Representations In Music Videos

Representation refers to the construction of aspects of reality within certain media forms. One being the music video. Different media producers will pick out aspects of reality in everyday life and reshape and recreate them within their media text to suit current trends in society. To do this producers rely on stereotypes to relate their media text to its audience. In fact Medhurst (1995) - Suggested that stereotypes can be seen as a type of media shorthand, that provide an easy point of contact when a media text needs to connect with an audience.

Common Representations of Women in Media:

 The Mother

 The Housewife

 The Sex Object

 The Damsel in Distress

 Weak

 Body Conscious

Common  Representations of Women in Media:

The Hero

The Hard Worker

Strong & Tough

Aggressive

Common Representations Of Teenagers in Media:

 Lazy

 Drug Consumers

Violent

Anti-social

It is sometimes argued that it isn't the medias use of stereotypes that is the problem, as they often contain elements of the truth, but the audiences assumption that the representation can be applied to all members of a particular group. Teenagers are often portrayed in certain ways in music videos, as this allows man of its key audience members who primarily are teenagers themselves to connect with the media text but this does not men this representation applies to all teenagers.