A2 media studies coursework #21 representation
- 2. The dictionary definition of representation is “the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way.” In media studies terms this definition is widened and depends on things such as; Age, Gender, Social Class, Ethnicity, Sexuality and regional identity. This helps to breakdown the representation of a character to further analyse what their representation is or means.
- 3. There are many theorists with theories on representation for example Laura Mulvey and “The Male Gaze” in her dissertation named Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema Mulvey comments on the male gaze and claims that films represent women as passive objects put there for male desires. Bell Hooks whose theory is based on colour codes she claimed that white women are considered more desirable because they greatly represent the western ideology of beauty. John Berger claims that in the media women are solely used for the purposes of objectification. He clams that this is apparent in all forms of media. He also criticises western media culture for focusing on the depictions of women.
- 4. Our main character, Ricky is a 16-year-old male student from London with a strong passion for video games. We represent him as rebellious as he is shown to be truanting from school, this we feel will relate to audiences as they themselves may remember the day they did the same or the day they really wanted to but never had the courage. He is represented as a typical teenager who loves gaming. Again this relates too much of our audience especially those who also enjoy gaming. Our portrayal of Ricky can be seen as stereotypical. Many people may believe that teenagers care more about Xbox and socialising than education and making something of themselves and will drop anything to put that first.
- 5. During the gaming scenes of the film his representation changes to a more serious character as he defeats his opponents. However he is also shown as indecisive as he can’t make his mind up about which location he wants to play in. Finally, Ricky’s costume is typical of what any teenage boy would wear to bed, until he enters the gaming world where he takes on the costume of his gaming character.