Post 6

Representation theory

Representation

• Describes the signs that stand in for and take the place of something else. It is through representation people know and understand the world and reality through the act of naming it. Signs are manipulated in order to make sense of the world.

What does this mean?

• This means that media texts are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artifical versions of the reality we percieve around us.

So why do we pay attention to these biased interpretations of reality

• It is important to remember that without the media, our perception of reality would be very limited, and that we, as an audience, need these artifical texts to mediate our view of the world, in other words we need the media to make sense of reality. Therefore representation is a fluid, two way process, producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess a text on its relationship to reality.

Signs

• Signs help us to decipher what exactly is being represented. Signs are the smallest piece of meaning we can use to decode meaning. Almost anything can act as a sign and more than one sign makes up a code. For example glasses and a bowtie makes the audience think of a nerd.

Why is understanding representation important?

• Ideologies
• Cultural beliefs or a way of looking at things.
• Often thought of as common sense
• Things we believe as true but aren't necessarily true.
• Media creates and nurtures these ideas creating possible false truths for us to identify with.

Representation of Gender
The representation of men and women. Gender could be seen to be the basic category we use for sorting human beings, and it is a key issue when discussing representation. Essential elements of our own identity, and the identities we assume other people to have, come from concepts of gender, what does it mean to be a boy or a girl? Many objects, not just humans, are represented by the media as being particularly masculine or feminine, particularly in advertising, and we grow up with an awareness of what constitutes 'appropriate' characteristics for each gender.

Representation of Women
Feminism has been around for over 30 years yet media representations of women have not dramatically changed. Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:

• Beauty (with narrow conventions)
• Size/physique (within narrow conventions)
• Sexuality
• Emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings
• Relationships (as opposed to independance/freedom)

Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take role of helper (Propp) or object, passive rather than active. Often their passivity extends to victimhood. Men are still represented as TV drama characters up to 3 times more frequently than women, and tend to be the predominant focus of news stories. The representations of women that do make it onto our screens tend to be stereotypical in terms of conforming to the communities expectations, and characters that don't fit into these expectations are therefore seen as dangerous or deviant. Discussions of women represented in the media tend to focus on their physical appearance rather than to the reality experienced across the world.

Representations of Men

• Masculity has more rigid stereotypes compared to femininity
• Representations of men in the media tend to focus on physical and intellectual strength, power, sexual attractiveness, physique and independance
• Male characters are often represented as isolated, and not needing to rely on others, (the lone hero) . If men are seen as being part of a family, it is usually part of the resolution of the narrative
• Men are starting to find it difficult to live up to their media representation as women are to theirs mainly because of the increased media focus on masculinity, for example the growing market of male lifestyle and health magazines. 
• As media representations of masculinity become more specifically targeted at audiences with product promotion in mind, men are encouraged to aspire to be like their role models. This is an unrealistic target and there is growing unawareness of this.

Representations of Age

• As the audience we are quick to judge people on their age. We criticise all ages for all different reasons including the way they dress. This is because of the media, we live in an age obsessed world and all ages are subject to some of the most rigid stereotypes. There are a few common representations of age including the rebellious teen, senile old women or man, male in a mid-life crisis, middle age woman clinging to her youth and silly old men.

Representation - further detail 
Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of 'reality' such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. These representations may be in speech or writing as well as media products.

Representation is a key concept in Media studies, much debated and discussed, examples including the riots. This means that some critics highly rate the way media representation affects our world, 'Representational values in the media shape our understanding of the world we live in and shape ourselves as individuals'. Critics debate as to whether representations in the media reflect cultural climate or do they create it. Who affects the representation?

All media texts are created in a particular institutional context, as film companies need to make money and so they therefore don't break away from conventions. This context will modify the representation. There is an interplay between the target audience, the institution and the generic conventions.

The target audience has expectations which are influenced by inscription in texts. The target audience will find representations aspirational, for example Jordan or the representation will link to the values of the target audience.

The institution will require the biggest audience for its product, unless it is the BBC or a non profit organisation, which can affect the type of representation we get.

The generic conventions provide the framework that we expect and thus the representations we expect. Genre has a big impact on representation, limiting the kinds of representation involved by the use of stereotypes or archetypes and by certain values being representation.

The micro elements of texts create larger meanings and values which construct representations. The types of codes vary depending on media form (film, tv, magazines etc)

• Camera angles, shots, framing, shot composition
• Editing
• Sound and dialogue
• Mise en scene
• Narrative

Representation in three existing media products
Representation of gender in Doctor Who
Doctor Who represents the idea of men being in more power than women, this is shown when the Doctor gives Rose commands like 'off you go' showing the authority he has over her. However a few seconds after the "ditsy blonde" Rose is then portrayed as being clever as she is able to work out where she is, while her boyfriend stands there looking dazed and is therefore seen as "not just a pretty face". Rose is also seen as the strong female instead of the meek stereotype as her boyfriend faints at the sight of outer space whereas she is able to cope with it showing how strong she is. Women are stereotypically seen as sex objects and this is portaryed through the woman Rose who flicks her hair towards The Doctor and says 'I'll do anything'.

Representation of gender in Halloween
In the film 'Halloween' women are seen as having stereotypical domestic roles this is shown through the scene where the girls are seen baby-sitting, cooking and cleaning, which stereotypically would be seen as a role that the women would fulfill. Annie and Lynda are alson seen in a sexual way and portrayed as sex objects as Annie takes off her clothes and changes into a shirt and when Lynda flaunts her body. There is also references to social status and men being of a higher status, shown through the character of Annie's dad being the sheriff. Annie and Judith are also driven to be with their boyfriends. However Laurie is not seen as a sex object or in a sexual way as she isn't concerned with her appearance and is not driven by the thought of having a boyfriend.

Representation of age in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
In the film 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory we see the representation of old-age as being ill and sick and them being a 'sickly old person'. The majority of the adults  are not presented as greedy or desirous of worldly things so much as they are as enablers of their children. Mike TV’s parents gladly serve him TV dinners so they don’t have to tell their son to come to the dinner table. His dad even says Mike need only be 12 to get a real gun. Veruca’s father shuts down his factory to have his employees unwrapping candy bars. Augustus’s father eats a microphone. Violet’s father is so busy trying to shill his car dealership he barely notices what’s going on. Grandpa Joe is supposed to be the kindly loving grandparent we all did or wish we had. Grandpa Joe is supposed to be the kindly loving grandparent we all did or wish we had.

How will representation affect the designs for my new short film
When designing my short film I will research into the representations of characters concerned, looking at gender, age, ethnicity and sexuality.