A2 Exam Q1b

RepresentationHow the media shows us things about society through careful mediation of

representing a shared view of the world.

• Gender• Age• Nationality• Sexuality• Locations• Genres

What different representations could we consider?

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Q. Who or what is represented in your coursework?

Representations Positive or negative

How is this constructed?(specific evidence)

Title sequence Men Negative (serial killer)

• Over the shoulder shot.

• Fast pace editing to create enigma codes.

• Costume – dark, blood stained

Women Negative (victim)

• Close up of eyes (crying – connotes fear and upset).

Music video

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Stuart Hall

In our modern world our life is saturated with visual representations

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Ferdinand de Saussure - Semiotics

• Meaning is constructed through the interpretation of signs.– Signifier = the physical/visual object i.e. A

knife– Signified = the meaning it creates i.e.

Threat, aggression, violence/self-defence and protection

• Representations are created through signs which signify meaning. Like the knife, signs can have more than one meaning leading to a polysemic reading of signs

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Richard DyerStereotypes

• Stereotype (first used as a term by Walter Lippmann in 1956)

• Has come to be defined as a negative representation or over-simplification of a category of people in a group

• Dyer explains that stereotypes reinforce ideas of differences between people which are natural – i.e. Criminals are represented as low-lifes, untrustworthy...

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Counter argument – Tessa Perkins (1979)

• Stereotypes are not always negative• Are not always about minority groups• Stereotypes are not always false

• Apply this to your characters in your films – E.g. What social group(s) do your characters belong

to? How is this made clear? – What age group do your characters belong to (e.g.

Nervous, unsure teenagers...)

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Counter Argument – David Gauntlett and Martin Barker

• Identities are not given but are constructed and negotiated (Gauntlett)

• Martin Barker condemned stereotypes for mis-representing the real world by reinforcing false stereotypes

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Baudrillard • Postmodern theorist• Argues that representations no longer refer to reality or real things• The representation has become more real to us than the reality – i.e. The

representation of mob bosses as Italian Mafia men instilled through The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Sopranos

• This is re-presentation of reality is termed a simulacrum – a copy of reality• For Baudrillard, these images have become hyperreal – have no

relationship to the real. CSI and Silent Witness as examples of forensic science investigations that through their popularity seem to typify our perception of what that reality is like

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