1. Write an essay entitled: how young people and adults are represented in the media.
You should aim to write 2 sides of A4. You can include:
 examples from the TV extract
 examples from the pictures
 your general knowledge of films and TV programmes
How are young people and adults represented in the media?
In the media there seems to be a misconception of young people’s life being exciting and fun all the
time, whether they thing we’re partying and getting drunk at a friend’s party or not paying attention
in school. And I being a young person representative, will tell you that not all young people are like
that, in fact as many young people grow to become teenagers, especially when they go into
sixthform and college
These harsh stereotypes go both ways, young and old.
The stem of the problem starts are the youth obsessive media, which idolizes and worships the
‘beauty’
Media portrayal of the Elderly
* Mass media is a way people can gain guidance on social roles, it also has the
power to manipulate our views and give us information whether accurate or not.
* When we are unsure about something we often just take in the information given to
us by the mass media without questioning it (magazines, television, movies,
advertisements etc.) and this information is stored and is used as social guidance to
categorize societal roles.
* Media tends to emphasize youthfulness, beauty, as well as physical and emotional
health. The mass media is catered towards children, teens, adolescents, and adults
but not the elderly. In this way the elderly are portrayed in media as nonexistent to
our society and as if they do not matter.
* On the other hand, when the elderly are portrayed through the mass media,
unfortunately it is in a way that does not depict their true representations. They are
represented to the public in negative ways which in return confirm the stereotypes
against the elderly
*Women segregation in media has been found across all age groups, in fact Dr.
Linda-Marie Delloff has done research on the elderly and media. She has found that
“Elderly women are shown much less on Television then elderly men, “only one in
ten characters over 65 is a woman”. (Delloff, 1987)
Ageism
Ageism: Prejudice or discrimination against a persons age.
How the Elderly are portrayed in media
* Immobile

2. * Taking care of grandchildren
* Poor eyesight and hearing
* Obnoxious/outspoken
* Help is always needed/Unable to take care of self
* Unemployed
* Napping
* Sewing
* Cooking/ Baking
* Lacking cognitive abilities (short and long term memory loss)
* In nursing homes
Media Examples (YouTube)
1). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMiJzne3Wmk&feature=related
King of Queens (TV show) : In this scene Arthur ( the father of Carrie) is not
understanding what is going on at all. Carrie and her husband Doug repeatedly say
something but he seems to be in his own world and acts like a lost child.
2). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_CXXtAGM8A&feature=related
Everybody Loves Raymond (TV show) : Marrie is portrayed in this TV show as a stay
at home grandma, and in this specific scene she is baking. She is then confronted by
her daughter in law for needing to see an optometrist and her own husband makes a
joke about her poor vision.
3). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ntCmFwtWc&feature=youtube_gdata
Gran Torino (Movie) : In this scene Walt Kowalski, is portrayed as a grumpy
elderly person who believes the future generations lack values his generation did.
What research actually shows
* Immobility= can be sustained through moderate exercise
* Exercising the brain, whether by writing poetry or playing Sudoku, also helps
maintain cognitive skills. (Campbell)
* Some people do work past the retirement age and enjoy it, in fact a delivery man
stays fit at the age of 84 by carrying 23kg of water jugs (CTV News, 2012)
Many don’t understand that a representation isn’t a direct reflection of reality.
Sometimes film producers take a direct approach,
Representation of Age
After gender and ethnicity, age is the most obvious category under which we file
people, and there are a whole range of instant judgements which go along with that
categorisation. Age is the easiest way to categorise someone as "other" than
yourself —everyone you meet will be, to some extent, older or younger, a different
age than you. And with difference comes... a tendency to stereotype.

3. Age Stereotypical Characteristics
Young
Immature, stupid, greedy, lazy, selfish, unfit, obese,
violent, callous, gullible, unreliable, careless, self-entitled,
never going to achieve anything
Old
Grumpy, out-dated, slow, weak, whining, unable to use
technology, unhealthy, miserly, hard-of-hearing, ugly,
never go anywhere
Harsh stereotypes cut both ways, against both the old and the young. What do
these clips from THE INBETWEENERS say about teenage boys?
“I Am Not A Numbe r...”
While we've come to understand that stereotyping someone according to their
gender, or the colour of their skin, is unfair and unacceptable, stereotyping
according to age (ageism) is still widespread. Age, like race, is something you can't
change about yourself, but people go to great lengths to disguise how old they really
are in order to avoid being the victim of age stereotyping. People dress in
deliberately youthful clothes, dye grey hair, lie about their age on internet dating
sites, diet, and even subject themselves to painful, invasive plastic surgery.It would
be horrifying to think that someone took such steps in order to conceal their true
race or gender. Given that aging is inevitable and happens to everyone, why are we
in such collective denial about the process?
The problem stems, in part, from a youth-obsessed media that insists on
worshipping beauty (associated with youth) and devaluing wisdom and experience
(associated with age). There seems to be unspoken agreement amongst magazine
editors (in print and online) that we prefer to look at images of young, smooth-skinned
models in connection with both advertising and editorial copy. This
establishes youth as the hegemonic norm. Everyone is expected to look thirty six
years old, no matter what their biological age. When an individual feels that they
might be deviating from that norm, there is a whole industry out there of "age-defying"
cosmetic products ready to supply a remedy - at a price.
Women seem to be particular victims when it comes to snap judgments about age
and "age-appropriate" behaviours, appearance and attitude, damned if they appear
to age, damned if they don't. We criticise mature women for going about as mutton
dressed as lamb, and young girls for tarting themselves up as jail bait. Film stars
who start to show signs of aging in their forties are swooped on with cries of horror
by gossip columnists ("Movie star gets wrinkles... and her tits start to sag" shocker!!)
while those who succumb to the surgeon's knife are written about with equal
distaste ("Movie star can't raise eyebrows and her tits DON'T sag" equal shocker!!!).

4. Denial brings confusion. How old is old? When can you be considered a grown up?
How soon should you start wearing make up? Having sex? When does adolescence
begin and end? At the young end, there's a heated debate about the increasing
sexualisation of children at a younger and younger age. Recent murder cases have
ignited debate about the age of criminal responsibility: is it currently set too low?
Too high? Should children under 14 be locked up? It's clear that twentieth century
definitions of childhood are no longer functional in our society, but how do we
replace them? Confusion brings identity crises. At what age should you stop being a
child and take on the responsibilities of an adult? Do we now have a discrete phase
of "tweendom" or has this just been invented by advertisers?
The identity crisis doesn't end when you leave school or college - traditionally the
transition into the adult world. Generation X-ers who refuse to grow up and put
away their Star Wars figurines or PlayStations have extended adolescence long into
adulthood. Pop culture, knowledge of which has traditional ly been a signifier of
youth, is no longer subject to the boundaries drawn between 'Youth' and 'Mature'
audiences from the 1950s to the 1980s.Men have immature images of themselves
reinforced through the figure of the "man-child" in Judd Apatow comedies, and are
encouraged to indulge their teenage fantasies in a made-to-measure "man-cave"
(which is just a recreation of their parents' basement or garage from when they
were teenagers, with more expensive toys). Adult women routinely refer to
themselves as "girls". Twilight Moms trample their tween daughters in the crowds to
get close to Taylor Lautner, while 'Dad Rock' is a father-son bonding experience,
perhaps revolving around the GLEE cast covers of Journey classics.
It gets worse. How old do you have to be before you refer to yourself as old? Before
you're happy to be referred to by other people as "old"? What's the correct word?
Senior? Third Ager? Pensioner? Geezer? Silver Fox? Retirement, like graduation, was
once seen as a transition into another phase, but good luck with telling that to the
retirees crowding the marathon starting blocks, swimming pools, golf courses,
mountain bike trails and night classes near you that they are "old". Advances in
health care and mental attitudes mean that people are living longer,and remaining
active long into their retirement. Some of our most successful novelists, composers,
film-makers, politicians and scientists are still working into their eighties.
By denying that ageing is a natural part of the process of living, we condemn
ourselves to an eternal adolescence (God! No!) and do not acknowledge that our
tastes and priorities may grow and change. An obsession with youth and novelty
also means that we disregard the lessons of history and devalue experience. Ageism
is just as harmful as racism or sexism when it comes to repressing sections of the
population.
Age Shall Not Weary Them
This obsession with adhering to a hegemonic norm when it comes to age has long been the
stuff of fantasy in literature and film. Science Fiction has often sounded dire warnings about
the dangers of chasing eternal youth, while simultaneously accepting that everyone
assuming a youthful appearance is an inevitable part of the future. Thanks to diet and drugs
in Brave New World (1932), Alphas and Betas look suitably smooth and pneumatic until the

5. day their over-taxed hearts are stopped. Ageing is unknown, and horrifying, and the
naturally-wrinkled Lena is an object of terror and then ridicule when her son brings her back
to civilisation from the Reservation:
“There was a gasp, a murmur of astonishment and horror; a young girl screamed; standing on a
chair to get a better view some one upset two test-tubes full of spermatozoa. Bloated, sagging,
and among those firm youthful bodies, those undistorted faces, a strange and terrifying monster
of middle-agedness, Linda advanced into the room, coquettishly smiling her broken and
discoloured smile, and rolling as she walked, with what was meant to be a voluptuous
undulation, her enormous haunches”. (Brave New World, Chapter 10)
While age is its own punishment for Lena, elsewhere sci-fi narratives deliver
retribution to those trying to defy the process. THE WASP WOMAN (1960) punishes
its protagonist for looking for the ultimate face cream by bestowing - that's right -
her with the head and thorax of a gigantic wasp. In SURROGATES (2009), real
humans stay in bed and let their eternally-youthful robot selves do all the heavy
lifting - but this brings society to the edge of collapse, until a craggy Bruce Willis
gets out of bed and saves the world.
In the Harry Potter books, Voldemort's quest for immortality via horcruxes, unicorn's
blood, the philosopher's stone etc results in his smooth-skinned appearance.
However, his desire to remain unmarked by age is represented as part of his
inherent villainy, in direct contrast to Dumbledore's flowing white beard and craggy,
lined face. Dumbledore considers natural death to be a great adventure, and, like
Obi-Wan Kenobi before him, is able to advise his young protegé from beyond the
grave. In the world of witches and wizards at least, wrinkles confer wisdom and
goodness.
Yet it seems that the glorification of youth is even trickling down into fantasy fiction.
One of the reasons why our society seems so attracted to vampires is their
immortality (and attendant marmoreal complexions). We've evolved the mythology
so that vampires are preternaturally beautiful, and forever young. Because of this,
we seem to have stopped caring that underneath they are monsters, we overlook
their need for human blood because they are so photogenic. This means that in our
culture we value physical beauty more highly than we value a human soul - a
complete reversal of centuries of philosophy and religion. In Breaking Dawn, Bella is
so horrified at the thought of becoming any older, physically, than eighteen, that she

6. chooses to become a vampire instead (against the wishes of Edward who should
really know all about it). Her fear of even one wrinkle wins out over her fear of
damnation. And that's the sanitised, tween-friendly Mormon version...
It Gets Better
As the baby boomers of the 1950s and 1960s move on towards their 'Third Age',
they demand the same consumer comfort they have always done, and also demand
the right to see themselves fairly represented on TV and in movies. In the USA, they
number 78 million, have over a trillion dollars a year in disposable income and
control 50% of consumer spending. As a generation they have always had role
models, media figures who have shown the way when it comes to appearance, what
to wear, how to behave, what to buy to feel like you belong. They've also been
enthusiastic adopters of the internet and other related technologies, like smart
phones and tablet computers. They are also very vocal if they feel they are being
ignored, or disrespected, and advertisers have certainly taken note. There is
increased awareness that diversity isn't just about race, but about age, and that
age-specific insults can be as insulting as sexist ones.
The result is a higher visibility of the over-fifties in traditionally youth-oriented
media. Aging movie stars of that generation (step up Sylvester Stallone and Bruce
Willis) are unwilling to fade away quietly, and keep pushing for roles. Action movies
THE EXPENDABLES and RED packed multiplexes in 2010, despite featuring lead men
in their fifties and sixties. The Rolling Stones still strut their stuff on stage. Helen
Mirren and Meryl Streep are regularly nominated for awards.
Finely Aged:Are Things Getting Better For Older Actors?
TV has always been kinder to older characters: in the USA CURB YOUR
ENTHUSIASM is on Season 8, and David Letterman (born 1947) is still king of late
night talk shows. Betty White became the oldest person ever to host Saturday Night
Live in May 2010 (aged 78) - and won a Primetime Emmy for her trouble. UK
television has always demonstrated an awareness that older characters are just as
interesting as younger ones, and the over-fifties form the lynchpins of the major
soaps, as well providing the highlights of sitcoms like Grandpa in OUTNUMBERED.
Growing old was the central strand of the comedy in sitcoms LAST OF THE SUMMER
WINE and ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, and saw the characters railing against the
expectation that they would sink quietly into oblivion once their working life was
done.
As we move further into the twenty-first century, it would be nice to think that we
move towards increasing acceptance of all ages for what they are, that we learn to
celebrate difference in age as we have learned to celebrate difference in skin color,
and that we value all human beings equally without using age or youth as an excuse
to dismiss them as irrelevant.
To represent something is to describe, or depict it, to call it up in the mind by description or
portrayal. Representation is concerned with the way that people, ideas and events are presented to
us. This could be represented in various media platforms e.g. TV programmes, films, magazines etc.

7. and represent people, places or situations. The media rely on the audiences understanding these
representations and accepting them. For some people, the media’s representation of something
may be the only contact that the individual might have to the near reality of e.g. how it’s like being
in the police.
http://www.slideshare.net/tcasman/media-studies-gcse-representation