representation theory

What is this?

Representation

‘the process by which the media present the ‘real world’ (Rayner)

Key Point - Selection

everything in the media is a representation – everything we see is being represented.

the selection process is:

The decision over what is chosen to be represented and what is rejected;

The choices made when organising the representation:

The options taken to focus the audience in a certain way.

Questions we would ask when analysing representations:

WHO or WHAT is being represented?

HOW is the representation created?

WHO has created the representation?

WHY is the representation created in that way? What is the intention?

WHAT is the effect of the representation?

Gatekeeping

A theorist called White (1961) spoke of the ‘gatekeepers’ - that is the people who are part of the decision making process in the

construction of media texts.

Who do you consider to be gatekeepers?

The Constructionist ApproachA useful way of thinking about representation is that the meaningsare created by the relationship between the producers, the text andthe audience:

The representation is constructed with a set of ideas and values(producer’s intent/intended meaning)

The context of the representation is part of the representation (media language choices, anchorage, media form, placement/ location, genre expectations etc.)

The audience reacts to this representation and this depends ontheir own personal interpretational context: age, gender, political/religious beliefs, nationality etc. (negotiated meaning)

Richard Dyer - The Matter Of Images

Dyer said: ‘How we are seen determines how we are treated, how we treat others is based on how we see them. How we see them comes from representation.’

Task 250 – 500 words

Q. Analyse a moving image text which represents you (your age group, your gender, your race, your religion). How accurate are these representations?

Who do you think is creating the representation?

Is it someone like you?

Try and include the three theorists covered today.