The aim of this dissertation was to examine representations of Paganism by comparing recent fictional representations of Pagans and Wiccans against a "real life" model of Pagan and Wiccan practices and beliefs. A literature review focused on forming a model of Paganism, and looked at previous works which considered the representation of Paganism in fictional media. A crude form of content analysis was used to select an appropriate text for analysis. A semiotic analysis, ideological consideration, and a syntagmatic analysis of the narrative were all applied to the text, an episode called "Family" from the television series "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer." This gave an in-depth model of a fictional text featuring Witchcraft.

Paganism with particular reference to Witchcraft was portrayed positively in the text. It was discovered that the practice of magic had connotations of both power - particularly female autonomy - and of sexuality -particularly homosexuality. Further analyses of a wide range of texts would need to be compared to the reallife model devised to give a more complete picture of the connotations behind the representations of Pagans, Wiccans and Witches.

This dissertations aims to look at representations of Paganism and in particular Wicca and Witchcraft in modern fictional mass media. Semiotic analysis in particular and other media theories will be used to look at the representations and the portrayals compared to a model of current Pagan practices and beliefs - the "realist" perspective versus the "real".