1. Title- Representation- The Effects Debate
LO: To introduce the Effects Debate
Starter Task- You have 5 minutes to bullet point analyse this product.
Consider the representations of:
50 Cent
Black males
Reebok
Who the product is aimed at
How it is talking to them
The message and ideas present
Stretch- Are these meaning
implicit or explicit?
2. Objectives: Representation- Effects Debate
Learning: To build ideas of effect of media representations in media products
Application: To link this to prior knowledge of media by analysing a product.
Knowledge: To develop ideas about how media representation in is constructed
All our objectives are
AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
the theoretical framework of media
contexts of media and their influence on media products and processes.
AO2: Analyse media products using the theoretical framework of media, including in relation to
their contexts, to make judgements and draw conclusions.
3. Stereotypes
What is meant by the term stereotype?
KEY TERM
Stereotype- A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a
particular type of person or thing.
The term stereotype comes from printing and was first adopted to describe a
printing plate that duplicated any type face.
Today we use it as a term for describing the
way we fit others into expected set patterns of
behaviour or thinking associated with the
group of people that they are thought to
belong to.
5. Stereotypes
Stereotyping is a widely used
technique by producers of
media products. This approach
to the representation of
characters, people, ideas,
places, objects, events is not
intentionally used by
institutions to produce
negative associations in
audience minds, but this may
very often be the unintended
outcome.
6. Stereotypes
The use of, for example, black males
as criminals in TV crime shows very
often with result in reinforcing ideas
of urban violence and ethnicity that
may be in circulation through news
stories.
Similarly, the sexualized
representation of young women in
film may reinforce images and
ideologies elsewhere in society.
7. Stereotypes
Task- Provide a reading
for this 1989 poster
advertising Benetton
clothing:
What does it show?
What does it
represent?
Stretch- What
stereotypes might be
being implied in this
advert?
8. Stereotypes
Stereotypes are not always created by the media, but they are too often
sustained by media representations and all too rarely challenged.
The Handcuffs posters set out to develop a sense of common humanity that
transcends skin colour.
In 1989 it flared into controversy because of how
it was interpreted by different audiences. The
company received many complaints about the
advertisement showing two handcuffed men.
Many people had interpreted the advertisement
as depicting a black man who has been arrested
by a white man.
9. Stereotypes
The issue with media products is that too often they rely on these simple
representations.
They carry with them the build up of experiences of how and where we have
encountered them in previous products.
These build up until they can spill over into our
real world. E.g. we build our knowledge of
Russians on those we have seen in film, TV, on
the news.
We begin to spill over our understanding of
fictional types with how we see real people.
We believe we know what Russians are like.
10. Stereotypes
If young, black males are portrayed in most
film and TV roles and rap music lyrics as
troubled, dangerous and violent with gang
associations, then when the news runs stories
of gang crime in urban areas- such as the
Ferguson riots in America in 2015- we begin
to spill over our encounters with fictional
black males into how we view young black
males in the real world
In the Benetton poster many saw the poster
as racist because of their built up
expectations of such media images.
11. Stereotypes
A repeated criticism of the media is that too often it reduces our world into
simplistic, easily recognisible elements. It does so to tell its stories effectively.
As we saw with Media Language,
narratives offer only a few types of
characters and these are constructed
to be easily identifiable by audiences
according to their sphere of action.
Task- If this was a film what role
would each of these characters
play? How do you know?
12. Stereotypes
The issue becomes pressing when we begin to make assumptions about real
people based on the simplistic ideas we have learned from media products.
Some stereotypes often
promoted are:
Poor people are lazy
All homeless are
uneducated
All immigrants are
scroungers after UK
social welfare.
13. Stereotypes
For example: In constructing representations products might give an old man
white hair and a walking stick. An image of a business man is constructed with
a three piece suit and a briefcase.
Whilst not all old men need a walking
stick and not all business men carry a
briefcase, these are easy and quick ways
of signifying some details about the
character- he is old, he is a business
man. The issue is that we are lead to
form our opinions of real people in our
real world on these same simple
features.
14. Stereotypes
In being so successful in doing so in fictional narratives, the media has
constructed a language that we all understand. It has done this so successfully
that we now increasingly think about the real world in a similar way.
We see our own world composing
of heroes, villains, donors,
princesses and prizes.
Our world has equilibrium,
disruptions, climactic events and
resolutions. This is because it is
how the news is presented to us.
15. Stereotypes
Task- Follow the link to the article in The Independent and answer these
questions:
1. What language does the report find is
commonly used to describe teenage boys?
2. Why do you think this has a negative impact on
teenage boys?
3. The article states that the boys voices
themselves were rarely heard in newspapers.
What do you think is the impact of this on how
teenage boys are seen by newspaper readers?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hoodies-louts-scum-how-media-demonises-teenagers-1643964.htm
l
16. Stereotypes
When a photo of a group of perfectly ordinary lads, just standing
around wearing hooded tops, has become visual shorthand for urban menace,
or even the breakdown of society, its clear that teenage boys have a serious
image problem. The teen boys brand has become toxic. Media coverage of
boys is unrelentingly negative, focusing almost entirely on them as victims or
perpetrators of crime and our research shows that the media is helping make
teenage boys fearful of each other."
Discuss this quote from the article in your pairs.
How and why do newspapers construct a representation of youth that is
dominantly negative?
Look at other negative portrayals of youth in the media.
17. How well do you understand the use of representations to create meaning
in media products? Write down RED, AMBER OR GREEN.
Plenary
I understand
representation is a
deliberate selection that
can alter meanings and
audience understandings
I understand how to
apply this to a range of
products
Editor's Notes
Pg 41 of sample assessment material has MS for a NLG question detailing indicative content of a response