Final

How British society is represented on television

This essay will be looking at how British society is represented on television. It will be looking at issues such as whether characters on television are representing real types of people correctly, the importance of fame, power and money in modern day society, what is a modern day class system and if today one actually exists, celebrity culture, how other countries view British society on television and how television can influence people.

In today’s society our main source of information is the media. We are constantly given manipulated information about different people and their lifestyles that is false and untrue. T.V represents different types of people by stereotyping. This can changes people’s attitudes towards them.

In the past, and presently in other countries, television very often stereotypes English people as being posh. A general presumption of English people is
“Wear bowler hats and pinstripes suits, carry black briefcases and a large black umbrella.”
(Online: http://www.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?start=15&t=6263:23 February 2007)

This stereotyping of English people is very untrue. A more realistic view of Britain today is people going out at the weekend, getting drunk and creating chaos in the streets.

In the past, there were clear sets of class that defined society. The website www.ucel.ac.uk states that:
“Social Class and Socio-economic groups. This consisted of six major classes, ranging from
‘Professionals’ in class one to ‘Unskilled’ and ‘Other’ in classes 5 and 6. Class 3 was sub-divided
into manual and non-manual skills.
I) Professional
II) Managerial/Technical
IIIa) Skilled (non-manual)
IIIb) Skilled (manual)
IV) Partly Skilled
V) Unskilled
VI) Other”
(www.ucel.ac.uk:2009-04-20:Online)

In the modern world people are more defined by their social groups rather than their class. People are not recognized as being upper and working class but by being a snob or a “Chav.”

The class in which people are defined today is not how rich, famous and powerful they may be. For example people from a working class background who have lots of money are not necessarily middle or upper class. This has been proved by Michael Carroll who won the national lottery and is from a working class background he defines himself as “The king of the chavs”. (Online:www.independent.co.uk/news/ :22 October 2006) In no respect will this man be put in a middle class category even though he has fame, money and power.

Today we focus more on about the appearance of different people rather than the amount of money they earn. The book philosophy of art states about how people are judged by the way they look when being represented in drama.

“According to Plato, the essence of drama was imitation, the simulation of appearances. That is actors in plays imitate the actions of whomever they represent. In Medea, the actors, for example, imitate having arguments, Plato thought that this was problematic primarily because he believed the appearances appeal to the emotions and that stirring up the emotions is socially dangerous.” (Carroll: 1999: p )

The same goes with television. People who watch them may feel emotionally attached to the characters because they have been through something similar in their own lives like the character. It may also create an impact on their own lives by making them want to become more like the character, this is often heard about with children and video games which may make the children violent. This would not be that bad apart from the majority of the T.V characters that are portrayed as “cool” are bad.

The way in which people are represented on television changes over time and the location they are in. This is shown here by Janet Wolff (P103.1984)

“So far I have argued that the recovery of any “original” meaning is, at least in practice, not possible, and that the way which we understand, or ‘read’ texts, films or paintings is a function of own position, and therefore change from one period to another and one viewpoint to another.”

When American shows portray British people on television, there idea of British society is drinking tea at three and being posh. Comparing the sitcom’s friends and Coldfeet, both programmes revolve around 6 friends and their lives. 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 than American sitcoms.

Another example of this is the office. The British version of the office is very realistic and involves the uncomfortable situations that people can relate to or have been in themselves. This compared to the American version of the office shows a much more slap stick comedy, which is quite unrealistic.

The meaning of media changes dependant on the time and the culture. One thing might mean something to one person and something completely different to somebody else. This further proves the point that people in society represented on T.V is not accurate.

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. On T.V. students are looked less upon than prisoners.

The representation of people such as students is not always accurate. A person talking about . them may have a biased opinion of them. The social democratic argument that Nicholas Pearson (Page108.1982) say’s that:
“The importance of visual arts is argued for the grounds that the visual making, representation, elaboration and understanding at our lives and experiences is something that concerns everybody. Just as we make and understand and communicate our lives experience through the written and spoken language, so, it is argued we should all have access to be part of, and involved in visual making and collective lives and experiences”

This is saying that people who create the text are communicating their own personal experiences. This is wrong because his or her image of a certain type of person may be completely different to someone else’s. An example of this is a boy’s father walking out on him and his mum. The boy may only show a father a bad person, where as most fathers are good men. It may be seen as wrong to show fathers as bad people just because one individual has had a bad experience. These types of stories are often shown by the media.

The media also help to define what class or social group people belong to. Today people worship celebrities more than god. The role models are not the Virgin Mary and Nelson Mandela but Paris Hilton and Liam Gallagher. The programme Big Brother had a contestant called Chantelle on it. This woman was obsessed with Victoria Beckham, so obsessed she based her entire image upon her, and is now famous for it. Chantelle was also famous for being a normal working class woman appearing on celebrity Big Brother.

Working class people are mainly the target audience for people watching T.V. One of the reasons for this is while everyone is earning a living, a lot of working class people are at home on the dole watching T.V. Our main source of a stereotype a working class people comes from programmes like Shameless and Coronation Street. The website www.musem.tv talks about how idiocy is still the used to portray working class citizens.

“In a 1977 Journal of Communication article Lynn Berk argued that Archie Bunker exemplified the equation of bigotry with working class stupidity, a stereotype no longer applied to race but still acceptable in characterizing the working class.”(www.museum.tv/.2009 )

With programmes such as Shameless and Coronation Street, it shows the lifestyles of dysfunctional working class (or chav) families. It constantly shows the families taking drugs, committing adultery, going to the local pub and getting drunk. The website tvropes.org further emphasises the point of how bad working class people are shown.
“Basically, in TV Land, it is impossible to be both poor and intelligent unless you're the show's Insufferable Genius or precocious child. Indeed, one would almost be tempted to believe that there are No Libraries.” (Online:tvtropes.org/.2009 )

Television shows people not reaching their full potential in life. People thinking it is good to take drugs and get drunk, keeps them in their place in society, which stops them having any power, fame and money! Showing these people in this perceptive is not ethical whatsoever. It creates an impression that breaking the law and morally wrong things are ok to do, which can also create a knock on effect by making people think doing drugs is a good idea and then exercising the idea by taking drugs. Like magpies we are attracted to shiny objects and showing drugs in a good light can make people want them. 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 their lives away.

The programme “class dismissed” talks about how working class television shows perceive the people with little morals and discipline. Television shows such as Trisha and Ricki Lake show working class peoples lives to be chaotic and malfunctioning. They do not show these people in a good way at all. Jayques Ranciere (P54. December 2004)
Here talks about how people from different backgrounds have different morals.

“With these qualifications, ideology then refers to a system of beliefs characteristic of a particular class or group, where for ‘beliefs’ we could substitute ‘knowledge’ in Mannheims sense, or ‘consciousness’, which is equally vague, but which Marx elaborates as including legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic, in short ideological forms.”

In television the people shown on the programmes may portray people believing that things are good when they are actually not. The suspension of disbelief comes into place with this. On the television programme hustle, it shows a group of con men scamming different people. In real life this is wrong but the way it shows the team conning people, this can make the audience believes it to be fine to do this because of the characters morals in the program.

In one respect people who watch these shows are people who want more from their own lives, more excitement and want to escape from the cycle of deprivation. Ironically this is the opposite way of doing so because one of the ways to break out the cycle of deprivation is though education. The website independent.co.uk states :“Education could be the key to breaking the "cycle of deprivation".(Online :www.independent.co.uk/:2009 ) which shows just watching television programmes is not giving people an education.

For some people T.V is a source of self comfort which can improve their mood by creating fictional lifestyles which look fun and exciting. To further this point the site aber.ac.uk says
“I sometimes, go home and choose to watch a soap opera such as East Enders as a form of escapism and relaxation, whereas someone else may prefer to watch it as a form of company or for fulfilment if they were lonely.” (Online:http://www.aber.ac.uk/:1995 ) Another reason why people watch television is because people enjoy watching other people.

The gaze of how we like to look at people, we enjoy watching the underdog becoming a hero and the downfall of the villain. An example of this is Only Fool’s and Horse’s Del Boy becoming rich, more than 22 million viewers tuned in to watch the 1999 Christmas special of Only Fools and Horse’s to see Del Boy become a millionaire. The static’s from the news.bbc.co.uk prove this: “In the final show, which attracted more than 22 million viewers, the Trotters were seen finally making their fortunes after discovering a rare watch, which they sold for £6.2m.” (Online:http://news.bbc.co.uk/:2001)

Magazines are another type of media that draw masses of audiences. Magazines such as Heat and OK blatantly show celebrity’s downfalls, whether it be getting divorced or have been caught doing something embarrassing on camera. This makes the reader feel that their life is better than theirs and this also is a form of self comforting to them, just as how people watch television for the same reason.

Another reason why magazines such as Heat show the downfall of celebrities is that women are the main target audience for the people that read the magazines. In society, women 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.

The magazine also can manipulate how people see themselves though magazines such as heat are used as a source for women to learn how to become the “ideal” woman. They give advice about dieting and how to have a perfect body. People are more interested in other people that are socially below us to boost our self of steam, “least our life isn’t as bad as theirs” This again makes people feel better about themselves.

A lot of magazines are designed for woman to help give them power. An argument that arises time and time again is which is more important, power fame or money,

After conducting a survey about what is most important between fame, power and money, most people choice was money. Maybe one of the reasons for this is the area the survey was conducted in was a working class environment, this shows the people asked know how important money is to survive. Even if a person has fame and power, with out money they may not even be able to endure in the world. Harrison and Wood (P 469. 2003)
say that:

“Formal revolution lost is shock effect a long time ago. The modern citizen digests everything; only the money chest is vulnerable.”

This is saying that in today’s society is not shocked by anything, but money is still the most important to people.

The next important choice that people rated was fame. Fame is important to some people because of today’s celebrity obsessed lifestyles. Power was the least important to people because it is not as essential in life to some people as money and fame.

In the past having more money meant having more power. Nowadays being famous generates having more power than having more money. The queen is upper class but yet seems to be looked less favourably upon than working class celebrities such as Pete Dougherty and Amy Winehouse, Both of whom have numerous time been caught breaking the law. The website people.com again proves this point here:

“Amy Winehouse was arrested Thursday in Norway for marijuana possession, police in Bergen confirm to PEOPLE” (Online:http://www.people.com/:2007)

Another person involved with the fame, power and money issue is Bill Gates. Bill Gates was the richest man alive. He created Microsoft windows. This is the way he became famous. By being a good business man made him money, and making money is one of the ways he is famous. Even though he was the richest man alive, he doesn’t have any power in terms of going to war or making discussions for the country. This shows that having lots of money and being famous doesn’t always give a person power. The current richest man alive is a business man called Carlos Slim. Although the man is rich he is not very famous which also shows money doesn’t always give fame.

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 is famous, they are able to offer a bribe to get out of a situation. The actor Zac Efron is reported to keep posters of himself in the boot of his car in order to get out of difficult situations. To help prove this point is the website entertainment.sg.msn.comstating that: “17 Again' actor Zac Efron has revealed he keeps a collection of posters of himself in the boot of his car to use as bribes.”(Online:http://entertainment.sg.msn.com/:2009 ) this is a prime example of how the media can be used to give someone power.

Jade Goody death has had almost as much media attention as when Princess Dianna died. This is proven here by the quote : “Jade Goody and Princess Diana had much in common, not least the psychological roots of their stratospheric popularity. Like Jade, Diana was portrayed as a victim of the press, right up to the ravening presence of the paparazzi at her moment of death. Like Jade, Diana portrayed herself as a victim, in Diana's case of the royal family.”(Online:www.thefirstpost.co.uk/:22 March 2009). This shows that celebrities have as much fame and power as the Royal Family.

Jade Goody gained world wide celebrity status by appearing on a show called big brother. Two years ago in January 2007, she was 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 a person and then use them to sell story’s. She herself used the media as a source of income to provide for her family after death. By selling her story to make money for her family. This is an example of how having fame gives people power to make money.

Another celebrity that has been torn apart by the media is Britney Spears. In 2007 Brittany Spears shaved her head and was questioned whether she had mental health issues.
“Britney Spears is suffering from “mental issues” and has sought help from a psychiatrist for problems that are “treatable”, according to her manager and close friend.” (Online:www.telegraph.co.uk:2009 )

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 and it is up to the media to represent her in the correct way.

As a society we do not see celebrities as human being, but merely as objects we like to look upon. This is concept of The Gaze, the idea that we like to watch.

In most situations, having power leads to having fame because without fame the person will not have power. An example of this is the Prime Mister. Gordon Brown, who is Britain’s current Prime Mister and has the power to run the country. If people did not know who he was then he wouldn’t have power because it is the people that follow him that give him at power. The Chinese army are the most powerful combat army because of the amount of people that are in it. This information is proven by the website www.gov.cn by stating:

“LARGEST MILITARY: Peoples Republic of China 3,000,000 strong (men ready and able to fight that are already enlisted or commissioned [Chinese gov website] (Online: http://wiki.answers.com/:2009)

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 an impression that all priests are child molester. This is one of the bad ways in which people are represented wrongly on T.V.

The media manipulates information using the communication theory. The majority of programs show working class people to be better than upper class people, even though they are all equal.

Stereotyping is a way people visually understand people on T.V programmes. Sharon Helmer Poggenphl (1994.pp143) talks about second hand culture saying that:

“Visual communication presents an entire large integrated diagram within the framework of our life and translates the elements of that life into a sort of intelligible discourse, the door, the arrow, the corporate identity, the logotype, the traffic sign, is only the appearance, privileged and standardized, of knowledge through signs of the world of things, products and actions.”

Standardizing the knowledge we have of thing is done very often on T.V. with representation and stereotypes. Just like an arrow pointing a certain way to go, we use stereotypes to help us understand what people are like on the T.V. program. 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. Most people will only offer a lift to someone of the same race as themselves. This is the fear of the unknown. Using stereotypes it helps us to make an impression about who a person is.

A very common type of stereotype is a gay on T.V. When a programme wants to show a gay man, he will be portrayed as extremely camp and feminine, this is not true in real life. An example of this is the television programme “Will and Grace”, showing the character of Jack as being extremely camp. Unfortunately because T.V. portrays this type of person to be gay, a person in real life who acts 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. This is proven by wikianswers.com stating that:
“There are 8,945,000 deaf and hard of hearing people. Dividing that by the current UK population gives us: 15 percent of the population of the UK are deaf or hard of hearing.”
(Online http://wiki.answers.com/:2009 )This means that 15% of the United Kingdom is not full catered for in terms of watching television.

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 be the actions of an upper class person.

Gordon Ramsey is a famous chief, but is more famous for is bad language and strict attitude. The reason for this is because of T.V shows such as Hell’s Kitchen and Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares. These shows exaggerate his bad attitude towards people. This is done by only editing the parts where he shouts at employees and the dark sound effects creating a mood for the show.
Gordon Ramsey say’s
"I am not a celebrity chef! People think the only reason I'm famous is because I kicked Joan Collins out of my restaurant...people don't come here because they've seen me that morning in Can't Cook Won't Cook."( Online:www.biogs.com/:2009)

The show’s represents Gordon Ramsey as a chef with a bad attitude, which his characteristic that made him famous, or at least how he is famous now.

Jack the ripper is a famous mass murderer. This man did not have lots of money or power, but was famous. This is an example of how just being famous does not generate money and power. In saying this people have made money from the story of him murdering prostitutes by releasing films, such as the ripper. This is a way of using someone else’s fame people can exploit and made money for themselves. This is often done by selling merchandise of famous people, like signed posters and limited edition collectables.

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 (as discussed above in relation to Mulvey’s concept of The Gaze). The problem with the media it gives people this power; celebrities are being prosecuted for crime and having lighter sentences than say the general public.

In conclusion, British society is represented on television by using characters on programmes that stereotype different types of people. The characters in programmes portrayed shows the position in the class system with shows like shameless and only fools and horses. The modern day class system is more of a social system. The celebrities playing the character also show there place in society in terms of class. The survey created shows that money is the most important. In terms of money, power and fame, even though it appears that people today are not defined by the elements but instead of who they look like and what they do with the money they have made. These opinions are highly based by the media and television. Celebrities in T.V. programmes are today’s form of religion influencing peoples morals, what is right and wrong, how to live their lives and what they should look like and how to make them on a par with our new Gods, the celebrities.
.




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Television
Shameless, 2004. [TV programme] channel 4
Only Fools and Horse, 1996, [TV programme] BBC1
The office, 2001, [TV programme] BBC2
The office (American version), 2005, [TV programme], NBC
Coronation Street, 1960, [TV programme] ITV
Eastenders, 1985, [TV programme] BBC1
F.R.I.E.N.D.S, 1993, [TV programme] NBC
Coldfeet, 1998, [TV programme] ITV
Skins, 2007 [TV programme] Channel 4
Inbetweeners, 2008, [TV programme] Channel 4
Big Brother, 2000[TV programme], Channel 4
Ricki Lake, 1993, [TV programme]
Trisha, 1998, [TV programme], ITV and five
Will and Grace, 1998, [TV programme] NBC
Hell’s Kitchen, 2004, [TV programme] ITV