Course Guide SPCH U301 Theories and Principles of Human Communication: Cultural Studies Theory - Week 8

What does the word representation really mean, in this context? What does the process of representation involve? How does representation work? To put it briefly, representation is the production of meaning through language. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary suggests two relevant meanings for the word:

1 To represent something is to describe or depict it, to call it up in the mind by description or portrayal or imagination; to place a likeness of it before us in our mind or in the senses; as, for example, in the sentence, ‘This picture represents the murder of Abel by Cain.’

2 To represent also means to symbolize, stand for, to be a specimen of, or to substitute for; as in the sentence, ‘In Christianity, the cross represents the suffering and crucifixion of Christ.’

Stuart Hall believed representation was the “process by which members of a culture use language… to produce meaning”. It is the organization of signs, which we use to understand and describe the world, into a wider set of values of ideologies. These meanings are not fixed or “real”; they are produced and defined by society.

Stuart Hall (1997) summarised three approaches to understanding the representation process: reflective, intentional and constructionist views.

Media-Studies. (2022, August 27). Stuart Hall and Representation. Media Studies. Retrieved August 29, 2022, from https://media-studies.com/stuart-hall-representation/