1. Representation

2. What is Representation?
Representation is how the media re-
presents reality. It is not simply an
accurate reflection of reality.
People, places, events and issues are
all things that can be given a specific
representation.

3. How do these popular media representations
represent the teenager?
Is this a fair or
accurate reflection?

5. Look at the trailer for Kidulthood
– how does it represent young
people?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdoKD4gTQ2c
How are the young
people in Young
Apprentice presented
to us?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzIW9GqXrsQ&feature=related
What makes each representation different here and what
governs the representation chosen?

6. How is an image mediated?
•Selection and omission –
what we let people see about
something in the first place –
what makes it in and what is
kept out!
•Cropping – cutting bits away
from images we want to use
•Anchorage – using words to
close down an audience’s
possible understanding of
what they see

7. Create two captions for each image: one positive and
one negative!

10. Key points to remember:
•A representation is never the whole truth
or the only truth about what is
represented – it is only one version or
perception of the truth
•A representation is a media construction –
an image made by a team of people, each of
whom has some influence in shaping the
final image. A representation reflects the
views of its producers.
•This shaping process is known as MEDIATION

11. For every representation there are some key
questions to ask:
• What is being represented and how?
• How accurate and/or fair is it?
• Who is making it and why?
• Who is receiving the representation and
what do they make of it?

12. Another way to analyse representation is to look at
representations using one or more of Hall’s (1997)
three approaches or angles:
•A reflective approach – looking at how far the
representation actually reflects reality – how fair and accurate
is it?
•An intentional approach – looking at how the
representation reflects the values and beliefs of the creator –
why have they represented something this way?
•A constructionalist approach – how has the media
language been used to convey a certain meaning – how has
the representation been made?

13. Food for thought:
“The media is not a window on the world” (Stuart
Hall)
“The media is a ‘distorting mirror’” (John
Pilger)
“Representations, the construction of
versions of reality to stand in for reality”
(Bateman, Bennett, Casey, Benyahia
and Wall)

14. Dominant & Alternative Representations
Whilst we have a range of different
representations of any one group or event, some
will be more familiar to us than others – this is
because some are more commonly and widely
promoted by the media.
Representations that we come across frequently
are known as dominant representations.
Those we come across less frequently are known
as alternative representations. Often these
are found in less mainstream media and offer a
view of a group or event that may challenge how
we normally see them!

15. Images of Paris

16. What sort of images does the name Paris conjure up?

17. Chances are you have come up with some of the
following:
Google Search: Paris

18. Why do you think we all tend to come up with the same
set of images for this city?
Do you think this is an accurate picture of Paris?

19. Now watch this clip from a French film set in Paris called
La Haine and comment on the image it presents to us of
the city:
La Haine extract

20. Why do you think the director chose to present this
image?
Is it any more authentic than the more picture postcard
versions we tend to see?
Does using a more unusual representation pose any
problems to a media maker?

21. Postmodernists state that often, nowadays, our knowledge of
the world – certain places and groups – is derived solely from
media representations. Think about what you know of
Afghanistan and Iraq – personal experience or mediated
through the media?
Often these media representations have created such a strong
image of the place that we think we know what it is really
like.
Postmodernists call this ‘fake’ knowledge of the world
hyperreality. Often, they argue, we no longer know what is
truly real from the realities the media create for us! They see
us as existing within a world the media has largely created for
us! We conflate reality with representations of reality.

22. Think about what the term Reality TV suggests to us and
what we are actually given in programmes like Big
Brother/ TOWIE/ Made in Chelsea…
Should this notion of hyperreality and the way many of
us rely on the media for what we know about our world
and what we believe to be true cause us any concern?

23. The Power of Representations
“Representation always involves ideology”
(Nicholas and Price)
One of the reasons representation is worth looking at is
because representations are closely bound up with
ideologies – they encode certain messages about the
place, person or thing being represented.
As well as being given an image, we are also being
given an evaluation of the thing represented – here’s a
businessman, isn’t he impressive! Here’s a hoody thug,
s/he must be trouble!
Representations are never neutral – they always come
with a positive or negative charge!

24. What ideologies are these representations setting up?
dominant ideologies

25. alternative ideology

26. Maid in Manhattan Trailer Real Women Have Curves

27. Dominant representations have such power
over people because of the amount of
exposure they are given in the media.
Repetition = Power
The more we hear a certain message, the
more it is reinforced. Over time we will
come to accept the message as correct and
cease to question its validity
(naturalisation)

28. It is this dominance in the media of certain
representations that sometimes gives people cause for
concern – if the ideologies or representations
themselves are biased, this could transfer through to
the audience and influence their thinking and actions.
How might the hoodie
thug representation of
young people affect
people’s attitudes and
actions towards this
group in real life? Is
this fair?

29. The most common form of
dominant representation is the
stereotype.
A stereotype is a ‘simple,
generalised and exaggerated
representation’ (Bateman,
Bennett, Casey, Benyahia and
Wall). It works by taking a ‘few
characteristics, usually negative’
and these are ‘presumed to
belong to the whole group’
(source: as above)

30. It is easy to see the primarily negative aspects of
stereotypes. Tessa Perkins (1979) sets them out clearly:
1. Stereotypes are always erroneous in content;
2. They are about groups with whom we have little or no social
contact; by implication, therefore, they are not held about one's own
group;
3. They are about minority (or oppressed) groups;
4. They are simple;
5. They are rigid and do not change;
6. They are often based on a degree of historical and social truth.
In other words they are often misleading and made by
powerful groups in society about those with no power and
reflect their prejudices and are hard to shift once they take
root. Oh, and they’re probably not based on a lot of
personal experience either…

31. It is easy to see how these, through repetition ad
nauseam in the media, may well pass on to audiences
false and negative ideas about the group or place they
represent and how this might lead to prejudice and
discrimination in the real world.

32. A consistently negative
representation can
marginalise a group.
Marginalisation can
lead to a society feeling
justified in not changing
the lot the group being
represented and,
essentially, keeps that
group in a low status
within society.

33. Note how the Nazis used imagery of Jews to
help justify the Holocaust:

34. Absence is the most
extreme form of
marginalisation in terms of
representation. Barthes
called it ‘absent presence’.
Even absence from representation means
something too – what does absence suggest
about a group?
Can you think of any groups who many years
ago were largely absent or underrepresented
in the media?

35. However, it would be wrong to see all uses of
stereotypes as bad and evidence of some huge
social conspiracy to give some groups of people a
bad reputation.

36. There are two different approaches to evaluating and
exploring stereotypes, each offering a different perspective
on the value of stereotyping:
Psychological Approach:
Interested in looking at stereotypes as mental constructs that reflect
our attitudes – stereotypes were seen as rigid and almost
unchangeable and part of the mechanism that developed and spread
prejudice, as often they were hostile to minority groups within society
(sees stereotypes as bad)
Sociological Approach:
Sociologists ask, who benefits from the stereotyping of certain groups?
Ideas and beliefs that are 'useful' in this way to those who hold them
are what sociologists call ideologies —'convenient' ideas that benefit
some groups at the expense of others. Looks at the way they are
used/ what roles they fulfil (more positive view of stereotypes – can
serve a useful function)

37. Here are some other ‘myths’ about stereotypes always
being bad that Perkins challenged:
•Stereotypes are not always negative (e.g. 'The French are
good cooks').
• They are not always about minority groups or the less
powerful ( e.g. 'upper class twits').
• They can be held about one's own group (We Northerners call
a spade a spade)
• They are not rigid or unchanging ( e.g. the "cloth cap worker”
of the 1950's became the 1980's 'consumerist home-owner who
holidays in Spain').
• They are not always false. (e.g. 'Media Studies teachers tend
to be liberal/left wing in their politics‘)

38. The last point is worth noting.
Tessa Perkins stated that all
stereotypes contain ‘a grain of
truth’ – this is why they are
recognised and accepted by
audiences.
We can’t dismiss them out of hand –
their image may be exaggerated,
limited, highly selective BUT they
still offer some true reflection of the
world we live in, no matter how
negative, and can’t be dismissed
outright…

39. Walter Lippmann (1922) also
outlined four useful functions of
stereotypes in the media – four
reasons why so many media texts
use stereotypes to convey
characters:
3.An ordering process
4.An economic short-cut
5.A map of the world
6.An expression of society’s values
So, don’t assume stereotypes are always bad news!

40. Representation and the Audience
What issues does this pose?
Well, we may be concerned that the views we are
most exposed to are only those that the people in
power wish us to see and know about. This may
make us fear that the media could be biased and
be used to manipulate and limit our views on life.
One media theory,
developed by Antonio
Gramsci, a Marxist theorist,
to explain this possible
abuse of the media is
HEGEMONY.

41. Hegemony states that society is
ruled by a small powerful elite and
one of their tools for governing
people is the media – it essentially
uses this to send out messages that
will keep the status quo and filters
out messages that might lead to
dissatisfaction with one’s lot which
could lead to unrest, rebellion and
overthrow of the powerful elite.
Representation, according to
Gramsci, is a highly political act. It’s
about using the media to promote
the messages you want the masses
to believe and accept.

42. Watch the following clips and see if you can
explain how hegemony might work through
these clips to promote messages that reinforce
the status quo – how they keep the powerful in
power and reinforce the notion that others are of
lesser status.
Kellogg's Ad (1950s) Halo Shampoo (1953)
Persil Washes Whiter (1960s)
Clairol Loving Care Hair Colour Ad (1978)
Lynx Ad (2006) Snickers Ad - Mr T (2006?)
Weetabix - Dad's Day Out (2012)

43. Hegemony also presupposes that audiences are
passive – powerless to resist media messages
and easily led.
The HYPODERMIC
NEEDLE EFFECT assumes
a passive audience. It
suggests that the media is
like a drug – once in the
body, we are powerless to
resist its influence.

44. Hegemony essentially
sees the media as a
dictator - it seeks to
control and influence
how we see others and
supposes that the
audience are powerless
to resist.
If this were the case,
then we may well get
very concerned about
the type of
representations we are
being fed through the
media.

45. However, not everyone would agree with these
assumptions – supporters of active audience theories
suggest that:
Whilst we often consider what producers try to do to
representations, it is equally important to consider
what audiences do with representations.

47. A key theory here is Stuart Hall’s Reception
Theory.

48. Reception Theory states that there are three
main responses the audience can make to a
media text:
• A Preferred Reading – where the audience
accepts the ideologies of the producer of the
text
• A Negotiated Reading – where we accept
some of the ideologies but not all
• An Oppositional Reading – where the
audience rejects the ideologies of the text
and possibly reads the text in a subversive
way

49. Look at the following extract and explain what you
think the preferred reading would be and suggest
some oppositional readings and the type of person
who may respond to the text in this way.
Spiderman 2 Scene

50. If Reception Theory and the active audience are
right, what does it suggest about representations?
•that the viewer has some power of choice over
whether to go along with representations or not
•that we needn’t worry as much about
what representations are out there, as
the audience doesn’t have to be
brainwashed by them.
•that audiences can always
subvert a producer’s intentions by
making an oppositional reading!

51. Representation Changes Over Time
Any consideration of representation needs to take
account of how a group, event etc is represented
– what details create a particular image.
It also needs to think about the possible effects a
representation could have on different audiences
– how different sectors of the audience may
interpret it.
Another aspect to consider is the historical
context the representation occurred in, as
representations often change to reflect the values
of the culture that produces them.

52. Representations can
alter over time. In
the 80s this Athena
poster caused quite
a stir – can you
guess why?
Would it have the
same effect today?
Why / why not?

53. Not only can representations move from being
alternative to dominant over time as social
attitudes change, but they can also move from
dominant to alternative.
Look at the extracts from the front page of The
Wizard from 1950 and identify what
representation was dominant then but would
certainly be alternative now and probably
offensive to most people.

54. Now look at some more recent
representations of black people and
comment on the ideologies they transmit and
how the representation has changed.

59. Why the change?

60. Representation is not static, it alters over
time to reflect changes in society. Such
changes are often linked to changes in the
power status of the group being
represented.
Generally speaking:
more power = more positive representation

61. SUMMARY:
• Representations are re-presentations of reality
•They reflect a partial and possibly biased view of what
they represent
•Some representations are more common than others –
dominant v alternative/ stereotypes – the latter are not
always bad
•Hegemony is a theory that sees the media as part of the
ruling elite’s brainwashing machinery
•If this is true, then concern over it depends on how we
view the way the audience responds to the media’s
images – passive or active
•Representations change to reflect changes in society’s
views or attitudes
•Generally, the more power a group has, the more
positive its representation
•Marginalisation and absence mean something too!