Task 8 - Morley Ideas of Gender Differences

Morley's ideas of gender differences were clear to him in the use that people made of the media in their everyday lives depending on their gender. Morley found out that men tended to prefer factual programmes such as the news and documentaries whilst women preferred fiction soaps and other drama series. Also, men preferred watching the programmes extensively whilst women tended to be doing something else at the same time. Another thing that Morley found out that if anybody had control over what was on the TV, it would most likely be the man - due to the stereotype of that man is the most dominate in the family/household. This means that it may of changed in the more modern times.

But, this doesn't necessarily mean that there are fundamental differences between men and women. What it does relate to though, is the kind of lives that the different genders lead. For example, men often work during the day which is outside of the home, therefore television is seen as a form of relaxation at the end of the day. For women, on the other hand, the home is seen as a place of work and therefore, that work will continue during the evening when television is switched on. Again, this is still looked on as a stereotypical view. Also this idea is classed as out of date and therefore the research such as Morley's if carried out today would come up with quite different conclusions.

We interviewed many people ranging from different ages and from both genders to see how they feel about television and specifically on Morley's ideas in the present day. We asked teenagers how they felt about the whole situation. Lee Cooper answered our questions which will be soon added to our blog. We also, asked Emily's mum (Sam Dimas) exactly the same questions which will also we added to our blog to show our differences.
Surprisingly, there was difference between the two members of the public. This looked into the two age groups so looking at the contrasts from different ages and gender. In some parts of the interviews in which we went away with, Morley's ideas were accurate to a degree but due to the way in how people live and the modern technology today, it changes the way in how his ideas are seen and put forward.