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Masters Thesis
Stereotypes of little people and their depictions within fictional and non-fictional television
This thesis explores the way the media stereotypes little people, which functions as a way of portraying them as'others' in mainstream media. Specifically, it looks at how fiction and unscripted television programs are a distortion of reality. Further, it shows how television fails to represent individuals with dwarfism as they are. Using ideological criticism and applied media aesthetics as a guide, I offer a content analysis of the first 5 episodes from the first seasons of the television series Little People, Big World and Game of Thrones respectively, in order to demonstrate how the media consistently uses stereotypical images as a strategy of subjugation and as a way of disempowering the little people community. The results of this analysis demonstrate that the discrimination, prejudice and inequity towards little people is accurately portrayed in Game o f Thrones. However, in Little People, Big World, which is often viewed as an inspirational nonfiction television program, does not succeed at offering empowering representations of little people.
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