Representations in Media

Representation in the media

The producers of any form of media often use stereotypical representations of aspects that people may have to make it clear to the audience what it is that they are. these stereotypes affect how the people who view this media will view these members of society either negatively or positively. however can subvert (go against) stereotypes by, for example, having a housewife with a picture of her lesbian lover. This is an example of subverting because the media usually displays a housewife as a heterosexual middle aged woman with a pristine household whop is well dressed and ,lives to please her husband. This subvertial action can change the dynamic of the media it is placed in because this change in normality will affect the viewing and make it more interesting and exciting for the viewer/reader.

The most common factors that are subject to representation are:

*Gender

The set gender roles set by society for families usually consist of a female house wife and a male bread winner who have a few children at school or college. However many newer projects in media show strong and career-oriented women as the breadwinners of the house with the male partner being a stay at home dad.

Another point of this topic is the standards set by the media for the youth of today include women having small waists with large breasts and a large amount of makeup. This is not an achievable standard as it is dependent on body shape and how you are proportioned. This unachievable society that has been set out often leads to a spiral of depression and image issues for young women which may even lead to depression and/or self harm.

More disturbingly its the male standards that have been set that have the largest effect with the main cause for death in men aged 17-25 being suicide.

*Age

Age is a very controversial subject despite its lack of media coverage what with employers being accused of ageism as reasons for not employing older people. The media representation has no middle ground; Elderly and vulnerable or in their prime and finally living their life. This is not a fully accurate representation as many people of an older age are still able and willing to work despite the stigma associated with them being 'senile' or they are just happily retired.

*Race

The issue of racism in any sense in on the forefront of the world's view into the media what with the riots in America in predominantly black neighbourhoods and a presidential candidate saying that all Mexicans are rapists, the spectrum for racism is huge. However, the media's portrayal is key to the attitudes held by many of the common people and this may cause them to act for example a white man march was scheduled to be held in Liverpool which is a city with a massively diverse population which ended in the marchers being trapped and having a police escort to protect them from harm. Some common racial stereotypes are:

-Asian people being very intelligent and nerdy
-Black males all being good at basketball
-White females all loving Starbucks and shopping.

*Disability

Disabled people are often displayed as helpless by the media. This is true of some cases but he overwhelming number of disabled people just get through their day like anybody else. There has been something of  new wave of disabled actors in the media with shows such as breaking bad, Glee and Family guy deploying disabled characters in their shows. This change in social norm conveys how, slowly but surely, the stigma associated with some of the representations in the media are changing.

*Nationality

The media are hugely guilty of stereotyping people for their nationality in many cases. Sometimes it is used as a prop in comedy if somebody is of a certain nationality or it may just be general stereotypes being put in place so that the audience recognise what the character is. An example of this would be having a French person riding around on a bicycle with a basket of bread on the front in a striped top with a beret, eating garlic that's slung around their neck. This is a useful thing for the audience to see exactly what these people are but this generalising has to stop going to far and becoming offensive 

*Sexuality
The issue of sexuality is one that is now widely accepted by the population. However there are a minority which still  The change in opinion and attitude from past times to now in relation to sexuality is huge for example people used to be horrifically discriminated against and abused for being gay and now there are shows with gay hosts such as Ellen DeGeneres and Alan Carr. The media represents these people through stereotypes such as gay men being extremely camp and feminine or lesbian women being masculine.


*Socio-economic status

The representations of people of a lower socio economic class is a big issue with the more upper class media outlets. Poor people are often represented as scruffy individuals who hang around on street corners and they are also shown to be more likely to partake in petty crime because of their situation