Section A: Question B Theoretical Evaluation of Production

G325 - Critical Perspectives in Media

Section A: Question B Theoretical Evaluation of Production
Worth 25 marks.

You will choose to evaluate one of your pieces of coursework in relation to a media concept.
In the exam one of the following areas will be selected for you to write about:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media language

Genre

Genres are categories or types of media text.
Genres are recognisable through the repeated use of generic codes and conventions:

• Iconographies
• Narrative
• Representations
• Ideologies

Genre and Audience

• Genre offers audiences a structure or framework
• Audience gains enjoyment from "spotting the conventions" (repetitions) and making comparisons with other films of the same genre
• If a text deviates from the conventions it can confuse us, but at the same time we enjoy seeing rules broken
• Audiences like the anticipation of waiting for the predictable features

- would be better for A2 as I can talk about relation to horror

Narrative

Theorists:

• Propp - 8 character roles
• Todorov - equilibrium - disequilibrium - new equilibrium
• Barthes - 5 codes (action, enigma, cultural, symbolic, semic)
• Levi-Strauss - binary opposites

All media texts tell stories. The structure of these stories is called the narrative.
A story must have verisimilitude (area, lighting, props need to be realistic) in order to engage us - how does your c/w have verisimilitude?

- would be better for A2 as a film has a storyline

Representation

Everything in the media is a representation - everything we see is being represented e.g. regions/ locations, individuals, groups, places, nations, ideas

Questions we would ask when analysing representation:

• WHO or WHAT is being represented?
• HOW is the representation created?
• WHO has created the representation?
• WHY is the representation created in that way? What is the intention?
• WHAT is the effect of the representation?

To maintain a representation of reality, media language elements such as lighting, music, editing, camera work and mise-en-scene are used. How did you use these micro-aspects to create representations?
Sometimes, representations are seen to be a deliberate attempt to create associations and ideas for the audience - did you represent any characters in a certain way so as to remind your audience of someone/ something else

- could use either for this question but may be better for AS as in evaluation i have analysed how i represented certain social classes.

Audience

Consider: age, gender, demographic profile, socio-economic group, existing/ new, lifestyle, values, attitude
Categories: A, B, C1, C2, D, E
Is your audience mass or niche?
What would the three reactions to you c/w be?: (Stuart Hall)

1. A preferred reading (intended interpretation) - best to talk about
2. An oppositional reading (someone who didn't like it)
3. A negotiated reading (someone who isn't the target audience but might appreciate it for another reason)

Every media text is made with a view to pleasing an audience in some way - how did you try to please your audience.
Success is measured by the audience's responses to a media text and those that do not attract and maintain an audience do not survive.
At the heart of this is the fact that all media texts are created in order to make money.

- could use for either AS or A2 but AS may be better because evaluation has more detail into the demographics, socio-economic group

Media Language

You will need to write about:

• Denotations
• Connotations
• Anchorage - using anchor - music magazine you have a front cover of lady gaga and then have the title which is represented in the news.

You made lots of decisions regarding the following micro-aspects:

• Camera
• Editing
• Lighting
• Sound
• Mise-En-Scene
• Special Effects

choose 1 page or scene from your c/w and analyse the above aspects in as much detail as possible. analyse the effectiveness of each area as if you were analysing the unseen exam.

G325 Section A: Exemplar Essay

Digital Technology and Creativity

Changed

I think my skills have developed in creativity and use of digital technology in the from AS to A2 as I have learnt to use more of a range of software and features inside of the different software packages which helped me use more creativity in my work. We have had to produce a music magazine in the first year and a teaser trailer with a magazine front cover and also a film poster in the second year, both of these use a range of digital technology and helped develop my creativity. I am going to structure this essay so that I break it down into pre-production, production and then post-production.

In pre-production at AS I used digital technology for the research and developing ideas of what I wanted to include in my music magazine, this includes using Google for pre-existing music magazines which helped develop my ideas and creativity for my own music magazine. I also used Photoshop in my pre-production with my preliminary task of the college magazine and this was useful as it gave me a basic idea of the skills and features that I would be able to use in my main task. It helped me to see what I would be able to add to my raw images for my music magazine and features such as ‘sharpen’ and ‘blur’ to make some areas stand out more and I could test these on the preliminary task to find the best effect before I added it to my main task. At A2 pre-production in the planning for my teaser trailer I used a lot more links for the information that I have included in my work and this is useful as it can show where different websites gave influenced my final teaser trailer and how I have explored different areas of creativity. I also used Microsoft Word a lot more as it can automatically find any grammar& spelling mistakes which means that I save time and can spend more time on creating my teaser trailer, rather than worrying about going through and picking out all of the spelling mistakes. A third piece of digital technology I used at pre-production at A2 is the Canon camera which I used to take pictures of my actors, props, costumes and locations which meant that I was able to see exactly what everyone was going to wear, and how it would fit in with the rest of the scene. This meant that when it came to the actual production I had all the planning for the teaser trailer covered and I knew where everything was going to go, and how it would fit in with the horror genre, this helped my creativity as I could work around conventions to explore different areas of horror.

In the production stage at AS I used a range of different digital technologies which I was capturing my images and this includes the camera shots that I was using for my Canon camera as I stuck to mainly a mid-long shot whereas when this advanced to A2 it seems as though I was more able to look at a range of different camera shots, so that I could see what was the most effective for the clips that I wanted to shoot which helped my creativity. I also had a lot more practise of how to use the camera for A2 compared to AS as it seems that I was able to keep the clips a lot more precise to how I wanted it, and could change features on the actual camera, whereas at AS I just took the original photos and then left it to when I came to post-production to what I had to edit on each photo which took up more time. I think the reason I was more adventurous in A2 with the way that I filmed was because I had looked at other practitioners such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola as they had the same sort of ideas that I had for my teaser trailer, with there being lots of dark and mysterious ideas so looking at similar teaser trailer helped my creativity of my own trailer.

In post-production in the first year I used a range of different software to create my music magazine and these include Photoshop and In-design which advanced my creativity because of the range of features I had available. I used a range of effects on Photoshop such as ‘Sharpen’ and ‘Blur’ to make some areas of my photos stand out more than the rest to create a focus on the main image. These effects were useful on a music magazine as the focus would be on the main artist on the front page, rather than what is around them, I found this from conventions on an NME magazine which had the same layout which mine did. I also stuck to a mainly mid-long shot for my music magazine front cover as this is what I had seen from other music magazines such as Chronicle and MixMag. This changed in the second year as I started to look more deeply into what was being shown in a teaser trailer and I could test more of a range of features in my own film and Adobe Premiere contributed to this as it is a much more advanced program which uses features such as transitions, titles, brightness and exposure which when are set at the right level, create a very good horror effect. I also used much more creativity in my evaluation at A2 as I used a combination of windows movie maker with the pictures& videos and then added sound that I had recorded with audacity as I think that if people can hear what you are saying, it becomes a lot more effective and shows good use of digital technology, you can also put more creativity into videos and voice-overs as you can talk about separate topics which relate to your original point whereas when you just write out the evaluation you just write what the answer is.

In conclusion, I think the bigger range of digital technology that I used for A2 helped the amount of creativity I was able to express.

Original

In the first year I used a range of different software to create my music magazine and these include Photoshop and In-design which advanced my creativity because of the range of features I had available. I used a range of effects on Photoshop such as ‘Sharpen’ and ‘Blur’ to make some areas of my photos stand out more than the rest to create a focus on the main image. These effects were useful on a music magazine as the focus would be on the main artist on the front page, rather than what is around them, I found this from conventions on an NME magazine which had the same layout which mine did. I also stuck to a mainly mid-long shot for my music magazine front cover as this is what I had seen from other music magazines such as Chronicle and MixMag. This changed in the second year as I started to look more deeply into what was being shown in a teaser trailer and I could test more of a range of features in my own film and Adobe Premiere contributed to this as it is a much more advanced program which uses features such as transitions, titles, brightness and exposure which when are set at the right level, create a very good horror effect.

In the second year we were also freer on what we chose as in the first year we could only do a music magazine whereas in the second year we had more of a range of options for our teaser trailer as we could choose whatever genre we wanted, I chose a horror film as it meant that I would be able to explore more of the effects that can be used on premiere with our raw clips, whereas in something like a comedy, the raw clips do not change very much.

Throughout the two years I feel the main skills development that I have had is that of that I went from editing still images to moving image which is a big step forward and shows much more creativity in my work as you have a lot more options on how you edit so there is a larger chance of your trailer being a failure so you have to make sure that you apply the right effects in the best places. This is why in my teaser trailer I included titles in places where the tension needed to be built up and have used master volume to make the tension even more dramatic. The sound effects that I have used were overlapping and were in sequence with each other and this shows how I have developed the skill of being able to time exactly where each sound effect should go so that it sounds like one whole sequence, rather than lots of separate tracks.

Section B Guided Questions

How do contemporary media represent different collective groups in different ways?

• Main focus of the essay


• Diverse representations including fiction, non-fiction and self-representation


• Harry Brown, Fish Tank, The Inbetweeners, Attack the Block, The London Riots news coverage, The Internet& Self-Mediation

How does contemporary representation compare with that of the past?

• Examples needed for simularity and difference


• Examples from the past - Quadrophenia - the film and the representations of Mods and Rockers


• Have they changed? - Plate quote...

What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?

• Stereotyping: what is its impact?


• What power does the audience have to 'resist'?


• Propaganda, Moral Panic, youth and an empty category, cultural hegemony, Stuart Hall and reading the texts and their messages


• Statistics on results of these representations and attitudes and beliefs vs. the reality of the issues

To what extent is human identity increasingly 'mediated'?

• Increasing media = increasing mediation?


• Re-presentation by others/by selves (Facebook/ YouTube (YouthTube))


• Be critical of who is offering the representations and for what purpose


• Mediated: How the media shapes your world and the way you live in it

Guidance:

1. Add your own personal opinion


2. What, in your opinion is the future of representations and what are you basing this on?


3. Connections must be made between examples/ contrasts are discussed


4. You must ember the theory into what you are saying

Examiner Advice: Structure

1. Introduction - start with a quote, paraphrase it (write out in own words), and link to issues of identity, representation, and the media. State your focus (social group and texts)


2. Historical example.


3. Contemporary examples.


4. Connect examples together.


5. Conclusion - return to start. Prediction for the future.

• Use referencing - name and year of publication given after first mention , e.g. Giroux, 1997


• Quote - Paraphrase - Critique


• One text older than 5 years


• Other texts should be from within the last 5 years


• Make a prediction for the future


• Structure: 'Example - Significance - Theory - Critique'

Mind Map: 'Analyse the ways in which the media representon group of people that you have studied'

Representation of the Youth

Plato - 4th Century
"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect our elders; they dis-obey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

Stereotypes:
Stereotypes are social constructs:

• reflect the power relations


• marginalize people


• categorize people

Characteristics:

• categorical


• inflexible


• pre-judgements and not based on experience


• simplistic


• conscious or unconscious

'Paedophobia' - being scared of children

Young people are 10x more likely to do voluntary work

Propaganda is a form of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position

Youth and Youth Culture:

• Gangs


• Rebels


• Failures


• Un-Disciplined


• YOBs


• Asbos


• Lazy


• Junkies


• Reckless


• Binger Drinkers


• Dogs (&Other animals)


• Only positive representations are in local papers

How we view the elderly:

• Wrinkled


• Old


• Can't Drive


• Narrow Minded


• Fragile


• Old Fashioned


• Smelly


• Rude


• 'Blow Dryed' Hair


• Grumpy


• Racist


• Sexist


• Ignorant


• Disrespectful


• Lazy

DVD - The Youth of today

• Disagree with Thames writer who says that the media are actually quite fair


• Agree that there has always been anti-social behaviour, can't assume that there is a new 'virus' that is affecting the youth


• You can't just move the problem on


• A lot more good in the youth than everyone thinks

‘How have British youth been represented through different media in the London riots’ Case Studies

Paper Representations

Channel 4: Teen Trouble: 26th November 2007

• 'The press calls them reckless, irresponsible members of society, but statistics tell quite a different story about British teens'


• "Crimes committed" - 12% Of Youths when adults thought it was 80%+


• "Kids out of control" news stories raise more interest


• News of the World provoking the situation


• Paranoid Adults


• Using a high pitch frequency to keep teenagers away from shops


• Generation Asbo


• Discriminating and Degrading


• Press used to pay 'Mods' to throw stones at people to start a news story


• Jamie Bulger case - Caused a change in the views of children from adults - Crime age changed From 14 to 10 - More CCTV - ASBO's


• Crimes of a minority are being used to demonise a whole class of people

The Hypodermic Syringe Theory - The media injects the information because of the proliferation of negative press
Can also link in the cultivation theory as it cultivates the adults mind and the more likely you are to see it on the media, the more likely you are to believe that it is happening in everyday life.
De-sensitisation theory - the more violence we we see in the media, the less likely we are to be upset by what we see. Because youth are demonised, they are then becoming self fulfilling prophesies.

Representing Youth

IPSOS MORI Survery 2005:

• 40% of articles focus on violence, crime anti-social behviour; 71% are negative

Brunel University:

• TV New: Violent crime or celebrities; young people are only 1% of sources

Women in Journalism:

• 72% of articles were negative; 3.4% positive



• 75% about crime, drugs, police



• Boys: yobs, thugs, sick, feral, hoodies, louts, scum



• Only positives stories are about boys who died young

Case Study

What role did new media technologies, particulary social networking sites play in the London riots?

Do media cause riots or revolutions?

Technology and Surveillance: mobile phones, CCTV, 24 hour news

Guardian Article http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/08/broken-britain-rhetoric-fuels-fear

How can you link cultural hegemony to this article?

The upper class seem to be looking down upon everyone else, as if everyone is the same 'trouble making people' the upper class now also think that they out-power everyone, and have the right to group people all into the same category. It will take both middle and lower class to work together to increase the representation to the upper class, it is then just their opinion to change what they think, which will be the hardest thing to do.

How does the article suggest moral panic is being caused?

"David Cameron comment in July that he was 'terrified' by the prospect of sending his children to a local state secondary school is proof of this, said Horton"

Can you link in McRobbies Symbolic violence theory? How?

"While thousands of pupils come from low-income families and attend schools in deprived neighbourhoods, just a small number behave anti-socially or commit crimes, the report argues"

How far do you agree with this article that governments decisions and policies are continuing to create a divide between the middle and working class? Discuss

Online Media

Connotations:
Facebook:

• Social network


• Freinds


• Photos


• Events


• Chat


• Frape


• Advertising


• Sharing Information


• Facebook Stalking


• 'Likes'

Impact of this kind of media on British youth and youth culture?

Positives:

• Staying in contact with people


• Sharing photos


• Create events


• Different cultures coming together


• Good place to market yourself


• Allows people to express them self

Negatives:

• Cyber Bullying


• Lose social skills in real situations

What new forms of social interactions have media technologies enabled?

• Globalisation


• Sharing of information


• Development of self-identity


• Self-realisation


• Collective Intelligence


• Reshaping media messages and their flow; reshape and recirculate messages


• Increased voice


• Consumer communication with business (greater influence)


• Awareness - Band/ Skills


• Communication has become interactive dialogue


• User Generated Content (UGC)


• Self-Presentation and Self-Disclosure


• Increasing diversity within cultures


• Online media focuses on some or all of the 7 functional building blocks - identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups

Online media are especially suitable to construct and develop several identities of the self (Turkle, 1998)

Two levels of representation:

1. Personal events through 'own' specific language


2. Constructing own images

The Modern Identity Concept:

• Personal Identity - sense of being a unique individual


• Social Identity - results from being a member of a group


• In former times: nationality, race, gender, occupation, sport club


• Mediatization of the self - diversity of interest groups in online social networks


• Easy transition between those communities

Digital Identity:

• A person is not just one stable and homogeneous identity


• Identity consists of several fragments that permanently change


• Multiple, but coherent (Turkle, 1998)


• A live-long developing and new conceptualized path work (Doring, 1999)

Media Use in Identity Construction
Katherine Hamley

Young people are surrounded by influential imagery – popular media (Examples?)

• Models


• Celebrities - Lady Gaga, Marilyn Manson


• Movies


• News


• Peers on Social Networking


• Youtube


• Music


• Skins

Young people always have influential imagery around them and its just how they interpret the images as to how it affects their personality/ identity. It can either create ideas of what the young people want to aspire to such as celebrities or models which will change there identity to be more like these people, or they can see something which they want to avoid, which may show something on the news of the amount of un-employed/ people in gangs and then when they see the reasons why these people turned out the reason they did, they may try and stay clear of this area of life.

It is no longer possible for an identity to just be constructed in a small community and influenced by a family (Discuss)

Everything in our life is now saturated by the media, so there is no chance that it is our family controls who we are as they only contribute a small part to it as we will use media more than we normally see family. Media has opened you to everything in the world, you can see what is happening anywhere rather than just in your community.

Everything concerning our life is 'media saturated' (explain what this means)

Media Saturated is the media saturating into our lives and changing how we behave and our own identity.

"Identity is complicated, everybody thinks they've got one" David Gauntlet

Religious and national identites are at the heart of major international conflicts

The average teenager can create numerous identites in a short space of time (using internet, social network sites)

We like to think we are unique and gauntlett questions whether this is an illusion, and we are all much more similar than we think

David Gauntletts 5 key Themes:

1. Creativity as a process - about emotions and experiences


2. Making and sharing - to feel alive, to participate, in community


3. Happiness - through creativity and community


4. Creativity as social glue - a middle layer between individuals& society


5. Making your mark - making the world your own

Buckingham: "Identity is ambiguous and slippery"

• Shows relationship with a broader group


• Can change according to circumstances


• Identity is fluid and can be affected by broader changes


• Identity is more important to us if we feel it is threatened

Cultural Imperialism - the influence on one culture on another. e.g. the British have always been influenced by America

The Internet

'Gingers do have souls'

'Chalie bit me'

'Justin Bieber'

'Rebecca Black'

'Leave Britney alone'

'Star Wars Kid'

'Jessie J'

'RayWilliamJohnson'

Meme:"a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from perosn to person via the internet"

When was Youtube first released? April 21st 2005

According to Michael Wesch what does Web 2.0 allow people to do? It links people together.

When media changes what else changes? human relationships.

How are communities connected?

What influenced the loss of community? And what has now filled this void?

Explain what he means by voyeuristic capabilities?

Write 3 points about what he refers when he discusses playing with identity

What does the ‘Free hugs phenomenon’ suggest about people? People are trying to reconnect with humanity.