When we talk about representation, we are talking about how people, things, places, religions, nationalities - or whatever - are shown in the Media. It's one of the most studied topics in Media Studies and engaging with it can open our eyes to how the Media works, how society is structured and how we ourselves form ideas about the world.
Denotation= The first level of analysis. Refers to something literal.
Connotation= What all the things actually means to the viewer, Basically the representation being constructed.
Dominant Representation= A representation that is repeated throughout the media.
Take a look at this 50 cent Poster:
We can see that 50 cent is muscular and shirtless, we can see his muscles clearly. he is black.
it is in a city during a late night.
He is wearing a bandanna and two Christian crosses hanging from two different necklaces.
he is holding a gun towards the front aiming at us, his eyes are also looking directly at us.
The biggest part of the picture is 50 cent himself.
there is single point lighting coming from the left side creating shadows.
He is wearing a holster.
His stance and his expression are very menacing.
His cheekbones have light shining on them.
Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze (1970s) Theory (Gender):
The theory suggests that the male gaze denies women human identity, relegating them to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance.
This theory also suggests women can more often than not only watch a film from a secondary perspective and only view themselves from a male perspective.
The problem with all of this is that it can lead to artificial beliefs about what women are 'supposed' to be like - if we accept that the media affects the way we think and view to world, then we probably need to be aware that representations are not real; they are artificial constructs and we need to understand that we do not need to live up (or down) to them. In many places, this is regarded as a very real danger; in France, for example, extremely thin models are no longer allowed to work. The focus has been on women so far, but as times change, it should be noted that men are increasingly feeling the same pressures to look a certain way and match a certain ideal of masculinity. Again, it is largely based on artifice and it has been said that a recent rise in eating disorders among men might be related to these relatively new representation.
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Alternative representations often pass into the mainstream and become dominant. For example, several years ago it became more common to start representing women as both sexually attractive and confident and dominant. This reflects changes in the ways society thinks about femininity (when we study and discuss how the media reflects social change, we call it, unimaginatively, (REFLECTION THEORY.) Bands like The Spice Girls were completely based on this new idea. They called it 'Girl Power', Media students call it POST FEMINISM.
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Post feminism:
Three waves of feminism:
1st Wave: Suffragettes in the early 20th century
2nd Wave: Seventies (1970s), Laura Mulvey
3rd Wave: Post-feminists (21st Century)
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Richard Dyer's Star Theory:
Richard Dyer's Star Theory is the chief idea about the way famous people are represented. Dyer's idea was that "stars" are not "real people" so much as they are texts, constructed by institutions, designed to appeal to audiences. That is, there is such a person as Justin Bieber, but the person we see as Justin Bieber (Bratty, rebellious etc.) is almost 100% a invention by the company in control of justin bieber. We do not know and have never known the "real" Bieber.. He is then, a representation.
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With this idea in mind, we might use it to approach texts like that on the left. When Bieber's career started, he was represented as a young, innocent "heartthrob". A Everything in his style, his behavior, music and his way of life.
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Star Persona:
The carefully built persona that is constructed by many people. Many people keep the star persona going to give it to the media for it to sell this persona.
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For example: Ariana Grande is a made up persona. There is a person called Ariana Grande but the media and the public doesn't really know her. The song, the music, even every little detail is made by a team. That team are the only people who knows the real her. Her image is what the people buy into. Typically the music video is just as if not more important than the song itself. The public is normally more interested in the image than the song, if you take out the song/music, people will still be interested in the image. However if you take out the image, people won't be interested in the song/music.
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THE SONG Does not matter, the image does.
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Now that's.......Richard Dyer's Star Theory..
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The Kardashians: They are famous for nothing, a team creates their personas. The arguments they have are fake, no one has actually argued, we are seeing fake relationships.
Drake and Pusha T are having a slow burning feud (At the moment I am writing this), but it's again fake. They are adult men, they are not arguing, their teams are creating this argument, this scenario & this relationship.
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Finally, a wake up call for everyone:
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THE MEDIA CREATES FAKE PERSONAS & lies, everything is a manifestation, everything is fake.