2. How are stereotypes used as a shortcut to represent certain groups of people?

• That makers of media texts use audience recognition of types to transmit messages rapidly.
• Most media texts (e.g. films, magazine articles, television programmes and advertising) only have a short time to establish characters and as a result offer limited representations.

Stereotypes are exaggerations of a certain type of person or a group of people. These stereotypes may not be true but the media uses them so that it is easy for the audience to understand who the character is in a short amount of time. In the documentary 'Murderball' you first see people who are stereotypically disabled and at first we feel sorry for them because of their disabilities but as the documentary continues you start to see them as strong individuals who have a interest in wheelchair rugby. Murderball is a full contact sport and quite dangerous. You would not expect to see disabled people joining in with sport because the stereotype normally used shows them to be incapable of playing sports. The documentary is about 2 teams (Canada and America) training for the paralympics and the competition between the two countries. It also shows the daily life of wheelchair users and how hard it can be, stereotypes shows that disabled people moan and grumble about life but the people shown in the documentary are mostly happy and upbeat. They do not complain about what life has dealt them but they make the most out of what the do have.