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.