Essay Introduction

Explain how stereotyping in British TV drama and British film contributes to a sense of collective identity.

Collective identity groups many people together and stereotypes them all as one, whether that will be the average of the group an extreme example such as saying "all teenagers carry knives" when they clearly don't, or saying "all men love football" when that again isn't always true. This is often shown on British TV. People may not realise that people are being stereotyped and they just take it in with out realising. One show on BBC "Waterloo Road" is about a school when almost every episode the students are doing things that either illegal or against the rules of the school, some of the story lines include bringing a gun to school, gangs within the school and other stereotypical teenager habits such as gossiping for the girls and fighting for the boys. This show stereotypes the teenagers as 'up to no good' when it is clearly extreme situations, the show is shown all over the country on BBC1 and influences all ages.