RESEARCH INTO REPRESENTATION

 REPRESENTATION 

What do we mean by ‘Representation’ in the Media?

The way in which different aspects of society and social identity are presented to the audience such as sexuality, age, class, race, ethnicity, disability and gender. This also includes how issues and events are represented. Context is important here – the representation can change according to the context of the product. All media products, factual and fictional are constructed. 

Mediation 

Media products offer us versions of reality. These representations have gone through a ‘filter’ or the process of mediation. These constructions contain messages that can be interpreted differently by different audiences. The values, attitudes and beliefs of the product’s creators will often be encoded in the representations

Encoding and decoding 

Representations link directly to the way in which audiences interpret, understand and respond to what is being represented. Repetition of representation could lead to these representations being seen as ‘normal’ – Hegemony. The producers of media products use media language to encode ideas and messages through the representations constructed within the product. The audience then decode these messages and respond to them in a range of different ways

Gerber

Cultivation theory – viewing specific ideologies can lead to them being hegemonic – it can be damaging to society. He believes in the stereotypes. 

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are standardised, often general perception of a group, place, issuer or object they are a quick way of categorising groups of people according to their shared, recognisable but often exaggerated characteristics. This can be very damaging to people or it can give them an advantage. 

Tessa Perkins 

Stereotypes is not a simple process and contains z number of assumptions that can be challenged. Tessa Perkins theorised that stereotypes can be good as they are not always false, and this helps the audience understand the media. She also believed that stereotypes can be true in some cases such as the French as good cooks. They can be changed over time. They can be accurate and harmful. Tessa Perkins believes that people can set stereotypes on themselves and that they are not always harmful.

Perkins identifies 5 such assumptions:

• Stereotypes are not always negative 
• They are not always about minority groups or less powerful 
• They can be help about one’s own group 
• They are not rigid or unchanging 
• They are not always false

Construction 

The elements that make up any media product will have been constructed to achieve an effect. The finished construction, particularly in factual texts gives an illusion of reality that becomes accepted as the truth (myth)