Media Representations: Part 3 – Feminism
While the focus for all kinds of feminism is on how and why media representations contribute to female inequality, different approaches produce different forms of explanation. Liberal feminism generally focuses on how the mass media can be purged of sexist assumptions and representations, such that women in particular are neither stereotyped into a narrow range […]
Media Representations: Part 4 – Pluralism
Pluralist explanations recognise a variety of different media representations of categories such as gender. They also emphasise the importance of the role of the audience in interpreting such representations – ideas that relate to two dominant themes in pluralist explanations – diversity and choice. In terms of diversity, contemporary media and audiences are characterised more […]
Media Representations: Part 5 – Postmodernism
While Marxist and Feminist perspectives generally discuss media representations in terms of how and why they misrepresent particular groups, Baudrillard (1995) argues representations shouldn’t be considered in terms of whether something is fairly or unfairly represented; this follows because, he argues, how something is represented is its reality. In this respect conventional approaches to understanding […]
Media Representations: women in advertising
15-minute Ted-Talk by film-maker Jean Kilbourne (director of “Killing Us Softly“) that looks at some of the ways women have been – and still are – portrayed in and through advertising – and some of the possible effects of these forms of representation.