1. Representation of an Issue
An issue is any topic that is represented in the
media – third world poverty, the use of
sexualised images in products aimed at
children, size zero, why did people riot in
London?
Often an issue is represented in the media because it is topical – it is linked to something
that is currently happening and about which there are a number of different views. Thus, it
is an issue that audiences are interested in and about which they want to find out more. The
media text that represents an issue to us is, therefore, gratifying our desire for surveillance
(Uses and Gratifications) – it offers us the chance to inform ourselves about the issue and,
perhaps, form our own views…
People will always have different opinions about an issue; there is never just one view of it
and certainly never just one correct view – some people would say that the solution to
poverty is western aid, others that the solution is to help Africans to help themselves
independent of the west; some would say the riots are caused by poor parenting, others
that they were caused by social deprivation.
Since media texts are produced via mediation (the process of making a text involves human
decisions about how to turn reality into a media text), they tend to reflect the views and
opinions of those who make them, either the views of the individuals involved or the
institutions who commission them. Thus, when we look at a text that deals with an issue, we
need to identify, firstly, what the issue is and, then, what view of the issue we are being
offered. In some texts we will only get one view or representation of an issue (e.g. a charity
appeal for an emergency is only likely to promote a view of the third world poor as helpless
and in need to western aid). However, some texts my offer a range of views (e.g. a
Panorama documentary on the cause of the riots may interview different experts who each
give a different representation of what caused them)
Once you have identified the representation(s) offered of an issue, you need to be able to
identify some of the techniques used to create that representation e.g. use of biased or
loaded language, selection of images, restricted or balanced points of view (e.g. only
interviewing people promoting one view or of people promoting different views), use of
statistics…….
The next step would be to consider WHY this text has opted for this representation.
You can also go on to look at the different response people can make, using Stuart Hall’s
Reception Theory. This might show that, whereas a text may be trying to encourage us to
see an issue in a certain way, that the audience is active and free to decide what to do with
the view we are invited to take – we can go along with it or reject it.