Representation and Theorists

Representation

All media messages are ‘constructed.’ We should not think of media texts (newspaper articles, TV shows, comic books to name just a few) as “natural” things. Media texts are built just as surely as buildings and highways are built. The building materials involved vary from one kind of text to another. In a magazine, for example, there are words in different sizes and typefonts, photographs, colors, layout and page location. Selection.

TV and movies have hundreds of building blocks - from camera angles and lighting to music and sound effects. What this means is that whether we are watching the nightly news or passing a billboard on the street, the media message we experience was written by someone (or probably several people), pictures were taken and a creative designer put it all together. But this is more than a physical process. What happens is that whatever is “constructed” by just a few people then becomes “normalized” for the rest of us; like the air we breathe, it gets taken for granted and usually goes unquestioned. But as the audience, we don't get to see or hear the words, pictures or arrangements that were rejected. We only see, hear or read what was accepted! 

This is called omission.

The success of media texts depends upon their apparent naturalness; we turn off a production that looks “fake.” The truth is, it’s all fake – even the news! That doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy a movie, watch TV or listen to music. The goal of this question is not to make us cynical but simply to expose the complexities of media constructions and thus create the critical distance we need to be able to ask other important questions. 

Media have embedded values and points of view. Media, because they are constructed, carry a subtext of who and what is important -- at least to the person or persons creating the construction. Media are also storytellers (even commercials tell a quick and simple story) and stories require characters and settings and a plot that has a beginning, a middle and an end. The choice of a character's age, gender or race mixed in with the lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors that are portrayed, the selection of a setting (urban? rural? affluent? poor?), and the actions and re-actions in the plot are just some of the ways that values become “embedded” in a TV show, a movie or an ad.

It is important to learn how to “read” all kinds of media messages in order to discover the points of view that are embedded in them and how to assess them as part of the text rather than merely accepting them as “natural.” Only then can we judge whether to accept or reject a message. Being able to recognize and name missing perspectives is also a critical skill as we negotiate our way each day through our mediated environment. 

For representations to be meaningful to audiences

There needs to be...

A recognition of people

A recognition of situations

All representations have ideology behind them

Levi Strauss

Task 1: What message is this text trying to send about dominant British ideology?
200 words. Orange books.

Paradigms (patterns) are encoded into texts

Paradigms are left out of texts

to create a preferred representation

The term cultural hegemony describes the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of that society — the beliefs, explanations, perceptions and values — so that their ruling-class worldview becomes the worldview that is imposed and accepted as the cultural norm; 

Examples of hegemonic values
The police are always right
It is important to be slim
A credit card is a desirable status symbol
Mass immigration is undesirable
The poor are lazy and deserve their hardship
Men work, women look after kids
It is important to wear fashionable clothes

Task 2: What is message is this text trying to send? Consider hegemony.

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What sense of the world is it making?

Is it typical or deviant?

Who is it speaking to? For whom?

How do we respond?

Richard Dyer

Task 3: Answer the above questions while deconstructing this text.

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Magazines, ads, texts are encoded (see Stuart Hall)

to represent an aspirational lifestyle

Identities are not given but are

constructed and negotiated

Gauntlett

Compare the constructed identities in these two texts:

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Capitalist classes protect their economic interests

Groups in power exercise a cultural influence rather than a forceful one.

Consensual power: 

Convincing the working classes that their interests were the same as those of capitalists

The desire for valued rewards or the fear of having them withheld that ensures the obedience of those under power

Representations are encoded into mass media

This reinforces dominant ideology

Marx

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Further reading

Representation A2