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.
Tuesday 23 November 2010
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.
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