The Construction and Mediation of
Representations
A news photograph for example may
appear to be presenting us with a factual image but before it goes to print it has been through a
process of construction:
• The
photographer has selected his/her position, lens, angle, exposure and framing before taking
the picture.
• The
picture editor will decide if the image needs to be cropped, enhanced or in any
way altered before inclusion into the paper.
• An editor will choose which, of
the many available photographs of the image, will be the one chosen for
inclusion in the newspaper and, importantly at this stage, the images which do not meet the needs of the
text will be rejected.
Even then, further mediation takes
place:
- Will the photograph be large or
small?
- Will the photograph be on the front page or, less visible, on page
8?
Placement choices like this, along
with cropping and framing, act to focus the attention of the reader in a
certain way.
• What
headline and text will be used to accompany the photograph?
• Will
the photograph have a caption?
• Will
it be positioned close to another photograph?
Anchorage is basically used in media to
attach meaning to something through either the matching of words to images or
the juxtaposition of two images which construct a meaning.
For
example in advertising, an image alone is polysemic open to a range of
interpretations. To clarify what the image means and so to make the image
relevant to the purpose of the advert, text can be added. Thus the image serves
as the 'hook' while the text anchors meaning. This can be said also for
photographs attached to newspaper articles. The same photograph takes on
different connotations with different accompanying texts.
Media Bias
Omitting information
700 women said this product made their skin softer!
-but didn’t tell you 20,000 tried it!
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Media Bias
Word Choice
Idiot pulls traffic stunt.
______________________________________________________
Daredevil halts traffic
Both headlines are about the story of a man abseiling down the Forth Road Bridge
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Task 1:
Open this image in Photoshop and using anchorage, give two captions that would represent the picture in different ways. Consider two different audiences the editor might target.
You will need to create a new layer and use the text tool to type with.
Selection
Whatever ends up on the screen or in the newspaper, much more will have been
left out. Any news story has been selected from hundreds of others which the producers have decided were less interesting for you, any picture has been chosen from an
enormous number of alternatives.
Omission is knowing about something but
just refusing to focus on it or bring light to the facts.
In 2005, the
New York Times knew about the Bush Administration using Telecom companies
(Verizon, AT&T, etc.) to spy on Americans. The story was held back for over
a year as the Times received pressure from Bush White House to kill the story.
The Times didn't kill the story completely but they did wait until after the
November 2006 elections before they actually reported on Bush Administration
breaking the law
Mediation
Every time we encounter a media text, we are not
seeing reality, but someone’s version of it. This may seem like an obvious
point, but it is something that is easily forgotten when we get caught up in
consuming a text.
If you see a picture of a celebrity kissing her boyfriend, you
may find it unsurprising that the picture has been altered and does not show
the reality of the situation, but in fact we should bear this in mind whatever
we encounter in the media.
Media producers place us at one remove from reality: they
take something that is real, a person or an event and they change its form to
produce whatever text we end up with.
This is called mediation. You should be
looking for this with any media text.
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The persistence of class and its visibility or invisibility
It used to be easy to signify through physical appearance that a figure stood for wealth or poverty. C19th charity pioneers like Dr Barnado used images of thin, ragged street urchins to appeal to the conscience of the wealthier.
One of the images Dr Barnado used in his ads
Third world charities still do this and until recently, cartoonists have often used large body size and decorative dress as an indicator of wealth. The fat capitalist or the greedy lord.
Changes to this code help us glimpse the complex ways in which class divisions are now shown - or not shown.
It is more likely now that a well toned, slim or even thin body is the result of a careful diet and affluence (enough disposable income to shop for healthy food and a gym membership) rather than food shortage.
However, aspirations to this appearance can lead to anorexia or bulimia. Of course poverty can still lead to rickets and thin bodies.
It is also possible that expensive looking clothes, jewelry, even cars may conceal people with huge levels of debt. Sometimes people want to conceal their economic position. This makes things complicated for the media studies student who is looking for clues to social class. Unlike researching for clues to gender or ethnicity.
Obesity in some cultures is prized as evidence of having plenty to eat. In the developed world it can have connotations of cultural and material deprivation or addictions.
Genetics or a refusal to be a slave to fashion can be the reason.
The attitude to bodies is complicated and greed is often said to be the cause of being overweight.
Ideology shifts the blame away from the very addictions which which often result from the marketing practices of many junk food brands.
The 1980's saw celebrations of extreme wealth and justifications of corporate greed - at the time it was called growth and seen as virtuous. The word Yuppie was used to describe these young urban professionals.
This kind of wealth is hardly ever represented as directly related to the labour of those who mostly produce the wealth on display - working people.
In 2005 two moral panics surfaced which clearly involved class differences. Young people known as Chavs and Hoodies were accused in the media of anti social behaviour. Much of the media attack was conducted through a fascination with dress and other codes of appearance.
The website Popbitch.com circulates many of these abusive terms.
Task 2:
Look at media images of stars, royalty and other outwardly wealthy people. Describe how huge wealth is signified visually in terms of body size and dress. Compare the representations to the large stomached, top hatted characters of the C19th.
200 words - orange books.
Task 3 Homework:
Moving on to ideological points, how often is extreme wealth discussed in relation to inequalty? View this article and then identify and discuss three media texts which can be said to illustrate the growing class divide.
200 words - orange books or blogs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29641109
Marxism understands class as the antagonistic social formations created and perpetuated in the process of production, between owners of and workers within industry.
