Essay Question

Media representations favour those with power at the expense of those without. To what extent do you think this statement is true?

In the media, the higher institutions create media representations which favour them in order to keep their positions stronger. Generally, media representations of teenagers in the media have often been constructed as being negative, especially with black males who are often linked with violence. Similarly, the media misrepresents ethnic minorities across platforms such as television and print , as they may pose a threat to the elite. By subordinating these representations, more dominant representations of white males for example may favour the elite. Evidently, obese people are another example of representations who are marginalised in society, yet gradually more representations of obese people are evident in the media, for example Glee includes dominant characters who are obese.

In regards to teenagers, media representations in the tabloid press and on the broadcast platform favour the elite, as they are often represented as being deviant and troublesome, as seen in the BBC television drama "Waterloo Road". The show gives a supposed 'accurate' representation of teenagers in a school setting and constructs teenagers boys such as Kyle Stack in particular to be deviant and troublesome. Therefore, these representations favour those with power, as they can inject ideologies into the audience that teenagers may disrupt the social order and be menaces to society.

In accordance, black teenage males are subject to being constructed as social deviants in the media, especially on the broadcast and print platforms. The negative representations of black males on television shows such as 'CrimeWatch' and in newspapers such as The Daily Mail and free sheets such as The Metro and The Evening Standard signifies that this group are threatening and creates a moral panic that convinces the audience to believe that teenage black males are deviant in society.

Likewise, the representation of homosexuals in the media favours those with power, as they are often marginalised in the media by the elite, in newspapers such as The Daily Mail. The representation of homosexuals in this newspaper is often misconstructed, as the elite try to subordinate other groups in order to remain powerful. In television shows such as 'Ugly Betty', homosexuals are often represented as being flamboyant, bitchy and melodramatic, as evident with Mark who is PA to Wilhemina Slater. By marginalising these characters, the elite would want to keep their position at the top and would want to instill ideologies into the audience that homosexuals are evil/ worthless in society.

In accordance to this, immigrants may also be marginalised by those in power, as the audience would be injected with the ideology that immigrants are threatening, as they steal people's jobs and are given accommodation first when they arrive in the UK. The media representation of immigrants is often mediated as being evil and threatening to society, as evident in the Daily Mail, where immigrants are victimised by the press for stealing British people's jobs. Therefore, the audience would immediately resent immigrants without necessarily understanding their situations and reasons why they have entered the UK.

The media representations of obese people favour those with power at the expense of those without, as obese people are victimised and resented particularly in the print platform, as fashion magazines such as Vogue and lads mags such as Zoo and Nuts don't include shapely/obese women in their magazines, as they feel that they are 'ugly' and 'undesirable'. In regards to Cohen, 'obese people are folk devils who violate societal values of self control', therefore media institutions may have a right to construct obese people as being undesirable and could marginalise this group as folk devils. By marginalising these characters , the powerful elite can have more of an influence on what the audience sees and injects messages into the audience that obesity and obese people are a concern to society.

In contrast, obese people can be alternatively represented in the media by the higher institutions, for example James Corden is one of the main characters in the BBC Drama 'Gavin and Stacey and is accepted for his appearance. Likewise, in Glee, Mercedes Jones is accepted for her weight and offers hope for other obese people to be successful in the media. Moreover, reality shows such as 'The Biggest Loser' and 'Supersize vs Superskinny' on ITV perpetuate the fair representation of obese people who desire to be accepted for wanting to be slim and are mediated in the show as being determined to succeed with their goal of losing weight.

Similarly, the representation of women in music videos tends to favour the elite, as particularly in hip hop and rap videos, women are objectified and subordinated in order to represent the lead male singer as dominant. Evidently, in Rihanna's 'Rude Boy' video, she is dressed in short, revealing clothing and is jirating around the man thus connoting her sexual desires. As well as this, her body is fetished in order to arouse the male's scopophilic pleasures, as the video and others by artists such as 50 cent and Lil Wayne feature women wearing scantily clad clothing and are dancing around the male. Generally, most of these videos subordinate women in order to assert the dominance of the male audience.

On the whole, media representations do, in fact favour those with power at the expense of those without, as representations of teenagers, homosexuals and immigrants are often mediated in the tabloid press, as well as other platforms as being deviant and threatening to the status quo. By marginalising these groups in the media, the elite inject messages into the audience that these groups are threatening and will affect society in a negative way. However, alternative representations of these groups in the media, for example obese people in reality television shows do give power to those without, as the alternative representations may widen the audience's understanding and make the audience realise that these groups pose no threat and should therefore be accepted in society.