How does contemporary media represent gypsies ?

The media represents certain social groups in way in which the truth is subverted into something totally opposite. The media simulate these ideas to entertain the public and to gain an audience. Gypsies have been for many years represented in a negative way; people who write and speak about gypsies often do not know them and therefore do not show a complete representation of them.  Much of what is shown about Gypsies is very negative and never a balanced picture of their lives. This leads the public into creating their own perception of their lives, which is evidently information they seen or heard from the media.

Social groups like gypsies have under gone discrimination by many countries. For centuries Europe regarded gypsies as social outs; this meant that society had the perception of them to be out of society and to not be included. This understanding has however not changed in society; many people still discriminate against gypsies and the main factor to blame for this is the media’s influence. Shows like ‘My big fat gypsy wedding’ which documents the lives of travellers uses the term ‘Gypsy’ in their title when Gypsies and Travellers are two different kinds of people. This mishap is one of the stereotypes conveyed by the media about this social group, society does not recognise them for who they are and in some way mock and ridicule them.

Kate moss, according to Grazia magazine had a ‘my big fat gypsy hen party’ this indicates that people enjoy the representation of the gypsy community provided by channel 4 in the hit show ‘my big fat gypsy wedding’. However it seems that people may enjoy the show for their own entertainment. The channel has stated that they aired the show for documentation purposes, however it seems that people sitting at home are in some way comparing their lives to the ‘’gypsies’’ and ridiculing them.  We the audience see the gypsies to be ‘dirty, criminal and abnormal and we compare ourselves and we the audience redeem ourselves to being the normal ones.  There is a highly selective point of view given when watching this show, as the show clearly connotes the ‘ us over you’ side and this is  supported by the editing which is  constructed in a way were the audience are against the gypsies which clearly shows a biased point of view.  In series 5 the advertisement for ‘my big fat gypsy wedding’ was complained about 370 times by the public, the billboard was deemed outrageously racist. A letter to channel 4 the London traveller and gypsy unit asked ‘’ we wonder if channel 4 would have been so ready to use adverts with similarly compromising phrases for other ethnic groups. Jewisher? More Asian or blacker?’’ this illustrates that the Gypsy and traveller community hit back with the adverts and the show, as their lives were being ridiculed and depicted in a negative way. The media represented them in way were they wanted to gain more entertainment and wanted more drama. Using half naked pictures of girls and men fighting clearly indicated that the media wanted to portray the stereotype of gypsies and in some way exploit the social group and represent their life style to be wrong. The show uses more drunken wedding scenes were the women are being grabbed violently this represents their culture to being crude and violent.

 The women are represented in way were they are sexualised, seeing young girls wearing hot pants and  teenagers wearing tight dresses indicates to us that the women are only there to be looked at, by using low angles and close ups this is the way they are represented. Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze applies here as the young girls are dressed this way to be looked at by the males; this creates more entertainment for the show and depicts the gypsy lifestyle to being high entertaining with sex and drama. Using images of boys being very aggressive and shots of them fighting also point outs that the gypsy lifestyle is portrayed in a way were people see the males to violent and aggressive.  However in a letter written by a young traveller boy, he challenges every aspect of ‘my big fat gypsy wedding’ he states that Irish traveller’s only make 10 % of the traveller community and also addresses the fact that the show forgets about the Romany gypsy community. He ridicules and refutes the term used as ‘grabbing’ and states that this isn’t practiced by the gypsy community, he also talks about his life as a teenager who studies at collage and discusses the fact that his sister went to college and university and became a social worker. This is surprising to know from a traveller as many of them are portrayed in the show as not having an education back ground. In the boys letter he totally rejects the reading of the series, which channel 4 indicated would be very education and entertaining. This proofs the fact that the media has exaggerated and given the public the wrong perception of the traveller community, the negative of example of the traveller community represented has influenced many and has caused the traveller community to be outraged by the negative depiction of their lives.