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Representation
Summery

1. Representation Basic Definition +

Stuart Hall (1980)

How the media shows us things about society but this is through careful mediation. Hence re-presentation.

For

representation to be meaningful to audiences there needs to be a shared recognition of people, situations, ideas etc.

Mediation works in 3 ways +

James Baker (2007) 1. Selection: Whatever ends up on the screen or in the paper, much more will have been left out. 2. Organisation: The various elements will be organised carefully in ways that real life is not

3. Focusing: mediation always ends up with us, the audience being encouraged towards concentrating on one aspect of the text and ignoring others.

Hyperreality Baudrillard

Baudrillard argued that reality in the modern world cannot exist.

The media saturation of society means that all presentations of truth or fact are actually re-presentations, mediated, filtered, selected. Truth becomes lost and obscured. He believed we live in a state of hyperreality that seems real but is in fact a version of reality.

Key Points

it involves creating a symbol or set of signifiers which actually represent something that does not actually exist like Santa Claus.
The world we live in has been replaced by a copy world, where we seek simulated stimuli and nothing more. the desert of the real - his essay the Precision of Simulacra. The true reality had been destroyed by the simulation, replaced with the desert of the real Disney land Simulacrum, simulation and hyperreality.

The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey (1975)

Mulvey
The

argues that the dominant point of view is masculine.

female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to provide erotic pleasure for the male (vouyerism). are therefore objectified by the camera lens and whatever gender the spectator/audience is positioned to accept the masculine POV.

Women

Issues involved in "the gaze"?

the commonality of female nudity -- display implies subordination

internalisation of the gaze, changes women's perceptions of themselves and makes them think of themselves as objects

shift to objectification as a source of pleasure (for both the looker and the looked-at)
men as the dominant group have been the looker (the subjects; women the objects) Patriarchy ideology (male dominated ideology - values and beliefs.

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By placing Palin on the cover of a serious magazine, she is acknowledged for her political position, but placing her in short shorts accentuating her body, she does not challenge the dominant male ideology because she is still seen as an object.

+ Hot and Cool Media McLuhan

"hot", intensifying one single sense "high definition", demanding a viewer's attention, and "cool mediums are "low definition", requiring much more conscious participation by the reader to extract value HOT - A photograph is visually high in definition it provides an iconic representation of something in reality. The camera cannot leave anything out because it takes in all light that is reflected at it. A photograph is an example of a hot medium because it extends the sense of vision in high definition. Nothing is left for the user to fill in. Comic is a COOL medium. While it is similar to a photograph, it is hand drawn by a person. The person cannot fill in all features. Only enough information is provided that a person can fill in other details in order to determine who the person is. This makes a comic illustration high in participation. Since it is also low in definition, the comic illustration is a cool medium. TV, radio, Cartoons, film, lectures and Hot or Cool?

+ How they involve people perceptually

Hot

give us everything and leave little to ones own imagination and participation. only provides a stimulus to which the viewer must respond. is changing the very fabric of society in the sense that it changes our way of seeing things. about the internet/ new media? HOT or COOL? How do mediums alter our perceptions of representations. HOT creating iconic representations and Cool allowing the audience to attach representations.

Cool

TV

What