Representation Theorists and Stranger Things

Stuart Hall Representation

Key Ideas: 

• Meaning is constructed by representation, by what is present, what is absent and what is different.
• A representation implicates the audience in creating its meaning but stereotyping tries to fix the meaning of representation in  a 'preferred meaning'
• A preferred meaning is what the media company wants the audience to decode from the media product and accept the message given.

Stuart Hall applies to Stranger Things

Throughout Stranger Things, there are many representations used and each have a meaning to be decoded by the audience: 

Events and preferred reading

Events and preferred reading	Individuals and preferred reading	Issues and preferred reading	Social Groups and preferred reading
Scientist is killed	Scientist: clever, vulnerable	The threat of an alien: powerful, mysterious
Group of boys playing a game: intense game	Mike: Leader as he is narrating game Dustin: hot-headed as swears Lucas: controlling as shouts at Will what to do Will: vulnerable as he doesn’t know what to do and is quiet	Playing a game and the character of a Demogorgon comes so they need to protect themselves: fun, intense	Group of school boys: good friends, nerdy
Will sees a creature and  rides into the woods where he falls off his bike: creature a threat to him	Will: vulnerable, easily frightened	The threat of an alien: frightening, mysterious
Will goes into shed and vanishes: gets taken by the creature	Will: vulnerable, brave as gets himself a gun to fight rather than just hiding	Creature after Will: Intense, mysterious, dangerous
Hopper wakes up on his sofa surrounded by empty beer cans: rough night	Hopper: slob, addicted to alcohol and nicotine, irresponsible	Hopper wakes up and gets ready for work: Surprising that he is a police officer as looks irresponsible. Doesn’t care about his job as drank a lot the night before, appears to have not had quality sleep and has several cigarettes before he leaves showing stress	Police force: Laid back, not responsible enough for their job.

Gauntlett: Identity

Key Ideas:

• Audiences create their own identity from media products in which they've viewed.
• In the past, representations in the media were simple and stereotypical but now representations are more complex and diverse. 
• Online media allows people to express and explore their identities. 

Gauntlett applies to Stranger Things

In Stranger Things, there are elements of old media and new media representations that are shown. For example, when Mike asks him mother if his friends can stay for longer she asks his dad for back up on her argument. This shows her to be dependant on him which is a typical representation of women in the past: depending on men and not being authoritative. Newer, broader media representations are shown in Stranger Things by having one of the protagonists (Eleven) as a strong powerful character. This represents women as being powerful and challenging towards men as eleven runs away from a man in the series: this is very contradictory to how women were represented in the past.