Magazines: Representation and social contexts

Representation is a vital key concept in Media Studies: how are people, social groups, places and issues represented in the media?

We need to able to analyse media texts and discuss whether representations are fair, accurate, stereotypical or unusual based on our knowledge of the media and the way texts are constructed. We will be looking at how certain groups are represented in the magazine CSPs we are studying this half-term - in particular how women, celebrities and social class is represented in Tatler and Reveal.

Tuesday's lesson video:

Thursday's lesson video:

Introduction to Representation

What is Representation?

• The way the media portrays the world. 
• The media takes a story/set of facts and (re)presents them in a certain way. 
• In Media Studies we are particularly interested how the media portrays events, issues, individuals and social groups.
• Some groups are misrepresented (represented inaccurately) or under-represented by the Media.

It is the combination of media language choices that construct the representation audiences see. Indeed, everything we see in the media is a re-presentation because the media intervene or stand between the object they are presenting and the audience and therefore they affect or ‘mediate’ every text we see! 

Stereotypes

• Media messages have to be communicated quickly which often means relying on stereotypes. 
• A stereotype is a standardised, oversimplified picture of a person, group, place or event.
• Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their gender, class, ethnicity or race, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.

How are representations created?

• In print media (news and magazines), a picture editor selects the photo from a whole series of images to be used to illustrate a news story. The image may be cropped, resized and, in some cases, photoshopped so it does not reflect reality.
• A news editor will decide on the way the news story will be presented, and the use of captions to affect the meaning of the image. 

Glossary words

• Conventional: typical, the usual, expected representation. 
• Subversive: untypical or unexpected representation, differing from the norm. If a representation in the media is NOT what we expect, we say this subverts the usual stereotype in the media. 
• Stereotype: A ‘set’ idea that people have about what someone or something is like (not necessarily accurate).
• Mediation: process by which texts are presented and received.
• Representation: how groups or events or individuals are presented / portrayed.

Social and cultural contexts

Another aspect we have to consider whenever we study a media product is how it reflects British society and what message it may be sending to audiences. Our exam board AQA calls this 'social and cultural contexts' and those words will appear in several exam questions in our final exams. Similarly, when we study media products from history later in the course, we will also need to consider historical contexts - how the media product reflects the time period in which it was created. These are the key questions to ask:

Social contexts: How do media products influence or affect people in society?

Cultural contexts: How the media reflects the typical ideas, opinions and beliefs in society and the media industries.

Historical contexts: How has society (and the type of media product) changed over time?

Looking at this front cover of Closer magazine, we can discuss how celebrity magazines such as this reinforce the importance of celebrities in British culture by placing them on the front cover and revealing details of their lives and relationships. As Closer is aimed at a mainly female audience, the emphasis on appearance, dieting and motherhood reinforces the stereotypical representation of women in the media and puts pressure on women in society to conform to these expectations.   

Representation and stereotypes: blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'Magazines: Introduction to Representation'.

Look at the magazine cover for Closer that we studied last week:

Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) Write a definition of representation in media studies. Clue: The answer is in the notes above!

2) Now look at the cover of Closer magazine above. List all different types of people and groups represented on the front cover. E.g. women, celebrities, race/ethnicity etc.

3) What does the representation of women on this front cover suggest female audiences are mainly interested in?

4) Are there any stereotypes you can identify? E.g. women and motherhood; celebrities etc.

5) Is there anything on the cover that subverts typical stereotypes in the media?

6) What is the preferred reading of this magazine cover - what do the producers want audiences to think when they see it?

7) What is the oppositional reading of this magazine cover - how might someone criticise this magazine cover or be offended by it?

8) What are the social and cultural contexts to this magazine cover? What effect might this magazine have on readers or society?

Optional extension: Think about some of the specific social and cultural contexts on the Closer magazine cover in more detail. 

1) Is British society now obsessed with celebrities? 

2) Is the representation of women in the media changing or do stereotypes of appearance, weight-loss and motherhood still dominate? 

3) How might the Closer cover line regarding the 'UK's first gay dad' offend readers today?  

Due date for these tasks is on Google Classroom.