Theories

Tessa Palmer
According to Tessa Palmer there are a number of assumptions when stereotyping in the media. These 5 assumptions consist of:
1. Stereotypes are not always negative e.g. The French are good cooks.
2. They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful e.g. Upper class are twits.
3. They can be held about one's own group.
4. They are not rigid or unchanging.
5. They are not always false.

In Hotel Babylon there is only a few positive stereotypes regarding the immigrants. The first stereotype noted is 'Asians are good at maths', this is portrayed through the secretary 'Jackie' who has a high positioned job in the hotel. In this job she is seen to be dealing with paperwork and statistics, this shows she is handy when working with mathematics. By the director portraying the character this way it is giving the assumption to the audience that not all stereotypes are negative or downplaying certain ethnic qualities. Later on in the clip the workers are all eating together showing a form of community where everyone works together and respects each other by conforming to one another's help and company. Due to the range of different ethnic groups it shows there is no stereotyping based on people's social class as every character is portrayed as being in the same position which is at the bottom of the social ladder. However you could see this TV show as the white people being more important due to the majority being apart of the hotel staff although this can be deterred quickly due to dark skinned people also having being apart of the community. Stereotypes are also seen as not being false in this clip from Hotel Babylon, this is proven through most of the immigrants being 'black' which is stereotypically correct. The majority of immigrants that come to the UK are dark skinned due to the location where they come from e.g. Syria - this does not mean that all immigrants are black but the general image counteracts reality.

Leon Festinger
The theorist Leon Festinger argues the idea of 'cognitive dissonance', this is when people believe or are adamant of a particular thing unless they are shown otherwise from the media or another source this is due to people seeking certain beliefs or thoughts from others. This is shown from the popularity of Hotel Babylon due to the counter stereotypes and the expectation of the characters ethnicity in relation to their social position and occupation. For example, the audience think of immigrants as being dark skinned and perhaps having an African accent - from watching Hotel Babylon they can back up their expectation due to the majority being this way. However viewers can also see counter stereotypes due to some African characters being highly intelligent and having impressive qualifications which go against the immigrant stereotype. This is proven when a character passes out in the storage cupboard when everyone is hiding and one of the members of the group has the academic capability to figure out her issues and what to do to solve the situation to bring the woman back to consciousness. Many people may watch Hotel Babylon to rethink certain images of different groups within society or perhaps prove their original expectation of particular people thus creating a higher popularity rate for the TV show. Some viewers may do the same thing with the BBC's TV show of Waterloo Road which consists of the story being based in a secondary school in a working class area with students with particular issues. People may watch this show to see whether the stereotypes of teenagers is true or exaggerated.