Research on Representation

'The male gaze':

•  Occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. 
• For example, a scene may concentrate for extended periods on the curves of a woman's body,
• In mainstream cimena, the male gaze is typically dominant over the female gaze.

'The notion of looking':

Goodwins suggested that in every music video there is some reference to looking, this technique includes;

• screens within screens
• Telescopes
• Eyes
• Mirrors
• Looking glass
• Voyeurism

The notion of looking can help differentiate different characters in a music video and help the audience connect with what's being presented:

• If an artist or character was to not look directly in the the camera throughout the video it would give the effect of the audience being passive to the action as they are not being addressed directly
• If an artist or character was to look directly into the camera it would act as a way of bringing the audience into the video as it seems that the viewer is being recognised directly
• Through an eye-line match the notion of looking is also created as the audience is yet again brought into the video via seeing exactly what the artist/character can see.

John Fiske 'open and closed texts'

'Closed texts' show a strong tendency to encourage a particular interpretation in contrast to more 'open' texts. Mass media texts tend to be 'closed texts' because they are broadcast to an array of audiences that will decode information too differently if presentation was 'open'.