Hobbs: Issues of Representation

One of the most important aspects of this chapter would probably be the idea that media content shapes the way we think. At the beginning of the chapter, A teacher has a class do a project on gender representation on TV episodes. I am not going to get into it because I am going to guess everyone has already it. The main point I am bringing about is, if you look closely, The media force-feeds unconscious thoughts of the societal "interpretation" of each sex should be like depending on the structure of the show. Aside from this simple representation, it can influence an outlook on economics, different literary perspectives, and stereotypes. For example, showing two different pictures can alter one's perception of what is told to them. The power of representation through media literacy is a psychological attribute that has been perfected by the media. If we could prefect this in classrooms, we could be able to teach anything we wanted and have anything we wanted absorbed. This chapter is primarily examples of how students perceive different aspects that are presented to them.

The only ideas I have for students when it comes to representation is probably going to be initial work when we start different novels or readings. I want to try and use this "representation" as an eliminator to rid my students of bias. I would probably use it as a way to clear up different arguments about different literary content that students don't agree with. Just like how the Chapter talks about the perception of Frankenstein's monster. The power of representation has always been there, we just have never have used it.