Common portrayals of people with disabilities in the media

Part of stereotyping is the attitude that all members of a particular group are the same, or else fall into a very small number of types. This is particularly true in the few cases where persons with a disability appear in media. disabled “individuals are viewed as the objects of pity and depicted as having the same attributes and characteristics no matter what the disability may be.” “disabled people, when they feature at all, continue to be all too often portrayed as either remarkable and heroic, or dependent victims.” Not only are people with disabilities stereotyped, the full range of disabilities is not reflected in media portrayals. Lynne Roper of Stirling Media Research Institute, in her article “Disability in Media,” notes that “wheelchairs tend to predominate… since they are an iconic sign of disability. Most actors playing disabled characters are, however, not disabled. The wheelchair allows the character to be obviously disabled, whilst still looking ‘normal’, and does not therefore present any major challenges for audience identification.”

http://media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/persons_with_disabilities/disabilities_portrayals.cfm


Disability is often represented in one of the following stereotypical ways; as a victim, as a hero, or as a 'normal' person.

Media Revision Quiz: Part 1

Age Representation: BBC Bugs- Girl Power

This extract has been constructed to represent age in different ways. At first, the younger girl is stereotypically represented as being immature however as the extract continues, the camera, mise-en-scene, editing and sound all have an effect on representing age in a different way.

For example, the camera shows the young girl speaking to the older woman, with the girl sitting on the floor, lower than the adult. However the camera films the scene at a slight angle, looking up towards the adult as apposed to looking down on the young girl.

The use of mise-en-scene in this extract contributes a lot to the representation of age. For example, the girl is wearing a hooded jumper with her hair tied back out of her face in comparison with the older woman who is wearing a suit and a lot of make up. This use of mise-en-scene has the effect of showing the difference in age between the two characters. The older woman is represented as being professional and sophisticated and the teenager is represented as scruffy.
  
In the extract there are no sound effects used but the speech represents age in a specific way. For example, the teenagers speaks in a more informal way saying things such as, 'Gimme that back', 'Come on' and 'Wouldn't you like to know.' The teenager also says, 'Don't tell me you didn't try this sort of stuff when you were young'. Which represents age in a way as if younger people have a tendency to act reckless. The older woman also implies that teenagers aren't as intelligent as adults when she says. 'How did a teenager get in through the security systems' implying that the teenager would not be able to break into a sophisticated system. After she has spoken with the young girl she then states, 'She's a genius!' this speech turns the stereotype of the teenager around and portrays the younger person as intelligent.

Camera Movements: Worksheet

• many different functions; direct viewers attention, reveal off screen space, provide narrative information, or create expressive effects.
• camera most frequently moves when an object moves within the frame, initiating reframing, or following a shot.
• Reframing; (keep the action in the frame)  slight pans or tilts designed to maintain the balance of a composition during a figure movement. A camera operator will reframe when a sitting person stands up, so as to keep the person in the frame and allow for appropriate headroom. Reframing helps fix the viewer's eye on the most important figures within the frame and is so common it is often unnoticed. 
• Camera accompanies the movement of an object during a following shots. A track, crane or hand held shot can lead a moving figure into space, pursue a figure from behind, or float above, below or alongside. Intricate following shots may be motivated by the movements of more than one figure.

Representation Research: Gender

The representation of gender through the media is often stereotypical. For example men are often represented to be typically strong, masculine, tough and powerful. As opposed to how women are typically represented as more emotional, beautiful, feminine and fragile. In a TV Drama for example, it is more likely that a female will be represented as more vulnerable and emotional compared to the strong more likely to be aggressive male, more than often less expressive and emotional than females. Men are also stereotypically represented to be the 'breadwinners' in a family. They often have more manual jobs, but can also be represented to have more business affiliated jobs that are high paid. Women are often represented to have more stable relationships for example, in a TV Drama or a television advert, women are often shown to have a group of close female friends.