Media Representation Theory refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.
What does representation mean?
The easiest way to understand the concept of representation is to remember that watching a TV program is not the same as watching something happen in real life. All media products re-present the real world to us; they show us one version of reality, not reality itself. So, the theory of representation in Media Studies means thinking about how a particular person or group of people is being presented to the audience.
Media Representation Theory:
The term refers to the processes involved as well as to its products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity – Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity (the cage of identity) – representation involves not only how identities are represented (or rather constructed) within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception.
Representations as constructions:
A key concern in the study of representation is with the way in which representations are made to seem ‘natural’. All texts, however realistic they may seem to be, are constructed representations rather than simply transparent reflections, recordings, transcriptions or reproductions of a pre-existing reality. However, representations which become familiar through constant re-use come to feel natural and unmediated.
Representations are judged. Representations require interpretation – we make judgments about them based upon our own experiences and backgrounds. Representation involves selection. Representation is unavoidably selective, foregrounding some things and back grounding others.
Key Questions about Specific Representations:
· What is being represented?
· How is it represented?
· Using what codes?
· Within what genre?
· How is the representation made to seem true, commonsense or natural?
· What is fore-grounded and what is back-grounded?
· Are there any notable absences?
· Whose representation is it?
· Whose interests does it reflect?
· How do you know?
· At whom is this representation targeted?
· What does the representation mean to you?
· What does the representation mean to others?
· How do you account for the differences?
· How do people make sense of it?
· According to what codes?
· With what alternative representations could it be compared?
· How does it differ?
Television and representation:
“Television is the most rewarding medium to use when teaching representations of class because of the contradictions which involve a mass medium attempting to reach all the parts of its class-differentiated audience simultaneously” (Alvarado et al. 1987)
Typing in representation:
The director wants the audience to be on the side of the hero and hope that the villain will fail. This means that the audience has to identify with the hero– they have to have a reason to be ‘on his/her side’. But directors only have a couple of hours to make you identify with the hero – so, they have to use a kind of ‘shorthand’. This is known as typing– instead of each character being a complex individual, who would take many hours to understand, we are presented with a ‘typical’ character that we recognize quickly and feel we understand.
Character typing:
There are three different kinds of character typing: An archetype is a familiar character who has emerged from hundreds of years of fairytales and storytelling. A stereotype is a character usually used in advertising and marketing in order to sell a particular product to a certain group of people. They can also be used ‘negatively’ in the Media – such as ‘asylum seekers,’ or ‘hoodies’. A generic type is a character familiar through use in a particular genre (type) of movie.
Why is Representation Theory useful?
The way certain groups of people are represented in the media can have a huge social impact. For example, would people’s attitudes to asylum seekers change if they were presented differently in the media? When media producers want you to assume certain things about a character, they play on existing representations of people in the media. This can reinforce existing representations. At other times, media producers can change the way certain groups are presented, and thus change the way we see that particular group. Changing these representations can also create depth in a character.
Audience theory:
How do audiences receive texts? Whether you are constructing a text or analyzing one, you will need to consider the destination of that text, i.e. its target audience and how that audience (or any other) will respond to that text. For A-level you need a working knowledge of the theories which attempt to explain how an audience receives, reads and responds to a text.
Effects Theory:
Over the course of the past century or so, media analysts have developed several effects models, i.e. theoretical explanations of how humans ingest the information transmitted by media texts and how this might influence (or not) their behavior. Effects theory is still a very hotly debated area of Media and Psychology research, as no one is able to come up with indisputable evidence that audiences will always react to media texts one way or another. The scientific debate is clouded by the politics of the situation: some audience theories are seen as a call for more censorship, others for less control. Whatever your personal stance on the subject, you must understand the following theories and how they may be used to deconstruct the relationship between audience and text.
· Hypodermic Needle Theory
· Two-step Flow Theory
· Uses and Gratification Theory
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