Misfits - Nathan on Youth
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Cubs - Short Film directed by Tom Harper

REPRESENTATION

Representation is a key concept in Media education. Understanding the difference between what is real and what is represented is vital to our understanding of any media text.

IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR THE MEDIA TO PRESENT THE WORLD AS IT REALLY IS. BECAUSE THE MEDIA CONSTRUCTS MEANINGS ABOUT THE WORLD. THEY CHANGE OR MEDIATE WHAT IS REALLY THERE.

Representation is concerned with the way that people, ideas and events are presented to us. What appears on screens, in print etc., does not appear by accident, but through a process of decision making from within the media industries. A media text then, needs to be viewed in this light - as a series of representations, a vehicle for beliefs, values and attitudes, which can be reinforced ( or challenged) by the audience.

What we, as Audience can do.

(1) Spot representations ( by understanding how they are created )

(2) be critical of representations ( by deciding whether they are 'fair' )

(3) understand why familiar representations keep recurring ( is it to do with society, the media? who's really in charge ? )

Towards a Definition

The concept of representation is to do with how the media constructs meanings about the world - they re-present it and help us make sense of it. For representations to make sense there must be a shared recognition by audiences of the ideas, values, situations etc. contained in the text. However not all audiences will interpret these meanings in the same way. There is always the possibility of alternative representations.

Representation is not an easy concept to define in a simplistic way. It can have a number of different senses. Richard Dyer, suggests 4 variations;

• A selective Re-presentation of reality.

This is obvious in newspapers, where the form is completely different from the events reported, but less so in television serials, which often succeed in creating the illusion of a transparent window on the world with a similar time frame and rhythm to our own.

• A typical or representation of reality

Media often use stereotypes to typify particular social groups as a form of shorthand. i.e. gender,race,age

• The process of speaking on behalf of or as a representative of a particular position. Whose views are being put forward in particular messages? Whose voices are being heard.

• The meanings which media messages represent for audiences.

What do readers bring to messages which affects how they interpret them?

What actual sense is made when particular messages are understand?

Stereotypes

Many of the subjects we see in media texts are represented as stereotypes, i.e. a simplified representation of character, appearance and beliefs. Stereotypes tend to exaggerate as well as simplify and can be positive or negative.

In short Stereotypes are used so frequently because they are easily recognised by us,the audience and can convey ideas in a way that is convenient for producers.

Stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged. Tessa Perkins (1979) identifies 5 such assumptions;

• Stereotypes are not always negative (e.g. 'The French are good cooks').

• They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful ( e.g. 'upper class twits').

• They can be held about one's own group.

• They are not rigid or unchanging ( e.g. the "cloth cap worker of the 1950's became the 1980's 'consumerist home-owner who holidays in Spain').

• They are not always false. (e.g. 'Media Studies teachers tend to be liberal/left wing in their politics'.

Stereotyping has tended to suggest that it is wrong to see people in categories. Yet in the field of social pyschology it has long been recognised that categorisation is a fundamental process necessary for humans to make sense of the world. Humans need to impose structure on events, experiences and people.

You could look at a portrait of someone and say "That's so-and-so". But you'd be wrong; it's not "so-and-so", it's just a canvas, and a combination of different colours of paint.

You could watch a Natural History programme on TV and be amazed by the antics of an orang-utang; but you're not really watching an orang-utang; you're watching a recording, carefully selected and constructed by those making the programme, to conjure up an 'image' of orang-utang behaviour.

HALL (1997) describes 3 approaches to representation;

1. Reflective: which deals with a view of or meaning about the representation which is somewhere out there in our social reality.

2. Intentional: which is concerned with the view of the creator/producer.

3. Constructionist: which is concerned with how representations are made through language, including visual codes.

Harry Brown Trailer

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