Representation Flashcards
STUART HALL: REPRESENTATION THEORY
Concept 1 outline
Media representation processes
STUART HALL: REPRESENTATION THEORY
Concept 1 deeper outline
- The media does not mirror real world events but produces an edited version of the events depicted
Media representations are constructed through codes - through the use of language, imagery, layout, sound and editing
The media plays a vital role in shaping our views of the wider world
STUART HALL: REPRESENTATION THEORY
Concept 2 outline
Stereotypes and power
STUART HALL: REPRESENTATION THEORY
Concept 2 deeper outline
- Stereotypes are used by media producers to create instant characterisation
- Stereotypes reduce social groups to a few key traits or visual cues and suggest that those groups are naturally inclined towards a specific set of negative behaviours
- Stereotypes are mostly found where there are huge social inequalities. They exclude and demonise groups in a manner that both reflects and reinforces social hierarchies.
- social groups can internalise the behaviours inferred by stereotypes
- Stereotypes can be contested through transcoding strategies
STUART HALL: REPRESENTATION THEORY
Two theorists who might challenge
- Stuart Hall
- Paul Gilroy
STUART HALL: REPRESENTATION THEORY
Vs Stuart Hall
Hall provides himself a substantial challenge to his own ideas. His reception theory model suggests that audiences can resist the effects of the media through the production of oppositional or negotiated readings
STUART HALL: REPRESENTATION THEORY
Vs Paul Gilroy
In many senses, Gilroy works picks up on many of the themes of Hall’s arguments - his analysis, however, suggests that racial stereotypes are framed by the wider cultural/historical forces of Empire.
This makes it much harder for the media to contest black stereotypes because they are so deeply entrenched within the British cultural psyche.
GILROY: POST COLONIAL THEORY
Concept 1 outline
Racial binaries, otherness and civilisationism
GILROY: POST COLONIAL THEORY
Concept 1 deeper outline
- Black communities are constructed as an ‘other’ to white culture and are associated with criminal activity and lawlessness
- The media reflect civilisationist attitudes through simplistic reportage and the demonisation of Muslims - media products nurture fear and the idea that Muslims and Europeans are incompatible
GILROY: POST COLONIAL THEORY
Concept 2 outline
The enduring legacy of the British Empire on English identity
GILROY: POST COLONIAL THEORY
Concept 2 deeper outline
- A deep seated postcolonial melancholia infects the media as a result if Britain’s diminishing global importance
- Postcolonial melancholia prompts a nostalgic construction of Englishness
- post colonial melancholy produces a sense of English rootlessness and an anxiety surrounding British identity
GILROY: POST COLONIAL THEORY
Two theorists who might challenge
- David Gauntlett
- Henry Jenkins
GILROY: POST COLONIAL THEORY
Vs Gauntlett
Would present a far more optimistic picture of the media’s capacity to effect change or to enable positive identity construction.
He would suggest that the variety of media representations available to contemporary audiences is far greater than that outlined by Gilroy
GILROY: POST COLONIAL THEORY
Vs Henry Jenkins
Would present a far more optimistic view regarding the current media landscape than Gilroy postcolonial assessment - suggesting that the new technologies enable audiences to engage in participatory culture and to form online communities.
VAN ZOONEN: FEMINIST THEORY
Concept 1 outline
The female body as a spectacle
VAN ZOONEN: FEMINIST THEORY
Concept 1 deeper outline
- The role that females are expected to play within society vary enormously across different and historical periods
- The dominant representational mode in Western culture positions women as an erotic spectacle
- Seconf wave feminists have challenged the dominance of men in society - traditional female roles
- Fourth wave feminists continue to challenge male privilege using both mass media and social media forms
VAN ZOONEN: FEMINIST THEORY
Concept 2 outline
Masculinity in the media.
VAN ZOONEN: FEMINIST THEORY
Concept 2 deeper outline
- Masculine depictions are not subject to the same objectification processes as females
- Male social dominance is reinforced using active representations of masculinity
VAN ZOONEN: FEMINIST THEORY
Two theorists who would challenge
- David Gauntlett
- Judith Butler
VAN ZOONEN: FEMINIST THEORY
Vs David Gauntlett
Would argue that contemporary media products, both online and mass media orientatedm offer audiences a much wider diversity of gender - based indentities than is suggested by Van Zoonen.
This enables audiences to shape their own identities and to resist the ideological pull of the patriarchy
VAN ZOONEN: FEMINIST THEORY
Vs Judith Butler
Would agree with much of van Zoonen thinking, but would suggest further that the use of gender-based labels like ‘male’ and ‘female’ mask the complex nature of sexuality.
She would also argue that individuals gave resisted those conventional labels by engaging in ‘gender trouble’
BELL HOOKS: INTERSECTIONALITY
Concept 1 outline
Interconnected oppression
BELL HOOKS: INTERSECTIONALITY
Concept 1 deeper outline
- Representations of black women (and men) have been shaped by historical forces
- Feminist movements of the twentieth century have largely been dominated by a white viewpoint
- A social hierarchy exists that places white men at the top followed by whites women, male ethnic minorities and last, female ethnic minorities.
- Oppression of minority groups are constructs of a white make dominated social hierarchy
- The lack of black female power results in absent representations and a range of negative stereotypes that some black women have internalised
BELL HOOKS: INTERSECTIONALITY
Concept 2 outline
From evaluation to action
Feminisms is the struggle to end the patriarchy
BELL HOOKS: INTERSECTIONALITY
Concept 2 deeper outline
- Hooks intersectional work doe snot just provide us with an analytical tool, but also prompts media producers to fashion their products in ways that draw attention to socials inequality
- Intersectional media foregrounds the interconnected nature of inequality
- Intersectional media celebrates social diversity and gives voice to social groups that have been marginalised by white male power
BELL HOOKS: INTERSECTIONALITY
Two theorists who might challenge
- Paul Gilroy
- Henry Jenkins
BELL HOOKS: INTERSECTIONALITY
Vs Paul Gilroy
Would not necessarily challenge hooks, but his work provides a more UK specific framework for evaluating the representation of black people. His analysis highlights the legacy effects of empire on our notions of ethnicity and national identity
BELL HOOKS: INTERSECTIONALITY
Vs Henry Jenkins
He would not challenge hooks directly, but would suggest that contemporary media products, through participatory culture, can circumvent established media power.
Indeed the online activism of BlackLivesMatter provides a brilliant example of the power of participatory culture
JUDITH BUTLER: GENDER AS PERFORMANCE
Concept 1 outline
Our gendered identities are not naturally given but constructed through repitition and ritual
JUDITH BUTLER: GENDER AS PERFORMANCE
Concept 1 deeper outline
Our bodies or sex do not define our gendered identities
Genders are not fixed by childhood experiences
Gender is constructed through the continuous repitition of micro-rituals
JUDITH BUTLER: GENDER AS PERFORMANCE
Concept 2 outline
Contemporary culture reinforces a traditional gender binary - identities that fall outside of that binary are constructed as subversive
JUDITH BUTLER: GENDER AS PERFORMANCE
Concept 2 deeper outline
- Heteronormativity is entrenched within society
Non-heteronormative identical are marginalised or subjugated
The media assists in the marginalisation of subversive identities through absent representations, abjection and parody
The performance of gender trouble is a difficult sometimes painful process given the entrenched nature of heteronormativity
JUDITH BUTLER: GENDER AS PERFORMANCE
Two theorists who might challenge
- David Gauntlett
- Van Zoonen
JUDITH BUTLER: GENDER AS PERFORMANCE
Vs David Gauntlett
Acknowledges much of the work of Butler, but would suggest that contemporary media practices mean that heteronormativity does not completely dominate and that the media allows for diverse or fluid identity construction.
He suggests that society has adopted a much more positive view of gender subversion than is presented by Butler
JUDITH BUTLER: GENDER AS PERFORMANCE
Vs Van Zoonen
Would agree with Butlers assessment that gender is a social construct but would suggest that media reinforces male power as a result of women internalising male power and assuming the same passivity that on - screen depictions of feminity construct
GAUNTLETT: MEDIA AND IDENTITY
Concept 1 outline
Traditional and post traditional media consumption
GAUNTLETT: MEDIA AND IDENTITY
Concept 1 deeper outline
Gauntlets ideas build upon Anthony Gideon’s assertion that society has progressed to a stage that Godden calls ‘late modernity’
The conditions of late modernity enable audiences to escape the prescriptive identities that are constructed for them rough localised social norms and traditional viewpoints
Gauntlett argues that contemporary media has brought audiences into contact with a ranger of representations - and, importantly, that audiences can consciously shape their own sense of self
GAUNTLETT: MEDIA AND IDENTITY
Concept 2 outline
Reflexive identity construction
GAUNTLETT: MEDIA AND IDENTITY
Concept 2 deeper outline
The media provides a variety of role models and lifestyle templates that audiences use to guide their own outlooks
Audiences are engaged in a continuous revision of their identities
Media narratives mirror the process of identity transformation
Audiences are in control of the media - adapting and assimilating ideas about themselves through the various representations that the media presents
GAUNTLETT: MEDIA AND IDENTITY
Three theorists who might challenge
- Stuart Hall
- bell Hooks
- Paul Gilroy
GAUNTLETT: MEDIA AND IDENTITY
Vs Stuart Hall
Would argue that the media landscape is not diverse, but saturated with stereotypical portrayals of that reflect wider social inequalities.
This leads to a deeply problematic portrayal of minority groups of all persuasions
GAUNTLETT: MEDIA AND IDENTITY
Vs Bell Hooks
Hooks would argue that portrayals of black women are largely absent from the media and, when they are present, that are prone to produce overly sexualised portrayals
GAUNTLETT: MEDIA AND IDENTITY
Vs Paul Gilroy
Would argue that British media narratives do not offer diversity but are stuck within a colonial mindset that positions non-whites as threatening, primitive or uncivilised
