1. Discrimination in the media
Reece Mechan
The topic I am looking at is the portrayal of discrimination in the media. This topic includes
homophobia,sexism,racismandthe discriminationof age. The reason why I have chosen to do this
topicis because I believe that discrimination is in every sort of media out there. I think that one of
the wayswe can reduce the amountof discriminationinthe mediaiswe couldmake itknown that it
isa problemthatiseverywhere.We couldmake itmore knownbydoingcampaignsfor example the
‘no hate’ campaign.
Homophobia
Focusgroups of gays and heterosexualssaidthatwhenhomosexualitywasportrayed in soap operas
or dramas on the BBC, it was clichéd and centred on characters either in crisis about their sexual
orientationor as promiscuous predators trying to seduce someone who is aroused by it. Usually in
soap operasaftera character has come out andthe whole storyline is over they usually are written
out of the soap. Thisishomophobicbecause it’sbasicallysayingthatafter a homosexual person has
come out theyare uselessandshouldn’thave a voice of opinion. Another example of homophobia
behaviouristhe BBCsoap EastEnderseveryhomosexual personinthe soapisalways in what is seen
in a mediocre job for example; Tina, a lesbian 40ish year old woman, is stuck in a café working
normal hours whereas Linda, a straight 40ish year old woman, owns her own successful business.
This isn’t fair this is showing teenagers that basically if you are homosexual then you would not
achieve well in life.
BBC has been named the most homophobic broadcasting channel by gay rights group
Stonewall. This is because of the various shows like EastEnders and waterloo road. Waterloo road
couldbe seenas homophobicbecause the gaymeninthisshow alwayshang around with a group of
girlsinsteadof a groupof guys.Thisis stereotypingthembecauseit’salsoteaching teenagers that if
someone hangs round with girls rather than lads then they must be gay.
Anotherreasonwhythe BBC has beennamedthe mosthomophobicbroadcastingchannel is
because variouscelebritiesfromthe BBChave saidhomophobiccomments.These celebritiesinclude
Jeremy Clarkson and Chris Moyles. These comments include referring to cars as “gay” and saying
homosexual people are like “zoo animals”.
Even though we have moved forward from how we were in the media we are still pretty
bad.For example whenOlympiantomDaley‘came out’he feltlikehe hadtobe publicallyinstead of
it being something personal. The video shouldn’t be made publically it shouldn’t matter what
sexuality he is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJwJnoB9EKw this video has been viewed
11,222,195. This is ridiculous it shouldn’t have been an issue and it shouldn’t have been on the news
as much as it was. He is an Olympic diver and it hasn’t affected his career in anyway shape or formed
so it shouldn’t have been made public. Tom Daley made that video because he didn’t want rumours to
start about him. This is absolutely ridiculous that because people who victimise homosexuals has
forced someone to come out worldwide when it isn’t anybody’s business.