Research into stereotypes TESSA PERKINS:

TESSA PERKINS! needs to be researched as her work STEREOTYPES will occur in the exam relate some forms to her etc.
Why she said it and what she said it about LINKS EVIDENCE
EDITING - NON digetive and degitive and also other editing forms.

Tessa Perkins:

Representation is a key concept in Media education. Understanding the difference between
what is real and what is represented is vital to our understanding of any media text.
IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR THE MEDIA TO PRESENT THE WORLD AS IT REALLY
IS. BECAUSE THE MEDIA CONSTRUCTS MEANINGS ABOUT THE WORLD THEY
CHANGE OR MEDIATE WHAT IS REALLY THERE.
Representation is concerned with the way that people, ideas and events are presented to us.
What appears on screens, in print etc., does not appear by accident, but through a process of
decision making from within the media industries. A media text then, needs to be viewed in
this light - as a series of representations, a vehicle for beliefs, values and attitudes, which
can be reinforced ( or challenged) by the audience.
What we, as Audience can do.
(1) Spot representations ( by understanding how they are created )
(2) be critical of representations ( by deciding whether they are 'fair' )
(3) understand why familiar representations keep recurring ( is it to do with society, the media
? who's really in charge ? )
Towards a Definition
The concept of representation is to do with how the media constructs meanings about the
world - they re-present it and help us make sense of it. For representations to make sense
there must be a shared recognition by audiences of the ideas, values, situations etc. contained
in the text. However not all audiences will interpret these meanings in the same way. There is
always the possibility of alternative representations.
Representation is not an easy concept to define in a simplistic way. It can have a number of
different senses. Dyer, suggests 4 variations;

• A selective Re-presentation of reality.
This is obvious in newspapers, where the form is completely different from the events
reported, but less so in television serials, which often succeed in creating the illusion of a
transparent window on the world with a similar time frame and rhythm to our own.

• A typical or representation of reality
Media often use stereotypes to typify particular social groups as a form of shorthand. i.e.
gender,race,age

• The process of speaking on behalf of or as a representative of a particular position.
Whose views are being put forward in particular messages? Whose voices are being
heard for example southern and nothern tones.

• The meanings which media messages represent for audiences.
What do readers bring to messages which affects how they interpret them?
What actual sense is made when particular messages are understand?

How this link to tessa perkins is that through hewr beliefs and jestures towdards sterotypes in any sort of programme or form this is what her opioions and thought are which change the media industry;


• Stereotypes are not always negative (e.g. 'The French are good cooks').

• They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful ( e.g. 'upper class twits').
• They can be held about one's own group.

• They are not rigid or unchanging ( e.g. the "cloth cap worker of the 1950's became the
1980's 'consumerist home-owner who holidays in Spain').

• They are not always false. (e.g. 'Media Studies teachers tend to be liberal/left wing in their
politics'.

Stereotyping has tended to suggest that it is wrong to see people in catagories. Yet in the field
of social pyschology it has long been recognised that catagorisation is a fundamental process
necessary for humans to make sense of the world. Humans need to impose structure on events
,experiences and people.

These are some of her qoutes;

You could look at a portrait of someone and say "That's so-and-so". But you'd be wrong; it's
not "so-and-so", it's just a canvas, and a combination of different colours of paint.

You could watch a Natural History programme on TV and be amazed by the antics of an
orang-utang; but you're not really watching an orang-utang; you're watching a recording,
carefully selected and constructed by those making the programme, to conjure up an 'image'
of orang-utang behaviour.

So with this revision in hand i know can look at an exam question and relate to someone who is famous and has a reflect opioions upon this type of subject.

Yet again all the bold writing are the key points to look at.