A level media representation Mediation and ideology
1.
2. You must be able to define the concept of
mediation in the media.
You should be able to explain how
representations are constructed in the
Media.
Amazing if you can provide your own
examples of mediation taken from a British
newspaper.
3. Define the concept of representation
in Media Studies? (What is
representation?)
How is representation constructed?
What are the two levels of
representation?
Define descriptive level.
Define symbolic level.
What does denotation mean?
What does connotation mean?
Which representation level is
denotative?
Which representation level is
connotative?
Define semiology/semiotics.
Define sign.
Define signifier.
Define signified.
Define symbol.
What is a stereotype?
What is an archetype?
What is a countertype?
4. Every time we encounter a media text, we are
not seeing the reality, but someone's version
of the reality.
They take something that is real (a person or
an event) and they change its form to produce
whatever text we end up with.This is called
mediation.
8. Mediation means “the intervention or intercession in
a process.”
Therefore, mediation is the process that any form of
media undertakes when representing a person,
collective, event or place.This is, the construction of
a media text from a real event.
Mediation is the process of representation as
constructed by the mass media.
9. Selection (of a topic or news).
Whatever ends up on the screen or in the paper, much more will have been left out.
(i.e. any news picture has been selected from hundreds of others)
Focusing (taking one specific stance, point of view or approach)
The audience is being pushed towards concentrating on one aspect of the text and
ignoring others. (i.e. the content of that information or media text focuses in one
aspect while several others are omitted)
Organisation (presenting again the issue to an audience in a way that they can
understand it and makes sense to them)
The various elements of that media text will be organised carefully in ways that
real life is not. (i.e. In visual media this involves mise-en-scene and the
organisation of narrative through editing; in the recording of an album the
production might involve re-mixing a track; in a newspaper the information
provided through its text and the images used to illustrate that text)
10. If you ever go to see a comedy show recorded for the television,
you will see the process of mediation in action.
What might end up as a half hour broadcast, will be recorded over
an entire day- jokes that might seem spontaneous when watched
on theTV will have been endlessly repeated until "just right".
The studio audience will have been trained into laughing in exactly
the right way by warm up men and the text that finally reaches the
public will also be edited and given context by use of soundtrack
music and computer graphics.
The whole experience of hearing a few jokes will have been
mediated.
11. At the same time we all have ideas in our heads of some kinds of
texts which might be somehow less mediated, or more real.
(i.e. It is obvious that a film or a soap opera isn't real but when we
think about the television news or a documentary film, we are
more likely to believe in the straightforward nature of the "truth"
we are receiving)
In fact,TV news or a documentary film are just as sure to be
mediated as anything else.
(i.e. Someone has decided that these are the few news items that
are the most "newsworthy" and has chosen the shots that are used
to tell the stories, as well as the point of view from which to
present these events to the audience)
12. The result of this process of mediation is that we
are given an altered version of reality-those are
never the real people that we are seeing but
representations of them which have somehow
been created.
That means that we are not being shown the things
represented as they are, but as the person showing
them to us wants us to see them.
13. This is due to different reasons, for instance lack of space
or time to explain things in a more detailed and "in depth"
way.
This results in an oversimplification of the concepts,
ideas, people, etc. represented. Often, this version of
reality is conditioned by stereotypes.
Therefore, we are not seeing the reality, but a mediated
representation of that reality (think of how the Daily Mail
systematically represents certain social groups like
immigrants, homosexuals, Muslims, etc.)
14. Another reason could be that a specific media institution, such as a
tabloid newspaper, want us to see things in a certain way because
is good for their own interests and can benefit them in any way
(in the case of the Daily Mail, DailyTelegraph or Daily Express,
politically or ideologically, or in the case of The Sun or the Daily
Star just in order to sell as many newspapers as possible)
So mediation always happens, but the misrepresentation
consequence of that mediation can be due to:
1. a circumstance intrinsic to the media (lack of time onTV, lack
of space on a newspaper)
2. intentional bias (ideological)
15. What is mediation?
Why does mediation happen?
How are representations constructed?
How does selection work?
How does focusing work?
How does organisation work?
16.
17. You must be able to define the concept of
hegemonic ideology in the media.
You should be able to explain why
representations are constructed in the
Media.
Amazing if you can analyse an example of
ideology taken from a British newspaper.
18. What is mediation?
Why does mediation happen?
How are representations constructed?
How does selection work?
How does focusing work?
How does organisation work?
19. A system of ideas and ideals (values and beliefs),
which forms the basis of an economic or political
theory and policy, and which are therefore
characteristic of a social group or individual.
20. For ideology we will study the dominant or
hegemonic values and attitudes that arise
from the construction of a given media text.
Ideologies can be connoted from the use of
media language in a particular
representation (such as a stereotype) as well
as from the narrative and the portrayal of its
characters and events.
21. Ideas and values that hold certain
importance in our culture and which also
inform our cultural practices.
These values and attitudes may be explicit
(i.e. obvious) or implicit (not obvious but
underpinning all aspects of the construction
of that media text)
22. Dominant or hegemonic values can become so frequent and
natural to us that they seem a product of common sense.
This is in part due to the biased approach from the media towards
these unquestionable values (such as democracy, freedom, justice,
truth, patriotism, religious faith...) and concepts which are usually
instrumentalised (used as tools which are exploited by the media
organisation behind the text, for their own interests and
purposes).
For example, slavery or colonialism are two of those ideas that
were unquestionable in the past. It was part of the hegemonic
ideology of the colonial countries involved in slave trade.
However, these ideas seem to us completely unacceptable today.
25. Antonio Gramsci defined
hegemony as the way in
which those in power
maintain their control.
These dominant
ideologies or Hegemonic
ideologies are usually
promoted via the mass
media.
26. Concepts
Cultural hegemony
Explanation
Gramsci developed the idea of cultural hegemony.As mentioned
before, this is the idea that one social group within a culture dominates
society, therefore making their views and values acceptable as
"normal" behaviour.
Gramsci believes hegemony is constantly causing problems within
societies, since it excludes other views and cultures. For example, this
arguing is shown through negative and positive representation of people
from different classes, ethnicities, races, religions, genders, age, etc.
28. GRAMSCI, Antonio:
Collections
Pre-PrisonWritings (Cambridge University Press)
The Prison Notebooks (three volumes) (Columbia University Press)
Gramsci, Antonio (1992), Buttigieg, Joseph A, ed., Prison notebooks, NewYork City:
Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-10592-4, OCLC 24009547
Selections from the Prison Notebooks (International Publishers)
Gramsci, Antonio (1982). Selections from the Prison Books. Lawrence and Wishart.
ISBN 0-85315-280-2.
Essays
Newspapers and theWorkers (1916)
Men or machines? (1916)
OneYear of History (1918)
External links:
Gramsci, "Selections", Prison notebooks, Marxists .
Gramsci, Prison notebooks, Marxists .
International Gramsci society .
29. What does ideology mean?
What does hegemonic ideology mean?
Who developed the ideas of ideology and
cultural hegemony? Explain and
contextualise.
30. Nothing is accidental when it comes to the media representation of
characters and events, all meaning in the media is carefully constructed.
A media text has always been made in a particular way for a particular
reason.
31. Patriotism is a key
dominant
(hegemonic) value
(ideology) which is
promoted through
superhero films as
much as through
international
sporting events or
international news
reports (think for
instance how wars
are reported in the
media).
32. As superhero movies spin from
American media products
(comic books), American
ideology is ever-present.
In most superhero movies,
American leadership and
supremacy assumes that it is
just up to Americans, and their
heroes, to ‘save the world’ on
our (the rest of the world)
behalf.This is one aspect of
what is called American
exceptionalism.
33. American superheroes tend to act in a clearly moral way in
defending a set of values that are shared by both the
government and the individual (ideas such as patriotism or
democracy, for instance).
1944 2014
34. Freedom, one of the most cherishedAmerican
values alongside truth and justice, is often
used as a justification, in most of these films,
for the actions of their superheroes.
35. Freedom is one of the most obvious
manifestations of an archetypicalAmerican
value as an element of the hegemonic
ideology in superhero films, which is just an
extension of the hegemonicAmerican ideology
present in most of other American
mainstream media texts (i.e. Fox News,
CNN).
36. Watch this clip of Rambo III (Sylvester Stallone, 1988) and think about the way Afghan Talibans
are represented in this 1988 American film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsCNZN3v2l0
Now search for recent news about Talibans (since 2001) in American media (Fox News, CNN) and
compare the representation of the same people.
How is different? Why do you think that the representation changed so much in little more than
10 years?
37. Another way of understanding ideology in a media text is by arranging the values
in a list of binary opposites.
Here there is an example drawn from one of the most discussed postWWII war
propaganda films, particularly since the American and British invasion of
Afghanistan in 2001.
Binary opposites in Rambo III (Sylvester Stallone, 1988)
America/Afghanistan URSS/Communism
Democratic/Egalitarian Dictatorial/Totalitarian
Heroic and noble Cowardly and vicious
Driven by ideals and values
such as patriotism and
freedom
Corrupt – a threat to the
hegemonic American values.
38. Once we identify the genre of a text it can
help us to identify the ideology as well,
although it would be a generalisation to say
that genre pre-determines the ideology of a
text.
39. For example, iconography from the blockbuster
Action genre (for which superhero films are a
subgenre) may give rise to positive
representations of individual heroism, the
military (nearly always American, unless it is the
British Secret Service), nationalism and patriotic
sentiment, as well as negative portrayals of
difference (i.e. foreign military activity, foreign
governments and groups who endorse value
systems different to theWest)
40. A text may seek to confirm (agree with) hegemonic values, challenge
them or even undermine them, but the texts intention does not
necessarily dictate the audience’s response.
Outlined below are three broad ways in which the audience could
respond to the ideological messages in a text.
A preferred reading, when the audience responds by accepting
the intended meaning of the producer and finding it relatively
easy to agree with the ideological messages in the text.
An oppositional reading, when the audience rejects the intentions
of the text.
A negotiated reading, when the audience works hard to accept
some messages and reject others.
41. Stereotypes and archetypes are an excellent way of combining analysis of both
representation and ideology.
In Independence Day (1996), Will Smith plays a Black pilot as a brave, talented
individual who wants to marry his girlfriend and be a father to her child.
This very positive representation of Black Americans embracing traditional
American values such as patriotism and family contrasts with the many media texts
where Black people are portrayed as troublesome and irresponsible, or as simply a
helper to a white hero.
42. Only a detailed reading of the media language in a
text can provide a thorough knowledge of the way
ideology is represented in that media text.
43. A media text may reflect or indeed it may
actively reinforce the dominant values of
our culture, but it is important to note that
certain media texts often challenge,
contradict or even subvert the dominant
values to be found in our society.
Can you think of any examples of this
subversion drawn from superhero, sci-fi or
action films?
44. One curious thing about the new brand of cinematic comic book hero
(superhero), making him ideally suited to our own period of history, is his
post-ideological nature.
He no longer fights grand ideological struggles againstAmerica’s fascist
or communist enemies, as he did during WWII (1939-1945) and the Cold
War (1949-1991).
45. The cinematic comic book hero (superhero) instead shows us a
postmodern simulated heroism where he combats
megalomaniacal villains motivated by twisted schemes to grab
power, yet without any real world ideological agenda.
The post-ideological villain, like the post-ideological hero, is not a
symbol of any clear real world political stance. Both hero and
villain occupy a cultural landscape which is not related to history
anymore.
However, this does not impede these films from portraying the
same eulogy of the traditional American hegemonic values.
46.
47. Although it may never become a
classic, Iron Man 3 certainly reflects
contemporary American debates over
foreign policy.TakeTony Stark's decision
to abandon his global protector role,
prioritizing domestic matters instead: that
decision is likely to resonate with war-
weary Americans who have only recently
begun to bring back their troops from Iraq
and Afghanistan, and are reluctant to send
them to Syria.
Iron Man 3 also touches on posttraumatic
stress disorder (PTSD), prejudice, the
military industrial complex and drone
warfare.
48. Already considered as a classic cult film, this British answer
to the American superhero reflects a completely different
ideology to that of its American counterparts.The film has
been seen by many political groups as an allegory of
oppression by government.Activists belonging to the
group Anonymous use the same Guy Fawkes
mask popularized by the film when they appear in public at
numerous high-profile events, emulating one of its key
scenes.
This dystopian fantasy presents an utterly romantic
crusader,V (observe the constant historical references to
Guy Fawkes), fighting against the totalitarian government
which runs the UK. He individually battles the hegemonic
power from the clandestinity, by the means of sabotage and
violence.
Originally this comic book (1982) turned into a film (2005)
was a bitter criticism of theThatcher era and of what was
perceived by some British citizens as a radical conservative
government which constantly looked down on the rights of
the people, particularly those of the most vulnerable sectors
of the British society.
49. Whose interests does this text serve?
Who is present in this text? Who is absent from this text?
Who and/or what is represented? How are these characters and events
represented?
Who made this text? Where and when? (Context of production)
Who is/was the target audience for this text? (Context of consumption)
Has its meaning changed over the years? In what ways?
What judgements can be made about the truth, accuracy and impact of this
text?
What values are portrayed, explicitly (denotative) and implicitly (connotative),
by the text?
What issues does it raise?What conclusions can we draw from it?
50. How has ideology developed through time?
Explain why and contextualise based on the
example provided in the next slide.
