1. Representation is the process by which the media re-presents society though the use of
genre and technological. There are a number of theorist who have a variety of views on how
representation is used in mass media. As a group we were given the task to create a 90
second teaser trailer for an original Neo-Noir film. Together we came up with the idea of a
man called Sam, who wakes up with no memory of who he is or what happened to him. He
then comes into contact with a women named Mary who claims to be his wife who then
explains who he is and what happened to him. After explaining that he was an undercover
police officer investigating a drug cartel who was found out and was thought to have been
beaten to death but really was just beaten unconscious to such a point where he lost his
memory Mary begins to ask Sam to go out and kill people she claimed where a threat to
them as they knew he was still alive. As the story develops Sam become more sceptical of
whether he is being told the truth or not and begins to question Mary until he finds out that
Mary is the leader of another rival drug cartel and was just using him to weaken her rivals.
She eventually kills himand the filmends with her taking over the territory of the rival
cartel.
One of the representation theorists is Stuart Hall, who discusses the concept of hegemony.
Cultural hegemony is the concept that people of power in the higher classes who have
control of media production produce media texts that instil desired messages and construct
the realities of those in the lower classes who consume said texts. The theory actually links
closely to Karl Marx’s class theory, with the proletariat acting as the lower class and the
bourgeoisie being the media producers. This theory connotes that the representations
portrayed in the media will become accepted stereotypes. For example, using Noir as a case
study, the stereotype of women being objects and the preconceptions of how women
should look were established by the representations of femme fatales such as Kitty Collins,
The Killer (1946, Siodmack) and Lynn Bracken, L.A. Confidential (1997, Hansan). To this
extent our filmdoes not follow the Hall theory as none of the members of the group hold a
position of power however we are in a position to produce media texts but rather than instil
stereotypes of classic femme fatales whose dominance is based on their appearance we
represent Mary as being dominant based off of her power and intelligence.
Another theorist who firmly supports this view of women being sexualised in cinema is
Laura Mulvey. Her Male Gaze theory discusses the concept of how the voyeurism of men is
focused upon when the story is being written and the ideas of how characters are to be
represented. However, she develops on this point by discussing how certain representations
are used to satisfy the narcissismof all men. According to Mulvey, men are so narcissistic
that they take pleasure in seeing other men in power, hence why in films like Drive (2011,
Refn) the only characters of power are male, Driver and the Mob bosses, whilst the only
female character is passive and is in need of help from men, Irene. However, we decided to
go against Mulvey’s theory and instead invert the roles of character based off of their
gender. Rather than being in a position of power and control Sam, the male protagonist, is
vulnerable and completely trusting of the character who possesses the real power in Mary
as he has no choice. We also go against Mulvey’s theory by limiting the ways in which we
sexualise Mary by not having her in revealing clothing.
Some theorists however take a much more simplistic approach to representation theory.
Daniel Chandler is the mind behind the general theory, which connotes that all media texts,
2. no matter how realistic they appear to be, are in reality just representations of society
rather than bold, transparent reflections of society. He theorises that the constant re-use of
representations in media result in said representations becoming ‘normal’ and accepted as
being truthful. For example, in almost all films of the past there has been either a male
protagonist or a male in a position of power, despite whatever flaws they may have. This
had led to the patriarchal view that men should be in power at all times. We have the
representations of Lou, Nightcrawler (2014, Groly) and J.J. Gittes, Chinatown (1974,
Polanski) to thank for this stereotype as despite their character flaws, being a terrible
person and a dumb lug respectively, they still feature as protagonists. However, in our text
we present a different view and don’t offer either a realistic representation or bold,
transparent reflection of society, instead we present a world where women possess power
over men who are completely vulnerable and have no real escape or choice.
A contrasting theory to this is the concept of Pluralism in main stream media. It is argued
that media is democratic thanks to 3 factors. The first being the quantity of media
consumed by a variety of groups in order to keep all these audience members happy they
will have different representations of the same thing in order to satisfy the views of the
audiences. And thirdly, the fact that all of these representations of the same thing exists
create an accurate, unbiased representation of society. An example of this is that in order to
keep female viewers happy, more female characters are being featured in film Noir. The
likes of Amy Dunne. Gone Girl (2014, Fisher) replacing the likes of Deckard, Blade Runner
(1982. Scott). With our text we are appealing to the modern, feminist audiences who would
enjoy to see Mary having the level of power and control she has over Sam.
To conclude, I believe that the most accurate of these theories is the pluralist theory. Which
therefore means that the theory I find least accurate is the hegemony theory as the two
contrast one another. I believe that the pluralist theory is accurate as if it were not true then
genres would never be developed and examples of hybrids wouldn’t exist as there would be
no need for change as audiences would ask for change as they wouldn’t know better or
have a choice. However, whilst I believe the pluralist theory is the most accurate in terms of
general mass media, the theory most applicable to our text is the Laura Mulvey Male Gaze
theory as it is most applicable to the Noir genre and the conventions we’ve tried to subvert.
