Post 6: Representation Theory

Representation is a key concept in media studies. In media there are representations of things such as social groups, gender, age, class and race. Through media texts representations are portrayed and these are very important because these groups have to be portrayed in a careful way. 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. 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.

This is a diagram to show how the process of showing representations are constructed.

The main idea about representation is its concern 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 is a main concept in analysing representation. Semiotics was the idea that you can read signs given within a piece of media text. The sign is given through a representation of something and has a meaning behind it and an example of this may be a really expensive car may represent the class of someone and this representation immediately tells us something about the character before we have been introduced to the character. Semiotics are a main method to use with representations because it informs the audience of the representation of the character in which they are trying to portray without giving the audience anymore information.


In class we have studied short films and we looked at different ones to try and identify the representations which were being portrayed throughout the short film. We watched the same clip over again to see if we could recognise all of the representations within the short film.

To get an angle on representation we looked at a clip from the TV drama Doctor Who. We watched the same clip more than once to try and identify all of the representations shown throughout the clip. In this clip

the representations are very clear to see because within the first few seconds of the clip it shows the Doctor giving the lady instructions to follow straight away and this represents the idea of male dominance over women. Also shown in this part is the age representation because the man is older than the woman so he feels that he is more superior to her and he feels that he can order her around to do what he wants her to do and this is also showing the dominance in which the man has over the woman within this particular clip.
Also in this clip the woman character is strongly represented in her sexual aspect because when she is talking to the man she is playing with her hair and this is an act of a sexual representation and she does this purely for the man's attention and this is backed up by her saying to the Doctor that she would do anything to get what she wants. The woman is trying to impress the man because he is of a higher status and she is trying to be approved by him because the man has dominance over her. Known as the Doctor's assistant Billy Piper's costume is red and her make up and long hair conform to stereotypical representations of women.  It is quite clear that Piper's character construction appeals to the male gaze, (Laura Mulvey).

A short film which we watched was called 'Tender'. This was directed by Deborah Haywood in 2009. This short film is about a school boy called Liam who wins some money on a scratch card but he keeps this quiet from his mum and his mum's boyfriend.  Liam is the unwanted son and his 'step father' is not much older than Liam is. A girl at school finds out about the money and she gets interested and uses him to buy her gifts. Violence and unhappiness dominate the film.

The representations in this short film is centred around representation of class. The house is a big part of the representation, the front door's glass panel is smashed, inside the house is untidy. The relationship between the boy and his mum is represented in a negative way as they do not have much of a relationship, the mother has an open sexual relationship with her boyfriend in front of her son, clearly this is a representation if a dysfunctional family. When they find out that Liam has won money they are mad at him and take it off him. The girl at his school when she finds out that he has won money she uses him and this represents her being greedy and selfish because she does not actually like him she uses him for the money. To obtain more money Liam sells his PlayStation to a local, the local man is represented as fat and clearly not working. There are several scenes of violence. The representation of class is very negative.

Another short film was directed and written by Daniel Elliott and it is called 'Jade'. This short film was about a school girl who has a boyfriend but she becomes very distant from his as we realise that she has been with someone else but this man is a lot older than she is. She later finds out that she is pregnant and she is unsure of who the father is. In this short film the representations are shown through age. Age representation is shown by the teenage school girl seeing a man around the age of 30. This representation may be seen as being uncomfortable for the audience to watch as this may not be seen as morally right in today's society. Some people may see this as a man being dominant and superior to a young girl and may be seen as she is being taken advantage of. Also the age of the girl being pregnant may also be seen in a negative way in today's society because people do not believe that a girl of her age would be able to support and bring up a baby. This may also be a representation of the class of her home life in which she has been brought up in.