Representation in Texts

English Inquiry
Representation and Audience

Understanding representation and the interaction with audiences.

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.

Multiple Choice

Representation refers to how texts deal with____________.

• editing, revising, or proofreading of texts
• creation, development, or construction of texts
• interpretation, analysis, or evaluation of texts
• portrayal, depiction, or presentation of ideas, characters, events, or themes

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.

Multiple Choice

Media texts have the power to shape an audience's ______________ and _______________________.

• knowledge and understanding
• attitudes and behaviors
• beliefs and perceptions
• emotions and thoughts

Fill in the Blanks

Media can be powerful in influencing

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.

Multiple Select

To anyalyse representation in texts it is important to question what you _____, ______ and ________ in the media.

• hear
• see
• read

• know

Constructing representations in media and texts.

Element	Explanation
Target audience	The intended audience will shape what point of view a news media article presents.
Purpose	The intended purpose of a news media article will impact the contents; a soft news report intended to entertain will read differently to a hard news article intended to inform.
Selection	“This refers to what has been selected to include in a media text. This can be particularly important in newspaper articles, where selecting certain facts over others can change the angle of a story; what is omitted is sometimes as important as what is included.”

​Language Choices

Match

Match the following

• Positive association

• Negative association

• Neutral information

heaven

fanatics

music festival

• heaven

• fanatics

• music festival

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.

Open Ended

Fill the blanks with terms and phrases that have a negative association. Include in your answer complete sentences.

‘It was an awful ________,’ commented Mayor John Hinch.

We’re a quiet, peace-loving town… we don’t need this kind of ______or these kinds of _______, said Hinch.

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.”

Multiple Choice

Connotation is the .....?

• rhyming sound of a word
• emotional association or implication of a word or phrase
• definition of a word
• color of a word

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.

Multiple Choice

A negative connotation means?

• Unfavorable or derogatory association
• Neutral or unbiased association
• Favorable or complimentary association
• Positive or neutral association

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

Reorder

Reorder the following from positive to negative connotation.

• Friendly

• Quiet

• Emotional

• Difficult

• Terrible

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

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