Representation in the media

Representation in the media

• Representation is concerned with the way that people, ideas and events are presented to us.
• This could be representation in magazines, news, soap operas, films and so on.
• It may include representation of people, places and events.

This means that media texts are intentionally, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded,targeted and censored by producers, and that they are entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us.

These are he elements that create representation-

• Mise-en-scene 
• Sound
• Editing
• Camera shots, angles, movements and positions.

Social groups we are concerned with in terms of representation-

• Gender
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Sexuality 
• Class and status
• Physical ability/Disability 
• Regional identity.

Representation of a Joc

• Cocky
• Sporty
• Fit
• A flirt
• Girls go crazy over them
• Muscular
• Social media
• PS4/XBOX
• Dumb
• Popular

Stereotypes- Simplified representation of character, appearance and beliefs. Commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals.

A counter type is a positive simplified widely held view.


Gender



Representations of woman in the media

• Feminism has been around for over 30 years yet media representations of woman are worryingly the same.

Representations of woman across all media tend to highlight the following:

• Beauty
• Size/physique
• sexuality
• emotional dealings

Woman are often presented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team.

In drama they tend to take the role of the helper, props, or object, passive rather than active.

Men are still represented as tv drama characters up to 3 times more frequently  than woman, and tend to be the predominant focus of new stories.

Representation of men

• Representations of men across all media tend to focus on the following:
• Strength-physical and intellectual 
• Power and successful
• Sexual attractiveness- physique 
• Independence
• Masculine

For example, Channing Tatum, someone who challenges this representation of men is drag queens.
Age


Common representations of age:

• Rebellious teen (Horrid henry)
• Senile old woman
• Cradle robbing woman
• Male in a mid-life crisis
• Middle-age woman clinging to her youth
• Silly old man
• Social group in school (nerd, popular etc.)
• And the list goes on.

Old people are often subject to the most rigid stereotypes of all (old=ugly, weak, stupid).

Ethnicity 

• Ethnicity, is defined by a set of genetic and cultural characteristics.
• Representation of ethnicity in the media can consist of rigid stereotypes that are similar to gender portrayal.
• Today they are starting to show diversity in the media by casting exp. blacks, asians, for big roles in big productions.
• There is still lots of negative representations today, of especially black people, an african american gangster.

Stereotypes of African descent

• Big nigerian mum who's all about her food and music.
• Aggressive youths, urban and gangs.
• Famine victims.
• Rappers, bling, guns and weed and grills.
• "Token black guy"
• Impoverished 
• Criminals
• Victims
• Heros

Stereotypes of Asian descent

• Intelligent 
• Ninjas- Good fighters
• Broken English
• Obsessed with Chinese food
• Eat dogs
• Culturally exclusive
• Wealthy
• Obsessed with electronic
• Quirky or physically week
• They all look the same
• Lack emotion
• Woman in some cases can be seen as ditzy or very strict. 

Stereotypes of Middle Eastern (Arabic) decent

• Terrorists/violent
• Very religious
• Physically strong
• strict/stern/not a push over
• Serious
• Victims
• Villains/rarely seen as heroes
• Prejudice towards Jewish people.

Stereotypes of White British/American 

• Powerful (physical/intellectual)
• Often the hero
• Serial killer
• In charge (dominant race)
• Lead role-Protagonist

Sexuality

Heterosexual woman

• Loving/Respectable/ average (monogamous)
• Promiscuous
• Frigid (uncomfortable)
• Pure (virginal/naive)
• Alternative ('gold digger', 'pregnant teen', 'cougar'.)

Heterosexual men

• Respectable (monogamous)
• Promiscuous, for woman is bad, and for men is seen to be good.
• 'Ladies man', 'Heart throb'
• Bumbling man who has trouble talking to woman.

Homosexual woman (lesbian)

• Monogamous-committed to a relationship 
• Promiscuous-gets around. 
• Embarrassed (in the closet)
• 'Butch'

Homosexual men (Gay)

• Young promiscuous men
• Older monogamous men
• Overbearing
• Embarrassed (in the closet)
• Camp
• Gay best friend

Class and status

• Poor/moneyless/bum
• Lower class
• Lower middle class
• Working class
• Upper middle class
• Upper class
• Elite/Rich/Millionaire 

Status symbols

• Clothing or lack of it
• Cars
• Jewellery 
• Brands
• Houses/Mansions 
• Gadgets

Physical ability/disability 

• Those who are physically disabled (paralysed, deaf, blind, amputees).
• Those who are limited in how much they can do (due to morbidly obese, cancer, aids,etc).
• Those who are in good shape i.e. stars, athletes, superheroes, average person, one with special abilities.

Regional Identity

• This constitutes the representation of individuals from a certain geographical area.
• The people are represented by:
• Accent 
• Setting
• Staging/Acting
• Depiction

Representation key terms

• Dominant representation

A dominant representation is one which is repeated across the media over time, For example, the dominant reputation of a jock is fit, popular and a flirt.

• Selection

Whatever ends up on the screen or on paper, much more will have been left out. Any news story has been selected from hundreds of others which the producers decided for you were less interesting. Any picture has been chosen from an enormous number of alternatives.

• Construction 

Media texts have been created in a specific way to portray a message/representation.

• Mediation 

Mediation is the process by which a media text represents an idea, issue to event to an audience. We are given a version f reality which has been altered. 

This ad shows the stereotype of men taking action, there is no woman doing the action job, just men, so they show men as being strong and muscular, this follows the dominant representation of men.


This magazine cover goes against the ethnicity dominant representation, There is a mixture of all different pretty girls, everyone different but all have equality.


This paper goes against the dominant representation of woman, they are standing up for what they believe in and how these representations of woman have to change, this representation is created by a newspaper article to raise awareness for the subject, with examples, for example Margaret thatcher is include in this article due to her being the first female politician.