D: Representation

Discussion:

·         How is the life of Britney Spears represented in the media through the years? What about the ups and the downs? The good vs. the bad times?

·         What is representation?

o   Definition:

§  “The construction in the mass media on aspects of reality such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other concepts.”

o   These representations can be done in speech, writing, stills or moving images.

o   How someone is portrayed in the media can affect how people think about him or her.

o   Positive portrayal can bring benefits but negative portrayal can cause great harm.

o   The media build up celebrities with lots of positive coverage.

o   It also has the tendency to knock them: down again when  they are caught doing something wrong or because they are out of favor

1.      Representing social groups

2.      Representing social issues

·         What is normal?

o   Gender?

o   Race?

o   Physical Abilities?

§  Beliefs?

§  Religion?

§  Ethnic origin?

§  Location?

§  Sexual Orientation?

Representing social groups

·         The media represents social groups in many different ways.

·         Sometimes fairly and sometimes not.

·         The only way to know how unfair such representations are is to belong to such a group, or to know someone very well who does.

·         There is a tendency that people develop attitudes to others through what they see, read and hear in the media

·         That is why representation is an important issue for media studies and for media producers

·         In many ways, attitudes towards women and ethnic minorities have improved a lot in the past 20 – 30 years.

·         Women are not long depicted as housewives…

·         No long acceptable to make fun of people just because of the ethnic origins.