How is Britain represented in the media today?

Britain is represented in similar ways in a variety of media texts and that is the stereotypical view that foreigners have about us. Even if the media text is made in Britain it still involves the stereotypes that define the country such as the countryside, tea and The Queen. There is not denying that Britain can’t escape the stereotype but I believe the country as a whole is totally underrepresented, this is why…

My first media text to support my case is Emmerdale. The soap opera is based in Yorkshire which is renowned for it’s rolling hills and beautiful landscape. The soap contains a variety of archetypes such as ‘The Farmer’, ‘The Landlady’ and ‘The Rich Couple’. Because of this we are forced to take a constructionist approach because the situations portrayed in the show are often far fetched -even if sometimes they hit on real life situations.-

My next media text is This Is England. A movie made in 2006 but set in 1983 centres around a group of young skinheads. They are represented as disruptive, aggressive and violent. This isn’t a true representation of Britain as it is just focusing on one location and time scale. Also Britain was in a bad way in the 80’s and the director Shane Meadows made it to address how bad the situation was then. The movie can be shocking at times and not only represents British people as being quite savage but also as being loyal to family and friends. 

Next I have the Nintendo game ZombiU set in a post-apocalyptic London. The game contains many British iconography such as the red telephone boxes, the Queens guards and London itself. The game was made by french game developers Ubisoft Montpellier so the iconography can be seen somewhat stereotypical of Britain and how foreigners see us. Even though the game is set in London we cannot take the story and connotations too literal as it is a game about zombies! Taking that into consideration I think that audiences will reject the stereotype involved in it and take a constructionist approach. 

Lastly I have picked Britain Magazine as my final media text to look at. I chose it because I thought it would give an counter-stereotype, fair representation of Britain but the magazine just contains pictures of the picturesque countryside we see in Emmerdale. Much like the rest of these texts we cannot look at Britain as a whole though this one text because it just shows us a restricted view of a certain area of Britain. Because of this again I am inclined to believe that the audience will take a constructionist approach because the encoders have chosen to use images of the beautiful Yorkshire countryside instead of a council estate in South London. They have done this to entice tourists to visit the country, hoping the views will be enough. 

Overall I conclude that Britain is misrepresented in the media today because I have found no media texts that have embodied the spirit and ideologies of Britain as a whole. Also I have found that Britain are partly to blame for the stereotype surrounding the country and citizens who live here.