Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays
particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular
ideological or value perspective. Rather than examining media representations
as simply reflecting or mirroring "reality," we will be examining
how media representations serve to "re-present" or to actually create
a new reality. For example, beer ads portray drinking beer as a primary component
for having a party. SUV ads creates the experience of driving an SUV as an exciting
outdoor adventure. And, perfume/cologne ads imply the using perfume/cologne
makes one sexually appealing. These ads all create idealized experiences associated
with the uses of these products, experiences that may not jive with alternative
perspectives on these experiences:
http://www.nothing-sacred.net/articles/1/171/
Similarly, the Disney Corporation, one of the major producers of film and television,
represents stories and fairy tales for children primarily in terms of White,
Western, middle-class values. And, DisneyWorld/Disneyland create an artificial
realities that represent different "worlds"-other "lands"
in ways that sanitized and idealize any political, cultural, and ideological
differences constituting the unique cultures of those worlds. For example, "Safari"
boat trips represent Africa as a primitive jungle experience. For a discussion
of the role of Disney in constructing their own representations of different
realities, go to the following site and click on the the video:
http://www.mediaed.org/videos/CommercialismGlobalizationAndMedia/MickeyMouseMonopoly/
Studies of media representations typically assume that students are passive dupes who accept representations of race, class, and gender. However, as James Tobin (2001) argues, students are able to resist these representations, resistance that is often specific to adopting stances valued in certain context, particularly is they can parody or adopt creative alternatives to representations.
Studying Media Representations
Studying media representations therefore involves understanding
the creation of new forms or ways of understanding reality. As Stuart Hall (1997)
argues, this approach differs from more traditional notions of studying media
representations as "false" or "misrepresentations" of some
reality or experience. This concept of "misrepresentation" assumes
that there is a "true" or "fixed" meaning associated with
some external "reality" against which a media text can be compared
as either "true" or "fixed" to that "reality."
However, the meaning of that external "reality" itself is a construction
of media. Media texts are not simply external ways of representing a reality
"out there." They themselves constitute the meaning of reality. The
cultural meaning of "party time" is created by beer ads, which portray
social practices that are valued by participants who believe that drinking beer
constitutes "having a good time." To hear more on what Stuart Hall
as to say about this, go to and click on the video:
http://mediaed.sitepassport.net/videos/RaceDiversityAndRepresentation/RepresentationandtheMedia
Dan Chandler argues that this more constructivist approach
moves away from analysis of stereotyping or bias-that presupposes some fixed,
objective meaning to an analysis of the institutional forces or systems that
use representations to construct and maintain their own ideological agendas.
He therefore focuses attention on the "systems of representations"
that work to create certain cultural meanings through media texts to demonstrate
that certain practices are "natural" or "common sensical."
As he notes: "A key in the study of representation concern is with the
way in which representations are made to seem 'natural'. Systems of representation
are the means by which the concerns of ideologies are framed; such systems 'position'
their subjects."
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/TF33320/represent.html
One example of systems of representations are the ways in which museums portray cultures, representations assumed to be "scientific." During the 19th and early 20th century, European and American museums often exhibited "other" cultures in as inferior, primitive, or exotic. These exhibits reflected a Western political and ideological perspective of colonized sections of the world (Lidchi, 1997). For example, an exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair portrayed the Igorots, a Philippine tribe, as purchasing and eating dog meat, a representation that only served to portray them as "primitive" or "savage" (Lidchi, 1997, p. 196).
Media representations and cultural models. Hall also argues that representations reflect cultural values. He notes that cultures serve ways of making sense of the world. For example, they provide us with "maps of meaning" or frameworks for classifying the world according to some hierarchical value system-what is most versus least valued; who has power and who does not; what practices are or are not condoned or sanctioned. These "maps of meaning" or cultural models serve to order people's lives. As Gee (2001) notes:
Cultural models tell people what is typical or normal from the perspective of
a particular
Discourse…[they] come out of and, in turn, inform the social practices
in which people of a
Discourse engage. Cultural models are stored in people's minds (by no means
always
consciously), though they are supplemented and instantiated in the objects,
texts, and
practices that are part and parcel of the Discourse (p. 720).
For example, value stances towards social practices in schools ultimately reflect
cultural models. Much of American schooling revolves around cultural models
of "individualism" associated with middle-class values (Bellah, Madsen,
Sullivan, Swidler, & Tipton, 1985). Within a middle-class value system,
the individual is assumed to be ideally able to act on their own without dependency
on institutional support. Being a complete individual equated with being independent
from constraints or forces, while being an incomplete individual is equated
with being dependent on institutions (Hyung-Jin, 2001). Within schooling, the
ability to act on one's own or being self-disciplined is highly valued in school
as a marker of individuality; lack of "self-discipline" is equated
with an inability to "control one's self" and one's emotions. Emotional
expression/outbursts are perceived as problematic and as needed to be controlled
(Hyang-Jin, 2001).
Representations and discourses. As noted in Module 4 on critical discourse analysis,
media texts represent experiences in terms of various discourses constituting
meaning. Again, discourses are ways of knowing or thinking based on, for example,
scientific, legal, religious, sociological, economic, political, psychological
orientations. Museums represented colonized cultures in terms of the discourses
of "Orientalism" reflecting a Western ideological position (Said,
1978). In studying representations, students attempt to identify the various
discourses shaping the representations of particular groups, communities, experiences,
or phenomenon. These discourses reflect the economic, political, and ideological
agendas of institutions, corporations, communities, or political organizations.
For example, as noted below, students may examine how the beauty industry employs
discourses of gender to define the ideal female body weight as slim consistent
with the discourses of femininity, popularity, and appearance. By identifying
these various discourses, students can then examine the institutions constructing
representations through the use of these discourses.