media and ethnic representation

hall

• the media operates with three overiding stereotyepes of black people, the native , the clown or entertainer and the slave

• the native is often seen as offering nobility , dignity and savagery

• the native always appears in anonymous masses, contrasting with the white hero

• the clown or entertainer is seen as expressive ,emotional and stupid

• the slave figure is seen as devoted and childlike but also cunning , untrustworthy and maybe mocking

hall 2

• more recently explains the shift from overt racism to inferential racism in the media

• this shows that ethnic representations of ethnic minorities have changed overtime from being overt dicrimination against race or ethnic background

• minority ehnic groups now experience inferential rcaism , where coverage seems balanced but it is based on rcaist asumptions

• for example, debates are often based on the assumption that black people are ‘the source of the problem’- hall highlights this in his study on the ‘black mugger’ where the media created a scapegoat of black youth being the cause of problems in society in order to shift the blame away from the government during the 1970s

• inferential racism is similar to the idea of it being covert, where it is not as bold or directly apparent , but it exists in more under-covered forms

van dijik

• he did content analysis of news reports in the UK over a ten-year period

• his research highlighted a number of stereotypes that are used to portray black people in the media

• van dijik ideas have been sumarised under five categories that ethnic minorities are portrayed in

• as criminlas - the word black is often used in association and to descibe black people whilst the word white isnt associated with criminals

• the study policing the crisis (hall et al) discusses the use of this steretype - in addition ,hall et al argue sthat the characterisations of patterns of crime around the word ‘mugger’ represent an example of a moral panic with the steretypical portrayal of the black mugger as an example of a folk devil

van dijik- as abnormal

• media representation of the cultural practices of minority ethnic groups (such as arranged marriages) as odd or abnormal

• there is evidence that members of such communities object to homogenous terms such as ‘asian culture’ which conceal a diversity of cultural traditions with developing practices and values

• media representations of cultural values and practices among ethnic minorities are often protrayed as contrasting with the ‘normal’ values and practices amongst the ‘host’ community

as a threat

• tabloid scares about immigrnats and asylum seekers taking jobs and using resources of the welffare state

• in particular, mainstream media representations of ilam have been described as a mixture of some fair-minded portraylas alongside widespread stereotypical portrayals of muslims as ‘intolerant, misogynistic, violent or cruel and finally, strange or different’ (nahdi)

as dependent

• images of less developed countries tend to focus on hat has been described as ‘coup-war-famine-starvation syndrome’ with little discussion of their exploitation by western countries

• critics of representations that centre on high profile celebrity endorsement of campaigns such as make poverty history and live 8 suggests there is an absence of balance in such portrayals

• critics also argue that the perspective of developing nations themselves is often neglected , as is the perspective of minority ethnic groups within contemporary uk