Representations of age

Representations of age
How are the following represented in the media?
Teenagers
Old people
Middle aged people (45 – 55)

What are the representations?
How are they constructed?

How has Catherine Tate represented ‘Nan’?
Is she stereotypical?
Why? Why not?
Look at her iconography.
What genre of programme does she exist in?
How does this affect her representation?

Your task
In pairs, to research representation of age in your given medium/genre.
Produce a presentation, including images/footage: saved to a USB stick.
Make reference to semiotics (visual codes and audio codes if appropriate).
Make reference to audience & audience theories.

The choices! Ooh!
Soaps
Adverts
Magazines
Films
News
Sitcoms
Cartoons
Comics
Reality TV
TV Drama

Your presentations!

Representations of age
What is the media (form and genre).
How has the representation been constructed (visual and audio codes)?
What reasons are there for the representation?
How might the representation affect audience?
Who produced the representation?

Reflective approach
This approach suggests that representations are a direct reflection of reality.

Intentional Approach
This suggests that producers shape reality through representation and suggests an audience’s understanding of the world is directed by those representations.

Constructionist Approach
This is a mixture! It accepts that representations construct meaning, but that this meaning is understood through reference to reality and the audience’s own ability to analyse, accept and reject.

Constructionists believe:
Representation is a mixture of:
The actual thing being represented
The VALs of the people/institutions constructing the representation
The reaction of the individual member of the audience (and their VALs)
The context of the society in which the representation is taking place

Ideology
Media texts convey ideological messages:
Ideology is a system of ideas, values and beliefs promoted by dominant groups to reinforce their power (eg governments, state institutions, corporations).

Karl Marx
Developed the concept in 1900s.
Analysed the way those in power protected their interests by representing their privileged position as being natural.
Consider how dominant ideologies are reinforced/challenged by media texts.

Positive/negative representations
Are negative representations responsible for the prejudicial treatment of a particular group?
Can negative representations be challenged by positive ones?
If representations do affect the way in which we think about particular groups, what does that suggest about the media audience?

Dominant representation of young people
Yobbish/anti-social behaviour
Gang culture
Disrespect
Drink and drugs
Teen pregnancies
Which media texts perpetuate this image?

Eastenders: Martin Fowler
First character to be born in the programme.
Stereotypical youth from many news stories.
Anti-social behaviour with gangs
Teenage, unmarried father
Prison sentence for manslaughter
Continued criminal behaviour upon release

Moral panics!

Stanley Cohen (1972)
Studied youth groups in 1960s.
A moral panic occurs when society sees itself threatened by the values and activities of a group who are stigmatised as deviant and seen as threatening to mainstream society’s values, ideologies and /or way of life.
Mods & Rockers (1960s), football hooligans, muggers, vandals, mobile-phone snatchers...

Working class males
Represented as yobs.
Stuart Hall (1978) argues that the negative representation of young people is deliberate as it justifies social control by authority figures such as the police and government. The media has a key role in this ‘social production’ of news.

From media text to legislation
Occurrence of deviant act or social phenomenon.
Act or problem widely reported in media: news outlets; internet chat rooms; fictional narratives; video games…
Call for government control either from legislation/policy initiatives or the more vigilant operation of already existing social controls.

Jamie Bulger
No evidence was presented that either boy had watched ‘Child’s Play 3’. The judge made the connection and this was picked up by the tabloid press. It led to a change in the law so the BBFC now has to take into account ‘the influence’ of videos as well as their content.

From young to old

Pensioners

Does gender make a difference?

Film vs TV
Why do you think there are more opportunities for older women in fictional TV than film?

Stereotypes
Poor
Fussy
Senile
Infirm
Interfering
Victims
Dependent
Kind
Generous
Happy
Engaging in stereo-
typical pastimes

Sitcom
Humorous idiosyncrasies:
Forgetfulness
Senility
Grumpiness
Saying the wrong thing
Does this reinforce the stereotype?

To what extent is the media responsible for reinforcing age-related stereotypes?

Representations of age

by MediaStudiesSaltash on Oct 12, 2011

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Representations of age Presentation Transcript