CRAIL Media Representation

 Representation 

Represent: to show or describe people, places and events  

Representation: the result of the above  

Class 

Age  

Gender 

Ethnicity  

Disability  

Often these caged representations are useful starting points for analyzing media messages (note they do not include sexuality, religion, regional identity, or education). 

Representations work by enforcing or reinforcing stereotypes 

  1. A stereotype is a characterization of an individual or group that has certain features, they can be positive or negative, but they are often generalized and inaccurate   

  1. Barthes, the creator of semiotics, the study of signs, suggests that the values attributed to these stereotypes are not real. 

  1. Middle class, educated, white men will always be seen in a positive light in comparison to teenage boys, blonde women or Muslim asylum seekers  

 

The producers of these stories have made a decision to represent their stories in certain ways 

  • They have considered how their target audience will think about the stories  

  • They shaped their reporting to reflect a political agenda eg criticise political correctness  

  • They could have not reported it, producers can omit or include a story, to support an ideology. Eg an anti-immigrant producer could heavily feature a terrorist attack committed by an immigrant ,whilst a supporter of immigration may not feature the story at all 

Stuart Hall – representation Theory 

  • Born in colonial Jamaica 

  • Educated in Oxford  

  • Race, gender, class, ethnicity and religion  

  • How media presents people in a particular way 

  • Hidden in mass media is ideology  

  • The racialization of criminals, the othering of immigrants, the poor etc  

  • The media is an active agent of this, they empower these messages in a certain way  

  • Some may accept the message, some negotiate the message and some will completely reject it 

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