representation
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TRANSCRIPT
Draw a me picture of a….
Someone of Arabic decentA Scottish Person
A Frenchman An inner-city youth
Someone of Arabic decentA Scottish Person
A Frenchman An inner-city youth
Someone of Arabic decentA Scottish Person
A Frenchman An inner-city youth
Someone of Arabic decentA Scottish Person
A Frenchman An inner-city youth
So why do we have these images in our heads? Where
do they come from?
Definitions
• Stereotypes• Media Institutions use stereotypes because the audience
will instantly understand them. Think of stereotypes as a ‘visual shortcut’. They’re repeated so often that we assume they are normal or ‘true’.
• Archetypes• This is the ‘ultimate’ stereotype. For example, the white
stiletto wearing, big busted, brainless blonde bimbo• Countertype• A representation that challenges tradition
stereotypical associations of groups, people or places
Representation
Representation
• The way in which people, events and ideas are presented to the audience.
• To break it down, the media takes something that is already there and re-presents it to us in the way that they choose.
• These representations are created by the producers (anyone who makes a media text) of media texts.
• What they choose to present to us is controlled by Gatekeepers…
Gatekeepers• A media ‘gatekeeper’ is any person involved
in a media production with the power to make a decision about something the audience are allowed to read, hear or see – and, of course, not get to see; for instance, a newspaper editor has the final say on what goes into his or her newspaper, where it goes within the pages, next to what other piece, with which pictures, strap-lines and headlines, etc.
Moguls
• But the in the example of the newspaper editor’s decision, this will not be made freely: it will have been affected by technical issues, by the kind of person who owns the newspaper, for example (i.e. the so-called media moguls, such as Rupert Murdoch), and by many other things.
• Media consumers, that is you and me, the audience for media texts, are mostly unaware of these ‘gatekeeping’ decisions; indeed, the gatekeeper’s job is to ensure his or her decisions and actions are ‘transparent’ or ‘invisible’ to the audience: but our perceptions of the news – and the version of the world it represents for us – are often strongly influenced by the gatekeeper’s decisions.
Who, What, Why, Where
When you're analysing representation, think about the following questions:
•Who or what is being represented? Who is the preferred audience for this representation?
•What are they doing? Is their activity presented as typical, or atypical? Are they conforming to genre expectations or other conventions?
•Why are they present? What purpose do they serve? What are they communicating by their presence? What's the preferred reading?
•Where are they? How are they framed? Are they represented as natural or artificial? What surrounds them? What is in the foreground and what is in the background?
What can you say about the following two images?
Now lets try a media text
How is Rooney being represented? Think about his body language; what might he have done?
Why does he have red & white paint on his body? What might this represent?
Who is the AUDIENCE for this advertisement and where might we see it?
This advertisement was created by an ADVERTISING AGENCY for Nike. Why doesn’t it have ‘Nike’ on the advert?
Applying Representation to Advertisements
How about something a little trickier…
How are women represented on the front of this magazine?
Representation Theory
What can you say about the representation of women in this clip.
Also how are we as the audience positioned?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3lAjyUUS1g
The Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey)
The cinema apparatus of Hollywood cinema puts the audience in a masculine subject position with the woman on the screen seen as an object of desire. Film and cinematography are structures upon ideas.
Protagonists tended to be men. Mulvey suggests two distinct modes of male gaze – “voyeuristic (women as whores) and fetishistic – women as unreachable madonnas”. (Also narcissistic – women watching film see themselves reflected on the screen).
Are the times a changin’?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Tx7TpLuLs
The Bechdal Test
• The Bechdel Test, sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria:
(1)It has to have at least two (named) women in it.
(2) who have a conversation with each other…
(3) … about something besides a man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1nsgU0meaw
How are young people from the inner city represented in the
following clip?
How we treat people (Richard Dyer)
Dyer argues that how we are seen determines how we are treated and how we treat other people is based on how we see them. This comes from our understanding of representation.
He believes that stereotypes come down to power. Those who have power stereotype those who don’t.
How many stereotypes of white middle aged men can you think of?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1nsgU0meaw
How is London represented in the following clip? Do you think that it
is a true reflection?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig_88q9M3SU
Myths (Roland Barthes)
• Barthes theory looks quite closely at the idea of mythology, usually in regards to people and places. He suggested that the media often gives us mythic representations or a fairytale-like portrayal or a particular place person.
Subculture (Dick Hebdidge/Ken Gelder)
• Hebdidge said that a subculture is a group of like minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and who develop a sense of identity which differs to the dominant on to which they belong.
• Ken Gelder lists 6 ways in which a subculture can be recognised: • 1) Often have negative relationship to work • 2) Negative or ambivalent relationship to class • 3) Through their associuations with territory ( The street, the
hood, the club) rather than property • 4) Through their stylistic ties to excess • 5) Through their movement out of home into non-domestic forms
of belonging (social groups as opposed to family) • 6) Through their refusal to engage with they might see as the
‘banalities’ of life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjZ5tgjPVfU
Takes notes on the representations in the following clip.
Think about gender, ethnicity, location
Homework• Representation in a film opening sequence of your choice:• What/who is being represented?• How is it being represented?• How is the representation made to seem 'true', 'commonsense' or 'natural'?• Is Dyer theory more appropriate in relation to the opening? Justify, using
detailed examples.• What is foregrounded and what is backgrounded? Are there any notable
absences?• Whose representation is it? Whose interests does it reflect? How do you know?• How do people make sense of the representation? According to what codes?
(Consider Mulvey’s theory and Barthes concept of myth – make reference to both).
• Apply the theory of semiotics to the sequence: i.e. what are the signs and their associated meanings?
• Considering semiotics, what as the audience, have you learnt about the overall direction of the film’s representation?
• What way do you believe you have ‘received’ the meaning of the film: through preferred, negotiated or oppositional reading? (Hall’s theory) Explain in detail, using supporting textual reference.