Essay

How British society is represented on television.

In today’s society our main source of information is the media. We are constantly are given manipulated information about different people and there lifestyles that is false and untrue. T.V represents the different types of people by stereotyping. This changes people’s attitudes towards them. It makes the audience opinion feel better about themselves seem better than another class or social status

In the past, there was clear sets of class that defined society. Now in the modern world people are more defined by there social groups rather than there class. People are not recognized by being upper and working class but by being a snob or a “Chav.”

Now when T.V. is representing students, they are portrayed with drugs, being lazy and shown many of the times breaking the law. Students are supposed to be are next great leaders but are symbolized as wasters. T.V programmes such as “Skins” and “The Inbetweeners” commonly do this. In the modern world students are looked less upon than prisoners. QUOTE!!!!!!!!!!! When asking 100 random people of there idea of a student majority of there opinions of a student was negative.

Working class people mainly are the target audience for people watching T.V. One of the reasons for this is while everyone are earning a living, a lot of working class people are at home on the dole watching T.V. Are main source of a stereotype of working class people comes from shameless and Coronation Street. With programs such as shameless and Coronation Street, it shows the lifestyles of a dysfunctional working class (or chav) families. It constantly shows the families taking drugs and commit adultery, going to the local pub and getting drunk.

In one respect it people who watch these shows are people that want more from their own life. more exciting and want to escape from the cycle of deprivation.

T.V is a source of self comfort by boosting there ego and creating fictional lifestyles which look fun and exciting.

Our gaze of how we like to look at people, we enjoy watching the underdog becoming a hero and the downfall of the a villain. An example of this is Only Fool’s and horse’s Del Boy becoming rich, more than Quote viewers tuned in to watch the 1999 Christmas special of only fool and horse’s to see Del Boy become a millionaire.

Magazines such as heat and ok blatantly shows celebrities downfall, whether its they are getting divorced or been caught doing something embarrassing on camera. This makes the reader feel that there life is better than that and is a form of self comforting to them. Quote!!

Another reason why magazine such as heat show the downfall or celebrities is that woman are the main target audience for the people that read the magazines. In society woman are still seen as the less superior species. They are still treated like objects and are still displayed on page 3. “Women living in a mans world” The woman reading these magazines are able to relate to the problems they are having.

Fame Power and Money,

In the past having more money meant having more power. Nowadays being famous generates having more power than having more money. The queen up is upper class seems to be looked less upon than working class celebrities such as Pete Dougherty and Amy Winehouse, Both of who have numerous time been caught breaking the law. Jade Goody death has had almost as much media attention than when Princess Dianna died. Quote!!!!

Jade Goody is a world wide celebrity by appearing on a show called big brother. Two years ago in January 2007, Jade Goody torn apart for saying a racist remark on national television. When she was diagnosed with cancer the media felt sorry for her, which just goes to show how the media can rip apart show one and then heroic them to sell story’s. She herself used the media as a source of money to provide for her family after death. She sold her story to make money for her family. This is an example of how having fame gives power to make money..

Communication theory is used and manipulated by the media. The majority of programs shows working class people to be better than upper class people, even though they are all equal. Most working class homes furniture are points at the T.V. (like the Royale family) where as more than likely upper-class homes there furniture will be pointing at the fireplace or have a table as a means of social gathering. Upper class people will use social interaction as a form of entertainment.

Suppressing peoples abilities, people thinking it good to do drugs and get drunk keeps them in there place in society, stops them having power, fame and money! Showing these people in this perceptive is not ethical what so ever. It creates an impression that braking the law and morally wrong things are ok to do so, which can also create a butterfly effect by making people think doing drugs is a good idea and then exercising the idea and taking drugs. “Monkey see, Monkey do.” The modern man isn’t shown working hard on T.V. In fictional programmes often doesn’t show men going out earning a living but to stay at home and waste there lives away.

Is the way TV wants to represent British society intentional or lost with noise? Most of the news shows people in a bad light, which creates the impression that everyone is a villain. If for example a priests is caught child molesting then the media create a impression that all priests are child molester. This is one of the bad ways in which people are represent wrong on T.V.

Representing people on T.V. creates a stereotype for a type of person. A stereotype helps people to define who a person is, even if it is not correct. 9 out of 10 people who offer a lift to someone of the same race as themselves. This is the fear of the unknown. Using stereotypes it help us to make an impression about who a person is. A very common type of stereotype is a gay on T.V. When T.V. want to show a gay man, T.V. will portray him as extremely camp and feminine, which is not true in real life. Unfortunately because T.V. portrays this type of person, a person in real life who act like this is automatically thought of to be homosexual.

On television there are hardly any programmes dedicated to disabled people. The programmes available for deaf people with the person showing sign language in the bottom of the screen only appears late at night.

Technology, can watch whatever you want at anytime now. Due to advances in the Internet we are able to watch whatever we want and when ever we want online.

People are more interested in other people that are socially below us to boost are ego, “least our life isn’t as bad as there’s” This make people feel better about themselves.



A Contrast between fictional characters and real life celebrities.

Magazines such as heat are used as a source for women to learn how to become the “ideal” woman. They give advise about dieting and how to have a perfect body. I

Having fame power and money does not determine which class a person is defined by. Prince Harry has all three of these but live the lifestyle of a chav. In numerous occasions he has been photographed by the newspapers taking drugs, being racist and being drunk. If he was being described to people, these would not the actions of an upper class person.

When American shows show British people on television, there idea of British society is drinking tea at three and being posh. Comparing the sitcom friends and Coldfeet, they are both programmes revolving around 6 friends and there life’s. Friends is very upbeat and shows the fun side to the friends problems whereas Coldfeet has many of the same problems but is a lot more serious and depressive than Friends. An example of this is the season finale of the shows. Friends shows the friends all moving away from each other and having new life’s to look forward to whereas Coldfeet one of the main characters was killed off. This shows that British television shows the depressing side of life, creating a more realistic view of the world.

The class that people are defined is by how rich they are or how famous or how powerful they may be. People from a working class background that have lots of money doesn’t make them middle or upper class. Michael Carroll won the national lottery and is from a working class background who defines himself as “The king of the chavs”. In no respect who this man be put in a middle class categories even though he has fame money and power.

The media have the control to give or take power away from people. Today the public are obsessed with celebrities. We enjoy looking at people (The gaze.) The problem is that with the media give people this power, celebrities are being prosecuted for crime and having lighter sentences than say the general public.

In 2007 Brittany Spear shaved her head and was described as metal, but since then she has had a number 1 single and has brought out two albums. She is another person that the media have built up, crashed down and built back up again. Her life is made by the media.

The media today does help to define what class or social group people belong to. Today people worship celebrities more than god. Are role models are not the virgin Mary and Nelson Mandela but Paris Hilton and Liam Gallagher. Big brothers Chantelle was so obsessed with Victoria Beckham; she based her entire image upon her, and is now famous for it.

People with either fame power or money are able to use one of these to enhance another. For example, if a person is arrested and has a lot of money, they are able to offer a bribe to get out of a situation. Quote!!

In conclusion today’s class system is more of a social system. People are not defined by the amount of money, how famous they are or how much power they have, but in stead of who they look like and what they do with the money they have made. These opinions are high based with the media and television. Celebrities and T.V. programmes are today’s form of religion giving people morals, what is right and wrong, how to live there lives and how we should look like and how to make us on par with our new Gods, The celebrities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Carroll_(lottery_winner)

How is British Society Represented on T.V.

Look at new class system

Social groups: chav, emo, students


Social order

subcultures


Fame? Power? Money?

Surveys



Celebrities on par with Politics

Tony Blair with Catherine Tate

The Queen is one on her own

Prince Harry more of a celebrity than part of the royal family!


A
Upper class
Upper middle class
Middle class
Lower middle class
Upper working class
Working class
Lower working class
Homeless

ESSAY

My idea for the essay will be based upon how different people are represented on television.

I will be looking at how the different t.v programs shows different types of people and if they are true.

I will critical analysis whether the target audience for the program is biast to a particular stereotype.
e.g shameless makes chavs look fun
skins makes students look fun

i will then analysis whether these representation are a total accurate if not how these characters can be believable.

i will analysis a real person (celebrity) who is put into a certain stereotype and compare and contrast them with a fictional character from T.V.

The different sections i will look into will be:
stereotypes
representation
fictional t.v characters
celebrity culture

Essay question

Ideas: "How different people are perceived by the media"

Things to look at

students
chavs
old people
sterotypes
representation

Sumary

Semiotics
The study of signs-we give sign meaning
Signifies something else
Denotive (explicit)
Connotive (implicit)

Outsider art-not main stream or else everything ends up the same



Communication theory

Message-noise

Redundancy-repeats to get message
Entropy- Opposite



Interventionism

The Gaze-“we like looking”

The male gaze-Woman as objects-virgin Mary- awww
Conditioning-“The world is this way so challenges it.

Taught not to think-GCSE is about remembering

Genre- Codes and conventions
Expectations
Themes

Stereotypes/Representation-shameless
The way we make sense-show a gay man


Digenesis
Breaking the forth wall

Suspension of disbelief

Desensitised-GTA
Conditioning =Brainwashing

Ideology-Educate, Inform and Entertain(BBC)
Social realism
Social responsibility
Ethics
Good person-money