...The media is selling the idea that girls’ and woman’s’ value lies in their youth, beauty and sexuality and not in their capacity as leaders. Boys learn that their success is tied to dominance, power, and aggression. Many would agree that some strides have been made in how the media portray women in film, television and magazines, and that the last few decades have also seen a growth in the presence and influence of woman in media behind the scenes. Documentaries such as “Miss Representation” focus on outlining the flaws and misrepresentation media has on woman and girls. Their project aims to challenge and change the way media objectifies woman. Nevertheless, female stereotypes continue to thrive in the media we consume everyday. Gender stereotypes are everywhere. Stereotypes are defined as a “generalized view or...
Words: 1650 - Pages: 7
...The Media’s Representation of Women The greatest problem facing women is the way the media portrays and represents them. America’s population is about 51% female, but the media is mainly focused on men and their actions (The Problem). Many things in the media that are said are sexist and degrading to women. Ads with completely normal meaning such as trying to sell food or other products are oversexualized with women in them, trying to convince people to get the product. This pressure from the media to be perfect and ideal can cause eating disorders, encourage self harm and dangerous behavior, and lead to other mental illnesses. The National Organization for Women created a campaign that promotes women and encourages them to be willing to try new things. The media is unfair to women and there must be a way to help it get better and help women reach equal representation with men in the media. Men are represented in the media much more than women are. In about a 3 to 1 margin, males outnumbered females in front page newspaper headlines in coverage of the 2012 presidential election. On TV talk shows aired on Sundays, of all people interviewed women made up 14% and only...
Words: 1264 - Pages: 6
...The aim of this essay is to identify how gender is represented within the media, particularly looking at examples from the television show How I Met Your Mother (Fox, 2005-2014). Looking at how both male and females have been stereotyped, how it affects the audiences, using research from scholars Stuart Hall, Gaye Tuchman & George Gerbner to support and extract information to my argument. Representation has been defined by Oxford dictionaries as ‘the act of speaking or acting on behalf of someone’(Oxford dictionaries, Online, 2015). Media representation are the ‘ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective’ (Twin cities, Online, 2015)...
Words: 1783 - Pages: 8
... * * * * * Representation Of Race In Media * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Much of our perceptions of the world are based on narratives and the images that we see in film, television, radio, music, and other media. These are some of the outlets that construct how individuals see their social identities, as well as learn and understand about what it is to be black, white, Native American, Asian, South American, etc. (Dow, Wood, 2006, p. 297). You will get a better understanding of this once you understand the concept of ideologies. Ideologies are what create our perception of the world around us, whether it is political, social, economic, etc. Ideologies are not the product of individual intention or conscious, rather we create our intentions within ideology (Marris, Thornham, 2000, p. 267). These ideologies exist before we are even born; they form the social constructions and conditions that we are born into. But, ideologies are just a practice, and it is produced and reproduced in apparatus of ideological production. The media is a great example of an apparatus of ideological production (Marris, Thornham, 2000, p. 273). It produces social meanings and distributes them throughout society. However, as long as ideologies continue so will social struggles such as racism, which we will discuss in this essay. Media elites represent different races through media based on their ideologies. This has...
Words: 1829 - Pages: 8
...eye of the beholder” but what if the beholder’s vision is blurred? The media today dictates what is beautiful, and these standards are so high that they are impossible to reach. Both Camille Paglia and Daniel Akst point this out in their essays about the effects these standards have on the general population. Paglia uses an appeal to the emotion of her upper-class middle-aged women audience who may choose plastic surgery as a method to stay beautiful whereas Akst uses all forms of rhetorical devices to appeal to everyone in defining what beauty truly is. Camille Paglia, Yale graduate and professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, says in her essay “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery” depicts the belief in the beauty of uniformity. Women have a belief that if they don’t look a certain way, then they are not beautiful, so they turn to plastic surgery. In an excerpt from her essay, Paglia shows us this example of a media sex icon “...Amazonian superheroines like Lara Croft: large breasts with a flat midriff and lean hips, a hormonally anomalous profile that few women can attain without surgical intervention or liposuction” (793). What Paglia attempts to accomplish with this essay is to appeal to the emotions of these women, so that they will not lose identity in this sea of uniformity. But woman are constantly having to compete with the young and sexy media icons and turn to things like botox. However, the need to be forever young...
Words: 703 - Pages: 3
...The representation of terrorism, Islam and Muslim identities on popular US series Homeland Introduction Images of Muslim and Islam have dramatically increased in the media coverage as well as popular culture ever since we have entered the “post-9/11 era”, as Elizabeth Poole observed. (2008:81) The shocking real life images from the horrifying terrorist attack in September 2011 has triggered various interpretation on the discourse of what it means to be Muslim and the image of Islam and its culture in the western media, and still have profound influence even after more than a decade and ongoing. Apart from the coverage on news media, TV entertainment, especially TV dramas also provide a powerful outlet for the popular prevailing discourses on Muslim and Islamic culture, which compare to news reports, leaves a more vivid and graphic impression on audience with its discourse and narratives. The proposed subject I am going to study is revolved around the representation of Islam and Muslim identity in the popular US TV drama Homeland. (Showtime, 2011) Homeland (Showtime, 2011) has been arguably the most successful TV series focusing on the theme of counter-terrorism and national security across the Atlantic since 2011, following its predecessor 24 (Fox, 2001) developed by the same producers. When asked what made the show distinctive compared to its predecessors, Damian Lewis, who played as Sgt Nicholas Brody, the male lead in Homeland replied, “We feel a bit differently...
Words: 4172 - Pages: 17
...Is sports journalism dominated by white males and, if so, how does this influence the representation of other ethnic groups? Introduction The world of sports journalism has long been seen as the domain of the white, middle-class male (Farrington, Kilvington, Price & Saeed, 2012). For several decades the status quo remained the same: white male journalists reporting on white male athletes to a white male audience. However during the 1990s the emergence of black footballers, both domestic and foreign, within the British game began to change the overall dynamic. In addition to this sport became big business, moving from the back pages to the front (Boyle, 2006), and occasions such as the Olympic Games are now massive worldwide events that receive similarly massive attention from the world’s media. It is clear that sport has changed dramatically over the past 20 years, as has the diversity of the athletes who appear in our newspapers, on our television screens and on our radios. With reference to these points I intend to investigate whether sports journalism is still dominated by white males, and if so, how does this cultural bias influence how other ethnic groups are represented in the sporting media. Due to word constraints the essay shall focus on Northern Europe, specifically Sweden and the United Kingdom. Diversity in the newsroom Diversity in a news organisation can bring many benefits, including a broader spectrum of opinion, varied specialist knowledge and both...
Words: 1824 - Pages: 8
...MacCosmetics.com speaks to us through a conversation of which we are not aware; we are told messages that implicitly consist of the way western societal standards are set for men and women. Through Mac Cosmetics we are able to define what is beautiful by simply reading through the visual semiotics used. We respond, although passively and sometimes unconsciously, to these messages by defining our place and role in society. Furthermore, many times our own self-worth is lavishly filled or enormously plastered by viewing Mac’s propaganda. However, we continue as faithful customers because it is what our society expects from us: to be faithful consumers. Wherefore, the main argument of the proposed essay is that MacCosmetics.com promotes an intangible, vague and an erroneous representation of people in society, specifically in terms of gender roles and self-appraisal. As an active media channel, Mac Beauty Products alludes to selling beauty but in fact their message is one of negativity towards the naturally beautiful. Therefore, the message they denote implicitly is not the same as the one shown explicitly; the characters, the magic of this company, its current status in the market/society, and our own sentiment towards it frame the way we perceive the message and what message we ultimately perceive. This essay will touch on three specifics: Mac’s message on gender roles as portrayed by their advertisements, Mac’s use of implicit visual semiotics to display the message, and Mac’s explicit...
Words: 1699 - Pages: 7
...SEMIOTICS ANALYSIS ESSAY Advertisements are a smart tool and technique used to promote and sell various products. Using mass media, it aims to persuade potential consumers that there is a correlation between the brand and a lifestyle or identity, which is considered enviable.(John Berger, Ways of Seeing) Semiotics, a concept developed by Ferdinand de Saussaure is a useful tool for analysing advertisements. However, Hodge and Kress (year and page number) recommended that semiotic analysis could also be used as a manner of understanding communication, including media texts. The essence of semiotics is ‘the science of signs, or the study of signs and sign systems’ (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2009:133). Media images often emphasize hegemonic representations of gender, race and class in the South African context, and in this specific advertisement BIC reinforced an ideology regarding the manner woman should portray themselves. Using semiotics, I will be deconstructing the advertisement and will argue, through drawing on xy’s concept of racial hegemony, that BIC created an advertisement that reinforces gemonic notions of race, class and gender. . ‘The denotative meaning of an advertisement is the most basic component. This is the most obvious meaning of a sign which can be expressed by describing what is directly seen.’ (Gottdiener, 1995:15) In the BIC advertisement, there is a woman that looks approximately 30 years old. Regarding racial classification, this woman is considered...
Words: 1606 - Pages: 7
...ICOM101 Major Essay Does Media Discourse Reproduce Social Inequality? Student Name : Pratama Robin Rachel Discourse denotes to the various forms of representation, codes, habits, conventions associated with language are responsible for producing specific culturally and historically located meanings. Media discourse can be described as an interaction through a media platform with the help of verbal or non-verbal communication. It has been found that media can potentially influence the public. The objective of this essay is to find out the role of media discourse in reproducing social inequality. In order to meet this objective, in the following sections the concept of discourse is explained vividly along with its style of operations. A relationship between media discourse and social inequality will be established in this essay. Discourse can be referred to the manner or way of communication between individuals or group. Discourse plays a major role in determining how an individual will understand and interpret a specific thing based upon ideas, thoughts and beliefs. According to Michel Focault, discourse is an entity of sequences, codes and signs in that they are enouncements. Media discourse includes various media outlets such as radio, television, newspaper, magazine, internet etc. The inevitable power of media has been discussed in discourse studies. Many research studies have shown that media plays an important role in influencing the thought process of individuals...
Words: 2427 - Pages: 10
...Eunjung Carney English 848 Mrs. Escamilla 03/16/2013 An Essay on a Miss Representation Images of women are presented in all different kinds of mass media. Such images of women in the media portray the ideal women’s body as very thin and as a sexual object. These unrealistic images are particularly found in women’s magazines all over the country. Many young women between the ages of 14 and 32 hold these unrealistic and unattainable images of ideal models’ bodies. There are numerous studies regarding the negative effects of women’s body portrayal in the media. Two of these studies, cultivation theory and self-schema theory, explain why and how women internalize unrealistic and unattainable ideal body images in three ways: women’s body objectification, repetitive exposure to unrealistic images, and women’s internalization of the idealized body. These cause women to have eating disorders and low self-esteem. Women should be aware of theses subtle but strong influences and these negative effects should be eliminated. Many fashion magazines objectify the woman’s body in order to sell products by portraying women in very sexual ways and by emphasizing women’s body images rather than women’s health and ability. For instance, a recent American Apparel ad in a magazine, with the copy “now open,” sends the message that a woman in the ad spreading her leg widely is open for sex. This sexual availability of the woman in this ad implies that she can be had by anyone. Usually...
Words: 322 - Pages: 2
...Canadian-American feminist media critic, blogger, and public speaker. She is the founder of Feminist Frequency, a website that hosts videos and commentary analyzing portrayals of women in popular culture. She has received particular attention for her video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, which examines tropes in the depiction of female video game characters. In 2012, Sarkeesian was targeted by an online harassment campaign following her launch of a Kickstarter project to fund the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series. At the same time, supporters donated almost $160,000 to the project, far beyond the $6,000 she had sought. The situation was covered extensively in the media, placing Sarkeesian at the center of...
Words: 1675 - Pages: 7
...The Fall of the Female Protagonist in Kids’ Movies Women in Hollywood have always been celebrated for having “Strong female roles” which may seem a little funny because men are never really applaud for their lead roles yes they are acknowledged but they don’t emphasize it as much as women Its as if a women get a strong female role it a surprise a huge accomplishment for women. This probably due to the fact that women still have a lower representation then men in the media. But what does the media portray as a strong female role? In the The Fall of the Female Protagonist in Kid’s Movies, Stefan Babyish argues that one of the most unfortunate and surprising side effect of the triumph of computer generated animation was the dearth of the female...
Words: 953 - Pages: 4
...Aviva Hurvitz 24 November 2015 Feminism and the Media Representation of Women in the 1970’s Major social change happens when enough people strongly believe in it. The media influences public opinion and thus has the ability to support or destroy these social change movements. In the 1970’s, the second wave feminist movement was attempting to create wide spread social change. Its leading organization, the National Organization for Women (NOW), was focused on dismantling workplace inequality, such as denial of access to better jobs and salary inequity, and protecting women’s rights, such as stopping domestic violence. They attempted to do this through creating legislation and changing public opinion. The media’s representation of women overall at this time counteracted these goals. By creating a derogatory picture of the “feminist”, the media made her unsympathetic to the public. Rather than creating support for the core goals of the feminist movement, the media focused on more controversial topics, specifically gay rights. This negative media coverage of the women’s movement hurt its ability to implement meaningful legislation, such as the Equal Rights Amendment. The way in which print media degraded women, demonized feminists, and connected feminism to controversial topics damaged the progress of second wave feminism in the 1970’s. The definition of a feminist is a person who believes in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes (Miriam Webster...
Words: 2871 - Pages: 12
...critically summarize the current knowledge in the area under investigation; it helps to identify strengths and weaknesses in the previous work. Furthermore it aids the researcher with knowledge on how to answer the questions and what questions needs to be asked. Part of the reason for reviewing literature is to provide an indication that will prevent the researcher from addressing answers that have been dealt with already. In depth, the following questions needs to probe by the researcher prior to the process of beginning the research: Why ask these questions? Has anyone else done something similar? Will the answers and ultimately the results be relevant? All these answers will be better answered through the process of reviewing literature. This essay will provide a mock interpretation of how the given literature reviews on masculinity can be used to extract the interview schedule. This will be done through examining the existing phenomena in the body of research on masculinity and to further close the gap between themes that have been addressed and the need thereof to expand on the existing theory should the need arise (Et al). 2. INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 2.1 Section A: Understanding masculinity in the 21st century Franklin describes masculinity as those behaviors, language and practices existing in specific cultural and organizational locations, which are commonly associated with males and thus culturally defined as not feminine. This line of questioning will seek to interrogate the understanding...
Words: 880 - Pages: 4
