To discuss and identify how age is represented in the media

• Quickly discuss and list how the following are represented in the media:

– Teenagers

– Old people

– Middle aged people (45 – 55)

Age

After gender and ethnicity, age is the most obvious category under which we stereotype people, and there are a whole range of judgements which go along with our categorisation.

We quickly deem other people too old, or too young.

We criticise mature women for going about as mutton dressed as lamb

We criticise young girls for tartingthemselves up as jail bait

Film stars who start to show signs of aging in their forties are swooped on with cries of horror by gossip columnists ("Movie star gets wrinkles... and her tits start to sag" shocker!!)

What are the representations?

How are they constructed? Why are they constructed?

Dominant representation of young people

• Yobbish/anti-social behaviour

• Chavvy

• Gang culture

• Disrespect

• Drink and drugs

• Teen pregnancies

• Which media texts perpetuate this image?

Eastenders: Martin Fowler

• First character to be born in the programme.

• Stereotypical youth from many news stories.

• Anti-social behaviour with gangs

• Teenage, unmarried father

• Prison sentence for manslaughter

• Continued criminal behaviour upon release

Moral panics!

Theorist - Stanley Cohen (1972)

• Studied youth groups in 1960s.

• A moral panic occurs when society sees itself threatened by the values and activities of a group who are stigmatised as deviant and seen as threatening to mainstream society’s values, ideologies and /or way of life.

• Mods & Rockers (1960s), football hooligans, muggers, vandals, mobile-phone snatchers...

Working class males

• Represented as yobs.

• Stuart Hall (1978) argues that the negative representation of young people is deliberate as it justifies social control by authority figures such as the police and government. The media has a key role in this ‘social production’ of news.

Jamie Bulger(2000 – 2003)

No evidence was presented that either boy had watched ‘Child’s Play 3’. The judge made the connection and this was picked up by the tabloid press. It led to a change in the law so the BBFC now has to take into account ‘the influence’ of videos as well as their content.

From media text to legislation

1. Occurrence of deviant act or social phenomenon.

2. Act or problem widely reported in media: news outlets; internet chat rooms; fictional narratives; video games…

3. Call for government control either from legislation/policy initiatives or the more vigilant operation of already existing social controls. e.g.:

How has Catherine Tate represented ‘Nan’?

Is she stereotypical?Why? Why not?

Look at her iconography.

What genre of programme does she exist in?

How does this affect her representation?

Pensioners

Does gender make a difference?

Film vs TV

Why do you think there are more opportunities for older women in fictional TV than film?

Stereotypes

• Poor• Fussy• Senile• Infirm• Interfering• Victims• Dependent• Kind• Generous• Happy• Engaging in stereo-typical pastimes

• Humorous idiosyncrasies:

– Forgetfulness

– Senility

– Grumpiness

– Saying the wrong thing

• Does this reinforce the stereotype?

Sitcom