Films such as Attack The Block are set in council estate in London - but that has been made to look a specific way. Does it fairly represent what is actually there/happening?
For representation to be meaningful to audiences there needs to be a shared recognition of people, situation, ideas etc.
All representations therefor have an ideology behind them. Different people see films in a different way. E.g: In the west we are capitalist, we see success as money (ultimately), not everybody has the same perspective. Filmmakers make films around ideologies, there own ideologies.
We live in a capitalist system, so films are mainly capitalist - the objective is always getting to the top.
Media's role is seen as reinforcing the dominant ideologies.
Questions we should propose when analysing media (watching tv, reading magazine):
1) What sense of the world is it making?
2) What does it imply? Is it typical of the world or deviant?
3) Who is it speaking to? For whom? To whom?
4) What does it represent to us and why? How do we respond to this representation?
These are the concepts in which can look at representation through:
- Marxism - left wing ideology, state has bigger influence in society, 'working people held back by the rich', believe that the system should be lead from the bottom.
- Feminism - the belief that women are treated unfairly in society (don't get same opportunities as men). Attempt to re-balance equality. Current issue - gender pay gap in media industry, very few protagonist are males in films, sexual harassment scandal etc.
- Stereotypes - easy/lazy way of showing who a character is as audience has a set of characteristics of specific person. Enhances realism.
Laura Mulvey - argues that the camera is a male, all films shot through a males perspective (male audiences in mind).
John Berger - argues that "films are about men, women were just there as secondary" (around men).
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