Framing Effect Theory

Representation in media is hugely important as it influences, both consciously and subconsciously, culture and society. Gender representation is especially important in this day and age because more and more media is being consumed by younger audiences. In G-rated animated movies and televisions shows targeted for young girls, the female characters are hyper-sexualized and, 9 out of 10 times, their stories revolve around finding a man to love them, facilitating our cultures obsession with heteronormativity. Boys are encouraged to watch male dominated action movies, full of violence, sexy, scantily-clad women, and heteronormative, hyper-masculine stereotypes. Boys who are interested in any media designated “for girls” is seen as less masculine and may face bullies and pressure from all walks of life, at home and in school. Society begins teaching boys and girls how to gender immediately, what is appropriate, tolerated, encouraged, and what is unacceptable. As we grow up our media becomes more violent, more sexualized, and even more gendered. I will be exploring gender representation in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and The 100, discussing the problematic and the progressive representations of gender, starting with Gilmore Girls.

He adopts an ambivalent tone in order to examine the conflicting views of high school genre films. Denby’s purpose in writing this essay is to show how the overuse of these stereotypes results in few original teen films. Original movies expose their viewers to a diverse range of people and ways of thinking. Adolescents often mirror or find inspiration in the characters they see in media, so it is important to depict a variety of people in media targeted towards them. People of various sexual orientations should be represented more prominently and truthfully in media targeted towards children in order to promote acceptance and provide role models for those exploring their identity.

In their journal article of “Hetero-Romantic Love and Heterosexiness in Children's G-Rated Films,” Karin Martin and Emily Kazyak discussed how the animated Disney films as well as G-rated movies construct heterosexuality to young viewers – children, as they should not contain any of heterosexual scenes. According to the authors, young children are seemingly involved deeply in media world as it is a fruitful chapter of their sexual socialization; animated Disney films or other G-rated movies are what they are oftentimes engaged and attracted. It is always plotted as a stunning, beautiful lady waits for a brave, handsome guy to come to her life, then they would live happily ever after since the movies mark relationships between opposite sex repeatedly,

* The main focus of many teen dramas is sex, with each episode containing countless verbal and visual references to sexual activity. These highly sexualized portrayals of relationships bear little resemblance to the real lives of teens—and are generally not balanced by clear messages about safe and healthy attitudes towards sex.

Paasonen, S., Nikunen, K., & Saarenmaa, L. (2007). Pornification: Sex and sexuality in media culture. Oxford: Berg

Sexuality and sex in America is a complicated subject in that there is little consensus on the topic of sex in, and the American media sends many mixed messages regarding sex and sexuality to everyone, not just to adolescents. Americans are aware of sex primarily through advertising (print media, commercials, etc.) as sex is used to sell anything and everything. The media also bombards Americans with sexuality and sex on television and in films. The sexuality of teenagers is not a straightforward issue in America either. Many parents do not discuss sex or sexuality with their children. There have been ongoing debates as to whether sexuality should be taught as part of school curricula because there are such a great deal of adolescents participating in reckless and/or dangerous sexual behaviors, largely because they are grossly uneducated about sex. The paper will reference the film Juno and other texts as a meditation on the relationship between adolescent sexuality and the media.

With reference to relevant cultural theories analyse the representation of sexuality in a film/television text of your choice.

The impact these media representations can have on the overall teen audiences is monumental. The portrayal of adults in teen films creates a negative representation for teens that may watch them. The portrayal of adults in films not only provides teens a vague sense of what their lifestyle should be like, but also gives them a substandard reputation in the eyes of adults. This can have an effect on the teen’s psychosocial, emotions, and mental

Society places a lot of blame on daily interactions and public views through what people observe and learn from television sitcoms and movies. Parents believe that children are now being confused about their sexuality just from watching television shows and movies. People believe that what they view in today’s popular television sitcoms and movies are ways to act in every day society. Most sitcoms and movies however, are just enabling sexuality and gender conflictions within today’s youth. According to the author bell hooks “What does it mean that media has such control of our imaginations that they don't want to accept that there are conscious manipulations taking place and that in fact, we

The public debate about adolescent sexuality has habitually fixated on which sexual practices are appropriate, and disregarded the complex dimensions of sexuality (Greenberg, Bruess, Oswalt, 2012). The goal of this paper is to compare a scholarly written article, to an article available through a popular media source, on the topic of Teenage Sexuality and New Media.

Research has greatly indicated and proven that media exposure has an impact on the normative perceptions of substance use and relationship behaviors among adolescents. Studies have shown that media content and patterns of usage are considerably related to adolescent perception of gender roles, romantic relationships, and sexual behavior. Repeated contact or subjection to sexualize subject matter on television or different forms of media has been related to individuals perceived normative gender roles (Herrett- Skjellum & Allen, 1996). Negative and socially impaired beliefs about relationships, for example such as ‘‘fate brings soul-mates together, disagreement is destructive to a relationship, partners should be able to sense each other’s thoughts and feelings’’ (Holmes, 2007). Also with persistent disclosure to sexually explicit content related with more positive attitudes or norms toward “uncommitted sexual exploration” as well (Brown and Bobkowski, 2011).

Sexual scripts can possibly determine whether consent is used or negotiated based on gender. Additionally, being able to study the association between the Media and sexual scripts is important to society as a whole. This quantitative study aim was to answer several hypotheses on sexual scripts in magazines and their effect on the sexes. 313 college students volunteered and responded to a survey questionnaire online (Hust et al., 2013). Participants information suggested that sexual scripts had some effect on the sexes, however the information gathered is weak(Hust et al., 2013). Therefore, more studies conducted on this topic with larger sample sizes and credible empirical evidence used could make this line of research more reliable (Pyrczak,

Our sex saturated media is also generating conflict in young girls’ development. The portrayal of women as sexual objects is discussed in the article “The sexualization of Girls is Harmful” by Olivia Ferguson and Hayley Mitchell Haugen. The article cites statistics of “prime-time television shows popular among children” remarking that “12% of sexual comments involved sexual objectification toward women” and “23% of sexual behaviors involved leering, ogling or catcalling at female characters”.(par 6) The feature provides www.aboutkidshealth.ca/ as an “online resource for information about areas of children’s health and family life”. (Par 1) This web site states “depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders” as consequences for media sexualizing women. (Par 2) The research defines “the objectification theory as a psychological theory explaining the

Collins, R. L. (2011). Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Media: Where Are We Now and Where Should We Go? Sex Roles, 64(3-4), 290-298.

The research for this article was conducted within a framework of Framing theory. The theory was first put forward by a Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman. Media framing, to put it bluntly, is a term that points to a presence of a certain bias in any media outlets’ output. All choices made in a newsroom collectively form the frame through which media decides to show the world to the audiences. Everything matters: Covering one event and ignoring another, covering one event more than the other, deciding what words to use to cover an event, what photographs or video clips to include, whom to give a voice, etc. At the same time, framing theory goes far beyond newsroom policies. Framing is not necessarily a delibirate choice. Journalists themselves look at the world through frames: their education, upbringing, gender, ethnical background, knowledge of the issue, and so on. Audience members apply their own frames as well, not just to media content, but to everything they hear and see.