Research into Representation:

Representation = "the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way"

Representation Theory

The Representation Theory is all about thinking how a particular person, group or identity are being presented to the audience. It is important as the way people are presented in the media can have a huge social impact. People's attitudes to certain groups might change because of how they've been presented in the media. The concept of representation is the idea that what you are watching on a screen is not the same as watching something happen in real life. Media products show us one version of reality which they have re-presented, not reality itself. Media producers can either reinforce existing representation of people in the media or change the way they are presented and therefore how the audience receives them. 

Audience Identification:

When creating a media product, the director/producer is trying to get the audience to be on the side of the protagonist and hope the antagonist will fail. To do this, they need the audience to identify with the protagonist - there must be a reason to be on their side. As there isn't usually much time to explore the character and their personality so directions will use a more stereotypical character who the audience will recognise quickly and understand. 

Character Typing:

There are three kinds of character typing:

• Archetype = familiar character, emerged from hundreds of years of storytelling
• Stereotype = character used in media to show a certain group of people (can be positive or negative, think about how hoodies are portrayed within the media)
• Generic type = character familiar through use in a particular genre of movie

There are three approaches of representation:

• Constructionist approach

• Reflective approach

• Intentional approach

Foucault's Constructionist Theory

This approach suggests that our understanding or knowledge of the world is constructed by representations found in a range of media texts utilising media language and narrative.
Constructionists feel that a representation can never be the truth or a altered version since that is ignoring your ability as an individual to make up your own mind and the influences of the society that you live in. 
Any representation is a mixture of:
- the thing itself
- the opinions of the people doing the representation
- the reaction of the individual to the representation
- the context of the society in which the representation is taking place
Meanings are created by the relationship between the producers, the text and the audience:
 - the representation is constructed with a set of ideas and values (producers intent/intended meaning)
 - the context of the representation is part of it (media language choices, media form, placement/location, genre expectations)
 - the audience react to this representation and this depends on their own personal interpretational context:age, gender, political/religious beliefs, nationality etc (negotiated meaning)

Reflective Theory

(The Reflective view of representing)

According to this view, when we represent something, we are taking its true meaning and trying to create a replica of it in the mind of the audience, like a reflection. It can also be mediated to give a certain perspective but essentially it is reflected.

An example of this is the news, the producers want to replicate what is happening in the real world and relay it to the viewer, however it can be mediated by only choosing to report certain news stories but even so, what they do show is real. 

Some other examples are documentaries, reality TV and soap operas, even if they contain major stereotypes or are exaggerated, they are a reflection of real life. 

The Intentional View

This is the opposite of the Reflective Theory, the most important thing in the process of representation is the person doing the representing - they are presenting their view of the thing they are representing and the words or images used mean what they intend them to mean. Representations can be seen as a deliberate attempt to create associations and ideas for the audience, 

One main example of this is advertising, the brand are trying to persuade the viewer to buy the product so they try to get the audience to think in a certain way - that they need to buy this product.

This can also be linked to Stuart Hall's Reception Theory as when a product is produced, a message is encoded at the point of production and this is the Preferred Reading. 

However whether the Preferred Reading is decoded by the viewer all depends on the viewer themselves and their personal experiences, if not it could be an Oppositional Reading  opposite of what the producers meant) or Negotiated Reading (can see both sides of the argument). In relation to the Intentional View, it is similar to the Preferred Reading as this is the message the producers are trying to put across to the viewer.