This week we discuss the role of representation in Media studies. We reflect on the role of language in communication, and we discuss how semiotics works on signs.

1. Intro to the Media
Spring 2017– MACS 101

2. Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975)
Semiotics of the
Kitchen is a
feminist parody
video and
performance piece
released in 1975 by
Martha Rosler. The
video, which runs
six minutes, is
considered a
critique of the
commodified
versions of
traditional women's
roles in modern
society

3. Semiotics of the Kitchen
• What are your impressions about “Semiology
of the Kitchen”?
• What do you think Marta Rosler is representing
in her performance?

4. What is language
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg02Kxwr
O5U

5. Complicating Language
• Jacques Derrida
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0tnHr2dq
Ts

6. SEMIOTICS
Sign:
Language:
Culture:

7. • The general term we use for words, sounds or images that carry meaning is
signs. These signs stand for or represent the concepts and conceptual relations
between them which we carry around in our heads, and together they make up the
meaning systems of our culture. Signs are organized into languages and it is
the existence of common languages which enable us to translate our thoughts
[concepts] into words, sounds or images, and then to use these, operating as a
language, to express meanings and communicate thoughts to other people. Any
sound, word, image or object which functions as a sign, and is organized with
other signs into a system which is capable of carrying or expressing meaning is
language (p. 18-19).
• Using Stuart Hall’s quote, how can you define
meaning, signs and language? How are they
related?

8. Words,
sounds or
images
SignsCarrying meaning
are
Language
Are organized into
Concepts
represents
Common languages
Are translated by
Words, sounds or images
And translated into
express
Meanings

9. provide the code, so one can
communicate with their language.
Representation works through
language and within culture.”
Sign:
Language:
Culture:
a unit of representation - a word,
sound or image;
a group of signs that make sense
within a culture and in relation to
each other; (visual, textual,
speaking, etc)
“

10. Content Analysis
(chapter 5)
Representational Analysis
(chapter 6)
Quantative Qualitative
“Content” “Text"
Statistical Approach Semiotics
Descriptive Critical

11. Semiotics according to Big
Bang Theory
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeefWS8Yr
Dw

12. Three important principles when
analyzing a semiotic system
1) Semioticians believe all the people see the
world through signs
2) The meaning of signs is created by people
and does not exist separately from them and the
life of their social/cultural community.
3) Semiotic systems provide people with a
variety of resources for making meaning.

14. • The concept of ‘representation’ is central to the
study of all media forms as well as more
specifically to television. It is closely linked to
issues of depicting reality because, although
not all media texts set out to be ‘realistic’, many
of them (news, documentary, much drama, for
instance) do set out to do so, and there is a
historic and specific connection between
television and the idea of ‘reflecting reality’

15. Producer
Totally Agree
Production
Circulation Consumption
Representations
Totally
Disagree
Agree
Ideology

16. Stuart Hall
• Practices of Signification

17. • It is within culture that members of that culture learn
the relation of one element to another
• Can you think of something that is so common here at
the university that students develop many slang words
for that?
• Media and popular culture cannot and do not simply
reflect our culture and lives, but rather they mediate
through representation
• What aspects of life do you think have not or cannot be
represented in media?
• Representation is a process of making meaning
• How do you understand this idea? What are the
differences with content?

18. Stuart Hall
• Representation as reflection/distortion of
Reality

19. Encoding
Decoding
•Totally Agree
•Agree
•Totally Disagree
Frameworks of knowledge
Relations of production
Technical infrastructure
Representations
Totally
Disagree
Frameworks of knowledge
Relations of production
Technical infrastructure

20. Encoding/decoding
• Encoding refers to the ideological,
professional and technical processes that
inform how the world is represented or signified
in media texts. These processes may or may
not be conscious or intentional. (Casey et al.
Television Studies, p. 59)

21. Genres

22. Encoding/decoding
• The encoding processes not only produce a
message, they give that message certain
meanings. In keeping with the semiotic status
of the model, however, those meanings cannot
be guaranteed by the encoders. (Casey et al.
Television Studies, p. 60)

23. •Dominant/hegemonic position
• This position is one where the consumer takes the actual meaning directly,
and decodes it exactly the way it was encoded.
•Negotiated position
• This position is a mixture of accepting and rejecting elements. Readers are
acknowledging the dominant message, but are not willing to completely
accept it the way the encoder has intended
•Oppositional position
• In this position a consumer understands the literal meaning, but due to
different backgrounds each individual has their own way of decoding
messages, while forming their own interpretations

24. • The other side of encoding is decoding -
meaning at the site of interpretation. That is the
subject of the next chapter. Suffice it to say that
you cannot guarantee that the meaning that
you encoded into your media production will be
the meaning that is decoded - or interpreted -
by audiences

25. A final tought on encoding
• Think about what goes on behind the scenes.
• Screenwriters, directors, casting agents, set and costume designers all
make choices that help audiences understand who a character is and
what they care about.
• These behind-the-scenes players use clothing, hair and makeup, the way
characters speak, and how they move as shorthand in their storytelling.
It’s important to look at these elements of the story, rather than take them
for granted.
• Think about the choices made in creating characters and telling stories
(even in non-fiction news, documentary, and advertising). It’s also
important to consider whether or not a character is round and whole or
more of a caricature and stereotype.
• Understanding and critically examining what goes on behind the
scenes can help us see that media representations are
constructed and not natural.
• If identities in the media are constructed, should we accept them
at face value? Or can we question them? And, even change
them?

26. What about you?
• How do you identify yourself? And, what is the
most important part of your identity?
• Is it your sex, your race or ethnicity, your
sexual orientation, your class status, your
nationality, your religious affiliation, your age,
your political beliefs?
• Is there one part of your identity that stands out
from the rest, or does your identity change
depending on who you’re with, what you’re
involved in, where you are in your life?

27. Identity
• Identity is a socially and historically constructed
concept. We learn about our own identity and the
identity of others through interactions with family,
peers, organizations, institutions, media and other
connections we make in our everyday life.
• Social and cultural identity is inextricably linked to
issues of power, value systems, and ideology.
• The media uses representations—images, words,
and characters or personae—to convey specific
ideas and values related to culture and identity in
society.

28. Key facets of identity
• Gender & Sexuality
• Race
• Class

29. Gender & Sexual
Orientation in
Media
Representation

30. • Sex is a system of classification based on a combination of
biological and physiological factors (generally male or
female). Gender refers to the cultural meaning that is
ascribed to a person's sex (generally labeled masculine or
feminine).
• Masculinity and femininity are the terms that are often used
to identify a set of characteristics, values, and meanings
related to gender. In our society, the values tied to
masculinity have been generally seen as superior to those
associated with femininity.
• From an early age, children are socialized and encouraged
to perform specific gender roles and conform to gender
roles. The repetition of gendered narratives and images
in media has helped to shape these cultural norms around
what it means to be a man or a woman, masculine or
feminine.

32. masculinity femininity
• strength
• dominance
• aggression
• independence
• empowerment
• active
• rational thought
• production
• breadwinner
• subject
• outdoors
• technology
• weakness
• submission
• compliance/vulnerab
ility
• dependence
• disempowerment
• passive
• emotion
• consumption
• nurturer
• object
• indoors
• nature

33. The Bechdel Test is a test which
names the following three criteria:
The movie has to have at least two
women in it,
who talk to each other,
about something besides a man.

34. Questions about gender
• How are masculinity and femininity represented in
the media?
• What specific images and words contribute to our
understanding of what masculinity and femininity
mean?
• Does the media make assumptions about what
men/boys like and how they (should) behave? Are
there similar assumptions made about
women/girls?
• What impact do such media representations have
on real-life opportunities and possibilities offered
men and women in their personal and professional
lives?

35. • Sexuality (or sexual orientation) refers broadly to an
individual’s physical and/or emotional attraction to a person
of the same or opposite sex.
• LGBTQ, which stands for lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), has
become the common shorthand to inclusively reference this
diverse set of sexuality and gender-based identities and
communities.
• Historically, many societies have been intolerant
of homosexual, bisexual, and transgender
individuals. Media has played a role in both perpetuating
and resisting this state of affairs.
• There has been an increase in LGBTQ representation in the
media since the late 1990s in film and television, but there
are still very few prominent LGBT characters in the
mainstream media.

36. Questions about sexuality
• How are LGBTQ characters represented in the
media? What do they look like? How do they
speak? What kind of activities do they engage
in?
• What specific images and words contribute to
our understanding of what it means to be
LGBTQ?
• What impact do LGBTQ representations have
on the opportunities and possibilities for
LGBTQ-identified individuals in their personal
and professional lives?

37. Representation of
Race, Ethnicity and
Color

38. • Race is not an inherent fact but rather a social
construction that can change over time and is often
reinforced by the media.
• Media plays an influential role in shaping how we think
about and enact race in our everyday lives.
• In the United States and other Western Contexts,
whites have historically been associated with
superiority and privilege; people of color have
historically been associated with inferiority and labeled
as the "Other" in society.
• Our society has made progress in dealing with
racial discrimination, but inequality and injustice still
remain, and the media is a key site where these ideas
persist.

39. 5 classic stereotypes
of African American in media
• Uncle tom
• Mammy
• Tragic mulatta
• Jezebel
• Black buck
Unthreatening,
childish and
docile
Threatening, sexual,
potentially violent

41. Some stereotypes of Latina/os in media
• Greaser:
• Latin Lover
• Mysterious dark lady
• Latin spitfire
• Señorita

42. https://youtu.be/7ca-S1ZxVrk

43. Some stereotypes of Asian American
• Dragon Ladies:
• King Fu Fighters
• Geeks
• Foreigners:
• Prostitutes

44. Dominant Subordinate
• civilized
• modern
• rational
• order
• center
• stability
• unmarked
• self
• white
• superior
• majority
• citizen
• insider
• primitive
• backward
• irrational
• chaos
• margin
• violence
• marked
• other
• non-white
• inferior
• minority
• illegal
• outsider

45. Questions about race
• How are different racial and ethnic groups represented in
entertainment, advertising, and news media? How are certain
news stories covered or stories told based on the race and
ethnicity of those involved?
• What specific images, words, and sounds contribute to our
understanding of how a specific race or ethnicity is portrayed?
• Does the media make assumptions about what certain races do
for work and for fun? Does it assume that certain races only live in
particular neighborhoods, drive certain cars, or listen to a single
type of music? Does it assume that certain races predominantly
seek government aid or commit crimes? Does it assume certain
races are more openly sexual or sexually aggressive?
• What impact do these representations and assumption have on
the opportunities and possibilities for individuals of different races
and ethnicities in their personal and professional lives? Do some
groups experience social, political, and economic inequities more
than others?

46. Representations
of class

47. • Class (also called social class or socio-economic class) refers to a
system that groups or ranks individuals based on wealth. It is most
simply defined by three strata: upper class, middle class, and
lower class.
• Except at the very extreme ends of the spectrum (very wealthy or
very poor), socio-economic class can often come across as
invisible. Yet, class is still an important factor in shaping who we
are and what kinds of opportunities we’re afforded.
• American history is permeated with the narrative of the "American
Dream," which suggests that if we work hard enough, we can
succeed, achieve, and move up the socio-economic ladder. Critics
of this perspective point out that upward social and
economic mobility is increasingly difficult in the United States.
• From the way characters speak, to where they live, what they
wear and what they drive, many of the messages that we receive
about socio-economic class come to us through the media.

48. Upper Class Lower/Working class
• rich
• have
• privileged
• hardworking
• intelligent
• empowered
• clean
• worthy
• financially independent
• powerful
• poor
• have-not
• needy
• lazy
• ignorant
• disempowered
• dirty
• unworthy
• welfare dependent
• powerless

50. Questions about class
• How are different classes represented in
entertainment, advertising, and news media?
• What specific images, words, and sounds
contribute to our understanding of how a specific
class is portrayed?
• Does the media make assumptions about what
certain classes own, what they do for work, where
they live?
• What impact do these representations and
assumptions have on the opportunities and
possibilities for real individuals of different classes
in their personal and professional lives?

51. • One of the major goals of representational
analysis is to understand elements of a
signifying system in relation to each other. That
relation, furthermore, is neither static nor
eternal. It changes across culture and across
time
• Per the etextbook, what is the role of relationality in
media studies? What kind of questions could be
more productive? Discuss the example of ESPN
Magazine’s cover on Fig. 14.

52. • There is a tendency to analyze representations
in binary terms: black or white, rich or poor,
good or bad. This might prove useful in a very
simple type of media representation.
• It is more productive to ask how it relates to
other elements rather that whether it is positive
or negative, as the latter question is often
subject to personal judgment

54. On reality and Representation
• In what ways are the characters real, and in
what ways do they seem to be stereotypes or
caricatures?
• Do the characters have real emotions — and a
full range of emotions?
• Do they look like real people, or like models
and pin-ups?

55. On Gender
• How is their gender important to the roles that
they play (or is it)?
• To what extent, are the characters in roles that
could not have been played by an actor of the
opposite gender?
• Is the show playing with gender?

56. On sexual orientation
• How is their sexual orientation important to the
roles that they play (or is it)?

57. On Race/Ethnicity
• What presumptions of race are in the television
show?
• Are the characters doing things or finding
themselves in situations that are stereotypical
to their race?
• Are the characters doing things or put in
situations that are presumed not typical to their
race?

58. On Class
• What presumptions of class are in the
television show?
• Are the characters doing things or finding
themselves in situations that are stereotypical
to their class?
• Are the characters doing things or put in
situations that are presumed not typical to their
class?

59. Writing assignment 6
• After watching this episode, discuss how race,
class, gender, and sexual orientation are
represented on this show.
• Discuss four instances from the episode where
these categories are represented.
• Choose one of these instance and write about
it in one paragraph (150-200 words)