Give two common stereotypes of older people in media content.

They are shown as being in physical and mental decline and dependent on others, and as comically grumpy figures who are out of touch with modern life.

Why are representations of older people beginning to change?

An ageing population with pensions, property and disposable income has become a valuable market, so advertising and drama increasingly show active, affluent and independent older people.

How do Marxists explain media representations of social groups?

They argue the media are owned and controlled by the capitalist class and transmit ruling-class ideology, so representations legitimise inequality and encourage false class consciousness among subordinate groups.

How does the neo-Marxist explanation of representations differ from the traditional Marxist one?

Neo-Marxists reject the idea that owners dictate content and argue instead that journalists' shared middle-class background and routine news practices reproduce dominant ideology unintentionally, winning consent through what Gramsci called hegemony.

OCR A-Level Sociology H580

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Topic overview Culture, norms, values and cultural relativism Subculture, high culture and popular culture Global and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridity Primary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer group Media, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisation Lifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debate Social control, sanctions and formal agencies of control Informal agencies and theories of social control The concept of identity, ethnicity and nationality Gender, class and sexual identity Age, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities

Families and RelationshipsComponent 01

Topic overview Family types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitation Demographic change, family diversity and newer family types Nuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New Right Marxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debate Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour Power, the dark side of the family and theories of partner roles The child-centred family, views of childhood and its extension Parent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views

Youth SubculturesComponent 01

Topic overview Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offending Functionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth deviance Labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance

MediaComponent 01

Topic overview Representations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gaze Representations of gender, social class and young people Representations of older people and theories of media representation Direct and indirect media effects models Active audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics

Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities

Topic overview Positivism, quantitative data and interpretivism Verstehen, qualitative data and validity Reliability, representativeness, generalisability and theory Research topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary data Operationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validation Longitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policy Sampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sample Access, gatekeepers and research ethics Questionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observation Unstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism

Understanding Social Inequalities

Topic overview Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality

Globalisation and the Digital Social World

Topic overview Globalisation, the digital revolution and media convergence Social media, social capital and theoretical views of digital communication Digital identities, the digital divide and social class Gender, age, relationships and cultural impacts of digital communication

Crime and DevianceComponent 03

Topic overview Defining crime and deviance, social control and relativity Social construction of crime and police recorded crime The Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studies Crime patterns by social class, gender and age Crime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crime Glocal organised crime and green crime Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crime Marxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crime Right realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patterns Left-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justice Situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice

EducationComponent 03

Topic overview Functionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of education Social democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational education Class and ethnic patterns in educational attainment Gender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionality Inside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racism Material and cultural deprivation and cultural capital Explaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievement Types of school and education policy since 1988 Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy

Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03

Topic overview Defining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominations Sects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalism Measuring religiosity and believing without belonging Functionalist and Marxist views of the role of religion Neo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religion Religion, social change and whether religion is positive or negative Class and gender patterns in religiosity Women's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patterns Age cohorts, global religious trends and resurgence Defining secularisation and evidence of religious decline Pro- and anti-secularisation theories Religion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns

Media

Representations of older people and theories of media representation

3 things to know
Component 01

Overview

Recall questions on stereotypes of older people in the media and why they are changing, and Marxist, neo-Marxist, pluralist, liberal and radical feminist and postmodern explanations of media representations, including Baudrillard's hyperreality and consensus and conflict views of representations and social order.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

Outline the pluralist explanation of why groups are represented as they are.

Key term

How do liberal and radical feminists differ in explaining stereotyped representations of women?

Key term

What do postmodernists mean by hyperreality in relation to media representation?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
Give two common stereotypes of older people in media content.
Model answer
They are shown as being in physical and mental decline and dependent on others, and as comically grumpy figures who are out of touch with modern life.
2
Why are representations of older people beginning to change?
Model answer
An ageing population with pensions, property and disposable income has become a valuable market, so advertising and drama increasingly show active, affluent and independent older people.
3
How do Marxists explain media representations of social groups?
Model answer
They argue the media are owned and controlled by the capitalist class and transmit ruling-class ideology, so representations legitimise inequality and encourage false class consciousness among subordinate groups.
4
How does the neo-Marxist explanation of representations differ from the traditional Marxist one?
Model answer
Neo-Marxists reject the idea that owners dictate content and argue instead that journalists' shared middle-class background and routine news practices reproduce dominant ideology unintentionally, winning consent through what Gramsci called hegemony.
5
Outline the pluralist explanation of why groups are represented as they are.
Model answer
Pluralists argue that content reflects audience demand in a competitive market, so representations mirror the values of society at large and change as public attitudes and buying habits change.
6
How do liberal and radical feminists differ in explaining stereotyped representations of women?
Model answer
Liberal feminists see them as a lagging remnant of outdated socialisation that is gradually being corrected, while radical feminists see them as active patriarchal control that persists because men still dominate media ownership and production.

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Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Families and Relationships

Youth Subcultures

Media

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AVictims may fear reprisal, or feel shame or economic dependence.

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CMany incidents are never reported or recorded.

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Sex refers to the biological category of male or female.

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