Representation

Here is a really useful introduction to the overview of Media Representation theory:



It's really worth your while watching this lecture (all 4 parts) from leading theorist Stuart Hall. He has some really interesting ideas on the presentation/representation of the conflict in Northern Ireland. It is also interesting to think of who constructs representation of race, gender, politicians etc too.


This presentation is very useful as it gives a short synopsis of the dominant critics/theories. It is very important that you try and see if these theories apply to your own production work so far, or if not, how not. It is fine if a theory doesn't apply, but you must articulate and argue why you think it doesn't.



David Chandler's introduction to Representation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14165439/Media-Representation-David-Chandler

Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html

Apply the theory of Representation to ONE of your coursework productions. 
25 Marks: 10 Explanation/Argument, 10 Examples, 5 Terminology
30 Mins

Examiner's Report:

Once again, marks for 1(b) were often the lowest awarded but there was a significant increase in the application of theories to the candidates’ own chosen text. A large number of candidates were able to access the question by focusing on the extent to which they had reinforced or

challenged gender stereotypes usually by applying Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ and Propp’s ‘spheres of action’ (other concepts are available). Representations of class and ethnicity were frequently discussed in terms of hegemony. There was also a sense of how active audiences might decode the representations that had been created using Hall’s dominant, oppositional and negotiated. All this was pleasing but there are two important points to make – firstly, candidates need to ‘switch register’ from 1(a) to 1(b) to move from talking about what they did to how the text can be analysed. Still only a small number of candidates manage to this, with the majority writing about how they applied the theory, as opposed to how the theory can be applied to the text. Much more disturbing was the overwhelming acceptance of the ‘male gaze’ as a neutral fact of life, something to be straightforwardly ‘applied’ in the production of a text, with the objectification of women accounted for as no more than a convention. Although candidates would not be penalised for describing their own text in these terms, if Mulvey’s theory was appropriately applied, centres are encouraged to support candidates in taking a rather more critical perspective on representation.