representation theories

Question 1

stuart hall - how representations are constructed

Answer 1

• representation is the production of meaning through language (a system of signs)
• stereotyping reduces people/things to a few simple characteristics/traits
• stereotyping tends to occur where there is a disparity of power, with excluded groups being different or “other”

Question 2

David gauntlett - media helps us to construct our identities

Answer 2

• media provides us with ‘tools’ and resources that we use to shape our identities
• in past, these media toolboxes were simple; as the mediated world has become more complicated, we now have a wide range of media models - a pick and mix of different ideas that we can choose from

Question 3

van zoonen - gender is constructed through discourse

Answer 3

• gender, as a product of discourse, changes depending on cultural and historical contexts
• the objectification of women’s bodies is core to western patriarchal culture
• the codes used in mainstream media to construct the male body are different from the objectified female body

Question 4

bell hooks - smash the patriarchy

Answer 4

• feminism is a political commitment rather than a lifestyle choice
• the intersection of race/class/sex determine the extent to which individuals are exploited

Question 5

Judith butler - identity is a performance

Answer 5

• identity is performatively constructed by the very ‘acts’ or ‘expressions’ that are thought to be its result
• there is no inherent gender identity behind the expressions of gender
• performativity is not a singular act, but a repetition or ritual

Question 6

Paul Gilroy - exploring the legacy of colonialism and imperialism

Answer 6

• colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity
• ‘civilisationism’ contracts racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on the notion of ‘otherness