Television Drama AS

Stereotypes and Representations

AQA says that candidates for AS and A2 Media Studies should study the historical, social, political and economic dimensions of representation.
Definition

Representation is the process by which the media presents the ‘real world’ to an audience.

Media texts construct meanings about the world – a picture, a film, a television programme or a newspaper article re-presents the world to help audiences make sense of it.

A popular understanding of representation is through stereotypes – what are they?

Stereotypes

Definition

Stereotypes are a form of representation in which groups of people are characterised by attributing to them qualities that some individuals possess, and which later become associated with the whole group.

For example… Punks are forever associated with safety pins in their clothes and bodies, and Mohican haircuts. This is the stereotype of a punk although there will be many punks who do not look like this.

Words and images become stereotyped together:

Dumb blonde football hooligan

Essex girl rebellious teenager

Gay man happy hippy

Media theorists have defined the term in various different ways: O’Sullivan et al (1995) says a stereotype is:

‘a label which involves a process of categorisation and evaluation. Although it may refer to situations or places, it is most often used in conjunction with representations of social groups.’

Branston and Stafford in The Media Student’s Book (Routledge 2006) suggest that mistakes are made in using the term:

‘which does not describe actual people or characters. Brad Pitt is not a stereotype. But the way his image is constructed does carry some …stereotypical assumptions about ‘masculinity’, toughness-with-tenderness’, etc.’

Their one line definition is useful:

‘Stereotypes are widely circulated ideas or assumptions about particular groups.’

Stereotypes are also essential tools for media producers. They can be used as a shorthand to condense a lot of complex information and detail into a character who is easily recognised and simple to deal with – Ugly Betty is a good example. This stereotyping of characteristics makes it easier for the audience to understand the character and his or her role in the text.

James Bond has become a stereotype for what he represents – handsome, suave, sharp, witty, good with gadgets and attracted to beautiful women.

Branston and Stafford give stereotypes four main characteristics:

1. They involve both a categorising and an evaluation of the group being stereotyped.

2. They usually emphasise some easily grasped features of the group and suggest that these are the cause of the group’s position.

3. The evaluation of the group is often, though not always, a negative one.

4. Stereotypes often try to insist on absolute differences and boundaries where the idea of a spectrum of difference is more appropriate.

Theorists on Disability

The historical way of looking at disability is the medical model. The medical model suggests that disability is the fault, or misfortune, of the individual who cannot adapt to ‘normal’ society, and should therefore be institutionalised with their basic needs met by society.

With reference to David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980) this theory leads to the main character Merrick initially being a stereotype, stemming from, among other laws, the 1913 Mental Health Act which states that idiots, imbeciles and the morally defective should be classed as disabled.

When hunted down by a mob of civilians unable to perceive him as anything but a threat and a danger he exclaims: ‘I am not an animal’.

The film Inside I’m Dancing (2004) invites a positive approach to disability using the social model. The social model recognises that vulnerability associated with disability is a cultural construct.

This theory recognises that the restrictions imposed on disabled people by society such as lack of access to buildings and restricted employment opportunities make them unable to fully participate in everyday life.

The film shows a generally positive stereotype of someone in a wheelchair, and is shot with camera angles set at wheel chair height. Rory is a non-conformist stereotype similar to McMurphy in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975).

Michael who has a severe speech impediment which only Rory can understand, conforms to the stereotype of someone trapped in an institution and cut off from society by not being able to communicate clearly. Eventually they get a place of their own with a full time carer which gives them mobility and independence within society.

Some myths that have become stereotypes about disability include the idea of the super cripple – the person who overcomes their extraordinary disability to do something momentous like Stephen Hawking or the deaf Helen Keller.

There is also the pitiful cripple and the evil cripple like Dr No, Shakespeare’s Richard III and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Both the pitiful cripple and the super cripple undermine a person’s dignity and humanity.

Professor Colin Barnes, Director and Founder of Centre for Disability Studies (Leeds) wrote “Independent Living, Politics and Implications.”

Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs6/barnes2003. He has defined the portrayals in mass media of disabled people into ten categories:

· As pitiable and pathetic;

· As an object of violence;

· As sinister and evil;

· As atmosphere or curio;

· As super cripple;

· As an object of ridicule;

· As their own worst and only enemy;

· As burden;

· As sexually abnormal;

· As incapable of participating fully in community life;

· As normal.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/teaching/disability/thinking/stereotypes.html

Theorists on Ethnicity

In terms of representation at A Level principal examiners prefer teachers to look at smaller social groups rather than consider huge multi-dimensional groups such as black people or ethnic minorities. The disabled are a good choice as this is a clearly defined area with a variety of available texts.

Homosexuality also provides a rich variety of modern and historical texts, and is reasonably well defined in the media at least. A smaller group such as Asians in the UK as represented in a movie like Bend It Like Beckham or another ethnic group would be suitable.

Stereotypes in Sitcoms - Is Ugly Betty a Stereotype?

Watch an episode of Ugly Betty.

Ugly Betty TV Show US. Genre: Sitcom

Most popular networked show in the US in 2007 (the second most popular is the medical drama House with British actor Hugh Laurie)

There is no doubt that the main character in Ugly Betty is meant to be a stereotype – it is the name of the show - an out and out sit-com, and the main character is called Betty. She exhibits all the characteristics of a geek or a ‘screen ugly’ young person normally found as a victim in a high school movie.

Betty has ferocious tramline teeth braces, black horn rimmed glasses, unfashionable very long thick black hair and wears shall we say comfortable clothes. She is also quite short and from an ethnic minority family. In stereotypical tradition she landed the highly desirable job of assistant to the boss of a New York fashion magazine by being the smartest, cleverest and the most clumsy assistant, and the sharpest psychologist in the office, with a heart of gold – no flies on Betty. And she has some difficulties with the right sort of men.

This is a long way from the stereotypical characters in Friends who are embodiments of what young people think they would like to become – well dressed, witty and very sexy, uber cool professionals leading a high caffeine life in the metropolis.

So if she is a stereotype whom does she represent? Interestingly in the UK, she does not immediately represent any particular socio economic class (demographic - see audience), or racial type. In the US, there is no doubt that the increasingly large Mexican audience are meant to identify strongly with Betty, but here in the UK there is no obvious representative link. Yet this is a very popular show with audiences all over the world.

One of the main reasons for the popularity of the show is that it is extremely well made in the sit-com tradition of British shows like Fawlty Towers. The acting is exceptionally strong across the board, and the production values are very high – just look at that set.

The show perhaps owes more to domestic sitcoms like The Family where Ben Harper is an identifiable lovable ‘clown’ character – a stereotype in the mould of Groucho Marx.

Ben thinks he is smarter than everybody else, and is involved in a variety of good and bad opportunities but is never bowled over by them.

He is a middle class version of Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses and more successful, Delboy hovers on the brink of criminal trouble most of the time with friends in low places.

Ben and Betty are much more in the mainstream relying on their intelligence and natural abilities. Betty relies on her ethical family upbringing as she tries to steer a moral path in a very immoral world.

Betty fits this stereotype pretty well but she takes it further.

She is not a loser at all.

In fact she comes out on top nearly all the time. So this stereotype has evolved.

She is not as stupid as Manuel in Fawlty Towers, nor is she as mature and world weary as the two men in Men Behaving Badly, nor as out and out as intellectually right-on as Saffy in Ab Fab.

So how does the British audience relate to Betty? She has an innocent charm and a beguiling smile, which gives us the clue to her strict moral and ethical stance on life, at times to the point of naivety.

NB There is often a question in MED4 about stereotypes changing or evolving. You could study stereotypes in sitcoms and prepare an answer for this question with many examples from texts. This paper is called Text and Context so you need to make sure your prepared response has both.

Discussion

Compare and contrast the representation of Betty with other young fictional women from TV and film. Sources could include Skins, Hollyoaks; US teen films – John Tucker Must Die, Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About You, American Pie franchise, Bring It On, A Cinderella Story, Freaky Friday, Save The Last Dance, Step Up, and for the historical context: Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Up The Junction, Strictly Ballroom.

Representation is not just about how we see people, places and objects but also how we interpret what our senses tell us. This depends as much on who we are, as what we see, hear or read.

In some cases, the text may have a persuasive representation as in a TV commercial – you too can look like this model. It can have an ideological connotation – you the audience can also share the aspirations, ideals and life style of the characters in Friends and you can share the ideals of the consumerist American Dream.

In a simple case of political representation: his insurgent is your freedom fighter; one country’s resistance movement is another’s rebel army.

For representation to be meaningful to audiences there needs to be a shared recognition of people, situations, ideas etc. The ideas and meanings produced by these representations require close examination.

Activity

Consider a situation in which you have been involved in a big argument or even a fight with a classmate about a major issue.

Imagine you are asked to describe the argument to the following people:

Your parents ………..
A close friend …
A teacher ……………

First write brief bullet points of how you would describe the events to yourself.

Then consider carefully how you would select, edit, and prioritise the information to be suitable for each particular audience – parents, friend, teacher.

Discussion

Now discuss in a group or with a friend what factors might influence how you represent the people and events to these audiences. You might talk about the moral values you have because of the way you were brought up, or the feelings of concern and care you feel towards other similar people, or the way you see a particular person – she’s such a flirt, he’s so arrogant.

The way you describe the people and the events will differ according to your audience. To a friend you might describe a troublesome girl as a ‘slag’ but to the teacher she might be – ‘always going on about herself’. The boy might be ‘up himself’ to a friend, but ‘always showing off’ to a parent.

Representations vary according to who is constructing them. They can also vary according to the cultural context and experiences of the audience who are receiving the representations.

Accuracy of Representations

An important debate in any study of the media is about the accuracy of the representations it offers us.

· Is it possible to be wholly accurate?

· Does society have a view on accuracy in the media and who monitors it?

There are official organisations who monitor the media for accuracy and other codes of behaviours to make sure that people are protected to some degree from exposure to lies and deliberate untruths.

You may like to debate broadcasting complaints via Ofcom http://www.ofcom.org and the Press Complaints Commission http://www.pcc.org.uk.

This leads on to the idea that information communicated by a media text is a constructed reshaping of the world; this is not a negative reading but just a fact.

Modern theorists generally agree that what is being represented does not just have the views and cultural luggage of the person creating the representation, but it also needs to take into account the audience’s ability to reform its opinion on viewing..

A film representation of a character for example consists of at least four factors:

1. The character – gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality and look

2. The collective cultural background and views of the producer/director/institution

3. The audience’s reaction to the character

4. Where and when the representation takes place – cinema/home/ laptop/friend’s house

How far have can we trust the representation that is being made to be an accurate portrayal?

In whose interests is it that the representation is made in this way?

How do we relate to the representations?

Consider a selection of print advertisements with strong images. Consider how far the institutional context and audience expectations determine the nature of the representations in these advertisements.

For example consider a recent M&S advertising campaign for smart clothes using Twiggy an older model now but who was very famous as model in 60s. What does the advertising institution represent and which audience is it aiming at? Some people might say it is aimed only at an audience of members of the Women’s Institute, but this is definitely not the only representation and the only audience?

Mediation

Definition

Mediation is the process by which a media text represents an idea, issue or event to an audience.

Mediation is a useful word as it suggests the way in which things undergo a change in the process of being acted upon by the media.

Many people think that if you point a camera at an event or person the ‘reality’ of that event or person will be immediately apparent. Seeing something through a lens changes not just the perspective and size of a person but also how the audience perceives that person.

Activity

Try it for your self. Stand about 5 meters from a friend. Look at the friend through the lens of a camcorder or digital still camera. Zoom the lens in and out.

What can you see on a big close up of the face – did you know your friend had a dimple and green eyes?

What can you tell about her character?

You see something different in a close up of a person to the longer shot when you can see most of the person’s body.

It is only in the longer shot that you know what the subject is wearing, and what she is doing.

Now turn a film light, or other light source, onto your friend – the subject. See the difference that putting extra light on the scene makes to what you see and to how your subject looks.

More light generally makes the subject look much more interesting, vibrant and worth looking at. That is why so much time is spent in making films and television programmes putting up lighting and getting the lights to illuminate the scene in a way which creates the mood the director wants.

On a sunny day try looking through the camera lens at your subject in the sunlight – so many more colours are visible.

This is part of Media Language – working to construct an image for the audience, through the camera lens.

There is well known footage of a cameraman filming a street riot from behind a barricade. He films a gunman pointing his gun at the camera and then firing several rounds straight towards the camera; this actually kills the cameraman.

The shocking footage is that the viewer does not feel, or understand that this is a deadly shot, because the camera goes on filming as the cameraman dies, just like in the movies. The mediation here is that because we – the audience - are looking through a lens we do not feel the reality of the death of the cameraman. Nor perhaps did the cameraman who may have felt he was not in the ‘reality’ of the situation, and therefore did not perceive direct danger to himself.

Media Language

As soon as an image is captured on film or digitally it is a representation of reality, not reality.

Representation is influenced by how the scene is set up, whether it is filming a real event or a fictional scene. The significance of the position of the camera is familiar if you are used to viewing sporting events on television.

In cricket and rugby cameras are used to help the umpire and the referee make decisions. The position of the camera and the angle of the shot makes a significant contribution to meaning, and possibly the result of the match. At home we can see whether a player is offside or not in a football match because of the position of the camera.

In a film the camera can look at a scene from many different angles. Generally the camera will observe. Sometimes the camera will take the Point Of View (POV) of a character, so it will see an event as it were through the eyes of the character.

In any scene the shot size selection tells us a lot about what the director thinks we – the audience - should be understanding and feeling. You could say what representation he or she wants us to receive.

A Close Up (CU or BCU) will restrict our view to a person’s face, which helps the audience understand and empathise with the emotion felt by that character at that time. The important job for the audience is to decode and understand the depth and credibility of the information which is coming across.

In a movie everything included in the frame – the mise-en-scène – is important for conveying meaning and creating a ‘realistic’ or constructed representation.

Lighting, make up, camera angle, costume, soundtrack, music and effects all combine to make the representation of the characters as effective, and sometimes as ‘real’ as possible for an audience.

Discussion

Consider a televised concert, or event. (Not football, OK if you must) less well-known sporting events offer discussable representations (Show jumping, rowing, tennis, ice hockey, rugby) or a live rock concert. Discuss in small groups and list your responses.

· In what ways does the experience of the event differ between being there and watching on television?

· What are the qualities that are present at the live event that cannot be experienced by watching television

· What are the qualities of the televisual representation that may not be experienced by being there?

Activity

Look at a teenage film such as Mean Girls, or any episode of a suitable teenage orientated soap such as Holby City.

Are the teenagers represented a fair and accurate representation of the teenagers you know? If not why not?

You and your friends are going to produce a teenage film.

Create a brief story of a teenage romantic comedy with representations that you consider are entirely accurate.

Draw up a cast list of characters and describe in detail each one. Are you avoiding stereotypes, or using them?

View an altogether different view of teenagers such as can be found in Menhaj Huda’s 2006 film Kidulthood.

Are stereotypes involved – identify them and explain their function in the film.

Representations Change

Representations change over time depending on society’s view of a social group, and are influenced by cultural and legislative changes and, arguably, by media texts. Social groups that are now represented in a progressively more positive way include working women, homosexuals, ethnic minorities, the disabled and the homeless. Some stereotypes persist in their inaccuracy and are often used for comedy – the way we perceive the French and the way they perceive us – les rosbeefs - might be an example of this.

Some large groupings are really too big to study as meaningful representations – this could include old people, women, men, and black people or white people. Other groupings by profession offer stereotypical representations that are subject to considerable change – doctors, nurses, artists, bankers; and others that possibly change less slowly gangsters, gardeners, salesmen, pop stars and screen goddesses. Some groups create their own stereotypes and then try and change them – often unsuccessfully – estate agents, car salesmen, and politicians.

In studying stereotypes, it is better to look at smaller groups that are more cohesive rather than very large groups such as black people or Americans, or women. Other amorphous groups to avoid, although there seem to be a lot of television programmes about them, are obese people, thin people, immigrants, insurgents, football fans, alcoholics, drug addicts and spongers.

You might consider teenagers or young people today, and how they compare to the media’s idea of youth as being rebellious or in revolt. This could have some historical context with Teddy Boys as the stereotype of rebellious youth in the 1950s, Mods and Rockers in the 60s and the rave ‘e’ drug and club culture of the 1990s. The image of young people in the past is heavily reliant on the constructed images of films and newsreels of the period.

· Two contrasting films, with music by The Who, Quadrophenia, and Tommy construct differing views of young people within a historical context. Quadrophenia is set in the 60s and is about rebelliousness caused by suburban boredom. It was made and released, with some hindsight, in the late seventies.

· Ken Russell’s rock opera Tommy which constructs a mythical society of peaceful youth searching for redemption was made in the seventies and has some relevance to that period.

Compare with modern high school teenage ‘gross out’ American Pie style films or more serious British films such as Kidulthood or the rather indulgent TV series Skins.

Representation of young people offer many areas for discussion with historical contexts – ideal for Media Studies A2 and the MED4 exam.

Activity One

It is important to realise that not all stereotypes are negative. Find positive stereotypes of young people in television, magazines, newspapers and films. Explore which representations are the most accurate from your perspective.

Activity Two

Create on video, or with a digital camera, representations of people and places that you think are accurate. Identify an audience for these images, and explain how and why this audience can connect with the images.

For example, take a digital picture of the London Eye and Buckingham Palace. Create a quick tourist poster on Word using the images. Explain which image would suit which audience. An audience of elderly tourists from Japan might prefer one to the other.

Other topic areas for representation studies include contrasting places – New York and London – Paris and Rome – Liverpool and London could be very productive. The advantage with a near by location is that students can visit the place and create their own images.

Homosexuality provides a great deal of texts and historical context but try to select modern relevant texts such as Brokeback Mountain.

Camp representations on television are also interesting – one of the main characters in Ugly Betty is stereotypically TV camp – Graham Norton is the real version – which is more accurate?

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Television Drama AS

Friday, 10 May 2013

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