This document discusses representation in media, focusing on how gender, race, age and other attributes are represented. It notes that media representations are artificial constructions that influence perceptions of reality. Gender representation is discussed in depth, along with examples of racial stereotypes. The challenges of representing diverse races, ethnicities, ages and abilities are also examined through case studies and analyses of media texts.

1. Representation in the Media T.V. DRAMA

2. Representation in the Media By definition, all media texts are re-presentations of reality. This means that they are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us. When studying the media it is vital to remember this - every media form, from a home video to a glossy magazine, is a representation of someone's concept of existence, codified into a series of signs and symbols which can be read by an audience. However, it is important to note that without the media, our perception of reality would be very limited, and that we, as an audience, need these artificial texts to mediate our view of the world, in other words we need the media to make sense of reality. Therefore representation is a fluid, two-way process: producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess a text on its relationship to reality.

3. Extension/Restriction of Experience of Reality By giving audiences information, media texts extend experience of reality. Every time you see a wildlife documentary, or read about political events in a country on the other side of the world, or watch a movie about a historical event, you extend your experience of life on this planet. However, because the producers of the media text have selected the information we receive, then our experience is restricted: we only see selected highlights of the lifestyle of the creatures portrayed in the wildlife documentary, the editors and journalists decree which aspects of the news events we will read about, and the movie producers telescope events and personalities to fit into their parameters.

4. Truth or Lies? Media representations - and the extent to which we accept them - are a very political issue, as the influence the media exerts has a major impact on the way we view the world. By viewing media representations our prejudices can be reinforced or shattered. Generally, audiences accept that media texts are fictional to one extent or another - we have come a long way from the mass manipulation model of the 1920s and 1930s. However, as we base our perception of reality on what we see in the media, it is dangerous to suppose that we don't see elements of truth in media texts either. The study of representation is about decoding the different layers of truth/fiction/whatever. In order to fully appreciate the part representation plays in a media text you must consider: Who produced it? What/who is represented in the text? How is that thing represented? Why was this particular representation (this shot, framed from this angle, this story phrased in these terms, etc) selected, and what might the alternatives have been? What frame of reference does the audience use when understanding the representation?

5. Analysing Representation The analysis of different sorts of representation forms an important part of Media Studies. The factors of representation most commonly addressed are: Gender Race Age Disability

6. Gender And Media Representation Gender is perhaps the basic category we use for sorting human beings, and it is a key issue when discussing representation. Essential elements of our own identity, and the identities we assume other people to have, come from concepts of gender - what does it mean to be a boy or a girl? Many objects, not just humans, are represented by the media as being particularly masculine or feminine - particularly in advertising - and we grow up with an awareness of what constitutes 'appropriate' characteristics

8. African-American Representation A lot of work on Race & Media has focused on the representation of black men and women. This has partly been because there is a strong African-American counter-culture which provides viable alternative role models and demands that they are represented, and partly because some of the early racial stereotypes were so obvious and offensive. In recent years, the success of actors as diverse as Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Taraji P. Henson, Naomie Harris, Laurence Fishburne, Keke Palmer and Morgan Freeman in roles across the board has meant that black characters in movies and on TV are no longer 'stock' types. Some of the time. However, there are many negative representations of black people, portrayals which seem deliberately designed to inflame the fear and hatred of other cultures - how positive a representation is the archetypal African-American gangsta? Yet these are representations coming from within black culture itself...

9. Latinos and Asians Attention is now being paid to the representation of other ethnic groups, notably Asian Americans and Latinos, who represent a much larger proportion of the US population than their TV coverage would suggest. Things are changing, but not fast enough.

10. Race on UK TV Racism on TV in the UK exploded as a global issue in 2007, as ShilpaShetty was subjected to vicious racial slurs by her (white) housemates. As Shetty is a well-loved Bollywood star, there was an outcry in India, and there were widespread objections to both her treatment and Channel 4's decision to broadcast it. A record 40,000+ complaints were logged by the broadcasters' watchdog, OFCOM. The row reached the House of Commons, and became part of a national debate on the undercurrents in the UK's supposedly multi-cultural society. Subsequently, Channel 4 became very sensitive when it came to allegations of racism, and housemate Emily Parr was speedily removed from the non-celebrity house later that year for using a racial epithet.

11. Race on UK TV However, race remains a hot button issue on UK TV, both in fiction and non-fiction programming, largely because it's always going to attract headlines — and sell copies of the Daily Mail. Race is inextricably tangled with the immigration issue and questions of national identity. What does it mean to be British in the 2010s? Given that modern Britain is populated by a diverse range of people, do national media outlets represent different colours and ethnicities proportionally? Fairly? Whether it's an "all black" episode of Eastenders or a hard-hitting edition of Panorama about teenage racists on a London housing estate, there will continue to be heated discussions about how different races are represented, and how that representation affects the way people treat each other in reality.

12. Case Study: Jersey Shore For example, the characters of MTV's Jersey Shore are ethnically Caucasian, but they identify themselves culturally as Italian-American (although none of the main characters were born in Italy), and, as part of an even more specific subset, the 'guidos' and 'guidettes' who populate the bars and tanning centers of a small geographical area in New Jersey. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Un0yTWugew&feature=player_embedded The TV show has created a lot of controversy, as other Italian-Americans object to this negative portrayal of their cultural and ethnic group. Do you think Jersey Shore makes viewers believe that all Italian-Americans behave this way or share these values? Or is Jersey Shore just another reality show that gives its viewers pleasure by inviting them to make a downward comparison with trashy individuals who just all happen to be part of the same cultural group?

13. Case Study: Jersey Shore One thing is for sure, within one season, Jersey Shore managed to create a whole set of cultural stereotypes that became part of popular discourse. The Fox TV cop show Bones, dedicated one episode to the phenomenon. The show-runners thought that the Jersey Shore stereotypes would be sufficiently familiar to their audience to provide a vehicle for a whole episode of satire. They made the Bones regulars interact with guido and guidette stereotypes; it's downward comparison all the way, as Brennan treats the Italian-Americans as though they are part of a primitive tribe. This is done with comic intent; would it be so funny if Brennan was describing African or Asian Americans in the same way? If you are Italian-American, are you comfortable with the assumption that you are "like" the young people represented on the show? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UHA9zAyxvQ&feature=player_embedded

14. Representation of Age After gender and ethnicity, age is the most obvious category under which we file people, and there are a whole range of instant judgements which go along with that categorisation. Age is the easiest way to categorise someone as "other" than yourself —everyone you meet will be, to some extent, older or younger, a different age than you. And with difference comes... a tendency to stereotype. Harsh stereotypes cut both ways, against both the old and the young. What do these clips from THE INBETWEENERS say about teenage boys?

15. “I Am Not A Number...” While we've come to understand that stereotyping someone according to their gender, or the colour of their skin, is unfair and unacceptable, stereotyping according to age (ageism) is still widespread. Age, like race, is something you can't change about yourself, but people go to great lengths to disguise how old they really are in order to avoid being the victim of age stereotyping. People dress in deliberately youthful clothes, dye grey hair, lie about their age on internet dating sites, diet, and even subject themselves to painful, invasive plastic surgery.It would be horrifying to think that someone took such steps in order to conceal their true race or gender. Given that aging is inevitable and happens to everyone, why are we in such collective denial about the process? The problem stems, in part, from a youth-obsessed media that insists on worshipping beauty (associated with youth) and devaluing wisdom and experience (associated with age). There seems to be unspoken agreement amongst magazine editors (in print and online) that we prefer to look at images of young, smooth-skinned models in connection with both advertising and editorial copy. This establishes youth as the hegemonic norm. Everyone is expected to look thirty six years old, no matter what their biological age. When an individual feels that they might be deviating from that norm, there is a whole industry out there of "age-defying" cosmetic products ready to supply a remedy - at a price.

16. “I Am Not A Number...” Women seem to be particular victims when it comes to snap judgments about age and "age-appropriate" behaviours, appearance and attitude, damned if they appear to age, damned if they don't. We criticise mature women for going about as mutton dressed as lamb, and young girls for tarting themselves up as jail bait. Film stars who start to show signs of aging in their forties are swooped on with cries of horror by gossip columnists ("Movie star gets wrinkles... and her tits start to sag" shocker!!) while those who succumb to the surgeon's knife are written about with equal distaste ("Movie star can't raise eyebrows and her tits DON'T sag" equal shocker!!!). Denial brings confusion. How old is old? When can you be considered a grown up? How soon should you start wearing make up? Having sex? When does adolescence begin and end? At the young end, there's a heated debate about the increasing sexualisation of children at a younger and younger age. Recent murder cases have ignited debate about the age of criminal responsibility: is it currently set too low? Too high? Should children under 14 be locked up? It's clear that twentieth century definitions of childhood are no longer functional in our society, but how do we replace them? Confusion brings identity crises. At what age should you stop being a child and take on the responsibilities of an adult? Do we now have a discrete phase of "tweendom" or has this just been invented by advertisers?

17. “I Am Not A Number...” The identity crisis doesn't end when you leave school or college - traditionally the transition into the adult world. Generation X-ers who refuse to grow up and put away their Star Wars figurines or PlayStations have extended adolescence long into adulthood. Pop culture, knowledge of which has traditionally been a signifier of youth, is no longer subject to the boundaries drawn between 'Youth' and 'Mature' audiences from the 1950s to the 1980s.Men have immature images of themselves reinforced through the figure of the "man-child" in Judd Apatow comedies, and are encouraged to indulge their teenage fantasies in a made-to-measure "man-cave" (which is just a recreation of their parents' basement or garage from when they were teenagers, with more expensive toys). Adult women routinely refer to themselves as "girls". Twilight Moms trample their tween daughters in the crowds to get close to Taylor Lautner, while 'Dad Rock' is a father-son bonding experience, perhaps revolving around the GLEE cast covers of Journey classics. It gets worse. How old do you have to be before you refer to yourself as old? Before you're happy to be referred to by other people as "old"? What's the correct word? Senior? Third Ager? Pensioner? Geezer? Silver Fox? Retirement, like graduation, was once seen as a transition into another phase, but good luck with telling that to the retirees crowding the marathon starting blocks, swimming pools, golf courses, mountain bike trails and night classes near you that they are "old". Advances in health care and mental attitudes mean that people are living longer,and remaining active long into their retirement. Some of our most successful novelists, composers, film-makers, politicians and scientists are still working into their eighties. By denying that ageing is a natural part of the process of living, we condemn ourselves to an eternal adolescence (God! No!) and do not acknowledge that our tastes and priorities may grow and change. An obsession with youth and novelty also means that we disregard the lessons of history and devalue experience. Ageism is just as harmful as racism or sexism when it comes to repressing sections of the population.

18. Age Shall Not Weary Them This obsession with adhering to a hegemonic norm when it comes to age has long been the stuff of fantasy in literature and film. Science Fiction has often sounded dire warnings about the dangers of chasing eternal youth, while simultaneously accepting that everyone assuming a youthful appearance is an inevitable part of the future. Thanks to diet and drugs in Brave New World (1932), Alphas and Betas look suitably smooth and pneumatic until the day their over-taxed hearts are stopped. Ageing is unknown, and horrifying, and the naturally-wrinkled Lena is an object of terror and then ridicule when her son brings her back to civilisation from the Reservation: “There was a gasp, a murmur of astonishment and horror; a young girl screamed; standing on a chair to get a better view some one upset two test-tubes full of spermatozoa. Bloated, sagging, and among those firm youthful bodies, those undistorted faces, a strange and terrifying monster of middle-agedness, Linda advanced into the room, coquettishly smiling her broken and discoloured smile, and rolling as she walked, with what was meant to be a voluptuous undulation, her enormous haunches”. (Brave New World, Chapter 10) While age is its own punishment for Lena, elsewhere sci-fi narratives deliver retribution to those trying to defy the process. THE WASP WOMAN (1960) punishes its protagonist for looking for the ultimate face cream by bestowing - that's right - her with the head and thorax of a gigantic wasp. In SURROGATES (2009), real humans stay in bed and let their eternally-youthful robot selves do all the heavy lifting - but this brings society to the edge of collapse, until a craggy Bruce Willis gets out of bed and saves the world.

19. Age Shall Not Weary Them In the Harry Potter books, Voldemort's quest for immortality via horcruxes, unicorn's blood, the philosopher's stone etc results in his smooth-skinned appearance. However, his desire to remain unmarked by age is represented as part of his inherent villainy, in direct contrast to Dumbledore's flowing white beard and craggy, lined face. Dumbledore considers natural death to be a great adventure, and, like Obi-Wan Kenobi before him, is able to advise his young protegé from beyond the grave. In the world of witches and wizards at least, wrinkles confer wisdom and goodness. Yet it seems that the glorification of youth is even trickling down into fantasy fiction. One of the reasons why our society seems so attracted to vampires is their immortality (and attendant marmoreal complexions). We've evolved the mythology so that vampires are preternaturally beautiful, and forever young. Because of this, we seem to have stopped caring that underneath they are monsters, we overlook their need for human blood because they are so photogenic. This means that in our culture we value physical beauty more highly than we value a human soul - a complete reversal of centuries of philosophy and religion. In Breaking Dawn, Bella is so horrified at the thought of becoming any older, physically, than eighteen, that she chooses to become a vampire instead (against the wishes of Edward who should really know all about it). Her fear of even one wrinkle wins out over her fear of damnation. And that's the sanitised, tween-friendly Mormon version...

20. It Gets Better As the baby boomers of the 1950s and 1960s move on towards their 'Third Age', they demand the same consumer comfort they have always done, and also demand the right to see themselves fairly represented on TV and in movies. In the USA, they number 78 million, have over a trillion dollars a year in disposable income and control 50% of consumer spending. As a generation they have always had role models, media figures who have shown the way when it comes to appearance, what to wear, how to behave, what to buy to feel like you belong. They've also been enthusiastic adopters of the internet and other related technologies, like smart phones and tablet computers. They are also very vocal if they feel they are being ignored, or disrespected, and advertisers have certainly taken note. There is increased awareness that diversity isn't just about race, but about age, and that age-specific insults can be as insulting as sexist ones. The result is a higher visibility of the over-fifties in traditionally youth-oriented media. Aging movie stars of that generation (step up Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis) are unwilling to fade away quietly, and keep pushing for roles. Action movies THE EXPENDABLES and RED packed multiplexes in 2010, despite featuring lead men in their fifties and sixties. The Rolling Stones still strut their stuff on stage. Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep are regularly nominated for awards. Finely Aged:Are Things Getting Better For Older Actors?

21. It Gets Better TV has always been kinder to older characters: in the USA CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM is on Season 8, and David Letterman (born 1947) is still king of late night talk shows. Betty White became the oldest person ever to host Saturday Night Live in May 2010 (aged 78) - and won a Primetime Emmy for her trouble. UK television has always demonstrated an awareness that older characters are just as interesting as younger ones, and the over-fifties form the lynchpins of the major soaps, as well providing the highlights of sitcoms like Grandpa in OUTNUMBERED. Growing old was the central strand of the comedy in sitcoms LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE and ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, and saw the characters railing against the expectation that they would sink quietly into oblivion once their working life was done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_J6IvnawDw&feature=player_embedded As we move further into the twenty-first century, it would be nice to think that we move towards increasing acceptance of all ages for what they are, that we learn to celebrate difference in age as we have learned to celebrate difference in skin color, and that we value all human beings equally without using age or youth as an excuse to dismiss them as irrelevant.

22. Disability in the Media Semantically, the word "disabled" causes much debate. The 'dis' suffix is a negative one, implying reversal, and disabled heads a list in the dictionary of many negative words - disappoint, discard, disconsolate, discourage, disintegrate, dismay, disrepute etc etc. That same dictionary defines the word "disabled" as meaning "Made ineffective, unfit or incapable". Quite rightly, those members of the population who find themselves labelled thus feel tarred with a distasteful brush. The word implies that they are unfit for anything, that they are incapable of effectiveness in any field. Verbal codes aside, the iconography surrounding the word suggests a similar plight, hence the European Union symbol

23. Disability in the Media Here is someone who is not simply "in" a wheelchair (are all disabled people in wheelchairs? I think not...), but who relies on the structure of the chair to give them arms. It is small wonder that the word "disabled" immediately connotates wheelchairs, and concepts such as broken, dependent, pitiable etc etc. Given the semiotics of the situation, it is small wonder that media representation of the disabled is limited and laregely stereotypical. if the word "disabled" can be represented in such a simple symbol as the one above, we are reducing a large and diverse group of human beings to something less complicated than your average roadsign. While great strides have been made in recent decades in the representation of gender and race, there are still many prejudices attached to the representation of disability. Or difability - the differently enabled, as our PC friends would have us speak.

24. Images of the Dis/Difabled In magazines, the only images of the disabled we tend to see are those in charity advertisements, and their disablity is the main focus of the representation. Often we are encouraged to pity the person represented, or give them support in another way. Ideologically speaking, dis/difabled is not considered sexy, and does not sell stuff. More power then to Benetton, with their use of a Downs Syndrome model. Disabled sport is seen as a very poor relation to its so-called able bodied counterpart. The Paralympics receive a derisory level of coverage (and, oddly enough, sponsorship... hmmm) but you can check out their website here. Likewise in the movies, disability is seen as a great storyline - one to inspire pity in audiences and Oscar nominations from your peers. Think Tom Cruise in Born On The Fourth of July (Best Actor nom, Best Director win), Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind (Best Actor nom, Best Picture win), Leonardo di Caprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (Best Supporting Actor nom) and Audrey Hepburn in Wait until Dark (Best Actress nom). These actors are applauded for their fine performances, as though the representation of disability were a particularly dangerous and skilful thing. While Tom Cruise is prepared to strap himself into a stunt wheelchair, genuinely dis/difabled actors do not get major parts. Amputees get good work in Hollywood as stunt persons, particularly when a film such as AI needs limbless people to attach prosthetics to, but their name is never going to go on the marquee. This is fundamentally wrong - we can only accept the beautiful people pretending to be incapacitated. Is this the equivalent of white actors 'blacking up' to play Othello? Yet there are exceptions: stand up comedian, actor and model Francesca Martinez suffers from cerebral palsy but sees no reason why she should not follow a career in showbiz. A successful actress, with several seasons of Grange Hill behind her, she has won awards for her comedy. Read an Observer interview with her here, and check out her profile on the Grange Hill site.

25. Timmy! One of the most popular representations of disability on TV in recent years has been South Park's Timmy, the rebel in a wheelchair. DVDs featuring Timmy-based episodes sell well, as does the Timmy plush doll (featuring a detachable wheelchair). Timmy suffers from hydrocephalus, is misdiagnosed as having ADD, and is only able to say one or two words (initially, just his own name, but he graduates to being able to utter the name of his beloved pet turkey - Gobbles). Timmy's Home Page (Unofficial)