Analyse the ways in which the media represent one group of people you have studied

The media’s representation of certain groups is something that has reflected on the way society has viewed types of people for many years. It is the representation that leads us as an audience to believe that we know someone because of their class, racial upbringing, sexual preference and many other reasons. The way in which these stereotypes are being represented is through mediation, which works to build these representations based on the context of the time and events surrounding this group. The ability to select the way a group is represented through mediation is what connects so well with an audience and allows the representation to merge with how the public view this certain group and at times for the group to fulfil these collective identities they are grouped into. In the case that I am going to be looking into ‘Black Britain’, the media has represented black people in a bad way since they began to immigrate from their own countries for a better life. Due to the downfall of the British economy after the loss of its empire, the media began to find a blame within the Black working community - one that was to impact the black community for generations to come. This continuous racial blame was to go from the blame of Britain’s economic downfall, to the blame of crime waves and many other problems within Britain. As demonstrated in the films Pressure and Sapphire.

The ways in which the films Pressure and Sapphire have represented Black Britain are similar when considering how they show the black migrants to be a contrast to the white British characters. Sapphire represents this through both the fact that Sapphire herself is represented as a character ashamed of being black, who once knowing she could pass for white, began to. The fact that we only see Sapphire at the beginning and that after that we only know what we are told about her by other characters portray her as a mystery and almost problematic. This is also done by small mise-en-scene connections such as the fact that when the police are going through her room they find a red dress, which could have been used to suggest a provocative side to this young, black female - which is further supported by the fact that two men are in question of her murder (a black man she used to dance with at the club and a white man who was in love with her). When in the dancing club we are shown black men and women dancing together, with very little white people there, which contrasts to the white men and women’s very formal and subdued characteristics. This represents the black community within Britain to be very different from the white community - although different in a more reckless, sexual way. This difference is also represented through the two men in question of Sapphire’s murder. The black man had only known Sapphire from when she went to the club and would dance with him, he seems to have been almost teased by her. In contrast to this man, the white man had been dating Sapphire and had been to the cinema with her - a much classier portrayal of romance. In this sense, Sapphire portrays Black Britain to be a stark contrast to the white community, which seems to be tainting the good, classy representation of Britain that the white community tends to portray throughout this film.

Pressure takes this concept of Black migrant contrast to the white British community and also include how the new black generation is more connected with the white community. Tony is used to contrast his mother and brother who are still connected to their Trinidad traditions and are very opposed to white politics. Tony starts off extremely different to his brother - almost more humane. This is shown in the beginning with the breakfast table scene where Tony eats using his knife and fork and his brother uses his hands and rolls his food into balls before eating it. The fact that his brother also uses a sauce that isn’t typically British shows that he dislikes the country he is in, whereas Tony eats fish and chips and dresses in a very white British way - which is explained by the fact all of his friends are white. Over the course of the story Tony is rejected more and more by the white communities - particularly when he is denied entry to his white girlfriend’s house and is denied the job because of his race. It is these events that push Tony to slowly turn to his brother and join their group of a revolution against the British. Tony begins to act less British as he too starts to eat with his hands and smoke marijuana, wearing clothes very similar to his brother. The fact that we can see that it is the way the white community have treated Tony that urged him to turn to his brother shows a slightly more contemporary view on the situation. Although it shows Tony’s brother as ill-mannered and rebellious, it also shows the white community as ignorant and unjust. The middle ground are the new generations (both white and black), which show that the real representation of Black Britain within Pressure is that the new generation of Black people are the ones that are in touch with Britain - yet it is the influence of their superiors (family and family friends) and the ignorance and attitudes of the elder white generation that both pressure and push them into becoming what they were being represented as at this time - against Britain, trouble makers and attracting crime wherever they go. It is the fact that this film was produced later than Sapphire that shows a nicer, more conflicted side to Black Britain. Yet, the fact that both films still in the end represent them in a bad light show that the representation of Black Britain is still very bad.

In conclusion, the representation of Black Britain is used to blame for many of the problems within Britain at this time - though on a smaller scale. Where the two films were made at different times, the level of this representation varies as the white British community begins to change and so the mediation of the representation changes too - they are still blamed for problems, yet it is also understood that many of the reasons that Black people supposedly act out is because they are expected to by every community - the white community expect them to because they are seen as to blame for Britain’s downfall and their own community expects them to not conform with the white man’s ideas of colonisation.