Representation What is it?

With a partner... 1. Write down a definition of REPRESENTATION The description of someone or something in a particular way. 2. Reduce your definition to THREE most important words (this doesn’t have to make grammatical sense!) Stereotypical Judgemental Descriptions

Representation is: Representation refers to the construction of aspects of �reality� such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Essentially, how people, places etc are shown to an audience.

Your facebook profile is an online representation of yourself You can use pictures, text, videos and links to create a representation of yourself to the public. Dave’s Facebook representation = teacher, academic, director, writer, sensible, trustworthy, opinionated, relaxed – total geek! To communicate this, I use pictures where I am smiling, night-out pictures/drunk pictures/famous landmark/geeky movie pictures, I have student friendly information on my profile – favourite TV shows, films, etc. The odd rage fuelled comment about remakes and/or Tory Scum.  Look at your friends Facebook page… what are they saying about themselves. Sum them up 

For example... What are all these characters and clips representing and how? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K02O02NqndE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvNybyw8bA4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVOSfHFNlcI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPcV9CSPho

Representing and Re-Presenting You already know what a representation is Re-presenting is when the media takes an event and creates their own version of it to show you, the audience. For example: The Will & Grace clip is stereotypical of older generations in not fully understanding modern political correctness.

The news: 1. EVENT – Gaddifi is killed 2. PRODUCTION (writing, filming, reporting) 3. RE-PRESENTATION – of the event to viewers The media doesn’t just give us a transparent ‘window on the world’, it gives us a mediated version of the world.

Activity with a partner: Make a list of all the ‘mediations’ that happen in three examples of breaking news events that you have witnessed in your lives, and the audience watching the scenes on TV. Two to start you off: eg: EVENT: World cup match Commentators describe the action from their own point of view. Action replays are used to re-present key moments from various angles. 10 MINUTES!

Methods of creating representations in TV drama Visual - camera angles, shots, special effects, facial expressions, costume, setting Sound – theme songs, accents, tone of voice, narration Use of connotations - each of these sound/visual aspects of a TV drama has a connotation that helps to create a certain representation.

Connotations Act as visual short cuts for the audience What are the connotations of this character’s costume? Where in the country/regions Would you imagine finding this Character based on their Appearance? Chav On benefits Avoid this person The outfit of this character has very negative connotations especially based on todays society.

BUT... These representations are stereotypical What is a stereotype? Why might TV producers use stereotypes in their programmes? How does it help the audience? With a partner, write down as many stereotypes as you can think of. 10 MINUTES!

Are stereotypes good or bad? Using the internet, try and find three images that each demonstrate a particular stereotype and then discuss it with the person next to you. DISCUSS AS A CLASS Next, write down some descriptions and details of each stereotype listed DISCUSS AS A CLASS – are these images fair? Where have they come from? Does who YOU are affect how you interpret representations and stereotypes?

TASK 1 Using all the words you have gathered from your friends, use them to design a MOVIE POSTER of you and your life! A Movie poster that represents you! It can be as outrageous/silly/dramatic as you like, BUT you must have used all the descriptions you gathered to help make this poster so that it represents/reflects you the most it can!