A level media - Representation

• Positive stereotyping


  Attributing seemingly positive qualities to a social group
• Positive stereotypes in Western mainstream media

  • East Asian students being highly intelligent and motivated
  • Women being more in touch with their emotions
  • Men being physically strong
• Positive stereotyping has been criticised for being equally as reductive and generalising as negative stereotyping
• A 'positive' stereotype still relies upon reducing a group down to fit a narrow expectation, instead of reflecting the diversity of real life
• Stereotyping


  The reduction of a diverse group of people down to a perceived set of shared qualities and personality traits
• Mainstream media's long history of prejudicial stereotypes of women, people of colour and other social groups has resulted in more widespread criticism of the practice
• Negative stereotypes


  Seek to present a social group or issue in a bad light to further the ideology of the media producer
• Examples of negative stereotypes

  • Young black men portrayed as violent or criminal in nature
  • Blonde women portrayed as unintelligent
  • Homeless people depicted as drug addicts or thieves
• Use of stereotypes - especially negative ones - in a text gives an indication of the producer's beliefs and ideology
• Construction


  How meaning is created by how media producers actually make the text i.e. image and sound is used to convey real world issues
• Producers select what their text contains - choosing to include or exclude certain issues of representation
• Mediation


  The altering and changing of a text in the production process before it reaches the public
• Media texts about real life can often display ideology in how they choose to depict social and political issues
• Encoding


  Meaning is 'encoded' into a text by the producers
• Decoding


  Meaning is unpacked/deciphered by the audience
• Whether or not an audience 'decodes' the intended meaning is dependent on their knowledge of an issue/subject and whether they have a similar perspective to that of the media producers
• Prevailing ideology (the most common beliefs and values of a society) is often present in mainstream media
• Representation is affected by industrial and cultural context
• Industrial factors


  Influence how media producers portray groups' issues in texts
• Social/cultural factors


  Influence how audience respond to the way things are portrayed in the media
• Media producers can intentionally misrepresent an issue in order to further their own (often prejudicial) ideology
• Repeated patterns of representation shape how audiences perceive issues in the real world
• Media organisations hold great social power through how they choose to portray people and issues
• The relationship between industrial and sociocultural factors is not fixed it evolves over time
• There is no one true objective reality. Every version of reality shown in a media text has been influenced by the views/beliefs of its creators, whether intentionally or not
• Identity


  We model parts of our identity on the media we consume and the products we buy
• Modern media has become more fluid in representing the world, specifically gender
• Stereotyping


  Reducing down a group to a few perceived qualities
• Essentialisation

  The process of stereotyping
• Reflective signs


  Signs that reflect a 'fixed truth' of the world
• Intentional signs


  Signs that convey the creator's opinions
• Constructionist signs


  Signs that are understood to be artificial because of how media texts are made
• We understand meaning in media though concept maps that link ideas
• Gender performativity


  The idea that outward actions create our gender identity
• Butler rejects the idea that gender roles of masculinity and femininity are innate and predetermined
• Spectacle


  The portrayal of the female form as a passive object of beauty
• The reason for this is that the media is a patriarchal institution
• Repeated patterns of imagery can be used to influence the real world
• Postcolonialism


  The idea that the perception of non-white cultures is affected by the history of European colonialism
• Colonialism viewed non-white cultures as uncivilised compared to European cultures and subjugated them through violence