A2 SOCIOLOGY

1. A2 SOCIOLOGY MEDIA REPRESENTATION AND ETHNICITY

2. Starter Getting you thinking task  Answer the three questions on the handout.

3. A few facts • Ethnic minority group represent 7.9% of the population (UK Census -2001), • Ethnic minority groups are at the forefront of media use (Ofcom 2008), • Ethnic minority groups more likely to download music, own a mobile phone, , watch TV, • 65% -79% of ethnic minority groups download music online.

4. What do you think ? How can we explain those facts and figures ?

5. Representations of ethnic minorities • Ethnic minorities are generally underrepresented, • Represented in a stereotyped and negative ways across a wide range of media by showing ethnic minorities as a problem group, • Representation in the media that associate black people with physical activity rather than intellectual.

6. Stereotypical representations • Atkinti (2003) • Television coverage of ethnic minorities over focuses on crime, Aids in Africa and black underachievement in schools. • Van Dijk (1991) • Content analysis of tens of thousands of news items across the world over several decades.

7. Ethnic minorities as criminals • Ethnic minorities and moral panics, • Moral panics and rap music,

8. Ethnic minorities as criminal • Agbetu(2006) suggest that a black person construed in the media has three attributes: • Involvement in crime, • Involvement in sport, • Involvement in entertainment. • Black people tend to be seen as perpetrators as opposed to victims, • Assumptions that afro-carribean are only interested in the carnival and dancing as well as all being “Yardies”.

9. Ethnic minorities and moral panics • Watson (2008) • Moral panics are a result of the negative stereotyping of black people as criminals, • Hall (1978) study of 1970 moral panic that was constructed around the folk devil of the “black mugger” – increased policing of the black community • Back (2002) • Argues that the reporting of inner city race disturbances involving menbers of ethnic minority groups tend to be strereotypoes as riots. • This stereotyping renders the disturbance as criminal and irrational as opposed to “the uprising” of a community who has been treated unfairly.

10. Moral panics and rap music • Zylinska (2003): • Gansta rap which was believed to be accountable to the rise in “black crime”, • So Solid Crew and the glorification of gun violence, • 50 Cents “Get Rich or Die Trying” which depicted the rapper holding a gun (ASA – Advertising Standards Authority), • 50 Cents credibility amongst young people meant that his association gang culture and criminal behaviour was likely to be seen glamorizing and condoning the possession of and use of guns.

11. Moral panics and rap music • David Cameron (2006) – criticised BBC Radio 1 for playing gansta rap which encourages people to carry knives and guns, • Ligali (2003) protested at the MOBO about the music industry for supporting and awarding artist who promote the use of firearms, • Ligali (2003) misogynist attitudes of rap lyrics and videos which devalue, disrespect and damage women by treating them as inanimate object purely to be used for the purpose of male sexual gratifications.

12. Relationship between gun crime and rap/hip hop • Form of cultural identity (Best and Keller, 1999) • Rap articulates the experiences and conditions of young blacks living on the margins in inner city areas and or deprived council estates, • Rap is an outlet for young black male to communicate their anger and sense of injustice.

13. Ambivalent effects • Ambivalent: Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone, • Rap and Hip/Hop highlight racism and oppression that black male suffer by describing the hopelessness of the inner city and deprived experience, • Best and Kellner believe that at its worse rap and Hip/Hop is racist, sexist and glorifies violence.

14. Individual Task Read through the article on your handout and answer the question.

15. Negative role models • Sewell (2004) – media culture, street culture black family life especially the absence of fathers are responsible in shaping black subcultures on the street, • Black pupils experiences in education, institutional racism also contribute to the shaping of black subcultures.

16. Role of education and family life • Sewell (2004) – education and black family life is to blame alongside the media for young black male turning to negative role models, • Sewell (2004) – 3 major risk factors: • Street culture (material things more important than education), • Media culture ( status and respect can be achieved by adopting a consumer street culture), • Black family life (young black males lacking the role models and their experiences of the white educational system).

17. What do you think ? How might rap and hip-hop reinforce the capitalist ideology that exist in society ?

18. Reinforcing capitalist ideology • Cashmore (1996) – media representation not solely responsible for black subcultures but rather the capitalist ideology reinforces the need for material gain. Myth of meritocracy. • Mitchell (2007) – message sent to young black males reinforces the need for material gain. He further argues that rap essential reinforces rather than undermine our society’s values “you are what you own”

19. Ethnic minorities as a threat • Van Dijk (1991) – common news stereotype that ethnic minorities are posing a threat to the majority white culture (moral panics): • Immigrants ( seen as a threat in terms of their numbers and their impact on the job supply, housing, etc), • Refugees and asylum seekers (seen as abuser of the welfare state and taking, • Muslims – islamophobic media coverage following the 9/11

20. Race, migration and media • Philo and Beattie (1999) – moral panics tend to focus on immigrants and asylum seekers, • Stories by journalist usually presented in a negative and alarmist way, • News coverage on the rise of illegal immigrants coming into Britain highly racist • “the result was a news which was sometimes xenophobic in tone which reinforced our identity and their exclusion and, perhaps more importantly provided a rationale for the apparent need for exclusion”

21. Media representation of Islam and Muslims • Poole (2000) – demonized and distorted by the media as a threat to Western ideologies, • Patel (1999) – Islam is purposely misrepresented as it challenges Western cultural power, • Richardson (2001) – empirical study of British Muslim in the press found that they are mostly negatively represented, • Whitaker (2002) – Muslims are represented as intolerant, misogynist violent or cruel as well as strange and different.

22. Individual Task Read through the article on your handout and answer the question.

23. Ethnic minorities as abnormal • BBC (2002) - survey of Asian audiences and their feelings about how they were portrayed in the mass media, • Ethnic Focus (2004) – complaint with regards the representations of the Asian community as divided n two camps those forced into miserable loveless marriages and those who have become millionaires. • Ameli et al (2007) – media discussion over the wearing of the Hijab and the veil is always problematic suggesting that it is an inferior form of dress. The Hijab and the veil somehow reinforce Western beliefs that Islam is misogynist and patriarchal.

24. Ethnic minorities as invisible • Limited roles, • Cultural irrelevance, • Invisibility, • Tokenism, • Realism, • Ghettoization, • Media personnel

25. Limited roles • In popular drama the perceprtion of ethnic minority audience is when ethnic minority actors appear usually taking on the roles clearners (african) and shopkeeper (asians), • This reflect their low status in Britain with regards to the occupation they work in.

26. Cultural irrelevance • Open University and British Film Institute (2006) found that UK’s main ethnic minorities do not relate to much of the television and do not identify with televison programmes which have strong white, middle england associations.

27. Invisibility • Invisibility of ehtnic minority in the beauty and adevrtising industry. • Gill (2007) feminine beauty in womens media tend to over-emphasize whiteness.

28. Tokenism • This wehre programmes depict characters from ethnic minortities because they should, • For example having an afro-caribbean character in Emmerdale where it is very unlikely to occur.

29. Realism • Ethnic minority audiences complain that very rarely is someone from an ethnic minority depicted as an ordinary citizen, • More likely to be depicted in an ethnic role for example in Eastenders young black males tend to be represented as criminals, etc...

30. Ghettoization • Television programmes dedicated to minority issues are scheduled very early of very late in order to ensure small audiences.

31. Media personnel • Survey by Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (2006) found that less than 7% of people in these fields were from ethnic minority background.