Representation is how media texts deal with and present gender, age, ethnicity, national and regional identity, social issues and events to an audience. Media texts have the power to shape an audience’s knowledge and understanding about these important topics.
This makes them very powerful in terms of influencing ideas and attitudes. An example of a representation in media are that people of Asian descent or "Asians" are depicted as scrawny, nerdy, and smart people. Representation can be either negative or positive, representation also ties into together along with stereotypes.
Negative Representation of Asians
In this case, the video shown of the Asian character (Lawrence) is a negative representation because he is shown to be an outcast and lacks self-esteem because of this. He is depicted to have a nerdy image with his outfit.
Lawrence (School of Rock)
Positive Representation of Asians
The video shown here is an example of a positive representation of Asians. This can be seen from the fact that the Asian character (Shang-Chi) is in fact a superhero, which fully contrasts the negative representations and subverts the audience's expectation of Asians being weak and nerdy when Shang-Chi is shown to be both skilled and powerful.
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