LESSON 48: ALVARADO SAYS WHAT?

The SUN EXPERIMENT is an idea based on a very simple media studies tool: the content analysis. Put simply, counting images from a publication and then grouping these onto categories for comparison. Such work whilst limited enables us to have a very simple view of the nature of the product [and of its audience].

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. More than this, the representation varies according to the intentions of the text, the values of the institution and the needs of the audience.  There is no singular ‘truth’ – there is no singular notion of family, or love or relationships or youth or age or ethnicity .  There are only common perceptions created by the media – the ‘myths’ of  Roland Barthes

We look at Alvarado and the Representation of Racial types in the Media  [Alvarado Learning the Media 1987]

He suggests 4 dominant types: the exotic; the dangerous; the comic; the pitied

We may now apply his ideas to other groups and see if we can come up with similar dominant types for these groups: the old; the young; the poor; the rich

Key Questions about Specific Representations

•          What is being represented?

•          How is it represented?

•          How is the representation made to seem ‘true’, ‘commonsense’ or ‘natural’?

•          Whose representation is it? Whose interests does it reflect? How do you know?

•          At whom is this representation targeted? How do you know?

•          What does the representation mean to you?

•          What does the representation mean to others?

•          How do people make sense of it?

•          With what alternative representations could it be compared?

Comparisons with related representations within or across genres or media can be very fruitful, as can comparisons with representations for other audiences, in other historical periods or in other cultural contexts.