Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Representations of Age
Representations of Age
Representations of Age
How are the following represented in the media? Teenagers Old people Middle aged people (45 55)
How has Catherine Tate represented Nan? Is she stereotypical? Why? Why not? Look at her iconography. What genre of programme does she exist in? How does this affect her representation?
Representations of age
What is the media (form and genre). How has the representation been constructed (visual and audio codes)? What reasons are there for the representation? How might the representation affect audience? Who produced the representation?
Reflective approach
This approach suggests that representations are a direct reflection of reality.
Intentional Approach
This suggests that producers shape reality through representation and suggests an audiences understanding of the world is directed by those representations.
Constructionist Approach
This is a mixture! It accepts that representations construct meaning, but that this meaning is understood through reference to reality and the audiences own ability to analyse, accept and reject.
Constructionists believe:
Representation is a mixture of:
The actual thing being represented The VALs of the people/institutions constructing the representation The reaction of the individual member of the audience (and their VALs) The context of the society in which the representation is taking place
Ideology
Media texts convey ideological messages: Ideology is a system of ideas, values and beliefs promoted by dominant groups to reinforce their power (eg governments, state institutions, corporations).
Karl Marx
Developed the concept in 1900s. Analysed the way those in power protected their interests by representing their privileged position as being natural. Consider how dominant ideologies are reinforced/challenged by media texts.
Positive/negative representations
Are negative representations responsible for the prejudicial treatment of a particular group? Can negative representations be challenged by positive ones? If representations do affect the way in which we think about particular groups, what does that suggest about the media audience?
Moral panics!
Jamie Bulger
No evidence was presented that either boy had watched Childs Play 3. The judge made the connection and this was picked up by the tabloid press. It led to a change in the law so the BBFC now has to take into account the influence of videos as well as their content.
Pensioners
Film vs TV
Why do you think there are more opportunities for older women in fictional TV than film?
Stereotypes
Poor Fussy Senile Infirm Interfering Victims Dependent Kind Generous Happy Engaging in stereotypical pastimes
Sitcom
Humorous idiosyncrasies:
Forgetfulness Senility Grumpiness Saying the wrong thing