LGBTQ üyelerinin televizyonda temsili

Increasing mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ identities in the western world gave way to increasing representations on television. This study adopts the idea that television allows society to communicate with its collective self. It recognizes that television can reinforce the symbolic existence of the groups it represents while providing opportunities for audiences to interact with them. Through this symbolic interaction, it can influence people's attitudes towards them. Because of that, the representations of marginalized identities carry the burden of being representative of the communities they represent. From this perspective, it is important to understand whether representations on television are stereotypical or progressive. Thus, adopting an intersectional approach, this thesis presents a semiotic analysis of the television series Pose (2018 – 2021) by applying John Fiske's (2001) "codes of television" method to the 9th episode of the second season. Taking into account the stereotypical representations of black women, transgender women and women as a general category, the textual analysis part of the thesis aims to uncover the ideological meanings within the representations of black transsexual women on Pose. However, taking a cultural studies approach, this thesis also acknowledges the polysemic nature of media texts and recognizes that mere textual analyses cannot predict the audiences' reception of them. In addition, from an intersectional perspective, it acknowledges that different dimensions of audiences' identities can have an impact on their readings and the meanings they produce. So, this thesis also investigates the meanings participants from different sexualities and ethnic groups make form these representations, by making use of survey, participant observation and in-depth interview methods. The results show that both the representations in the episode and the audiences' receptions of them contain contradictory meanings.