Representation

By Hannah Lovejoy and Laura Budden

What is it?

• “It is defined as the process of making meaning in still/ moving images and words/sounds.” “It is used to represent or stand for someone or something, for example a place/idea.”

• “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.”

How does it work?

Theories

• Strinati “The world in which we live in is a reflection of what we see in the media”

• Baudrillard “ The Disney Land imaginary is neither true nor false, it is a deterrence machine set up in order to rejuvenate in reverse the fiction of the real.”

• Jameson “ In a world in which innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles.”

Links to postmodern

• Strinati suggests:• “the boundaries between reality and the

media representation of it have become blurred”

Hyperreality

• Hyperreality “returns to the more basic idea that there is no longer a distinction between reality and it’s representing image, or simulacra.”

• “The idea is that popular culture signs and media images increasingly dominate our sense of reality, and the way we define ourselves and the world around us. It tries to come to terms with, and understand, a media saturated society.”

• “A key in the study of representation concern is with the way in which representations are made to seem ‘natural’.”

Realism

• General attempt to depict subjects as they are considered in third person.

Stereotypes

• Gender is a key issue when discussing representations.

Thematically

• Representation of:• Class• Race• Gender

Media superficiality