Exam Question - Music Videos

Why did the producer represent people, issues and events in this way? What choices did they make and why?

Beyonce Formation / Unseen text (This is America Childish Gambino)

Knee Jerk Reaction:

New Orleans crisis
Women represented in subversive and powerful nature
Post colonialism - Paul Gilroy, hierarchies of power still exist today
Hyperrealism, Beyonce's 'angelic image created which in reality does not exist
Binary, Black vs White, Rich vs Poor, through costume/setting
Intertextuality, newspaper cover of Martin. L King reflecting issues of racism in America 

Gun/Gang violence in America
Racism, ethnic minority representation, reference to black gospel pride 
Police brutality
Chaotic scenes 

Key Words
Symbolic Annihilation
Stereotypes
Mise-en-scene of police and authority
Rebellion
Suggestions of Violence and Oppression
Video VHS effect - symbolic intertextual reference to police brutality captured on dashcams
Shots of hurricane Katrina, racial conflict representation
Bell Hooks - feminism is for everyone - Formation - power, unity, strength of black women
Intimidating mode-of-address

EVIDENCE:
Positions Beyonce as a strong, independent, black woman.
Wide variety of african american representation challenging symbolic annihilation theory
She wears costumes of white high class 1920's New Orleans people, creating binary and therefore meaning through black vs white, rich vs poor. 


DEFINITION, ARGUMENT, CONTEXT:
Representation is where a group, issue or event is RE presented or 'shown again' by the producer. By using media language to represent certain groups, the producer can both reinforce and challenge hegemonic norms. Representation can be used to challenge hegemony and stereotype, offering a subversive critique of dominant ideologies. Music videos are a medium in which this can be explored. The issue of ethnicity and how/why different groups are represented, often dominates this industry. I am going to ague that both videos both challenge the representation of African-Americans in modern day America. I will explore this through Beyonce's Formation, released as a single from her 2016 album Lemonade, following the crisis in New Orleans which won a grammy for best music video, and This is America by Childish Gambino, which has over 500 million views on Youtube. 

The symbolism of the Antebellum era shown by the costume the producer has chosen demonstrates Beyonces manipulation and ownership of black slavery narrative. Beyonce is placed in a position of power, through the representation with in the mise-en-scene, for example, where a mid shot shows her laying on top of a sinking police car, additionally, shots where she stands in front of groups of black men and women, creating a sense of unity within the ethnic community. This polysemic meaning 

How to Revise

Mindmaps 
- For each study case create a mind map for a industry, audience, media language, representation. ✓
- Identify which case study has which area of analysis ✓

Flash cards
- Context on each study case ✓

Plus Time Revision

Postmodernism/Hyperreality

Hyperreality - A representation of nothing. A representation of something that does not exist. Through the use of hyperreal imagery, audiences now confuse the signs of real for the real. In many cases hyperreal is much more attractive than reality itself. 

Simulacra - A copy of a copy, a representation of a representation. Something that refers to something else and not something 'real'. Jean Baudrillard argued that this copy of a copy is real in it's own right... 

Simulation - An imitation of something real

Architype - Is a stereotype for a character in a media text. 


Zoella: Picnic Party 
Aspirational 
Lifestyle attraction
Advertisement for the products used in her blog post.
Any type of reality is removed through being photographed by professional photographer.
Hyperreality created through consumerist approach.

Consumerism - a better life from buying products.

Attitude Online:
Stereotypical representation of men
Constant representation for profit
Escapist fantasy, as it subverts the reality of how difficult it is to be gay in the modern world by creating gay connotations of the heterosexual models/subjects.

Humans:
Breakfast scene - Anita constructs the hyperreal image of a perfect breakfast. "this is how breakfast is supposed to be!"
Family fall in love with a representation of something that doesn't actually exist

In what ways do the representations in this product make claims about realism? (Zoella and Attitude Online)
DEFINE: Hyperrealism is the representation of something that does not exist. Through the use of hyperreal imagery, audiences now confuse the signs of real for the real. In many cases hyperreal is much more attractive than reality itself. 
ARGUMENT: These products use hyperrealism to construct a 'perfect' representation of unrealistic expectations and lifestyles that are aspirational to audiences. 
CONTEXT: Attitude online and Zoella are examples of modern day online media products; a gay magazine website, and a 14 million subscriber Youtube channel. 

POINT: Zoella's channel presents an unrealistic lifestyle with connotations of feminine, dainty, perfect qualities that are not accessible in the real world. It also forms expectations of an idealistic beauty. 
ARGUMENT: On her online lifstyle blog, her post from 2016, called 'Picnic Party' creates a hyperreal representation of an outdoor activity, that exists

Hegemony

When one group of people wields power over another though coercion and consent.

Marxism - Ruling class manipulates and controls the working class, 'keep the rich and the poor poor'
'Religion is the opiate of the masses'

Meritocracy - a society in which we are judged by what qualifications we have

Forms of Hegemony:
Patriarchal
Racial
Cultural
Religious
Genre
Political

John Berger - 'men act, women appear'
Men have narratives
Women are there for visual appeal

Naomi Wolf - the beauty myth
When someone appears in a media text and is supposed to be attractive but isn't 

Humans:
Anita is 'hegemonicaly attractive' yet some people may think Laura is more attractive
Anita is of different 'exotic' ethnicity to white british main characters

Could argue that Humans reinforces patriarchal/cultural hegemony OR could argue it raises awareness, and shines light on todays societal values and representation of east asian women in the media being objects of sexual nature. 

Tide Print Advert:
Reinforces patriarchal/cultural hegemony eg, housewife image, 'washes whiter than ever'
Advertising today: present a utopia where buying a product will come with a lifestyle. They promote that capitalism is right

Adbusters; aggressively anti-advertisement

Formation:
challenges cultural hegemony

Zoella:
reinforces beauty standards and patriarchal hegemony


Gender Performativity

Judith Butler
Gender Performance - The notion of performing the characteristics commonly associated with a gender

For Butler, gender is not constructed from the moment of birth but is something that is learnt and reinforced

Sex and gender are two separately different concepts 

Gender Performativity - how the world reacts to your performance of gender

Woman 

Alfred Hitchcock's name is presented in a far larger font that Grace Kelly's, reinforcing patriarchal hegemony. Cultivating an ideological perspective that men are superior, more important,  powerful, and more creative than women. The symbolic connotation of the low cut of the low cut top, lustful facial expression and sexualised direct mode of address reinforces the notion that women are there to be looked at by heterosexual men. Hitchcock and his wife present a binary opposition.
Pull quote reading 'they're like snow capped volcanoes'. Clear example of objectification, and a patriarchal expectation that women should be prim and proper, yet sexually active. The Madonna and Whore complex.
A singular and restrictive representation of women is presented in order to construct a target audience, motivated by financial 

Humans 

Intradiegetic gaze, reinforcement of the male gaze, where a character looks at a women for their own pleasure. (The dad looking at Anita in a sexual way)

Matti subverts gender stereotypes. Tomboy, violent, takes typical roles of women.


Intertextuality

Allows a producer to attract a specific audience

Les Revenants
- Reference to Texas Chainsaw massacre, as Clair is watching it. Creates a reflection of her character, therefore audiences noticing this reference will typically be fans of this film, and therefore likely to like the character, through relating o her lifestyle
- Intertextual reference of diegetic sound of Mogwai music, having a very niche following and fanbase, attracting a very specific audience
-Victor creates visual code of intertextuality from horror genre, where a small boy is isolated in dark shots, eg, insidious.

Riptide
- Low key red lighting creates intertextual reference to 1970's Italian horror film
- Anchorage of lyric and visual code in 'dentist' scene create intertextual refference to the 'fear of the dentist' which many in the audience will relate to

Humans
- establishing montage of Anita looking up at the moon, initiates she has a character, 
- opening theme tune shots make reference to medical drama, sci-fi, documentary, drum and bass, electronica, techno, attracts varied audiences through genre hybridity. Not being able to differentiate between fiction/non-fiction, postmodernism
- relatable family lifestyle construction, intertextual reference to British Sitcom Outnumbered

- not be

Advertising Recap

Component 1 section A - Newspapers, Music videos, Advertising

Advertising:

• Tide Print Advert
• Kiss of the Vampire film poster
• Wateraid visual advert

Not only are adverts purpose to sell a product, they also try to sell a lifestyle.


How do these adverts reflect the sociohistorical context of the time they were made? [30]



Exam plan:
Initial reaction -
Tide - 1950's, stereotypical representations of women, domestic role, post war consumerism, sells a whole lifestyle.
Queen of Outer Space - quite empowering representation of women, therefore more progressive, taking lead role, however still objectifies her, using her body as a selling point, especially for this time, a woman having her body on show(polysemic meaning), lexis of queen meaning royalty.

Quick Key Terms:
Objectification
Sexualisation
Polysemic meaning
Mise-en-scene
Lexis
Stereotype
Binary
Costume
Patriarchal Hegemony
Gender Binary
Gender Performativity
Context
Beauty Ideals
Madonna/Whore complex
Pick'n'Mix
Post-colonialism (Paul Gilroy)
Feminism (Bell Hooks)

Introduction:

DEFINE: Sociohistorical context can be defined as the physical and social setting in which people live or in which something is developed or takes place. It is the way in which ideologies, attitudes and trends can be related to a certain time and place can be reflected within a media product (representation, audience, industry, etc).

ARGUMENT: While contrasting, both Tide, and Queen of Outer Space strongly reflect ideologies, particularly in regard to consumerism and representation.

CONTEXT: I will be exploring how the Tide print advert, produced in the 1950's by Proctor and Gamble, and Queen of Outer Space both reflect the social and historical context of the time they were made through representation and audience.

PARAGRAPH - TIDE:
Direct mode of address - 'YOU women'
Costume - 1950's clothes and hairstyle
Cartoon comic strip
Semiotics - women are emotional, hugging the box
Selling a lifestyle - if you buy the product you will be happy
catchy phrases
Patriarchal hegemony - women cleaning and cooking

PARAGRAPH - QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE:
Cartoon, painted image, recognisable of the time
Colour - new technology, reflects the time
Sci-fi iconography
Costume - hairstyle, trends
Late 50's - more progressive ideology
Polysemic meaning - Men are small and being attacked by women, subversive representation vs. women still being sexualised(Van Zoonen) short skirts, slim figure which is stereotypical.
'The Female Planet' - dominated by females
Fear around women - getting more rights
Could show the radical feminist perspective - women that are anti-men.

PEA Paragraph:
POINT: Both texts use the representation of gender which realistically reflects the social and historical context of the time that they where made, in contrasting ways.

EVIDENCE: In the unseen text, Queen from Outer Space, I can identify the time period of the print advert being of similar time the Tide, due to it's cartoon  painted image, and 1950's hairstyle and fashion trends. While the advert presents a typically objectifying theme, using women's revealing bodies to sell the product to a typically heterosexual male audience of the Sci-fi genre, it does also present an empowering and subversive representation of women, especially for this patriarchal time period. The advert presents a female as the lead role, with small men being attacked by more women nearer the bottom of the poster. This creates a polysemic reading to the advert, where women are both empowered and sexualised at the same time.  Tide present a more traditional and stereotypical representation of women, where it sells a very domestic lifestyle to audiences. The woman presented, has a main purpose to cook and clean.

ARGUMENT: This gives evidence for...

_______________________________________________________

Component 1 section B - Newspapers, Music videos, Advertising

Audience:
Without audiences media would't exist.

Explore how advertisements target their audiences. 

Exam Plan:
Initial reaction
-Mise-en-scene (colour, costume, props, setting, lighting)
-Media language/technical elements
-Tide and Wateraid advertisement are encoded with ideologies and meaning that, through media language and technical elements, targets a specific target audience.

Key Terms:
Lexis
Ideology
Binary
Mise-en-scene
Polysemic meaning
Stuart Hall - Reception theory (dominant/negotiated/oppositional reading)
Stuart Hall - Stereotypes (are a shortcut for audiences/producers)
Mode of address
George Gerbner - Cultivation (media cultivates)
Sociohistorical context
Technical codes
Genre Iconography
Charity advertising

Tide - Targets women/mothers/housewives through representation and stereotype imagery. It targets the audience through reliability, which allows audiences to accept ideologies conveyed. Uses and gratifications theory - aspirational, personal identity. Mode of address - addresses the target audience directly 'tide's got what women want!'. Lexis creates ideology of being superior, the best product of it's competitors, that it is the brand leader, 'world's cleanest, whitest wash' (commodity fetishism). Preferred reading - Tide is a friendly, reliable product, through imagery of woman hugging product, and through lexis. 

Wateraid - Subverts typical charity advert conventions, unconventional- using themes and ideologies of hope, rather than guilting audience audiences with sombre and dreary techniques. Does this through high key lighting, mise-en-scene. Binary, wet British weather vs. baron desert setting - targets to British audiences. Individual, Claudia, creates polysemic meaning that all it takes is one person to donate and make a difference. Lexis - creates factual evidence that reinforce a positive change is happening, preferred reading. Challenging conventional codes, is a method of targeting audiences, this is identified through cultivation theory.

Introduction

DEFINE: Audiences are highly crucial with in the media industry as without them, the products would not exist. This is obvious in advertising, whereby it is imperative that producers target specialised audiences for the product they are advertising.

ARGUMENT: Audiences are targeted by advertising producers through a variety of technical elements and constructed media language that connotes a clear and dominant ideology and preferred reading in order for them to buy the product.

CONTEXT: I will be exploring how producers target audiences through examples of the 1950's Tide print(produced by Proctor and Gamble) and the 2016 Wateraid audiovisual(produced by Atomic London) advertisements.

POINT: Audiences are targeted in both products through subverting and conforming to typical conventions of each product. producers have achieved this through stereotyping, dominant readings, and relatability to the target audience. 

EVIDENCE: In the Wateraid advert, Atomic London have chosen to attract audiences through subverting typical conventions of charity genre advertisement, by using visual signifiers of happiness and positive ideologies. It does this through the use of mise-en-scene of high-key lighting and happy facial expression, as well as the use of building positive, uplifting diegetic music. Tide uses stereotypical representations of the 1950's housewife woman to target their audiences that would personal relate and identify to these representations. 

ANALYSIS: 

_______________________________________________________

Component 1 section B - Newspapers, Advertising, Film Industry, Radio, Videogames.

Industry:

I, Daniel Blake and Straight Outta Compton


How effective is regulation of the film industry? 

Knee jerk reaction:

Ineffective - no stopping people from watching DVDs or streaming on Netflix or illegal websites, harder for BBFC to monitor 

Plan:

Universal pictures 

BBFC
I, Daniel Blake
Straight outta compton 

Power and media industries - Curran and Seaton

Regulation - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt

Cultural industries - David Hesmondhalgh

Introduction

DEFINE: Regulation is when something is controlled by an authority, like a rule. A company will set up regulations in order to control aspects of the media product to make sure it is being used sensibly. 

ARGUMENT: I will be exploring whether the regulation of the film industry is effective, focusing on the argument that it is ineffective. 

CONTEXT: In context, the film industry in the UK is regulated by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). They are a Non-governmental organisation (NGO) meaning they are founded by citizens and are often non profit. The BBFC age rate and categorise films in the following order: U, PG, 12A, 12, 15, 18 and R18. The numbers mean the youngest age that can watch the film. They do this to ensure that young children don't watch any explicit content. 

Regulation is ineffective: Paragraph 1

POINT: Curran and Seaton's theory of power and media industries refers to the idea that the media is controlled by a small number of conglomerates who are driven by profit and power. By the media being controlled by only a few companies, creativity and variety is restricted in products

EVIDENCE: 

ANALYSE/ARGUMENT:

curran and seaton 

straight out of compton 

monopolises power

livingstone and hunt

i, daniel blake 

MOCK EXAM

To what extent do Zoella and Attitude reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made? [30]

Online media is the digital convergence of media platforms and new digital technology, it take forms such as YouTube channels, social media websites, online blogs, magazine and newspapers. Sociocultural context can be defined as the physical and social setting in which people live or in which something is developed or takes place. I believe that these case studies are very active signifiers of society and culture today. I will be exploring how the representation and industry of online media products, Zoella and Attitude magazine, reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made. 


Both online medias use representations that reflect the complex social and historical context of today. Attitude online challenges traditional representations of masculinity. It does this by creating typically subversive depictions of men, for example, the 'boys' section of the online magazine connotes an objectifying attitude toward men, where men are shown half naked, anchored with sexualised and immature captions such as 'the thirst is real'. To support this, attitude print magazines front cover of Jake Shears challenges additional hetero-normative representations through the use of costume and body language. For example, the male celebrity stands in a typically feminine stance, wears a face full of make-up, and his hands are painted with red nail varnish. This suggests that gender is more complex than a simple binary between what is male and what is female, supporting arguments by Judith Butler, who believes gender is simply a performance of acts we carry out every day. On the other hand, Zoella presents a very stereotypical representation of gender. In her video, 'Our Christmas Eve Traditions' it heavily reinforces the domestic role of women, and presents conventional depictions of femininity. For example, Zoella directly addresses the audience about her plans to cook, clean and decorate the house ready for a christmas party later that day. This conforms to stereotypes of women taking a domestic role; cultivating space for beauty and visual aesthetic, on the contrary, Alfie her boyfriend takes no part in these ideals. This reveals a more conventional representation of femininity and masculinity, which conforms to Stuart Hall's theory on stereotypes, that as a form of representation, reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits. These arguments present a theory that the fluid and contrasting representations within these products mirror the social and historical context of the time they were made. 

Each of the products additionally create reflections of todays social and historical context through media industry in multiple ways. Attitude online first launched it's website in 2014, creating the digital convergence of news and online technology platforms. The blog is published by a major publishing company, Stream Publishing. Curran and Seaton believe that the motive of these big corporations limits variety and creativity, due to all being powered by monetisation. Therefore Attitude online is powered by a large corporation focused on profit rather than quality of content. Examples of this include the multiple 'click bait' images anchored to emotive captions on article headlines; 'homophobic attack'. Especially as the LGBTQ community are a well sort after target audience today, due the large amount of money they spend, known as the 'pink pound', supporting arguments that Attitude is driven for profit. YouTube has a similar purpose, as it's industry is driven by financial interest, views and retaining advertising. Zoella also commercialises her own channel through constantly advertising her own make-up and beauty line, 'Zoella Beauty'. Not only does this mirror her stress on conventional beauty ideals for young female audiences, it also presents themes of using her huge audience and fanbase of 14 million subscribers to produce exceeding profit, reflecting how todays media trends structure the industry.

To conclude, both of these products reflect how the sociocultural context in todays media to a large extent, due to breaking down the products and exploring the representation and industry with in them.