The sitcoms are made about the problems we have in our lives. Sometimes with money, friends or family, but it is always sorted out by the end of the half an hour episode. A sitcom is a situational comedy. That is, they make us laugh about the problems that we might have had before or having now. They tell us that everything can be sorted if you work as a family unit.
There are also lots of ads that are based on families. Mostly aimed at parents who want all the best for their children. The advertisements use family, because we all want our family to be happy. They try to sell their product by saying that without it your family is not complete or happy. It also keeps on showing us the nuclear, white family consisting of mum, dad, son, daughter and a family pet, like that is how every family should be.
Sitcoms:
4) a) The family in 8 simple rules is first a nuclear and then it becomes extended. The dad dies and after that cousin and grandpa come to live with the family. The mother, Jane, is a nurse working hard to keep her children happy. She doesn’t just work she is also a hard working housewife. She tries to sort out all the problems that occur in between her children.
Bridget is the oldest daughter. She’s the most beautiful girl shown in the sitcom. She always gets her way with boys and is shown as a tipacal blond girl who isn’t as smart as her red hair sister, Kerry. She is represented as the dumber girl just because she’s got blonde hair. Apparently blonds are only suitable to get boys, but not to be smart which is another stereotype. And because of her passion to be loved and worshiped by boys she breaks a lot of house rules.
Younger sister, Kerry, is sarcastic, smart girl who isn’t as good with boys and always gets comments from her sister about her bad looks. I don’t think she’s bad looking, but that just shows another judgement that people make that red hair girl can’t be pretty, only her older blond hair sister can be. Kerry as being the red hair girl is represented as not so pretty looking, good girl that only worries about her grades.
Rory is the only boy in the family. Even though he makes most of the pranks and is really naughty, he still gets his way, just because he is the youngest and also a boy. He’s really cheeky and bad. He always tells on his sisters, like he would get paid for it or something.
Before the dad died he was a sports writer, who dedicated most of his time to work. He got involved with lots of things and specially boys happening in his daughters lives. He’s really strict about who they are aloud to date. He lets the only boy date earlier then the girls were aloud to and he lets him get away with things.
The cousin is a guy that wasn’t successful in his life previously, but wants to fix it now. When he comes into the house is a bad influence on the children and especially the trouble maker Rory. He tells him about pranks and how to get girls. Cousin was the reason of a lot of misunderstandings in the family. Rory, Mr Henasy and cousin are much closer then with the girls.
Grandpa got in a fight with his wife and got kicked out of the house so now he lives with cousin, CJ, in a basement, in his daughter house.
They as usual are a white American family. They live in a tidy, nice house. They don’t usually have money problems and if they do it is sorted out really quickly. They all love each other and that is something that we can relate to.
Some media realities of 8 Simple Rules are that the parents always forgive each other and so do the children, doesn’t matter how bad the fight might have been. As in reality parents get divorced and children run away from home, and fights are not forgotten that easily just by saying ‘Oh well we still got each other.’
In 8 Simple Rules family parents don’t drink (well are not alcoholics). They defiantly don’t take drugs and they never beat their children. On the other hand in reality it is so much worse; there are children who are thrown out into streets and left to starve. Being beaten up and are even left severe injuries. There are parents that drink everyday and even do drugs, go to jail and loose their home. But they don’t show it in sitcoms just like that doesn’t even exist.
b) The second sitcom I am going to look at is Home Improvement. In this sitcom the family is nuclear. There’s dad, Tim, mum, Gill and three teenage sons. The oldest boy is as usual the one that is the best with girls, although in my opinion the middle one is the best, but that just shows that people have different views about how a sitcom should be set. Both oldest and middle son bully the youngest one and that is something I believe many people can relate to. Mother is a housewife; she looks after Tim and the boys. Always makes sure that there is hot dinner on the table. The middle boy is the naughty one that gets bad grades in school. Tim is the man of the house, also called the ‘Tool man Taylor’. He earns the money and is in charge of it and that is trying to say that men always take the lead and are in charge. Although that isn’t true in reality as many men sit at home and the women have to be the breadwinner.
Some media realities of home Improvement are that Tim is a tool man and he has his show. He repeatedly gets hurt in it, but by the next episode he’s fine. That is really fake and doesn’t warn people watching the show that you can get seriously injured if you try to do what Tim does yourself. People die from electrocution, but they show it like a little misunderstanding that is easily forgotten. They show that stupid actions are consequence free.
Another media reality in the sitcom Home Improvement is that the house is nice and Tim always wants it to be better. So he tries out a lot of things like alarms, new improved washing machine engine and so much more. He always messes up and leaves the house at the right mess. But always by the next episode the house is exactly how it was before. No holes, no burns, no nothing. So children might watch it and think that if they knock some things down it will all be ok, because it is easily fixed when in fact it will cost a lot of money and stress.
Advertisements:
5) a) When looking at the advertisements I am going to use the ad I got a picture of to make it more clear what I’m talking about. This is advertising a family channel. Families watch a lot of TV that is why the entertainment producers created so many shows for families. Now they went one step further and introduced the people to a channel of family shows, entirely for families. All those pictures in the ad are of people who are happy with their families, the reason for that is to make people think that they are going to be happy that they watch that TV show. It also says that its fun and what family doesn’t want to have fun. All the families advertised in the ad are white. They are all normally dressed and look healthy. That is the stereotype that is used over and over again in the media world. They are trying to say that families should have more fun by watching the TV programs that they are offering, but the real thing they want is the money that is earned from people (families) watching TV. They just use the family type because the biggest stereotype in the world is family. And for people who can’t have quality time together with their families might think that if they watch this channel they might have fun like all the other ‘normal’ families (who are always happy and worries free) advertised on media.
b) This advert which I got a picture of is advertising McDonald’s. Everyone knows that McDonald’s is a family restaurant. Many people a day go there. In this advert they show us the friendly staff that works there. Children always ask their parents if after a morning at the park or having a fun day out they could go to a restaurant to eat. McDonald’s is aimed at parents with little children, teenagers and ever elderly people, everyone in fact. In this advert they show the McDonald’s well known clown who every kid wants to meet and dew friendly dinosaurs. That is to let children imagination lead them to their most loved restaurant. As usual the staffs are all white. That’s again a media reality that is used so often, that if they use Asian or other culture people it would seem weird. The people are all smiling witch also means that working at McDonald is like a vacation. That also means that if the parents bring their children to McDonalds they going to have a nice quite meal, surrounded by happy people who work there, and what parent doesn’t want their child to have a good time. They also show that there are kids’ shows, that they can celebrate their birthday there and other things (like happy meals) to make the day out in a restaurant a success, and what better restaurant to choose then McDonalds.
6. To conclude, I have learned that the media reality of the family is really different to the family in real life. The stereotypes are used way to much in the media reality. The families in real life are not always happy and they have problems, that’s why it is so different to all the happy worries free families in media reality. Most of the things that they try to show in the sitcoms are how the families should be and how they should behave. They will go to extremes for families to join their group, to watch curtain sitcom and to go to certain places as that is the group that is mostly known in the society. I also learned that all people are different and media is trying to change that, even though they give the best for us and our families there is a little sneaky business behind all the smiling faces, of trying to get as much money out of the parents as possible. They use stereotypes to make people that are not that particular type laugh, without even having a thought that it might offend some one. They don’t use a certain type people in ads, commercials and on TV because it would ruin the image of the so called media reality family. Sometimes it can be lies and sometimes true about how things in life work, but not everyone is lucky enough to have what they show us. If you see something you are dieing to have, the person would feel upset because of knowing they will never have or achieve that. I think media should tell us what really is happening in the world these days instead of pretending that all families are happy.
