STUART HALL- REPRESENTATION THEORISTS

Question 1

Can you summarise Hall’s ideas on media and representation?

Answer 1

1. Representations do NOT offer objective reflections of reality.
2. Encoding-decoding/ reception model.
3. Stereotypes can reflect social attitudes and maintain them.
4. Stereotypes are a form of symbolic violence.
5. Cultural representations are not fixed and can be subverted through new meanings.

Question 2

How does Hall view media representation?

Answer 2

• Representations do NOT offer objective representations of reality but versions of reality shaped by the subjective viewpoints of their producers.

Question 3

What did Hall mean by ‘ Stereotypes can reflect social attitudes and maintain them’ ?

Answer 3

• Sterotypes are reflective- sterotypes can be studied to gain an understanding of those routinely sterotyped.
• Stereotypes maintain attitutes - by affecting economic and social power of certain groups.

Question 4

What does symbolic power mean in regards to sterotypes?

Answer 4

• Symbolic power- the power to shape reality via symbols, representations etc
• Stereotypes are a form of symbolic power because they simplify and reduce complex identities to a set of fixed traits

shaping reality via simplification

Symbolic power operates on a cultural level, shaping beliefs and attitudes without the need for explicit force or coercion.

Question 5

What did Hall mean by ‘stereotypes have naturalising effects’?

Answer 5

• The process by which sterotypes are repeated so much in media they are considered common sense or natural.
• this can lead to the normalisation + justification of power imbalances.

Women are often represented as emotional-) these representations become so ingrained in society they are seen as natural/biological.

Question 6

Are cultural representations fixed? (According to Hall)

Answer 6

• Cultural representations can be subverted by grafting new meanings onto them. He calls this process transcoding (appropiated, counter-typical representations, deconstructed representations)

Question 7

Define transcoding?

Answer 7

• grafting new meaning onto existing representations to subvert them.

Question 8

Name 3 ways in which producers can transcode cultural representations?

Answer 8

1. Counter-typical representations
2. Appropiated representations
3. Deconstructed representations

CAD

Question 9

Define appropiated representations?

Answer 9

• When negative stereotypes are reclaimed and given new, positive or subversive meanings by the communities they orginally harmed.

hip-hop artists using the aesthetics of gangster culture as a form of empowerment rather than criminality/ LGBTQ+ community reclaiming the word ‘queer’

Question 10

Counter-typical represenations?

Answer 10

• Representations that directly oppose or reverse sterotypes by presenting groups in ways that CONTRADICT traditional representations.

A female character in an action movie being tough and independent, rather than a passive love interest (e.g., Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road).

Question 11

Define deconstructed representations?

Answer 11

• These challenge and break down stereotypes by exposing their constructed nature.

A documentary about the history of racial stereotypes in Hollywood films that critically examines how certain groups have been misrepresented over time.