Year 12 Summer Holiday Reading

To ensure you are ready for the start of the A level course in September you need to ensure that you have completed the following (click on text for links):

• Watch the Jungle Book films from 1967 and 2016
• Read at least one copy of the Daily Mail and Guardian newspapers
• Print out a copy of the Moving Image Glossary
• Read the information below defining stereotypes and then complete some independent research looking at some common stereotypes (Gender, Sexuality, Regional, Disability, Social Class, Age and Ethnicity). You can present your findings however you choose.

Stereotypes

Definition
Stereotypes are a form of representation in which groups of people are characterised by attributing to them qualities that some individuals possess, and which later become associated with the whole group.

For example… Punks are forever associated with safety pins in their clothes and bodies, and Mohican haircuts. This is the stereotype of a punk although there will be many punks who do not look like this.

Words and images become stereotyped together:

Dumb blonde football hooligan

Essex girl rebellious teenager

Gay man happy hippy

Media theorists have defined the term in various different ways: O’Sullivan et al (1995) says a stereotype is:
‘a label which involves a process of categorisation and evaluation. Although it may refer to situations or places, it is most often used in conjunction with representations of social groups.’

Branston and Stafford in The Media Student’s Book (Routledge 2006) suggest that mistakes are made in using the term:
‘which does not describe actual people or characters. Brad Pitt is not a stereotype. But the way his image is constructed does carry some …stereotypical assumptions about ‘masculinity’, toughness-with-tenderness’, etc.’

Their one line definition is useful:
‘Stereotypes are widely circulated ideas or assumptions about particular groups.’