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Film Language: Representation: Learning What Representation Is Discovering The Importance of Representation in Media

This document provides an overview of representation and mediation in media. It defines representation as how people, events, and ideas are depicted by various forms of media. Representation is important because media shapes societal attitudes and beliefs through the messages and values it conveys. When analyzing representation, key ideas to look for include stereotypes, scripts, gender representation, and the values that are being promoted. The overall goal is to understand how media representations both reflect and influence society.

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382 views

Film Language: Representation: Learning What Representation Is Discovering The Importance of Representation in Media

This document provides an overview of representation and mediation in media. It defines representation as how people, events, and ideas are depicted by various forms of media. Representation is important because media shapes societal attitudes and beliefs through the messages and values it conveys. When analyzing representation, key ideas to look for include stereotypes, scripts, gender representation, and the values that are being promoted. The overall goal is to understand how media representations both reflect and influence society.

Uploaded by

cvhsmedia
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Film Language:

Representation
Today we are:
Learning what representation is
Discovering the importance of
representation in media
Objectives:
• By the end of this lesson:
• All of you:
Will be able to explain what representation and mediation is, and
why it is important in media

• Most of you:
Will be able to describe how to identify stereotypes and values in
media and the impact they can have on representation

• Some of you:
Will be able to analyse specific representations within film clips.
Starter Questions:
• Write down your answers - leave a space
underneath each answer....

• What does Representation mean?


• Why is it important in media?
• What key ideas must we look out for when
analysing representation?
What is Representation?

• Representation is about how people, places and events are depicted by the
media, whether it be in a newspaper, film, website, magazine or on the
radio.

• The concept of representation is concerned with messages and values in


the media texts. It involves exploring how the media reflects or
represents attitudes, behaviours and beliefs and how these are linked to
the society we live in.

• Representation should be seen as the way the media re-present items to


the audience
Mediation/Verisimilitude
•It is helpful to think of representation as representations of reality
- how certain people/places/events/issues are changed and presented
to us by the media.

•Nothing we see produced by the media is reality! But it is someone’s


version of it!

•This may seem like an obvious point, but it is something that is


easily forgotten when we get caught up in enjoying a text. If you see
a picture of a celebrity kissing her boyfriend, you may find it
unsurprising that the picture has been altered and does not show the
reality of the situation, but in fact we should bear this in mind
whatever we encounter in the media.
•The media place us at one remove from 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.

•This false, unreal world that is like our own created by the media is
also known as Verisimilitude.
What are the first
reactions you have to these
people?
Stereotypes
• A Stereotype is a simplistic fixed portrayal of a person, place,
issue or event. We stereotype people as it is a process of
catergorisation. We do this to make sense of the world to allow
us to get through any situation.

• Stereotypes are widely circulated ideas or assumptions about


particular groups. They have the following characteristics:

• They fit into a category and an overall evaluation can be made of


the group
• The evaluation of the group is often a negative one
• They emphasise some easily grasped feature of the group and
suggest that these are the cause of the groups position
• Stereotypes insist on absolute boundaries (whereas in reality
different spectrums of differences do exist.
Stereotypes and Scripts in the Media
• The Media use stereotypes to help the audience relate to characters and ideas
instantly.
• In Many Television programmes stereotypes are used as a quick way to establish
characters and plots.

• Scripts
• This is when the audience think of the media as dominant scripts - they have
expectations, and these expectations are performed by the actors.
• Scripts allow the audience to recognise situations and relate the media to a real
life situation.
• The way love is portrayed in films may make you think that you will know when
true love hits you as you know what it is like in films! You have seen loves stages
scripted so many times, you will know what it is like when it hits you.
• The Power of a repeated script in Media:
In New York September 11th 2001, a witness standing near the world trade centre
(who escaped from the Twin Towers) said: “I just felt safe. It was a movie set
and I was an extra so nothing could hurt me.”
Representation and Values
• Representation also includes what the film is celebrating or
valuing. This means you have to ask yourself “what does the film
say is a good thing?” These good elements are known as Values.

• If the values you see are common conventions found in the genre
they will be mainstream values.

• To make sense of representation you need to ask yourself “how


does this representation make sense to the audience?”

• When analysing representation - do not just describe what you


see. Look at what the media values, and how it tries to create
verisimilitude for its audience. Also analyse how the
representation is conveyed to the audience.
Representation
• You can study any area of representation. The key areas we will look at are:
• Gender (Differences between how men and women are represented in the
media)
• Age (Differences between how young people are shown in the media
compared to older people)
• Ethnicity (How different ethnic groups are portrayed by the media)
• Disability (How are disabled people and physically able people portrayed by
the media? Positive/Negative light?)
• Social Class (How the media portrays the differences in social class to the
audiences)
• Regionality (How are different regions and areas of the country portrayed
by the media?)
• Sexuality (How are heterosexuals and homosexuals conveyed by the media?)
Representation of Gender
• There are definite differences in how women and men are shown by
the media.

• Media theorists have said that “men act and women appear” Berger
1972. Men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at.

• This is a simple idea - men look at women and the media reinforce this
by filming or photographing women from a male point of view, so the
norm for gender representation is that the camera is male. This is
known as the male gaze theory!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0argWNYZJdM (Bond)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY&feature=related
(Disney)
Representation of Gender
• Men and women are naturally different and because of this are shown in different ways
by the media.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGoC8FTLKSI&feature=related

• We will be concentrating on how they are represented in film:

• Historically women have always been portrayed stereotypically by the media as the
weaker sex, who live to serve the man (especially in adverts!)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DBJXzh6Rvg&feature=related

• However, as more women began to work behind the scenes in the media, bolder, feistier
women began to appear in films and on television (which is what we generally tend to see
today).

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTOrcnd_nCk
How do you think Gender is
Represented in the following clips:
Is it represented in a stereotypical way? Through the make
gaze? What are the representational values?
Clip 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm5reTXJQQA

Clip 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=3Ilm4NuFvbw&p=9722A1135EFF74A6&playnext=1&index=11

Clip 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=EOSysLIDeBg&feature=channel
Tell me what gender representation
you would include if you were to make
a....

HORROR FILM!
In Conclusion:
• Let’s return to our original questions, this
time add in the detail you have learnt this
lesson..

• What does Representation mean?


• Why is it important in media?
• What key ideas must we look out for when
analysing representation?

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