Media

1. Key Concept: Representation
By Ilan Rubens and Layla Keegan

2. Defintion
• Representation: Are the ways in which the media
portrays particular groups, communities,
experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular
ideological or value perspective. Rather than
examining media representations as simply
reflecting or mirroring “reality,” we will be
examining how media representations serve to
“re-present” or to actually create a new reality.

3. Theories
• Representation Theory: The easiest way to
understand the concept of representation is that
watching a TV programme is not the same as
watching something happen in real life. All media
products re-present the real world to us; they’re
showing us a different version of reality, not reality
itself. This theory is useful because the way certain
groups are represented in the media can have a huge
social impact. It can reinforce existing
representations as well as change the way certain
groups are presented, and thus change the way we
see that particular group.

4. Laura Mulvey
• Laura Mulvey created a theory called “The Gaze” which
relates to both genders, talking about how the audience
views the characters presented. This can be how men see
men, how men see women, how men see themselves.
This applies for women as well. In media this can be
shown such as the camera lingering on a females body as
the “male gaze” usually objectifies the female character.
“To gaze implies more than to look at – it signifies a psychological
relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the
gaze” – Jonathon Schroeder

5. Music Video Analysis
• Scouting For Girls - She's So Lovely

6. • As soon as the female is introduced in the video she is immediately
objectified. The majority of the people in the video are male and
they are all staring at her.
• The first line of the song is “I love the way she fills her clothes”,
which shows that he doesn’t talk about this woman on any personal
level and that his love for her is very superficial. Lines like this
continue throughout the song, such as “I love the way she shakes her
hips,”.
• This video does just show a stereotypical representation of women
as being provocative, enticing, “eye-candy” but also displays men as
being more focused on looks than anything else, making them look
shallow.