Term ‘representation’ in the discourse of media researchers: attempt of conceptualization of the term

For citation: Dontsov A., Aslanov I. Term ‘representation’ in the discourse of media researchers: attempt of conceptualization of the term // Mediascope, 2022. 2. Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2769

© Alexander I. Dontsov
Doctor of Philology, professor at the Chair of social psychology, Facultu of psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), a.dontsov@mail.ru

© Ivan A. Aslanov
PhD, researcher at the Chair of sociology of mass communications, Faculty of journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), Ivaslanov@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper analyzes the meaning of the term ‘representation’ in the discourse of modern media studies. We show that this term can be understood in several dimensions at once: on the one hand, as a set of events and facts selected by the participant of communication to construct a media image of a particular social phenomenon, on the other – as an arsenal of techniques, methods, linguistic means used by the author when creating an image of reality and describing the already selected factual material. Using the example of the most cited publications in the scientific field, it is shown that representation is perceived by researchers as a constructed image that performs a number of social functions of media communication. In conclusion, based on the theories of S. Moscovici and B. Hoyer, we propose to consider media representations as social representations, and also describe the advantages and disadvantages of such optics in the context of tasks solved within the scientific field of media research.

Key words: representation, social representation, media representation

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