Representations are images, sounds or combinations that stand in for reality. Early forms of representation date back 32,000 years, showing an intrinsic human urge. Representations can be stereotypical or counter stereotypical, conforming to or challenging dominant ideologies. Theories suggest representations are how societies understand themselves and construct shared realities and identities, though some argue they are manipulated by those in power to maintain the status quo.

1. R is for
REPRESENTATION

2. The Treachery of Images

3. REPRESENTATION
Definition:
(Simple…ish) Image, sound or combination of the two
that stands in for reality.
(More Complicated) A series of signs and symbols that
convey an idea – often suggesting a value or ideal.
(Really Complicated) As postmodern criticism
emerged, the line between reality and representation
has blurred so that representation replaces.
(See Baudrillard)

4. REPRESENTATION
The earliest forms of figurative
representation date back as far as
32,000 years.
It seems that making
representations of reality has some
intrinsic value or fulfils some
essential urge within human beings.
Spoken language is itself a form of
representation.

5. REPRESENTATION
One of the oldest rock
carvings (25 – 30
thousand years old)
clearly depicts the female
form, but there is
obviously more meaning
within this representation
than simple face value
(pun intended).

6. REPRESENTATION
Key Words
Class
Age
Gender
Ethnicity
Disability
Sexuality
Regional
Identity

7. REPRESENTATION
Key Words
Stereotype
A commonly held belief about a person, group of people, place or thing.
Archetype
The perfect example, or original example of something. May be where
the stereotype comes from.
Countertype
A representation that suggests ideas that go against the stereotype.

8. REPRESENTATION
Key Words
Positive
A representation that attempts to suggest something good
about the thing being represented.
Negative
A representation that suggests something bad about the
thing being represented.
Neutral
A representation that attempts to place no specific value on
the thing being represented.

9. REPRESENTATION
Key Words
Radical
Breaking down stereotypes
Reactionary
Conforming to stereotypes/Old fashioned
Realistic
Attempting to present things as they are

10. REPRESENTATION
Key Words
Hegemonic
Representations that help to define or more
often maintain the dominant ideology are
called hegemonic.
Pluralistic
Representations that challenge the
hegemonic perspective.

11. REPRESENTATION
Key Words
Positioning
Preferred Reading
Negotiated Reading
Oppositional Reading
Alternative Reading

12. REPRESENTATION
Key Words
Diegesis
Narrative World
Verisimiltude
True to the rules of the Narrative World
Constructed Reality
Each member of the audience takes part in
their own construction of the narrative reality

13. THEORISTS
KARL MARX - MARXISM
(Cultural Hegemony)
The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch
the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling
material force of society, is at the same time its
ruling intellectual force. The class which has the
means of material production at its disposal, has
control at the same time over the means of
mental production, so that thereby, generally
speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means
of mental production are subject to it.

14. MARXIST MEDIA THEORY (In a nutshell):
The people who own the media and decide
upon its output, control the ideas that are being
presented to the general population and
therefore control their ideology
(beliefs/values/morals). This is how Hegemony
(The Dominant Ideology) is constructed, by
presenting representations that conform to the
ideology of the ruling class and by suppressing
(either consciously or subconsciously) those
that don’t conform to the dominant ideology.

15. THEORISTS
MULVEY (Feminist Reading)
The Male Gaze:
‘In a world ordered by sexual imbalance,
pleasure in looking has been split between
active /male and passive/female. The
determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto
the female figure which is styled accordingly’

16. In a nutshell:
In a nutshell:
The patriarchal (male dominated) control of the
media and representation for thousands of
years means that everyone looks at gender (in
particular women) the way that men look at
gender. Therefore women tend to be objectified
and men are generally dealt with in a more
multi facetted way or presented as strong and
capable.

17. OBJECTIFICATION EXAMPLES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdjG-clD81A
Look at these examples of women
being objectified. Can you imagine
representations of men being
presented in this way?
Consider the result of constant
objectification of women on the
audience (male and female).

18. THEORISTS
WALTER LIPMANN
(Stereotypes and social cohesion)
“The systems of stereotypes may be the core of our
personal tradition, the defenses of our position in
society. They are an ordered more or less consistent
picture of the world, to which our habits, our tastes,
our capacities, our comforts and our hopes have
adjusted themselves. They may not be a complete
picture of the world, but they are a picture of a
possible world to which we are adapted. In that
world, people and things have their well-known
places, and do certain expected things. We feel at
home there. We fit in. We are members.”

19. THEORISTS
WALTER LIPMANN (continued)
“It is not merely a short cut. It is all these
things and something more. It is the
guarantee of our self-respect; it is the
projection upon the world of our own sense
or our own value, our own position, and our
own rights. [...] They are the fortress of our
traditions, and behind its defenses we can
continue to feel ourselves safe in the
position we occupy.”

20. THEORISTS
WALTER LIPMANN (In a nutshell)
Unlike Mulvey and Marx, both of whom seem to be
suggesting something manipulative and overpowering
about representations, Lipmann remains fairly neutral
about them, instead concentrating on the way that they
are used by human beings to define both their ideas
about reality and their place in it. This may be very good,
very bad, or anything in between. He seems also to be
suggesting that they are not just a simplistic and
arguably lazy tool for conveying ideas, rather that they
are an essential feature of human interaction with the
world.

21. THEORISTS
RICHARD DYER (On Stereotypes)
“it is nor stereotypes, as an aspect of human thought and
representation, that are wrong, but who controls and
defines them, what interests they serve,”
“the use of stereotypes, has to be acknowledged as a
necessary, indeed inescapable, part of the way societies
make sense of themselves, and hence actually make and
reproduce themselves,”
“an agreement about a social group, as if that agreement
arose independently of, the stereotype. Yet for the most
part it is from the stereotype that we got our ideas about
social groups,”

22. THEORISTS
RICHARD DYER (In a nutshell)
Dyer seems to be largely in agreement with Lipmann
that societies need stereotypes to confirm social order
and solidify group ideology, or at least that this is their
function. However, he seems more cautionary,
suggesting that literate audiences should think more
carefully about the political agenda of the person or
organisation making the representation because this
will inevitably bias the representation. It is also
important to note that Dyer suggests that it is not just
characters and how they look/sound etc. that creates
stereotypes but also that narratives can be
stereotypical too, shaping our ideas about love,
honesty, justice etc.

23. THEORISTS
RICHARD DYER (continued)
Dyer’s work on social groups and stereotypes is really
interesting. You may wish to inform yourself about
some of his work on race, gender and sexuality.
Three particularly good essays of his are:
Dyer, Richard. The Matter of Images: Essays on
Representation. London: Routledge, 1993.
Dyer, Richard. White: Essays on Race and Culture.
London: Routledge, 1997.
Dyer, Richard. The Culture of Queers. London:
Routledge, 2002.

24. THEORISTS
BAUDRILLARD
The Four Phases of Images:
The image is the reflection of a basic reality;
The image masks and perverts a basic reality;
The image masks the absence of a basic reality;
The image bears no relation to any reality
whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum

25. THEORISTS
BAUDRILLARD (An attempt at a nutshell)
Baudrillard’s ideas are not easy to define. But, I think that he is
suggesting that the saturation of media representation means
that media audiences have come to believe in a version of reality
that doesn’t actually exist. He seems to suggest that the ideology
of audiences has been so radically shaped by the bombardment
of images that we have come to think reality is the way it is
shown to be, when this representation we have come to accept
is actually none existent. It is wise to think of this in more political
rather than literal terms. For example, Baudrillard is more
interested in concepts like terrorism and how it is represented
than he is with concrete things like trees.

26. REPRESENTATION
ANALYSIS