Lily's media blog

Audience manipulation and hegemony   Demographics- ways audiences can be divided and grouped into categories e.g. student, age, gender  Assumptions about audiences- easily manipulated, influenced, sells false expectations, makes audiences violent, not intelligent if they are so easily influenced  KEY THEORY 15 - Albert Bandura - media effects   the hypodermic needle model/ the effects models: propaganda  however more factors go into thus than just that- flawed  KEY THEORY 16 - George Gerbner - Cultivation theory the idea that prolonged and heavy exposure to [TV]... cultivates" a view of the world consistent with the dominant or majority view expounded by TV.  Tv present a mainstream view of culture, ignoring everything else In doing so distorts reality  Heavy users more likely to accept the edited and distorted view of reality  Pros: helps understand how people are influenced   Cons: Audiences are influenced in different ways  Was

Diesel- go with the flow  Ideology - the beliefs and values of the producer   Encoding - messages within a media product using media language  Purpose of any advert is to sell a life style  Only reason any media product exists is to make money   Diesel  Primary audience - group of people that the media product is made for   Secondary audience - the second audience the media product is aimed at  Audience - people who watch/use the media product T ext A udience P roducer- the producer encodes the message                                         text                                ↗                ↘              producer encodes       audience decodes                           text                               text                     ↗                                     ↘           producer                               audience Targeting - aiming a product at a certain audience  Attracting - make the audience want or get or engage with the prod

Feminist Theory- Liesbet Van Zoonen  Men's bodies and women's bodies are encoded in completely different ways in media products, and constructed through media language Additionally, women's bodies are used as spectacles to sell media products. therefore there is an assumption that the audience is always without exception a heterosexual man. Protein World, The weight loss collection  This advert then reenforces the ideal body type. The only acceptable body on beaches  Only thing known about the women on the advert is that she is attractive, sexualised  Sexualisation , the process of making something or someone sexual  Objectification , the process of making somebody into an object  Subjugation , the process of removing someones power or making them powerless HEGEMONY: where one group wields power over another, not through domination, but through coercion and consent  The real power of people is through hegemonic power Hegemonic power Th

Die another day (2012) The audience is positioned as James bond from his point of view  Seeing it from his point of view POV (point  of view shot) circle from around the shot, representing his binoculars   James' Bond point of view polysemic "nice view" reference the ocean and jinx  Wearing limited clothing, revealing clothing  High angle shot to emphasise her figure, informs the audience that she is attractive  Target heterosexual man a audience MALE GAZE  Male gaze - the assumption that all media products are  constructed exclusively for heterosexual men, an extension  of this would be every women is only in a media product for the male gaze  gaze functions in two different ways... the intradiegetic gaze  where a character looks at another character the extradiegetic gaze , where the audience looks at another character  both gazes are potentially voyeuristic in pleasure (taking pleasure in watching someone without them knowing they are being

Todorov's theory of narrative equilibrium (revised version )   Equilibrium- A state of balance   establishment of equilibrium -> disequilibrium -> the liminal period  -> partial restoration of equilibrium (or a new equilibrium)  The tied advert sells a state of equilibrium by presenting the target audience with a stereotypical representation of  Can only gain the state of equilibrium by buying the product   Society is extremely pessimistic, so everything involves something going wrong to keep everyone interested E.g. horror films     Advantages Extremely simple to apply to stories  Disadvantage Way to simple

Narrative and representation   Narrative - the way in which a story is told   (do not use 'plot' or 'story' unless you talking about the general over view ) Narrative in media is everything, its all parts that tell a story Ideology- the beliefs and values of the producer Dominant ideology - an ideology that is widely believed in the public.   Christopher Booker- 7 types of story  Overcoming the monster Rags to riches The quest Voyage and return  Comedy  Tragedy  Rebirth 

The mise on scene of the dark colour scheme communicates to the audience danger that could further imply  The lexis of the words vampire makes it conventional of horror the mise on scene of the bats are highly conventional of a horror  the red and black costume are highly connotative of horror  The iconography of the fangs is highly conventional The women within the poster are not typical, displaying paradigmatic features of the women in dresses creating a romanic genre  Generic/genre fluidity-  Target audience for vampire films of the poster time was adults, the development of the genre now focuses on young teenage girls.  Codes and conventions Layout and design Composition Images/photographs - camera shot type, angle, focus Font size, type of font (e.g. serif/sans serif), colour  Mise-en-scène – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up  Graphics, logos etc. Language – slogan/tagline and copy  Anchorage of images and text Elements of narrative Kiss of the

Representation- the way a media product constructs the world around it.  the producer makes this. a representation is a 'REpresentation' a reconstructed reality.   How can we identify ourselves? Appearance- class in society, personality, job Clothes- identity constructed through dress E.g. goth  Age- E.g. teenager, middle age Nationality Social group  Sexuality Name Accent Religion  Interests  Hobies KEY THEORY 7: David Gauntlet- theories of identity Audiences can construct their own identities through what they see on the television. He believed that there are many more representations of gender than the traditional 'gender binary'. Men Sporty Athletic Short hair Tall Dominant Unemotional  Strong  Women short kind smart skinny emotional  Weak  feminine Our perceptions of gender roles can come from the media, society, government, religion, family. Reenforces our perception of reality and the world.  Identity is fl

Does the WaterAid advert offer a subversive and positive representation of African teenage girls? Or does it simply present a stereotypical and reductive representation of Africa in order to manipulate it's white, working class target audience? Or perhaps it could do... both? Proairetic code Hermeneutic code R eferential code/intertexuality  S ymbolic code  D ominant ideology Modes of address (formal? Informal?) L exis A nchorage Binary/diametric opposition   C onflict R epresentation Stereotype C hallenging S ubverts I dentity Shot type and camera angles In the start there is a close up of the radio, directing the audiences attention. This then directs the audience to what is being broadcast, a woman with a strong British accent, this could be interpreted as a 'posh' accent that creates a more formal advert despite being in a homely environment creating a more serious tone to start the advert. She is reporting the weather as '

Intertextuality  Intertextuality- one media product makes reference to another media product  Pot Noodle- 'You can make it' Targeted at working class from the north, shown in the accent and the rundown north- the gym (Roky intertextuality training to be a boxer training to be a boxer, people look down on him) training on a council estate street, poor working class all he has. His house his gym and the overall setting is 't.v. ugly' as we expect everyone to be attractive on adverts Binary opposition- poor northerner in the middle of bright Vegas.  Natural reaction to feel disgusting because he is dong a ring girls job, designed to look sexy, however he is 't.v. ugly' he is not sexy and is very skinny not living up to mens stereotypically muscly men. Takes attention away from the Pot noodle.  Wastes the audiences time as they expect him to become a boxer but is a disappointment to expectations. Black man

This girl can The stereotype of larger women is that they are embarrassed to exercise due to their size compared to a more stereotypically skinny athletic women.  The montage of women 'jiggling bodies' include close up of female flesh.  This girl can campaign advert subverts stereotypical representation of women. The on screen graphic use stereotypically negative words 'sweat like a pig'. Voyeurism- the audience is positioned in a voyeuristic position, with a close up of certain body parts forcing the audience to face what people look like.  Close up shows confidence of the women.  'Sweat like a pig, feel like a fox'- connotations of being sexy, while pig connotes feeling gross and disgusting.   Contrast between light and dark shows binary opposite to then make each scene stand out more. stereotypically unladylike to sweat and look a 'mess' challenges this if you exercise you will look sexy and hot 'feel like fox' while you do it 

Representation + Identity Subvert- to go against something 

Stereotypes stereotypes are reinforced by the media stereotypes can become a self fulfilling prophecy (living up to or becoming a stereotype) one really important use of stereotypes is it allows people to 'fit in' certain stereotypes can keep you safe, providing lessons for life Richard Dyer- The Role of Stereotypes Advantages: An ordering process A shot cut (for producers) A reference point (for audiences) An expression of dominant societal values Disadvantage: Stereotypes can never actually exist   it reduces people to a simple list of characteristics