Ethnicity Representation in Media Analysis

For this Assignment I will be using the music video for 'welcome to the jungle' by the band AXE Sunar, which I will analyse to find the representation of ethnicity in media.

Firstly the music video begins with us seeing the scenery through the eyes of a young white blonde women, she walks through dense fog only to discover that the first thing she sees on the other side to be a group of thugs/gangsters, all consisting of young black males, the audience is greeted by this gang who are shown to be quite aggressive and dangerous as the young black male most close to the camera has a almost rabid looking dog who is aggressively barking toward the camera (the audience). This gives the audience the idea that the city is filled with dangerous people, those of which are black, showing that there showing black people in a bad light. Furthermore the black males are shown to all have big chains which clearly relates to the stereotypical look of young black males nowadays. This shows this music video has already shown us there using clear stereotypes to represent the black people overall, even throughout the rest of the video they aren't shown in a different light except how they were shown in the first opening of the music video.

On the other hand, white people in this ad are shown in a much different light, this is because the first white male we see in this ad is a older man sitting in a limo with many younger women by his side, this gives us and idea that he is wealthy and has a large status whereas the black people are shown to be thugs and almost animalistic looking as they screw the camera. Furthermore, nearer to the end of the music video white people are also shown to be wealthy men of high status once more as when the main women (the audience) is lost amongst all the people she finds a way through tall buildings and in those buildings are wealthy middle-aged white men in suits throwing money down from the building as it rains down on us. This is giving white people another image of wealth and status as a suit is a sign of masculinity and power, and the white businessmen throwing down money prove the idea of them being wealthy whilst in this ad women are shown to be sex objects with the models and dancers, and black people are shown to be dangerous thugs. This is the idea this music video is giving the audience what the experience of city life is like.