REPRESENTATIONS IN MEDIA

 REPRESENTATIONS IN MEDIA

Representations are the ways in which the media portray particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective

For instance, it is widely perceived by the media that females are seen and conveyed as the "weaker", emotional beings in comparison to males, where illustrated, females generally "lack" the power to control over matters. Opposingly, males are pictured as stronger and more dominant. A cliché move Hollywood maintains to apply is how "vulnerable" and "powerless" female figures would end up being protected and saved by the dauntless, "came to rescue" male figure(s). Accordingly, the media gives a representation, either positively or negatively, to us audiences established on their piece. In this case, the media invents a representation on how females are portrayed as wimps.

Positive representation of women

Some films have developed a positive representation of women, in which they are depicted overpowering the population, instead of longing to be saved by the heroic male character. Such as, Diana Prince from the movie Wonder Woman. Diana, the woman, is perceived as the one with dominance and control. Without in-depth analysis, we can anticipate whether the movie will show us a positive or negative representation of women, given through the people who has helped invent her character, the directors, a woman named Patty Jenkins.

Wonder Woman - Rise of the Warrior [Official Final Trailer] - Warner Bros. UK

Negative representation of women

In contrary, an example of a negative representation of women to society, where the male figure rescued the female figure, from the recently released film, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage"; Carnage (a man) saves Shriek (a woman). We can see that Carnage is portrayed as the more dominant figure and relatively, Shriek, the woman is depicted as weakened. This is apparent for the possible reason of, again, seeing from the person who created their characters, Venom's director, a man named Andy Serkis.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) - Carnage Saves Shriek