Representation

The Oxford English Dictionary gives two definitions of the word:
1. To represent something is to describe or depict it, to call it up in the mind by description
or portrayal…..; to place a likeness of it before us in our mind.
2. To represent also means to symbolise, stand for, to be a specimen of or to substitute
for; as in the sentence, “In Christianity, the cross represents the suffering and crucifixion
of Christ.”
It is worth thinking about each of these for a moment: the first one is the more straightforward
— the media are in the business of describing things to us — they represent people and types
of people to us so that we end up feeling that we know what they are like.