Black youths in today’s society are portrayed as thugs, out of control people who cause mayhem to society. However, the media’s immense influence on today’s society- is this representation true? Since ethnic minorities ‘in London is over 30%’ - and ‘8% of the UK population’[1] this perhaps could be a reason why ethnic minorities within the UK are represented as subordinates within the media. Britain as a democracy, and a multi-cultural society, you’d think the media would represent a more diverse Britain and celebrate the culture? Anchorage, controversial headlines, moral panics are some of many techniques used by the media to unfairly present all black youths as violent thugs. Similarly, Milligan (2005) argues ‘young black people grow up in a society where media images of black people are often negative and that it is therefore no surprise that many black children internalise such negative views about black people’. Could this negative representation be a way in which the media can punish black youths as an ethnic minority for the change in society? Or reinforce hegemonic values? Theoretically, speaking- Louis Althusser argued the media was like an ‘ideological state apparatus’-where the ruling class pass down their values onto society and use their social status/position to manipulate audiences, making their views right. The extent to which the British media actually reflect social issues within society is debateable.
Firstly, a debate that particularly looks on how effective the representations of the media are, whether this representation truly reflects the ‘zeitgeist’[2]. In terms of print media- institutions such as ‘The Sun’ ‘Daily Mirror’ use the ‘moral panics’- is an expressed feeling within society that threatens the social order within society. Cohen argues a moral panic occurs when ‘a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests’[3]. This is particularly expressed by broadsheet newspapers who are politically biased, such a ‘The Sun’ who politically in favor of the conservatives- who are a right wing political party which follows traditional values. The use of moral panics used to describe the social concern of knife crime does reflect the media’s attempt to marginalize black youths in society. However, the negative representation of the media does reflect the social concerns within the media as ‘Black people make up only 5% of the United Kingdom’s population. However, over 50% of the prison population is black and 40% of the Black population is unemployed’. This is when the use of moral panics does reflect the ‘zeitgeist’. However, the irony is that the media continuously focus on the negative issues within society and ignore the positive to create a fair representation of black youths, the media clearly do not take the ‘we are all alike approach’. However, the struggle of the subordinate representation against the dominate representation is becoming increasingly difficult as ‘Every year 1000 Black pupils are permanently excluded and nearly 30,000 receive a fixed period exclusion. Black pupils are three times more likely to be excluded than their White peers; after all other background factors are taking into account.’[4] With this concern the negative representations and moral panics are – unfortunately- serving a purpose.
On the other hand, Britain as a democracy- is able to print as they like as institutions, which unfairly represent black youths- are not obligated to fairly to meet the needs of different types of audiences as they are not PSB’s who are not funded by the government through taxes. Similarly, as Connor argues ‘Representation is not about the way the world is presented but how we engage in media texts, representation is therefore, just as much as audience interpretation as it is about the portrayals offered to us by the media' the representations of black youths are merely an interpretation in which, through the cultivation theory audiences believe the negative representation.
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