Representation Flashcards
Why are messages changed and adapted?
To suit the senders aims, audiences and technology used.
What does Stuart Hall suggest?
That an event has no meaning until it has been represented/communicated (often by the media).
What are Dyers 4 variations?
- A selective representation of reality: this is obvious in newspapers, where the form is completely different from the events reported, but less so in tv serials, which often succeed in created the illusion of a transparent window of the world with a transparent window of the world with a similar time frame and rhythm of our own.
- A typical or representation of reality: media often use stereotypes to typify particular social groups as a form of shorthand e.g gender, race, age.
- The process of speaking on behalf of or as a representative of a particular position: whose views are being put forward in particular messages? Whose voices are being heard?
- The meanings which media messages represent for audiences: What do readers bring to messages which affect how we interpret them? What actual sense is made when particular messages are understood?
Why can the news not present the world as it really is?
Because the news is distorted (political views are biased). The media constructs meaning about the world. Messages are changed and adapted to suit the aims of the provider. Reality has to be changed to re-present subject matters in an acceptable way.
What is Baudrillard’s theory?
Hyper-reality. We’re so dominated by the mass media, that we can no longer tell the difference between what is real and what represented. Our ideas of the world are based on what we see on the internet and other people’s experiences. E.g we only know Trump as a representation, not as who he REALLY is.
What is post-truth?
No-one wants to know the truth anymore.
What should you look out for in the media?
Absense
What can we, as an audience, do about representation in the media?
Spot representations - by understanding how they are created.
Be critical of representations - by deciding whether or not they are ‘fair’.
Understand why familiar representations keep recurring - e.g is it to do with society? Who is really in charge of the media? Understand that absence signifies as much as presence?
What is Stuart Hall’s theory?
Suggests that an event has no meaning until it has been represented by the media.
What are stereotypes in the media?
A simplified representation of a character, appearance or belief. Stereotypes can be positive or negative and tend to exaggerate.
What does Dyer say about stereotypes?
He says that stereotypes are made by the powerful about the less powerful and can therefore by ideological in nature. He says that the powerful people who control the institutions produce the media texts and therefore reinforce stereotypes.
What has stereotyping suggested?
That it’s wrong to see people in categories.
What are Tessa’s 5 assumptions about stereotypes?
- Stereotypes aren’t always negative.
- They’re not always about minority groups or the less powerful.
- They can be held about one’s own group.
- They’re not rigid or unchanging.
- They’re not always false.
What are the two points of view about media representation?
Constructionist
Reflective
What’s the constructionist view of representation in the media?
It suggests that media constructs/shapes our view of the world and therefore affects our understanding. We are unable to distinguish fact from fiction.
