Theorists Etc

A2 media studies UNIT 4 TEXTS IN CONTEXT REPRESENTATIONS Aims: To focus on good introductions To revise the theorists To explore the alternative reps question

STARTER; What are the changes in how black male youth are represented? What are the alternatives? Does it depend on how you view it?

THEORISTS How will these be used in your essays? Dyer MEDIATION THEORY Hall THEORY OF BLACK STEREOTYPES Neale implicit personality theory MARY IS PRETTY AND HAPPY OR SAD Mistry APPLICATION OF GRAMSCIS THEORY OF HEGEMONY MAIN: Go through the arguments below. Decide which are important, which you can apply theory to and which you have e,.g s for. TYPICAL ARGUMENTS Narrow representations (not as wide as offered to white characters) Absent or tokenism (see reversal in cosby show) Characters created to appease white majority e.g cosby “no black traits” Countertypes are still very restricted and unrealistic “too noble” etc. Often easier in a soap than a film to represent a range than a film Films tend more to stereotypes as shorter time period Gun crime constant narrative in black youth films as this is a realistic problem but seems to perpetuate the problem even if not glamourised in bullet boy

Sometimes the positive stereotypes reafirms that all is okay for the white community Groups take on a negative stereotype for themselves as a means of repossessing it e,g, nigger PROBLEM gives audiences a complex relationship with the real. Difference in representation often comes from questioning who has made the representation (from what political persuasion are they and what message are they trying to create?) Only way of changing the perception of an oppressed group is at the level of representation e.g creating an alternative and replacing a negative with a positive. PROBLEM: members of oppressed groups are less likely to have access to influential positions in the media and therefore it will tend to be the powerful group that creates these “positive representations” PROBLEM: if the group is underrepresented then any representation will be seen as representative of the whole group. Representations can end up being safe and unprogressive.