Alexander Stapleton

Discuss how representations in music videos/cinema can

shape hegemony in our society.
You should refer to the following theorists: Bell Hooks, Stuart Hall and George
Gerbner.
You should refer to specific music videos and add screen shots to your essay to
support and illustrate the points you are making.
There are many ways in which representations in music videos can shape hegemony in
our society. Hegemony is the leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social
group over others, which can particularly be applied to race and gender differences, it is
the political, economic, ideological or cultural power influenced by a dominant group over
other groups.
Bell Hooks theorised that there are key disparities in
the representation of difference races. He used the
colour codes to explain his theory; lighter skinned
women are considered more desirable and fit better
into the western ideology of beauty. On the other
hand, black women are often objectified and sexualised
in hip-hop reflecting the colonialist view of black
women (sexually disposable). Furthermore, this can be
referred to as commodified blackness, a mediated view
of black culture that is considered the norm. For example, in Rihannas Work music
video black women are objectified in a sexual way through close and mid-shots focusing
on their body and facial features.
Stuart Hall theorised that the media and therefore
audiences themselves often blur race and class, often
associating particular races with a particular class.
This includes audience reception theory which states
audiences read or understand a particular text
according to their cultural upbringing. Furthermore,
western (white dominated) cultures continue to
misinterpret ethnic minorities in the media due to a
dominance of underlying racist tendencies. For
example, ethnic minorities are often represented as
the other. For example, in Major Lazers Light it Up, an unconventional narrative
unfolds which delves deeper into Ghanaian culture. However, I believe that the video
perhaps presents the people of Ghana as primitive in nature compared to the caucasian
members of Major Later such as Diplo.
Gerbnerscultivation theory investigated the content of television programmes. According
to Gerbner, the main thing that people saw on television was violence and he was
especially concerned that it cultivated the view among people that the world was a
violent place. They found significant inequalities in victimhood with older people, women
and minorities particularly at risk. So even though minorities were under-represented on
television, when they appeared, they were much more likely to be victims of violence. He
more broadly argued that the drip feeding of similar negative media messages influences

Alexander Stapleton
the viewers perception of reality and makes them susceptible to adopting a negative view
on the world, Gerbner calls this Mean World Syndrome.
The theory was made up of three main assumptions; television is fundamentally different
from other forms of mass media, television shapes the way individuals within society
think and relate to each other and televisions effects are limited. He used cultural
indicators in his investigation and divided people into heavy watchers (over four hours of
TV watched per day) and light watchers (less that two hours of TV watched per day). His
research indicated that heavy viewers were susceptible to a perception that the world was a
dangerous place. The researchers concluded that there was a presence of a feasible link
between individual reactive episodes of dissatisfaction in response to specific media
images and the development of body image is that enduring attitudes, beliefs, and feelings
about bodies and appearance accumulate over time through repeated exposure to ideals of
attractiveness in the media.
Hargreaves and Tiggemann applied Gerbners theory in a
different sense, they found that the girls who saw the ads
with the very thin models, not only had immediate
episodes of insecurity and distress about their weight, but
that two years later they had greater dissatisfaction with
their bodies, as compared to the other group of girls. One
example of negative media messages in music video could
be the over-sexualised portrayal of women in Ariana
Grandes Side to Side, which reverses Arianas image of being a champion of female
empowerment. This over-sexualisation is created by frequent slow-panning shots up the
females bodies particularly in the iconic exercise bike scene and could make the female
watch feel more insecure and distressed about their own body weight.
In conclusion, stereotypical and dated representations in relation in particular to gender,
ethnicity and sexual orientation I think create a leadership or dominance by the
conventional caucasian heterosexual male or female. I do however think media is
gradually moving with the time, steering away from these representations which are stuck
in the past towards a future where leadership is shared equally amongst all gender,
ethnicity and sexual orientations.