Modern Media: Representation & Impact - Essay Sample

Introduction

Contemporary media refers to the modern technology-driven press on the internet, where people spread the news through online publications, social media, blogs, video streaming, and podcasts. The way people represent the news on the internet determines whether the press will have the intended impacts on the target audience. This essay will examine readings from Stuart Hall and John Barger to help understand impact representation on peoples' understanding of things.

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Stuart Hall: The Work of Representation

In 1997, Stuart Hall, a Jamaican born scholar, and cultural theorist, wrote a reading piece on the work of representation. In the reading, Hall described representation as a process through which exchange between people who share a culture produce meaning by the use of images, language, and signs that represent things (Hall 15). According to Hall, the concept of representation is holds an essential place in the study and understanding culture as it connects meaning and language to culture (15). Hall further examines the reflective, intentional, and constructionists theories which describe how language is used to represent the world. Reflective theory suggests that language functions like mirror and reflects on the already existing meaning, the intentional approach indicates that the author or speaker imposes the sense, while the constructionist theory suggests that meaning is constructed from the systems of representation (concepts and signs).

Hall's reading has broadened my mind on the way I see, think, and interpret representations. For example, understanding the constructional approach has helped understand the cultural power of contemporary media as I can now know that the images I see and the meanings attached to objects are just social constructions. As they are just social constructions, it means that these meanings are not fixed and people can alter or change them depending on the following situations. The reading also gives me an idea of how I can employ representation in media to positively influence other people in the world. Stuart Hall's text indeed provides any reader with a better and more in-depth understanding of representation.

John Berger: Ways of Seeing

In the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) video series, John Berger explores the way people see things and interpret them. Berger notes that peoples' sights are affected mainly by the prior belief or knowledge they have concerning the situation they are seeing (Berger 15). Through the video, it is clear that john believes that the way we see satiations and things is highly influenced by what we believe or what we know.

I agree with John Berger's belief that our belief and knowledge of things dramatically determine the way we see things. For example, when if someone steals from you and you get to see and memorize the face of that person if you meet the same person a year or two years later, you will tend to feel insecure. Although the person might have changed, the fact that you already know and believe that that person is a thief instills the fear in you. This is because you see the person as a thief not because he or she is at present, but because you believe that he or she is a thief. This example is a clear indicator of what we think or know dramatically determines the way we see things. The knowledge and belief people have on different influences peoples' interpretation of what they see in that: people first evaluate the sights based on the knowledge and belief before interpreting them. Thus, to me, Berger's argument is correct.

Works Cited

Berger, John. "Ways of Seeing." YouTube Video. Uploaded by w19751. Accessed on August 3, 2019, Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk

Hall, Stuart. "The Work of representation." (1997). Pg. 13 - 35. Accessed on August 3, 2019, Available at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~noenoe/hall1.pdf