Representation: Media Magazine Articles & Questions

MM50

What is the article about? Summarise the article in 50 words.

The article is about how modern media is dominated by straight white females and are generally considered to attract males, when in fact most females that are used in adverts aren't actually the average female and therefore create an unrealistic image and expectations.

What is the name of the film that has sparked this recent debate on body image and female representation?

The film that sparked this debate was called "A Perfect 14" which was a documentary that aimed to challenge the idea of what is considered beautiful and normal in current society.

How does the 'Female Gaze' in this article differ from the 'Male Gaze' of Laura Mulvey's theory?

The "Female Gaze" is very different to the "Male Gaze" of Laura Mulvey's theory as it considers the fact that instead of advertising to males and making them the consumer audience, the female audience should also be considered. This is due to the fact that many females can look at these adverts and consider themselves as "not good enough" as they have been told of a certain body type as being normal. 

What is your own opinion of the representation of women in advertising? Should the media carry more representation of 'real' women? Why does the media not currently feature size 14 women if that is the average size of a British woman?

I personally agree with the idea of the "Female gaze" and that the media should definitely start to represent the average woman, as the media currently is in a state of "brainwashing" its consumer audience. This would eventually create a very negative impact on society as they would be forced to think that they should look or feel a certain specific way and therefore this would create a lot of unrealistic standards for not only women but also men, which could ultimately effect the emotional and physical capacities of people.

MM51

Summarise the article. For each section, write a sentence or paragraph summarising the key points. The sections you need to summarise are:

Introduction

The introduction talks about how representation is all around us and how the media is always intervening, standing in-between us and what we want to see. The media is able to change aspects of our understanding and show us the same thing from different perspectives and ultimately have an impact on our reactions or opinions.

Representations and the mass media

The idea that many things can be represented in various different ways, and essentially through small minor adjustments can create a whole new scenario and different meaning which could ultimately have either a positive or negative impact. 

The how, who and why of representation

In order to create and analyse a type of representation, these following things must be considered to create a representation:

• the expectations and needs of the target audience
• the limitations provided by genre codes
• the type of narrative they wish to  create
• their institutional remit.

Another approach to ideology - the work of Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall theorised that it is not actually the media who creates certain representations but the consumer who uses their own personal experiences and cultural knowledge to give their own interpretation, instead of blindly following and accepting the representation given to them.

Representations and new media

The increasing usage of the new media helps the consumer and audiences around the world through digitisation to voice their own opinions and cultural influences of interpretations and representations onto the world. This also suggest that with through new media, each consumer is able to create ideas and interpretations constantly based on their own personal experiences and tastes.

An example - representing national identity in old and new media

The idea is that in old media, producers were very easily able to create a representation and make consumers agree with their own representation or perspective of identity by creating a generalisation of identity. However, through new media, the actual consumer is able to voice their opinion and let the world know of their thoughts on what their identity which obviously would clash with the old media's overtly patriotic identity.

Representation: In-depth Analysis

One of the biggest theory of representation presented in the trailer is Richard Dyer's theory of stereotyping and power. This suggests the idea that the complexity and variety of a group can be simplified and reduced to a few characteristics in order to easily make the audience relate. In the trailer, we see the fact that those in power such as the regal royalty of the Human race are very quick to make stereotypes on the Orcish race based on their "beast"-like appearances. This greatly enforces the idea of stereotypes and how on first glance many Orcs would be associated with violence and war based on their appearance, this is evident as we are told that "some Orcs only war"

However, it's very interesting to note that stereotyping and power is the main premise of this entire movie and plotline as we are consistently told that one of the Orcs do not share the same views as their other Orc friends. Also, that not all Humans see the Orcs as beasts and monsters and that some Humans are willing to cooperate and work together. 

Andy Medhurst's theory of shorthand to carry judgements can also be applied as we are consistently shown the Humans to be in power and strength through their costumes, settings and generic mannerisms. However, the Orcs are shown to be a wild and primitive race through their clothes, barbarism manners, beast like appearances and also their hut like houses. This idea of short hand easily helps the audience to create judgements and create an image of how they should react to each group, but generally creates a negative representation of both groups in some sense.