Co-authored by: M. Keats & M. Solomon
Our most recent #K12Media chat, from February 5, 2018, was focused on the topic of representation. We focused primarily on the definition of representation, from a Media Studies perspective, and included recent examples, including the ad broadcast during the Superbowl, using Dr. Martin Luther King.
The definition of representation we used to frame our discussion comes from “Queensland Senior English”:
"There are two important aspects of representation:
Representations do not reflect or mirror, the real world; they are selective constructions or textual choices.
These selections or choices are mediated or influenced by the attitudes, values and beliefs of both the writer/shaper/speaker and the reader/viewer/listener. These selections do not give us “reality” but “versions of reality
It is important to recognize that textual representations are re-presented versions of people, places, things, objects and concepts. These selective constructions do not reflect what is in the world. Representations are always influenced or mediated by ways of thinking about the world. They are not fixed but can change."
We explored the ways that public figures may represent themselves, as well as positive examples of representation by groups who may otherwise be underrepresented by mainstream media.
It was such a fruitful discussion, that we decided to continue the conversation for another #K12Media chat, on Monday, February 12. We are glad to be continuing the topic, because representation gets very much gets at the heart of so many of the key concepts of media studies, and it also shapes the ways we are conditioned to see the world itself.
In gathering information about this topic, there was the intention to gather hopeful depictions within mainstream media, looking at the ways that social media is helping to promote and question established norms about representation.
And then a verdict happened.
Many Canadians this week tuned into a court case and the not-guilty verdict of a man charged with murder. The response to this case has peeled back and revealed the ways that Canada, as a colonial nation has been shaped by the representations of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, as well as how we have represented ourselves. These representations are played over and over, subtly and not so across a variety of media platforms. It shows up in the ways that headlines are written, it shows up in the ways that stories about FNMI often carry powerful undercurrents within.
As women who benefit from white privilege, from settler/immigrant ancestors, we live on land that has been claimed by Colonial Canada. This colonial perspective affords us inviolable rights, rights that are not extended to people who do not look like us, may not speak like us, or may have ancestors who lived on Turtle Island long before most of it became the land currently known as Canada. It is time to really examine the ways that this White Supremacy benefits some and limits many.
So the focus on representation this week will be directed toward the ways the white supremacy is being constructed & reconstructed within and across a variety of media platforms. We have worked to gather a series of entry points and prompts for discussion.
These will be posted to the Media Literacy topic within the discussion forum.
I also invite you to visit the Association for Media Literacy's website, where this post and the materials will be posted in its singular, original format.