Section 3: representation: a media studies aspect

Representation-

What is it?

• Representation is the process by which the media presents the 'real world' to an audience
• media texts construct meanings about the world - a picture, a film, a television programme or a newspaper article represents the world to help audiences make sense of it.
• A popular understanding of representation is through stereotypes.

Stereotypes -

• Stereotypes are a form of representation in which groups of people are characterised by attributing to them qualities that some individuals possess, and which later become associated with the whole group, E.g. punks are associated with safety pins in their clothes and bodies, and Mohican haircuts
• Stereotypes are widely circulated ideas or assumptions about particular groups
• Stereotypes are also essential tools for media producers. They can be used as a shorthand to condense a lot of complex information and detail into a character who is easily recognised and simple to deal with - Ugly Betty is a good example. It makes it easier for the audience to understand the character and his or her role in the text.

A further breakdown -

Branston and Stafford state there are 4 characteristics:

1. They involve both a categorising and an evaluation of the group being stereotyped.
2. They usually emphasise some easily grasped features of the group and suggest that these are the cause of the groups position.
3. The evaluation of the group is often, though not always, a negative one
4. Stereotypes often try to insist on absolute differences and boundaries where the idea of a spectrum of difference is more appropriate.

Representation -

• Representation is not just about how we see people, places and objects but also how we interpret what out senses tell us. This depends as much on who we are, as what we see, hear or read.

Accuracy -

• An important debate in any study of the media is about the accuracy of the representations it offers us.
• There are official organisations who monitor the media for accuracy and other codes of behaviours to make sure that people are protected to some degree from exposure to lies and deliberate untruths.

Film representation -

• A film representation of a character for example consists of at least four factors:

1. The character - gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality and look
2. The collective cultural background and views of the producer/director/institution
3. The audiences reaction to the character
4. Where and when the representation takes place - cinema/home/laptop/friends house

Mediation (important!) -

• Mediation is the process by which a media text represents an idea, issue or event to an audience.
• Many people think that if you point a camera at an event or person the 'reality' of that event or person will be immediately apparent. Seeing something through a lens changes not just the perspective and size of a person but also how the audience perceives that person. Therefore it has been mediated.

Selection - Whatever ends up on the screen or in the paper, much more will have been left out - any news story has been selected from hundreds of others which the producers decided for you were less interesting, any picture has been chosen from an enormous number of alternatives.

Organisation - The various elements will be organised carefully in ways that real life is not: in visual media this involves mise-en-scene and the organisation of narrative, in the recording of an album the production might involve re-mixing a track. Any medium you can think of will have an equivalent to these. This organisation of the material will result in...

Focusing - Mediation always end up with us, the audience being encouraged towards concentrating on one aspect of the text and ignoring others. If you are watching a film the camera will pan towards an important character, in a tabloid the headlines will scream for your attention