Media Representations

 

This week I watched videos about media ethics and the potential implication for society but mainly focusing on representation in media. Representation is how media like tv, films and books can portray certain types of people or communities.  

There are many reasons to why representation matters. It's to give people and culture a voice, they can share their experiences, it represents cultures and shares stories. It is vital for every person, whether in front of the camera or behind the scenes to have a voice. We are constantly seeing content that's very white, and straight. I believe with time things are changing, with my experience of growing up has been quit positive when on the topic of representation. We have had such a participation through social media on "black lives matter" and "pride"(pride even has its own month).

This is all fantastic especially with the next generation people's voices are becoming louder and hopefully someday we will live in a world where its incredibly normal to have parents of the same sex and people won't discriminate others by the colour of their skin. Ways we can keep this in the future is to hire these people, let them tell their stories

We then watched a video called "Stuart Hall's Representation Theory explained" I took many notes down as I found this to be extremely interesting as he gave many examples. Representation in his words looks at how the media represents reality(social groups, events). He gave a very valid point and took Trump as an example. We all have heard of Donald Trump and though we have never met the man before we all have an opinion on him = media representation. The media have controlled how we judge this man.  

He gave another fine example of Brexit. Brexit to us was a very scary time for Irish people as it is one of our main forms of trading. However behind the scenes of Brexit it was a very stressful, daunting decision the U.K had to make. Brexit doesn't mean anything in the real world until representation gave meaning to the events. Representation isn't an after occurrence it's a constitutive one. 

But who has the ability to make us think this way? This would be the mass media. As I spoke about in previous paragraph They control something you have a concept of but haven't experienced in real life=TRUMP! We have all these strong feelings and a certain mindset to things we have not experienced. We are controlled by media which is so scary. Years ago we had very little media to how it controlling the way people think these days. Everything that results in us thinking certain ways is the lack of representation; example, women, gay men in the media, rich white men(the list goes on) So why does media do this? To keep non elite groups in their place, and to maintain social supremacy. 

The third video we watched was representation of female leadership. From being a female myself I really felt the sadness within this video. "You can't be what you can't see" Marian Wright Edelman. If you don't have women in power how can you inspire young girls to be powerful in their future. The more power women gain the bigger the backlash. I watched many example which disgusted me ,about how men have spoke about women on their appearance, state of mind, their worth etc. 

People became hooked on how women looked instead of their accomplishments an example of this was Sarah Louise Palin who was a American politician, commentator, author and reality tv star. She was sexualised by photos being taken of her legs, focusing on her face, news reporters talking about her in vile ways on national television. When I see things like this its no wonder many women have a fear of being apart of a job that includes media. 

A women in power is seen negatively for example Hillary Clinton's success was seen as a bad thing. When Barrack Obama speaks men hear take off for the future however, when Hillary speaks men hear take out the garbage. Hillary had hecklers following her saying iron my shirt as I seen when giving a speech, yet again I am horrified this behaviour is continuous to this day. 

References

1.)StoryBlocks (2020) Why Representation Matters [online] available from Why Representation Matters - YouTube

2.)The Media Insider (2019) Stuart Hall's Representation Theory Explained! Media Studies revision [online] available from Stuart Hall's Representation Theory Explained! Media Studies revision - YouTube

3.) SB Ikastgym (2015) Miss Representation Female Leadership [online] available from Miss Representation Female Leadership - YouTube