TV Drama Representation - Ethnicity

Look at page one of your ethnicity handout; watch the extract and then answer the questions regarding ethnicity and post to your blog. 

You MUST freeze frame the image to demonstrate where your opinion is from. You MUST include a minimum of EIGHT images (one per question).



If you get “ethnicity” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip: 

• Can I identify what ethnicities people are? 
How? Why?
• Are people from different ethnic backgrounds shown as different interests, 
 personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how? 

• Is their ethnicity represented as being important in their life? 

• Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being better, more 
 powerful, than others?
• Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ 
 more pathetic than others? 

• How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different ethnic 
 backgrounds? 

• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about ethnicity? 

• Don’t ignore the white characters as they need to be analysed too! 



Four Key Themes in Racial Representations
 exotic
 dangerous
 humorous
 pitied
(Alvarado et al. 1987: 153)

Unity and Conflict
Conflict is often the binary opposition of ethnic groups and the wider society.
Unity is often an element of the representation of ethnicity, this hits a stereotype of ethnicity, that of close families and tight communities.