Media representation

London 2012 has made history for many reasons, it has hosted the 2012 Olympics, which is seen to be one of the greatest sporting events in the world. The area which is situated in the heart of East London has been transformed over the last decade, turning acres of industrial land into green space for local residents and visitors of the Olympics to enjoy. Stratford has made history, once being known for high unemployment rates, high levels of crime rate and being one of the most deprived parts of London and infact the whole country. Now is seen as a tourist hotspot because of the London 2012 games, people see it as a tourist destination, this is partly because Stratford has created the biggest shopping mall in Europe called Westfield. "Westfield Stratford City is adjacent to the London Olympic Park, East Village, Stratford Regional and Stratford International stations. The shopping centre is part of a large multi-purpose development project called Stratford City. It is promoted as contributing significantly to the local economy, with the creation of up to 10,000 permanent jobs, including 2,001 jobs going to people in the local area."

So has this helped the local people in Stratford? Many have complained about the increase of costs and the congestion that the games would bring. People of London have been told to always plan before a journey and use more public transport where they can. As a result of this many local residents have decided to stay in during the games to avoid the rush and commotion. There were many costs of having the Olympics in Stratford such as local shops and businesses had to either relocate or be forced to shutdown, many small businesses that are still running there has seen a lost of revenue due to the fact that now Westfield is open, many people also lost homes and the cost of living in Stratford has increased therefore making it more difficult for the poorer people living within Stratford. So has the media showed this? Of course not. The media have represented Stratford as a vibrant and a place to be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_Stratford_City

What I have done is tried to dig deeper and show you the 'real' Stratford. In order to do this I have conducted interviews with local residents who have lived there theyre whole life and residents who have moved in more recently. What the media fail show to is the the shortcomings that Stratford still holds till this day, parts of Stratford is still heavily deprived and this is what the media does not want to represent.

George Reese who has lived in the heart of Stratford all his life when asked had said "parts of Stratford have been completely untouched and and the Olympics money was only used on Westfield and the Olympic village itself" he had gone to say "where I live which is two minutes away from the Olympic village, there is still kids causing nuisance and theres also a strong sense of gang culture, and even violence but the media fail to show this because the wanna show us what they want and that is that Stratford is meant to be all rosy and has changed, which is not true"

Rachel Harris who has lived in Stratford over a year has said "Stratford is a lovely place to live in, I moved in from Norwich so I could be a part of the games and be part of history and there was none other place then Stratford". When I asked Rachel about why she thought this she replied saying "they have the biggest shopping mall in Europe, the houses are lovely here and also said everyone wants to come Stratford now and I was no different". I went on to ask Rachel about if she knew about Stratford before the Olympics and if she knew anything about the area and how deprived it actually was, her answer was "no I did not know about Stratford before I moved in". When I showed Rachel the 'dark side' of Stratford she was shcocked and did not believe parts of the area was still heavily deprived and needed refurbishment. The reason this is because the media do not show that side of Stratford and have kept it hidden away from public eye mainly because it would give a negative view of the Olympics. Stratford is represented as a vibrant and a nice place to be according to the media but not all is positive as there is more than meets the eye.

However spokesman for Newham Council, which is responsible for Stratford, said: 'Nowhere else in London is changing at the scale and pace of Stratford.

'Over the next 15 years it will become a new metropolitan centre supporting many thousands of jobs.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2175316/London-2012-Olympics-Sorry-Stratford-Games-chiefs-dont-want-see.html#ixzz2D167r6rj