Exam Question from past paper

Q3. Using your own detailed examples, explore the representation of gender in the media today?

In the modern day gender is represented both positively and negatively in the media. Firstly, the BBC 3 documentary 'Stacey on the front line: girls, guns and ISIS is a positive representation of gender as it is made to show women are just as capable of fighting on the Front line as Male troops. The documentary follows Stacey Dooley in Northern Iraq as she experiences life with a group of female soldiers who are fighting against ISIS. It is also key to note that women would not be doing this on the other side in the ISIS camps. This is a positive representation of Gender as women who are usually portrayed as the weaker of the two sexes are shown to be just as strong physically and mentally as they fight on the front line.

There is also more negative representations of gender in the media, one example is a news story from the BBC on the 19th of march 2017 which had the headline 'chatted up tourist beaten by man' this story was about a female tourist who rejected a strangers sexual advances and ended up being brutally beaten by the man. The story claims that after she rejected the man he "grabbed her from behind and repeatedly punched her in the face" this story is obviously a negative representation because it shows a man physically injuring a women for no good reason, this makes men in general look bad because the story makes it seem like this is the way men generally act after being rejected when this is really just a rare case. 

Lastly, another story from the BBC in February 2017 is headlined 'Transgender girl,11, shot in school with BB Gun' this story was about a girl who was being bullied at school because she is transgender, according to the article the parents of the girl contacted the school about the bullying in December and no action was taken and 2 months later the girl was shot with a BB Gun in school. This is again a negative story because the girl is being bullied for being transgender, not only has the school let this continue but they waited until there was a very serious issue before taking any action. 

In conclusion, in the media today Gender is represented both Positively and negatively, examples of this are the BBC 3 documentary 'Stacey on the front line' and the News stories from the BBC News website.

Weekly News #23

Weekly News #23
Sources: BBC News

Teacher Christopher Metcalfe 'raped girl in front room'

Christopher Metcalfe ,70, from Nottingham was a rural studies teacher in Mansfield in the late 70's. Derby crown court was told that he had raped a girl aged 15 or 16 in his front room and told the girl he would "get her" if she told anyone, he has denied 5 other sex offences. The jury was also told he touched a 9 year old during 'story time' and after a swimming lesson when he first began teaching. He was also charged with assaulting another girl aged 9 or 10. A statement released by one of the victim says "The women do not know each other, their complaints are quite separate. 

Sketch from the court case

I thought this story is made worse by the fact that it is being dealt with 40 years after the incidents took place, Metcalfe is now 70 years old and will not be able to serve the lengthy sentence he deserves because of his advanced age. This story shows representation of age because he became a teacher so he could work with and assault children, it also represents issues of sexual assault because has been charged with 5 different sex offences. 

Question 3 15th march

With detailed reference to two or three examples you have studied, explore how media texts are constructed to position audiences?

The media is constructed to show things from a specific perspective, this is usually so the audience can see it and take it on board before looking further into it. This is audience positioning because consumers will trust outlets they like for example a specific newspaper or news channel as they present stories differently.

An example of this is a news story from The Sun which was published on the 5th of September 2014. The headline of this story was 'Muslim convert beheads gran, 82 in garden'. This may just look like a normal headline but in fact you could say that the way it mentions that a 'Muslim convert' beheaded the women could be seen as an attempt to distract the audience from the story and concentrate on the fact it was a Muslim that committed the crime. This is an example of audience positioning because The Sun are trying to put more importance on the fact that a Muslim committed the crime, this is then seen by the hundreds of thousands of people that read The Sun and makes the whole Muslim community look bad when in fact this is just one case.

Another example is the This Girl Can campaign, the first advert was uploaded to the National Lottery YouTube channel on the 23rd of January 2015 and is aimed at all women. The advert is made to convince women to be more active and they do this by showing clips of your everyday women taking part in sports and other leisure activities such as Swimming. The reason they didn't use the typical swimsuit models in this advert is because they wanted to appeal to all women, they also show multiple activities so the women know they don't have to limit themselves to one specific thing. The advert is made like this to encourage all women to become more active regardless of there: age, ethnicity or possible disability. This again shows how the media is shaped to give a certain message across but this time it is in a more positive way than the article in The Sun.

In conclusion, the Media can shape texts to appeal to different people or to get a certain view across, this is evidenced through the news article in The Sun and the This Girl Can advert.

Weekly News #22

Weekly News #22
Source: BBC News

'Chatted up' tourist beaten by man

The women suffered horrible facial injuries

A tourist was repeatedly punched in the face after she rejected the advances of a man who followed her from a tube station. The 60 year old women was attacked on the 10th of march after she "politely" rejected the man attempts to "chat her up". Detectives are now appealing for information to fin the attacker, to aid the appeal the women who didn't want to be named released a picture of her injuries that she received after she was "grabbed from behind and repeatedly hit in the face".

This story shows representation of gender because the man attacked the women because she rejected his advances, this is also representation of ethnicity because the women who was attacked was a tourist. Lastly it is representation of issues regarding people being attacked as there was no real reason to attack the women and there also was no need to hurt her as badly as he did. 

Weekly News #21

Weekly News #21
Source: BBC News

Muslim detective Nighat Hubbard sues Met over racism and sexism

A Muslim detective who was made an MBE for her charity work is suing the Met police for alleged racism and sexism. Det Con Nighat Hubbard claims that male colleagues made discriminating comments to her and other females officers when she worked in the force. She further claimed that she was held back whilst White colleagues were allowed to go on more complex investigations. 

This story shows representations of religion because the woman was a Muslim and discriminated against because of it by not being put on more complex investigations while white officers were given more of an opportunity, also representation of gender because she claimed that her and other female officers were discriminated against by Male officers in the work place, you would expect better from the police themselves. In my opinion this story shows that there is still a huge amount of inequality and discrimination towards ethnic minority's and women in the workplace despite the many laws that have been passed in recent years.