Media Theorist
Caroline Howarth- Social representations in the media constantly associate with crime, drugs, violence and social deprivation. Many people from Brixton contain all these elements; many people who live in the area experience social exclusion.
Social Exclusion: “Social exclusion is a multidimensional process of progressive social rupture, detaching groups and individuals from social relations and institutions and preventing them from full participation in the normal, normatively prescribed...”
(Source: wikipedia)
Media images of Brixton for example portray the area and those who live there as threatening, aggressive and criminal. However she says Brixton is a vibrant community, proud of a multicultural past and present.
“The problematic relationship between how we see ourselves and how others see us becomes a central concern.” (Jenkins 1996, 67)
She ran 8 focus groups with a total of 44 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 16, with an average of 5 participants in each group.
She did this in to investigate what they thought about how the media represents youth in Brixton, she came to the conclusion that children growing up just conform to the media therefore have no real identity in which they themselves form for their selves.
Stuart Hall- Said that media appear to reflect reality but really construct it.
He came up with the theory of encoding and decoding which is a theory of reception theory.
According to the theory, audiences can have three different reactions to a media text, whether it is a film, documentary or newspaper:
1. Dominant, or Preferred, Reading - how the director/creator wants the audience to view the media text;
2. Opposition Reading - when the audience rejects the preferred reading, and creates their own meaning of the text;
3. Negotiated Reading - a compromise between the dominant and opposition readings, where the audience accepts parts of the director's views, but has their own views on parts as well.
Henri Tajfel’s social identity theory assumes that individuals strive to improve their self-esteem based on either personal identity or various social identities. This means that people can boost their self esteem through personal achievement or through successful groups.
Tajfel argues that there is a distinct in-group and an out group. This is developed “in group” favouritism and “out group” discrimination. The individuals self –esteem is maintaining by being part of the in group.
