Ethnicity

1
Ethnicity

• Ethnicity covers a range of issues colour of
  skin, nationality, birthplace etc. Like gender
  negative stereotyping has been seen as a problem
  in the media

2
Ethnicity

• Media Portrayals Of Ethnicity Positive Views
• Linked to pluralist views
• Gone are the bad old days of Black and White
  Minstrels
• And Mind Your Language and It Aint half Hot
  Mum were pulled off the screen
• More positive images of ethnic minorities abound
• Black and Asian newsreaders
• Ethnic groups have own programmes
• Goodness Gracious Me had a sketch were Indians go
  out for an English

3
Ethnicity

• Media Portrayals Of Ethnicity Negative Views
• Some argue that not much has changed, only
  superficial window dressing. Trevor McDonald and
  the like are token figures.
• 1. Employment Of Media Professionals
• Ethnic minorities are still under represented

4
Ethnicity

• Media Portrayals Of Ethnicity Negative Views
• 2. Ethnicity Minority Programmes
• Can be seen as tokenism
• Such progs are ghettoized into weird time
  schedules
• Mainstream viewing still under represents ethnic
  minorities

5
Ethnicity

• Media Portrayals Of Ethnicity Negative Views
• 3.Continuing Prejudice
• TV seen as better than other media
• Tabloid press still overtly racist in a jokey
  style
• eg. Football 1996 and anti German kraut
  headlines
• International reporting focuses on famine and
  poverty

6
Ethnicity

• Stuart Hall 1990 White Eye View
• Hall identifies 3 characteristics associated with
  the portrayal of ethnic groups
• The slave - subordination images
• The Native - inferior portayal of non-whites
• The Entertainer - Cheerful, gregarious types
• Ethnicity is viewed through a white eye
• Lenny Henry started as a comic
• telling racist jokes
• until he realised that
• he was perpetuating racist views

7
Age

• Childhood
• Aries 1960
• Age is a social construction
• Media has treated childhood in 2 ways
• Reflecting historical and cultural changes
• Creating images of childhood
• I.e. reflecting or affecting?
• Childhood has been seen as a separate sphere of
  life
• The media propagate images of dependency,
  vulnerability etc
• At the same time use them as a mass market via
  advertising

8
Age

• Childhood
• Medved 1992
• Images of children full of wisdom and sensibility
  abound
• Adults are portrayed as useless
• e.g. Homer Simpson

9
Age

• Childhood
• Synott 1988
• Offers a complexity of childhood images in the
  media
• Children can be-
• Noble or savage
• Sinful and need punishment
• Unformed in terms of personality
• Not easy to change - inborn nature
• Naturally good
• I.e. mixed messages depending on the context

10
Age

• Childhood Culture
• James and Prout 1990
• Use a postmodernist approach
• Dont see children as mini adults but as active
  agents creating their own world
• A variety of possible subcultures exist
• Influenced by gender, class and ethnicity
• Advertisers recognise this!
• Blue Peter presenters have changed from
  uncle/aunt figures to older siblings

11
Age

• Youth Culture
• Media have focused on problem areas of youth
• 2 main dimensions
• 1. Media reflect changes in the role of the young
  - extended period of dependency
• 2. Media help create images of what young people
  are like - through music and fashion and yoof
  progs and mags etc.

12
Age

• Moral Panics And Deviance Amplification
• Stan Cohen 1980 mods and rockers in the 1960s
• Looked at media reporting of bank holiday
• skirmishes between mods and rockers
• Cohen says media sensationalised and amplified
  the problem - i.e. made it seem worse than it
  was.
• Their OTT response led to a moral panic amongst
  the public
• I.e. a fear about a problem and an expectation
  that something should be done
• Other moral panics have been created at various
  times
• - dangerous dogs, football hooligans etc

13
Age

• Old Age
• coffin dodger and silly old git labels
• Do the media reinforce such stereotypes?
• Some say yes - images of doddery old folk in
  cartoons etc
• But progs like Last Of Summer Wine One Foot In
  The Grave show a different side of older folk
• Few older presenters on TV but is increasing with
  the rise of the grey market - affluent retired

14
Age

• Old Age
• Biggs 1993 - 5 trends in representing ageing
• More middle aged and older folk in soaps
• Sitcoms still use doddery images a lot
• Some reverse stereotyping occurs - Victor Meldrew
  does believe this!!
• More active older representations - Edward
  Enfield
• Problems of ageing dont get prominent attention

15
Age

• Gender And Ageing
• Clear differences between depicting of men and
  women
• Women still need to look good - Tina Turner
• Men can be wise and distinguished
• Moore 1993 - research on newsreaders
• - males can be grey and wrinkled but women cant
• Lack of parts for older female actresses
• - apart from soaps which have a mainly female
  audience

16
Social Class

• The Press
• The hegemony thesis argues that the dominance of
  mc, middle aged, males colours the view of the
  press
• Tabloids are read by the WC in general
• Broadsheets are read by the MC in general

17
Social Class

• Televison
• TV is seen as more classless than the press
• The MC BBC is a thing of the past
• Still some class bias in viewing -
• Classical concerts mainly MC
• Soaps and game shows more WC audience

18
Social Class

• Class Stereotyping
• Since the 1960s and The Beatles regional accents
  are more acceptable in TV presenters
• But little evidence of WC speech in serious
  progs
• Radio still has more clear cut class lines

19
Interpretive Approaches

• Explanations of the media have changed from
  monosemic (one way) approaches to polysemic (many
  directional).
• Recent work has recognised the pluaralist view
  that any reading of a text is possible but argues
  that one main interpretation still dominates.
• Here the interpretive approach is used to analyse
  the complexity of the interaction between the
  media and the audience.

20
Interpretive Approaches

• Trowler 1996
• Hypodermic Approach
• Media strong
• Monosemy
• only one message is read by the audience
• Mass media texts reproduce ideology
• Research Implications
• Study message and poelpe who produce it

21
Interpretive Approaches

• Trowler 1996
• Normative Approach
• media weak
• Semiotic Democracy
• Text can be read in a number of ways
• Research Implications
• Study the audience

22
Interpretive Approaches

• Trowler 1996
• Structured Interpretation Approach
• media relatively strong
• Polysemy with preferred reading
• Text can be read in a number of ways but one is
  dominant
• Research Implications
• Study both the audience and the message

23
Interpretive Approaches

• 2 Dimensions Of The Interpretive Approach
• A more active audience-
• More accepted that the audience interact with the
  media and arent passive recipients
• Audience can recognise bias - cant fool all of
  the people all of the time!
• Do Party Political Broadcasts ever change
  anyones mind?

24
Interpretive Approaches

• 2 Dimensions Of The Interpretive Approach
• Changes in technology
• Video was the first interactive technology -fast
  forward, pause etc
• Computers and DVD Roms have extended this
• Novels where the reader can interact with the
  plot
• Satellite TV allowing viewers to select camera
  angles

25
Interpretive Approaches

• Morley 1992
• Structured Interpretation Model
• - there is a preferred reading/ dominant message
  despite all of this choice
• Peoples interpretation of messages are grounded
  in their social context

26
Interpretive Approaches

• Ang 1991
• Criticises the view that the audience is an
  asocial, undifferentiated mass
• And also criticises reasearch focusing on class,
  ethnicity and gender.
• She advocates the study of the way people
  interact with the media in concrete situations
• Mullan and Taylor did this..

27
Interpretive Approaches

• Mullan and Taylor 1986
• People are active in doing a number of things
  while watching TV
• Women particularly carry out a no. of household
  tasks
• Some read newspapers and listen to music while
  viewing

28
Interpretive Approaches

• Fiske 1988
• Looked at how the audience link inside and
  outside the medium
• e.g. the death of the character in a soap is
  often seen in relation to the actor/actress
  wanting to do other things, arguing with the
  directors etc

29
Interpretive Approaches

• Buckingham 1993
• The audience have differing degrees of media
  literacy
• Some use a wide range of sources to refer to and
  become well informed
• Others believe that a soap character is really
  dead and sends a card of condolence

30
Interpretive Approaches

• Radical Critics
• Argue that such studies lack a structural
  context which focuses on power and social
  control.

31
Interpretive Approaches

• Discourse Analysis
• Discourse comes from linguistics and is a
  specialised form of language.used in an attempt
  to achieve social, personal or political power
  Price 1993

32
Interpretive Approaches

• Discourse Analysis
• Foucault 1972
• Language is a key dimension of the way we
  interact - social sciences use the term
  discourse for this
• Foucault believed that power and control in
  modern societies permeates life via this
  discourse
• The media are a vital part of this process
• Foucault denied that you can ever have absolute
  truth (typical post modernist view)
• Knowledge is what people get together and decide
  is true

33
Interpretive Approaches

• Foucault 1972
• Similar to Marxs views but Foucault stresses the
  importance of discourse (language) in presenting
  the knowledge
• Foucault looked at how definitions of normal and
  abnormal come about
• He studied many institutions including mental
  hospitals and prisons
• Our view of normal is relative to what is
  abnormal
• Stability in society comes in using references to
  the abnormal to accept what is normal
• Hence single parents, gays etc help reinforce
  what is normal

34
Interpretive Approaches

• Foucault 1972
• The media play an important part in this process
  of defining normal/abnormal
• Bad news is focused on - the abnormal
• This helps clarify the normal
• (similar to Functionalist views)
• Definitions of normal/abnormal change over time
• Homosexuality was once a mental illness
• Many do see it as abnormal still

35
Interpretive Approaches

• Discourse Analysis
• Potter and Wetherell 1987
• Used discourse analysis to look at the reporting
  of terrorism
• Terms like gunman, hijacking, innocent
  victims stimulate the imagery of fanatical, mad
  men
• On the other hand a police gunman is a marksman
  - an expert

36
Interpretive Approaches

• Discourse Analysis
• Fairclough 1989
• Looked at discourse associated with Thatcherism
  in the 1980s
• Nanny state, tax cuts, freedom of choice were
  buzz words to draw the lines between
  normal/abnormal
• These dont reflect reality - they create
  reality for the observer

37
Interpretive Approaches

• Discourse Analysis
• Beck 1992 - Globilization
• TV and other media help to mould our biographies
  eg remembering where we were when Dianas death
  was first reported etc.
• TV isolates and standardises at the same time.
• We all live in our little boxes but gaze at the
  same stuff on the box.
• The TV gives us a global village green

38
Methodological Criticisms Of Media Research

• Pawson 1995 identifies 3 areas
• Formal Content Analysis
• Thematic Analysis
• Textual Analysis

39
Methodological Criticisms Of Media Research

• Formal Content Analysis
• Glasgow Media Group used this approach
• It seeks to be objective ,systematic and
  quantitative in assessing communication
• e.g. counting the number of articles or column
  inches given to a particular topic in magazines
• Text is taken at face value - I.e. literally
• This can be a problem as innuendo, irony etc are
  important aspects of the media
• Hence qualitative critics point to the lack of
  understanding of meaning - things need to be seen
  in a social context

40
Methodological Criticisms Of Media Research

• Thematic Analysis
• This approach looks at the intentions of the
  producers of the mass media
• The manipulative and hegemonic models (rooted in
  Marxism) follow this line of argument
• Pawson says that such research lacks objectivity
  and often picks sensational topics
• The reader is treated as soaking the messages
  rather than interpreting them
• People dont read in the analytical, in depth way
  that researchers do

41
Methodological Criticisms Of Media Research

• Textual Analysis
• This tries to address some of the problems of
  thematic approaches by looking at how texts are
  specifically used to put across a particular view
• It also examines picture imagery
• It focuses on cliches - in reporting of the
  Yorkshire Ripper prostitutes were seen as
  deserving victims while non-prostitutes were
  undeserving
• Pawson again criticises this approach for lack of
  objectivity

42
Methodological Criticisms Of Media Research

• Audience Research
• Such approaches look at how the audience decode
  the messages of the media
• This is more of an interpretive approach
• Focusing on meanings - does a person
  accept/reject or be indifferent to a particular
  story
• Pawson again sees this as creating a self
  consciousness on the part of the audience
• I.e. we dont normally think so deeply about
  these things

43
Methodological Criticisms Of Media Research

• Kitzingers News Game 1990/3
• Pawson sees this approach as helping to get round
  some of the above problems
• Kitzinger looked at audience perception of media
  messages on AIDS - She gave different groups
  photos and asked to draw up an advert
• She found that the responses of different groups
  closely followed those of the typical media
  view
• This was not necessarily the same as what those
  groups actually believed
• e.g pensioners did an ad on innocent victims
  but privately saw such people as irresponsible

44
The Future Of The Media

• Horseman 1996 offers 3 possible models
• 1. Global Dominance
• Murdoch has built up a global empire
• Therefore he and others can control the content -
  particularly with pay-per-view
• Marxists would agree with this!

45
The Future Of The Media

• 2. Global Village
• Some see this as already in place
• - and dominated by American cultural imperialism
• Functionalist would agree with this concept of
  global village

46
The Future Of The Media

• 3. Global Democracy
• Hardware is made available to all so we can all
  choose what we want when we want
• Cultural identity can be maintained by means of
  selection - a typical pluralist response

47
The Future Of The Media

• Postmodernist Approaches
• Postmodernists are interested in a
  media-saturated society
• Trowler 1996 identifies 2 key themes
• A society which has come after the modern society
  which is info rich
• A way of knowing the world which questions
  truth
• these are both relevant to the media
• If society is info rich - most of it comes from
  the media
• Some see the dominance of America -
  Coca-Colonization and Macdonaldization
• Picknmix mentality - Japanese teddy boys!!

48
The Future Of The Media

• Popular and HighCulture
• Ofsted inspector in 1997 used the popularity of
  Only Fools And Horses to say that culture had
  become trivialised
• Postmodernists argue that changes are now so
  rapid we cant talk about 2 cultures any more
• There is now a cultural hybrid as boundaries have
  become blurred.
• Coronation St is deconstructed by experts in
  the same way as Macbeth
• Manning 1996 identifies 2 stances arising from
  postmodernist accounts.

49
The Future Of The Media

• The Optimistic View
• A diverse and pluralistic society results
• Members can employ sophisticated decoding skills
  in analysing the media

50
The Future Of The Media

• The Pesimistic View
• Big Brother is here
• The power is in the hands of the few

51
The Future Of The Media

• Evaluation Of Postmodernist Approaches
• Postmodernists have highlighted changes in the
  mass media
• There is much wider access to the media via
  internet and satellite
• The future is endlessly debated with optimists
  and pessimists kicking the theoretical football
  around