Mass Communication & Media Literacy 06

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http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/campaigning/takeaction/campaigners_pack/press_myths

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 Identify/outline issues involved in thinking about

representation and media

Define the concepts of representation, stereotyping

and associated sub-categories

Use rhetorical, semiological, genre and narrative

analysis to analyse media representations and social groups

Examine debates around the depiction of individuals

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Questions
What kind of groups feature in your text? How would you categorise the individuals and/or

groups depicted?
What kinds of ideas and feelings about them do you

have as a result of your media consumption?

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Why Representation
Media forms have their own rhetoric and language

that position us as audience members for entertainment purposes, they are not divorces from the social, cultural, political and historical contexts of their making. outlook on various groups and individuals which can affect how social relations are played out.

Representation informs our understanding and

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Represent
Equivalence/corresponding to Proxy/substitute for something or someone else Typify/epitomise

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Representation
To represent something is to describe or depict it, to call it up in the mind by description, portrayal or imagination. To represent also means to symbolise, to stand for, to be a specimen of or substitute to.

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All media forms contain only a fraction of what could have been presented they are selective in their portrayals and are thus abstractions in the way they work at emphasising or inflections limited

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Representation
Media forms actively construct their worlds

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Depicting individuals
Trevor MacDonald TV Newsreader Middle class Man

What else does this media figure represent?

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Depicting individuals
George Michael Pop star in concert

What other ideas does the media figure represent?

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The campaign to find Madeline McCann

What do such images come to represent beyond the

literal identification of a lost child?

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--types-Types

A grouping based on shared characteristics; a class. An individual that represents the ideal for its class; an embodiment.

Archetypes

A perfect or idealised person or thing that exhibits such core values and identities that offer a model or pattern for the way in which a culture is viewed

Stereotypes

Stereotyping is a process involving the expression of an exaggerated belief about a group that serves to qualify or justify the conduct towards that group of those who hold and express 11/29/12

The wealth of music Curtis Jackson released and his 2000 shooting conspired to

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Stereotypes
Stereotypes

Stereotyping is a process involving the expression of an exaggerated belief about a group that serves to qualify or justify the conduct towards that group of those who hold and express that belief.

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Functions of stereotypes in media texts

Functions for stereotypes in media texts relate them

to broader social and historical contexts

An ordering function a short-cut to meaning in the face of the messiness of reality A metonymic function - an index of a wider reality and set of values about the group (one person stands for the group)

Is there a grain of truth in stereotypes?

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