-Ray 
• Main blockbusters as soon as they're released or wait for DVD
• Main block buster as they are released
• Piracy perspective
• Inevitable, unavoidable, unhelpful but unstoppable

Essay

The movie industry is an industry containing ever changing trends due to a variety of factors, including changes to technology as well as different tastes and preferences that people have which greatly changes the way in which the cinematic world is shaped. These trends have a large effect on me and my personal experience of the cinematic universe. 

Firstly, due to the uprising of Netflix, blockbuster has taken a massive hit due to the increased convenience of being able to watch movies and TV series from the comfort of your home or on the go as a matter of convenience. This takes away the added costs presented by going to the cinema, including factors such as petrol, cinema tickets, movie snacks and more. In 1946 after world war ii the rate at which people went to the cinema reached a climax with a recorded 1.6 billion record of admission tickets. This is due to people needing to maintain high morale, therefore many movies were created in order to sustain the morale of the people and sustain the patriotism they upheld. However, cinematic sales plummeted exponentially to less than less than 100 million ticket sales in 1985. Although improvements in technology, such as the introduction of IMAX, meant that movies were increasing in mimesis and therefore providing realism that is greatly needed to enhance the experience achieved by viewers, sales never rose to their climatic 1.6 billion again and with the introduction of Netflix providing further negative effects to blockbuster. This specific aspect hasn't had such a great effect on me due to the fact that I continue to go to the cinema on average 3 or 4 times a month. This is due to the fact that I have grown up with the habit of going to the cinema as a means of relaxation and enjoyment of a film on the big screen. I have been to see a film in IMAX which I found to be an enjoyable way to watch the film and I believe that this has had an effect on the increase in popularity that blockbuster is beginning to see. 

Furthermore, advancements in technology have also seen negative effects on the rate at which cinema is being used. This is due to the fact that in the UK in 2011, an estimated 77% of viewers claimed they watched films on their TV, which is compared to the mere 3.4% who claimed to watch movies in the cinema. This statistic shows how the effect of technology has caused people to be more likely to watch TV at home than in cinema, due to the previously mentioned Netflix, as well as variations such as amazon prime. These two in particular are accessible through a variety of mediums, such as Xbox and PS3, with the addition on a side purchase they are also available on TV and they are available on laptops and smart phones. Due to having movies so readily accessible from so many widely used outlets, the popularity at which cinema is used dramatically decreases. I myself am a follower of this trend whereby despite the fact that I frequently go to the cinema, movies that I wish to watch are very readily accessible on TV with the addition of 'on demand' from sky for example. This means that if there is a specific movie that I want to watch, it would be a simple search then I would be able to watch the film, as opposed to needing to buy the DVD then watch it that way. 

Finally, one of the most dangerous and widely known trends that blockbuster has to face and has major issues from in terms of having extremely low revenue is the use of piracy. This relates to the illegal creation or consumption of media through viewing that isn’t paid for. An estimated 30% of the UK are involved in known piracy which costs the UK film industry £500 million per year and costs cinemas £220 million per year. Industries are beginning to phase out DVD and Blu-ray sales due to the ease of access to the content which is easily copied. Seeing as most people watch TV at home as previously mentioned, this can have two effects. Firstly, it could cause an increase in the amount of people that go to the cinema due to the accessibility of wanted movies no longer being available on DVD presenting the need to go to the cinema instead. However, it could also rapidly increase piracy due to people using piracy as a means to watch the movies that they want to now that DVDs are no longer available. Personally, I don’t buy DVDs I prefer to see movies when they come out as opposed to waiting 6 to 8 months to see the film on DVD. This way I am able to follow the already built excitement of the film that has been generated and therefore am able to watch the film when it comes out as opposed to waiting for the hype to die down and potentially have the plot ruined. Piracy, in my opinion, is something that is inevitable and will be around no matter the extent at which industries are willing to try and limit piracy. That being said, it is something that is causing massive damage to the movie industry which puts a lot of people's jobs at risk for those who don't pay for movies.

To conclude, trends within the movie industry have a massive effect on the way we consume media. In the future there will be further advancements in technology that will further fluctuate the popularity of blockbusters, but could also increase the harm done by piracy.

Technology

Technological Convergence

• When one particular device has many other features than its primary use. A device which originally had one primary purpose has evolved into doing similar tasks to other devices. 
• e.g. iPhone 

Technological Proliferation

• The increase in the amount of hardware and content available to both audience and institution through emergence of new media.

Technological Advances in the Media

• Mobile phones 
• Tablets 
• CGI technology 
• Animation 
• DSLR camera 
• Capabilities of cameras 
• Drones 
• 2, 3 and 4D 
• On demand viewing 
• Streaming 
• Red 4k cameras 
• Light weight cameras 
• IMAX 
• Interstellar 
• Digital TV 
• CD 
• DVD 

Proportion of adults aged 16+ in the UK

Proportion of watching activities, by age group

Useful Links

• MPAA
• Technologies changing the film industry
• Park Chan Wook Makes Filmmaking More Mobile
• 4D Film
• How Tech Has Shaped Film Making: The Film vs. Digital
• Saving Cinema: the declining state of the Movie Theatre
• Piracy
• Film Is Dead? Long Live Movies

IMAX

• Stands for ‘Image Maximum’ 
• 6,000 lines is usually the amount of lines of horizontal resolution you have for 35mm film, in IMAX you get 18,000 lines from 65mm film 
• This brings higher viewing quality 
• January 2016 
• 1061 IMAX theatres in 67 countries 
• UK then Russia see the highest growth in the IMAX market 
• UK owns 30 IMAX theatres 
• Films shot in IMAX: 
• Transformers 

• Interstellar

• The Dark Knight Rises 

Film vs. Digital

• Chris Nolan 
• Claims its cheaper and better looking to use film as opposed to digital 

• Steven Soderbergh 
• Prefers the light weight digital cameras like the Red One 

Technological Developments 

• Lower processing and equipment costs 
• Light weight 
• Easier editing process 
• Digital not as good as film 

Decline in UK Cinema Attendance

• In 2011 Netflix had 20 million subscribers available on multiple devices 
• Netflix may conquer traditional broadcast services like it did for blockbuster early 2000's 

Ways of media consumption

Factors that could've impacted this

• Piracy 
• DVD & Blu-Ray 
• Secondary viewing platforms 
• Streaming companies such as Netflix 

Piracy: Indie vs. Big 6

• Indies dependent on local distributors 
• Country takes risk in investing in movie 
• Promotion of films are at festivals: 
• Cannes 
• Berlin 
• American film market 
• Buyers needed to pre-commit to the film 
• Need for royalties to the film maker 
• Pre-sales secure bank loans, if they aren’t secured the bank won’t loan them money 
• Piracy affects box office receipts 
• Distributors are less willing to take risk with adventurous films, bad for Indie producers 

Piracy

• Refers to the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted content that is then sold at substantially lower prices in the 'grey' market. 
• Effects 
• 30% of the UK population are involved in piracy 
• Costs the UK industry £500m a year 
• Cinemas are losing £220m a year 
• Affects independents more than the Big 6 
• Ways the industry responds to piracy 
• Phase out of DVD and Blu-Ray 
• Infra – red film technology 
• Educating consumers 
• Offering film content for free with advertisements (Spotify) 
• Selling downloadable film via e.g. (Apple, via iTunes Store) 
• Internet streamed but legally bought films 
• This latter option will require superior (secure) technology and online infrastructure 
• Sky developing a household hub computer/T.V. 

Home Entertainment

• VHS
• DVD (720×576 pixels)
• Blue Ray: High-definition video may be stored on Blu-ray discs with up to 1080p resolution (1920×1080 pixels), at up to 60 fps (frames per second)

The need for Digital Formatting

• Because film consumption is moving away from cinema towards Home entertainment via Blu-ray, streaming
• Increases the risk of Piracy
• Large institutions (Big 6) offering cinematic experience in large screen (IMAX) format, followed by digital release as DVD, Blu-ray, streaming

Budget Film Production

• Film production costs low
• Producers can self-market using You-tube/Vimeo
• Case study 2015:

Breakout hit from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is full of surprises. There’s the subject matter: transgender prostitutes working in a not-so glamorous part of Hollywood. The story behind the camera is as surprising as what’s in front of it. Particularly because the camera used to shoot Tangerine was the iPhone 5S.

• Digital technology has made life better for low budget film makers and distributors because it is cheaper and easier to distribute
• UK film Council, UK Media Desk have online submissions for short films.

Importance of Digital Technology for Film Producers

• Offers new opportunities
• Production becomes cheaper due to different ways of production
• The internet provides a vital role in the distribution process
• This convergence creates new opportunities for distribution and exhibition
• Films are more accessible
• Low cost cameras and phones have HD