Benefits Street

Benefit Street:

Age/Gender:
The show gives quite a negative representation of middle aged men aged around their early 40's. This is shown because through one person in the show called 'Fungi'. He is portrayed in a negative way as he is an alcoholic and has taken drugs in the past. In the title sequence of the show you see him standing in the street with a can of beer and in a full adidas tracksuit abusing a group of foreign people walking past. Part of the the title sequence also shows a wide shot of Fungi in a group of middle aged men and they are standing next the the street sign making inappropriate gestures. This suggests to the audience that they are not very respectable people.

Ethnicity:
This show has a lot of different representations of ethnicity. There is one person in the show who is an elderly black man and he is saying how he has lived on the street all his life and how that it has gone downhill over the years. The show uses a close up camera angle of his face to show his angry facial expression and disgust about the street that he lives on.

Age/Gender:
The show gives quite a mixed representation of the middle aged woman in the show named 'white Dee' The show gives a negative representation of her because she talks about how she doesn't need a job because the government just give her money, and the show uses a wide camera shot to show the inside of her home and it isn't very clean/ tidy which gives a negative representation of her. The diegetic sound also gives a negative representation of her because you hear her swearing at her children, one of them is only 7/8.
However the show does also show some positive representation of her, she is shown as the matriarch of the street and she looks after all of the other people on the street, the camera used a wide shot of her talking to other members on the street and trying to help them out with their problems.

Uses and Gratifications:
People might watch the show for;
Information - people who are part of the higher socio economic grouping such as A or b class might watch the show to get an insight into what it is like for people who aren't as well off as them and don't have a comfortable life like them.
Entertainment - people who are in the socio economic grouping might watch the show because they find it funny to watch or they might see it as an emotional release for them, because they have a high grouping they have good jobs, well paid, lots of pressure on them so they watch the show because it's completely different to all the problems they face in real life.
Social Integration - people from any of the socio economic groupings might watch the show because lots of people are watching a talking about it, especially younger people between the ages of 16-25, because their friends are watching it they might decide to watch it too so that they can join in on conversations that people are having about the show.

Representation Task

Strippers:

At the start of the show it seems that the show adheres to the stereotypes of what strippers are like, the first shot used is a close up of a young girls face who is applying a lot of eye make up, and automatically you assume she is using it in order to try and attract men. The next shot used shows a young woman's body in the mirror, they only show her body and not her face, this shows that women are being over sexualised and just considered as sexualised objects.
Gender:
The show demonstrates a negative representation of men ss they are the ones who degrade the women and just treat them as sexual objects. This is shown by the use of a close up of a middle aged man standing outside the club with a beer in his hand shouting at the younger girls, saying degrading things.
Gender/Age:
The programme also contradicts the stereotype of what you think a typical strip club owner would be like, the stereotype would be a middle ages man, quite perverted, who doesn't really care about the girls, whereas the owner of this club is called Shelly, a middle ages female who is very protected over the strippers that work there, this is shown by the use of a close up shot of her face during an interview and you can see that she has quite a serious facial expression when she is saying that no men are allowed to touch the girls so this breaks the stereotype of what a strip club owner would be like.
Gender:
The show also shows a positive representation of stripper girls, they use a wide shot of one of the most experienced strippers named Kim sitting next to a large collection of medals that she had one for gymnastics when she was younger which shows people that strippers aren't all just unintelligent, untalented girls, a lot of them only do it because they need money to live on, it also shows Kim talking about how her job is only temporary and that she plans on 0. The lighting used on the show when they are filming in the club is mostly red, this colour is commonly associated with passion and danger and so it shows how the girls are being over sexualised which gives them a bad reputation because it makes them look very promiscuous and dirty when really all they are there for is for a job, to make money.
Ethnicity:
One part of the show has an interview with a foreign stripper talking about her experiences and she says that she feels 'gross' about stripping and it shows a wide shot of her cooking a meal for herself, this shows quite a positive representation of the firs because it shows that they don't do it because they enjoy it and they are just quite normal people who outside of their job do normal things.

Uses and Gratifications:

Personal Identity - A lot of women might watch the show because they might be in the same position because they can't get a job or they are a stripper and they don't know whether to tell their families/friends etc. so they might watch the show to see how the characters deal with those problems.
Information - people might watch it because it gives an insight into what it's really like to be a stripper and it breaks down the stereotype, people in higher classes might watch it to get informed about what it is like to have a job like that
Entertainment - people, especially men between the ages of 18-50 might watch the show just for entertainment, they might have been in strip clubs before and they are just watching the show to entertain them.
Social Integration - because it is quite a popular show people will watch it because other people are watching it and they are interested about why everybody is talking about the show