Representation of Gay and Lesbian Communities in the Media

Representation of gay and lesbian communities in the media is commonly seen as very negative. A study into this by Stonewall showed that:

• Lesbian, gay and bisexual people were portrayed for 5 hours and 43 minutes - 4.5 per cent of total programming.
• However, lesbian, gay and bisexual people were portrayed negatively for two hours and three minutes.
• Lesbian, gay and bisexual people were positively and realistically portrayed for just 46 minutes, 0.6 per cent of total programmes monitored. 
• Three quarters of portrayal was confined to just four
  programmes – Hollyoaks, I’m A Celebrity..., How to Look
  Good Naked and Emmerdale. 
• Half (49 per cent) of all portrayal was stereotypical.
  Gay people were depicted as figures of fun, predatory or
  promiscuous.
• Lesbian, gay and bisexual people were portrayed negatively
  for two hours and three minutes – accounting for 36 per cent of all portrayal.
• Lesbian, gay and bisexual people were presented in a
  realistic and positive way in just 46 minutes of programming
  out of 126 hours.
• Just seven minutes featured scenes where homophobia
  was challenged.

This is not a good thing for gay and lesbian people, especially the younger generation who are hoping to come out. Gay people on tv are always depicted as having very bad experiences of their homosexuality, for example in soaps, the gay character is always rejected by his family, gets beaten up a lot and never seems very happy. This was true in Eastenders, where the character Christian starting dating Syed, who is a Muslim. Syed couldn't tell his family about his sexuality as they would disown him, and he was also engaged to a woman. He has a horrible battle choosing either Christian or his family, who do disown him, although they do end up together in the end. This was quite a horrific experience for this gay couple, which leads to the point that there are no positive representations or experiences for gay people on television. Another representation of gay people is that they are very camp, which is shown in Coronation Street through the character Sean. Sean is seen to be a jokey character who is obviously openly gay. This is slightly better than in Eastenders, but there are still no normal gay people represented in soaps.

Positive role models for gay people are entered yearly by choice into the 'Pink List', which celebrates the gay and lesbian community's influential people. Number 1 on the 2010 Pink List is Gareth Thomas, who is a rugby player who has recently come out. I think he is a very positive role model, as there are barely any openly gay people in sport. Number 2 is Mary Portas, and I think this is good to have a woman so high up on the list. Other influential people on the list are Stephen Fry, Sue Perkins, Alan Carr, John Barrowman and Simon Amstell.
It is also interesting to note how many people on the list have jobs in the creative or media industries.

Websites

Websites are accessed via the Internet. There are several ways that the audience accesses the Internet at home, including:
- phone line
-  broadband
(both direct or wireless)
- mobile phone
- dongle


and on the go:
- iPad
- mobile phone
- laptop
- work machines
- public phone/Internet/mail


These are accessed via hotspots, Internet cafe's, The Cloud, libraries, cafe's, restaurants and hotels.


There are issues with the Internet including:
- public space, stalking
- law is behind in regards to piracy, which has been evident for the past 10 years (Napster), and false advertising
- XXX domain coming into place - purely for porn, to protect minors
- google images isn't always safe
- The Pirate Bay
- Youtube has adult content, access to violent/scary material

There are many different types of websites available on the Internet, including:
- Retail - make money by selling - commerce
e.g Topshop
Cost of website - paid transactions


- Marketing - to advertise and promote a product
e.g Le Creuset
Cost of website - marketing budget


- Advertising - to embed adverts within articles (newspapers - pay walls)
e.g Elle.co.uk
Cost of website - advertisements


- Service - social networking, video converters, Google - finances retailing prime space
e.g Facebook
Cost of website - adverts


- Information - academic/government 
eg. wikipedia, .gov sites  
Cost of website - private funding






The website for Strictly Come Dancing is funded by the BBC. There is no profit and the target audience is mumsy people. The purpose of the website is to raise awareness of the programme and broaden the experience for the audience.


The website for the X Factor is funded by advertising and has many sponsors including TalkTalk, Sainsburys and Nokia. 
It makes a profit from iTunes, as there is the ability to download past performances via iTunes which you have to pay for. The target audience is mainly women, possibly mumsy women. The purpose of the website is to raise awareness for the programme and to broaden the experience for the user.  

The owner of a website will often want to know the statistics for their site, such as how many views it has had, how many unique views, or how many pages have been visited. They would want to do this to see if their advertising techniques are effective, and also if the website is laid out correctly so that the users are not just visiting one page - there is easy access to all pages. The BBC, for example, would need to do this on their website as they are using viewers money to pay for it. The viewers would want to know that their money was being spent wisely and not wasted. ITV would want to view these statistics as they need to make sure that their advertising campaigns are effective.

Hellcats

As a group, we were shown the first 15 minutes of a programme we had never seen before. We then had to decide who the target audience was, the channel it would most likely be shown on and at what time. We also had to come up with some possible adverts that would be shown in the breaks, and a sponsor.

I believed the programme, which I now know is called Hellcats, is primarily aimed at young girls of about 13. It may also be watched by girls as young as 10, however I don't think the intended audience is this low as there are references to alcohol and nudity. 

I think the programme would be shown on channel 5 as the target audience would not be mainstream enough to be shown on a more popular channel. It would also be shown between 6 and 7pm as this is near enough a guaranteed time for the target audience to be at home watching television. They would obviously be in school during the day.

Ideas for adverts that we came up with were:

- GHD

- High School Musical DVD

- Charlie spray

- MaxFactor

- Loreal

- Nintendo DS

- Animal Crossing

I think that GHD would be a good sponsor for the programme.

Adverts on the X Factor

The adverts on the X Factor are aimed at the target audience that watches it. Having looked at the adverts I can analyse the target audience that the show thinks it has. 

One of the adverts featured was for Vagisil, which is a feminine product used to treat thrush. This is obviously aimed at women. The age range is about 20+.

Another advert was for McDonalds, specifically coffee. Coffee is generally not advertised to children, so it is probably aimed at men and women, again, aged 20+. The advert targets busy people, workers and drivers, as it portrays that it is easy even for on-the-go, busy people to nip into McDonalds for a quick coffee.

There was also an o2 advert advertising a competition to win tickets to see the Foo Fighters. This advert was possibly included because of the link to music in the show. It may also be because of a link to phones from the show, as o2 is a phone company and members of the audience need to have phones so they can ring up to vote for their favourite act. I think this advert was targeting mainly men, probably of about 20+. 

 












Another advert that was featured was advertising a Family Guy box-set. Family Guy is a comedy aimed at older teens and slightly older people, but is still watched by younger audiences. Even though the programme is aimed at this audience, I think the advert is aimed at parents or relatives of the audience. This is because it is nearly Christmas and it would be a good present to buy for someone who is a fan. I don't think the programme's audience would be the type to buy the boxset for them self.

There was also an advert for Whiskas cat food, which is possibly aimed at older singles with no families. The cat food was not cheap and slightly posh, so these people may have a disposable income.

From these adverts it is quite likely that the target audience for the X Factor is men and women over 20. I think the majority of people watching will be women, and I think that it will be watched by many families as part of their 'family time'.

The X Factor

The X Factor is a popular reality show on ITV, where thousands of musical acts audition in front of four famous judges and a live audience around England. 

The acts that make it through the audition then go on to the next round to compete with each other for a place in boot camp, where each category of acts (boys, girls, groups and over 25s) is mentored by one of the judges. The judges then pick the best acts that they want to take into the live finals. 

This year the judges are Simon Cowell (who owns the show), Louis Walsh, Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue. They each have four acts in the live finals that they hope can win. Each week one of the acts gets eliminated. The act that gets eliminated is chosen by the public and ultimately the judges. The public votes for their favourite act to stay in the competition, and the two acts with the lowest number of votes have to sing again. The judges then decide who they want to stay and the act with the fewest votes has to leave.

The show is a mainstream show that currently dominates evening weekend television. It is watched by people of all ages as it is a family show. I think it is also watched by older singles. The audience also depends on the type of acts in the show, as they wiill all have separate target audiences. Sometimes a certain audience will watch the show because they like a certain act, rather than the show itself.   

Social Insight Groups

The Social Insight groups claim to be an accurate representation of the social groups that exist in the UK today. A study was carried out of UK social values and change, and the findings established this social value scale.

From these groups we can establish the types of people that would fit into niche or mainstream audiences. Self actualisers are the most interesting, as they are individualistic and creative. These people are more likely to come into the niche audience as they are "enthusiastically exploring change", but I think they are also the most likely to encorporate mainstream into their lives. As they are individualistic I don't think it would matter to them whether they liked something that was mainstream or not. They are not driven by what everybody else likes, but if they do like it, then they will embrace it as much as their niche interests.
 

Niche vs Mainstream Audiences

A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact.

Niche products have smaller target audiences than mainstream products, although niche target audiences tend to be more loyal and actively supportive towards their niche interest. Examples of niche products are NME, Studio Ghibli and Pantera, as they do not appeal do everybody but still have very strong audiences. 

Niche products are sometimes accepted by the mainstream industry, and this can either be good or bad. For Apple this was a huge success. Ten years ago there were no Apple stores, and people had to buy their Apple products from the back of knitting shops. This was because Apple was a niche market that was only really used by designers and producers in the creative industry. There was no mainstream market. This all changed with the invention of the iPod. They were bought by people with disposable incomes (or esteem seekers) who thought they were great, and then looked into buying an Apple Mac to plug it into. The sales of Apple products rocketed and ten years later Apple had firmly established itself as a mainstream retailer throughout the whole of the UK.

The mainstream market consists of mainstream products that appeal to a mainstream audience in the mass media. This audience is generally the majority of people exposed to media products. They tend to be less loyal than niche audiences, and more fickle. Mainstream products are easier to come across and are more widely available to the general public. They have less extreme views than niche products so that they can appeal to a wider target audience and nobody can get offended. Examples of mainstream products are Disney, Twilight and Eastenders, as they have very large target audiences and are very well-known.