The fact is that the media have the power through selection and reinforcement to give us very influential portrayals of a whole range of groups, situations and ideas. We make sense of these representations in different ways according to the values and assumptions we carry around in our own heads. So representation is not just about the way the world is presented to us but also about how we engage with media texts in order to interpret and assimilate such portrayals. This concept of representation is, therefore, just as much about audience interpretation as it is about the portrayals that are offered to us by the media.
Another key media term tied in to representation is institution, because we need to consider the reasons why someone or some institution is presenting these images to us. How representations change over time and which points of view are left out or privileged in these representations might also be worthy of consideration. Interestingly the advertising media often give us a kind of social barometer of changing representations of social groups and trends. Think of the 'new man' or 'the independent woman' popularised by the car advertisers in particular.
Gossip Girl is a television teen drama revolving around the lives of a group of teenagers living in New York City and it is featured on the CW network, which is considered the new WB. These teens attend elite high schools and are part of a very elite, high-class society in Upper East Side Manhattan. The target audience of Gossip Girl is teenage girls as evident by the other teen dramas featured on the CW. Gossip Girl was created by Josh Schwartz in 2007, who was also the creator of the famous teen drama The OC. Gossip Girl and The OC are both very similar in that they deal with wealthy teenagers going to high school and dealing with everyday teen issues such as sex, drugs, alcohol, school, friends, and family. However, there are several differences between the two programs as well. Gossip Girl takes place in New York City and deals with the socialite lifestyle. The characters attend an elite high school with the goal of attending elite, Ivy League colleges just as their parents did before them. The characters’ parents in The OC come from new money and they are still just beginning their prominent careers, where as the parents in Gossip Girl come from old, inherited money. The families in Gossip Girl are similar to dynasties, where your name is everything and new comers are not welcome.
Gossip Girl takes place in Upper East Side New York City, where the characters live in million dollar apartments and attend very prestigious, elite high schools. The only characters who do not live in the wealthy Upper East Side are the Humphreys, who live in a loft in Brooklyn. Both Dan and Jenny attend high school on a scholarship as their dad struggles to run his art gallery and let’s go of his past as a member in a famous rock band.
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McRobbie, A, Feminism and Youth Culture, Macmillan, 1991
- Hess, Donna J., and Geoffrey W. Grant. “Prime-Time Television and Gender-Role Behavior.” Teaching Sociology, 10.3 (1983): 371-388.