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Representation David Chandler
Representation David Chandler
03/17/2006 03:01 PM
Media Semiotics
Daniel Chandler
Media Representation
Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of reality such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures. The term refers to the processes involved as well as to its products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity - Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity (the 'cage' of identity) - representation involves not only how identities are represented (or rather constructed) within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people whose identities are also differentially marked in relation to such demographic factors. Consider, for instance, the issue of 'the gaze'. How do men look at images of women, women at men, men at men and women at women?
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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. Semiotics and content analysis (quantitative) are the main methods of formal analysis of representation. Semiotics foregrounds the process of representation. Reality is always represented - what we treat as 'direct' experience is 'mediated' by perceptual codes. Representation always involves 'the construction of reality'. All texts, however 'realistic' they may seem to be, are constructed representations rather than simply transparent 'reflections', recordings, transcriptions or reproductions of a pre-existing reality. Representations which become familiar through constant re-use come to feel 'natural' and unmediated. Representations require interpretation - we make modality judgements about them. Representation is unavoidably selective, foregrounding some things and backgrounding others. Realists focus on the 'correspondence' of representations to 'objective' reality (in terms of 'truth', 'accuracy' and 'distortion'), whereas constructivists focus on whose realities are being represented and
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whose are being denied. Both structuralist and poststructuralist theories lead to 'reality' and 'truth' being regarded as the products of particular systems of representation - every representation is motivated and historically contingent.
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representations of class because of the contradictions which involve a mass medium attempting to reach all the parts of its class-differentiated audience simultaneously... Its representations of class can perhaps best be approached by teaching how class relations are represented and mediated within different TV genres and forms (Alvarado et al. 1987: 153)
References
Alvarado, Manuel, Robin Gutch & Tana Wollen (1987): Learning the Media. London: Macmillan Diawara, Manthia (1998): 'Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance'. In Leo Braudy & Marshall Cohen (Eds): Film Theory and Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 84554 Dines, Gail & Jean M Humez (Eds.) (1994): Gender, Race and Class in Media. Newbury Park: Sage Dyer, Richard (Ed.) (1977): Gays and Film. London: British Film Institute Dyer, Richard (1990): Now You See It: Studies on Lesbian and Gay Film. London: Routledge
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Dyer, Richard (1993): The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation. London: Routledge Dyer, Richard (1997): White. London: Routledge Dyer, Richard (2000): 'White'. In Robert Stam & Roby Miller (Eds): Film and Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 733-51 Ferguson, Robert (1998): Representing Race: Ideology, Identity and the Media. Oxford: Oxford University Press Friedman, Lester (Ed) (1991): Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema. Urbana: University of Illinois Press Gaines, Jane (2000): 'White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory'. In In Robert Stam & Roby Miller (Eds): Film and Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 715-32 Gunter, Barrie (1995): Television and Gender Representation. London: John Libbey Hall, Stuart (1997): Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Hall, Stuart (2000): 'Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation'. In Robert Stam & Roby Miller (Eds): Film and Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 704-14 hooks, bell (1992): Black Looks: Race and Representation. London: Turnaround Macdonald, Myra (1995): Representing Women. London: Arnold Neale, Steve (1993): 'The Same Old Story: Stereotypes and Difference'. In Manuel Alvarado, Edward Buscombe & Richard Collins (Eds): The Screen Education Reader. London: Macmillan, pp. 41-7 Nichols, Bill (1981): Ideology and the Image : Social Representation in the Cinema and Other Media. Bloomington: Indiana University Press Russo, Vito (1987): The Celluloid Closet : Homosexuality in the Movies. New York: HarperCollins [highly recommended - there's also an extremely useful video of the same title which is based on this book and includes lots of clips from mainstream movies] Stam, Robert & Louise Spence (1985): 'Colonialism, Racism and Representation'. In Bill Nichols (Ed): Movies and Methods, Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California Press Tagg, John (1988): The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories. Basingstoke: Macmillan Threadgold, Terry & Anne Cranny-Francis (Eds): Feminine, Masculine and Representation. Sydney: Allen & Unwin
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