Media representation of "Homosexuality"

• Posted by Momin Masood January 31, 2019 - Filed in Society - ##media#represenatation#impact  - 926 views
  First of all we are going to start off with important concepts in media and communication which is representation. Representation refers to the idea that everything we see or hear in the media has been constructed. Representations themselves can take numerous structures, for example, radio segments, daily newspaper, articles photos, movies and TV programs. Pretty much all that you find in the media is a representation of portrayal of something. Everyday we're immersed with portrayals or representation of individuals, occasions and thoughts while a few media portrayals like TV news and narrative film may appear to be reasonable or realistic. We have to realize that they're just constructions. At best the media can only represent reality what we see on our television screens are on the front page of our daily newspapers is someone else's interpretation of reality and this can be said of everything we see in the media. When you see a politician or a celebrity in the newspaper you're seeing a constructed image of that person a representation. It's not a real person it's a constructed image of that person. Representations are made through a procedure of choice, oversight and development. Consider a photograph probably the most basic type of media representation, it’s often said that the camera never lies but like all media representations photographs are constructed. Before you even take a photo you've selected what's going to be in it, made decisions about what you're going to leave out and you've also decided how the subject of your photograph will be represented making decisions about how they'll be lit and what type of camera angle you're going to use. These choices all affected the implying that you make and how audience will read your representation. The word code alludes to any arrangement of science that is utilized to convey meaning. We're encompassed by these codes for instance Traffic lights, composed dialect, arithmetic, garments, non-verbal communication. These codes are comprised of signs that have socially concurred implications. The importance of a sign can be denotative or conative. The denotative significance of a sign is its exacting importance the idea that it alludes to while the conative of a sign alludes to the social or people affiliation it may have for the individual understanding it. Color is an incredible example of a code. Diverse colors have socially concurred implications and meanings. In Western culture the black color is related with grieving and misery, the color green with environmentalism pink with femininity. When you're dressing yourself you most likely contemplate the shade of your apparel and the implying that it passes on. This is additionally obvious when you're making media items. Anyone who's ever made a film knows that codes like shot size camera angle camera movement and mise-en-seen all contribute to the message you're sending. When you're contemplating media, it's frequently intriguing to consider how events ideas and individuals have been represented. Deconstructing media text in this way is also useful because you really start to understand how meaning is created in media text and hopefully become more successful at making them yourself you. Now, coming to the topic as media’s representation of ‘homosexuality’ and how media has represented this before 1990’s and how it is portraying it nowadays. Media representations of homosexuality are divided into five basic categories: stereotyping, medicalization, sexualization, secrecy and normalization. 1. Stereotyping basically depends on inflexible sexual orientation patterns abused by the media to display gays as womanly and lesbians as manly, drawing on the relationship with their social parts which along these lines show up as regular instead of socially built. 2. Medicalization of homosexuality is a continuation of the psychiatric discourse on same-sex orientation from the end of the nineteenth century. In media representation it is showed as a scan for the reasons for homosexuality (the suggested question is "what is the thing that turned out badly and prompted homosexuality?") and the dispatching of homosexuality to the therapeutic and mental circles (homosexuality as an disease or a disorder). Various research and theory have been done by the doctors in APA (American Psychological Association) and WHO (World Health Organization) such as Twin studies and Xt28 theory. Also, in which they have stated that the gay men are not “born this way”. However, it is just their sexual preferences of sexual orientation and that they can be helped but they refused to change because they don’t want to get deprived of the sexual pleasure they are now exposed to. 3. Sexualization, the third component of the media disclosure, is showed as a diminishment of homosexuality exclusively to sexuality and sex (since sexualization habitually happens in graphic images, the Barthes' model can be utilized to clarify the distinction between the connotative and denotative levels). 4. The veil of secrecy by media representations influences homosexuality to show up as something concealed and identified with disgrace and lament. Normalization, the last component of media portrayals, is trademark basically of the late 1990s when past pictures of homos as criminals, mental patients and so forth, were surpassed. 5. However, this adjustment in state of mind is just obvious, since the sort of normalization found in media representations is really a heterosexual normalization. Media representations of typical homosexuality are representations customized to the impression of heterosexual so as to not debilitate their reality. Homosexuality is adequate just when depoliticized. During the time of 1970-2000 media giving an account of homosexuality was for the most part sympathetic and neutral. Historically, many societies have been intolerant towards homosexuality and transsexuals individuals. LGBT individuals have been persecuted as criminals or labeled as mentally sick simply because they were not heterosexual. They have been and still are much of the time classified as different, abnormal or off-base. The dread and contempt of LGBT people likewise called as homophobia to a great extent comes from socially developed thoughts of what is ordinary and obviously through religion standards. These thoughts additionally think about what is ethically 'right' and a want to maintain the qualities or belief systems related with the conventional family. From the beginning of early 2000s media has been giving a very liberal approach towards homosexuality. Also, a lot of acceptance is being injected in the upcoming generation regarding this topic of homosexuality. The film and the music industry are playing a positive role in making the wrong look right and portraying right as wrong. This due to work on certain agendas and attain or achieve the goals set by those societies who we cannot talk about cause when we do we are made fun of because no one is ready to believe as the young minds have been corrupted the media. The hip-hop artists or other pop artists who are main stream are working hard to change people perspective on homosexuality and bringing in more acceptances in the society. A few examples could be taken from the song “Born this way” by LADY GAGA, “Ur so gay” by Katy Perry or “Symphony” by CLEAN BANDIT & ZARA L. The movies and seasons can be seen commonly promoting the LGBT rights and considering that as a normal thing. This all construction or content is produced to morally corrupt the young brains as well as the existing old ones. The politically influenced media is injected their way of seeing things in us, their perspective is our perspective and all of it is done to achieve what they have aimed for. Before 1900’s the media was very biased when it came to such topics but the media got invaded and influenced by some people who were working for a certain cause. Now we see what they want us to see, they control almost everything shown in the media. Not that homosexuality is a new thing or that it didn’t exist, it did even in the time of Prophets. It was looked down upon by everyone. Then in 1800s it was frequent in ancient Greece. However, it had severe punishments and was condemned by many. The media evolved over years and got politically influenced which is why through media this topic of homophobia was designed and presented in such a way that people started having acceptance among them and their perspective from consider it morally wrong turned into morally right. Although media does supports such spontaneous causes but never shares the side effects or depict harmful effects on the society because of finding oneself into homosexuality. The above mentioned refers to HIV and STD’s but since it is not a medical topic so we won’t go into that detail. Yet this general positive trend within media nevertheless contains ingredients that enable the perpetuation of the negative attitude of public opinion towards this phenomenon. It is precisely the five most frequent components of media representations mentioned above that are responsible for the gap between politically wrong media representations and correct public opinion. Homosexuality still causes uncertainty and uneasiness, so some of the media usually resort to highly stereotyped images which easily tally with the readers’ representations of homosexuality without upsetting them.