What is a representation?

A representation is a constructed media text. Representations can take many forms, including: radio segments, newspaper articles, photographs, films, television programs, television news segments. While some media texts - like television news and documentary films - may seem realistic, we have to remember that this is not the same as experiencing it ourselves. At best, the media can only represent reality. What we see on our television screens and on the front page of our daily newspapers is someone else's interpretation of events, ideas and people. Someone has constructed these texts.

What are codes?

In Media Studies, the word ‘code’ refers to any system of signs that are used to communicate meaning. When you think about the real world, we are surrounded by signs: traffic lights, written language, mathematics, clothing, body language.

What is a convention?

Conventions are well-established ways of constructing texts

Consider the front page of a newspaper. The name of the newspaper will feature prominently at the top of the page. Beneath this, we have a number of articles. It is a convention of newspapers that the most important news is placed on the front page. Indeed, the most important articles appear closer to the top of the page than the less important stories. Headlines are another convention of newspapers which tell readers what the article is about. Hard news articles which appear on the cover of newspapers are usually written in in a particular style, often known as an inverted pyramid which features all of the important information first. The important aspects of a story - who, what, when, where, why - are usually included in the lead or introductory paragraph. Photographs will usually be accompanied by a caption to explain their significance.

Here is a good definition to help solidify your understanding of the concept: “As a type of film or television develops, filmmakers and directors find certain techniques that become useful or effective in creating texts. These techniques get used again and again, and eventually they are associated with and are used to define certain types of texts. The techniques then become known as conventions.”

Construction of Texts

All media texts are constructed. As they're being constructed, important decisions are made about how the subject will be represented. Consider a photograph. When you take a photograph, you make a number of important decisions about how the subject will be represented, including:

• lighting
• camera angle
• shot size
• visual composition
• color
• posture and facial expression of the subject.

All of these decisions influence the way people will respond to the photograph. Although this is a simple example, all media texts go through this process of construction. As a result, media texts often reflect the views and values of those who create them and the society in which they were created.

Movie Posters

Movie posters are a type of representation. As we have discussed in class, representations can reflect the values of those who created them and the society in which they were produced. It's interesting to note that, over time, as women have gained greater equality, the way women are represented in movie posters has changed considerably.

In order to compare such representations, we need to describe how they have been constructed making reference to the appropriate codes and conventions. Movie posters communicate meaning in two ways, through written language and images. These images often take the form of illustrations, photographs and computer generated imagery. Here is a list of codes that movie posters frequently use:

• written language
• typography
* photographs and illustrations
• lighting
• camera angle (overshot, high angle eye level, low angle, undershot)
• shot size (extreme long shot, long shot, full shot, mid shot, close up, extreme close up)
• visual composition
• color
• body language
* cropping 

Semiotics tells us that signs can have both denotative and connotative meaning. The denotative meaning of a sign is what it literally means. The connotative meaning of a sign is what we associate with it. This varies from person to person. Nevertheless, there are widespread cultural connotations attached to signs. Think about the colour black. Depending on the context, this is a colour that is usually associated with funerals and death. When you describe a representation, you need to describe what is in the representation, referring to appropriate codes and conventions.

Describing representations

Describing a representation means explaining how a text has been constructed. It involves identifying the codes that have been used in a representation and describing the meaning that these signs carry.

A Sample Analysis

This analysis of the representations compares the posters for The Wolf Man (1941) and Serenity (2005).

Over the last seventy years, movie posters have represented women in a variety of ways. As values towards women have changed, so too has their representation in these media texts. The poster for The Wolf Man (1941) represents the female character as helpless and incapable of defending herself. The female character is positioned in the bottom third of the poster, sprawled helplessly across the ground, her posture and facial expression contribute to this representation. Her eyes are closed and her expression blank as if she has fainted in the presence of the werewolf. The colour and style of her dress - elaborate, ruffled and pink - contributes to a sense of femininity. Her hair appears to be carefully styled. There is a strong juxtaposition between the representation of this female character and the Wolf Man. Whereas the female character has been represented as delicate and feminine, the Wolf Man is menacing and domineering. In this representation, the werewolf towers over the defenseless woman. Compared to her elegant and feminine appearance, the werewolf is represented as dark and savage, lips drawn back in a snarl. Many horror and science-fiction movie posters during this period represented women as weak and defenseless. It wasn't until much later, as values towards women changed, that women showed greater independence and strength in these representations. The poster for the film Serenity is a considerable contrast. There are three women represented in this movie poster. One of them - a character called River - is in the foreground of the image. In contrast to the poster for the Wolf Man, in which the character is represented as weak and defenseless, the image of River is constructed to convey great strength and independence. She is crouched in a martial arts with menacing blades clutched in each hand. The deadliness of these weapons is accentuated by a lens flare on the axe which glints savagely. She stares straight ahead, a look of determination and strength etched into her face. There are also two other women in this representation. Both of them are also holding weapons, putting them on equal footing with the males in the poster. Whereas there was a strong contrast between the representation of men and women in The Wolf Man, the females in this representation are constructed to appear equal to and, in one case, stronger than the males, showing how values towards women have changed since the early days of American cinema.

This analysis has a number of strengths, it:

• compares representations;
• uses the phrase ‘representation’;
• refers to specific parts of the representation - such as the figure’s body language - and the meaning this conveys;
• compares parts of individual representations, such as the representation of a male and female within the poster;
• acknowledges the link between changing values and changing representations.  

Assessment Task: Representations of Women in Movie Posters

Due Date: Friday 13th February, 2009.

Describe how representations of women in movie posters have changed over the last seventy years. Select four movie posters from above, two from old films and two from more recent movies. Compare how the females in these images are represented, referring to the appropriate codes and conventions of this form.

Assessment Criteria

Criterion 1: Describe representations in media texts;

Criterion 2: Compare the construction of different representations in media texts and across media forms.

Criterion 3: Analyse representations within the context of institutional practices, media history and cultural values.

Codes and Conventions of Narrative Film

All films and television programs are constructed. During the production process, decisions are made about how parts of the narrative - places, people and events - will be represented. When audiences watch films, they are often so absorbed in the narrative, that they don't think about how the text has been constructed.

Film and television programs are constructed using a complex series of codes and conventions. By understanding these codes and conventions, we can explain how filmic representations have been constructed.

• Camera Techniques
- shot size (extreme long shot, long shot, mid shot, close up, extreme close up)
- camera angle (overshot, high angle, eye level, low angle, undershot)
- camera movement (tracking, pan, tilt, crane, handheld, steadicam, zoom, dolly)
- focus (deep focus, narrow depth of field)

• Lighting
- key light
- fill light
- back light
- high key
- low key

• Visual Composition and Mise-en-scene
- costumes
- colour
- make up

• Acting
- body language
- tone of voice

• Sound
- dialogue
- music
- sound effects

• Editing
- cut
- cross dissolve
- fade in
- fade out

• Written Language
- titles
- text
- credits
- subtitles

Conventions

Title sequence
Closing credits
Genre

Who is Joss Whedon?

Joss Whedon is a writer and director responsible for creating a number of television programs including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. His career began as a script writer for the television program Roseanne. He worked for a number of years as a script doctor, contributing to films like Toy Story and Speed. One of his earliest experiences writing for films was his script for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The original movie was more lighthearted than Whedon's original script. Five years later, he was able to resurrect the concept as a weekly hour long television program starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. The program was a critical success and ran for seven seasons before continuing as a series of comic books.

Equality Now Speech

In 2006, Whedon was honoured by the organisation Equality Now for his contribution to representing women as strong, independent and intelligent.

Meryl Streep: Mothers are often the vanguard of cultural institutions and transformation and tonight, as well as paying tribute to Joss Whedon and the wonderful female characters that he’s created, we'd like to pay special tribute to his mother, the late Lee Stearns. It’s nice when children credit their mothers for their success. And, I've heard a lot about Lee, whose radical ideas about women’s strength and independence and passion and empathy inspired Joss to create not only Buffy the Vampire Slayer but many other strong women characters in Firefly, in Serenity and his other work. Lee Sterns also inspired the creation of this organization, Equality Now, which was co-founded by Jessica Neuwirth, one of her -- one of Lee’s, favorite high school students. She would have been very proud of you, Jessica and Joss, for all you’ve done and continue to do, and, her spirit is here with us tonight. Joss also has an extremely energetic and ubiquitous fan base that’s organized fundraisers across the country for Equality Now, his super hero’s favorite charity. So it’s my great, great pleasure to introduce our special honoree, Joss Whedon, the wonderful man who's about to bring us Wonder Woman. We commend him for his outstanding contribution to equality in film and television. Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Joss Whedon.

Joss Whedon: Thank you. I -- I didn’t know when I came here tonight that was going to happen. No, I knew I’d be here, the part about my mother, and -- and I just want to thank Meryl Streep and -- and everybody for -- for speaking so eloquently about her. I'm surrounded tonight by people of extraordinary courage, and I know a thing or two about courage myself because I read a book with some courage in it one time. And it sounds really like a lot of work so I’ll just keep writing.

I write. The most courageous thing I've ever done is something called a press junket, which is actually pretty courageous, believe me, because they ask you the same questions over and over and over and over and over and over. I've done as many as 48 in a day, these interviews, and they really -- they don’t come up with the fresh stuff. So, there is one question that I've been asked almost every time I’ve been interviewed. So I thought tonight, briefly, I would share with you one question and a few of my responses. Because, when you're asked something 500 times, you really start to think about the answer. So now, I will become a reporter. It’s going to be amazing, the transformation.

So, Joss, I, a reporter, would like to know, why do you always write these strong women characters?
I think it’s because of my mother. She really was an extraordinary, inspirational, tough, cool, sexy, funny woman and that’s the kind of woman I've always surrounded myself with. It’s my friends, particularly my wife, who is not only smarter and stronger than I am but, occasionally taller too. But, only sometimes, taller. And, I think it -- it all goes back to my mother.

So, why do you write these strong women characters?

Because of my father. My father and my stepfather had a lot to do with it, because they prized wit and resolve in the women they were with above all things. And they were among the rare men who understood that recognizing somebody else’s power does not diminish your own. When I created Buffy, I wanted to create a female icon, but I also wanted to be very careful to surround her with men who not only had no problem with the idea of a female leader, but, were in fact, engaged and even attracted to the idea. That came from my father and stepfather -- the men who created this man, who created those men, if you can follow that.

So, why do you create these strong, how you say, the women -- I’m in Europe now, so, it’s very, it’s international -- these -- I don’t know where though -- these strong women characters?

Well, because these stories give people strength, and I've heard it from a number of people, and I've felt it myself, and its not just women, its men, and I think there is something particular about a female protagonist that allows a man to identify with her that opens up something, that he might -- an aspect of himself -- that he might be unable to express -- hopes and desires -- he might be uncomfortable expressing through a male identification figure. So it really crosses across both and I think it helps people, you know, in -- in that way.

So, why do you create these strong women characters?

Cause they’re hot.

But, these strong women characters…

Why are you even asking me this?! This is like interview number 50 in a row. How is it possible that this is even a question? Honestly, seriously, why are you -- why did you write that down? Why do you -- Why aren’t you asking a hundred other guys why they don’t write strong women characters? I believe that what I am doing should not be remarked upon, let alone honored and there are other people doing it. But, seriously, this question is ridiculous and you just gotta stop.

So, why do you write these strong women characters?

Because equality is not a concept. It’s not something we should be striving for. It’s a necessity. Equality is like gravity, we need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and women who’s confronted with it. We need equality, kinda now.

So, why do you write these strong female characters?

Because you’re still asking me that question. Thank you very much for including me tonight. Thank you all.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

'We both know that there are real monsters. But there's also real heroes that fight monsters. And that's me.'
- Buffy Summers

Whedon has a reputation for writing strong female characters. As he noted in an interview with Darkhorse Comics, the idea for Buffy the Vampire Slayer came from "watching a lot of horror movies with a funny, gregarious, somewhat dim blonde who invariably gets killed, and I always felt bad for her. So I thought it would be funny to have that girl go into a dark alley where we knew she would get killed and actually have her trash the monster. From that came the idea for Buffy."

As Gina Wiker notes in her essay Vampires and School Girls: High School Jinks on the Hellmouth, strong female characters like Buffy Summers have been around for a long time. "Buffy, as vampire slayer, lover of a vampire, teen heroine, is also in a long, interrupted, line of teenage fictional heroines. Late nineteenth- and twentieth-century girls’ novels, and the annuals/comics of the nineteen-fifties and sixties are full of stories which feature young girls with energy and power who use the tactics normally found in male sleuths to track down crime, right wrongs, and return order. They are morally driven avenging angels, but also subversive schoolgirls. In their energetic activities these young women question and trouble the conventional representations of women’s lives in the movies and magazine images of the period. Popular cultural forms such as fifties and sixties films, and magazines for women consistently concentrate on woman as homemaker. Women's magazines contain recipes, patterns for clothes making, and articles about gardening and how to make your husband happy. Younger girls’ magazines often concentrate on looking pretty, makeup, how to find the right boyfriend and keep him. Each peddles a very conservative version of womanhood. In the cinema we see an uneasy mixture of film noir femmes fatales who are punished for their energy and daring, and the light romantic comedy female roles: all Doris Day and singing, Mom, girl next door and domestic bliss. Such conservative representations of women were not surprising given the aftermath of a war which needed to return women to the kitchen so the men could regain their ground in the workplace and the home, in the economy and in the hearts of their families. But the schoolgirl novels, comics and annuals developed a very different kind of version of young womanhood, energetic, adventurous plucky, imaginative—boy-like in fact. Sexuality was not an issue here, and the adventurous young women fought singly or together to re-establish a moral status quo. They did not seek boyfriends."

Since finishing her run on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sarah Michelle Gellar has found it difficult to find similarly empowering roles. "I came from a television show that focused on women that were strong and funny and athletic," she said in an interview with Radio Free. "And television is where women really do lead the way. But in films, we're still working our way up the hill, and a lot of times, we're relegated to the girlfriend, the wife, the sister, whatever. I can't do that. It holds no interest to me."

Describing Representations

When you are describing a representation, it is essential that you use appropriate terminology to describe how the representation is constructed. Below are some descriptions of the film Serenity which attempt to explain how one of the female characters has been constructed. The response that describes the representation best is the one that uses terminology accurately to describe the representation in detail, explaining how it has been constructed.

Very Low

Joss Whedon has created an awesome movie full of action and excitement and very strong characters. River is a fighter and she is very strong and there are many scenes when she shows she is an awesome fighter. Zoe is also an excellent fighter with many fighting qualities and is strong. There is a bar fight and River kicks butt!!

Low

In one scene, River punches Jayne in the stomach with a tray. She hits him in the head and he falls over. He is strong but she is stronger. Therefore, this is a tuff woman character.

Medium

Joss Whedon is known for creating strong female characters. The bar fight demonstrates this. It is very tightly edited and there are lots of loud diegetic punch sounds. River kicks a number of people in the head, each sound is emphasised.

High

River is represented as a strong female character. The fight begins with an extreme close-up of River's face. In the next shot, which is wider, her movements are slow and the editing is used to convey her strength. She kicks one of the patrons. Her acting along with the diegetic sound of her kick contributes to this representation of a physically strong female character.

Very High

In the bar fight in Serenity, Joss Whedon has carefully constructed the scene to represent River as a physically powerful female character. He uses a range of codes to achieve this effect, including diegetic sound, dialogue, editing, camera movement, lighting and shot selection. Examining this scene closely reveals how the character has been constructed. The fight begins with an extreme close-up of River's face. Whedon cuts to a wider shot. Although this is not in slow motion, her movements are slow and the rhythm of the editing is used to convey the savagery of her physical abilities. She paces slowly across the frame before kicking one of the patrons. Her acting combined with the emphasized diegetic foley sound of her kick contributes to this representation of an extremely physically powerful female character.

Assessment Task: Representations of Women in Serenity

Essay Structure

Assessment Criteria

Criterion 1: Describe representations in media texts.
Criterion 2: Compare the construction of different representations in media texts and across media forms.
Criterion 3: Use concepts of representation, selection and construction in the evaluation of media texts.

Joss Whedon identified as a feminist creates his female characters with inspiration from his mother. His passion of portraying the rights of woman to have equal opportunities and characteristics to those possessed by men is strongly represented throughout ‘Serenity.’

“Equality is not a concept. It’s not something we should be striving for. It’s a necessity. Equality is like gravity, we need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance and the imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who’s confronted with it. We need equality, kinda now.” Whedon thrives and whole-heartedly supports equality. He writes his female characters with power, passion, sexiness, coolness, funniness and dominance in order to maintain equality throughout his characters, no man is stronger, they are equal. Whedon is very strategic about emphasising woman power and equality. He creates strong female characters and is careful to surround them with men of similar strength who not only have no problem with the idea of a female leader, but, are in fact, engaged and even attracted to the idea. This approach emphasised the power of the woman and also that woman of higher dominance and masculinity are still as sexy and attractive.

The movie ‘Serenity’ follows the story of Mal a soldier fighting a galactic civil war alongside his ships crew; Zoe, Wash, Jayne and Kaylee, however their survival is threatened by two of the most redoubtable enemies; the Universal Alliance and the horrific, cannibalistic Reavers (savages who roam the edges of space.) On top of fighting the war, further complicating matters for Mal’s success include an additional two passengers to his ship, Simon and his telepathic sister River and a beautiful courtesan Inara a women who alternately inspires and infuriates him. However these obstacles he must endure to ensure his survival, his crew member’s survival, Simon and River’s survival, Inara’s survival and the survival of mankind.

Serenity represents the structure in which Joss Whedon creates his female characters; resilient, indestructible, intrepid and intellectual. In spite of psychological trauma, River is still vastly represented as intelligent, physically strong and alert. Rivers strength and agility is first demonstrated when Simon frees her from the government society as she manages to remain tranquil whilst being strapped helplessly to a chair. We get an insight to River’s hyper intelligence and her power after she tells Simon “they know you’re here.” The mise-en-scene ties in well, as the lighting and background music is very veiled and intense, the camera shots are edited at fast pace, emphasising the tension and the risk of being caught.

“All of our subjects are conditioned for combat but River… she’s a creature of extraordinary grace.” The Bar scene in which River fights undeniably highlights her dominance, sovereignty and malleability and her extraordinary power as she defeats a roomful of people. As River watches the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial, the colour, lighting and sound effects of the scene change dramatically. There is a suspenseful reverb hum in the background, creating an imagery of danger, fear and confusion. Rivers facial expressions whilst watching the commercial emphasises she is confused yet intrigued as behind a cartoon lady with octopuses emerging from her breasts hides a subliminal message that triggers her to fight. By not showing the audience what River can see, Whedon has created suspense as we want to know why she is so mesmerized by the commercial. In lead up to the fight all imagery in the background becomes de-saturated as the focus pours onto River. The build up to the fight is slow and concentrated. Whedon cuts to a close-up of River’s back, which then cuts to a close-up of her feet as her robe drops to the floor. The slow editing here, amplifies the impact of the tightly edited fight scene as it contrasts her innocence at the beginning to her immense physical strength during the fight. The beginning of the fight is entirely in slow motion creating trepidation and intensity, there is diminutive sound except for the accentuated diegetic punches and kicks. A few seconds into the fight a kick in the head of a parton by River is emphasised as the footage returns to its normal speed and other diegetic sounds-particularly screams and painful moans of the patrons- returns, conveying River’s bodily strength. The lighting in this scene is minimal and still, to highlight the contrast of the rooms purity to River’s indignation. Whedon concedes “Amazing kick-ass adolescent heroines seem to be a disease of mine.”

Whedon created Zoe as a confident, powerful, resilient, and a highly determinate character. Before the heist, Whedon uses a mid-shot of Zoe and Mal entering together side by side, he cuts to yet another mid-shot of Zoe and Mal in the bank standing side by side, portraying equality between the female character and the male character. Whedon then cuts to an audience view through the security camera looking down on Zoe, in which she shoots and kills the image. Further into the scene whilst River slowly and graciously walks around, scanning the room, we see a shot of Zoe standing tall, gun raised in hand, in which her back is sunlight by a gap in the roof, creating an imposing and powerful silhouette of her. She is also represented as dominant as she stands looking down on her oppositions. River’s hyper intelligence is represented as the camera pans and moves throughout the civilians, Whedon then cuts to a shot of River pointing with intent to one of the men. Whedon then cuts to an extreme-close-up of the man drawing his gun, which is then interrupted by Zoe loading her gun next to his head. “Do you know what the definition of a hero is? Someone who gets someone else killed.” A dutch tilt shows Zoe standing over the man, gun pointing to his head, representing Zoe as chiefly strong and dominant. The man, threatened and defeated, throws his gun away.
When the Reavers arrive, the crew run back to their mule. This scene is tightly and quickly edited to portray intensity and desperation. “They want us alive when they eat us.” Whedon cuts to a shot of Zoe confidently climbing into the pilot’s seat, then to an extreme-close-up of the handbrake being released as they make their escape. The mise-en-scene throughout this scene changes dramatically with the action and dialogue, engaging the audience to the determination and passion of the characters.

Whedon very carefully constructs his female characters to appear dominant, strong, resilient and determined. He not only constructs his female characters to be powerful but he also uses camera angles, camera shots, lighting, dialogue and height levels to emphasise their power. His determination to open the public’s eyes with the need for equality is vastly represented throughout Serenity as both River and Zoe in many scenes’ overpower the men. “His ability to relate to female characters is instinctive.”

Although what constitutes Australian identity is often debated, everyone who lives here has an understanding of the reality of being in Australian. We live in a developed, democratic, educated and multicultural society. Nevertheless, media representations of Australian identify often express much narrower, more stereotypical understanding of what it means to be Australian.

Bart vs Australia

For Australians, 'Bart vs Australia' is probably one of the most notorious episodes of The Simpsons ever. In an interview on The Panel, Harry Shearer publicly admitted that it wasn't their finest hour.

In this episode, Bart fools an Australian boy into accepting a $900 collect call. At the request of the government, he and his family are flown to Australia to make a public apology.

When it was released, many people were offended by the episode which is an extremely stereotypical representation of Australian culture and identity. As one fan of the program noted: "I really don't want to sound like a someone who can't take a joke but Bart vs. Australia really pissed me off. The episode was kinda funny but I don't really appreciate my country being portrayed in such a poor and inaccurate way." After viewing this episode, one of the program's American fans wrote: "Message to all disgruntled Australians: We love your country. We think it's really grand and filled with intelligent,good-hearted people. Nary a single moron in the bunch. But: THE SIMPSONS LAST NIGHT WAS NOT A GODDAM DOCUMENTARY, FER CRISSAKE."

Clearly, the episode is not a representation of reality. Look around and you'll notice a distinct lack of knife-wielding bushmen with exaggerated accents (even in regional centres, you'll struggle to find individuals like the ones portrayed in this program - I know because I used to live in one of the smallest, hickville towns around).

'Bart vs Australia' is a satirical representation of Australian culture and identity. As student of the media, we need to consider why Australian culture been represented in this way.

This representation has been shaped, in part, by the narrative structure of sitcoms. Because of their length, which doesn't allow a great deal of time for character development, sitcoms rely heavily on stereotypical characterisation. To be funny, characters must be instantly recognisable. This episode is a case in point - drawing well known stereotypes from popular culture.

In the episode, Australia is represented as a remote, sparsely populated country. Early in the episode, the audience is introduced to one of the first Australian characters: a man named Bruno whose son was duped into accepting the collect call from Bart. Bruno is understandably annoyed.

Bruno: Ooh! Ah, that's it. I'm going to report this to me member of parliament. [yells out window] Hey, Gus! I got something to report to you.

Gus: That's a bloody outrage, it is! I want to take this all the way to the Prime Minister. [they go down to a lake] Hey! Mr. Prime Minister! Andy!

Andy: [floating naked on an inner tube with a beer] Eh, mates! What's the good word?

Australia's status as a British colony is referred to throughout the episode, while Bart's family is sightseeing, Marge and Lisa find a plaque that reads: "Australia was originally founded as a settlement for British convicts." Lisa turns around to see a group of Australians reaching for her camera. They slink away and approach another target. When The Simpsons visit a local pub, Bart - who is fiddling with his pocket knife - is approached by a man who bears more than a passing resemblance to Paul Hogan.

Man: You call that a knife? This is a knife.
Bart: That's not a knife, that's a spoon.
Man: All right, all right, you win, heh. I see you've played Knifey-Spooney before

This scene is an obvious intertextual reference to Crocodile Dundee, a representation that features similarly stereotypical characters. While at the pub, Marg and Homer have a conversation with the 'quintessentially' Australian bartender.

Homer: Hey! Give me one of those famous giant beers I've heard so much about.
[bartender puts a huge beer in front of him]
Bartender: Something wrong, yank?
Homer: No. It's pretty big...I guess.
Marge: I'll just have a cup of coffee.
Bartender: Beer, it is.
Marge: No, I said "coffee".
Bartender: "Beer"?
Marge: [slowly] Coff-ee.
Bartender: Be-er?
Marge: C -- O --
Bartender: B -- E --

This is another stereotype reminiscent of one of the early scenes in Crocodile Dundee when Australians are represented as beer swilling, larrakins. Indeed, all of the Australian characters are represented as old fashioned, slightly dimwitted whose slang is almost unintelligible. Take this exchange between Marge and the owners of a souvenir shop.

Owner: [sweeping a bunch of toads out] Get out, get out! Shoo, shoo. Get out of here, yuck! These bloody things are everywhere. They're in the lift, in the lorry, in the bond wizard, and all over the malonga gilderchuck.
Clerk: They're like kangaroos, but they're reptiles, they is.
Marge: We have them in America. They're called bullfrogs.
Clerk: What? That's an odd name. I'd have called them "chazzwazzers".

Towards the end of the episode, when Bart insults the Prime Mister and the family fly to safety, angry Australian pelt the helicopter with cans of Fosters.

For a complete transcript of the episode, visit: http://www.snpp.com/episodes/2F13.html

How do we tell how ‘realistic’ media texts are? All media texts are representations. Even news programs, which most people consider to be realistic and factual, are constructed. In a news bulletin, someone has made decisions about what we are shown and how it is represented. They have selected the images and words and sounds to represent the subject or topic, influencing how the audience will respond. In this sense, no media text can accurately represent reality. Our only experience of reality comes from what we see and hear directly.

Nevertheless, we often ascribe levels of realism to media texts. What is important is the relationship between the audience and the text. Audiences are active in their consumption of media texts. Realism is often determined by how the audience reads the text.

Genre and Form

The genre and form of a text often determines how realistic an audience believes it to be. Think about how realistic the following genres and forms are:

• television news
• newspaper
• feature film
• reality television
• documentary
• soap opera

Often, we discuss how realistic film and television is. This is frequently determined by the content and construction of the text. The film United 83, for example, employs technical codes that encourage us to believe that its realistic. Filmmaker Paul Greengrass is acclaimed for creating documentary style feature films. His previous films included Bloody Sunday and Bourne Supremacy. Although the film is based on true events, Greengrass uses naturalist lighting and handheld camera movement to imply a sense of realism.

Audience

The knowledge, attitude and experience of an audience also has a bearing on how realistic we believe media texts are. On October 30, 1938 the Mercury Theatre presented a radio dramatisation of HG Well's The War of the Worlds. The script, which was written by Howard Koch and Orson Welles, started with a series of live newscasts reporting an invasion from Mars. Although this style of presentation was not new, many listeners mistook the broadcast as factual and it sparked widespread panic. An audience's knowledge of the text, its form and content can have a bearing on how realistic they believe it to be.

Context

The context in which a text is read can also have a bearing on how realistic the audience believes it is. Context covers everything from marketing and promotional campaigns to the conditions in which the text is viewed.

The marketing campaign surrounding a film, book or television program often influences the way people read and respond to the text. Films are often promoted as being 'based on true events'.

Through its online promotional campaign, The Blair Witch Project was promoted as being actual footage, despite the fact that it was a fictional film. The film created a heightened sense of fear by convincing many audience members that it was real, despite various reviewers explaining that the film was fictional.

The remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre was marketed with the tag line 'Inspired by a true story', despite the fact that events like the ones described in the film have never occurred in real life. The film itself was very loosely inspired by real life serial killer Ed Gein. In fact. the real inspiration for the original film came to Tobe Hooper when he was working in a hardware store: "Here's what director Tobe Hooper recalls about developing the screenplay: "I was in the Montgomery Ward's out in Capital Plaza. I had been working on this other story for some months — about isolation, the woods, the darkness, and the unknown. It was around holiday season, and I found myself in the Ward's hardware department, and I was still kind of percolating on this idea of isolation and such. And those big crowds have always gotten to me. There were just so many people to go through. And I was just standing there in front of an upright display of chainsaws. And the focus just racked from my eyeball to the people to the saws — and the idea popped. I said, "Ooh, I know how I could get out of this place fast — if I just start one of these things up and make that sound." Of course I didn't. That was just a fantasy." The context in which a text is read determines the level of realism we ascribe to it.