Representation

Representation is how social groups, different subcultures, occupations, ages, social classes -and places are portrayed in the media and how the audiences interpret these portrayals.

Below is an image that represents how representation works:

It all starts with the idea or event and then it gets mediated by producers. Then it is a cycle between the Institution, Text and Audience one influencing the other.

To understand and analysis representation we first much ask our self these questions:

- Who is presenting the images and why? (Institution)
- How do the people receiving the images, including myself, react to what they see, read and hear? (Audience)
- Over a period of time, what do the images suggest about certain groups in society? (Text)
- What points of view are neglected or ignored? (Text)

Analysis of the content of media products needs to be accompanied by analysis of how people interpret what they read, see and hear. Only by asking these questions, can we analyse media text and investigate the relationship between the media and it's audience and prove Dominic Strinati's theory, that "The mass media, for example, were once thought of as holding up a mirror to, and thereby reflecting, a wider social reality. Now that reality is only definable in terms of surface reflection of the mirror".

David Buckingham writes in his study entitled "Boys' Talk: Television and the policing of Masculinity" that young boys and probably most men fear being labelled as homosexual or effeminate. The pressure to conform to male codes is often exerted in male banter and repartee. Buckingham found that in talk about television there was much more pressure on boys than on girls to avoid being ridiculed or humiliated by peers.

However to prove that David Buckingham study is correct we need to identify the effect the media text has on people and what type of text Buckingham was analysing. For example there was a study untaken by Gillian Murphy in the affect of romantic magazines on woman. She concluded by saying that women should free themselves from romance and become 'politicised'. She also criticises romantic magazines for concentrating on romance, which is rather like criticising detective novels for concentrating on crime. " This is Bad research and analysing.

Therefore when analysing ourselves we need to removed our own opinions and study the content, affect and portrayal leading to the representations.