Ethnicity in TV drama

There are many extremely harsh stereotypes considering the use of ethnicity in media. An ethnic stereotype, national stereotype, or national character is a system of beliefs about typical characteristics of members of a given ethnic group or nationality, their status, society and cultural norms. National stereotypes may be either about their own ethnicity/nationality or about others. Stereotypes about their own nation may aid in maintaining the national identity. black people are generally stereotyped to be aggressive, linked with drugs or crime and a major problem within society as they are seen to be usually members of knife gang culture and street assaults. Asian people are generally stereotyped to be lower class, living in busy cities and have multiple children. there are not so many stereotypes associated with oriental or eastern European nationalities that are specific enough to be labelled a stereotype. White people are seen in many different types of media and are generally seen to be upper class and have more power over other nationalities such as Afrikaans.
in TV dramas the use of the four parts of textual analysis is clear and it c an give off a range of different meaning and effects. Camera shots and angles can be used to make certain nationalities look more powerful than others, for example a camera angle that is tilted up from the floor makes a character seem more powerful and strong whereas if someone is seen to be lower than another character it shows that they are socially lower than others or more deprived. Mise-en-scene is used to show how some nationalities or ethnicity are richer or poorer than others. Clothing and costume can be used to make people look more financially deprived which can be used to give the idea that certain ethnicity are poor or deprived.personally i don't think that the use of sound and editing are big parts to how ethnicity is represented in TV drama as it isn't really linked to certain stereotypes however there are certain specific ways that it could be used such as dark lighting to show how someone is smaller or weaker than someone else.

- When linking ethnicity to the representation of women, there are certain stereotypes that are assigned to certain ethnic backgrounds, for instance Indian or Asian women are sometimes seen to be lower than their husbands, they are often seen to cook and clean whilst men work.

- Ethnicity is shown through the representation of age in a number of ways, older ethnic people are shown to be very traditional depending upon their specific nationality. They are often seen to be wiser and full of stories from the past whereas younger people aren't generally stereotyped into a certain category but can be seen as extremely intelligent or intellectual

- When representing sexuality there is fewer stereotypes however from traditional ethnicity such as Indian or Chinese there seems to be a lot fewer characters that are portrayed to be homosexual or bisexual, its mainly heterosexual

-Social class is shown through ethnicity in many ways. Generally in TV drama people living in the UK from other countries are shown to be mainly of lower/middle social class and look poor, this could be because of the idea that they have moved to the UK from poorer countries to achieve a better lifestyle. Its rarely shown for people from different nationalities to be of high class.

-Ability and disability isn't really a main representation regarding ethnicity, there doesn't seem to be a pattern between how people are portrayed to be more able or less able however generally black men are shown to be stronger than many other ethnicity's as they are sometimes shown to be more aggressive or masculine.

- Regional identity plays a large part of the representation of ethnicity, generally people that have emigrated from other countries are seen to live in cities, rarely rural parts of countries or countryside. This is not to say that they live in apartment blocks or city buildings but they are usually seen to live in places like London or Leicester.

This is the Masood family from the soap opera Eastenders this backs up the idea that ethnic families are seen to be traditional so the idea of one of their sons 'coming out' was a huge setback for the family, there was a huge amount of arguments and outrage from all areas of the family unit and ended up with the family disowning their son. The mother of the family also supports the idea that she is a very good cook, she works selling Indian curry's on the local market. This family also support the idea that ethnic families usually live in large cities as they live in east London. The other son is also portrayed to be extremely clever and mature with his age, he is seen to be studying a lot and it is clear that he knows a lot about current affairs in the news.