Representation Theory

Important Questions:

• WHO or WHAT is being represented?
• HOW is the representation created?
• WHO has created the representation?
• WHY is the representation created in that way? What is the intention?
• WHAT is the effect of the representation?

Areas to cover: Expect to make references to 4 or more ways in which your onscreen social group/concept/artist/character/ideas, is represented and how it was achieved using the following; 

Camera (Movement, angles, framing), Mise en scene, Themes, Editing, Lyrics, SFX (Special Effects)

Theories

Dyer (1977)

• Details that if we are told that we are going to see a film about an alcoholic, then we will know that the plot will follow a tale of either sordid decline or inspiring redemption
• He suggests this is a particularly interesting potential use of stereotypes, in which the character is constructed, at the level of dress, performance as a stereotype, but is deliberately given a narrative function that is not implicit in the stereotype, thus throwing into question the assumptions signalled by stereotypical iconography

Perkins (1979)

• On the other hand states that stereotyping is not a simple process. She identified that some of the many ways that stereotypes are assumed to operate aren't true
• They aren't always negative
• They aren't always about minority groups or those less powerful
• They are not always false - Some are based on empirical evidence
• They are not always rigid and unchanging
• Perkins argues that if stereotypes were always so simple then they would not work culturally and over time

Strinati (1995) - Post-Modernist

• Previously people were concerned with representing reality but now this gets mixed around and we end up with pastiche, parody and intertextuality
• "Reality is now only definable in terms of the reflections in the mirror"

Laura Mulvey (1975) - Feminist

• Argues that the dominant perspective is masculine
• The female body is displayed primarily for the male gaze in order to provide erotic, voyeuristic pleasure for the man
• Women are therefore, objectified by the camera lens and whatever gender the audience they are positioned in accept the male perspective

Berger (1972)

• "Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at."

Audience Perceptions of Representations

1) The Reflective view of representing

According to this view, when we represent something, we are taking its true meaning and trying to create a replica of it in the mind of our audience - like a reflection. This is the view that many people have of how the news works - the news producers take the truth of news events and simply present it to us as accurately as possible.

2) The Intentional view

This is the opposite of the Reflective idea. This time the most important thing in the process of representation is the person doing the representing - they are presenting their view of the thing they are representing and the words of images that they use mean what they intend them to mean.

3) The Constructionist view

This is really a response to what have been seen a weakness in the other two theories — constructionists feel that a representation can never just be the truth or the version of the truth that someone wants you to hear since that is ignoring your ability as an individual to make up your own mind and the influences of the society that you live in on the way that you do so.

Thinking about representation in this way takes into account the personal interpretations made by individuals and accepts that one representation may create different meanings for different audience members. This is a useful way to consider media texts – if the target audience for the text is taken into account when thinking about representations it can help with determining the different responses that texts can create.

Stuart Hall

Negotiated

Some people may take a negotiated reading and recognise that, for example, a film is made for commercial gain and offers a glamorous Hollywood version so does not accept the representations as reality but perhaps still buys into them as unattainable cultural ideals that are pleasurable to consume for entertainment

Oppositional

Some people may take an oppositional reading and completely reject the representations as they do not agree with the values they see embedded in the text.  For example, I got really annoyed by the representation
of women in the film 'The Social Network' as in many scenes women were there as sexual objects and this
really put me off the film as it was no longer a believable on screen world that I could engage with – it took  a perspective  that I rejected

Hegemony Versus Pluralism

Representation can be considered from two very different ideological standpoints

The hegemonic view of society Gramsci defined hegemony as the way in which those in power maintain their control. Dominant ideologies are considered hegemonic. An accepted hegemony, in our culture, is that the police are always right. 

Althusser argued that ideology is a force in it’s own right – ideologies reinforce ‘common sense’ assumptions, attitudes and expectations e.g. women are better parents, men are stronger, homosexuality isn't natural.

Pluralists argue, that the content of your media has more to do with  using common representations which are familiar and popular among your audience than about ‘pushing’ a particular ideology?