Production 3: critical lenses
Both mainstream media and education systems have the power to perpetuate various social inequalities, as mentioned in this week’s reading by Stack & Kelly. Issues of ‘representation and resistance’ in society and media culture today can include these various social inequalities that are created in these types of institutions. Allan Luke outlines some very important points in his video ‘Critical Literacy’ in regards to these issues. He defined representation as discourse, text, writing and images. According to Luke, there is ‘representation’ and then there is ‘reality’ or in other words, what is actually happening out there in the real world. He emphasises the importance of looking past the discourse, texts, and images that we see in the mainstream media and to take a deeper look into some of the issues that arise when we succumb to believe and assume that all that we see on the surface is the truth. Luke mentions that we need to understand that we are going to get conflicting sources of different information because there are various representations/textual versions of what is going on in the world.
The points mentioned by Luke in the video can be related to the movie we recently watched in class, Reel Injun where issues of representation and resistance are extremely prevalent. For instance, it was mentioned in the documentary that Hollywood mainstream media (movies, TV shows, cartoons, etc.) provided representations of First Nations people that were indeed not accurate. In Hollywood, First Nations people were represented as barbarians who practised their cultural traditions in ways that were seen as abnormal and frowned upon. They were represented as individuals who ‘wore feathers and rode horses’ as mentioned in the documentary. Hollywood influences on Indians (representation) have impacted peoples’ views of that cultural group, causing resistance (frustration, anger, dis-identification, resilience) by members of that group. It is unfair to assume that these individuals are represented accurately in the media just because it is mainstream!
Luke asks: "…of the information we see/read/hear, which have the most degree of trustworthiness and value?”
In order to get to the truth, Luke suggests that we act as critical social scientists. This requires us to move past mainstream representations of cultural groups, like First Nations peoples, for instance. This requires perspective taking and willingness to learn, listen and understand.
The points mentioned by Luke in the video can be related to the movie we recently watched in class, Reel Injun where issues of representation and resistance are extremely prevalent. For instance, it was mentioned in the documentary that Hollywood mainstream media (movies, TV shows, cartoons, etc.) provided representations of First Nations people that were indeed not accurate. In Hollywood, First Nations people were represented as barbarians who practised their cultural traditions in ways that were seen as abnormal and frowned upon. They were represented as individuals who ‘wore feathers and rode horses’ as mentioned in the documentary. Hollywood influences on Indians (representation) have impacted peoples’ views of that cultural group, causing resistance (frustration, anger, dis-identification, resilience) by members of that group. It is unfair to assume that these individuals are represented accurately in the media just because it is mainstream!
Luke asks: "…of the information we see/read/hear, which have the most degree of trustworthiness and value?”
In order to get to the truth, Luke suggests that we act as critical social scientists. This requires us to move past mainstream representations of cultural groups, like First Nations peoples, for instance. This requires perspective taking and willingness to learn, listen and understand.