Stereotypes – collective or individual?

· Reflection: In terms of what’s reflected most of us are willing to wear positive generalizations to get with pride, but argue with those who criticise us. Positive generalization could also be insulting e.g. black runners being the best and only highlighting them as in a small minority. The problem with the traditional view is that stereotypes reflect culture. Religion is another key factor of reflection as it is almost central to the way millions of people base the way they live their lives. For example Christians will God as all loving where as atheists who have no faith at all will immediately dismiss this view as it challenges their beliefs and also they stereotype God as being non existing or hateful for example. Stereotypes can either be fair or unfair, for example in skins they possibly represent unfair stereotypes such as sex and violence whereas not all teenagers will act in that particular way.
· Intentional: Social forces can influence the way that we describe things influence to use culturally derived stereotypes in conversations. This can include political factors, satire and political correctness. Often the stereotypes we here about encourage or discourage behaviours by certain people and groups within society. We’re not only told what to think, but we are also taught for example in secondary school and on work courses. There is also the factor of prejudice. Prejudices are important to intentional behaviour description as we all have the tendency to prejudge people and also many different important issues without knowing all of the facts first. We also can use stereotypes intentionally when we are being bullied for example and the feelings such as fear and hatred act as the social forces for a counter attack on the bully , for example for a bully saying how they are stupid and also maybe in the heat of the moment may make insulting comments about the bully’s family. In skins for example hormones can make stereotypes intentional and also through social forces such as mistreatment in school.
· Constructed: Most stereotypes are uniformly held so evidence for collective representations are weak. The role of culture in our everyday lives helps to construct some particularly strong social stereotypes, such as the irresponsibleness of teenagers in Britain through consequences, such as teenage pregnancies and teenage drivers being reckless. Other factors include cultural legitimacy and consensus. Powerful cultural messages about stereotypes can be expressed publically and under other conditions as well. Stereotypes are usually very well structured, because they are based around a strong issue in society and those particularly political and social ones have many attributes to support them. An example of this is from the time of George Bush being president of USA and people stereotyped him as being corrupt, having low intelligence and also having a poor grasp of reality and everything that was going within the world both politically and socially. Skins represents constructed stereotypes with mainly the worst of British teenage culture shining through.

Culture work

USA History France History UK History
World War 1 World war 1 World war 1
World war 2 World war 2 World war 2
Cold war St. Bartholomew’s day massacre Hundred years war
Kennedy assassination French Revolution Creation of the BBC
Cold War Hundred years war Battle of Britain
Gulf war Battle of Waterloo Great depression
9/11 Invention of sports such as cricket.
Wall street crash
Moon landing
Wright Bros. Flight
US sports invented


US sports may be played little elsewhere according to Barthes, because they signify more than themselves and have more meaning to US culture than other cultures. It is also a symbol of USA’s natural identity and that signs can sometimes cover up past history. USA is a sports fest with many different sports played so maybe also out of the pride that comes with landmarks or inventions it encourages that society to show off its gift to the world.
The function of these sports is to enrich local culture and bring it together and to show their possible superiority over other countries and celebrate the countries culture with the public.


Gangster genre in US culture

Typical signs (codes) and conventions Signified Mythical function to audience
Gun crime Legal Lack of responsibility
Drugs Lack of moral behaviour Power of certain influences
Car jacking Innocent victims Poor values mean that it can be seen as a more natural occurrence.
Gangs Fear of big groups of people, particularly teenagers Makes them a stronger and more dangerous culture than other US cultures

Michael Shields freed after Jack Straw intervenes

This is a case study that I've found that has been all over the newspaper headlines. Michael Shields is a Liverpool FC supporter who was jailed for life for attempted murder and has spent the last 4 years in prison. He has been released after overwhelming evidence was presented that he wasn't even at the scene and the citizens of Liverpool even both Liverpool and Everton supporters marched in protest and gave overwhelming support backing his innocence

What I learnt in today's lesson

Today I learned in Mr. Wroe's lesson about what areas of the media have the most influence on British youth and the stereotypes involved in this using microcosms and macrocosms to explain them. The lesson was good for me to get back into the groove of media lessons as i may have been rusty during the summer and it was a good warm up and introduction to the work that I'll be covering this year.

How the issue of censorship affects our notion of collective identity and therefore britishness in film

In terms of choices in production a film script and plot is based around a target audience and how scenes are planned and carried out depend on the age group targeted and how to make the scenes suitable for their specific viewing age. For example the portrayal of themes such as violence and swearing can be used in order to portray the link to real life themes although these wouldn't be suitable portrayals for younger viewing audiences to see. However films that are rated PG contain some of these more adult themes, but are strictly limited in order to stay within the boundaries of set by the BBFC and still attract a large age base for the film.

In terms of how the issues of censorship can affect our consumption of a film through semiotics the themes of violence and sex for example signify a link to real life portrayal and signifies that some younger audiences need protection from these themes as they will stop them influencing them and also may not understand why these things occur. Also changes in the censoring of films signifies that times are changing in the film industry in terms of what lower age viewing audiences should be allowed to see. For example in 2002 the new 12a rating replaced 12 as the first Spiderman film had driven away so many young fans and this was a prime part of the target market. Therefore 12a was introduced where a child who saw a 12 rated film in the cinema must be accompanied by an adult.

Britishness in film is also effected by the notion of collective identity especially as 18 rated films such as ' This is England ' can represent the worst of British culture and also in lower rated films the best of Britishness with attributes such as equality and helpfulness higlighted almost like the worst of britishness in films is trying to be kept as secret as possible through higher film ratings.