Representation in the media

All media texts are representations of reality, this means that they are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers and that they are entirely artificial version of the reality we perceive around us. Every media form, from a home video to a glossy magazine is a representation of someone's concept of existence, organised into a series of signs and symbols which can be read by an audience.

However, without the media, our recognition of reality would be very limited and that as an audience we need these artificial texts to pass on to our view of the world. Therefore, representation is open minded, two-way process; producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess a text on its relationship to reality.

These are my examples below and information on how my example compose, light, write, frame, crop, caption, brand, target and censor its representation.

YOUTUBE:

For my study topic I have looked at Muslim females who represent themselves using media. I had first looked at a YouTuber, who also uses a variety of social network to show what her work is about. She is a young Muslim who lives in London but was brought up in Cardiff. At first her videos were about her fashion only as she is a designer but later it started to change to more personal videos about her marriage and now even more recently about her pregnancy as she is soon to become a mother. This shows how she has had to change quite a lot of herself as she has become a wife and now a mother. Therefore, the way she presents herself in the media needs to be done with careful considerations of what she can show or talk about.

Her videos have a wide range as it consists of fashion tips such as how to dress for a specific occasion, hijab tutorials or makeup looks. She also has the more personal videos such as talking about her family and even showing them as well as talking about her marriage and pregnancy. She also takes part in challenges that her fans request her to do, this also includes her friends and families. And also her everyday lifestyle vlogs which has different locations being shown such as in her house, car or in any other area.

As she has a variety of videos; the camera angle, costume/props/makeup, setting, lighting, script and editing are always very different which shows that she does take a lot of time in creating these videos. This also keeps her fans entertained and interested into watching her videos as they look forward to how she will present the videos differently to her previous ones. However, the quality of the camera as well as getting the correct angles or lighting has improved greatly as technology has obviously been improved much more. Below are a few links to different videos she has made, as she has a high number of videos these are picked out from different categories.

The first one is about her life story, she does not have the camera showing herself as she is "drawing" her life. However, her voice can be heard as she is talking about it but drawing it in order to make us understand as well as be entertained. And so creating this video, was probably much easier and less hassle compared to her other videos as she does not need to move the camera but to just position it in a way where the paper can be seen.

This next video is her showing the different clothing styles she has created for women who are pregnant, this would interest those who it is aimed at. This is because of the title being placed right in the center and in a bold font which is eye catching. Snippets of the different outfits have been placed in the background, which further interests the audience. The video consists of a variety of looks with different colours and backgrounds which makes it more appealing. The sections where it has been taken outside, the weather has been considered, the outfit matching the season.

This video is about her taking on a challenge requested by her fans, her husband is also being portrayed within this video. The title of the video is also placed at the front, below their faces in bright bold colours which suits the theme of the video. Their expressions make it seem entertaining as well as quite humorous. The video is placed directly at the front of them, maybe on a stand making the height adjusted to where they are clearly shown. The lighting looks natural from the window but also can be the room light on. This is so that the quality is improved of the video and making them look flawless.

NEWSPAPER:

I had then searched up articles that have information about Muslim females in the news, this certain article is from The New York Times. There are a couple of incidents that have occurred about the females wearing a hijab, a veil or an abbaya. These are Islamic clothing that females wear within the religion in order to look modest. However, there has been many issues of them covering up by saying it can be a threat towards others due to their "identity" not being shown.

This shows the many different ways of how Muslim females are represented to the world, on the news they come across as quite "secretive" and have some threat to the public. However, females who have social media or create YouTube videos show a complete different side of how majority of the world see them as. Their true personality is shown and that because they have a certain faith, this does not stop them from following their hobbies or dreams. But they too have a right in pursuing the career they want and that internet has helped them greatly in accomplishing this.