EMST3010 Gilbert Final QUESTIONS AND
ASNWERS YEAR 2025.
Representation matters - ✅✅"to be seen on screen is to be validated"
Acculturation - ✅✅if you see something on screen it becomes part of your memory
(becomes part of who you are and what you consider to be important)
content on screen has huge effects on the different perceptions of different groups and
classes of society
-Cosby Show: normalized the notion of a non-threatening, middle-class
African American family "just like you"
-Modern Family: legalization of gay marriage, gay couple star on show because gay
couples actually happen in real life
Aspiration - ✅✅ex) a black woman played the role of communication engineer in
space
(from early Star Trek) —> only colored woman in a role like this in the 1960's —> gives
other black women the idea that they can be that too (see possibilities)
Symbolic Annihilation - ✅✅under-representation and misrepresentation (TV from
1950's... no
African Americans, no queers, if minority was shown they were black, not Hispanic or
anything else.... obviously not the correct dynamics of the 50's... all those people did in
fact exist, just not on the screens... notion of not mattering)
Representation - ✅✅it's not just "good" or "bad" —> it's more complicated...
representation strives for mediocrity (one figure doesn't have to hold the weight of an
entire identity)
Visibility - ✅✅you don't always know what religion a character is... shows often make
something invisible visible but not central to the concept of identity
Authenticity - ✅✅are shows obligated to cast people to identify the same as the
characters?
-is it problematic that lead character of transparent is in real life a heterosexual
cisgender male?
-Superstore character —> example: someone plays a role in a wheelchair but is not
crippled in real life
Frequency - ✅✅what identifiers we see most often (almost everyone we see on
television is middle to upper class, narrow standard of body types, beauty standards,
ages = homogeneity. It's when the homogeneity gets broken up that we notice things)
, Media culture outside of film and television - ✅✅> can include advertising (moms are
shown in cleaning product commercials) (breakfast to sell sausages... mom and dad
and 2.5 children) (words used in news stories to describe whoever is being described)...
basically all the stereotypes
you can think of
Dimensions of difference - ✅✅○race
○ ethnicity
○ gender
○ sexuality
○ creed (religion or what you believe in)
○ class (socioeconomics)
○ abledness (differing degrees of mental illness)
POSITIONALITY - ✅✅the place from which you stand according to how you identify...
where you position your identity
OTHERING - ✅✅separate from "the norm"... there is a central point of positionality
and then
anything other than that becomes centered in relation to that point (think of solar
system...everything that's not the sun is still technically situated based on the sun)
-"Others" get made 2-dimensional (get lumped together)
INTERSECTIONALITY - ✅✅the experience of othering as a bonding experience
rather than a separating experience... the argument of a total de-centering
STANDPOINT THEORY - ✅✅perspectives are individual, non-essentialized, shaped
by social, cultural, political experiences... whatever your standpoint is will shape
whatever you consider to be valuable
-(your perspective shapes what is heard, relevant, important, and believed)... This
theory helps explain how we talk about media (think of Selma... about American
history...interesting standpoint.. Selma was written by a white man but directed by a
blackwoman... the white man character was portrayed as 1-dimensional, which is
something we're not used to)... The director's perspective was indeed different from the
writer's
-Think of "the Help" ... it makes you think black people need to be saved by white
woman (based on a novel by a white woman and directed by a southern white man)
ESSENTIALIZING - ✅✅reduction of a person's complexities to their core identity
COLORBLINDNESS - ✅✅you are going to cast in respective of race... whoever is the
best one for the role will get it... creates problems however because colorblind casting
doesn't take into account systematic issues and can have backfires
ASNWERS YEAR 2025.
Representation matters - ✅✅"to be seen on screen is to be validated"
Acculturation - ✅✅if you see something on screen it becomes part of your memory
(becomes part of who you are and what you consider to be important)
content on screen has huge effects on the different perceptions of different groups and
classes of society
-Cosby Show: normalized the notion of a non-threatening, middle-class
African American family "just like you"
-Modern Family: legalization of gay marriage, gay couple star on show because gay
couples actually happen in real life
Aspiration - ✅✅ex) a black woman played the role of communication engineer in
space
(from early Star Trek) —> only colored woman in a role like this in the 1960's —> gives
other black women the idea that they can be that too (see possibilities)
Symbolic Annihilation - ✅✅under-representation and misrepresentation (TV from
1950's... no
African Americans, no queers, if minority was shown they were black, not Hispanic or
anything else.... obviously not the correct dynamics of the 50's... all those people did in
fact exist, just not on the screens... notion of not mattering)
Representation - ✅✅it's not just "good" or "bad" —> it's more complicated...
representation strives for mediocrity (one figure doesn't have to hold the weight of an
entire identity)
Visibility - ✅✅you don't always know what religion a character is... shows often make
something invisible visible but not central to the concept of identity
Authenticity - ✅✅are shows obligated to cast people to identify the same as the
characters?
-is it problematic that lead character of transparent is in real life a heterosexual
cisgender male?
-Superstore character —> example: someone plays a role in a wheelchair but is not
crippled in real life
Frequency - ✅✅what identifiers we see most often (almost everyone we see on
television is middle to upper class, narrow standard of body types, beauty standards,
ages = homogeneity. It's when the homogeneity gets broken up that we notice things)
, Media culture outside of film and television - ✅✅> can include advertising (moms are
shown in cleaning product commercials) (breakfast to sell sausages... mom and dad
and 2.5 children) (words used in news stories to describe whoever is being described)...
basically all the stereotypes
you can think of
Dimensions of difference - ✅✅○race
○ ethnicity
○ gender
○ sexuality
○ creed (religion or what you believe in)
○ class (socioeconomics)
○ abledness (differing degrees of mental illness)
POSITIONALITY - ✅✅the place from which you stand according to how you identify...
where you position your identity
OTHERING - ✅✅separate from "the norm"... there is a central point of positionality
and then
anything other than that becomes centered in relation to that point (think of solar
system...everything that's not the sun is still technically situated based on the sun)
-"Others" get made 2-dimensional (get lumped together)
INTERSECTIONALITY - ✅✅the experience of othering as a bonding experience
rather than a separating experience... the argument of a total de-centering
STANDPOINT THEORY - ✅✅perspectives are individual, non-essentialized, shaped
by social, cultural, political experiences... whatever your standpoint is will shape
whatever you consider to be valuable
-(your perspective shapes what is heard, relevant, important, and believed)... This
theory helps explain how we talk about media (think of Selma... about American
history...interesting standpoint.. Selma was written by a white man but directed by a
blackwoman... the white man character was portrayed as 1-dimensional, which is
something we're not used to)... The director's perspective was indeed different from the
writer's
-Think of "the Help" ... it makes you think black people need to be saved by white
woman (based on a novel by a white woman and directed by a southern white man)
ESSENTIALIZING - ✅✅reduction of a person's complexities to their core identity
COLORBLINDNESS - ✅✅you are going to cast in respective of race... whoever is the
best one for the role will get it... creates problems however because colorblind casting
doesn't take into account systematic issues and can have backfires
