Representation in the media

Fair Representation is used in many programmes by using people with different races, backgrounds and genders. However, a producer must be careful not to upset the audience with their decisions or this could cause a boycott against the said programme and cause it to shut down.

Example of good representation in the media would be Dr Who, this programme is broadcast on BBC1 and has a female Dr for the first time in Dr Who history, as well as this her assistants are all from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. This show has been widely praised for the choices the directors have made to try and represent everyone fairly.

However, the opposite effect of these tactics to dodge criticism may, in fact, be negative feedback from the viewers. I believe the filming company should not choose different people for the sake of being different. If there is a role and a woman a man and transgender person applies and in fact the transgender person is the better actor then they should be selected, but if the woman applying is a better actor then they should be selected for the roll, in my opinion, this is the fairest way of selecting the cast for a show, as it represents everyone fairly and not one person is singled out.

However this is not the case at the moment, producers are often choosing a different variety of actors to bring coverage from the media and bring in views to the new show because it is the politically correct thing to do, though there are exceptions for this in reality shows, where I do believe producers should use a wide range of people, my point more applies to radio show hosts, tv presenters etc...

This brings me to my next point, there is almost a ‘race’ to get all different types of people on tv shows and almost an undercurrent of force both from the media and the viewers. This year for example “Love Island”, this show only contained ‘Good looking’ men and women, no gay people and no older people. It was controversial and was talked about a lot in the press, being called ‘sexist’ and it was also called out for body shaming. However now look at what the show is about and the audience it targets. The programme is not targeted at older people nor is it targeted towards gay people, and as controversial as this might be, does every programme have to cater to everyone? It seems as if it does in the medias eye, but I believe there should be a variety of tv programmes on tv and as bad as ‘love island’ may look, it has a consistent audience, however I can see future seasons of this programme bringing in different varieties of people to prevent controversy and I'm sure it would bring in a bigger audience, though this is the way the industry is moving and I do actually agree this move will be beneficial for the programme like it has been for many others.

Media producers are including more and more people with issues into their shows and this recent behaviour I think is a great thing as it shines a light on disabilities and they are also educating the audience how to interact with the disabled in a positive manner which is a really positive thing and is widely welcomed by the watcher and also the media.

Stereotypes: Producers are trying to iron out stereotypes and create a programme free of stereotypes, this is adding diversity, they are trying to break the bad stereotypes, as this makes the tv programmes not only look good, but they create a positive impact on society and these shows may even change people’s attitude about how they treat other people.

A recent controversial topic was when an old tv programme ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ was screened on Channel 4, it was brought up by the media that there were many ‘offensive’ stereotypes being brought up in the programme towards the black community, however, these programmes are part of the history of Great British television, I think they should be allowed to be screened but I think it would be a bad idea to produce a new show that has similar content to the slightly offensive language found in the programme, Love Thy Neighbour, as it could be seen as racist and it could be damaging to a tv channel if something like this is produced and shown on tv.

Representation in video games.

To be truthful I believe in video games there is not much representation of different cultures races and there are some bad stereotypes to been seen in even recent games. These representation issues in games are not being brought up, as only a few people play video games and only the biggest of games like Fortnite, PUBG and Call Of Duty represent everyone fairly. It’s when you look at smaller titles that some issues become apparent, for example, racism and sexism are found in GTA and other similar games like Watchdogs 1 and 2. There is this issue as people can choose in the game to be a racist or sexist, but how can they present this. In the next GTA title, there will be a law system brought into the game to prevent racism and sexism. Players will lose in-game currency and could even have a short ban from the game in an effort to educate the gaming society that this behaviour is not ok, and I believe this is the way forward in these free roaming games.