Page 122 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

IMAGE

IMAGE

The objectification of self-knowledge for communicative purposes. At
an individual level, one’s ‘image’ is made up of the cues by means of
which others make sense of the performance of the self. These
include visual attributes (one’s looks and clothes) and intentionally
communicative acts (speech, interaction with others), but also
behavioural characteristics that project an image beyond the control
of the self (a ‘tearaway’, ‘self-confident’ image, etc.).
At a cultural level, image is the alienation of personal attributes for
semiotic purposes. The ‘image’ of various groups in the media,
especially those taken to be vulnerable or open to victimisation, has
been much studied. This is because it is widely feared that such
alienated images of the self are projected back into real selves by the
media, with material effects on behaviour and self-esteem.
The media images of women, ethnic minorities and various groups
organised around marginal tastes, lifestyles, subcultures or regions have
all been studied, often by an investigator who represents the group
thus portrayed. Examples include ‘images’ of: women as projected by
Hollywood and fashion; black, Aboriginal or migrant people
projected in the news; gays and lesbians in popular culture; regions
such as Northern Ireland or Palestine (for which ‘calm footage’ is all
too rare). Such images are thought to have cultural and political, not
just individual, consequences. Some analyses are sophisticated, for
instance Annette Kuhn’s The Power of the Image (1990), based on
cinema theory and feminism. Others are more demotic, hotly
contested within popular media themselves, including those by
advocate organisations and activists, for a sample of which, see any
issue of Adbusters.
Commercial organisations themselves have entered into image
politics. For instance, Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop,
purveyor of beauty and cleansing products, maintains a high-profile
politico-advertising campaign against ‘impossible’ images of women
(i.e. supermodels). Olivier Toscani, inspiration and photographer for
Benetton, has made a career and a brand name out of subverting
stereotypical images with Benetton advertisements.
The term ‘image’ has figured prominently in Western philosophy,
ever since Plato proposed that humans do not perceive truth directly,
but only in an indirect, distorted ‘image’. Humans cannot see
themselves as they are, Plato argued. Knowledge is perceived in
distorted, indirect form, as if it were projected, like the shadows of

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