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Representation - Coggle Diagram
Representation
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This is the way a media text is put together. In a film or television programme this includes the editing and choice of camera angles, in a magazine or newspaper it includes the layout and writing as well as the choice of images.
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This can be how a film script is written and re-written before it makes it to production, how newspaper or magazine photographs are cropped and captioned, or how real life events - like a protest or a speech by a politician - are portrayed in a news report.
These are a simplified representation of a person, groups of people or a place, through basic or obvious characteristics - which are often exaggerated.
For example, Vicky Pollard from Little Britain is a stereotypical example of a working class teenage girl.
They can be used to describe characters quickly, relying on existing audience recognition.
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These are ideas and beliefs, held by media producers, which are often represented in their media texts.
In a newspaper, the ideology of the owner or senior editors could influence the way certain stories are represented, such as lending support to a particular political party.
In a documentary about asylum seekers, the representation of their story could be influenced by the ideology of the filmmaker or producer.
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Media producers can manipulate the emotions of the audience by representing certain characters or situations through editing.
For a documentary style reality show, like Don't Tell the Bride, many hours of film footage may have been recorded, but this footage is edited down to fill a one hour broadcast.
How it is edited will determine how the characters are represented and how the audience respond to them.
Representation is how media texts deal with and present gender, age, ethnicity, national and regional identity, social issues and events to an audience. Media texts have the power to shape an audience’s knowledge and understanding about these important topics.
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In order to analyse media texts to determine how they've represented ideas and issues, it's important to be familiar with some of the key terms.
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This can be particularly important in newspaper articles, where selecting certain facts over others can change the angle of a story; what is omitted is sometimes as important as what is included.
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The representation of a person or fictional character can be influenced through their dialogue; if they use slang or speak with a strong accent, audiences will respond to that person in a very different way than someone who speaks perfect English without the trace of an accent.
Music can also influence representation in a media text. In a film scene, where a character is walking down a street, a slow, sombre piece of music will create a very different representation to a cheerful, upbeat tune.
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The representation of a person or fictional character can be influenced through their dialogue; if they use slang or speak with a strong accent, audiences will respond to that person in a very different way than someone who speaks perfect English without the trace of an accent.
Music can also influence representation in a media text. In a film scene, where a character is walking down a street, a slow, sombre piece of music will create a very different representation to a cheerful, upbeat tune.
Anchorage
These are the words that go along with images to give those pictures a certain meaning in a specific context. This includes captions and headlines in newspapers and taglines in adverts or on film posters.