Modelling 2 Ontologies: Portrayal & Perspectivisation – Level III

In this phase, the team examined Gangemi and Presutti's work Formal Representation and Extraction of Perspectives.

To fully capture the complexity of LGBTQ+ representation, we designed our system using two interconnected ontologies:

1. LGBTQPortrayal.ttl Ontology Focuses on how queer characters are represented on screen.

2. Perspectivisation Ontology (based on Gangemi & Presutti) Focuses on why and from which perspective a certain portrayal exists.

This refinement enhanced the ontology's ability to comprehensively represent and analyze the diverse perspectives of the portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters in teenage tv series dramas, examining recurring tropes, stereotypes, and narrative roles. By integrating the Perspectivisation Ontology (Gangemi & Presutti), it allows for the exploration of different perspectives on LGBTQ+ representation through two primary lenses: Profit-Driven (market-oriented portrayals) and Social Impact (authentic and empowering narratives). This approach enables a deeper understanding of how industry motivations, audience reception, and cultural factors shape LGBTQ+ visibility in media.

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📷 Ontology Visualization

Merged Visualization (📁 download the xmind file)

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OWL Ontology in RDF/Turtle

LGBTQPortrayal Ontology

🔍 Core classes of Ontology Perspective (Adapted from Perspectivisation Ontology)

This is a list of the classes and relative sublasses.

Eventuality Represents the central phenomenon or narrative fact under analysis — in this case, the portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters in teenage television dramas. In line with Perspectivisation Ontology, it anchors the perspective process.

• PortrayalOfLGBTQCharacters

  The concrete representation of queer identities within the narrative framework. It’s the core “event” that will be viewed through various lenses and influenced by contextual and attitudinal factors.

Lens The interpretative angle or ideological frame applied to the portrayal. A lens orients how an Eventuality is perceived, evaluated, and discussed.

• ProfitDrivenLens

  A perspective that emphasizes marketability, audience reach, and economic interests. It tends to favor representations that are safe, simplified, or stereotypical if they enhance profitability.

• SocialImpactLens

  A socially conscious perspective aiming for accurate, affirming, and inclusive portrayals. It focuses on the effect of representation on public understanding and LGBTQ+ self-perception.

Attitude Represents the evaluative stance taken within a given lens. In Perspectivisation Ontology, attitudes specify how the lens interprets or values the Eventuality.

• Profit-Driven

  • MarketFriendly:A neutral-to-positive framing aimed at pleasing wide audiences without controversy. Often includes vague or sanitized depictions.

  • Tokenization:Represents the inclusion of queer characters in superficial ways — to appear diverse without offering narrative depth.

  • Queerbaiting:Describes intentional suggestions of queerness without commitment — used to attract queer audiences while avoiding alienating others.

• Social Impact

  • EmpowermentRepresentation:Highlights characters who are confident, visible, and central to the story — challenging marginalization and invisibility.

  • ChallengingStereotypes:Seeks to subvert harmful tropes and propose alternative ways of portraying LGBTQ+ identities.

Background The socio-cultural, industrial, and historical context that shapes how representations are created and interpreted. In Perspectivisation Ontology, background frames the lens and attitude with real-world influence.

• Profit

  • StreamingPolicies:Guidelines set by streaming platforms that affect what kinds of representation are permissible or encouraged.

  • CensorshipLaws: National or regional laws that suppress or regulate LGBTQ+ content.

  • FinancialRisk:Economic considerations that may discourage complex or controversial queer narratives.

• Social Impact

  • QueerTheory: Academic and activist thought informing more nuanced and deconstructed views of identity and representation.

  • AudienceDemand: The influence of public calls for more inclusive and authentic portrayals, especially from LGBTQ+ youth.

  • HistoricalTrends: Past patterns of representation (e.g., tragic tropes, invisibility) that shape both audience expectation and creator intention.

Cut A "cut" represents the reinterpretation of an LGBTQ+ portrayal shaped by the interaction of Lens, Attitude, and Background. The “cut” is how representation manifests in the final product — it's the output of perspectivisation.

• Character Type It is the resulting narrative role or figure. It synthesizes the effect of all previous layers into a recognizable portrayal archetype. Each character can be linked to stereotypes, narrative functions such as leading or supporting roles, story arcs showing positive or negative development, and queerbaiting patterns.

• Token Character LGBTQ+ character is included, but lacks depth, meaningful development, or plot influence.

• Comic Sidekick LGBTQ+ character is a secondary figure, often used for humor. The role played is a supporting / comic role and it does not dramatise his ambiguity.

• Authentic Representation LGBTQ+ character is portrayed with realism and depth. This character actively promotes authentic LGBTQ+ representation to challenge stereotypes.

• Queer Protagonist Leed Role LGBTQ+ character drives the story and challenges norms. The role played is central, usually drama, in which the character researches itself.

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🔗 Object Properties Between Ontologies

Property	Domain → Range	Description
viewedThroughLens	PortrayalOfLGBTQCharacters → Lens	Connects the portrayal of an LGBTQ+ character to the interpretative lens applied to it. This property expresses the perspectival framing through which the representation is analyzed — whether driven by commercial goals or social responsibility.
hasAttitude	Lens → Attitude	Links a lens to the evaluative stance it adopts. This captures the nuance within each perspective — such as whether a commercial lens promotes tokenism or market-friendliness, or whether a social lens fosters empowerment or authenticity.
affectsPortrayal	Attitude → PortrayalOfLGBTQCharacters	Indicates how a particular attitude influences the way LGBTQ+ characters are represented. It allows tracing specific outcomes (e.g., queerbaiting or challenging stereotypes) back to their ideological stance.
providesContextFor	Background → Attitude	Denotes how cultural, historical, industrial, or academic background conditions shape or support the emergence of a specific attitude. It embeds the attitude in its real-world context.
emergesFrom	Cut → Eventuality	Specifies that the final portrayal (Cut) arises from the original representational phenomenon. It connects the output of the perspectivisation process to the core event under analysis.
shapedByLens	Cut → Lens	Captures the influence of the chosen lens on the final portrayal. This property reveals how interpretative frameworks (profit-driven or socially conscious) mold the representation into specific character types or outcomes.
shapedByAttitude	Cut → Attitude	Relates the final form of representation to the evaluative attitude that directed it. It helps explain how the stance taken — such as queerbaiting or empowerment — manifests in the narrative result.
informedByBackground	Cut → Background	Highlights how broader cultural or industrial contexts influence the form a portrayal ultimately takes. This property situates the final narrative outcome within the real-world forces that shaped it.

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🧩 Punned Entities in Ontology Modeling

In our ontology, we adopted punning as a modeling strategy to support both conceptual clarity and practical annotation. This technique, drawn from OWL 2 practices, allows the same term to be used both as a class (a conceptual category) and as an individual (an instance used in data).

Punning enables a single term (URI) to play two roles:

• As a class, it defines a conceptual category in the ontology (e.g., TokenCharacter as a subclass of CharacterType).

• As an individual, it serves as a tag or value when annotating real-world data (e.g., a specific character being a TokenCharacter).

By applying punned entities in our ontology, we achieved:

• Conceptual Reusability Categories like FairRepresentation, ComicSidekick, or PositiveRoleModel are defined once in the ontology and reused across portrayals, characters, and impact annotations.

• Theoretical Alignment Media and cultural studies often treat tropes and roles both as abstract patterns and as recurring instantiations. Our use of punning mirrors this interpretive flexibility.

This approach also supports our perspectivist methodology, this approach allows multiple overlapping "lenses" of analysis without enforcing rigid hierarchical boundaries.

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🧱 Punned Entity Table

Entity	As Class Of	Also Instance Of
LGBTQPortrayal:FairRepresentation	subclass of RepresentationType	type of rep_type_uri
LGBTQPortrayal:UnfairRepresentation	subclass of RepresentationType	type of rep_type_uri
LGBTQPortrayal:Detailed	subclass of CharacterDepth	type of portrayal_uri
LGBTQPortrayal:Superficial	subclass of CharacterDepth	type of portrayal_uri
LGBTQPortrayal:AuthenticRepresentation	subclass of CharacterType	type of character_uri
LGBTQPortrayal:ComicSidekick	subclass of CharacterType	type of character_uri
LGBTQPortrayal:TokenCharacter	subclass of CharacterType	type of character_uri
LGBTQPortrayal:QueerProtagonistLeadRole	subclass of CharacterType	type of character_uri
LGBTQPortrayal:PositiveRoleModel	subclass of LGBTQCommunityImpact	type of impact_uri
LGBTQPortrayal:NegativeRoleModel	subclass of LGBTQCommunityImpact	type of impact_uri

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🎯 Example Mapping: Riverdale’s Kevin Keller

Element	Value
Portrayal	Static, Superficial
RepresentationType	Unfair
Lens	ProfitDrivenLens
Attitude	Tokenization
Background	Streaming Policies, Market Appeal
Cut	Token Character
LGBTQ Community Impact	Negative
LGBTQ Community Impact Justification	Reinforces clichés, lacks narrative agency

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