Relations and Politics of Representation

Shiraz and NathanCMNS 486 (Summer 2008)

Objectives

• To review racial representation of Indigenous Americans, Africans, Asians Europeans, and Hispanics on American and Canadian Television.

• To review relations and politics of integrated and segregated representation in selected television channels.

• To review eighth annual television diversity report card (2006 – 2007) of Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition.

Format of Presentation

• Review definitions and genre• Review selected televisions channels in Canada and the USA • Review eighth annual television diversity report card (2006 – 2007) of

Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition• Review Herman Gray readings: The politics of representation in

network television• Watch television programs from selected channels • Group work to reflect on relations and politics of representation of

racial diversity.• Group feedback, class discussion and conclusion

What is Representation?Source: Deacon, D., Pickering, M., Golding, P., Murdock, G. (1999). Researching Communication.

New York : Oxford University Press

• Representation is a general process through which meanings are embodied in specific material forms: speech, written language, visual images, or any combination of these – as, for example, in film and television. It is a more specific sense of the term which is critical for media studies, covering the meanings attached to particular views of given social groups or categories where these mediate public understanding of the actual groups or categories. This entails process of “speaking for” or “speaking of” those who are represented, in images, characterizations, descriptions and so on, processes which raise important issues not only about the content and form of media representations , but also about those producing them, about public access and denial of public access.

• Representations thus simultaneously brings into critical questions both the mode and the degree of typification and representativeness in media texts and images – covering under-representation, over-representation and misrepresentation – and the political economy underpinning the media personnel and organizations in media production.

• Representations are built around group conceptions of other groups ; they invariably have ‘us’ and ‘them’ implication, and in this way they function as vehicles of ideological transmission (p397).

What is evidence-based group generalizations

and group stereotypes?Source: Cortes, C. E. (2000). The Children are watching: How the media teach about

diversity. New York: Teachers College Press.

• There are three basic differences between evidence-based group generalizations and group stereotypes.

• First, group generalizations must be flexible, and group knowledge must be “open to change upon the discovery of new information, ideas, and interpretations that might challenge current beliefs” Group generalizations must be modified in the face of compelling evidence. Group stereotypes tend to be fixed, rigid, and resistant to new knowledge and evidence.

• Second, generalizations incorporate the notion of intragroup heterogeneity, and stereotypes tend to foster notions of intragroup homogeneity.

• Third, generalizations provide clues to individuals who belong to different social groupings. In stereotypes, these clues tend to become assumptions. Generalizers tend to use or imply such words as “some, many, and most”. Stereotypes tend to use “all, or almost all”. Stereotypes encourage others to internalize these perceptions (p150).

What is Ideology? Source: Deacon, D., Pickering, M., Golding, P., Murdock, G. (1999). Researching Communication.

New York : Oxford University Press

• Ideology is a set of ideas, values, assumptions, and beliefs and the ways these govern our choices, tastes, actions, and commitments. Ideology is a form of cultural power, since it is characteristic of and operates in the interests of social groups who are ranked in terms of their relative social power.

• Ideology entails the naturalization of interested knowledge, beliefs and values, presenting these as generally applicable, absolute or eternally relevant to all groups in any given society.

Stuart Hall on Ideology

Three things about ideology. • First, ideologies do not consist of isolated and separate concepts, but

in the articulation of different elements into a distinctive set or chain of meanings. In liberal ideology, freedom is connected with individualism and the free market: in socialist ideology, freedom is a collective condition dependent on equality of condition.

• Second, ideological statements are made by individuals: but ideologies are not the product of individual consciousness or intention. Rather we formulate our intentions within ideology.

• Third, ideologies work by constructing for their subjects (individual and collective) positions of identification and knowledge which allow them to utter ideological truths as if they were their authentic authors (p19)

Sign, Signifier, Signified

• Sign is the basic element of communication which refers to something other than itself, and which potentially has an expressive function at the levels of both denotation and connotation

• The sign is composed of two constituent units

• Signifier – physical form of the sign

• Signified – the mental concept to which the sign refers

Faith Healing Zone, Disney World

Shortlist of Television Channels in Canada and the USA

• Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN)• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC television)• AZN Televsion: the Network for Asian America• MTV Desi• MTV Chi• American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC television)• National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC television)• CBS• FOX• CTV• Global• Etc…

Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition Eighth annual television diversity report card (2006 – 2007)

Review of the Herman Gray Readings: The politics of representation in network

television

• Roots & The Cosby Moment• Television as a tool for managing difference• The role of TV in the construction of the privileged, white, middle-

class identity• Upward mobility & the American Dream – Horatio Alger tales• Discursive practices which inform television (assimilation, pluralism, &

multiculturalism)

The Cosby Moment

The Cosby Show (1984)

Important because of the way in which it repositioned the representation of race as something that could exist comfortably within television’s existing model/discourse

• Upper-middle-class status allowed for easy audience identification regardless of race, gender, or class

• Status made it difficult to view them as an object of derision or fascination simply because of race

• The most complex representation of African American life that had been seen at that time

Discursive Practices

Assimilation (Invisibility)

• Worlds without signs of injustice & void of signs of African American (or other minority) culture

• Elimination/Marginalization of cultural difference

• Privileged position of the white middle-class

• Prejudice operates at an individual, rather then systemic level

Family Ties (1982)

Discursive Practices

Pluralism (Separate-but-Equal)

• Black worlds that parallel white ones (ie: middle-class & domestic)• Recognition of race as basis of cultural difference• Segregated world in which tension comes from common domestic themes

(relationships, raising children, etc)

• Executive Producer: Quincy Jones

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990)

Discursive PracticesMulticulturalism (Diversity)

• Racial experience presented from complex, sometimes contradictory perspectives

• Viewers experience culture from multiple positions• Differences are not only acknowledged, but explored• Producer: Keenen Ivory Wayans

In Living Color (1990)

Little Mosque on the Prairie (2007)

• Creator/Writer: Zarqa Nawaz• Traditional sit-com format, with storylines

firmly in the middle-class domestic discourse (which may partially account for its appeal)

References Little House on the Prairie (1974) – a long running drama celebrating the white American pioneer & settler (strongly assimilationalist)

Discursive Practices

Season 1, Episode 1 - Activity

While watching the following excerpt, look for references to each of Gray’s key themes (discursive practices, social mobility, the domestic discourse, and ‘The Cosby Moment’)

• How are each of these used to frame racial representations?• Do you feel the techniques used are effective in challenging the

hegemonic discourse of upwardly mobile, middle-class domesticity, as explained by Gray?

Season 1, Episode 1

Behind the Mosque

What does Zarqa Nawaz have to say about representation?

Genres• News• Drama• Talk Shows• Game Shows• Reality TV• Specialized Programming (HBO, BET, MTV chi, etc.)• Advertisements• Others???

Genre Clips

AZN TV

The Oprah Winfrey ShowBET Spot with CEO

Survivor

Group Activity

Get into groups & examine the previous TV genres using Gray’s Discursive Practices & theories of social mobility

– How are they informed by Gray’s discursive practices?– Do Gray’s models apply to these other genres?– Broadly (& hypothetically) speaking, what kind of impact do you

think an increase of ‘behind-the-scenes’ diversity would have on these genres?

Genres• News• Drama• Talk Shows• Game Shows• Reality TV• Specialized Programming (HBO, BET, MTV chi, etc.)• Advertisements• Others???

Fin.