MIT Week 8

Representation and Identity: Race and Ethnicity

 Representation is a crucial concept in media studies. Learning how to analyze
representation in media is a critical skill for understanding how what we see and hear in
media texts informs our beliefs about ethnic and racial groups, class, sexuality, ability,
age, and other aspects of identity as well as who and what has cultural power and who
and what does not. Who, what, how, when, why, and where people, groups, and issues
are represented by and in media has a profound impact upon cultural commonsense.
 Systems of Representation analysis of representation employs some of the same types
of concepts as semiotic analysis. How racial group or genders, for example, are
represented in media texts circulate, repeat, and reinforce what a semiotician would call
connotative meanings about the racial groups or ethnicities portrayed. Media, in fact,
provides many people with their only knowledge about racial or ethnic groups. By
repetition, often over decades and different media technologies, what are constructions
or fabrications become normalized, perceive as reflecting reality. When we speak of
representation, we are not referring to random collections of images, portrayals and
concepts, but of systems who component are organized, arranged, and classified into
complex relationships with each other. Those who are members of the same culture can
communicate with each other because we share these systems – or conceptual maps.
These conceptual maps contribute to cultural commonsense. Media is one of the key
contributors to these maps.
 Media representations:
o Reflect the social, cultural, industrial, political, and historical contexts of their
productions and dissemination. They reflect and/or engage with dominant
cultural power. Remember, power as I use it here is the power of ideas, not the
power of force.
o Can become cultural commonsense.
o Influence our beliefs about social groups and identities.
o Are essential to how meaning is produced and circulated in a given culture.
o Change over time.
 Media representations stand in for reality – what we see, hear, read about, listen to,
and more seems and sometimes feels “real” to us, especially if we look like most of the
people we see on screen. If you are white, what you see in media texts might seem very
normal. If you’re not white, you may have a different point of view, or not see yourself
at all. Media producers like to say that they give people what they want, or that they
mirror reality. How people places, things, ideas, etc. are represented by media are
stand-ins for reality. They are not reality. Media texts present a “reality” that is carefully
constructed in the interest of dominant ideologies, especially capitalism and
consumerism. Media representations stand for more than what we see on the surface.
Think, for example, of the way that certain issues are represented. “Political
 correctness,” for example, becomes a stand-in for censorship by the left, as opposed to
respect for people and cultures that are different from you. African Americans are often
represented as buffoons or thugs, Mexicans are also dehumanized, cast as murdered or
drug dealers. Think about how Muslims are represented by media, especially film,
television, and games, and how that carries over into political discourse.
 Representation is the result of choices – representations are never accurate in their
deception. They are the result of choices. Those choices are motivated by the things
we’re studied so far this semester – and more. For example, American network
television is 100% commercial. Premium streaming channels rely upon subscriptions.
The audiences for both are upper-middle-class white people who are perceive by the
industry and the conglomerates that comprise it as having more disposable income so
that they can buy the advertised products or afford several increasingly expensive
streaming channels. In the case of network TV, age counts too – the most desirable
audiences are white, aged 25-54. That is, they’re in their prime money-making and
spending years, often raising families and spending lots of money on the types of tings
advertised on television. This is reflected in the how shows are conceive, cast, and
written, among other things.
 Representations reflect embedded structures – how things and ideas are represented
in and by media are profoundly affected by who is creating the representation. For
example, who is writing scripts? Who chooses the story to foreground in the news, or
how to present it? As asserted in the previous slide, institutional structures in the
entertainment industry, for example, have resulted in writer’s rooms full of white
people, white men to be specific. We’ll come back to this.
 Example: Racism and Exclusion
o Racial difference is a cultural construct
o Historical representation of non-white people informs present representation
o Based on long history of slavery and imperialism
o Most recently: uptick in White Supremacy (led to destructive white nationalism,
ex. The Wall).
o Leads to rise in white ethno-nationalism in US, UK, Europe.
o Perceive as “clash of cultures” by some
o Can’t share territory, can’t live together
 Representation and Identities
o Identity
 Race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, age, ability, religion, nationality,
region
 Representation vs. Stereotypes
o It’s easy to confuse or conflate representation and stereotypes. It’s easy to do.
Representations of social groups, especially minority groups – not only racial and
ethnic minorities but cultural minorities and the less powerful in society – often
draw upon or repeat stereotypes embedded in a system of representation. Some
stereotype has been repeated so often that they have come to represent “the
 truth”. But they are far from it. Representations sometimes draw upon and
repeat stereotypes, but they are not the same thing.
 What’s a Stereotype?
o Often negative way of portraying subordinate groups in society
o Little connection to lived experience of stereotype group
o Often pre-date modern media
o Circulate by media
o Often used as “shorthand” for narrative purposes
 Analyzing Representation – representation is not restricted to the visual realm.
 Identity and the Media
o Media conveys ideas and gives them weight
o We see the same images and representations again and again
o Media relies heavily on genres, conventions and stereotypes
o The more certain images are repeated, the more “natural” they seem
 Pitfalls of Positive Representations
o Misrepresentation (in one part or the media a group is portrayed positively but
then the same group is also portrayed negatively elsewhere)
o Tokenism (including just one member of a minority group in order to give the
appearance of diversity)
o “Burden of Representation” (when a single individual is made to stand in for her
entire race, ethnic, national group).
 Important questions to ask
o Who or what isn’t represented?
o Who put word in the character’s mouths?
o Who speaks and who is spoken for?
o Whose point of view is represented?
o Why are some characters fleshed out and other are stereotypes?
o What choices are made by behind-the-scene workers?
 Pitfalls of Diversity in Numbers
o Another thing to think about is diversity. What is diversity? Is it merely umbers
or the presence of different races and ethnicities? Or is it portraying members of
different races and ethnicities with sensitivity to their life experience, that is, the
life experience of the characters, which may be different than those of white
characters.
 Casting
o Once again, casting is part of the problem. At the same time, casting agents have
to follow the instructions given to them by the producers for whom they’re
working.
o 20-25% of minorities show up in speaking roles on TV. (any non-white)
o Progress is being made. It’s slow but better than it was just a few years ago.
Movements like #blacklivesmatter and #oscarssowhite have drawn attention to
Hollywood’s problem with diversity and representation.