Lily's media blog

 hyper-reality  hyper-reality and simulacra in humans and beyond  e.g. Christmas- home alone: seen as a magical time with family and friends, in reality is stressful and isolating if you don't have the ideal family to spend it with.  small town life- can be isolating and depressing  sex- pornography  war- hacksaw ridge  -representation is superior to reality.  break-fast scene analysis: - mise-en-scene the food is very perfect and  "the jams in a thing"- Sophie recognises it for a tv show, showing how idealised  - Anita (physically and behaviour)  mimicking human behaviour, her laugh is hyperreal construction she reinforces the patriarchal hegemony controlled by joe postmodern media products typically complicate stories, she is not just a cop of a  person but a copy of a synth as well, cover up being mia  - family "is it a party?" "no this is what breakfast is supposed to be like" ideal that families are always together  middle class british family, r

 postmodernism and hyper-reality   hyper-reality- beyond reality  the luxor hotel, las vegas simulate being round the woeld in one plae Instagram- what is reality, construction of beauty, but we are supposed to perceive this as reality   signs, signifiers and signified anytging can hace meaning the thing that creates meaning  rthe meaning that is created posmodernism- jean Baudillard  in postmodernism culture the biundaries between the 'real' world and the wolrd of the media have colla[psed and thta it is no longer possible to distinguish between what is reality and what is simulatio. in fact, it really doesnt matter which is which  therefore, in postmodern age of simulacra, audience -breakfast, the breakfast spread presenyed in humans by anita was niot realistic and creates an ideal setting but is contrucyed in american tv  postmodernism hyperreality- a representation of nothing. a representatiuon of something  rejection of high culture intertextuality- postmodern texts often

 according to Claude levis-strauss, texts convey their meanings through a system of binary oppositions. evaluate this structuralist theory. refer to the set episode of humans in your response.  one of the fundamental ways we make sense of is through binary opposition or 2 diametrically opposed concepts that end up dining each other  Levi Strauss created the theory of binary opposites  -the majority of narratives in  media  forms contain opposing main characters. These  binary opposites  help to thicken the plot and further the narrative; and introduce contrast. they also create meaning withoit one we cannot understand the other.  man v machine   - their roles within the world and when do they over lap and machine start to take over (singularity) Anita v Laura  - Anita is a threat to her role in the family  humans are seen as a superior being and yet their creation provides a threat the the human construction of family. anita is portrayed as a domestic help through simple tascs such as

 diametric opposition  levi-strauss one of the fundamental ways we make sense of is through binary opposition or 2 diametrically opposed concepts that end up dining each other  e.g. day/night  man v machine Anita v Laura - Anita is a threat to her role in the family  captivity v freedom  progress v regression - progress of conscious, its own entity not machine  family v institution -  male v women - gender role  old v young - conflict between daughter and parents   metropolis (Lang, 1927) - sexualised, making this sexualised to make them more relatable  blade runner (Scott, 1982) - binary oppoation of feminity between the character and barbie  Sorayama Hajime - sexy robot  Hannah Hoch: Das Schone Madchen / the beautiful girl (1919-20) cyborg- cybernetic  Anita is not seen as a machine even without consciousness a she takes on the roles of humans so is treated as such- people want to hurt her, have sex with her. they reflect their own abilities onto her and feel threatened buy her abili

 the representation of women and cyborg representation- a re presentation, re presenting something or re constructing it  representation impacts audiences and influence their ideologies. stereotypical representation can negatively influence and reinforce or challenge ideologies.  roles of women in humans mother maid sex worker / prostitute  nurse caregiver  butler friend slave rebel Madonna/ whore Freud developed theory to explain men's anxiety towards women's sexuality, suggesting men define women into one of two categories: Madonna (women he admires and respects) and whore (women he is attracted to and disrespects)  Madonna is typically virtuous, nurturing, saintly, and sexually repressed the whore is sensual, sexualised and desirable without purity  van zoonen women belong to the family and domestic life and men to the social world of politics and work; that femininity is about care, nurturing and compassion and masculinity is about efficiency, rationality and individuality 

 sci fi genre  Allegory - underlying hidden meaning (metaphor) e.g. sex work, allegoral notions through the story (constructed narrative) -a metaphor that makes a broad comment on society Zeitgeist - feeling at the moment, reflect what's happening in the world  -the 'spirit of the time' producers can encode ideological perspectives that may not appear to all audiences  e.g. -Godzilla could be a reference to nuclear way on japan  -invasion of the saucer-men, reference to communism, alien ideology stealing their way of life -independence day, 1996, golf war in middle east  allegorical aspects in humans  -sexualisation- Anita immediately sexualised  -unpaid labour- synths unpaid  -the negotiation of exoticism- Anita is out east Asian reinforces exoticism only person of that ethnicity in the text.  -sexual exploitation -modern slavery -commodity fetishism- Anita is a computer but is fetishized  -commodification -full automation -the rights of workers -late period capitalism v

Humans - Initial thoughts Mise-en-scene? Themes? slavers,  sex work,  human relationships  representation? class system,  women- mother want to be needed, nurturing  nuclear family stereotypical roles for each in the family- more relatable to the audience makes it more meaningful  broken marriage  cinematography?  sound? tech noise used to anchor meaning that they are machine  sci-fi genre conventions?  synthetics mad scientist 'singularity'- one days computers take over people

Playing games: alternatives to the mainstream

fandom and active audience theory fandom- Henry Jenkins  organised and motivated people who are fans of a particular media product  fans are active participants of a product  A  fan  is different to an audience member. An  audience  may enjoy a media product. They might watch every new  Avengers  film for example. But in order to be a fan, they need to go  further.  Put  extremely simply , a fan is  somebody who actively  does something  with a media product . Fandom can manifest itself in lots of ways , but it can be evidenced in the following, non-exhaustive ways: Attending a convention Dressing up as a character from the franchise (cosplay) Getting a themed tattoo (not a good idea lol) Joining and contributing to an online forum on the topic Buying themed merchandise, for example action figures Writing fan fiction  Going on holiday specifically to visit where a film was filmed Wearing a band T-shirt Following a band on tour textual poaching - where th

Assassin's Creed and reception theory Stuart  hall- reception theory (encoding/ decoding model) producers use media language to encode meanings within media products, which audiences can then decode and negotiate in a variety of different ways. Audiences may agree with the preferred reading of the product, in other words they will agree with the ideology of the producer. The audience also may disagree with the producer's ideology and form an oppositional reading of the product. It is most likely, however, that the audience will negotiate the message of the producer, and will agree with certain ideological aspects while rejecting others.  it suggests that audiences have agency and can make their own decisions based on their own life experiences.  reception theory is an active audience theory . preferred  / dominant reading - the audience agrees with the dominant ideological perspective encoded by the producer oppositional theory - the audience disagree

videogames and the effects model   Proposed by Albert Bandura, it stipulates that  media has a direct effect on us.  assumption: Representations of violence can 'model' or demonstrate violent behaviour, and a udiences 'copy' violent and socially unacceptable behaviour they see in media products problems: not everyone who plays violent video games are violent everyone interprets and is affected by videogames in different ways  Bandura's theory is kind of limited, and is only used for the videogame industry But in everyday life,  this theory is really popular . Someone might not have a clue about who Stuart Hall or Henry Jenkins are, but they will tell you without a shadow of a doubt that  violent videogames make people violent . A blanket statement like this has  massive issues hypodermic media model- passive theory after WW2 it was believed that the German's were different in nature in order for them to commit their actions.  the

Ubisoft and media diversity  key theory 14- the cultural industries- David Hesmondhalgh   - media industries seek to minimise risk and maximise profit (every media product exists to make money) vertical integration - a media organisation owning different parts of the mode of products eg. paramount, own film and means of distribution (cinemas) horizontal integration - one organisation owning other organisations in the same sector eg. Disney owning other film studios such as marvel  multimedia integration - using digital to combine previously separate industries eg. streaming services Netflix  conglomerate - where a company busy out other companies subsidiary - a company that works under another company  Ubisoft  4th largest publicly traded game company in the Americas and Europe established in France in 1986 (multi-national)  A horizontally and vertically integrated media conglomerate with a number of studios and subsidiaries their unique selling point (USP) is

history of the videogame industry  videogame production, distribution and circulation every industry is specialised  -interactive -high expenditure of resources -higher RRP -longer length -dedicated, 'core' target audience -games developed for specific hardware, or released multiplatform 

assassin's creed: Valhalla and the role of trailers  to pre-order costs at least £59.99 for this unit we only look at industry and audience...  how does this trailer target a specialised and a generalised audience? -assassin's creed targets a mass audience  has high production values (the use of fur and hair and hard to make so is an indication of a high production value) pre-rendered graphics are used in the trailer  paradigmatic features of film trailers (genre conventions of a film trailer)  voice over explaining the narrative range of different scene  hint of wider narrative  targets a wider audience that may nt be gamers as it relates moree to a filom in the trailer  clear narrative - good/bad demonstrates intertextuality - has all elements of assassins creed games  - has elements of other fantasy films such as lord of the rings and game of thrones in dark setting (pre-existing fan base) Ubisoft are a French company- but has a univ

videogame development and marketing pre-production concept art design  production coding testing alpha and beta builds  post-production patching and maintenance  marketing and promotion electronics entertainment expo (assassin creed use large trailers) indie game development and marketing -digitally online is the easiest way for indie games to be released   

how are videogames a specialised industry? videogames are interactive and offers many uses and gratification  huge expenditure of specialised resources  higher RRP(recommended retail price) pricing varies massively  longer length of time playing gamers are specialised and distinct people- dedicated 'core' audience specific hardware or multiplatform

Video Game industry - INDUSTRY     In what ways has ownership shaped the media products you have studied? Make reference to the Assassin’s Creed franchise [15]    assassin’s creed is owned by Ubisoft, a large conglomerate based in France. due to them being a large conglomerate this arguably has impacted the quality of product they produce. this is supports Curran and Seaton's theory of power and media industries. by Ubisoft owning a large amount of companies through horizontal and vertical integration as well as subsidiaries, Ubisoft has built a large conglomerate and as a result are now the 4th largest publicly trading game company in the Americas and Europe. they control a large section of the gaming industry and produce some of the most popular games. this mass domination of the market results in expensive advertising that then boosts the profile of the game and the company. this overall limit competition and prevents smaller or indie gaming companies from reaching a m

Advertising - AUDIENCE     Explore how the WaterAid advert you have studied appeals to its target audience(s) [15]     the target audience for water aid is the British, a goal of the audience sympathising with the children and donating to the charity. the water aid advert appeals to its target audience through its direct reference to the audience itself. at the start of the video there is a close up of a radio, directing the audience’s attention to what is being broadcast, in this case the weather. the woman on the radio has a strong British accent, this is then a representation of the audience that they can identify with and recognise as their own. her accent could be interpreted as 'posh', this then 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 raining'. This indicates the target audience as British; it also sets a scene that is relatable to the audience as it sh

Magazines - REPRESENTATION    Liesbet van Zoonen argues that representations of gender are encoded through media language to position audiences and to reinforce dominant ideological perspectives. In what ways do the producers of Woman use representations to position their audiences? [15]   Liesbet van Zoonen's feminist theory argues that gender is constructed through codes and conventions in the media to reinforce dominant ideological perspectives, through the use of stereotypical, social and patriarchal hegemony. these views on male dominance in in then reinforced through media such as woman magazine, helping fuel a mainstream hegemonic norm. woman magazine is targeting a female audience and its main purpose it to inform women on the latest lifestyle and beauty products relevant to them. as many magazines were specified to suit a male or female audience, women's magazine articles were limited to what was only perceived as relevant to women. this includes art