A key theory of any representation is the use and construction of stereotypes. How have people with schizophrenia been stereotyped by the character of the Joker in The Dark Knight.
Consider how the stereotype has been constructed using the character's Appearance and Behaviour...
Any representation is a construction of the media - this means that we must consider the opinions of both: those who have encoded the text and those that have decoded the text. Put simply - the creators and the audience.
This next sewuence is from Farren Aranofsky's avant garde film Pi. The director wants us to identify with the character Max as he descends into madness. The audience is encouraged to be part of Max's mental breakdown.
How is this achieved by the director using; camrea movement, framing, editing and sound?
As we move on to looking at how mental health is represented by television we see that stereotypes are, again, commonly used. In some very negative ways.
The following video is from the sketch show Little Britain and features a character with severe learning difficulties called Anne.
This could be read as a very derogatory and spiteful stereotyoe of people with such problems, but it might also be read as mocking our own preconceptions of learning difficulties, or even the media itself for having such a limited representation of such issues.
So who is being mocked?
- Anne (and others with learning difficulties)?
- The audience?
- The media?
You decide - and remember to consider how the stereotype is constructed.
Television soap-operas have always been issue led. With well developed characters and continuous storylines they have always had the ability to help the audience understand and explore various issues in society. Sometimes sympathetically, sometimes controversially, sometimes breaking taboos.
The nation's favourite, Corrie, has been at the forefront of issue led soaps for more than fifty years and 2011 saw the show tackle the issue of Alzheimers' focussing mostly on the experiences of those caring for someone suffering from the disease.
When analysing any representation we must consider the views of the audience and decide whether they have responded with a preferred, negotiated or oppositional reading to the text.
Read the following article from http://www.dementia.co.uk/ to see how they view Corrie's portrayal of such a serious illness - at the bottom of the document are responses to the article from audience members. Decide what type of reading they have made...
View more documents from sssfcmedia.
Watch this clip from one of the more moving episodes. What are your opinions?
Lastly we looked at how newspapers have tachled the issue of mental health - and rather than just considering stereotypes we looked at how the entire issue has been mediated by the press.
Mediation is a three part process which takes and issue, event, person, thing or group of people and puts it through the 'media machine' - what we see on our telly or in the papers is clearly not a straightforward relection of reality but a distortion of reality. Images have been framed and thousands are taken, words are chosen carefully, fonts, layout, colours are all part of this decision making process that means that the reality of something goes in to the media at one end and the mediated version gets spat out the other!
We can divide the mediation process into three functions:
- Selection
- Organisation
- Focus
Consider the images below - they are all newspaper front pages that cover the story of former British Heavyweight Boxer Frank Bruno and his battle with severe depression. Specifically his time spent in a hospital to recover.
Bruno had spent the past 30 years in and out of the media for his sporting achievements and as a celebrity figure.
As you can see some of the front pages offer a different representation of mental health - some more negative than others - think carefully about how every word and every picture has been through the process of: Selection. Organisation and Focus...
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| Whilst the copy is matter of fact and largely objective, the selection of photo seems to suggest what the real views of the Telegraph are in this front page. However the focus of the article may actually be more concerned with the Mental Health Act. |
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| This typically sensationalist and unsympathetic headline from The Sun caused much controversy and was actually pulled from later editions. Interestingly, they use a similar image to that of the Telegraph. |
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| Like the Telegraph the Daily Express seems objective but the selection of the phrase 'Mental Home' makes it quite clear how they view illnesses such as those suffered by Bruno. |
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| This seems like the most sympathetic and least exploitative but is worthy of analysis - think about the selection of words, the type of photo taken - are we encouraged to pity, to voyeuristically watch from a safe distance? |
You'll always be able to find positive and negative representations of mental health anf mental illness in the media - keep looking for them and writing about them but remember to make sure your analysis is based within theory.
Here is a little checklist of media theories surrounding representation...
- Stereotyping
- Mediation
- Construction
- Ideologies
- Archetypes
If you find any interesting representations of mental health then please blog it and link or embed videos or images along with your analysis.
Any comments that you have about the ideas raised in this blog please leave below...
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