http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/_mmagpast/MM30_reps_war.html
http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/_mmagpast/mm23_teen_movie.html
http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/_mmagpast/mm23_black_press.html
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Media Magazine
Examples:
• Rodney King, and African- American man, caught on tape being battered 4 police men. The footage made it on to prime time news, and the explicit nature of the video raised fury among viewers which then resulted in six days of riots. The video is still available on YouTube.
• News organisations now include formats where people can join chat rooms, ask questions on Q&A’s, comment on blogs etc.
• Bebo, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook.
• Wikipedia news and Google news.
• Asian Tsunami on December 26th 2004 was caught on camera by many accidental journalists, and when people were searching for lost ones, they turned to social networking sites to spread the message.
• London bombings – first hand footage of it was seen to be more emotive and hard hitting.
• 23 year old, Seung- Hui Cho, an undergraduate from America, sent videos before his killings to the NBC news. Also during the massacre, many other people pulled out their gadgets to record it.
• Twitter and Flickr were the centre of attention when the Mumbai bombings took place in November 2008.
Theories:
Before audiences were passive, they took in what they were given and didn’t question what they saw. Now with the power to exploit whatever you want, many people have become active, they are actively taking part in the media.
Benefits to institutions:
Many big news firms can make the most of UGC to attract more audiences, make their news seem more real and raw.
Benefits to Audiences:
Audiences are able to respond to information they get, create their own content and play an active part.
a. What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?
Someone who witnesses and captures events that take place in the moment and expose the news to others via the media.
b. What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?
Footage of Rodney King being beaten up by the police.
c. List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.
Q&A’s, emails, forums.
d. What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?
UGC is more real, in the moment, raw, whereas professionally shot footage is more mediated.
e. What is a gatekeeper?
A gate keeper is someone who decides what is and isn’t worth ‘news value’.
f. How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
Now the audiences make their own news, they are in control of what is in the media and is not.
g. What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?
Citizen Journalists.
• Rodney King, and African- American man, caught on tape being battered 4 police men. The footage made it on to prime time news, and the explicit nature of the video raised fury among viewers which then resulted in six days of riots. The video is still available on YouTube.
• News organisations now include formats where people can join chat rooms, ask questions on Q&A’s, comment on blogs etc.
• Bebo, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook.
• Wikipedia news and Google news.
• Asian Tsunami on December 26th 2004 was caught on camera by many accidental journalists, and when people were searching for lost ones, they turned to social networking sites to spread the message.
• London bombings – first hand footage of it was seen to be more emotive and hard hitting.
• 23 year old, Seung- Hui Cho, an undergraduate from America, sent videos before his killings to the NBC news. Also during the massacre, many other people pulled out their gadgets to record it.
• Twitter and Flickr were the centre of attention when the Mumbai bombings took place in November 2008.
Theories:
Before audiences were passive, they took in what they were given and didn’t question what they saw. Now with the power to exploit whatever you want, many people have become active, they are actively taking part in the media.
Benefits to institutions:
Many big news firms can make the most of UGC to attract more audiences, make their news seem more real and raw.
Benefits to Audiences:
Audiences are able to respond to information they get, create their own content and play an active part.
a. What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?
Someone who witnesses and captures events that take place in the moment and expose the news to others via the media.
b. What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?
Footage of Rodney King being beaten up by the police.
c. List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.
Q&A’s, emails, forums.
d. What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?
UGC is more real, in the moment, raw, whereas professionally shot footage is more mediated.
e. What is a gatekeeper?
A gate keeper is someone who decides what is and isn’t worth ‘news value’.
f. How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
Now the audiences make their own news, they are in control of what is in the media and is not.
g. What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?
Citizen Journalists.
Tuesday 23 November 2010
Question 6
Who are the primary target audience for each of your three media texts and how do you know?
Text:
Underage and Pregnant
Primary target audience:
Teenagers 13-17 year olds. Mainstreamers. Demographics – E.
How do you know?
BBC3 has shows which attract a youth audience such as Family Guy, Gavin and Stacey etc. In underage and pregnant they show real teenagers who are pregnant and because teenage pregnancy is a contemporary issue mainstreamers would be interested to find out.
Text:
Juno
Primary Target audience:
14-24 year olds. Teenagers because the protagonist is portrayed to be a teenager but older people may also be appealed to the movie due to its humour and the older characters within the movie. Mainstreamers, fun seekers. Demographics B, C1, C2, D and E.
How do you know?
Wide range of people would be interested in the movie because of the variety of characters there are in the movies. Such as the adoptive parents, they are well off and well educated with good jobs, whereas Juno is a teenager who has no job and her education doesn’t seem to be good. The movie also touches on themes of love, family, and teenage pregnancy.
Text:
Underage and Pregnant
Primary target audience:
Teenagers 13-17 year olds. Mainstreamers. Demographics – E.
How do you know?
BBC3 has shows which attract a youth audience such as Family Guy, Gavin and Stacey etc. In underage and pregnant they show real teenagers who are pregnant and because teenage pregnancy is a contemporary issue mainstreamers would be interested to find out.
Text:
Juno
Primary Target audience:
14-24 year olds. Teenagers because the protagonist is portrayed to be a teenager but older people may also be appealed to the movie due to its humour and the older characters within the movie. Mainstreamers, fun seekers. Demographics B, C1, C2, D and E.
How do you know?
Wide range of people would be interested in the movie because of the variety of characters there are in the movies. Such as the adoptive parents, they are well off and well educated with good jobs, whereas Juno is a teenager who has no job and her education doesn’t seem to be good. The movie also touches on themes of love, family, and teenage pregnancy.
Question 5
Consider if your group of people have always been represented in the same way or has it changed over time? Give a full detail including a timeline and accounting for why it may have changed over time.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281523/
“149/673 women born between 1968 and 1977 became pregnant when teenagers. Of these, 70 (47%) had the baby, 67 (45%) had a termination and 10 (7%) had a spontaneous miscarriage; 2 others experienced fetal loss. Of the women aged 25-29 at first conception, 127 (92%) had the baby, 6 (4%) had a termination and 5 (4%) had a miscarriage. 40 (27%) of the teenage group went on to have a second teenage pregnancy, including 12 of the 67 who had their first pregnancy terminated”
“In England and Wales at least 94 377 teenagers became pregnant in 1996 and 38% of these pregnancies were terminated”
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/So-Th/Teen-Pregnancy.html
“The most recent American teen birth rate of approximately 51.1 births per 1,000 adolescent females is consistent with historical trends and matches the 1920 figure. Nonetheless, since the 1970s, American politicians, policy makers, and social critics have condemned the perceived "epidemic of teenage pregnancy."
“Race, ethnicity, class, and region could influence individual circumstances, with rural areas experiencing the lowest age at marriage”
“Few people worried about teen pregnancy as long as the expecting mother married before giving birth. There was strong social pressure to marry before becoming a parent, but the high number of babies born less than nine months after marriage ceremonies shows that many young couples taking their marriage vows were already expecting a child”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1292228.stm
“Scientists have long argued that the age at which women have their first child is largely defined by environmental, cultural and educational factors”
“Although many women in western societies are having children later for career reasons there is a simultaneous increase in teenage pregnancies.”
The swinging 60s was named as the era of the permissive society. Many acts were made laws which gave women more freedom, especially the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1961 which gave women more sexual freedom. New wave films and the introduction of programs such as Coronation Street showed the public raw portrayals and were said to be true representations of the society.
The permissive society then led to women being sexually objectified in the 1970’s, creating competition between women to be as sexy as possible to get the male attention. This is one of the most significant changes in the representation of women. Even today with lad mags being introduced in the 2000s, women have been represented as ornaments for viewing pleasures.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281523/
“149/673 women born between 1968 and 1977 became pregnant when teenagers. Of these, 70 (47%) had the baby, 67 (45%) had a termination and 10 (7%) had a spontaneous miscarriage; 2 others experienced fetal loss. Of the women aged 25-29 at first conception, 127 (92%) had the baby, 6 (4%) had a termination and 5 (4%) had a miscarriage. 40 (27%) of the teenage group went on to have a second teenage pregnancy, including 12 of the 67 who had their first pregnancy terminated”
“In England and Wales at least 94 377 teenagers became pregnant in 1996 and 38% of these pregnancies were terminated”
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/So-Th/Teen-Pregnancy.html
“The most recent American teen birth rate of approximately 51.1 births per 1,000 adolescent females is consistent with historical trends and matches the 1920 figure. Nonetheless, since the 1970s, American politicians, policy makers, and social critics have condemned the perceived "epidemic of teenage pregnancy."
“Race, ethnicity, class, and region could influence individual circumstances, with rural areas experiencing the lowest age at marriage”
“Few people worried about teen pregnancy as long as the expecting mother married before giving birth. There was strong social pressure to marry before becoming a parent, but the high number of babies born less than nine months after marriage ceremonies shows that many young couples taking their marriage vows were already expecting a child”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1292228.stm
“Scientists have long argued that the age at which women have their first child is largely defined by environmental, cultural and educational factors”
“Although many women in western societies are having children later for career reasons there is a simultaneous increase in teenage pregnancies.”
The swinging 60s was named as the era of the permissive society. Many acts were made laws which gave women more freedom, especially the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1961 which gave women more sexual freedom. New wave films and the introduction of programs such as Coronation Street showed the public raw portrayals and were said to be true representations of the society.
The permissive society then led to women being sexually objectified in the 1970’s, creating competition between women to be as sexy as possible to get the male attention. This is one of the most significant changes in the representation of women. Even today with lad mags being introduced in the 2000s, women have been represented as ornaments for viewing pleasures.
Question 4
Is there evidence of any alternative representations of this group of people/place in the media, perhaps in different genres? If not, why do you think this is the case?
Even in celebrity lives we see the issue of teenage pregnancy, when Jamie Lynn Spears fell pregnant last year at the age of 18, her whole family name had been affected alongside Britney spears’ shenanigans.
Predominantly the representation of pregnant teens is negative. The topic of teenage pregnancy has consumed up most of media, from newspapers to music videos, from magazines to movies. All the pregnant teens that are shown in these platforms are shown to be immature people who are not ready to have children yet want to prove their maturity by having a pregnant.
Asian cultures are still very strict on their rules of sex, and we barely see any Asian pregnant teens in the media, whereas the western society is much more open on the topic of sex, and more comfortable about talking about it and accepting sex before marriage in this day and age.
Even in celebrity lives we see the issue of teenage pregnancy, when Jamie Lynn Spears fell pregnant last year at the age of 18, her whole family name had been affected alongside Britney spears’ shenanigans.
Predominantly the representation of pregnant teens is negative. The topic of teenage pregnancy has consumed up most of media, from newspapers to music videos, from magazines to movies. All the pregnant teens that are shown in these platforms are shown to be immature people who are not ready to have children yet want to prove their maturity by having a pregnant.
Asian cultures are still very strict on their rules of sex, and we barely see any Asian pregnant teens in the media, whereas the western society is much more open on the topic of sex, and more comfortable about talking about it and accepting sex before marriage in this day and age.
Question 3
What other reasons might there be for why your group of people/ place is represented the way it is? Consider the role of politics and the media e.g. hegemonic structures and why it might be in the interests of the media/ hegemonic society to represent them/ it in this way.
Since the introduction of the pill and the divorce law, and the desensitisation of sex in the media, the belief in religion has decreased rapidly. Teenage pregnancy has always been around, in some cultures many people get married when they are merely teenagers, in other cultures teenage pregnancy is frowned upon; however this does not affect the increase in teenage pregnancies. Society has become sex obsessed, every show has some sort of sex scene, and being provocative and sexual has become more accepted in society. Alongside that, sex education is being taught to younger children now, exploiting them to sex, which is meant to get them ready but not persuade them to have sex at a young age. I think that in today’s society, with upper class and middle class dominating, people feel dominant and teenage pregnancy is categorised under the subordinate group, of wild and promiscuous people. But where the Caucasian race would be in the dominant group, we still see them commonly associated with the issue of teenage pregnancy.
Since the introduction of the pill and the divorce law, and the desensitisation of sex in the media, the belief in religion has decreased rapidly. Teenage pregnancy has always been around, in some cultures many people get married when they are merely teenagers, in other cultures teenage pregnancy is frowned upon; however this does not affect the increase in teenage pregnancies. Society has become sex obsessed, every show has some sort of sex scene, and being provocative and sexual has become more accepted in society. Alongside that, sex education is being taught to younger children now, exploiting them to sex, which is meant to get them ready but not persuade them to have sex at a young age. I think that in today’s society, with upper class and middle class dominating, people feel dominant and teenage pregnancy is categorised under the subordinate group, of wild and promiscuous people. But where the Caucasian race would be in the dominant group, we still see them commonly associated with the issue of teenage pregnancy.
Question 2
What institution(s) is/are responsible for the production of your media texts? Consider both the production company (and channel of the broadcast if on the TV) and explore how this may affect the representations in the texts.
Underage and Pregnant: 8:30pm Tuesdays, BBC3
The BBC is government funded. BBC3 is targeted at more of a youth audience than BBC 1 and 2, BBC3 shows are commonly reality programs, or comedy shows consisting of teenagers or young audiences. The fact that it is government funded, means that BBC3 would most probably portray the government as a positive thing, also the shows on the channel may be of those that contain social issues. Teenagers would be the typical target audience, and because it doesn’t come on the terrestrial channels infers that the audience is rather niche and tightly marketed at
the working/middle class, unemployed students/teenagers.
Juno:
Fox searchlight pictures (News Corporation Company)
Fox Searchlight Pictures is known movies such as Slumdog millionaire, My name is Khan, Little Miss Sunshine. These movies all contain issues which have been in the media most recently, or issues which exist in reality and are not revolved around the subject of love. Fox can also be called the monopoly of the movie making industry, and therefore can afford to make movies which niche audiences that conform to the issues in society. However we need to remember that there will always be a entertainment value in these movies and most of them have a happy ending which is not so realistic and therefore may be a more soft portrayal of the subject of teenage pregnancy.
The Daily Mail:
Is part of a conglomerate with The General trust. Mainly targeted at middle/working class people. Mostly mainstreamers and aspirers who want to know the issues that are existed in today’s society. Most of them read for gossip about celebrities. Therefore stories in the newspaper may be exaggerated, mostly about the pregnant teens in the working class section.
Underage and Pregnant: 8:30pm Tuesdays, BBC3
The BBC is government funded. BBC3 is targeted at more of a youth audience than BBC 1 and 2, BBC3 shows are commonly reality programs, or comedy shows consisting of teenagers or young audiences. The fact that it is government funded, means that BBC3 would most probably portray the government as a positive thing, also the shows on the channel may be of those that contain social issues. Teenagers would be the typical target audience, and because it doesn’t come on the terrestrial channels infers that the audience is rather niche and tightly marketed at
the working/middle class, unemployed students/teenagers.
Juno:
Fox searchlight pictures (News Corporation Company)
Fox Searchlight Pictures is known movies such as Slumdog millionaire, My name is Khan, Little Miss Sunshine. These movies all contain issues which have been in the media most recently, or issues which exist in reality and are not revolved around the subject of love. Fox can also be called the monopoly of the movie making industry, and therefore can afford to make movies which niche audiences that conform to the issues in society. However we need to remember that there will always be a entertainment value in these movies and most of them have a happy ending which is not so realistic and therefore may be a more soft portrayal of the subject of teenage pregnancy.
The Daily Mail:
Is part of a conglomerate with The General trust. Mainly targeted at middle/working class people. Mostly mainstreamers and aspirers who want to know the issues that are existed in today’s society. Most of them read for gossip about celebrities. Therefore stories in the newspaper may be exaggerated, mostly about the pregnant teens in the working class section.
Question 1
How is your Group of people/ place represented typically in the media? Use detailed examples from your primary sources. Explore specifically how the representations are constructed.
Underage and Pregnant:
BBC3 - “Series which goes behind the sensational headlines to discover what it is really like to be underage and pregnant”
http://www.singlemummy.net/2010/08/support-where.html “Since falling pregnant with J in Feb 2006 aged 16 I have watched every single documentary about young parents that has been broadcast. Why? Because I'm still waiting for the day I find a documentary that doesn't show teenage mothers as being lazy slobs who don't care about their babies and are more worried about getting into their jeans.”
Underage and pregnant portray a more raw portrayal of pregnant teenager. There seems to be a sense of truth in the show, the stereotypes of teenage mothers are very prominent, with the mise en scene including estate homes, domestic scenes and the mothers are commonly wearing a lot of jewellery, piercings and tattoos are also shown to give them a bad image. Which reinforces the stereotypes to the target audiences, however when we follow the stories of these girls, we feel sorry for them, through their dialogue we see how their lives truly are.
Most of episodes we see that the girls are pretty much alone, and the baby was a mistake, also the father of the baby is hardly ever in the picture anymore. However the most recent episode contained a girl aged 14 who fell pregnant, and decided to keep the baby and was still with her boyfriend when he was killed in a car accident. Stories like these replace our stereotype of teenage mums as being immature individuals who just get pregnant because they think having sex is ‘cool’. However when we see their age we still think they are too young which doesn’t change throughout the series.
Juno:
Released in 2007, A tale told over four seasons, starting in autumn when Juno, a 16-year-old high-school junior in Minnesota, discovers she's pregnant after one event in a chair with her best friend, Bleeker. In the waiting room of an abortion clinic, the quirky and whip-sharp Juno decides to give birth and to place the child with an adoptive couple. She finds one in the PennySaver personals, contacts them, tells her dad and step-mother, and carries on with school. The chosen parents, upscale yuppies (one of whom is cool and laid back, the other meticulous and uptight), meet Juno, sign papers, and the year unfolds. Will Juno's plan work, can she improvise, and what about Bleeker?
One point to consider is that this movie is America, and therefore the presentation of teenage mums in the British media will perhaps be different to that in the American media. Juno is shown to be rather well off compared to the girl we see on underage and pregnant and her parents seem to be very supportive towards her, which again is in contrast to what we see in the British representation of teenage mums. There are some similarities of the ideologies they send off about teenage mothers, Juno is shown to be extremely immature and the fact that she gives her baby up for adoption shows she’s not ready to have a baby which are the same ideologies underage and pregnant portray but in a more factual and serious sense.
Another factor to consider is that movies are made for entertainment and programs such as underage and pregnant are to educate the audiences about pregnancy and the disadvantages of getting pregnant too early.
Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1240513/You-wont-tackle-teen-pregnancy-
putting-parenting-school-timetable.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-
1253631/BRENDA-ALMOND-Well-end-teenage-pregnancy-epidemic-admit-whats-REALLY-causing-it.html
The daily mail is a tabloid newspaper and therefore includes issues close to home for their target audiences. Teenage pregnancy is a hot topic which is repeatedly in the newspapers eyes. The daily mail accuses the government for the alarming rates of teenage pregnancy, sometimes they say the government is not funding enough for campaigns against underage sex and other times the newspapers insists that sex education is the cause of the problem. Governments new plans to teach 14 year olds how to be good mothers, is said to make these kids feel ready to be mothers and therefore try and be one in real life. Like the other to platforms, the Daily Mail also suggest that underage pregnancy is a hassle and that these children are immature and not ready enough.
Underage and Pregnant:
BBC3 - “Series which goes behind the sensational headlines to discover what it is really like to be underage and pregnant”
http://www.singlemummy.net/2010/08/support-where.html “Since falling pregnant with J in Feb 2006 aged 16 I have watched every single documentary about young parents that has been broadcast. Why? Because I'm still waiting for the day I find a documentary that doesn't show teenage mothers as being lazy slobs who don't care about their babies and are more worried about getting into their jeans.”
Underage and pregnant portray a more raw portrayal of pregnant teenager. There seems to be a sense of truth in the show, the stereotypes of teenage mothers are very prominent, with the mise en scene including estate homes, domestic scenes and the mothers are commonly wearing a lot of jewellery, piercings and tattoos are also shown to give them a bad image. Which reinforces the stereotypes to the target audiences, however when we follow the stories of these girls, we feel sorry for them, through their dialogue we see how their lives truly are.
Most of episodes we see that the girls are pretty much alone, and the baby was a mistake, also the father of the baby is hardly ever in the picture anymore. However the most recent episode contained a girl aged 14 who fell pregnant, and decided to keep the baby and was still with her boyfriend when he was killed in a car accident. Stories like these replace our stereotype of teenage mums as being immature individuals who just get pregnant because they think having sex is ‘cool’. However when we see their age we still think they are too young which doesn’t change throughout the series.
Juno:
Released in 2007, A tale told over four seasons, starting in autumn when Juno, a 16-year-old high-school junior in Minnesota, discovers she's pregnant after one event in a chair with her best friend, Bleeker. In the waiting room of an abortion clinic, the quirky and whip-sharp Juno decides to give birth and to place the child with an adoptive couple. She finds one in the PennySaver personals, contacts them, tells her dad and step-mother, and carries on with school. The chosen parents, upscale yuppies (one of whom is cool and laid back, the other meticulous and uptight), meet Juno, sign papers, and the year unfolds. Will Juno's plan work, can she improvise, and what about Bleeker?
One point to consider is that this movie is America, and therefore the presentation of teenage mums in the British media will perhaps be different to that in the American media. Juno is shown to be rather well off compared to the girl we see on underage and pregnant and her parents seem to be very supportive towards her, which again is in contrast to what we see in the British representation of teenage mums. There are some similarities of the ideologies they send off about teenage mothers, Juno is shown to be extremely immature and the fact that she gives her baby up for adoption shows she’s not ready to have a baby which are the same ideologies underage and pregnant portray but in a more factual and serious sense.
Another factor to consider is that movies are made for entertainment and programs such as underage and pregnant are to educate the audiences about pregnancy and the disadvantages of getting pregnant too early.
Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1240513/You-wont-tackle-teen-pregnancy-
putting-parenting-school-timetable.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-
1253631/BRENDA-ALMOND-Well-end-teenage-pregnancy-epidemic-admit-whats-REALLY-causing-it.html
The daily mail is a tabloid newspaper and therefore includes issues close to home for their target audiences. Teenage pregnancy is a hot topic which is repeatedly in the newspapers eyes. The daily mail accuses the government for the alarming rates of teenage pregnancy, sometimes they say the government is not funding enough for campaigns against underage sex and other times the newspapers insists that sex education is the cause of the problem. Governments new plans to teach 14 year olds how to be good mothers, is said to make these kids feel ready to be mothers and therefore try and be one in real life. Like the other to platforms, the Daily Mail also suggest that underage pregnancy is a hassle and that these children are immature and not ready enough.
Monday 22 November 2010
Why teenage pregnancy?
Well I thought that because it's an issue that we have seen in the media for a very long time, and is one of the concerns Britain has. Also lately there have been many shows about teenage pregnancy.
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Identifying relevant theorists
Gaye Tuchman - Symbolic Annihilation of Women
This misrepresentation of women then results to social disempowerment and categorising women within the subordinate group.
Key Quotes:
"Symbolised as child like adornments who need to be protected or they are dismissed to the protective confines of the home."
“Condemnation of single and working women.”
(Quotes from Tuchman's book 'The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media')
David Gauntlett - Media, Gender and Identity
Gauntlett talks about the media’s influence on how we perceive gender in today’s society compared to the historical representations.
Key Quotes:
"Men were most likely to be seen in authority roles, and were ten times more likely than women to provide dependable voiceover."
"All forms of media, mainstream TV shows and movies to niche websites and fanzines, find their meaning within a social context, as people consume, discuss and interact with them and embed them in their lives."
"Audiences are not only a diverse set of individuals, but that each individual is themselves complex, internally diverse and often somewhat contradictory in their attitudes, tastes and pleasures."
This misrepresentation of women then results to social disempowerment and categorising women within the subordinate group.
Key Quotes:
"Symbolised as child like adornments who need to be protected or they are dismissed to the protective confines of the home."
“Condemnation of single and working women.”
(Quotes from Tuchman's book 'The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media')
David Gauntlett - Media, Gender and Identity
Gauntlett talks about the media’s influence on how we perceive gender in today’s society compared to the historical representations.
Key Quotes:
"Men were most likely to be seen in authority roles, and were ten times more likely than women to provide dependable voiceover."
"All forms of media, mainstream TV shows and movies to niche websites and fanzines, find their meaning within a social context, as people consume, discuss and interact with them and embed them in their lives."
"Audiences are not only a diverse set of individuals, but that each individual is themselves complex, internally diverse and often somewhat contradictory in their attitudes, tastes and pleasures."
(Quotes from Gauntlett's book called 'Media, Gender and Identity')
Laura Mulvey - Male Gaze, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
Men do the looking and women are to be looked at. When we see a shot where a woman is fetishized we are looking through the “male gaze” and eye these women up as if a man is, because that’s the direction of the camera.
Key Quotes:
"Women bear 'the bleeding wound', existing only in relation to castration. When women bear children, these are desires to possess a penis -- the child has submitted to the law of the symbolic order, or '[kept] down with her in the half light of the imaginary' (59). Women thus stand as an Other to males: men live out fantasies and obsessions 'through linguistic command by imposing them' on women (59)."
(Quotes from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html & http://www.arasite.org/mulvey.htm)
Judith Butler - Gender Trouble, Queer Theory and Performativity (Gender and sex)
Butler looks at how people are 'Gendered' in the media.
Key Quotes:
"Gender reality is performative which means, quite simply, that it is real only to the extent that it is performed"
"Gender cannot be understood as a role which either expresses or disguises an interior 'self,' whether that 'self' is conceived as sexed or not. As performance which is performative, gender is an 'act,' broadly construed, which constructs the social fiction of its own psychological interiority"
(Quotes from http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-butl.htm & http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/genderandsex/modules/butlergendersex.html )
Stuart Hall - Representation of Black people in the Media (Cultural Representation)
Stuart Hall is named a Cultural Theorist, who considers how races are portrayed through the media.
Key Quotes:
"The mass media play a crucial role in defining the problems and issues of public concern. They are the main channels of public discourse in our segregated society".
"When blacks appear in the documentary/current affairs part of broadcasting, they are always attached to some 'immigrant issue': they have to be involved in some crisis or drama to become visible actors to the media."
"Culture is said to embody the ‘best that has been thought and said’ in a society."
(Quotes From http://changingminds.org/disciplines/sociology/theorists/stuart_hall.htm & 'Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices)
Antonio Gramsci - Hegemony
By hegemony, Gramsci meant the permeation throughout society of an entire system of values, attitudes, beliefs and morality that has the effect of supporting the status quo in power relations. (Controlling /Dominant group, that controls the other minority groups)
Key Quotes:
“Although one can speak of the intellectuals, one cannot speak of the non- intellectuals, because non intellectuals do not exist”
(Quotes from 'Hegemony, Intellectuals and The State)
Nick Lacey - Media Concepts
Lacey looks at Image and Representation, Narrative and Genre and Media Institutions and Audiences.
Key Quotes:
"The internet, in particular, has ‘changed everything’ and is a medium, so it can be studied in the same way as can television or cinema."
(Quotes from http://www.nicklacey.org.uk/ImageRep/HomeImageRep.htm )
Richard Dyer - Representation of Gay people in the media
Key Quotes:
"Sometimes we have gone overboard in blaming the mass media—they are only one of the instruments of oppression. More important, we have tended to condemn images of gayness in the name of aesthetic concepts and values that are highly problematic"
"Realism can, within its conventions, show the look of gay life, but it cannot show what it feels and what it means to gay people, nor can it show the social pressures that act on gay people and so produce the look of gay life."
(Quotes from http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC18folder/GaysinFilmDyer.html)
Marshall McLuhan - The Medium is The Message
Marshall McLuhan was concerned with the observation that we tend to focus on the obvious.
(http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm)
Theodor Adornos - Culture Industry
Adorno - The culture Industry
Final question for Case Study
A study of the representation of Teenage Pregnancy in contemporary film, television and the Tabloid Press.
Texts to look at:
Underage and Pregnant
Juno
Daily Mail
Texts to look at:
Underage and Pregnant
Juno
Daily Mail
Tuesday 2 November 2010
Media conference
Chewing gum for the brain: Why do people talk such rubbish about Media Studies?
Why Media Studies is worth studying.
This gave me very good points for my personal statement, and explore ways in which media actually is a worthwhile degree. The lecturer spoke passionately about how Media is rapidly becoming a huge part of societies life. Lecturer, Professor Buckingham, explained how media studies is being represented in broadsheet newspapers. That in one guardian article, media studies was said to be a 'soft' subject
Online media, Cleggmania, and the Cowell Factor.
How do online media and convergence impact on the ways audiences and producers use and create media?
This was also very interesting, the mixture of the competition and the fact that they spoke about the X factor, which has become a part of everyone’s lives. Also the idea that harrow on the hill is such an expensive school, and that people tend to put down those who do not take on “Academic” subjects. Lecturer, Dr. Julian McDougall, explained the links between reality TV, the web, and politics. One really good point was that this year, the 3 parties in competition all appeared on reality TV on channel 3 in order to target a wider audience.
Perfecting your production work.
How to get the most out of your practical projects.
I wasn’t here for this part.
Why Media Studies is worth studying.
This gave me very good points for my personal statement, and explore ways in which media actually is a worthwhile degree. The lecturer spoke passionately about how Media is rapidly becoming a huge part of societies life. Lecturer, Professor Buckingham, explained how media studies is being represented in broadsheet newspapers. That in one guardian article, media studies was said to be a 'soft' subject
Online media, Cleggmania, and the Cowell Factor.
How do online media and convergence impact on the ways audiences and producers use and create media?
This was also very interesting, the mixture of the competition and the fact that they spoke about the X factor, which has become a part of everyone’s lives. Also the idea that harrow on the hill is such an expensive school, and that people tend to put down those who do not take on “Academic” subjects. Lecturer, Dr. Julian McDougall, explained the links between reality TV, the web, and politics. One really good point was that this year, the 3 parties in competition all appeared on reality TV on channel 3 in order to target a wider audience.
Perfecting your production work.
How to get the most out of your practical projects.
I wasn’t here for this part.
Do alternative representations exist of male and/ or female roles in the hip hop genre?
I didn’t want to do something expected or typical so I decided to do: Your Love by Nicki Minaj.
Immediately we are given an alternative representation of women in this hip hop video,
stereotypically we associate the make gender with rapping, however here we have a woman rapping, which breaks away from this stereotype.
However the way she is dressed (geisha outfit), portrays her as a piece of decoration, objectifies her, which is how women are pretty much represented as in hip hop videos. Her stiff position, excessive accessories and heavy makeup, almost dehumanises her, and portrays her as an object of desire. Though she is covered from the top, long shots which enable the viewers to gaze upon her legs, fetishises her and sexually objectifies her.
There is also a direct mode of address, which would usually be from the male and the women would be in the back admiring the man, but would not have enough superiority to look at the camera. By giving a direct mode of address, Minaj represents herself to be in control, which gives her the power which stereotypically the males have.
Women are stereotypically supposed to be just looked at and do not take on the male jobs, such as fighting or hard labour work. In the video, all the women are learning karate, which is supposed to be too aggressive for the female gender, this shows that women are represented as equal to men, however this can be argued against by the fact that their teacher is a male. This can suggest that men will always be superior to women, and have to teach the women the vital techniques of survival.
Shots where the women look at the man, represent that they are inferior to the men, as if they are damsels in distress, and the high angle shots, show us how the man sees Minaj, and she looks up to him, as if he is her saviour.
The colour, red that all the women wear, can connote power, however this power is diminished as the man wears Black, which is more of a masculine colour and blocks out the chance of any other colour conquering his ( which can also connote that a woman can never surpass the male gender).
The two women then fight for the man, which sometimes is and isn’t presented in hip hop videos, however society increasingly associates the men to be the fighters, and even in fairy tales we usually see the good guy and the bad guy fighting for the girl. This again challenges the male dominancy, and gives women physical strength. We could also say that the swords can represent the phallus and that as the women have them in their hands, they are now in control but another interpretation can suggest that this connotes that women must have some sort of male ability to survive.
The final shot I think strongly shows an alternative representation of women. As Minaj lies dying, the male sits beside her and looks to the camera in distress/anger/pain and sorrow, again which is stereotypically the role a woman would play. For years we see in not only music videos such as Hero by Enrique Iglesias but also movies that the man dies for the one he loves, and the woman runs whilst sobbing to him and hold him as he dies, so here we see the male takes on this role and is portrayed quite feminine. Also as he looks up, red rose petals fall upon him, which is a feminine flower, this can suggest that his feminine side is coming out as he cries whilst he watches his love die. Another interesting change I found by the end is that, the fact that the man survives can suggest that the female gender is too weak to survive and also by the end Minaj is fully dressed in Black, whereas the man now wears both red and Black, which can suggest as downfall in power for the man. The colour red can connote femininity, as it is a colour associated with love, lust and sexiness, which are all key words stereotypically associated with the female gender. Therefore it is key to notice that he wears both these colours, whereas in the beginning he just wears black, giving him all the power, but now Minaj holds all the power.
Immediately we are given an alternative representation of women in this hip hop video,
stereotypically we associate the make gender with rapping, however here we have a woman rapping, which breaks away from this stereotype.
However the way she is dressed (geisha outfit), portrays her as a piece of decoration, objectifies her, which is how women are pretty much represented as in hip hop videos. Her stiff position, excessive accessories and heavy makeup, almost dehumanises her, and portrays her as an object of desire. Though she is covered from the top, long shots which enable the viewers to gaze upon her legs, fetishises her and sexually objectifies her.
There is also a direct mode of address, which would usually be from the male and the women would be in the back admiring the man, but would not have enough superiority to look at the camera. By giving a direct mode of address, Minaj represents herself to be in control, which gives her the power which stereotypically the males have.
Women are stereotypically supposed to be just looked at and do not take on the male jobs, such as fighting or hard labour work. In the video, all the women are learning karate, which is supposed to be too aggressive for the female gender, this shows that women are represented as equal to men, however this can be argued against by the fact that their teacher is a male. This can suggest that men will always be superior to women, and have to teach the women the vital techniques of survival.
Shots where the women look at the man, represent that they are inferior to the men, as if they are damsels in distress, and the high angle shots, show us how the man sees Minaj, and she looks up to him, as if he is her saviour.
The colour, red that all the women wear, can connote power, however this power is diminished as the man wears Black, which is more of a masculine colour and blocks out the chance of any other colour conquering his ( which can also connote that a woman can never surpass the male gender).
The two women then fight for the man, which sometimes is and isn’t presented in hip hop videos, however society increasingly associates the men to be the fighters, and even in fairy tales we usually see the good guy and the bad guy fighting for the girl. This again challenges the male dominancy, and gives women physical strength. We could also say that the swords can represent the phallus and that as the women have them in their hands, they are now in control but another interpretation can suggest that this connotes that women must have some sort of male ability to survive.
The final shot I think strongly shows an alternative representation of women. As Minaj lies dying, the male sits beside her and looks to the camera in distress/anger/pain and sorrow, again which is stereotypically the role a woman would play. For years we see in not only music videos such as Hero by Enrique Iglesias but also movies that the man dies for the one he loves, and the woman runs whilst sobbing to him and hold him as he dies, so here we see the male takes on this role and is portrayed quite feminine. Also as he looks up, red rose petals fall upon him, which is a feminine flower, this can suggest that his feminine side is coming out as he cries whilst he watches his love die. Another interesting change I found by the end is that, the fact that the man survives can suggest that the female gender is too weak to survive and also by the end Minaj is fully dressed in Black, whereas the man now wears both red and Black, which can suggest as downfall in power for the man. The colour red can connote femininity, as it is a colour associated with love, lust and sexiness, which are all key words stereotypically associated with the female gender. Therefore it is key to notice that he wears both these colours, whereas in the beginning he just wears black, giving him all the power, but now Minaj holds all the power.
Tuesday 19 October 2010
BIANCA'S: What are the different representations of women in adverts and how are they signified?
The representation of women can be positive: challenging the roles and expectations of women or negative: reinforcing a patriarchal society. This essay questions how and why these representations are constructed in an advert for Gucci Guilty Perfume and Stella Artois beer.
Firstly the Gucci advert is in widescreen which connotes a dramatic cinematic experience to engage its audience. More attention is gained by the female character first seen in the text and her protagonist is signified through this. The protagonist has female dominance which is signified through the use of colour- everything is in black and white while her hair is gold/blonde. This colour connotes gold, power and divinity signifying her importance in the text.
The use of intertextuality in this text will appeal to a particular audience. The film references a great deal to the neo film noir Sin City, with the use of colour and the female dominant femme fatale character. Sin City appeals to a male audience due to the action genre, this trailer could also appeal to the same audience due to the intertextuality. In terms of the Uses and Gratifications theory, a female audience might realise and accept the protagonist in the text is a form of escapism and also a male gaze, by theorist Mulvey, and therefore might aspire, from Young and Rubicam's 4Cs, to be the object of male gaze too.
Though the protagonist is an object of male gaze, it could be suggested that she sexually objectifies herself to tease the audience. The protagonist puts her leg into the frame of the shot. As she puts into the frame, it signifies self objectification, allowing the audience to fetishise her body. Another shot, a high angle, of their sexual activities signifies CCTV and spying which is voyeuristic. The fact she is on top signifies her control of the situation for both the male character and the audience.
Not only does the protagonist exert her feminity through self objectification she also presents herself as an anarchic character signified by adopting male stereotypes. The advert begins with a long shot of an unknown character speeding down the motorway, which stereotypically would be expected to be a male character. However, the audience's expectations are challenged when a medium shot of the driver shows to be a female.
In contrast, women are negatively represented in the Stella Artois text. The most obvious editing technique used in the advert is the split screen: one side shows the female getting dressed and the other side is of the beer getting "prepared". This use of split screen signifies that neither the beer nor the woman know they have been placed side by side. This puts the audience in position of control as they can voyeur the woman, in a socially acceptable way. Audiences may identify this control as patriarchy, and also identify with the unknown male character whose presence is felt within the text. This text then reinforces the idea of a patriarchal society and that women are subordinated by men.
Not only does the female share the screen with the beer, but the screen is split equally between the two "objects" which connotes the woman is equally objectified to the status of beer. It is suggested the audience is male due to the female and beer subject. Though the advert is targeted at men, it also negatively stereotypes men as people who have little respect for women which however is a dominant representation.
A range of close up shots of the female are used to fetishise her body. There is a close up shot of the female's leg slowly and elegantly rising from the bath tub. On one hand this could signify femininity and her control over it which is the oppositional reading. However, the more dominant reading is that her legs are an important part of the female body and connotes a male audience who can voyeur her body.
The text near the beginning of the trailer says "the preparation" which is an enigma code as the audience question "what event is the preparation for?". It is signified through the shots that the woman and beer preparation is for the male through the use of action codes. Action codes of both the preparation of the woman and the glass of beer are the same.
Women are represented as people who prioritise their looks and appearance, and this ad reinforces this ideology. Action codes including close ups of her: brushing her hair, doing her make up and putting on heels strongly represent women as image conscious. It could be said that the advert reinforces this representation, which is always seen in the media. Funnily enough, it could also be said that the media itself is the cause of this representation as this ideal, perfect woman is always represented in the media, and women feel they have to aspire to it.
In conclusion, both texts females are the protagonists and are sexually objectified for male audiences to fetishise and vouyer their bodies. However, while Gucci’s advert’s protagonist controls her sexuality through self objectification, the Stella Artois’ protagonist is objectified by an unknown but present male character.
In the Gucci’s ad, there are many examples in the text that signify the protagonist’s female dominance, but it is arguable whether this could be seen as a positive representation. The dominant reading is that the protagonist exerts her female dominance over the male challenging the historical patriarchal society and even subordinating males as easily manipulated and easily tempted by women and sex and this would favour feminism. However the oppositional reading which would favour the ideologies of the Stella Artois advert, might be that females can control their sexuality, but it is still for the male gaze and male dominant society.
Firstly the Gucci advert is in widescreen which connotes a dramatic cinematic experience to engage its audience. More attention is gained by the female character first seen in the text and her protagonist is signified through this. The protagonist has female dominance which is signified through the use of colour- everything is in black and white while her hair is gold/blonde. This colour connotes gold, power and divinity signifying her importance in the text.
The use of intertextuality in this text will appeal to a particular audience. The film references a great deal to the neo film noir Sin City, with the use of colour and the female dominant femme fatale character. Sin City appeals to a male audience due to the action genre, this trailer could also appeal to the same audience due to the intertextuality. In terms of the Uses and Gratifications theory, a female audience might realise and accept the protagonist in the text is a form of escapism and also a male gaze, by theorist Mulvey, and therefore might aspire, from Young and Rubicam's 4Cs, to be the object of male gaze too.
Though the protagonist is an object of male gaze, it could be suggested that she sexually objectifies herself to tease the audience. The protagonist puts her leg into the frame of the shot. As she puts into the frame, it signifies self objectification, allowing the audience to fetishise her body. Another shot, a high angle, of their sexual activities signifies CCTV and spying which is voyeuristic. The fact she is on top signifies her control of the situation for both the male character and the audience.
Not only does the protagonist exert her feminity through self objectification she also presents herself as an anarchic character signified by adopting male stereotypes. The advert begins with a long shot of an unknown character speeding down the motorway, which stereotypically would be expected to be a male character. However, the audience's expectations are challenged when a medium shot of the driver shows to be a female.
In contrast, women are negatively represented in the Stella Artois text. The most obvious editing technique used in the advert is the split screen: one side shows the female getting dressed and the other side is of the beer getting "prepared". This use of split screen signifies that neither the beer nor the woman know they have been placed side by side. This puts the audience in position of control as they can voyeur the woman, in a socially acceptable way. Audiences may identify this control as patriarchy, and also identify with the unknown male character whose presence is felt within the text. This text then reinforces the idea of a patriarchal society and that women are subordinated by men.
Not only does the female share the screen with the beer, but the screen is split equally between the two "objects" which connotes the woman is equally objectified to the status of beer. It is suggested the audience is male due to the female and beer subject. Though the advert is targeted at men, it also negatively stereotypes men as people who have little respect for women which however is a dominant representation.
A range of close up shots of the female are used to fetishise her body. There is a close up shot of the female's leg slowly and elegantly rising from the bath tub. On one hand this could signify femininity and her control over it which is the oppositional reading. However, the more dominant reading is that her legs are an important part of the female body and connotes a male audience who can voyeur her body.
The text near the beginning of the trailer says "the preparation" which is an enigma code as the audience question "what event is the preparation for?". It is signified through the shots that the woman and beer preparation is for the male through the use of action codes. Action codes of both the preparation of the woman and the glass of beer are the same.
Women are represented as people who prioritise their looks and appearance, and this ad reinforces this ideology. Action codes including close ups of her: brushing her hair, doing her make up and putting on heels strongly represent women as image conscious. It could be said that the advert reinforces this representation, which is always seen in the media. Funnily enough, it could also be said that the media itself is the cause of this representation as this ideal, perfect woman is always represented in the media, and women feel they have to aspire to it.
In conclusion, both texts females are the protagonists and are sexually objectified for male audiences to fetishise and vouyer their bodies. However, while Gucci’s advert’s protagonist controls her sexuality through self objectification, the Stella Artois’ protagonist is objectified by an unknown but present male character.
In the Gucci’s ad, there are many examples in the text that signify the protagonist’s female dominance, but it is arguable whether this could be seen as a positive representation. The dominant reading is that the protagonist exerts her female dominance over the male challenging the historical patriarchal society and even subordinating males as easily manipulated and easily tempted by women and sex and this would favour feminism. However the oppositional reading which would favour the ideologies of the Stella Artois advert, might be that females can control their sexuality, but it is still for the male gaze and male dominant society.
Monday 18 October 2010
Representation of Men and Women in adverts.
It's hard to find any advert that represents women in a positive way, especially just after the war. Then though this was the feminist era, women were still very much inferior and even in adverts they were presented in their stereotype roles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ0FRW1W3yA&feature=related
This advert for Coca Cola though still representing women in negative way, to some extent does portray women to have atleast some power. We see Anita Byrant running towards the camera, in a swimsuit, as she runs she has four men running after her saying "Hey wait for me". Stereotypically we would see the female gender running after the male gender, however this is not the case in the advert. We then see all the men surround her and they are topless, and even though Byrant is also in swimwear, this makes the two sexes somewhat equal.
Furthermore, there is a sense of a patriarchal society, when Byrant holds the 'king size' coke, as it is a phallic symbol, and the dialogue 'king size coke has more for you' suggests that men can do more/ men have more power.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9XNfy6JBM
The first shot, shows a woman with beads in her mouth, shes fetishized as she says 'nothing takes it off like...' , and she stokes the product which again is a phallic symbol, she is very much sexualised. She then repeats, 'take it off', which is very sexual, therefore she is represented as a sex object. Also in the end, the male triumphs and get's the girl, therefore representing a patriarchal society. However the idea that the male is perfect and does not need to do anything about the way he looks, is challenged, as he's the one who is perfecting his looks to get the woman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbiofcuTZBo&feature=related
This advert I found very interesting, because it represents women in a much positive way, and at the same time presents men in a superior and inferior way. Mr clean, in the advert cleans the whole house, which is stereotypically a womans job in that period of time, and the product itself is called Mr. Clean, which is odd beacuse we would associate the female sex with the cleaning jobs. At second 20-22, the character stands in a very womanly way, with his assets out, and he cleans the baby, again a feminine job. By the time the woman arrives the whole house is clean by the man, which suggests that men can do anything, therefore they are the superior sex.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM59nSkjEWU&feature=related
Again, it was really hard to find anything from the 1950's-1970's period of time, but I think this advert pretty much represents the male gender as the more superior gender. Even though he is looking after his appearance, which we would usually see the woman doing, however in the end he get's the woman he want's, and she is literally throwing herself on him, which shows how easy it is to pull the girl. He looks really happy, and he does not so much of the talking, so again we get the sense of a patriarchal society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz1a3LHSvnY
Though a contemporary advert, the setting is around 1940's-1950's, and yet we get the sense that nothing has changed. The little Boy gets the bread ( which can literally means he's the breadwinner because he's a male), and he battles his way through all these obstacles, showing that he is physically strong, and ends with the little boy in more modern clothing at the table with the bread. Again it reinforces the idea that not much has changed and the male gender will always be superior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QKRZaktc2Y
This advert, though it does not overtly represent men as sex objects, it reverses the gender roles. We see the man, in a very metrosexual way, he is hairless which is an expectation people have of women, and the woman comes to give the guy a towel, which is somewhat like her protecting him. Men are supposed to be masculine, but with his hair stripped off of him, his masculinity fades too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbib-A6NpW8b
This is just found very interesting, as we see shots of the men pole dancing, therefore becoming feminine, and then shots where the airhostess puts the man to sleep, which puts her in a stereotypical rold of a mother.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ0FRW1W3yA&feature=related
This advert for Coca Cola though still representing women in negative way, to some extent does portray women to have atleast some power. We see Anita Byrant running towards the camera, in a swimsuit, as she runs she has four men running after her saying "Hey wait for me". Stereotypically we would see the female gender running after the male gender, however this is not the case in the advert. We then see all the men surround her and they are topless, and even though Byrant is also in swimwear, this makes the two sexes somewhat equal.
Furthermore, there is a sense of a patriarchal society, when Byrant holds the 'king size' coke, as it is a phallic symbol, and the dialogue 'king size coke has more for you' suggests that men can do more/ men have more power.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9XNfy6JBM
The first shot, shows a woman with beads in her mouth, shes fetishized as she says 'nothing takes it off like...' , and she stokes the product which again is a phallic symbol, she is very much sexualised. She then repeats, 'take it off', which is very sexual, therefore she is represented as a sex object. Also in the end, the male triumphs and get's the girl, therefore representing a patriarchal society. However the idea that the male is perfect and does not need to do anything about the way he looks, is challenged, as he's the one who is perfecting his looks to get the woman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbiofcuTZBo&feature=related
This advert I found very interesting, because it represents women in a much positive way, and at the same time presents men in a superior and inferior way. Mr clean, in the advert cleans the whole house, which is stereotypically a womans job in that period of time, and the product itself is called Mr. Clean, which is odd beacuse we would associate the female sex with the cleaning jobs. At second 20-22, the character stands in a very womanly way, with his assets out, and he cleans the baby, again a feminine job. By the time the woman arrives the whole house is clean by the man, which suggests that men can do anything, therefore they are the superior sex.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM59nSkjEWU&feature=related
Again, it was really hard to find anything from the 1950's-1970's period of time, but I think this advert pretty much represents the male gender as the more superior gender. Even though he is looking after his appearance, which we would usually see the woman doing, however in the end he get's the woman he want's, and she is literally throwing herself on him, which shows how easy it is to pull the girl. He looks really happy, and he does not so much of the talking, so again we get the sense of a patriarchal society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz1a3LHSvnY
Though a contemporary advert, the setting is around 1940's-1950's, and yet we get the sense that nothing has changed. The little Boy gets the bread ( which can literally means he's the breadwinner because he's a male), and he battles his way through all these obstacles, showing that he is physically strong, and ends with the little boy in more modern clothing at the table with the bread. Again it reinforces the idea that not much has changed and the male gender will always be superior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QKRZaktc2Y
This advert, though it does not overtly represent men as sex objects, it reverses the gender roles. We see the man, in a very metrosexual way, he is hairless which is an expectation people have of women, and the woman comes to give the guy a towel, which is somewhat like her protecting him. Men are supposed to be masculine, but with his hair stripped off of him, his masculinity fades too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbib-A6NpW8b
This is just found very interesting, as we see shots of the men pole dancing, therefore becoming feminine, and then shots where the airhostess puts the man to sleep, which puts her in a stereotypical rold of a mother.
Saturday 16 October 2010
Gender In Advertising
1. What sort of images of women and men dominated advertising pre-1970s? Why was this the case?
After 1950’s the ‘housewife’ image started to decline, however this stereotypical image was still very common throughout the 60’s and 70’s. The reason for the decline is mostly to do with the fact that due to the Second World War, women were gaining more rights. Women had to become the breadwinners whilst their husbands were sent abroad to fight, however when the men came back, women were sent back to their original jobs. The feminist ear soared because women were fighting for more rights, but didn’t get that far, so in adverts their stereotypical image maintained.
2. How did the advertising of the 1970’s continue to perpetuate the stereotype of women, despite depicting women in a greater range of roles?
Schiebe (1979) In a Study of TV Ads found out that women were more concerned about beauty, pleasing men with their looks and family, so even if women were shown to be in different environments, they were still shown in their stereotypical images. This meant that even though the feminist movement had some sort of affect on advertising, women were still represented in their stereotypical roles.
3. Can Gaye Tuchman’s quote regarding under-representation and the ‘symbolic annihilation of women’ still be applied in 21st Century advertising? If so, how?
Symbolic annihilation is basically when media texts under represent a group of people, or represent the group in a different way, which results in viewers undermining the group. I think that this can be still applied to the 21st century. Even until now, women are not equal, we do not associate the sexes to the same occupations, and if we see in an advert, that a woman is in power, we still see her as a sex symbol, a femme fatale, though she has power we still undermine her and treat her like a subordinate, because we’ve been treated with the hypodermic needle theory and have become passive viewers of the media, and accept everything we are shown.
4. Do you agree that adverts, such as those for the 1990’s Boots No. 7, ‘It’s not make-up. Its ammunition.’ campaign, are post-feminist (thereby representing women as better than men?). Explain your answer.
I completely disagree, I think rather than represented women as better than men, and they are saying that women are using their looks and charm to be better than men, rather than being better than them as a sex. Its also related to the quote ‘if looks could kill’ so it’s not really a positive thing, they are saying if you want to be like a femme fatale (who always falls in the end) then wear makeup.
5. Is the representation of women by the media accountable for the results of a survey in which ‘women were up to ten times more likely than men to be unhappy with their body image’?
I think that the media is somewhat accountable for this result, but also the society is to blame and their expectations. There is an unending cycle about who to blame for this, did society influence what we see in the media, or did the media affect the society’s expectations, and we can never come to a true explanation. But I think the media overtly represent women to be ‘perfect’ and the real women are presented as outsiders, so women are unhappy with how they look because they can’t be perfect.
6. Is the contemporary representation of men in advertising perhaps also a negative one where they too are treated as sex objects?
Men are also being objectified, but not as heavily as women are, and have been for so long. Men are still portrayed as just right, and women need to enhance their looks to attract this dominant sex.
After 1950’s the ‘housewife’ image started to decline, however this stereotypical image was still very common throughout the 60’s and 70’s. The reason for the decline is mostly to do with the fact that due to the Second World War, women were gaining more rights. Women had to become the breadwinners whilst their husbands were sent abroad to fight, however when the men came back, women were sent back to their original jobs. The feminist ear soared because women were fighting for more rights, but didn’t get that far, so in adverts their stereotypical image maintained.
2. How did the advertising of the 1970’s continue to perpetuate the stereotype of women, despite depicting women in a greater range of roles?
Schiebe (1979) In a Study of TV Ads found out that women were more concerned about beauty, pleasing men with their looks and family, so even if women were shown to be in different environments, they were still shown in their stereotypical images. This meant that even though the feminist movement had some sort of affect on advertising, women were still represented in their stereotypical roles.
3. Can Gaye Tuchman’s quote regarding under-representation and the ‘symbolic annihilation of women’ still be applied in 21st Century advertising? If so, how?
Symbolic annihilation is basically when media texts under represent a group of people, or represent the group in a different way, which results in viewers undermining the group. I think that this can be still applied to the 21st century. Even until now, women are not equal, we do not associate the sexes to the same occupations, and if we see in an advert, that a woman is in power, we still see her as a sex symbol, a femme fatale, though she has power we still undermine her and treat her like a subordinate, because we’ve been treated with the hypodermic needle theory and have become passive viewers of the media, and accept everything we are shown.
4. Do you agree that adverts, such as those for the 1990’s Boots No. 7, ‘It’s not make-up. Its ammunition.’ campaign, are post-feminist (thereby representing women as better than men?). Explain your answer.
I completely disagree, I think rather than represented women as better than men, and they are saying that women are using their looks and charm to be better than men, rather than being better than them as a sex. Its also related to the quote ‘if looks could kill’ so it’s not really a positive thing, they are saying if you want to be like a femme fatale (who always falls in the end) then wear makeup.
5. Is the representation of women by the media accountable for the results of a survey in which ‘women were up to ten times more likely than men to be unhappy with their body image’?
I think that the media is somewhat accountable for this result, but also the society is to blame and their expectations. There is an unending cycle about who to blame for this, did society influence what we see in the media, or did the media affect the society’s expectations, and we can never come to a true explanation. But I think the media overtly represent women to be ‘perfect’ and the real women are presented as outsiders, so women are unhappy with how they look because they can’t be perfect.
6. Is the contemporary representation of men in advertising perhaps also a negative one where they too are treated as sex objects?
Men are also being objectified, but not as heavily as women are, and have been for so long. Men are still portrayed as just right, and women need to enhance their looks to attract this dominant sex.
Wednesday 13 October 2010
Negative Representation of Women
To start off, the fact that the women are puppets in the advert, just starts off presenting them in a negative way. As we associate puppets as objects therefore objectifying the female gender, and also these objects are controlled by humans which in this case are the males, therefore categorising the men in the dominant group and the women in the subordinates. As the main subject sees more work on her desk, she slams her fists in rage, suggesting that women cannot not do paper work, and are weak, again presenting women in a negative light. Then we go on to see that her eyes ‘lighten’ up when she sees DIET coke. The fact that it is diet coke, can infer that women should be image conscious and in fact are image conscious, also even though she needs a break, she still needs to maintain her look, creates a male dominating atmosphere around the advert.
Then all the girl puppets line up and dance towards the drink machine, inferring that all the women are the same and they should all just drink Diet coke, which in some sense is quite misogynistic, because the women are objectified, then categorised as one, and on top of that they are shown “the right way”. When the subject pushes her button, she uses her heel which I think is suggesting that women have to use accessories, or charms to gain power, and physically there is nothing powerful about them. The slogan saying “if you love it light” is put next to a can of diet coke, held up by string. Throughout the advert the puppets are also held up from strings, this is trying to promote a negative message that women should ‘light’ in weight and therefore need to be image conscious and drink something that will make them ‘light’ in hopes that someday a man may love them. In this sense we are opened up to a patriarchy society, and the message of the advert is that women are controlled by men and they must do all that the men expect from them, including looking just right.
Another very interesting thing about this advert was the soundtrack they used, “Maniac” by Michael Sembello. The key lyric from this soundtrack which is played upon the advert is “She’s a maniac, maniac on the floor, and she’s dancing like she’s never danced before”. With these lyrics in mind, and watching the advert, we can infer that the women are represented as mad (subordinate) women, who are crazy about losing weight, as the puppets dancing like they’ve never danced before to get the diet coke (this can also betaken as a misogynitic element).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1mkS0X6gJ8 (Link to the advert)
Sunday 10 October 2010
Positive representation of Women
The advert begins with the subject in a complete black outfit, which would stereotypically be a skirt and a short top, however here this stereotype is challenged, and we see the female in clothes we associate with the dominant sex (male). Her hair is tied black in a sleek pony tail, and she wears no jewellery, which again does not conform to the stereotype of women wearing earrings or necklaces to promote their femininity. We see in the background, images of eyes, which connotes all the attention on her, however rather than gaining the attention through the male gaze (Mulvey), by objectifying her, we see that she gains this attention as she challenges the male dominancy. As she scratches the floor with her heel, everyone turns to see her, and she is clearly in control, as all eyes are on her. Though she gains the attention through her powerful actions, we can still say that she somewhat conforms to the stereotypical female attitude, as she uses her heel to gain attention which is a very feminine iconography. Also she wears a very bright Pink lipstick and she squints her eyes to give a cat like affect, therefore connoting that women are sly, and very sexual, as we commonly now see how cats in specific are extremely sexualised in adverts.
She reaches for the perfume bottle which in this case if represented as a phallic symbol, as she lets out an orgasmic sound as she pulls it out from her pocket. This specific shot can both portray her in a positive and negative way. In one way we can infer that she is shown as an independent woman, who can please herself without having a male figure there (this can also represent her as the femme fatale), or it can show, that regardless of how powerful the woman is, she always needs a phallic symbol to please herself. When she starts spraying the perfume everywhere, the soundtrack kicks in, and we see shots of lights turning on, this can suggest power, and show that now that she has the perfume is in control, and therefore does not need a man. She starts to jump about, and in the end we see her in a very masculine stance, as she spells out “Elle” with her perfume, which means girl in French. This can suggest that though she is a female she can always have the control she wants as long as she has the perfume, which then represents her in a negative light as we can understand that a woman can get nowhere without her charm.
We are given a very feministic view on women in this advert. The subjects costume is very masculine, and we get a shot where she jumps and you have a high angle shot, and is looks as if she’s not even wearing a bra, which all lot of women decided not to wear after World War 2 as they wanted to be as equal as men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTWmUItM01c (Link to the advert)
Tuesday 28 September 2010
Media Guardian 100
1. The Media Guardian 100 is a list which is released annually, stating the most powerful people of the Media Industry and focuses on the economic, political and cultural influence the media texts have on the people of the U.K. Panellists include:
· Peter Barron (News night editor)
· Peter Bennett Jones (chairman of Tiger Aspect Group and talent agency PBJ Management)
· Brent Hoberman (founder and executive chairman of online interiors website mydeco)
· Tessa Jowell (minister for the Olympics and London with direct responsibility for the delivery of the government's programme for the 2012 games)
· Siobhan Kenny (director of communications at publisher Harper Collins UK)
· Andrew Neil (publisher of the Barclay brothers' Press Holdings Group, owners of the Spectator, Spectator Business and Apollo magazines)
· Trevor Phillips (chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the independent statutory body created to eliminate discrimination and reduce equality)
· Chris Powell (chairman of Nesta, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, a publicly and privately funded body to encourage innovation in the UK)
· Janine Gibson (executive editor of guardian.co.uk and editor-in-chief of Media Guardian)
· Jane Martinson (editor of Media Guardian)
2. Only 18 women in the whole of the list.
3. Top ten women job list and name:
· Jay Hunt: Controller for BBC1
· Rebekah Brooks: Chief executive for news international
· Elisabeth Murdoch: Chairman and chief executive for shine group
· Helen Boaden: director at BBC1
· Dame Majorie Scardino: Chief executive for Pearson
· Tessa Ross: Controller of film and Drama at Channel 4
· Dame Gail Rebuck: Chairman and chief executive of Random house
· Roisin Donnelly: corporate marketing director and head of marketing, Procter & Gamble UK and Ireland
· Jana Bennett: director of vision for the BBC
· Cilla Snowball: chairman and chief executive, AMV Group; chairman, AMV BBDO
4. 18% of the 100 are Women.
5. Clearly the status quo is stuck to, the men who are supposed to be dominant are, with a mammoth 82% of the 100 being men. There are no truthful answers to why women are not so politically influential, however the only thing that could justify this is that women are of the subordinate group, and therefore, though only 18% are female, the little percentage is now a norm. Or the other reason can be that the guys have come up with better ideas to become influential.
· Peter Barron (News night editor)
· Peter Bennett Jones (chairman of Tiger Aspect Group and talent agency PBJ Management)
· Brent Hoberman (founder and executive chairman of online interiors website mydeco)
· Tessa Jowell (minister for the Olympics and London with direct responsibility for the delivery of the government's programme for the 2012 games)
· Siobhan Kenny (director of communications at publisher Harper Collins UK)
· Andrew Neil (publisher of the Barclay brothers' Press Holdings Group, owners of the Spectator, Spectator Business and Apollo magazines)
· Trevor Phillips (chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the independent statutory body created to eliminate discrimination and reduce equality)
· Chris Powell (chairman of Nesta, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, a publicly and privately funded body to encourage innovation in the UK)
· Janine Gibson (executive editor of guardian.co.uk and editor-in-chief of Media Guardian)
· Jane Martinson (editor of Media Guardian)
2. Only 18 women in the whole of the list.
3. Top ten women job list and name:
· Jay Hunt: Controller for BBC1
· Rebekah Brooks: Chief executive for news international
· Elisabeth Murdoch: Chairman and chief executive for shine group
· Helen Boaden: director at BBC1
· Dame Majorie Scardino: Chief executive for Pearson
· Tessa Ross: Controller of film and Drama at Channel 4
· Dame Gail Rebuck: Chairman and chief executive of Random house
· Roisin Donnelly: corporate marketing director and head of marketing, Procter & Gamble UK and Ireland
· Jana Bennett: director of vision for the BBC
· Cilla Snowball: chairman and chief executive, AMV Group; chairman, AMV BBDO
4. 18% of the 100 are Women.
5. Clearly the status quo is stuck to, the men who are supposed to be dominant are, with a mammoth 82% of the 100 being men. There are no truthful answers to why women are not so politically influential, however the only thing that could justify this is that women are of the subordinate group, and therefore, though only 18% are female, the little percentage is now a norm. Or the other reason can be that the guys have come up with better ideas to become influential.
Saturday 25 September 2010
Angelina Jolie
Though the character of femme fatale is no longer as prominent as it used to be, we still see some very successful and powerful female characters who we can label as femme fatales. Angelina Jolie for instance plays a very seductive and dangerous character in movies such as Mr. And Mrs. Smith and salt. In Mr. and Mrs. Smith we mostly see a relationship where both the male and female are equal. Botch Jolie and Pitt play the characters of undercover spies, and well, spies are mostly associated with the male gender ever since the introduction of detectives (Sherlock Holmes). With Jolie being a spy, shows that she is challenging the stereotypes. Throughout the movie, she wears a lot of black, which we can also see in the clip. In the beginning of the clip, we see her crying, which presents her as a vulnerable individual, but by the end of it she triumphs by causing chaos. She’s also portrayed in a sexual way, when he drops down, and we see Brad Pitt smirking, implying something that is not even happening. When she takes out her gun, we she a shot of her full leg, again reinforcing her sexuality and charm of being a woman.
Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner is well known for her part in The Killers, The Bribe and Whistle Stop. Like Bennett, Gardner also had a very interesting personal life, especially when she married Frank Sinatra. However unlike Joan’s witty personality in movies, Gardner, had more of a sexy and mysterious look which kept the boys running after her. In the clip below we can see this look being portrayed to the viewers. Before we see Gardner, she is in darkness, which connotes mystery and danger, and then when she lights her cigarette (which makes her seem sexual as she holds the phallic symbol), we are exposed to her revealing costume. She slowly walks across the room as she softly sings, and we see that the dominant male character is very interested in her. She seems untouchable when a guy tries to touch her hand and she walks away, she has no contact with anyone in the room and as the song ends, she disappears from the room, leaving not only the viewers but also the male character in mystery.
One of the fatale phenomena’s is Joan Bennett, best known for her seductive and manipulative character in films such as Scarlet Street, Woman in The Window and The Woman on The Beach. What made Joan such a significant femme fatale was not only her acting career but also her personal life. She got married twice and was also a part of a shooting scandal, with so much drama in her life, viewers couldn’t help but watch her glamorous Hollywood movies. In the clip below, you can see classic acting of a femme fatale. Joan sits back like a guy, with her arms over the chair, presenting herself in a more masculine light, however she intends to seduce him by speaking in a soft voice at points, and lighting her cigarette which of course is a key iconography of the femme fatale as it is a phallic symbol. Towards the end of the clip, you see the male character chasing after Joan’s character, as he asks her when he’ll see her next and broadly smiles as he watches her walk in. Shots like these show a reversal of power, as Joan walks in very casually as she bluntly speaks to him with her back towards him. There are shots were we prominently see her open her eyes wider, and somewhat flutter her eyelashes, which has always been known a way in which women get what they want.
Femme Fatale.
The rise of the femme fatale broke through around the time of the Second World War, mostly after the end of the war because of the rise of feminism. This is because around this time, the women’s right movement was starting, due to the war, many husband/fathers had to be sent abroad to fight, leaving the women to become the breadwinners, and when the men came back, the women began to demand more rights and become equal to men. This is why the Femme Fatale was welcomed so positively, because she was this controversial character that had the power which previously the male heroes possessed, which in reality is exactly what the women were asking for. The femme fatale however, still had to use her charm, sexuality and damsel in distress look to lure the males in to a trap, so she was still shown as an inferior character, however it was a step up from how women were previously portrayed as.
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)