'Representations in media texts are often simplistic and reinforce dominant ideologies so that audiences can make sense of them.' Evaluate the ways you have used/challenged simplistic representations in one of the media products you have produced.

'Representations in media texts are often simplistic and reinforce dominant ideologies so that audiences can make sense of them.' Evaluate the ways you have used/challenged simplistic representations in one of the media products you have produced.

I am going to discuss my advanced portfolio in which I created a music video, and ancillary tasks such as a digipak and magazine advert, in relation to representations.

We decided to use a steadily growing genre of UK rap which consists of traditional fast temp lyrics but with occasional samples from indie and rock songs; we used the stereotypes of of a rap artist by using black man as the basis for our product as the artist. This is because most of the artists signed to, Island records are of an ethnic background. However this new representation of artists in that label reaches out to a wider audience as a more diverse choice and may become interested in our artist,Iceburg. Representations which become familiar through constant re-use come to feel 'natural' and unmediated. This could be why existing audiences of this particular record label, may see our artist as intriguing as part of the new rap indie revolution from artists such as Rizzle Kicks.

Another way in which we challenged representation was by perceiving our artist was to be more realistic and empathetic in the video. for example we can see this representation through the narrative in which the artist is shown having a good time with his friends. This shows that our male artist isn't in a glass ball like in most videos where it seems what the artist is doing in unrealistic.l male. This may appeal to a Marxist audience as our artist can be seen as less of a stereotypical male and part of the many, therefore making him different. However using the plurality model, we can see how a male audience would view the representation of our artist. It could be argued that the male audience may discouraged of our artists character because he is less assertive. Also the nature of the song, being about love and relationships, can be seen to reinforce that representation of a less dominant male, when seen from a male audiences view. another way representation can be said to show our artist being less assertive is the way he is seen as not taking himself too seriously. We can see this in the video when we see various shots of the artist having fun and laughing.

Another simplistic representation we used in this media product is in the was we chose to portray our artist to the audience. We used american rap conventions in terms of our artists appearance, and we stuck to the record labels representation of these type of artists. For example we focused on his studio performance throughout the video to show him being a hardworking real artist which the audience can relate to.This was also visible in considerably in the digipak as the back panel shows art artist in the studio about to start a recording session. To portray him as a laid back individual we made sure he was dressed very casually to give this impression. The varsity jack was also to indicate this specific genre as similar artists of this genre as we tried to give our artist 'swag'. In a way we represented our artist in a stereotypical way in relation to our chosen genre. This would appeal to a specific audience or social group, as these conventions are clearly seen, which could show our genre and convey our intended message prominently.

Representations in media texts can often be simple so that audiences can make sense of them. However I feel in our music video we have engaged with the pluralistic model in relation to our audiences, as we have challenged as well as used simplistic representations.