Representation

Who has voice (and who does not)

Images, Images Everywhere!

• over abundance of images surround us

• we cant immediately decode all of the messages

• Therefore we naturalize!– when an image is familiar and repeated– we categorize it as “natural”– allowing it “in”- without further decoding

– Examples…

Big questions:

Is this what we have done with representations of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, and ability in the media?

Have stereotypes of social variables taken on a life of their own, so as to become the only representation of the variables allowed and/or accepted in the media?

Discourses:

• Defn:1) verbal interchange of ideas; especially

conversation

2) a formal and orderly and usually extended expression of thought on a subject

3) a mode of organizing knowledge, ideas, of experience that is rooted in language and its concrete contexts (as history or institutions)

Discourses are:

– The way we talk about stuff– There can be more than one discourse

associated with a subject– Ie/ york u. home page– http//:www.yorku.ca

A symbol is always just a symbol

• Description (in any form- film, literature, advertising, etc) can never fully explain its subject

• A symbol only represents and never IS

• Its iconic: defn: it represents an object but has none of its properties

What is this?

representation

• The picture of the cow represents the cows but it doesn’t “represent” –

• It is not a cow

• Ie/ what we see on TV cannot really represent itself (the dog that can bark but not bite)

representation

• Representation: defn:1) one that represents: as an artistic likeness or

image  

2) a statement or account made to influence opinion or action

Representation• Discourses are how we use

language to represent the ideas, ideologies, and values of a culture.

• Often these representations are not based on fact or truth but instead on stereotypes and assumptions

• The problem is when these representations become the norm. (think Dyer)

Pierre Bourdieu

• In Distinction explains how an accent works to maintain class distinction

• Moves the idea of distinction away from economic to cultural

• Suggests that lifestyles are the big distinguishers

capital

• Usually refers to money/land

• Is really about power relations

• We already know power relations are unequal

• According to Bourdieu, capital, can be more than economic- it can be symbolic

Types of Capital

• Economic capital

• Cultural capital

• Political capital

• Etc.

Where Bourdieu meets up with us• Cultural capital has replaced economic

capital as the space where distinction happens

• The difference is still economic BUT it is made REAL through culture

• It is legitimated through culture• It is our lifestyles which distinguish and

determine who is better than others and Who has power

THE POINT: all discourses are rooted in language and history:• The way we talk about things is

based on:• A particular history • A particular worldview• A particular power relationship

Therefore with regards to children and children’s studies: • How a society talks about its children- tells

us a lot about that society’s– Values– Culture– Priorities– Inherent Power Structures

THE PROBLEM WITH: The authentic voice of the child

• This is why the authentic voice of the child is so difficult to hear

• BECAUSE too many of a societies discourses about “childhood” are focused on what adults THINK about children and what they WANT childhood to be

This is what makes representation an issue.

• Discourses about children are symbols

• they reflect adult desires and fears about society

• through representing childhood as either:

a) innocent, pure, and in need of protection, or

b) bad, evil, and in need of surveillance and salvation.

• BREAK

Representation, Reality & Popular Culture

Seeing Past Bias

BIASStereotypes or Tolerance

Bugeja: Thesis

• “Media create perceptions, for better or worse” (219)

• And since media professionals often depict society without fully experiencing diversity of it (215)

• Coverage has a tendency to promote stereotypes instead of diversity

• Tolerance is needed.

What does biased coverage look like? (stereotypes, 222)• Can be blatant or subtle (228)• Based on assumptions (219)• Suggests “one” stands-in for all –organizes

symbolically (226)• Fails to represent group truly and instead

perverts judgement (220)• Danger = they become cliche (223)• Result= De-humanizes: eroding rights and

privileges of citizenship (226)

How to deal with bias? (tolerance)

• See others as they actually are (217)• Practice diversity as a matter of conscience and

consciousness (218)• Don’t ignore bias, but acknowledge it (218)• A revolution in thought- stand up and say “this is

not acceptable to us” (221)• The mapmaker concept (222)• Identify stereotypes (229)• Appropriate descriptions, coverage,

relationships (233,234)

REPRESENTATIONReality?

Dyer

Thesis:

The definition and function of stereotypes and what the alternatives to it are (211)

• Stereotypes have real consequences (even if they are not real)• People not only believe them but live their lives

conforming to them

• If we were to remove stereotypes (which is not possible) what would we replace them with?

Organizing Knowledge

• 4 ways (212):• Role- individual- Type -Member

• Dyer wants to focus on type• And wants to distinguish between social types

and stereotypes (213)• i.e. those who live by the rules and those for

whom the rules are designed to exclude

How Stereotyping Happens

• 2 main ways:

• Iconography • Images, assumptions, “the picture as short-

hand”• part standing in for the whole

• Structure • Stories, Narrative, Structure,

Alternatives to Stereotyping

– The creation of Individuals• “replace historical, mythic, or archetypal personages

with particular, individual characters situated in time and space” (219)

• This still creates a “type” for character- but instead of a social or stereotype it creates

• Member Types:– are similar in construction to social & stereotypes– BUT these types are linked to historical and cultural

specific social groups and classes- outside of hegemony