Introducing Representation

Focus on Celebrities

Representations and the Media Studies Exam

As you know your media studies exam will be made up of three questions. The first will always be a textual analysis of either an AV (audio visual) clip, or two print based media texts. Question two will be a stepped question with two or three parts, with each part progressing in the marks available. Question three will be a longer essay style question. One of the questions will always be about Audience theory, the other will always

be about Representations.
The last part of question 2 and all of question 3 will require you to provide:

Your own detailed examples

What are your opinions of Russell Brand? What words would you associate with him?
Dirty Scruffy Promiscuous Bohemian Goth Elaborate Camp Flamboyant Hairy Charismatic Funny Charming Intelligent Addict

Where do we get these ideas from? Do we know Russell Brand? Have we met him?

All we know about Russell Brand comes from different media texts, whether they are magazine articles, TV shows, film or radio. He is a representation of a celebrity.

Watch this interview with Jeremy Paxman, whilst watching think about the answers that Brand provides to these questions:

1. Why do people pursue 'celebrity'? 2. What do we, the mass audience, use celebrity for? 3. How does Brand say that he has been represented by the media? http://youtu.be/hYM7SzJMKns

1. Why do people pursue 'celebrity'?

Brand: we might pursue celebrity due to its glamorous appeal - that it looks like something we should aspire to have and because it is something that we see as available and attainable.

2. What do we, the mass audience, use celebrity for?

Brand: 1) we use celebrity at different points to reflect the preoccupations of the time; a celebrity can be a substitute (or representation) of the concerns and ideas of the society.

2. What do we, the mass audience, use celebrity for?

2) to replace the 'Big Ideas' in society - he uses the examples of Religion and Communism as things that people may have been interested in at one time and suggests that celebrity fills that void.

2. What do we, the mass audience, use celebrity for?

3) as part of a narrative - he suggests that as a society we all enjoy narratives and that celebrities play out these narratives for us in the media; one celebrity can play many different parts - and represent many different things depending on how the media decides to represent them.

3. How does Brand say that he has been represented by the media?
Brand: the media has represented him as a 'cad', 'a bounder' and a 'dandy' - but these are all ways in which arguably he represents himself to a certain extent. Brand elaborates on the idea that his representation throughout the Sachsgate scandal was used by the newspaper the Daily Mail to attack the BBC and to try to undermine it as an institution.

Has this media text changed or reinforced your opinion of Russell Brand? How has it represented him?

Everything we know about Russell Brand is from different Media Texts.

To us he is not a person - he IS a media text!

How does this happen? How does a real person exist yet become solely a media text in our eyes? The answer lies in...

Mediation
Mediation is the process of taking something real (a person, an event, an issue...) and changing its form to create a media text. Mediation is achieved through: selection organisation focusing
In life, we make our own decisions about what is worth our attention. Through mediation, the media text tries to decide this for us e.g. headlines; trending topics. As a result, our version of reality is altered.

http://youtu.be/6LXuy9t2ifo

Selection
Whatever ends up on the screen or in print, a lot more will have been left out. Someone will have made the decision about what will be included and what to omit. Think about how this might affect how the audience feels about what it sees.

Organisation/ Construction
The elements that go to make up the final text will have been constructed in a way that real life is not. When we witness an accident in real life we do not see it from three different camera angles and in slow motion, this is often the way we view an event in a hospital drama. In real life arguments, we do not have the use of close ups to show emotion these are regularly used in films and on television to heighten the experience for the audience. What we see when we watch Big Brother is a construction of the hours of filming which have been edited often to show a particular viewpoint about a storyline or character.

Focus
Mediation encourages the audience to focus upon a particular text to push us towards making assumptions and to draw conclusions. In a drama the camera may focus upon a particular character. Similarly, our eyes are drawn to the headlines and coverlines in newspapers and magazines.

Version 1 Version 2 (final) What are the differences in mediation? Consider selection, organisation and focus.
The Sun, Friday 6th December news of Mandelas death broke at 10pm.

So, the reality we see on our television screens and read in

newspapers is constructed. Every time we watch or read a media text we are not seeing reality but someone elses version of it. We rely upon receiving our information about a range of events from different sources as we cannot actually be there to witness what is happening first hand.
Think of as like a machine. Real events and real groups of people get put in at one end and their representation in the media is what comes out the other end.

mediation

What is representation and why do we study it?

The easiest way to describe the word is to break it in two: re-presentation. If we were to present something we would show it to the world as it actually is. By re-presenting we can infer that some it has gone through some kind of change or filter or manipulation before it reaches us.

Because we experience people and groups through the media, whether thats the screens in our living rooms, colleges, bedrooms or pockets, the paper we read in the morning or the magazine we read on the bus, we know that those groups are not being presented to us in person, but re-presented to us through the lens of the camera and the words written by others.

The exam will expect you to know and understand various theories and ideas surrounding the subject of representation and be able to apply these ideas to your own experience of the media.

Representation
To depict a likeness through description or portrayal before us. or To symbolise or be a substitute for something.
Key Questions: Who or what is being represented? Is it a positive or negative representation? How is it being established (visually, aurally, juxtaposition against mise-en-scene, use of camera)? How does this representation relate to the target audience? Is it a stereotypical representation? Is it a fair and/or accurate representation? Are the representations conventional or subversive? Are there representations you expect to see which you would have expected to see which are not in the text?

Lets look at some different theories of representation...

What do we make of the reflective view of representation?

Is whatever we see in the media a straightforward reflection of real life? Is this the sort of fun that teenagers in the 1950s got up to at their parties?
If the reflective view were right (and everything we saw on TV, the news, and in magazines were real...) ...wed have banned computer games ... and immigration

To sum up: the reflective view says that what we see is a straightforward reflection of the real world.

But were all knowledgeable enough about the media to know that what we see on our screens or in the papers is sometimes pretty far from the truth... arent we?

Remember mediation!

So what other theories have we got about how representation works?

Intentional view
Does the media make us believe what it wants us to believe? Does the media entirely create our understanding of the world?
This is Rock Hudson. He was very famous in 1950s and 1960s as a leading man in both film and TV. His representation was one of a masculine, rugged heterosexual: the kind of guy that 'men wanted to be, and women wanted to be with'. He played the leading man to some of the most beautiful leading ladies in Hollywood. He was married for many years and his wife was envied by millions of adoring female fans. The truth is that Rock Hudson was gay. The marriage was a cover up to prevent the truth of his homosexuality from reaching the public. In these times, if the truth were known his fan base would have been severely diminished and he probably wouldn't have worked in mainstream Hollywood movies ever again.

Effects debate, anyone?

The media did a pretty good job at presenting the world in the way they wanted to and keeping the truth hidden.

Recap: Effects Debate

Hypodermic Syringe Cultivation Theory Two Step Flow Uses and Gratifications

Is a media audience active or passive?

Preferred/dominant reading Negotiated reading Oppositional/Aberrant reading

To sum up: the intentional approach is where our understanding of reality is created by representations, e.g. We believe teenagers are yobs because of the way the papers represent them. Q. Why won't we just accept the Preferred reading of a media text?
A. Because we know that certain audience members will take a Negotiated or even an Oppositional reading!

... so this creates a problem for our use of the intentional view of representation. Not everyone will accept it.

If we cant use the reflective or intentional view of representation, if there a theory we can use?

The constructionist view entirely accepts that representations can be deconstructed by looking at a combination of factors. Look at how 'Auto Workers have been represented by Life magazine.

The Text: The factory worker stands straight backed, head high. Serious facial expression suggests he knows the importance of his job. His look beyond the camera may suggest he is looking to the future. His overalls indicate hes spent the day working, as does his dirty face. His moustache and large hands suggest typical masculinity. He seems hardworking and proud.

Opinions of those creating the text: The people doing the representation are: publishers, editors and makers of Life.

We can see they want us to respect this man (low camera angle positions us to look up to him; he is dominant and has integrity.)
Composition: the clearly visible factory in the background looms large but is secondary to the worker himself, suggesting it can never be greater than the men who work in it.

The caption (Auto Worker) does not give the man a name the connotation is that he is the everyman of society; that the every day auto worker is the key to the success of the American economy.

Reaction of the individual to this representation:

If the audience were to take a preferred reading then they would accept all of the ideas on the previous slide. Would those targeted by this magazine do so? Probably. A text knows its target audience! (e.g. Daily Mail readers) Who are they? In this case, the target audience are Americans who were interested in current affairs in the second half of the 1940s, when the magazine was published.

1. What is the dominant ideology of the Auto Worker cover? The preferred reading of this magazine cover is clearly a positive message about humble mechanics and factory workers - this would have been completely in keeping with the dominant ideologies of the era. Like the rest of the world, America had just come out of a gruelling war - although it had emerged victorious it was not unscathed and it was important that industry return to normal as quickly as possible, and this front cover entirely embodies that 'back to work' attitude, as well as connoting the importance of industry at that time.

The pride signified by the man would entirely reflect the pride the nation would have felt and this period was one full of optimism and self belief in the United States as families started to believe once more in the American Dream - and, again, the man on the cover encapsulates this hope for the future.

2. What dominant ideologies are at work in Britain today? A belief in democracy (rather than ruled by monarchy or religion) Education is a human right Free healthcare for all Children should be protected, nurtured and guided Freedom of speech Equality of gender and race Acceptance of homosexuality Work ethic A free market - a capitalist society Marriage is less important than it once was Social culture - going out is important Celebrity culture - the lives are others are interesting and maybe aspirational Champion the underdog Physical appearance matters A belief in family People should be monogamous - one partner at a time! The rule of law and the right to a trial by jury

These are obviously not all of the dominant ideologies in British society however you will often find that representations will either reinforce or challenge the Dominant Ideologies and this may affect how the representation is responded to by the decoders.

In other words...
The meanings are created by the relationship between the producers, the text and the audience: The representation is constructed with a set of ideas and values (producers intent/ intended meaning ) The context of the representation is part of the representation (media language choices, anchorage, media form, placement/ location, genre expectations etc.) The audience reacts to this representation and this depends on their own personal interpretational context: age, gender, political/ religious beliefs, nationality etc. (negotiated meaning)

So let's sum everything up to see (and hear) how the representation of someone very famous can be constructed and deconstructed...
http://youtu.be/AWiD02nSrnU

Constructionist approach: representations construct or create meaning, but this is based on a material reality, including: the thing itself the opinions of the people doing the representation the reaction of the individual to the representation the context of the society in which the representation is taking place

What representation of Mandela is created here?

Think about: The thing itself (Mandela) The opinions of the people doing the representation (the editors of the Independent) The reaction of the individual (readers of the Independent) to the representation The context of the society in which the representation is taking place (UK, 2013)

What representation of Mandela is created here?

Think about:

The thing itself (Mandela) The opinions of the people doing the representation (the editors of the New Yorker) The reaction of the individual (readers of the New Yorker) to the representation The context of the society in which the representation is taking place (US, 2013)

Is it different to the Independents representation of Mandela? How? Why?

Dont just give me a biography of your celebrity. Focus on how they are represented. Include a minimum of four images/texts.