1. To represent something is to describe or depict it, to call it up in the mind by description or portrayal…..; to place a likeness of it before us in our mind.
2. To represent also means to symbolise, stand for, to be a specimen of or to substitute for; as in the sentence, “In Christianity, the cross represents the suffering and crucifixion of Christ."
In Media Studies - i believe that representation is used all the time. 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.
Below are some of the key concepts of identity that are represented in the media:
- Social class systems
- Race
- Sexuality
- Genders
- Age
Representation involves not only how identities are represented within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people in reality whose identities are also different. For instance; the issue of the 'male gaze'.
A theory of film spectatorship derived from psychoalalysis and formalised byLaura Mulvey in her essay, 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', 1975. Mulvey argues that film reproduces the sexual imbalance that obtains in real life by objectifying female chracters and presentig them as spectacle. Thus the 'gaze' of the film is inherently masculine and incontrast to reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment