REPRESENTATION

WHAT IS REPRESENTATION?

• Representation refers to the construction of any medium of aspects of ‘reality.’

• It can be a single image, a sequence of images or a whole programme.

• The media does not present reality they ‘re-present it’ – they are representing things that have already occurred.

HOW DOES REPRESENTATION WORK?

• Representations invite audiences to understand them and agree with them in certain preferred ways.

• Different interpretations are possible to some extent, depending on the audience.

• Whatever representations are used, there are ideologies, meanings and values that are implicit in that presentation.

• This gives great power and responsibility to media institutions as the representations can influence social attitudes in many different ways.

POWER OF REPRESENTATION

• Stereotypes are used to help an audience instantly identify and understand the meaning of a text or media.

• They are an extreme form of representation and can sometimes be focused on and therefore exaggerated.

• Stereotypes are usually negatives representations and most have many assumptions.

STEREOTYPES

• Ideology is a set of beliefs and ideas that are presented in a media text. Dominant ideologies are those which are accepted and understood by the majority of people as part of our culture and expectations.

• O’Sullivan – States that underpinning most of the media, various powerful vested interests operate to ensure that particular representations are manifested.

• Noam Chomsky – argues that the media serve the interests of the state and corporate power.

IDEOLOGY