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Gender and Social-Variable Representation

How the media represents gender and how audiences read it: two views of gender, essentialist and social constructionalist, and the social variables of age, class, gender and ethnicity that shape interpretation.

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What you'll cover

Representing gender 🎬

Representation is how the media presents people, places and ideas. Producers select and construct these images, so a representation is never a simple window on the world. This module looks at how gender is represented, at two different views of gender, and at how the social variables of an audience shape the way they read a media text.

Words for representation 🔑

Learn these four terms before you study how gender is represented.

Two views of gender 🆚

People explain gender differences in two very different ways.

Grade 9 thinking 💡

To reach the top grades, judge whether a media representation reinforces or challenges a stereotype, and remember that audiences decode it differently depending on their age, class, gender and ethnicity.

Match the term to its meaning 🔗

  • representation
  • stereotype
  • essentialist view
  • social constructionalist view
  • how the media presents people, places and ideas
  • a simplified, often exaggerated view of a group
  • the idea that gender differences are natural and inborn
  • the idea that gender differences are shaped by society

Match the social variable to its meaning 🧩

  • age
  • class
  • gender
  • ethnicity
  • how young or old the audience is
  • the social and economic group of the audience
  • whether the audience is male or female
  • the cultural or ethnic background of the audience

What is representation? ❓

What is representation in media studies?

  • How the media presents people, places and ideas.
  • The number of people watching a show.
  • The price of a cinema ticket.

Social variables ✅

Select the TWO social variables that affect how audiences interpret media.

  • Age.
  • Ethnicity.
  • The weather.
  • The camera brand.

Order the process 🪜

An interactive activity.

Summarise the ideas 📝

A media _____ is how the media presents a group of people. A _____ is a simplified view of a group. The _____ view says gender is natural and inborn, while the social _____ view says it is shaped by society. Audiences decode media differently depending on social variables like age and _____.

representation stereotype essentialist constructionalist ethnicity misrepresentation feminist audience gender class

Count the variables 🔢

An interactive activity.

Spot the two social variables 🖍️

An interactive activity.

Which view of gender? 🧭

An interactive activity.

Analyse a representation ✍️

An interactive activity.