Homeland

Transcoding

Hall

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Homeland invokes ethnically motivated stereotypes of the Middle East, reconstructing the terrorist sponsoring Middle East as an ‘other’ to the ordered world of America democracy.

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Yet the series invokes a number of transcoding strategies that nudge those representations in a new direction. The depiction of bipolar Carrie as a strong and self-reliant lead character clearly offers the show’s audience an unusually counter-typical representation of mental illness, whilst the narrative blurring of the West/East Good/Bad binary through the use of Brodie deconstructs the simplistic and often two-dimensional and simplistic presentation of the Muslim world as a terrorist other.

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In this sense, Homeland reinforces Stuart Hall's argument that negative stereotypes can be successfully contested through the use of countertypes or narratives that deconstruct received stereotypes.

Otherness

Gilroy tells us that stereotyping excludes non-white groups from mainstream society, helping to define those groups as an 'other' to civilised norms and behaviours.

Media terminology used

Transcoding

Transcoding occurs when media makers challenge negative stereotypes. Transcoding can be enabled through the use of countertypes or deconstructed stereotypes.

Deconstructed stereotype

Deconstructed stereotypes occur when texts explain the affects of stereotyping. They might outline 'why' a character behaves negatively, thus producing audience empathy.