Introduction To Media Theory
Tuesday 13th September 2022
Stranger Things
L/O: to investigate the principles behind theories / To discuss theories / To critically apply theories to texts
Media Language - mise en scene, sound, editing, camerawork
Media Representations - How someone or something is represented through media
Media Industries -
Media Audiences - How the show/film targets their specific target audience
Postmodernism & Baudrillard
Family life - We get to see two different lifestyles, one being the byers family of a single mother and the older brother stepping up into the father role while living in a temporary home in the middle of no where. Whereas the wheelers live the suburbs in a big house with a traditionally happy family.
Female roles -
1980's icons/life -
Small town america - The cops highlight what life was like in small town america because we can see that they are almost lazy when it comes to their job and have lack of care due to them not having a real problem in a long time so they have let their guard down a lot.
There is a simulacra of the traditional american school bus and it being portrayed into stranger things.
Tuesday 20th September 2022
Media Theory: Music as protest hip hop and beyond
L/O: To investigate the principles behind theories.
To discuss various theories
To critically apply theory to texts
What can we remember about baudrillard?
Hyper Real, Reality, Post Modernism, Modernism
Representation is how someone or something is portrayed to enforce a view of that thing/person
They are represented as followers and not individuals as they are all wearing and standing in a similar manner, Also their attire shows they are from USA because of them wearing american attire like baseball hats and baseball jackets.
Sidran 1975
Sidran said that music was a way of slaves expressing themselves because they were not heard when they spoke
Rap music criticises injustices for black men but maintains sexist attitudes to black women.
NWA Express Yourself
Upbeat - Non confrontational
Social power is represented as white, male
Sidron - told of injustices, Slavery, Death row, Police brutality, Prison
Rose - Females were used as objects of desire/ status (hid behind females back - lack of care)
It's bigger than black and whiteIt's a problem with the whole way of lifeIt can't change overnightBut we gotta start somewhereMight as well gon' 'head start hereWe done had a hell of a yearI'ma make it count while I'm hereGod is the only man I fear
These lyrics encourage change by putting the problem of racism under a spotlight, also this song was released in a time in america when there was protests bout BLM.
Tuesday 27th September 2022
Media Theory: Gender And Bond
What does the term audience mean?
It means the people who watch that certain media
Who are the audience?
They are
What are the audience told from this image?
It is old due to the quality of the image
What representations are created?
Van Zoonen emphasises the importance of gender representations and how they are seen socially and culturally.
Women in the text are represented as less than the man and inferior. This is seen when James bond throws the women in the wardrobe to 'protect her' from any bad things that could have happened despite her saying for him not too. Using that we can see that the text we were shown supports what Van Zoonen states because James sees the women as an object he must protect rather than a person that can handle themselves. Also on top of this both of the women that were in the seen were portrayed as sexual objects for bond and they put themselves and their bodies on display for his pleasure. This also shows how women are represented as inferior because they are showing their bodies for the man with no respect to how it makes them seem to the outside eyes.
Tuesday 4th October 2022
Media Theory: Gender And Bond
There are different things that all build up to make this idea of inequality.
Tuesday 18th October 2022
State of mind is broken
Females no purpose
Positioning on bed provocative
Walked behind him
Costumes were all fitted and revealing for the women but mens were the stereotypical suit.
close up on her mouth
Over the shoulder reveals her sexual position
mise en scene - rich - opulent - identifies her class
Gender is represented as a very one sided thing in the new bond movies. This is seen when we get the over the shoulder shot where we see bond all dressed up in a suit and we see the women still laying on the bed in very provocative clothing, this tells us that the gender representations of women in this bond movie are somewhat negative giving them a bad look. We also see that the women bond goes for are upper class people who are very rich and opulent, this contrasts their acts with bond a lot as stereotypically in movies rich upper class women are portrayed as very secretive and kept to themselves but her we can see the complete opposite. Also we can see before we enter the room and see that the women is a very provocative character we see that she is always walking behind bond as if he is a protecter for her and she is a damsel in distress like every bond movie we always see. This links back to van zoonen's theory of women being objects and being objectified for the males eyes, this also applies because we see that the women in this scene was there for no other reason than to throw herself at bond at any given moment.
Tuesday 11th October 2022
Media Theory: Rupaul And Identity
- Personality
- Appearance
- Culture
uses identity to target certain audiences so they can link aspects of someones identity to the text.
Butler and Gauntlett fit into rupauls drag race through the use of its less fixed way within what they are showing to represent different sexualities and genders in this TV show
Tuesday 18th October 2022
Media Theory: Race
L/O: to investigate the principles behind theories of representation of race
Levi Strauss - Says that characters relate to good/bad, black/white, east/west barbarism/civilisation (Binary Oppositions)
- "sorry white rich people"
- them driving recklessly as cops
- black vs white / rich vs poor
- Dependant on each other
- White vs Black museum scene
- Colonialism vs uncovers the colonial rule
- Villain vs Need for money
- Gangster vs King
- Proud of culture + identity + roots
- critique of popular culture
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Tuesday 1st November 2022
Media Theory: Masculinity
L/O: to investigate how representations of masculinity differ
1960's Men
Capable, Strong, In Control,
Tolson - It was not easy for men to maintain the pretence of sexual bravado
Faludi - Feminism and gay rights have meant that the superiority of men came under ideological attack and ideas of what masculinity should be were unclear
Barthes -
Denotations can signify connotations, associated meaning for the same sign
Denotations and connotations are organised in to myths
Myths create an ideological meaning and help ideology feel natural, real acceptable
Masculinity has changed a lot since the 1960's for example back then we had the traditional controlling, dominant male that makes the money in the household and is the glue keeping his family together, we have similar representations in the 1990's where the man is a strong worker but differently we have the lacking in superiority like we had in the 1960's and being desperate for control. This all completely changes in the 2020 one as we see the men are sexualised and made to look like an alpha male but we do still have the common representations of them being capable, strong and brave.
Tuesday 15th November 2022
Ideologies
What representations are created?
Bravery - army
Confidence, safety - reassurance, smile
Absence of injuries
Big vs Small
What is consent?
Approval
What is dissent?
The holding of expression of opinions
Fought in Vietnam
Bell hooks says that its not just feminism that challenges sexist representations but also race class and sexuality contribute alongside gender.
PTSD
hallucinations
alcohol dependant
Todorov's Equilibrium, What does it tell us?
It tells us that war is bad, we know this from his state of mind being very broken after him fighting in the Vietnam war, we also see that the government does not care for the army as he was sent back out to fight even in this alcohol dependant PTSD state of mind.
The ideologies in the text are that the police are discriminatory towards this older black women who comes from a poor background. This is seen when the women is seen shouting at the police officers that she told them many times something was going on inside Dahmers apartment but thy did not listen and continued to brush her off like she did not matter. The Ideologies in this sections establish and confirm this further because we can clearly see she is a black female and then her clothes suggest she is an older women, MISSING CONTEXT AND THEORIST
Tuesday 22nd November 2022
Media Theory: Dirt
L/O: To reflect on areas and improve
Representations can vary within long form television dramas. Discuss how and why audiences might respond to and interpret these representations differently
The Representations do vary
Levi Strauss - Binary Oppositions
Gauntlett - Identity varies in the media so audience have lots of identities to choose to identify with
Butler - Performance of gender roles
Mise en scene - Safe area, suburban area, american dream house VS Will in the woods in a shack, trailer style
Mise en scene - Mike, light warm setting VS Will, dark cold atmosphere
Dialogue - sound , reinforces the difference in gender roles and authority, calm and firm, VS hysterical lack of authority
Camera shots and editing - close up on empty drink cans, ash trays, take away items, mess and unorganised. Reveal the hidden elements of the police chief, coordinating the search for Will authoritative and caring.
Teenage Roles Nancy - Studying hard, focussed on success, secondary interest of Steve. VS the boys interest in their friendships and adventure/having fun.
1 Point / answer question
2 Technique
3 Representations
4 Theorists
5 Context
The representations do vary within long form television dramas in many different ways for example, the use of mise en scene to describe mikes living conditions is very prominent in stranger things, they have located his house in a nice safe suburban area. this shows us that mikes family is well off and is a traditional wealthy white american family just because of us knowing who lives there and where they live. This then links back to levi strauss's idea of binary oppositions and the idea of rich vs poor with the comparison to Wills house. This also gives us an insight of what family life was like in the 1980's and how they didn't have much compared to others who had a lot. This then contrasts what we see of Will and his 'shack in the woods' trailer style house and how his mother and family is a lot different to mikes family.
Go into more depth.
27/9- A good structure followed here, well done. T, try to expand on each area now with a little more explanation, for your example from the text, don't describe the scene pick out a piece of media language (revealing costume, romantic music, camera angle/shot to reveal her sexual position. Once you have chosen one of these, then take this further to explore what this reveals about the representation of women in the extract- there for the male pleasure, happy to wear revealing outfits to please the men, happy to follow the lead of the man etc...
ReplyDelete11/10- good analysis and link to Bond as a genre, T: 4 you need to include theory and how this can be applied to the scene. You also need to choose your words clearly to ensure a clear and direct point is made.
ReplyDelete1/11- You need to keep on top of your homework and make sure your written work in lessons is to the highest standard you can manage. Your verbal contributions are excellent.
ReplyDelete