A comparision of the representation of ethnic teenagers and the ghetto in ‘Dangerous Minds’ and ‘Boyz ‘N’ the Hood’

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A comparison of the representation of ethnic teenagers and the ghetto in ‘Dangerous Minds’ and ‘Boyz ‘N’ the Hood’

When we look at the representation of the ghetto and ethnic teenagers we can understand the messages and values (ideology) that are in the film.  I shall look at whether these representations are similar or different in both films and therefore what the messages in each film.

Representations of people and places are created through a variety of media codes, including the narrative and the technical codes and iconography.  In the two films many codes are used to represent the ghetto to suture the audience into the film, but with different effects.  In Dangerous Minds the codes used are firstly iconography of the setting and props that are used. For example the graffiti on the walls and of the homeless people on the street show a stereotypical setting in a ghetto that we can then relate to the characters as we already have a stereotypical view of what they are like.  Also the colour codes are used as the starting footage is in black and white as it shows that their world is so distant from our own.  There are also sound codes used to represent the black teenager.  The non-diegetic sound track of ‘Gangsters Paradise’ shows a one-dimensional view of the ghetto problem of money and crime rather than there being an social problem that had been caused by the failure of the American government.  Also the representation of the characters in done by the black gangster males and there lifestyle of murder, sex and drugs, which is glamouirsed to make it look like a good thing, and that they had made the choice to become what they are not that it’s the American governments fault that they are in there situation.  Also the technical codes represent the ghetto problem.  This is done by a panning shots of the ghetto that sutures the audience from a distance and creates a view of its there own fault; there own problem and not ours.

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To summarise the establishing codes in Dangerous Minds represent the ghetto as a ‘Gangsters Paradise’.  It has given us a stereotypical view of the ghetto but from a safe distance the effect of this is that the audience can see the massive difference from their world to ours that the audience can relate to.

The codes used in the opening sequence of Boyz in the Hood contrasts significantly, although the representation of the ghetto is also stereotypical.  For example the iconography used is stereotypical for example the graffiti and the homeless people that scatter the streets of the ...

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