Representation
in the Media
By definition, all
media texts are re-presentations of reality. This means that they are
intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded,
targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artificial
versions of the reality we perceive around us. When studying the media it is
vital to remember this - every media form, from a home video to a glossy
magazine, is a representation of someone's concept of existence, codified into
a series of signs and symbols which can be read by an audience. However, it is
important to note that without the media, our perception of reality would be
very limited, and that we, as an audience, need these artificial texts to
mediate our view of the world, in other words we need the media to make sense
of reality. Therefore representation is a fluid, two-way process: producers
position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess a text on
its relationship to reality.
How does your example compose, light, write, frame, crop, caption, brand, target and censor its representation?
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