Evidence about the makers

Two sentences turn up in almost every weak answer on representation. The first is that something is a stereotype. The second is that a portrayal is unfair. ⚠️⚠️ NEITHER EARNS MUCH, AND THE SECOND IS WORSE THAN IT LOOKS. Fairness is an opinion, and an examiner cannot credit an opinion as analysis. Two people can look at the same image, disagree about whether it is fair, and neither of them has produced any evidence. ⭐⭐ HERE IS THE IDEA THAT TURNS THIS TOPIC INTO SOMETHING YOU CAN ACTUALLY ARGUE. A REPRESENTATION IS EVIDENCE ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT, NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE IN IT. Nothing in a media text arrived by accident. Somebody decided who would appear. Somebody decided what they would be doing, what they would be wearing, where the camera would sit, how much of the frame they would occupy, and whether they would speak. ⚠️ AND SOMEBODY DECIDED WHAT WOULD NOT APPEAR AT ALL, WHICH IS THE DECISION THAT LEAVES NO TRACE AND MATTERS MOST. ⭐ THOSE DECISIONS ARE THE ONLY THING ACTUALLY ON THE PAGE. THEY ARE WHAT YOU CAN POINT AT, AND THEREFORE WHAT YOU CAN BE MARKED ON. So the analytical question is not whether the portrayal is fair. It is this: what was chosen, what was not, and whose view of the world does that pattern of choices fit? ⭐⭐ AND NOW THE MOVE THAT MAKES IT PROVABLE, BECAUSE WITHOUT IT THE WHOLE THING IS STILL ASSERTION. ⭐ YOU CAN ONLY SHOW THAT A CHOICE WAS MADE BY NAMING THE ALTERNATIVE THAT WAS NOT TAKEN. On its own, an image simply is what it is. Described alongside the version that could equally well have been made, it becomes a decision, and a decision has a maker and a reason. You may already have met the three processes behind this, and the idea that the media never simply show reality. This module is about what to do with that once you are looking at a particular text and a question about gender. ⚠️ ONE THING TO BE CLEAR ABOUT BEFORE GOING FURTHER. EVERYTHING HERE IS A CLAIM ABOUT WHAT A MEDIA TEXT DID. NOTHING IN THIS TOPIC IS A CLAIM ABOUT WHAT ANY GROUP OF PEOPLE IS ACTUALLY LIKE, AND AN ANSWER THAT DRIFTS INTO THAT HAS LEFT THE SUBJECT. Carry one question through everything that follows: what would a different choice have looked like?

Three sentences about one image

The same hypothetical image, written about three ways. Only the third is doing what the mark scheme calls analysis.

Tap the two that point at a choice

A hypothetical poster is being analysed. Tap the TWO sentences that identify a DECISION rather than describing or judging.

The figure occupies a small part of the frame, where the same figure could have been placed centrally
The character is given no line of dialogue, although the scene would have worked with one
The poster is an unfair way to present somebody
The poster shows one figure standing in front of a building

Why naming it is not enough

A student identifies a stereotype in a text and moves on to the next point. Why does that earn so little?

Because naming it describes the text without showing that anybody chose it, and the analysis lies in the decision and the alternative that was not taken
Because stereotypes are not part of what this specification examines
Because the student should have found more stereotypes in the same text
Because examiners prefer students not to criticise media texts

The terms this question is marked on

Five terms, each defined by what it is. Note that the specification attaches no named theorist to representation, so no theory is credited to a person here.

Match each decision to the road not taken

A figure is placed small and towards the edge of the frame
A character is shown waiting while another character acts
A character appears throughout but is given nothing to say
A crowd scene contains nobody from a group the story is about
The camera holds on one character's appearance rather than on what they are doing

The same figure could have been placed centrally and large, so the arrangement is a decision about who the image is for
The roles could have been the other way round with no change to the story, so the allocation is a decision about who does things
A line of dialogue would have fitted the scene, so the silence is a decision about whose view the audience hears
Including them would have cost nothing, so the absence is a decision about who the world of the text contains
The camera could have followed the action instead, so the framing is a decision about what the audience is invited to notice

Two that follow from the alternative

Select the TWO statements that follow from a choice only being provable by naming what was not chosen.

What a text leaves out can be evidence, even though it leaves no trace on the screen
One text can show that a decision was made, while showing a pattern requires looking at many texts
Whether a representation is fair can be settled by close enough analysis of the text
Identifying a choice tells you what the producers personally believed

Building a point that can be marked

A routine for any question asking how a text represents gender, or how far a representation supports a particular reading. ⭐⭐ POINT AT SOMETHING SPECIFIC FIRST, AND MAKE IT SMALL. Where somebody is in the frame, whether they speak, what the camera stays on, who is doing something and who is watching. A small specific detail can be evidenced; a general impression cannot. ⭐⭐ THEN NAME THE ALTERNATIVE. THIS IS THE STEP ALMOST EVERYBODY SKIPS AND IT IS THE ONE THAT DOES THE WORK. The same shot with the positions reversed. The same scene with the line given to the other character. If you cannot describe the version that was not made, you have not yet identified a choice. THEN SAY WHAT THE CHOICE INVITES AN AUDIENCE TO THINK OR ASSUME. ⚠️ INVITES, NOT MAKES: A TEXT CAN OFFER A READING AND AN AUDIENCE CAN DECLINE IT, AND AN ANSWER THAT ALLOWS FOR THAT IS STRONGER THAN ONE THAT DOES NOT. ⭐ THEN, IF THE QUESTION ASKS FOR A PERSPECTIVE, SAY WHOSE VIEW OF THE WORLD SUCH CHOICES FIT, AND ATTRIBUTE IT. Feminist approaches argue. Critics of that reading respond. The words belong to somebody, and saying whose is part of the analysis rather than a decoration on it. AND IF YOU WANT TO CLAIM A PATTERN RATHER THAN A CHOICE, SAY WHAT WOULD BE NEEDED TO SHOW ONE. ⭐ ONE TEXT SHOWS A DECISION. MANY TEXTS MAKING THE SAME DECISION SHOW SOMETHING LARGER, AND SAYING SO EXPLICITLY IS A MARK OF A CAREFUL ANSWER RATHER THAN A HEDGE. ⚠️ THREE HABITS THAT COST MARKS HERE. ⚠️ THE FIRST IS ARGUING ABOUT FAIRNESS. ⭐ IT CANNOT BE SETTLED FROM THE TEXT, SO IT CANNOT BE MARKED FROM THE TEXT. SHIFT TO WHAT WAS CHOSEN AND THE SAME POINT BECOMES CREDITABLE. ⚠️ THE SECOND IS SLIDING FROM THE TEXT TO THE WORLD. ⚠️⚠️ THIS SUBJECT EXAMINES WHAT MEDIA TEXTS DO. AN ANSWER THAT STARTS MAKING CLAIMS ABOUT WHAT MEN OR WOMEN ARE ACTUALLY LIKE HAS LEFT THE SUBJECT AND CANNOT BE CREDITED FOR IT. ⚠️ AND THE THIRD IS ATTACHING A THEORY TO A NAME THE SPECIFICATION DOES NOT SET. ⭐ THIS COURSE NAMES VERY FEW THEORISTS AND ATTACHES NONE TO REPRESENTATION, SO FEMINIST APPROACHES ARE WRITTEN ABOUT GENERICALLY. A NAME THAT IS NOT ON YOUR SPECIFICATION ADDS RISK, NOT CREDIT. One last thing. The strongest answers sound less certain than the weakest ones, because they say what their evidence does and does not show.

Two adverts that do not exist

Both of the following were written for this module. Neither is a real advertisement, neither is for a real product, and no company is described, because the point does not need any of that. The first advert is for a household cleaning product. A person is shown in a kitchen, mid-task, looking pleased with the result. A voice explains what the product does. The person does not speak. The second is for a car. A person is shown driving fast along an empty road at dusk, and speaks one line at the end about how the car makes them feel. ⚠️ NOW, THE THING NOT TO DO. DO NOT SAY EITHER ADVERT IS UNFAIR, AND DO NOT SAY EITHER IS TYPICAL. Both sentences would be judgements, and neither has any evidence under it yet. ⭐⭐ INSTEAD, ASK OF EACH DECISION: WHAT ELSE COULD THEY HAVE DONE, AT NO COST? Take the silence in the first advert. Giving that person the line instead of the voice would have cost nothing at all. The scene would have worked. So the silence is a decision, and what it does is put the person in the position of being shown rather than explaining. ⭐ NOTICE HOW MUCH MORE THAT SENTENCE CAN CARRY THAN A JUDGEMENT WOULD. IT POINTS AT SOMETHING, IT NAMES WHAT WAS AVAILABLE INSTEAD, AND IT SAYS WHAT THE AUDIENCE IS INVITED TO ASSUME. Take the second advert and ask the same. The line at the end could equally have been about what the car does rather than how it feels. So making it about feeling is a decision, and it invites the audience to see the driver as somebody with an inner life the product serves. ⭐⭐ AND NOW THE COMPARISON, WHICH IS WHERE THE REAL POINT IS: ONE ADVERT GIVES ITS PERSON A VOICE AND THE OTHER DOES NOT. Each of those, alone, is one decision by one production team. ⚠️⚠️ BE CAREFUL HERE, BECAUSE THIS IS EXACTLY WHERE ANSWERS OVERREACH. TWO INVENTED ADVERTS CANNOT SHOW A PATTERN. THEY SHOW TWO DECISIONS. ⭐ TO CLAIM SOMETHING LARGER YOU WOULD NEED MANY TEXTS, LOOKED AT SYSTEMATICALLY, AND SAYING SO IS NOT A WEAKNESS IN AN ANSWER. It is the difference between a student who has understood what evidence is and one who has found a phrase that sounds impressive.

Order a point that earns its marks

Put these six moves into the order that turns a detail in a text into a creditable analytical point.

Point at something small and specific in the text
Name the alternative that was available and not taken
Say that this makes it a decision rather than an accident
Say what the decision invites an audience to think or assume
If asked for a perspective, say whose view such choices fit, and attribute it
Say what your evidence does not show, such as whether this is a wider pattern

Assemble the point, in order

This is the shape of a point an examiner can credit. Assemble it.

Where this concept belongs

A student uses the concept of patriarchy as the framing for every representation point they make, across every topic. Why is that a problem on this specification?

Because the specification names it specifically once, under themes and ideologies, while feminist approaches is the broader phrase used more widely, so stretching the named concept everywhere misrepresents where it sits
Because the concept is not one this specification recognises at all
Because it is too advanced a concept for this course
Because using it shows bias that an examiner will penalise

The analysis run

Five questions on choices, alternatives and evidence. Three lives.

Complete the representation facts

The way a media text presents something, always the result of choices made by its producers, is a _____. A simplified and repeated way of presenting a group, which an audience is expected to recognise quickly, is a _____. Ways of analysing texts that ask how gender is represented and whose interests those representations serve are _____. A way of organising society around male power, which those approaches argue media can reflect and reinforce, is _____.

representation stereotype feminist approaches patriarchy countertype audience ideology mediation

Three points to make creditable

Three students write about gender representation in hypothetical texts. Their observations are accurate; what they build on them is the problem.

A student writes that a character is presented in a stereotyped way and that this is unfair to the group concerned. How would you make it creditable?
A student analyses one advert well, then concludes that the media in general represent gender this way. What is wrong?
Asked how far a text supports a feminist reading, a student argues that it does, and says nothing about any other way of reading it. Is that the strongest version?

Analyse a representation properly

Here is an invented poster for a film that does not exist. Two characters stand outside a building. One is centrally placed, large in the frame, facing the camera; the other is smaller, towards the edge, turned away and looking at the first. Only one name appears on the poster, and it belongs to the central figure. Analyse how this poster represents the two characters, and say how far it supports a feminist reading. Either conclusion can earn full marks if you argue it from the poster.

Point at one specific decision in the poster, described precisely
Name the alternative that was available and not taken, and say that this makes it a decision
Explain what that choice invites an audience to think or assume about the two characters
Do the same for a second decision, including one about something that is absent
Say whose view of the world such choices fit, attributing the position rather than asserting it
Say what an audience reading the poster differently could point to
Reach a judgement on how far it supports the reading, and say what your evidence does not show

Gender Representation and the Concept of Patriarchy

Use it, the way the marks are given

What you'll cover