For many of us, the media are an important source of information about the world in which we live. Indeed, it has been argued that the media are one of the chief means by which we reach an understanding of this world.
In consequence, many people believe the media are a powerful means of shaping our attitudes and beliefs.
This process by which the media can be said to interpret the world, or external reality, for us is called representation.
There is a wide philosophical debate about what constitutes ‘reality’ and whether, in fact, reality ultimately exists.
If, however, we assume, for the convenience of looking at representation, that there is an external reality, then one key function of the media is to represent that reality to us, the audience.
The means by which it does this are discussed in the earlier section on Image Analysis, where we identified a series of sign systems that are used by the media to represent the world.