Week 5 - Representation: Ideology, Discourse and Power

This week’s lecture was on Representation: Ideology, Discourse and Power. The key readings were Long and Wall’s chapter on ‘Discourse, power and media’, Machin D and Mayr, A’s ‘How to do a Critical Discourse Analysis’.

Long and Wall’s chapter focused on exploring media representations of gender and sexuality within TV series. ‘As Tessa Perkins (Perkins, 1997) tells us, while we think of stereotypes as simple ideas and readily identified the concept is full of complexity, as evidence in your exploration of new stereotypes’. (Long and Wall, 2012) This could possibly suggest that because as an audience we consume products and see people represented in a certain way, this may become part of our idea of that particular thing. This draws attention to the lack of questions we ask about what we consume and why things are presented to us in that way, linking this in also to media power. Furthermore, Long and Wall explain discourse through using Michael Foucault’s theory and support the idea I was explaining further up. ‘Foucault meant by his definition that discourses are ideas embedded in what we do, say and think and that these create in terms upon which we know the world’ (Long and Wall, 2012) 

In the second reading, Machin and Mayr talk about discourse and ideologies within media and how to carry out a Critical Discourse Analysis. They state that ‘we should all think of all communication, whether through language images, or sounds, as being accomplished through a set of semiotic resources, options and choices.’ (Machin, D and Mayr, 2012). Through this they explain how what is communicated through the media is simply seen by many as a set of semiotic sources.

For my found reading this week, I will be looking at a study by Davies, F, which focuses on ‘Pragmatically Oppositional Representations in The L Word’. In the reading Davies points out that ‘Lesbian identity is shown as a status that can be liberating and positive’ (Davies, 2008). This suggests that the increased screening of such characters on TV ensures a positive effect on viewers outlook on these programmes as well as the characters presented.  

To further my knowledge on this topic, I could see how lesbian characters are treated within TV series by other characters. I could furthermore use virtual ethnography to see the opinions viewers have on these characters, such series include Pretty Little Liars and Orange Is the New Black.

References:

1. Long, P and Wall, T (2012) 'Discourse, power and media’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2^nd Edition), London: Pearson. Pp.: 100-129, 363-369

2. Machin, D and Mayr, A (2012) How to do a Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Sage. pp 1-29

3. Davies, F. (2008) ‘Pragmatically Oppositional Representations in The L Word’ IN Beirne, R, (2008) Televising Queer Women, London and New York: Pelgrave Macmillan.  

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