2. MEDIATION
• Before looking at representation you need to
consider ‘mediation’…
• Every time we encounter a media text, we are not
seeing reality, but someone’s version of it.
• The media 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. You should be looking for this with any
media text….
3. EXAMPLE 2
• If you ever go to see a comedy show (Mock The
Week) 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 evening — jokes that might
seem spontaneous when watched on the TV 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 given context by use of soundtrack music and
computer graphics.
• The whole experience of hearing a few jokes will
have been mediated.
4. REPRESENTATION
Representation – How groups, individuals, institutions or social
changes are portrayed through the media; how they are re -
presented.
The way someone or something is represented is not
necessarily reality.
Representations can often be subjective rather than objective
and are constructed.
5. ANY REPRESENTATION IS A MIXTURE
OF:
1 The thing itself
2 The opinions of the people doing the representation
3 The reaction of the individual to the representation
4 The context of the society in which the
representation is taking place.
6. REPRESENTATION
Key points to consider in terms of representation
• What is being represented?
• How is it being represented?
• Who is responsible for the representation?
• How can the representation be interpreted?
You will need to consider the above in discussing
representation in TV Drama.
7. STEREOTYPES
• Stereotyping is an important concept in terms of
representation.
• Stereotypes act as a short hand by which we can more easily
understand a representation.
• Activity: Write a list of things you associate with ‘Old people’
• Your list will almost certainly contain some ‘stereotypical’
assumptions.
• Stereotypes are assumptions that have reached some form of
consensus amongst a particular social group or culture
• Stereotypes can be misleading but people often assume that
stereotypes are automatically false. This is not necessarily the
case!!
8. ARCHETYPES
• These are the original, the typical or perfect
specimen…
The archetypal male hero
The archetypal
female hero
9. YOUR ACTIVITY
• Complete a PowerPoint of research into the
following stereotypes;
A businessman
A housewife
A lower class teenage boy
An upper class teenage girl
An old age pensioner
A femme fatale
A teacher
A doctor
A Secretary
A homosexual male
• Research should include analysis into mise en scene
including costumes, props, locations and body
language as well as likely shot types and angels
10. HOMEWORK
• If you haven’t done so already complete the
PowerPoint
• Using one person, create a portrait for 5 of these
ten 'characters'. Carefully consider composition of
shot, mise-en-scene, props and locations as well as
body language.
• You must use only one person though; that one
person must become all 5 of the characters that
you choose
