Task 3

Task 3- "Media representations favour those with power at the expense of those without." To what extent do you think this statement is true?”

Historically media representation has favoured those with power for example ‘Mans world’ (1947) is a British film which represented women as being inferior to men this was shown by women who were cooking and cleaning and other domestic jobs for the benefit of men. This was a dominate representation of when as society was constantly presented with these negative representations of women this had a negative effect on society as passive audience failed to question these representations of women resulting in the cultivation theory were it were it became normal in society as they began to think this was how society was meant to be. This negative representation was constructed and presented by those in power at the time which would be middle class white men according to hegemony these people were in charge of the creative side of the production of films and other media products. This negative representation allowed them to stay in control in society through these representations and these perspectives were never challenged for a number of years as there were no women in media institutions to represent women in society. The main reason women were portrayed negatively at that time was because they were seen to be a treat to the hegemonic values.

In addition young people are also shown to be negatively represented through the media for example in print ‘Britain a nation of yobs’ a headline in the Sun 2007 which illustrates that Britain is under attack by young yobs. Politically this is also shown by laws recently made targeting young people such as ‘stop and search’ related to gun and knife crime, this is all shown in the media to raise concern and to create a Moral panic this allows the elite and the power to convince society that these people are a treat which makes it easier for them to get treated negatively ‘ How we are seen, determines how we are treated’ said Stuart Hall which favours those in power as how we are represented on TV, internet and film as well as other medial platform has an impact on how we are treated in society.

Furthermore ethnic minorities are resented as being ‘Immagrants’ and this is shown through British soaps for example Mr Indeep in Eastenders an elderly man from India is shown to not fit into society and he is constantly alienated this is illustrated by the fact that he can’t speak English , so this negative representation of Ethnic minorities again favours the powerful and elite in society as it focuses the audience on the concerns of those ethnic minorities meaning society are less able to challenge the status quo and the hegemonic values of the powerful.  

There are hardly any positive representation of young people in the media maybe because positive representations of young people do not sell and are less profitable as less audience consume it. This is outlined by the British film Adulthood which depicted young people in a negative way made £3million revenue compared to another British film ‘School is cool’ which depicted young people at school and making a positive change in society but only made a total revenue of 50,000 which outlines the fact that the media owners (the most powerful and elite) are again making more of a profit of negative representations of young people then positive representations of young people.