Representation in Print Media: An Analytical Essay

The way that society is represented within print based media texts relies considerably on the institution that distributes the texts. In almost each case, the way certain demographics and social issues are represented within such texts are heavily influenced by the political stance of the distributor.

For example, during the newspaper coverage of the 2015 General Election, British newspapers were found to endorse particular parties and candidates. The tone of their articles would therefore favour the party who shared their political ideologies, resulting in generally bias reporting across most popular newspapers. In previous elections such endorsements proved to affect voters behaviour and newspapers have become notorious regarding where they sit politically, attracting like minded readership. Notable examples of this would be when “The Independent” changed their political stance in the run up to the 2015 General Election from their traditionally centre-left ideologies and support of the Labour party to back a centre-right Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition. Because of this, the paper lost many readers to competitor “The Guardian”. The paper’s new political stance heavily altered their representation of particular parties, demonising the Labour party and the Scottish National Party (SNP) in saying that “any partnership between Labour and the SNP will harm Britain’s fragile democracy.” Furthermore, they positively represented the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative party, stating that “another Lib-Con [Liberal Democrats - Conservative] Coalition would both prolong recovery and give our kingdom a better chance of continued existence”.

The use of stereotypes also play a vital role in representation and creating propaganda. Enforcing stereotypes within text is one method that many newspapers and magazines use to represent demographics, social groups and events. For example, an article in the British magazine “ShortList” used existing stereotypes to represent the demographic that music festivals appeal to. Since print based media is often at the disadvantage of being unable to use moving image and sound, relying mainly on text, imagery is created using such stereotypes that the reader is already aware of. In a recent article ShortList relied on the stereotype of festival-goers being irresponsible, somewhat dangerous but fun and entertaining: “[...] you’re climbing a tent pole, screaming at the top of your lungs and drinking pint after pint of scrumpy [...]”. The use of this stereotype enforces an easy image that is familiar and relatable to the reader.

Stereotypes are also used to represent more generic demographics, such as gender, age or race. Young people are often misrepresented within media by using an array of different stereotypes. Particularly the portrayal of teenage boys as “yobs” or “ferals” within newspapers act as a stereotype that affects reality. Because of such negative representation, many adults and fellow teenagers are directed into being intimidated and frightened of teenage boys, particularly when arranged in groups. The stereotype of teenage boys perpetrating crimes and smoking and drinking on street corners have negatively affected people’s initial perceptions of the entire demographic, regardless of the truth. Likewise, this stereotype can also be applied to all teenagers - although not so prevalently. This is evident in a number of ways, including how many shops allow only two students in at a time. The way that newspapers represent teenagers can be somewhat to blame for the social stigma regarding young people. For example, during the 2011 London riots that took place across England following the death of Mark Duggan, a man who was shot dead by police, the coverage portrayed many of the looters and rioters as teenagers yet there was found to be a range of ages, genders and races involved in the riots. This is an example of how the media affected the public’s opinion regardless of the facts.

Women have also suffered from a number of representations within media. Often, they are portrayed in domestic situations such as being a housewife or mother. Alternatively they are objectified as sexual objects with the purpose of entertaining a (mostly) heterosexual male audience. Laura Mulvey coined the phrase “the male gaze” in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” which discusses this. The male gaze refers to how men are made to view women and how women are made to view themselves. She also constructed the theory of fragmentation which describes how, through the use of cinematography, women are objectified as pictures of women used in the media display only parts of their body, rather than their whole body, and often exclude their face. Although Mulvey’s theory originally referenced film media it also relates to print based media such as magazines and advertisements.

For example, the clothing brand “American Apparel” have been repeatedly criticised for their hypersexualisation of women within their advertisments. The way the company represents women - in particular young girls - is often referred to as “The Lolita Effect”, the title of which originates from the book Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. The term is used to describe the advertising industry’s exploitation of women at increasingly younger ages, setting unrealistic standards in terms of sex and sexuality for young girls. Much of the controversy around the American Apparel advertisements lie in the fact that many of their models are below the age of sixteen. The essence of these advertisements act as perfect visual examples of both the damaging ideals created by the media as well as of the male gaze and how women - including young girls - are over-sexualised.

A prime example of the media portraying women as sexual objects and enforcing the ideals of a patriarchal society where men “own” women can be found in this advertisement. Like Mulvey’s theory of fragmentation suggests, only certain body parts of the women in subject are displayed. The positioning of the male model above the woman suggests that men have higher rank over women and asserts a dominance which could suggest that men are entitled to women’s bodies. This is a common theme throughout the American Apparel advertisements and many have claimed that it “promotes rape culture”. Likewise, the little of the female model we can see adheres to the socially constructed beauty ideals with the hairless, clear skinned, long legs.

An example of how these advertisements enforce and conform to the expectations of both genders, and over-seuxalise woman, are in the way that they advertised this shirt. Whilst the shirt is the same - or very similar - the way each model wears it differs greatly. The male model wears the shirt traditionally - buttoned up - and his posture is what might be considered “normal”. The way the female model is positioned, however, is different in the way that it is far more suggestive. Additionally, this is portrayed by the way that the models shirt is unbuttoned.

Magazines are renowned for creating similar unrealistic stereotypes in terms of beauty. One of the biggest controversies regarding this is the way that many fashion magazines represent women. More often than not, the models featured within beauty and fashion magazines are young, slim, white and conform to the media depicted images of “beauty”. This is described in The Beauty Myth , written by Naomi Wolf, which suggests that images used by the media present a particular “beauty ideal” that women must live up to and men must desire. Wolf believes that “the gaunt, youthful model [has] supplanted the happy housewife as the arbiter of successful womanhood” which suggests that this stereotype is currently the most common in association to the female gender.

Take, for example, this cover of “FHM” - a men’s lifestyle magazine. The image displays the model (in this case, Diana Vickers) in a suggestive pose with the use of direct eye contact, tilted hips and her chest pushed out. Likewise, Vickers is wearing minimal clothing which again sexualises her. This relates to the male gaze and how females are being projected as a male fantasy rather than a realistic portrayal. It is also notable that the model fits in with the media dictated conventions of “beauty”.

Magazines are also notorious for airbrushing - or “Photoshopping” - their models to create such unrealistic images that define the social expectations of beauty which explains why the feminine ideal is seemingly so impossible to achieve; for it is fabricated itself.

Alarmingly, females are not the only demographic to be misrepresented, underrepresented or stereotyped within print media. Within mainstream magazines, African-American models are sorely underrepresented. Most models gracing the covers of magazines found on the high street follow the same conventions, one of them being that they are white. The magazines that have the highest visibility and are claimed to have the biggest impact on society’s beauty ideals show a majority of white models. Since most women’s magazines are targeted to the “average woman”, this suggests that those who are not white are not deemed as normal. Likewise, headlines and text support the connotations of these images - or lack of. White skin is considered “the norm” and this is promoted by headlines such as the one featured in the magazine “Essence” - targeted at African-American women - that states “Black is Beautiful”. Not only is this headline displayed on a magazine exclusively for African-American women, which suggests that it is not a common opinion among women of other races, the fact that it is needed to be declared further connotes that it is not an opinion of the masses. Furthermore, “White is Beautiful” would not be needed to be written on the cover of a magazine since it is taken for granted as white people are often portrayed as superior to black people. This underrepresentation shows that media representation does little for equality.



Many social issues are controlled by the representation of the media. In cases where all facts have not yet been released, newspapers use of stereotypes to aid the public’s opinions. Likewise, the institutions and organisations in control of distributing text plays a valid role in affecting the representation of social issues. For example, cases such as anti-austerity riots are often reported with minimal information as not to negatively represent the state and government. In the May of 2015, following the general election, the anti-austerity riots were not reported by most mainstream newspapers for over twenty-four hours with information being released via social media alternatively. This led to questions regarding how much control the Government has over the media we consume.