Section A, Question 1

G325 Section A: Exemplar Essay

1a)

Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making.


Over the two year media course we had to produce both a foundation portfolio of a school magazine and music magazine as well as an advance portfolio of a horror teaser trailer, film magazine – developing foundation skills further and a poster to advertise our trailer.

In the first year we researched existing music magazines and analysed each one so that we could gain knowledge of particular layouts, fonts and key elements that need to be contained in our production to make it successful. Research and planning allowed us to recognise ‘mastheads’ on magazines as being the most important and therefore the need to focus on a font more detailed to keep continuity with the contents page and double page spread which we also had to create.
Personally I researched ‘Rock’ magazines such as Kerrang, NME and others because I had chosen after carrying out a questionnaire to use Rock music as my theme. The real life media texts allowed me to visualise my favourite parts from each magazine – wripped sticker graphics and broken font on my own work which I then attempted to recreate within Photoshop CS4. In year one we were limited to what we could research because magazines were the only theme however, in the second year I was able to develop my ability to research real life media texts much further because we had a range of products we needed to create all under the ‘horror’ genre this time. I was able to research teaser trailers analysing my favourite and least favourite parts allowing me to plan with a mood board which I produced from a range of stills from previous horror films my ideas for my own trailer which helped me to develop my production of my products in relation to real life media texts and techniques such as restricted narration and handheld camera found in the ‘Blair Witch Project’ trailer which inspired my trailer ‘Laquem’ which is also set in the woods. Research into film documentaries like the ‘American Nightmare’ inspired me to create a product which reinforced fear and went against usual horror conventions to make it more interesting. Over the second year research became so important to achieving a product which was realistic and is now like my own distributed on on youtube as a real life media text of its own.

Real life media texts like advertising film posters were able to help me develop my Photoshop skills further because I was able to push myself with the ‘colour burn’ filters and want to create the scary atmosphere of my trailer from just an image and text which I found really fun.
Research into film magazines allowed me to develop my work from AS level so much further because I was able to produce a high standard piece of work in two weeks this year when the magazines took over 3 months last year which shows how much my skills have improves just by being able to constantly refer back to real life media texts for inspiration and even colour schemes that work well together such as black and red which in the first year I just found experimenting with. Research into horror trailers allowed me to recognise different styles of film and how we like Alfred Hitchcock could be an auteur creating new angles and ideas using generic conventions as well as unconventional representations that I have picked upon when watching films and analysing certain techniques which I have then attempted to do in Final Cut Pro when editing certain shots together to create collision cutting and changes in pace which my trailer does extremely well. I was inspired initially by the hand held camera in the
trailer REC and the fact I want as an auteur to change the stereotyped representations to be able use a female psycho killer.

Research also allowed me to produce text and intertitles that shook in order to capture my audience but narrating the story slightly so the shots when together made sense. Research into types of camera movements needed were really helpful and allowed me to completely change the pace with tracking shots and handheld camera which I noticed was used in Silent Hill and American Werewolf in London which I analysed and placed on my blog for reference as some pieces of footage I wanted to recreate including the final girl representations.

Overall - Level 3 - Relatively straightforward ideas have been expressed with some clarity and fluency. Arguments are generally relevant, though may stray from the point of the question. There will be some errors of spelling, puntuation and grammar but these are unlikely to be intrusive or obscure meaning.

Explanation/analysis/arugment - Level 4 -
There is a clear sense of progression and of how examples havbe been slected, and a range of articulate reflections on technical skills. There is a fluent evaluation of prograss made over time.

Use of Examples - Candidates offer a mostly clear, mostly relevant and reasonable range of examples of digital technology in relation to creative decisions and outcomes.

Use of Terminology - The answer makes basic use of relevant terminology.

Digital Technology
Creativity
Research and Planning
Post Production
Use of Examples From Actual Texts

A2 Media Exam

Section B –
50 Marks –
1 Hour to answer the question

How do contemporary media represent different collective groups (British Youth and Youth Culture) in different ways?
• This must be the main focus of your essay
• Diverse representations including fiction, non-fiction and self-representation
• Harry Brown, Fish Tank, Attack the Block, The Inbetweeners, London Riots news coverage and internet and self-mediation (Facebook page/Twitter/Blogs)

How does contemporary representations compare with that of the past?
• Examples needed for similarity and difference
• Examples from the past – Quadrophenia – The film and the representations of Mods and Rockers
• Have they changed? – Plato quote (on Zoe’s learnzone blog)

What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?
• Stereotyping – what is its impact?
• What power does the audience have to ‘resist’?
• Propaganda, moral panic, youth as empty categories, cultural hegemony, Stuart hall and reading the texts and their messages
• Statistics on result of these representations on attitudes and beliefs Vs. the reality of the issues

To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’?
• Increasing media = increasing mediation?
• Re-presentation by others/by selves (Facebook/YouTube (Youthtube))
• Be critical of who is offering the representations and for what purpose
• Mediated: How The Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in it

Guidance…
• Add your own personal opinion
• What, in your opinion is the future of representations and what are you basing this on?
• Connections must be made between the examples/contrasts are discussed
• You must embed the theory into what you are saying

MUST REFER TO MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF MEDIA (FILM, NEWSPAPER, INTERNET)

Examiner Advice – Structure
• Introduction – start with a quote; paraphrase it and link to issues of identity, representation and the media. State your focus (social group and texts)
• Historical examples
• Contemporary examples
• Connect examples together
• Conclusion – return to start (Summarise). Prediction for the future.
• Use referencing – name and year of publication given after first mention e.g. (Giroux, 1997).
• Quote – paraphrase – critique
• One text older than 5 years
• Other texts should be from within the last 5 years
• Make a prediction for the future

Historical Representations – Example – Significance – Theory – Critique

Contemporary Representations Newspapers – Example – Significance – Theory – Critique

Contemporary Examples Film – Example – Significance – Theory - Critique

Contemporary Examples TV – Example – Significance – Theory - Critique

Connections/Effects

Conclusion…
• Return to the start
• Summarise key idea
• Prediction for the future
• Mass media construct representations of youth from a middle class, adult perspective, for the ideological purpose of maintaining hegemony.
• Impact of new media technologies/internet – more potential for self-representation; limited impact compared to mass media.

Case Study Research

'How have British youth been represented through different media in the London riots?'

The pair shook their heads as the jury foreman returned the unanimous verdicts.
As he left the court, Kafunda said: "You're sending an innocent man down, bruv, innit."
The original attacker had punched Mr Rossli in the face so hard he later needed to have metal plates inserted in his jaw.
He was later identified as Beau Isagba, 17, of Ilford, who will be sentenced for the attack on March 9, the day after his 18th birthday.

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16180945

An 11-year-old boy has been handed an 18-month youth rehabilitation order for stealing a bin during the riots.
Scotland Yard said the child, from Romford in Essex, is the youngest rioter in London to face prosecution.

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16060069

Figures supplied to Westminster North MP Karen Buck by the House of Commons library show that some of the neighbourhoods where the trouble was most extreme last month are characterised not only by high levels of economic deprivation but also by high proportions of 10-to-19 year-olds, sometimes as much as 18%. Wards in Croydon, the southern end of Enfield, Greenwich and, specifically, Haringey's White Hart Lane ward are simultaneously in the top 10% on the deprivation index and 14% or more - over one in seven - of their populations in that 10-19 age group.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/davehillblog/2011/sep/19/london-riots-youth-deprivation-overlap

the riots also reflect the alienation and resentment of many young people in Britain, where one million people from the ages of 16 to 24 are officially unemployed, the most since the deep recession of the mid-1980s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/world/europe/10youth.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Online Media

Social media, friends, communication, keeping in touch, annoying people, begfriends, stalking, fights, relationships, pictures, SLUTS, memories, avoiding work, nosey, judgementalness, bitching, lack of privacy, fraping

Positives -
Keeping in touch with long distance/old friends/relatives
Help young people promote themselves in a positive way - forum to advertise band/photography/web design etc.
Accessible to all no matter about social class/age
Communicate with a lot of people in one go

Negatives -
Bullying/low self-esteem
Allows people to manipulate people (Pedophiles)
Pre-judging before you've met someone

What new forms of social interaction have media technologies enabled?
Globalisation
Sharing of Information
Development of Self-Identity
Self-Realisation
Collective Intelligence
Reshaping media messages and their flow; reshape amd recirculate messages
Increased Voice
Consumer communication with business (greater influence) - mass collaboration
Build Awareness - Bands/Skills
Communication has become interactive dialogue
User Generated Content (UGC)
Self-Representation and Self-Disclosure
Increasingly diversity within cultures
Online media focus on some or all of the 7 functional building blocks - Identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation and groups (Kietzmann et all. 2011)

'Online media are especially suitable to construct and develop several indentities of the self (Turkle, 1998)
'The mobile phone has become a central device in the construction of young peoples individual indentity (Castells, Fernandez-Andrevol, Linchuan Qiu and Sey 2006)

Digital Indentity

A person has not just one a stable homogenous indetity
Identity consists of serveral fragments that permantly change
A life-long developing and new conceptualized patchwork

Identity

"Identity is complicated - everybody thinks they've got one" - David Gauntlett

"A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences of social groups" - David Buckingham

Buckingham -

Classifies identity as an 'ambiguous and slippery' term;
Identity is something unique to each of us, but also implies a realtionship with a broader group;
Identity can change according to our circumstances;
Identity is fluid and is affected by broader changes;
Identity becomes more important us if we it is threatened.

Cultural Imperialism - Other cultures ideas coming into British society - Gloabalisation
Social mobility
Immigration - Becoming a multi-cultural society

Gauntlett -

Identity is complicated, however, everybody feels that they have one;
Religious and national identities are at the heart of major international conflicts
The average teenager can create numerous identities in a short space of time (especially using the internet, social networking sites etc)
We like to think we are unique, but Gauntlett questions whether this is an illusion, and we are all much more similar than we think.

5 Key Themes of Identity
1. Creativity as a process about emotions and experiences
2. Making and sharing to feel alive, to participate, in community
3. Happiness through creativity and community
4. Creativity as social glue - a middle layer between individuals and society
5. Making your mark and making the world your own

Representation - The way reality is 'mediated' or 're-presented' to us.
Collective Identity - The individual's sense of belonging to a group (part of personal identity)

Representation of 'The Inbetweeners'

The Inbetweeners
Directed by Ben Palmer
Released in 2011

Age
Leaving school age trying to be rebellious or free willed by going on holiday yet the parents are all still paying for them.
Relatively realistic representation
Parents very stereotypical and loving towards the group but especially Will's mum who treats him as if he was still a young boy by calling him embarressing names.

Ethnicity
Only focuses on fully British people within the main group of characters so no different ethnicities represented in the opening sequence to the film.
Not releastic of living in a suburb of London.

Gender
Surface trying to be stereotypical men but underlying emotions
Women objectified as they are shown to be looked down upon by the males
Love life of Simon with Carly having a lot more power over him

Social Class + Status
Middle class
Will wedgied by lower class bully
Neil has a job - parents still pay for holiday - lack of independance
Going on holiday
Subarban neighbourhood complete safety
Lots of traditional parenting and education within the middle class

Social class: Reinforcing Cultural Hegemony/Dominant Ideologies

Working class British youths are generally represented as being violent, brutal, unapologetic, criminals, addictive personalities - Harry Brown, Kidulthood, Quadraphenia, Eden Lake
vs
Middle class British Youths are generally represented as being more law abiding, consciencious citizens - The Inbetweeners

On-top of this the antagonists are always the working class youths and middle class adults are positioned to be the protagonists

Fish Tank
Directed by Andrea Arnold
Released in 2009

Iconic hoody with mum who shows no feelings towards child - lower class
dialogue, mode of address, location, alcohol, smoking
Lack of parenting and education
Challenging male dominance
Represented as the victim - positioned to identify with her
Broken Britain context but more sympathetic towards them
Behaviour of characters is less exagerated/extreme - no torturing and general mayhem
Female protagonist
Handycam - feeling of realism through jolty movements - social realist edge - same as Harry Brown - help you identify with situations

Almost all teenage characters in representations are clearly working class
Main adult characters tend to be more middle class
Representations may be said to reflect middle class anxiety at threat of working class to their hegemonic dominance.

Is one of the functions of these representations to maintain hegemony?

Who produces this representations? Why?

Media Effects

Do media representations of young people effect how they are perceived?

If so how does this effect occur?

Hypodermic Model - Believe everything that the media injects into them.
Cultivation Theory - If you see enough violence/criminal behaviour within British youth in the media the more you are likely to believe it is realistic and occurs in society at that level.
Copy Cat Theory - Influenced by what you see to the extent that you do the same.
Moral Panic - Media instills an image into the publics mind and creates a panic within society - newspapers creating articles on violence within British youth.

Youths - Antagonist
Police -Protagonist

Analysis questions...

Whose perspective is dominant in each of the texts?

What do the representations have in common?

How are the representations different?

How are the parental figures represented?

How important is social class?

Contemporary British Social Realism

What do you understand by Contemporary British social realism?

Social realist films attempt to portray issues facing ordinary people in their social situations.
Social realist films try to show that society and the capitalist system leads to exploitation of the poor or dispossessed.
These groups are shown as victims of the system rather then being totally responsible for their own bad behaviour.

'These places represent an everywhere of Britiain, where relationships are broken down and where people have become isolated and disconnected. Their Britishness is their culturally specific address to audiences at home.' (Murray, 2008)

Audience

Social realist films which address social problems in this country offer a very different version of 'collective identity' than British films which are also aimed at an American audience. Films like Notting Hill and Love Actually reach a much bigger audience than the lower budget social realist films.
Social realist films are aimed at a predominantly British audience.
If many more people see the more commercial films, consider which version of our collective indentity is the more powerful or has the most impact.

Analysing Representation of Collective Identity

When comparing how Britishness and our collective identity is represented in films consider the following questions:

Who is being represented?

Who is representing them?

How are they represented?

What seems to be the intentions of the representations?

What is the dominant discourse? (World wide view offered by the film.)

What range of readings are there?

Look for alternative discourses

Collective Identity

The media contributes to our sense of 'collective identity' but there are many different versions that change over time.

Representations can cause problems for the groups being represented because marginalized groups have little control over their representation/stereotyping

The social context in which the film/TV programme is made influences the messages/values/dominant discourse of the film.

Encoding - Decoding (Stuart Hall, 1980): Active Audience Theory

Encoding - Decoding is an active audience theory developed by Stuart Hall which examines the relationship between a text and its audience.

Encoding is the process by which a text is constructed by its producers.

Decoding is the process by which the audience reads, understands and interprets a text.

Hall states that texts are polysemic, meaning they may be read differently by different people, depending on their indentity, cultural knowledge and opinions.

Preferred Reading/Dominant Hegemonic

When an audience interprets the message as it was meant to be understood, they are operating in the dominant code. The position of professional broadcasters and media producers is that messages are already signified within the hegemonic manner to which they are accustomed. Professional codes for the media organisations serve to contribute to this type of industrial psychology. The producers and the audience are in harmony , understanding, communicating and sharing mediated signs in the established mindset of framing.

Negotiated Reading

Not all audiences may understand what media producers take for granted. There may be some acknowledgement of differences in understanding.
Will accept parts but not all of them, yet acknowledge dominant ideologies but do not agree with all of them.

Oppositional Reading/Counter Hegemonic

When media consumers understand the dominant ideologies yet will still disagree with the text entirely, for example - The Guardian will not buy The Sun - disagress what it stands for and the way it represents the news.

Any Representation is a Mixture of -

1. The thing itself.

2. The opinions of the people doing the representations.

3. The reaction of the individual to the representations.

4. The contexts of the society in which the representation is taking place.

Stereotyping

Why do we stereotype?

To categorize people and put them into boxes so we can understand and indentify types of people easier. Simplistic representations with different characters traits in which we find connections to make it more believable.

Implicit Personality Theory

We rely on experiences on the past more than the way the person is behaving in reality.
We have each a system of rules that tells us which characteristics go with other characteristics.
We categorise people into types to simplify the task of person perception.
If we encounter someone in reality or in the media who seems to fit neatly into stereotype, we feel reassured. It confirms our prototype view - we do not need to think further.
Once a few of the traits seems to fit our prototype, we will immediately bundle onto the person the rest of the traits from the prototype even if we do now know they fit them in reality.
It is almost as if we conspire with the media to misunderstand the world.

Youth Sub-Culture

What is a youth sub-culture?

A group of individuals who are united through a common value system and tastes (clothes, music, politics etc.)

A group of people who are positioned outside of the mainstream and, who unify as a response to the mainstream.

What are the values of a sub-culture?

Emo, chavs, thugs, goths, scene kids, geeks, hipsters, jocks, hippies, skaters, punks, mods, rockers, new-romantics,

Chavs
Want to rebel against any authority type figure, stereotypically come from a deprieved lower class background with a broken family and will show signs of aggressive behaviour and not complying to rules and regulation.

Many chavs will wear lots of sports brands including mainly tracksuits worn Adidas, Nike, Reebok, Umbro, Donnay etc.
Short hair with an aggressive dog.
Grime/hip-hop/r&b
Modified car - tinted windows, big speakers, souped up car.

What are the values of a sub-culture?

Conformity and rebellion
Attitude to capitalism and consumerism
Tribal rivalry
Traditional or 'neophile' (a person who loves novelty, one who likes trends; person who accept the future enthusiastically and enjoys changes and evolution)
Ideology in 1950's and 1960's - peace, rebellion against parents, radicalism - reactions against the post war.

Many groups are involved in protest and resistance against the mainstream...
Teens will often move between subcultures, and older youths mix and match styles/values from a mix of subcultures
Or that adults can appear to conform for most of the working week, but re-enter the subculture at specific time (weekend, festivals etc.)

Subculture

In the 21st century the 'dominant meaning systems' (that define the mainstream) are crumbling.
"There is no mainstream. There are many streams." Mainstream is in perpetual flux, rapaciously absorbing alternative culture at such a fast rate that the notion of a mainstream becomes obsolete.
So if there is no mainstream then there is nothing for the teens to react against - instead they are driven by other motives; and these must be understood on their own terms, individual terms.

1950's Teddies (Teds/Teddy Boys)
Anti-establishment, some of the original juvenile delinquents
Their uniform - drainpipe trousers, drape Edwardian jackets with velvet collars, string ties or slim-jims and DA (duck arse) haircuts and sideburns
They may have been a minority in Britain but he effect they had was huge (especially the clothing
Their music - Elvis Presley

1960's Mods
Mod (originally modernist to describe modern jazz musicians and fans) is a subculture that originated in London in the late 1950's and peaked in the early to mid 1960's.
Uniform hard to describe as they were prone to continuous revitalisation
The Who and Small Faces would change their musical style.

1960's Skinheads
Originated among working class youths in the 1960's
Close cropped or shaven heads, influenced greatly by West Indian rude boys and British Mods in terms of fashion, music and lifestyle
Originally not based on politics or race
Fashion wise, Skinheads range from a clean-cut 1960's mod-influenced style to less-strict punk and hardcore - influenced styles

Early 1970's Punks
Emerged from USA, UK and Australia
Based around punk rock
Listening to recordings or live concerts of a loud, aggressive genre of rock music called punk rock
Punk-related ideologies are mostly concerned with with idividual freedom and anti-establishment views.

The Cultural Revolution
1950's - 1970's

War - time of survival just before the 1950's - rationing, tight society
Anti establishment - breaking free from the shackles of the war and gaining more wealth
Many old social cultural structures were broken
The American way of life had started to become key to the aspirations of the British public (both cultural and material goods)
Increased availability of cheap colour magazines brough a proliferation of advertising for luxury commodities
A world wide ecnomic boom (postwar regeneration schemes)
Labour was defeated by the Conservatives at the 1951 General Election, This change in the government marked a shift from state control to increased individual freedom the Conservative election slogan promised to 'Set the People Free'
Youth given more freedom through the deregulation and commercialism of society.
Massive increases in the production and availability of consumer goods stimulated mass consumption.
People were expected to have goods such as tvs, fridges, music systems and cars as a basic requirement (more disposable income)
Car ownership rose 250% between 1951 and 1961. Weekly earnings rose by 34% between 1955 and 1960.
1960's consumption had become less connected with utilitarian needs, and more to do with status and comfort (Maslows Hierarchy of Needs)
The era of the'lifestyle' had began, specialist retailers providing outlets where people could buy into a new indentity based around design or fashion.
Teenagers became a recognised social group as they had become more affluent.
Manufacturers met the demands reflecting interest in fashion and pop music began to be sold.

America's influence

To be young in the 1950's usually meant that you would consume anything that had 'Made in America'
Americal culture was viewed by some, as a symptom of cultural degenertaion
However Hollywood movies, commercial tv, glossy mags and consumer good proves an instant hit with British Consumers.
To the average Briton it offered a rich and desirable future.
Cultural Imperialism - The practice of promoting, distinguishing, seperating or artificially injecting the culture of one society in another (America influence on Britain post war)

Social Mobility

Affluence, social mobility and the advent of the mass media, combined with a government that placed individual freedom at the heart of its agenda, had transformed British society.
There was a feeling of optimism but also a sense of uncertainty. New freedoms and liberties had been gained, but as a result society had become more fragmented and less predictable.

Theory

Key -

Explantion, Analysis, Argument
Example,
Terminology

Section B Exemplar Response 48/50

Section B Question 6 Media and Collective Identity
For A2 I have studies the representation of women in both contemporary and historical media. As David Buckingham noted in 2008, “identity is fluid and changeable” – and arguably the identity of women in recent times has changed, some may argue it has become more mediated.

Identity itself refers to who we actually are, the construction of ourselves – perhaps even the representation of ourselves and our social groups that we as media consumers wish to have. While many such as Buckingham and Gauntlett champion the fact the create and construct our own identities; others such aa Theordore Adorno see identity as something pushed upon us by the mass media, that we have no alternative but to take the dominant identities we are exposed to “something is offered for all so that none may escape,” he writes in explanation of this fact. Adorno therefore argues that our identities are becoming increasingly mediated – that is, that they influenced by the mass media, inherent identifies are weak and influenced by the media around us.

‘Nuts’ magazine is a stereotypical ‘lad’s mag’, aimed at 18-24 year old males. In ana analysis of the 19-25th March 2010 issue I performed the content proves interesting with regards to representation of women. Images of semi-naked females in suggestive poses represent women as victims of symbiotic annihilation. They are portrayed as merely objects of sexual pleasure for men – the images have been constructed, Laure Mulvey would argue with her theory of the Male Gaze, solely with the male consumers in mind, who using the Uses and Gratifications Model are consuming the text for sexual pleasure. Most significant here, however, is the so-called Mirror Effect of Mulvey’s Male Gaze.

This states that women themselves consuming the images will apply the Male Gaze, and see the female in the image in a sense of what Baudrillard would call hyperreality, assuming the idea that this representation is ‘how women should be’ and in turn they should construct their identities similarly in order to appeal to males – aftr all women are the subdominant group in an apparent patriarchal society. Identity therefore has become mediated in this situation as Adorno says. The “culture industry” that is the mass media has imposed a dominant representation onto a collective group; who have felt pressured to adapt it as part of their collective identity.

In the 2001 film “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”, Lara Croft, the main female character is represented as fairly masculine (stereotypically masculine) in terms of her choice of clothing, body language and manner. All of these micro-elements construct her identity. However, throughout the film, we also see Croft use what can be considered the concept of femininity to her advantage, flirting with male characters and wearing stereotypically feminine clothes towards the final scenes.

In terms of her character’s identity this supports Buckingham’s aforementioned assumption that “identity is fluid and changeable” but also conforms to Queer Theory. Queer Theory is widely recognized in Judith Butler’s 1990 book ‘Gender Trouble’ and states that the genders male and female are just as much the product of representation as the concepts of masculinity and femininity. She calls for a blurring of boundaries between genders and their stereotypical identities and calls for the media to celebrate such diversity. As a character, Croft arguably has blurred the boundaries displaying traits of both male and female behaviour.

If Adorno’s assertions are applied here it can be argued that again the dominant identity of women as sly, untrustworthy and in need of patriarchal dominance is being applied through Croft’s deviant use of fronting identity to her advantage.
However some could argue that the prominence of Queer Theory does not encourage the mediation of female identity instead it encourages dominant representations to be characterized and boundaries to be blurred – implying greater personal control over identity as advocated by John Fiske and David Buckingham rather than mediated identities.

Cosmopolitan is a magazine aimed at females around 30+. In all ways it can be said that pragmatically the magazine pushes femininity as an identity for itself, with stereotypically female colours and text styles. In turn, the feminine identity of the magazine is applied as a representation of the readers, further suggesting a mediation of women’s identity. The magazine focuses heavily on beauty and fitness, reinforcing the dominant ideology of the “ideal” women that women should aspire to a fixed concept of beauty.

As an example in the April 2010 issue a large image of Holly Willoughby (celebrity) features on the cover. Although unlike Nuts magazine, she is wearing fairly covering clothing and lacks cosmetic make-up, it is interesting to note that her clothing is white in colour – Ferdinand de Saussure would note that this has semiotic significance using his semiotic theory and Roland Barthe’s levels of signification, we can identify that white has connotations of innocence and weakness. Therefore this represents her as innocent and weak – reinforcing dominant patriarchal representations of women. Due to her status as a celebrity, her level of influence is great. In herself she is a semiotic symbol of success and affluence, so those who take inspiration from her will take this constructed innocence and weakness and apply it to their own identities. This is a clear example of the mediation of identity. It suggests a passive audience, influenced by the mass media as Adorno and other quasi-Marxists would suggest.

It can be seen therefore, that as post modernists say, we live in a media saturated society. We are surrounded by signs which cannot be ignored. Women in the media are often represented as varying, whether it be as sexual objects for the pleasure of males; or as innocent, as ‘stay at home’ housewives as suggested in 2008’s film Hancock. Here, despite possessing stereotypically male strength and ‘superpowers’, the lead female aspires to be a housewife – reinforcing the sub-dominant representation of women. Either way however women are often the victims of mediation. The theories of consumption and construction of identity from theorists such as Adorno and Mulvey clearly show that despite the specific representations, one common identity is ‘forced’ upon women in the media – a subdominant social group living in a patriarchal society. Identity is constructed using this as a basis; and even media texts which challenge this representation and encourage Queer Theory diversity are still arguably mediating identity with their influence. Identity is fluid and changeable and can be individually constructed as Gauntlett and Buckingham state. But arguable, the mass media are, and have, mediated the identity of women in contemporary society.

Research

Homework...
Choose one of the three films to research. Try to find reviews which reflect different perspectives, e.g. from conservative newspapers like the Daily Mail, or the Telegraph, and liberal newspapers like The Guardian, and The Independent.

Summarise the reviews/interviews in your own words (recording the text it comes from, the title, the date)

How do contemporary media represent British youths and youth culture in different ways?

'Harry Brown'
Director: Daniel Barber
Released in 2009
How does 'Harry Brown' represent young people?

Iconography helps to construct the representation of young people including hoodies, pitbulls, knives, guns, drugs, subway, council houses (location), sexual confrontation, sexism, fighting territory, revenge, friendship, dialogue (real colloquial language), age (Harry - old, police - middle aged, gangs - younger)

Binary opposition (social class) - Harry Brown (working class) - Gangs (lower class) - Police (higher class)

Impact that the environment has on the way the gangs grow up...near drug dealers
Dark lighting - negativity, suspense, shadows, dark side, threatening, evil.
Genre - Thriller/horror use of signals
Female challenges media stereotypes as she comes out with a better status and more knowledge

Hoodies strike fear in British cinema
'Guardian 2009'

Un-emotional, inept of feelings, thugs, challenging societies norms, no hope (survival is a challenge)

Links to horror -
Monsters (vampires/zombies/supernatural/aliens/murderers) - Harry Brown brings non-fiction real life characters and applies them as monsters. (teenagers)

Social class -
Teenagers with blazers from grammer schools would not scare an audience where-as a hoody in the environment will.
Middle class/upper class vs lower class/working class
Capitalism
Hegemony - Power of the ruling class want us to believe something about the other class' - influences the way we think
Governed by rulings of media making us believe.
Moral panic - creating fear about a class - only way to control them being an ASBO
Self-fulfilling prophecy - told so many times you are something that you become exactly that.


'Eden Lake'
Director: James Watkins
Released in 2008

How are Jenny and Steve (the main couple) represented?
Normal clean-cut people that have gone for a romantic trip as a couple yet are challenged to show they have no hope yet from what the trailor leads us to believe they will do anything to survive (strong willed). Jenny is shown as the damzel in distress and Steve is her saviour and they are out of their comfort zone (isolated and vulnerable).

How is this contrasted with the representation of the other characters?
The other characters are the complete opposite to the couple. Drinking, smoking, wearing hoodies, aggresive dogs, stealing objects that do not belong to them etc. They show no remorse/respect in what they are doing to Jenny and Steve. Keeping hold of the territory that the couple are invading onto. Mainly male dominated with sexual violence towards women.

How important is the issue of social class?
The couple are of middle/upper class whereas the other characters are lower class as they do not look to have jobs so the audience will immediately prejudge the stereotype. The article we read pointed out that young people from blazers would not have the scare factor that someone of lower class does.

How are young people represented?
Young people are represented very poorly as the same 'Harry Brown'. As with the article they are shown to be a type of new age monster. The use of weapons and hanging around in gangs (hunting in packs) all the different stereotypical youth culture is shown mainly at night time.

The British youth in the films are represented by not conforming to dominant ideology/disruption to the equilibrium.
Dominant ideology - shouldn't break the law, be respectful etc.
Conformity to the dominant social norms.

'Attack the Block'
Director: Joe Cornish
Released in 2011

How are the main characters introduced in 'Attack the Block'?
Violent, hunting in packs, madness at nightime, bandanas/hoodys/baseball caps, knives, vulnerability of women, opportunistic crime, more middle class but crossing over into the territory of the youths, quiloquial dialogue, the monster.

Harry Brown

Released in 2009
Directed by Daniel Barber

How are youths being represented? (specific examples)

In the bar the youths are represented as drugged up low lifes who 'sell drugs, guns and underage girls', the fact that the two youths did not try to hide the drug deal underlines this.
After that young people are shown to be a media stereotype by wearing hoodys and getting into fights out in public.
Youths spit in the elderly Mr Attwell's face, name calling and throwing faeces through his letterbox
The young people show no respect for anyone, especially autority figures. They have complete free will and choose to be destructive and disrepectful.
They gather around in big threatening groups with pitbulls at dark underneath roadways - stereotype of the lower class.


How are the audience being positioned? (to identify with the characters)

The audience are supposed to look down upon youths because of their actions and behaviours through elder eyes who could be seen as very wise.
We are led to sympathise with the policewoman as she the boss dismisses her requests of helping the enquiry of the elderly man who was murdered instead to persue a newer case.

What is the significance of social class?

Social class pays a very big part of this film as each class will treat each other differently as with age as well
The difference between the police and characters from the council estates show a big difference in temper losing their calm whilst the police stay very respectful
Harry Brown plays on the use of media stereotypes to create the characters in the film, especially those of younger age. Many articles have been found to represent them in a bad way.

Britishness

What is Britishness?

What does it mean to be British?

What do you associate with being British?

Exam Outline

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 Marks)

1a) Theoretical evalutation of skill development over the course of the two years (both AS and A2 c/w productions including preliminary and ancillary tasks)
Candidates answer two compulsory questions. The first requires the, tp describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The second asks them to identify one production and evaluate it in relation to one theoretical concept.

Question 1(a) requires candidates to describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development, and the question will require them to adapt this to one or two specific production practices. The list of practices to which questions will relate is as follows:
Digital technology
Research and planning
Creativity
Post Production
Using conventions from real media texts

1b) Theoretical evaluation of one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept.Question 1(b) requires candidates to select one production and evaluate it in relation a media concept. Thelist of concepts to which questions will relate is as follows:
Genre
Narrative
Representation
Audience
Media language


Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 Marks)
2) Contemporary Media Issues - Media and Collective Identity - The Representation of British youth and youth culture

How do the contemporary media represent British youth and youth culture in different ways?
How does the contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?
What are the social implications of different media representations of British you and youth culture?
To what extent is human identity increasingly 'mediated'?

In order to be fully prepared for the specific requirements of the question, the material studies by candidates must cover these three elements:

Historical - Dependent on the the requirements of the topic, candidates must summarise the development of the media forms in question in theoretical contexts.
Contemporary - Examples from five years before the examination
Future - Candidates must demonstrate personal engagement with debates about the future of the media forms/issues that the topic relates to.

Identity

What is identity?

My definition -
Everything that makes you. E.g Culture, background, schooling, where you were be brought up, what your parents are like and interests etc.

Dictionary definition -
Who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group which make them different from others

How is identity formed?/Who influences your identity?
Environment
Friends
Gender
Family
Morals of parents
Media/Media consumption
Characteristics
Events
Social origin
Education
Age
Height
Weight
Diet
Lifestyle
Social class
Religion
Beliefs and ideoligies
Geography
Experiences
Stereotypes

Nature vs Nurture