Critical investigation #4 - Additional research

Representation is the process by which the media presents the ‘real world’ to an audience. - http://media.edusites.co.uk/article/understanding-representation-stereotyping/


Do they see ethnic char­acters as either positive or negative role models, as real people or mere figments of fantasy.
Black students were the heaviest TV watchers and were also the group most likely to use television as a learning tool.
About one-third of those with an opinion say that the ethnic characters they see on televi­sion affect their attitudes toward ethnic groups in real life.
This role of television as a reinforcer and crystallizer of existing attitudes is significant, even if few people actually form their opinions of cultures or races based on what they see on TV
If the audience views certain ethnic and racial groups in a negative manner and televi­sion portrayals confirm those images, - http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/does-tv-shape-ethnic-images


Baby mother, the emperor - http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/534606/index.html


http://mest4rabia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/final-draft.html


"28 times more likely to stop and search black people"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/12/police-stop-and-search-black-people
“Ethnic minority viewers accused all broadcasters of tokenism and stereotyping, screening exaggerated and extreme representations of minorities and failing to reflect modern ethnic minority cultures.”- http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/passtheremote/2008/07/top-soaps-accused-of-stereotyp.html


fon

‘Top Boy is a multi-stranded, ensemble piece’

‘Top Boy and how he aims to give audiences an accurate portrayal of growing up in London.’ Yann demange http://www.metro.co.uk/tv/880078-yann-demange-being-a-teenage-boy-in-london-now-is-scary

Black people as criminals http://revisionworld.co.uk/a2-level-level-revision/sociology/mass-media-0/media-representations-age-social-class-ethnicity-gender-sexuality-and-disability

'whether intentionally or unintentionally, both the news and the entertainment media 'teach" the public about minorities, other ethnic groups and societal groups, such as women, gays, and the elderly.'

“Minorities realize — supported by research — that the media influence not only how others view them, but even how they view themselves. So minorities and other ethnic groups have long attempted to convince industry decision-makers to seek better balance in news coverage of minorities and to reduce the widespread negativism in the fictional treatment of minorities by the entertainment media.” - http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/long-way-go-minorities-and-media

Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation” http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/index.cfm

“when it comes to imagery surrounding black people; I’m used to relentlessly negative - knife crime, underachievement representations” - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/london-black-children-awards

Fanon:
Quotes from Black Skin, White Mask. : http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/949036-peau-noire-masques-blancs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Skin,_White_Masks
http://www.iep.utm.edu/fanon/

British TV 1950-1990

What positive Black imaging there is tends to be found in sports and entertainment - both of which point "naturally" to Blacks. - ejumpcut. I can use this for my historical text (Desmond's : 1989 - 1994)
TV programs of the 1960s and 1970s now characterized Blacks as immigrants

http://www.jfredmacdonald.com/bawtv/bawtv10.htm
in the second half of the 1960s, there were more than two dozen programs featuring black actors as leading characters, or in prominent, regular supporting roles.
http://web.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/CRER_RC/publications/pdfs/Research%20Papers%20in%20Ethnic%20Relations/RP%20No.19.pdf

The typification of the 'nigger minstrel' also has a long history as Fryer has noted (Fryer, 1984), implying that singing and dancing are qualities inate to the Black man and woman so that in contemporary society, it is in the field of entertainment to which the hopes of Black youth should orientate their aspirations.


Associated with the Black entertainer myth is that of the Black sports star, which assumes that all Black people are endowed with natural athleticism in the same way as they are accorded their singing and dancing prowess (cf Cashmore,1982)


The way in which ethnicity has been treated in the media began to shift significantly in the 1970s from looking at problems of immigration to looking at problems caused by resident ethnic communities.


The emphasis of the media in the area of race relations changed substantially from a habitual concern in the 60s with the number of black people entering the country to the problems associated with their presence...from being an 'external threat' to becoming 'the outsider within'. (Verma, 1988, pp.127-128)


Ethnic programming, and particularly that offered by the 'minority' channel, Channel 4, has been unable to fulfil original expectations.

http://www.fatahe.com/downloads/azumah_s_book_-_why_have_we_been_forgotten.pdf


They are responsible for influencing, sensationalising and creating stories that play on violence and conflict. How 
many times have we seen in our daily newspapers and televisions Black people associated with crime; people from the third world presented as poor and starving victims of famine and drought, refugees and asylum seekers as ‘sponging off the state’

1978 - Empire Road, the first Black British soap, is aired on British television.


The tragic death of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, ignited a new era for race relations in Britain. The truth of what many Black and minority ethnic communities had been saying for years suddenly captured the public’s imagination of the extent of racism in British society. (Younge, 2000).


Online
http://www.newstatesman.com/bim-adewunmi/2012/11/melanin-without-tokenism-black-people-are-slowly-being-allowed-be-normal-tv

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2056053/Why-TV-Ghetto-Dramas-Make-Me-Wanna-Holla-And-Yawn---.html

Critical Investigation #3 - Historical Text

Desmond's

http://www.youtube.com/channel/SWQw5J1UBgzmM

• Shown from 1989-1994
• Shown on Channel 4
• Aimed at 16+
• Sitcom

Similarities:

• Majority black cast
• Shown on commercial television
• Some sort of 

Differences:

• Age groups
• The issue with the negative representation their goal aspirations are different from the 'stereotypes'
• Comedy

The fact the black people only had sitcoms shows that it's what they were better at. 

Critical Investigation #2 - Bibliography

Representation, history and ‘black Britain’ [Internet]. Available from: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/9459_011200ch1.pdf  [Accessed 12 December 2012]

Awan. F. (2007). Young People, Identity and the Media - Representation [Internet]. Available from: http://www.artlab.org.uk/fatimah-awan-03.pdf [Accessed 12 December 2012]

Adewunmi. B. (2012). Why black British drama is going online, not on TV [Internet]. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/02/black-british-tv-drama-online [Accessed 12 December 2012]

Young black actors 'should go to America' [Internet]. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9051992/Young-black-actors-should-go-to-America.html   [Accessed 12 December 2012]

Ball. C. (2010). The Persistent Issue of Black Representation on Television and Why More Roles Won't Fix A Thing [Internet]. Available from: http://madamenoire.com/104363/the-persistent-issue-of-black-representation-on-television-and-why-more-roles-wont-fix-a-thing/#j3H1eGwYAga1s1Wl.99 [Accessed 13 December 2012]

Coughlan. S. (2010). Lenny Henry's long road to a PhD [Internet]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2010/10/101008_caribbean_lennyhenry.shtml [Accessed 13 December 2012]

McKoy. B. (2012). Tyler Perry and The Weight of Misrepresentation [Internet]. Available from: http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=mcnair [Accessed 13 December 2012]

Crouch. S. (2000). Stop Whining About The Media! [Internet]. Available from: http://www.salon.com/2000/04/19/images/ [Accessed 13 December 2012]

Research

Representation, history and ‘black Britain’

http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/9459_011200ch1.pdf

1998 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of SS Empire Wind rush (22 June 1948) (7)

Symbolises the inauguration of postwar, permanent, mass migration and the ‘coming to the homeland’ for black colonial people (7)

The British nation was once again confronted with the memory of Black presence: that of Stephen Lawrence, the victim of an ugly and brutal form of British racism (7)

Iconic moment in British history. (The arrival of Windrush and the official inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence (7)

This signalled that within and despite the context of a now broad Black presence in the United Kingdom (7)

Stubborn forms of racism persist (7)

Racism and Britishness both on Britain’s streets and within the fabric of its institutions (7)

The BBC, the cornerstone of British’s television history, was traditionally founded on Reithan ideals which claimed to hold in place core programming, universality and accountability. (10)

…specifically in relation to television’s alleged impartiality, cultural sensitivity and moral responsibility when it touches on racial lines (10)

Despite the escalating commercial impulses across the channels, they are generalist, mixed genre broadcasters with an all purpose mission to inform, entertain and educate all the people at least some of the time (10)

Channel 4’s targeted minority mandate (10)

The other channels merely have clauses in their policy documents indicating a ‘common-sense’, ‘responsibility freedom’ and ‘taste and decency’ approach to the treatment of race of screen (10)

Although all broadcaster are covered by certain ethical codes of conduct (10)

Media policy, regulation and management culture within the institutional context of British television…play an integral part in the way expressions of Blackness are negotiated, produced and reproduced (10)

British television’s founding ethos of ‘public service’ is important for how it generates and circulates meaning about nationhood, community and society… (10)

‘Public service’ is based on the generous principle that what ‘we’ like watching is not always all that ‘we’ (should) expect television to offer (10)

This struggle over formal equality and racialised difference is a key feature of British race relations (10)

Discourses of liberal pluralism and social Whiteness which have characterised the history of Black representations on British television (10)

Patterns of racism have persisted on and off screen (10)

The beginning of the third millennium saw nearly all the major terrestrial British broadcasters and arts organisations pledge an improvement in their approaches to cultural diversity (10)

A response triggered both by the loss of disillusional Black ‘customers to alternative viewing systems (10)

The year 2000 alone saw the launch of the British Film Institute’s three-year Cultural Diversity strategy (‘Towards Diversity’) (11)

The BBC’s public efforts to boost diversity through its ‘Diversity Tsars’ and diversity debate (11)

Channel 4’s Black History crusade (with Untold 2000 and the on-line Black and Asian history Map) (11)

This last initiative, a cross-industry action-plan established ‘to change the face of television’ (11)

They plan to set targets for ethnic minority employment (senior levels included) (11)

Establish an on-line talent diversity database (11)

Modernise cast and portrayal (11)

Share non-commercially sensitive research on cultural diversity and allow the government’s department of culture, media and sport to monitor progress.(11)

‘Good race relations practice’ (11)

It is this ‘pull’ between past (Britain’s post-imperial history and the institutional history of British television in relation to a Black presence), and the future (of Black Britain at the turn of the century and of British television in the context of wider technological change) (11)

These incarnations of Blackness in the cultural field - and, for the matter, new modalities of racism - are inextricably connected to issues of memory, history and race (11)

Disrupt notions of distinct ‘now’ and ‘then’ (11)

New attitudes towards ‘race’ - while they emerge in the present - are often tied to older conceptions of ‘race’ and ideologies of racism from the past (11)

It assumes that ‘race’ or racism is a new problem which only arrived here when ‘the Blacks did’ (11)

‘Race’ and ‘racism’ operate on the margins of British society and can be made extricable from the internal dynamics of British social and political life (Hall, 1978) (11)

‘The active-audience thesis’…which shifted the emphasis from what the media ’do’ with audiences, to what audiences ’do’ with media images (Halloran, 1970)

This was especially useful for the newly emerging theories around race, ethnicity and the media, because it identified that each reader/viewer was able to actively decode and interpret meaning in different ways, instead of being textually-constituted or ’locked’ into any one ascribed meaning (27)

Some also recognised that our social relations (ethnicity, for example) help us to structure understanding (Morley and Brunsdon, 1978) (27)

Hall agreed, that the media do have a power to set agendas and cultural frameworks…that viewers themselves are active, and decode messages in different ways.(27)

Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in Birmingham, which developed the issue of ‘agenda-setting’ (oh how the media establish and organise a particular set of issues) especially in relation to news and documentary reports on race. (28)

Hartmann and Husband found that, although direct effects on media audiences were unlikely, news reports kept within a British Culture tradition, eg: derogatory to foreigners) (28)

They argued that these reports worked within an established cultural framework, which in terms of Black people was, ‘more conductive to the development of hostility towards them than acceptance’ (Hartmann and Husband, 1974) (28)

Stereotypes became increasingly central to debates around race and representation in the 1970s and 1980s (28)

Many of those who were critical of the media’s representations of Black people also began to call for ’positive images’ in order to balance out the ’negative images’ which were often used to depict Black people and their experiences (28)

 Changing the ‘relations of representation’ (Hall in Mercer, 1988) (28)

There was a demand that representations of Black people were drawn in more accurate ways (28)

‘misrepresentation’ were readily applied by those who also recognised that film and television do not simply reflect reality, but construct a reality of their own (28)

All stereotypes are negative, and thus by simply eliminating them, representations of race would become more ‘balanced’ (29)

Stereotypes are shorthand; they are ubiquitous because they help us decode people (29)

Stereotypes are social constructs designed to socially construct (29)

1960s Black Power  slogan ‘Black is Beautiful’ (30)

‘Blackness’ was in fact something which could not be defined in any simple or singular way (30)

This also involved accepting that not all Black films are good, not all ‘realistic representations’ are positive (30)

The concept of ‘diaspora’ emerged out of this need to produce a development of thought, and became a particularly useful system of representation and unit of analysis through which the plurality and diversity of Black British communities could be understood. (30)

In spite of connections of connections, there is no ‘pure’ Black cultural, political or religious form that all identities are pluralized, and that all representations do, in fact, work differently (31)

The first, is that Black people, whether in grass-roots political struggle, intellectual discourse or on a more individualised, personal level have fought a very active campaign for equality and recognition in Britain, which has paved the way for our current claims to relative ease with ‘being British’ (32)

“whiteness” is a politically constructed category parasitic on “Blackness” (West 1990) (32)

www.artlab.org.uk/fatimah-awan-phd.htm :

Hall asserts that ideologies become ‘naturalised’ and ideology, politically constructed representations - such as representations of ‘race’ - are conveyed as being ‘given by nature’. (12)

‘The “white eye” is always outside the frame - but seeing and positioning everything within it” (13)

[The media] has the power to control and shape attitudes and beliefs held in the popular imagination, e.g. Cohen and Gardener, 1982; Ferguson, 1998) (13)

Karen Ross (1992) on white perceptions of ethnic minorities on television demonstrates that attitudes of whites towards non-whites are influenced by media representation. (13)

White people who do not have direct experience of black culture, their attitudes will be grounded exclusively on media representations (13)

Ross with Peter Playdon (2001)… ‘is most media products are inscribed with the same set of cultural assumptions (and prejudices) because their producers share the same cultural experiences, then those underlying norms and values which may well be hidden but nonetheless exist, are transmitted as an un-self-conscious truth’ (13-14)

Images of ‘blackness, do not represent the social reality of being black, rather they position us into a ‘way of thinking about blackness’ (14)

All representations are culturally constructed and positioned in a specific historical context (14)

Media images of ‘race’ do not reflect an accurate portrayal of the spectrum of black culture (14)

Ethnic minorities, in particular, are marginalised by a white ideology that naturalises itself as ‘common sense’ and the norm. (14)

Hall (1990) argues that the methods in which black people and their experiences are represented and subjugated under white ideology (14)

Edward Said’s (1978) principle of Orientalism, functions to construct blacks as ‘Other’ (14)

Hall claims that the insidious an ‘invisible’ nature of this ideology leads black people to understand themselves as ‘other’ (14)

Woodward (1997) says. ‘Identities are produced, consumed and regulated within culture - creating meanings through symbolic systems of representation about the identity positions which we might adopt’ (15)

Ethnic minorities continue to be subordinated in accordance with white ideological hegemony (15)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/02/black-british-tv-drama-online  

Whether the fault lies with commissioners or writers, the fact remains that the spectrum of blackness on TV is narrow, and has remained almost stagnant in the last decade or so.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9051992/Young-black-actors-should-go-to-America.html

"Unfortunately there really aren't that many roles for authoritative, strong, black characters in this country. We just don't write those characters, that's a fact."

http://madamenoire.com/104363/the-persistent-issue-of-black-representation-on-television-and-why-more-roles-wont-fix-a-thing/

“If a show does feature black folks, they are usually one-dimensional, sidekicks of the lead character or the rapist/murderer/gang-banger on Law & Order.”

http://revisionworld.co.uk/a2-level-level-revision/sociology/mass-media-0/media-representations-age-social-class-ethnicity-gender-sexuality-and-disability

“There’s an idea that programmes contain characters from ethnic minority groups purely because they ‘should’.”

“Ethnic minority audiences complain that Black and Asian people are rarely shown as ordinary citizens who just happen to be Black or Asian.”

http://beyondproject.wordpress.com/tag/representation-of-black-people-in-television/

“Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding analogy suggests representation is an on-going process with the viewer employing their agency to create their own meanings in the work.”

http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=mcnair

http://www.salon.com/2000/04/19/images/

Daily Mail article on the Olympics:

“This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but it is likely to be a challenge for the organisers to find an educated white middle-aged mother and black father living together with a happy family in such a set-up.”

How is British Television negatively representing black people?

Angle:

By not having many black people have their own TV show, but when they are shown on television, they are portrayed stereotypically; does this impact the audiences’ impression on black people?

How positive is a representation of an archetypal (universal understood symbol) African-American shown on television?

Hypothesis:

Black people are constantly represented negatively throughout the British television which alters the way audiences perceive them.

Linked-style production piece:

I will be working with Ruby and we will be doing a short documentary style production, which will include mini interviews which express feelings and thoughts for this particular topic also include facts and example from the 3 media platforms.

Media texts: For

Little black Sambo (1935): demonstrates rigid, reductive stereotyping. But back in 1935 it was seen as harmless entertainment.

Tyler Perry movies: Daddy’s little girls, Good Deeds…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/02/black-british-tv-drama-online  

“Whether the fault lies with commissioners or writers, the fact remains that the spectrum of blackness on TV is narrow, and has remained almost stagnant in the last decade or so.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9051992/Young-black-actors-should-go-to-America.html

"Unfortunately there really aren't that many roles for authoritative, strong, black characters in this country. We just don't write those characters, that's a fact."

http://madamenoire.com/104363/the-persistent-issue-of-black-representation-on-television-and-why-more-roles-wont-fix-a-thing/

“If a show does feature black folks, they are usually one-dimensional, sidekicks of the lead character or the rapist/murderer/gang-banger on Law & Order.”

http://revisionworld.co.uk/a2-level-level-revision/sociology/mass-media-0/media-representations-age-social-class-ethnicity-gender-sexuality-and-disability

“There’s an idea that programmes contain characters from ethnic minority groups purely because they ‘should’.”

“Ethnic minority audiences complain that Black and Asian people are rarely shown as ordinary citizens who just happen to be Black or Asian.”

Media texts: Against

http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=mcnair

http://www.salon.com/2000/04/19/images/

Daily Mail article on the Olympics:

“This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but it is likely to be a challenge for the organisers to find an educated white middle-aged mother and black father living together with a happy family in such a set-up.”

Academic Texts:

Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks

Aimé Césaire: Notebook of the Return Native Land

SHEP:

Social

Changes how people may see black people

Racism

Historical

Issues/Debates:

Representation and stereotyping

Media effects

How black people are negatively stereotyped through the media, and what are the effects of this?

Angle:

Do negative stereotypes for black people can give the wrong impression to society?

How is this negative stereotype being displayed/ performed?

What effect does it give to black people?

How does British culture portray black people?

How does Tyler Perry portray black people on a whole?

Linked-style production piece:

I will be working with Ruby and we will be doing a short documentary style production, which will include mini interviews which express feelings and thoughts for this particular topic also include facts and example from the 3 media platforms.

Media texts:

Tyler Perry’s films as a comparison

The Moors

Malcolm X

Print:

Daily Mail article

TV:

?

Academic Texts:

Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks

Malcolm X

Aimé Césaire: Notebook of the Return Native Land

10 QUESTIONS TO RESEARCH

Which assessment objectives are examined in Mest 4?

AO1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts (and critical debates)

AO2 Apply knowledge and understanding when analysing media products and processes (and evaluating their own practical work) to show how meanings and responses are created

How recent is a ‘contemporary’ text, according to AQA?

5 years

How long should the critical investigation be?

2000 words

Can the critical investigation be carried out in groups?

In what part of the assignment are you required to record evidence of secondary research?

Critical research

What is the maximum length for a moving image production?

No more than 5 minutes

What is the maximum requirement for a print production per individual?

Should be at least 3 pages

What is the maximum production group size?

No more than 4

What is the highest level awarded in the level descriptors?

Level 4

Select 10 keywords from the Level 4 descriptor for each of:

A.      The critical investigation

Analytical investigation,

Clear, critical perspective,

Wide-ranging research,

Wide range of academic,

Media and contextual sources

Demonstrates sophisticated research

Sophisticated knowledge and understanding of media concepts,

Contexts and critical debates relevant to the chosen area of investigation

Linked production piece effectively within the contemporary media landscape

Fluent

B.      The linked production

Creative

Aesthetically successful product

High production values

Demonstrates highly competent use of technology

Significant understanding of relevant institutional

Significant understanding of genre codes and conventions

Production is highly appropriate technically

The production is highly aesthetically and institutionally within the contemporary media landscape.