Representation Theories Flashcards
What are main point of Stuart Hall’s Representation theory?
How stereotypes can craft societal viewpoints, typically negative
How is media reflective?
It can act like a mirror, capturing and showing the best parts of reality that some people cant experience
How can media stereotypes reflect social attitudes?
They reflect the wider views of society as it gives access to how society feels about certain groups
How does media contribute to construction of stereotypes?
Media is extremely powerful and can shape social attitudes regarding specific groups
How can stereotypes be reshaped or repurposed?
They can be shaped by being guided towards positive representations of key groups in the media
How are stereotypes powerful?
The widespread use of stereotypes, guides audiences to associate specific groups with negative traits
What is Transcoding?
When producers want to challenge pre existing negative stereotypes to craft new meanings
What do stereotypes do?
Reduce social groups to a key few traits that are typically negative and harmful
What is the main idea of Van Zoonen’s Feminist theory?
Media plays a crucial role in informing audiences of the gender based roles they ought to assume
What is the male gaze?
The depiction of women that invites viewers to take erotic pleasure whilst viewing the female form
What is active & passive representation?
How women are encoded in media imagery to be passive whist men are active, which reinforces male dominance
What is objectification?
An image that demeans or degrades the subject
What is the patriarchy?
Society constructed according to a males point of view, allows men to be the dominant gender
What is subversive representation?
Media representation that challenges or undermines an idea or set of ideas that are held by society
What is female identification?
How women may internalise traditional gender stereotypes (they may adapt to the masculine view of femininity)
What are the main points for Judith Butler’s gender performance theory?
Gender identities are constructed through repetition
Society reinforces traditional gender identity
What is gender performance?
The repeating of acts that define our gender
What is compulsory heterosexuality?
The entrenched social expectation to assume male & female identities
What is heteronormativity?
The dominance of heterosexuality in social expectations, the ‘normal’ identity
What is parodic representation?
Gender representation constructed through exaggeration
What does Intersectionality mean in Bell Hooks theory?
The exploration of oppression & the challenges faced by those in the face of oppression
What is intersectional media?
Media products that deliberately include/allude to an intersectional viewpoint
What does intersectional media do?
It celebrates social diversity & gives voices to social groups who have been marginalised
What does Bell Hooks believe about the social hierarchy?
White men are at the top in power whilst ethnic minorities are at the bottom, especially ethnic women
What does Bell Hooks believe about oppression on minority groups?
It has been constructed by the whit male social hierarchy
What is Guantlett’s main exploration with his Media and Identity theory?
The impact of the rapid media boom in the 1980s & 1990s
How that resulted in a diversity of choice in identity
What does Guantlett believe about active audiences?
Active audiences use media products to create their own identities
What does Guantlett say about late modernity?
It enables audiences to escape the given identities that are constructed through social norms
What are fluid identities?
The realisation that identities can be changed and don’t have to conform to the traditional social structures
What are fixed identities?
When you have either hardly any choice or no choice in your identity
What is globalisation?
The time period of when media products began to be produced and shared across the globe as a result of ownership changes in the 1980s
What did globalisation do?
It brought audiences into contact with wider ranges of identity influences
What is post traditional society?
A society that doesn’t require individuals to adapt to ‘socially acceptable’ identities
