Ethnicity in TV drama

Ethnicity in TV drama:

Just like class and status, gender and disability, ethnicity contains various stereotypes and themes, especially within TV drama.  Within the Alvarado theory, there are multiple themes:

·      Exotic: These are the type of people that are represented as strange or unusual due to their ethnicity.

·      Dangerous: These types of people are generally seen as a threat to society. There are also seen as taking advantage of society and are underlying institutional racism.

·      Humorous: In previous years, someone’s race has been used as a source of comedy. An example of this is 70s TV programmes. The programmes removed threat of races by making them the butt of jokes.

·      Pitied: These are groups that are deprived or are victims of natural disasters such as floods, war or famine.

·      Sexualised: People that fall under this theme are seen as sexually violent and this is often linked to their culture. These people are seen as a threat to our society through actions such as rape. 

Tokenism:

This is the limited inclusion or the artistic/political representation of traditionally marginalised group, usually creating a false impression. An example of this is the purpose placing of a black character in an all white cast.

There are many stereotypes linked with ethnicity. One specific type of character that is heavily stereotyped is a black character. Specifically on males, there are many stereotypes associated with black characters. For example, black males are often presented as using poor language (e.g. slang, curse words etc.), dressed in cheap and saggy clothing and commit some form of crimes (E.g. theft, illegal drugs etc.). An example of this stereotype in TV drama is Dexter Hartman (Played by Khali Best). He speaks very quickly, uses a large amount of slang. He often wears loose baggy clothing and flashy accessories such as gold necklace.

A counter type to this stereotypical view of a black male character is Luther from the British original drama Luther. He is a professional, well educated and smartly dresses criminologist who completely goes against this stereotype.

Another stereotype based on ethnicity is of a character of an Indian heritage.  One of the most common stereotypes of Indian characters is that they own local shops. Two examples of this are Dev from Coronation Street and Apu from The Simpsons.

 

4 Areas of textual analysis:

• ·      Camera shots: The use of camera angles and movements can be used to highlight the power that one race/culture has over another one.  For example a low angled shot may be used on a group of white males to and then jump cut to a high angle shot that is showing the viewer a group of black males. This would be used to show that in that specific situation, the white males have more power of the black males.
• ·      Sound: Sound effects and music can be used to create a desired atmosphere and representation of a specific culture/race. An example of this may be when one character of a specific ethnicity is being intimidated or threatened by a group of people from a different ethnicity the sound may consists of loud sound effects such as drums. This would be used to create a tense atmosphere.
• ·      Editing: The use of quick and short jump cuts can be used to show a action pact, intense, or awkward scene between multiple characters of different cultures/race whereas a scene that consists of much more longer continuous clips with less jump cuts is able to create a much calmer situation.
• ·      Mise-en-Scène: This mainly relates to clothing in TV dramas regarding to a characters ethnicity. Different clothes are associated with different cultures/races.

6 Areas of representation:

• ·      Age: Throughout TV drama there are many characters of different ethnicities that are of all ages. Age isn’t really a factor that is influenced by a person’s ethnicity.
• ·      Gender: Again, just like age, a characters gender doesn’t really have an effect on their ethnicity.  There is always a variation throughout TV drama.
• ·      Sexuality: Sexuality again doesn’t really have an effect on a person’s ethnicity and vice versa. Throughout TV drama there are variations of characters of different cultures/races that have different sexual preferences.
• ·      Class and status: Ethnic minorities are often stereotyped as lower class however in some cases, the ethnic minority is the wealthiest person in that area.
• ·      Psychical ability/disability: Throughout TV drama, the most common ethnicity for a disabled character is a white Caucasian however there are sometimes exceptions.
• ·      Regional Identity: Just like Age, Gender and sexuality, the regional identity of a person doesn’t really have an effect on the ethnicity of that person.