AS level media (year 12) Ethnicity lesson

2. 
What is ethnicity?
The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or
cultural tradition.

What is a dominant group?
A group that has more population than the subordinate group.

What is a subordinate group?
Belonging to a lower or inferior class rank.

What is hegemony?
The socially accepted and agreed beliefs of those in the ruling class.

3. • Ugly
• Uneducated
• Silly/not taken
seriously
• Illegal aliens
• Partiers
• Involved in
drugs
• Sex symbols
Terrorists/violent
Very religious
Physically strong
Strict/stern/not a
push over
• Serious
• Victims (female)
• Villains/rarely seen
as heroes
•
•
•
•
• Intelligent
• Martial artist
• Obsessed with
electronics
• Quirky or weak





• Gangster
• “Token’’
character
• Poor
• Criminal
• Victim
• Hero
Powerful:
physical/intellectual
Often the hero
Serial killer/Villain
In charge (dominant
race)
Lead role

4. -
Gangster
“Token black guy’’
Poor/Impoverished
Criminal
Victim
Hero

5. 





Intelligent
Martial artist
Obsessed with electronics
Quirky or weak
Lack emotion
Women can be seen as
ditzy in some cases

6. 





Ugly
Uneducated
Silly/not taken seriously
Illegal aliens
Partiers
Involved in drugs
(dealing/taking)

Sex symbols
(Antonio
Banderez, Penelope Cruz, Salma
Hayek).

7. 






Terrorists/violent
Very religious
Physically strong
Strict/stern/not a push over
Serious
Victims (female)
Villains/rarely seen as heroes

8. 




Powerful:
physical/intellectual
Often the hero
Serial killer/Villain
In charge (dominant race)
Lead role

9. 


Ethnicity, like sex, is a set of genetically
defined, biological characteristics.
However, like gender, it is also a set of
culturally defined characteristics.
Representation of race in the media can consist
of the same sort of rigid stereotypes that
constitute gender portrayal.
However, stereotyping of race is seen as more
harmful than stereotyping of gender, as media
representation may constitute the only
experience of contact with a particular ethnic
group that an audience (particularly an
audience of children) may have.

10. 
Racial stereotypes are often based on social
myth, perpetuated down the ages. Thus, the
media depiction of, say, Native American
Indians, might provide a child with their only
experience of Native American Indian culture
and characters, and may provide that child
with a set of narrow prejudices which will not
be challenged elsewhere within their
experience.

11. 
The need for a more accurate portrayal of the
diversity of different races is a priority for
political agendas, but, as ever, it seems as
though it will take a while for political
thinking to filter through to programme and
film-making.

12. 
Most work on Race & The Media has
concentrated on the representation of black
men and women. This has partly been
because there is a strong African-American
counter-culture which provides viable
alternative role models and demands that
they are represented.

13. 
In recent years, the success of actors such as
Denzel Washington, Whoopi
Goldberg, Laurence Fishburne, Will Smith and
Morgan Freeman in a diversity of roles has
meant that black characters in movies and on
TV are no longer 'stock' types.

14. 
However, there are many negative
representations of black people, portrayals
which seem deliberately designed to inflame
the fear and hatred of other cultures - how
positive a representation is the archetypal
African-American gangsta? Yet these are
representations coming from within black
culture itself...

15. 

Attention is now being paid to the
representation of other ethnic
groups, notably Asian Americans and
Latinos, who represent a much larger
proportion of the US population than their TV
coverage would suggest.
Things are changing - on the one hand the
success of John Woo and Ang Lee in
Hollywood is pushing the boundaries back for
Asian Americans, and the Latin Music
Explosion of 1999 has led to much wider
acceptance of Latino performers.

16. Skins
This clip of Skins involves a Muslim father being
told that his son’s friend, Maxxie, is gay.

17. 

It is typical for people who are a part of the
Muslim culture to be against homosexuality,
therefore in this clip it is expected that the
Muslim family would not take well to the fact
that Maxxie is gay.
Chris who is a white character in the clip
appears and he uses language which is
typical for a white teenager, using bad
language.

18. 

You have 10 minutes to write a couple of
paragraphs explaining your opinion.
Remember to use evidence from the clip and
if you can evidence from:
◦
◦
◦
◦
Mise en scene
Sound
Editing
Camerawork

19. 
Do you think hegemony is challenged in this
clip? Are the dominant beliefs challenged?
Yes.

Hegemony is challenged in this clip regarding
ethnicity as it challenges they typical Muslim
belief about homosexuality.

20. Misfits
The clip from Misfits is where one of the
probation workers tries to talk to the characters
about the community service they are doing.

21. 
Each of the characters are represented in
completely different ways. Three different
ethnicities are shown in the extract;
◦ Black British, white British, Irish and mixed race.
Curtis, who plays the black British male character
follows the typical stereotype – how?
◦ The Irish character, Nathan, follows a typical Irish
stereotype as he has charm and is quite humorous.
◦ The white character is gobby and aggressive in the
extract.
◦ The mixed race character is glamorous and
feminine in the extract.

22. 
Go through each of the ethnicities
represented and answer whether the
representation reinforces or challenges the
ethnic stereotype.

23. 

Which ethnicity is dominant/subordinate in
this extract? Are any of them?
How does the social worker fit?

24. 



Who would you expect the dominant group to
be as this is a British TV drama?
Is this the case for this clip?
Who is the dominant group in this clip? How
do you know?
Who is the subordinate group in this clip?
How do you know?