Representation In Relation To My Coursework

Media representation is the way in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics. Media institutions use various methods such as stereotypes and existing ideologies to represent different individuals or groups in a positive or negative light. For representation to be meaningful to audiences there needs to be a shared recognition of people, groups and the representation of the individual or group must be portrayed in a natural way.

            Gender is not biological but refers to a socially constructed set of behaviours. Femininity and masculinity are culturally determined and refers to pattern of behaviour. Traditionally males have been represented as superior to females, held power, been the breadwinner, good with tools and manual labour. Women were often shown in roles that suited men, traditionally these relate to specific domestic roles such as mothers, housewives or sexual objects. My Production of a local newspaper features both stereotypes of gender and countertypes. A story that features within my production depicts a community’s fight to keep the local post office open. The story features an older 60 year old woman named Rebecca; she is a part of the campaign. I did not adhere to the stereotype of a woman and instead employed a countertype. Rebecca is presented as a strong woman, who is behind the driving force of a protest. Strong, political and independent this representation of the female gender is positive and the opposite of what is considered usual.  The usual representation of a women would be as inferior, happy with things the way they are and uninvolved. Laura Mulvey is a media theorist who argued that the dominant point of view within the media industry is masculine and that often the female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to provide erotic pleasure for the male. Women are therefore objectified and presented on most occasions in the way men want them to be presented. I stayed far away from this portrayal of women in my production, as the story I just discussed shows I didn’t sexualise women and portray them as inanimate objects I instead gave them a voice and made them powerful. The reason for this is so that my paper would appeal to all of the local community, all of my target market and so it would coincide with the vast majority of local newspapers i have researched.

            Age is another issue that i had to deal with when creating my paper. Media tends to emphasize youthfulness, beauty as well as physical and emotional health. The mass media is catered toward children, teens, adults but not the elderly. In a way the elderly are portrayed as non existent in our world and are on the whole neglected. The majority of stories that feature in my paper involve members of the older generation this is because the elderly tend to be more involved in the community and are in fact a large chunk of the consuming market. Studies show that when the elderly do appear in media, they tend to be portrayed in these one dimensional, stereotypical ways. As grumpy, conservative, resistant to change, Mentally challenged, dependent on other young members and as helpless economic burdens. I chose to take a reflective approach and present the elderly in a way that is positive, fair and accurate, to do this I took a diverse approach to represent age and incorporated both counter types and archetypes to produce my stories and choose how the older generation are presented. A story that features within my paper discusses two 50 plus gentleman’s struggle to purchase land to build allotments on for the local community. The gentleman were striving for change in laws, fighting against the government in an effort to bring something to the community, while this story might adhere to some stereotypes such as the elderly being stubborn and involved in allotments it completely contradicts beliefs that older people are dependent on others and economic burdens, because they have raised money to purchase the land for the allotments by themselves, and have given something back to the community by communicating and discussing plans with the government which takes a bit of intelligence. I am happy with the way that I have represented age in my production as i believe that it is positive and represents a large part of the local community in a positive way.

            In conclusion I believe that I have done well in countering negative stereotypes that exist within the media by employing positive stories that relate well to the community. In future productions i will look to employ the same tactics i have done in creating this paper so that groups can be displayed in a realistic and reflective manor and not how the media perceives they should be represented.