Media Studies Mock Revision

Media Issues and Debates

Post 9/11 and the media

What are the issues raised regarding the representation of ethnic minority groups?

In the media, ethnic minorities are marginalised by the hegemonic elite across platforms such as broadcast, print and the e media. In many television shows, ethnic minorities are constructed as token characters, such as Glee, Eastenders and often are subordinated in order to signify the dominant white male character, as seen with many American teenage films, such as High School Musical, Juno etc.

In regards to the print platform, many right wing newspapers such as the Daily Mail, The Daily Express often stigmatise and marginalise ethnic minorities, as evident in the Daily Mail's article 'Black drug offenders are 'eight times more likely to be jailed than whites'. This article creates a moral panic in the audience, as they are inject with ideologies that black men are dangerous and are often misrepresented as being criminals. Similar articles representing black men in a similar way may cause the audience to gain certain views about black people being criminals, most of which may be false , hence this group may be signified as folk devils who violate societal values of self control, as coined by Stan Cohen.

Likewise, ethnic minorities are also objectified in television programmes such as 'Crimewatch', where black men, pakistanis and other ethnic groups are represented as being deviant and troublesome. By marginalising the ethnic minorities in this way, the hegemonic elite are able to inject ideologies into the audience that ethnic minorities are deviants. Similarly, ethnic minorities on this show are accurately represented as being criminals, in order to cause fear in the audience, who may have oppositional readings to criminals and a negotiated reading with the producers of the show, as they are trying to detain these social deviants.

In the same way, the media has become Islamaphobic following the 9/11 attacks and has therefore subordinated muslims as being 'folk devils' as suggested by Stan Cohen. Across the print and broadcast platform, muslims are represented as being evil , as signified in the film Four Lions, where the four muslims desire to be suicide bombers and are driven to cause destruction. Evidently, in tabloid newspapers such as The Daily Mail, The Evening Standard and the Sun, muslims are demonised and subordinated by the elite. The fact that these newspapers are mainly right wing could signify how the white elite want to subordinate this ethnic group in order to stay in power.