Learning Goal

To develop knowledge and understanding of how representations of people, ideas, issues and events are constructed in various texts.

Representation

Representation refers to how texts deal with and present people, ideas, issues and events to their audiences.

Media

Media texts have the power to shape an audience’s knowledge and understanding about each of these which makes them very powerful in terms of influencing ideas and attitudes.

Analysing representation.

To analyse how people, ideas, issues and events have been represented in media texts it is important to challenge and question what you read, see and hear in news media.

Constructing representations in media and texts.

​Language Choices

Making Language Choices

‘Today was the best day ever. I’ve already booked my accommodation for next year,’ Jane, 18, beamed as she left the Greenhill showgrounds.

​A positive report from the point of view of a young concert goer.

Language Meaning

Connotation is the use of a word to suggest a different association than its literal meaning, which is known as denotation. For example, blue is a color, but it is also a word used to describe a feeling of sadness, as in: “She’s feeling blue.”

Connotation and Denotation

Connotations can be either positive, negative, or neutral. Writers often use different connotations to inject multiple layers of meaning into a word, phrase, or passage. Take this sentence, for example: “The dog is thin.” It has neutral connotations because it is simply a statement of fact. However, the same sentence rewritten as “The dog is emaciated” has negative connotations: the word “emaciated” implies the dog has a neglectful owner.

Why is connotation important?

Connotation draws emotion out of language, for both the writer and reader. In L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, for example, Dorothy is obsessed with the idea of “home”: not just as the literal place where she lives, but all the positive connotations that are associated with it, like family, love, nurture, and comfort. When she finally clicks her heels and repeats, “There’s no place like home,” the reader understands and shares in her excitement and eagerness to return home

Well done! You have now completed your theory component of representation.