Media products represent ‘reality’ from a particular point of view through any news story on television, the web or in print. 

Representations are a reflection/distortion of reality and there is to debate notions of a ‘true meaning’. 

Are meanings constructed by the audience? or the media product producer? 

What is the theory?

Stuart Hall’s REPRESENTATION theory is that there is not a true representation of people or events in a text, but there are lots of ways these can be represented. So, producers try to ‘fix’ a meaning (or way of understanding) people or events in their texts/media products.

What is the more advanced version?

Representation is not about whether the media reflects or distorts reality, as this implies that there can be one ‘true’ meaning, but the many meanings a representation can generate. Meaning is constituted by representation, by what is present, what is absent, and what is different. Thus, meaning can be contested.

A representation implicates the audience in creating its meaning. 

Power – through ideology or by stereotyping – tries to fix the meaning of a representation in a ‘preferred meaning’. To create deliberate anti-stereotypes is still to attempt to fix the meaning (albeit in a different way). A more effective strategy is to go inside the stereotype and open it up from within, to deconstruct the work of representation.

Where can I use it?

Any time a producer of a text/media product tries to ‘fix’ a meaning of a person or event – this will usually reveal viewpoints and bias (political or otherwise) – usually newspapers attempt to demonise groups of people. 

However, anti-stereotypical representations also try to fix meanings too – so these groups of people who were demonised in some papers might be presented as heroic in others.

How have the papers attempted to fix different meanings and how does this reveal their bias (political, gender)? 

The following caption appeared on the Daily Mirror Website underneath the pictures of the North Korean leader.

North Korea fires deadly missile hitting target 1000 miles away.

How might putting a different caption on these images change the representation?

North Korea developing Alien defence system to help keep the world safe.

Summary

Hall’s work on the ‘effects and consequences’ of representation can be used as a framework to consider that meaning is never fixed but is a process of negotiation between the audience and the producer. 

Meaning does not exist outside of representation. 

Different meanings can be constructed, depending on how you identify with the representations being depicted. 

What extent can meaning be fixed or naturalised? 

Stereotyping involves a number of processes. 

Many of the debates and critical approaches to representation focus upon stereotypes, which, according to Dyer (1979), involve a number of processes: 

1. The complexity and variety of a group is reduced to few characteristics. 

2. An exaggerated version of these characteristics is applied to everyone in the group as if they are an essential element of all members of the social group

3.  These characteristics are represented in the media through media language. 

– Dyer (1979) suggested that stereotypes are always about power - those with power stereotype those with less power.

 – Hence he argued there were more recognisable stereotypes of gay men, non-white racial groups, the working class and women in society, and alternatively it was perhaps not so easy to point to media stereotypes of white, middle class, heterosexual men.  

Dyer wrote about gay stereotypes nearly 30 years ago and there is much debate about the extent to which the representation of this group has shifted since then.

– Stereotyping can be seen to exaggerate difference and in doing so may increase tensions between groups 

– A problem with the media’s use of stereotypes is its selectivity , as it conveys values and assumptions that may help construct the audience’s perception of the world and consequently their behaviour 

– It is important to note that the media does not invent stereotypes, but by repeatedly using them, media can be accused of reinforcing certain values and assumptions

Investigate a stereotypical character in a tv programme/file. How has this stereotype been developed. What is used to create this representation. ]#

Why are stereotypes used within media products?

Allows the audience to make quick judgements about the character based on cultural references.

Can communicate complex information about a character more quickly

Can invoke a positive or negative response from the audience depending on the character used

Stereotypes can be based on: 

o Appearance 

o Attitude 

o Behaviour 

o Social constructs  

Allows the narrative to move more quickly as the audience will be familiar with character type 

The use of stereotypes within the media industry offers a shortcut to the audience as to the character’s personality. 

Stereotypes make characters easy to recognise and relate to, which negates the need to provide a complex back story for each character. 

Stereotypes are often used for comic effect. 

Stereotypes contain a number of positive and negative traits that form the overall character type, these have been used so often within media texts they are immediately identifiable.

Stereotypes can be subverted in order to surprise the audience and add more texture to the character. 

Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory The theory [which was developed from film, but can be expanded to all media forms] suggests that women in film are typically objects of the male gaze which highlights that women on screen are seen primarily as the objects of desire. A male may see only the ‘sexier’ aspects of the female representation. Women may look at themselves in a negative way, picking fault with parts of their appearance when they see how women look in the media. 

Laura Mulvey states that ’the gender power asymmetry is a controlling force in cinema and constructed for the pleasure of the male viewer, which is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies and discourses.’ Women are often objectified within media texts; they are often viewed as sexual objects or stereotyped. The male gaze consists of three perspectives.  

The perspective of the person behind the camera. 

The perspective of the characters within the representation or film itself.  

The perspective of the viewer/audience. 

Women are often viewed in an erotic manner and objectified, the camera will focus on the sexualisation of the character both in the eyes of the audience and other characters within the text. 

How did Coca Cola make use of the gaze theory in their popular advertisements in the 1990s?

Simplified

​1.Women are filmed and framed by the camera in a way

that objectifies them sexually.

2.Women are sexualised!

3.Costume also objectifies women in the frame.

4.This is done to satisfy a ‘male’ audience and male producers

5.Women are shot from a ‘male point-of-view’ as if the camera is a man observing a woman. 

o representations as a construction to be seen from a certain vantage point (the ‘gaze’) 

o audience and spectator positioning (to identify or alienate) 

o assumed identity of the audience 

o voyeurism, scopophilia and exhibitionism. 

 Please read this website :https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486#:~:text=Mulvey%20argued%20that%20most%20popular,women%20for%20a%20male%20viewer.

There are other gaze types which are commonly used.

the spectator’s gaze (the gaze of the viewer at a character in the scene),

the intra-diegetic gaze (the gaze of one character at another), 

the direct gaze (a character looking out at the viewer) and 

the look of the camera (the way the camera itself looks at a character). 

Audience Positioning

Preferred Reading: When the audience accepts the dominant reading of the text. This is usually when the text reflects the ideas and beliefs oif the audience.

Oppositional Reading: When someone makes a conscious rejection or subversion of the preferred meaning.

Negotiated Readings: When someone understands the meaning but it is of no interest to them as it does not relate to them.