Representation blog task

1) Why is representation an important concept in Media Studies?

Depending on what you would like to convey, you might need to consider representations to simplify or to suggest that the world has moved on. We use historical, social and cultural contexts to justify the uses for our own choices to represent an individual or group in a specific way.

2) How does the example of Kate Middleton show the way different meanings can be created in the media?

The British media love to talk about the patriotic royal family. When Meghan Markle married into the family in 2018, the media despised her simply for the fact that she was American and not British. This is a stark contrast to Kate. The public praises her and reveres Kate as a caring yet strong person. The historical context could be that British media prefers things closer to home, the social can be that Harry is marrying a member of public/ not a member of nobility. This is different to the photo. The picture where she has the glass of wine in her hand, shows and represents Kate as perhaps, an alcoholic maniac. This is an alternate representation of the Royal Family as they are people who are posh and reserved and Kate is being discreet yet very obvious here.

3) Summarise the section 'The how, who and why of media representation' in 50 words.

When implementing representation into media texts, producers need to consider a few things: the expectations and the needs of the target audience, the limitations provided by genre codes and their institutional remit. 

All representations are made up of strands of media choices. Different representations can be used to convey different ideas and the naturalisation of these ideas, as suggested by Barthes,  hide ideologies from common views.
4) How does Stuart Hall's theory of preferred and oppositional readings fit with representation?

The alternative and dominant representations could be seen as a key of distinguishing whether things agree with stereotypes or not. Hall's theory could suggest that the Preferred meaning is the dominant suggestion as the producer likes to use dominant representation as a shorthand to convey a lot of info in a short space of time and they like using preferred as that is what they intended to display. The same can be said for alternative representation, this is similar to the oppositional meaning where a media etxt can defy stereotypes and challenge the 'typical' intended view of the producer.
5) How has new technology changed the way representations are created in the media?

Social media has taken rapid growth in the last few years and with that, more and more opinion leader who influence 'social change' have found a platform to persuade an unprecedented amount of impressionable people. These accounts can be used to positively or negatively represent a particular group 

6) What example is provided of how national identity is represented in Britain - and how some audiences use social media to challenge this?

The Sun sent 22 million newspapers to households across the UK. This represented its own concepts of ‘Englishness’ by symbolic references – queuing, the Sunday roast, Churchill and The Queen – to heroes, values and behaviours that the paper (and its owners, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corps) defined as appropriate expressions of ‘English identity’.

However, social media forums and comment pages allowed many people to voice their rejection of the messages.Through self representation, they were able to show that they distanced themselves from the values in the tabloid newspaper.


7) Finally, think about this week's representation theories. Watch the trailer for classic action movie Taken and write an analysis of the representation of people, places and groups in the trailer using terminology and theories you have learned this week:

A British working class family's holiday used to be in Blackpool but now is in Spain, this is an evident use of Perkins' theory as the representation changes over time. This is linked wth the film as the daughter gets taken in Paris.

The kidnappers become represented as cruel and evil entities who disgust the viewer. Neeson's 'set of skills' are displayed in this short snippet and the actir is represented as violent yet calculated. This agrees with with the dominant stereotypes that Americans are violent.

Mulvey's theory can be applied here as well due to the fact it is the WOMAN who gets taken, implying that the media states that a MALE must come save her.

We can also apply Dyer's theory as thr portrayal of EasternEuropeans are seen as enemies show that those who have more power are more likely to enforce stereotypes and the less powerful are more likely to follow and agree with that stereotype.