representation Research and present
objectives
Focus on individual text for research and present to class Prepare for UNIT 4 essays on Tuesday
Watch, listen and take notes
Stuart Hall
What does Hall do with the word ‘representation’?
Write down in your own words how he analyses the word.
What discussions is he interested in?
starter
Analyse image using Fiske as your theorist:
“Hegemony... Posits (suggests) a constant contradiction between ideology and the social experience of the subordinate that makes this interface (place where they meet) into an inevitable site of ideological struggle”
But first discuss the above statement and decide what it means for our debate.
Choose a text for research
Do the right thing Crash Boys n the Hood Macintyre investigates La Haine Bullet Boy Adulthood or Kidulthood Fresh Prince Malcolm X
Or one of your own choosing inc. Newspaper images, Internet pages
2mins to decide Refine that choice to a scene, trailer or even still image 3mins to find short text (trailer, short scene, poster or still image, newspaper image and headline etc)
25 minutes
To analyse and prepare presentation Do NOT spend your time fiddling with the graphics of the presentation. We want in depth analysis not pretty pictures. Don’t worry about embedding hyperlinks JUST have the link already open in Safari. We will view from machine to machine.
Presentations
Don’t read what you have written Explore your ideas and encourage discussion. Make notes on each other. Save to disk.
Plenary
Targets: Are you meeting the targets we set the other day for developing your writing? How can you improve? List ways in which you will revise for the UNIT4 exam.
Gramsci
Gramsci used the term hegemony to denote the predominance of one social class over others (e.g. bourgeois hegemony). This represents not only political and economic control, but also the ability of the dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are subordinated by it accept it as 'common sense' and 'natural'.
Fiske
'Consent must be constantly won and rewon, for people's material social experience constantly reminds them of the disadvantages of subordination and thus poses a threat to the dominant class... Hegemony... posits a constant contradiction between ideology and the social experience of the subordinate that makes this interface into an inevitable site of ideological struggle'
Stuart Hall
argues that the media appear to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it. argued that the dominant ideology is typically inscribed as the 'preferred reading' in a media text, but that this is not automatically adopted by readers. The social situations of readers/viewers/listeners may lead them to adopt different stances. 'Dominant' readings are produced by those whose social situation favours the preferred reading; 'negotiated' readings are produced by those who inflect the preferred reading to take account of their social position; and 'oppositional' readings are produced by those whose social position puts them into direct conflict with the preferred reading
Hall’s codes
dominant (or 'hegemonic') reading: the reader fully shares the text's code and accepts and reproduces the preferred reading (a reading which may not have been the result of any conscious intention on the part of the author(s)) - in such a stance the code seems 'natural' and 'transparent’. negotiated reading: the reader partly shares the text's code and broadly accepts the preferred reading, but sometimes resists and modifies it in a way which reflects their own position, experiences and interests (local and personal conditions may be seen as exceptions to the general rule) - this position involves contradictions. oppositional ('counter-hegemonic') reading: the reader, whose social situation places them in a directly oppositional relation to the dominant code, understands the preferred reading but does not share the text's code and rejects this reading, bringing to bear an alternative frame of reference (radical, feminist etc.) (e.g. when watching a television broadcast produced on behalf of a political party they normally vote against).
Monaco
This unusual ability of film to “validate” reality is its most important mimetic political function. (2000) It is still rare for a casting director to hire an African-American to play a role that isn’t specified as “Black”. (2000) Racism pervades American film because it is a basic strain in American histroy.