Name the face

Justin Ripley

Sol Campbell

Chantelle

Vincent

Erin Gray

Abdi

Gem

Jeremy Crook OBE

Martin Schenk

Bobby Raikes

Past Representation Questions

How stereotypical are the representations of gender in your chosen texts?

Explore the different representations of either women or ethnicity in your chosen texts

To what extent are the key representations in your three chosen texts stereotypical?

Explore the different ways in which people are represented in your three chosen texts

Explore the different representations of either men or age within your three chosen texts

To what extent are the key representations in your three chosen texts stereotypical?

Panorama is the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme. A recent episode, entitled ‘Jobs for the boys’, explored the discrimination faced by young black men attempting to find work. The text broadly attempts to counter some of the negative stereotypes concerning ethnicity, although some of these elements are re-enforced.

Sol Campbell

Presented as a positive representation of ethnicity. Constructed by:

• His status as a successful and respected international sportsman, ex Arsenal and England footballer

• His intelligent and informed mode of address. This is further developed by multiple mid-shots of him sat at a computer conducting research.

• Use of settings. He is seen in various locations, and often on transport, representing him as a ‘roving reporter’ figure – someone determined to search out the truth.

Abdi

Also presented as a positive representation of ethnicity. Constructed by:

• Shots of him exercising outside – negate the stereotype of laziness often linked to unemployed immigrants.

• Mode of address, shown to be desperate to work – ‘I have applied for over 400 jobs’.

• Narrative conclusion – Abdi is employed at Buckingham palace. His smart costume, and the setting, shows that this is a position of authority and significance.

Could also refer to:

Other positive representations of ethnicity in Panorama

Blurred Face Man (aka individual who cannot be named for legal reasons)

Presented as a negative representation of ethnicity. Constructed by:

• Mode of address – admits to a former life of crime, as he says ‘I’ve been in prison for selling drugs’.

• Costume – admits that his expensive clothes were bought from the profits of criminality

• Slouched body language – implies laziness

• Dushane is constructed as a highly stereotypical representation of ethnicity

• While it could be argued that he demonstrates some positive qualities, the simple fact that he occupies such a stereotypical place in society, makes this representation ultimately a negative one.

• In spite of the positive qualities that he demonstrates, the text positions us to question what has gone wrong in society when the only opportunities seemingly open to enterprising, intelligent young black males like Dushane are in the drug trade.

• Constructed via costume and mode of address; willingness to use violence (though more considered and emotionally intelligent than Sully).

• Psychiatric nurse Leon challenges stereotypes of ethnicity.

• In a world defined by absent fathers and father-figures, he acts as positive role-model and takes responsibility for Ra’nell while his Mum, Lisa, is hospitalised.

• In having turned his back on crime he offers a way out from the cycle of criminality

• Constructed through his career, his mode of address and actions.

• His subsequent fate in the series sends a bleak message to the audience

• Ra’nell re-enforces certain stereotypical aspects of ethnicity

• He is the product of a broken-home and is eventually drawn to the drugs-trade (albeit, by teaming up with Heather, a far less conventional point of entry into criminality)

• He is defined both by innocence – usually depicted in school-uniform rather than ‘street’ clothes – and experience – acts as carer to his Mum at start, we learn that he ‘shanked’ his Dad, an observer of events that can only damage the witness (looks down on the robbery at the start of the episode).

• Constructed through costume, mode of address, actions

In March of this year, actor and comedian Lenny Henry delivered the annual Bafta Television Lecture. In the speech he called for new legislation to reverse the decline in black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people working in the UK television industry, which he said had fallen by 30.9% between 2006 and 2012.

During one section of speech, he said this.

“My point is, we are often told that BAME don’t have the marquee value or star power to drive a feature or long-running series. That’s what we’re told. These performers have demonstrated that this is no longer the case. I don’t want to be too much of a downer – there’s been some change. Idris Elba came back, didn’t he, to make Luther. Yeah boy. A crime series set in a London-like metropolis. Idris plays the title role - an intellectual, troubled, maverick cop who has no black friends or family. [Audience laughter] Not at all, none. Have you seen this? He never has any black mates. You never see him talking to his Uncle Festus or whatever his name is? He’s never down Jerk City having a curry goat and rice with his bredrens. You never see Luther with black people, what’s going on? And he never changes his clothes, what’s that all about? It’s a great show.”

A key point to make about Luther, which follows from Lenny Henry’s comments, is that the character is not defined by his ethnicity, he is defined by his role of maverick cop. John Luther just happens to be black, but this is more a product of the fact the he is played by Idris Elba.

In another sense though, his ethnicity is of fundamental importance – for as Lenny Henry acknowledged, it places a black actor at the centre of major TV drama and doesn’t force him to take on a stereotypical role such as villain or gangster. Relate this to the idea of representation being about raising visibility.

Think about how he deliberately rejects certain stereotypical aspects e.g. tells a suspect not to call him ‘blud’.

Constructed through costume, body language, mode of address & actions

Ken Barnaby – another way in which Luther presents itself as a show that is ‘beyond ethnicity’ that just takes the diverse racial mix of society as a given rather than seeing it as something that defines individuals.

Worth contrasting with the absent father-figures of Top Boy – here is an utterly stable home (or was) and a father who is devoted to his child, to the extent that he is driven to murder to protect her reputation.