Different ways of looking at representation for 1b
Representation of the Artist
Representation of the Lyrics
Representation of the star themselves
Representation of the culture
Representation of social groups
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Example Paragraph taken from an A- essay (41/50)
Gilmor’s theory suggests the idea of ‘citizen journalism’. He argues that we see “the internet as a catalyst to challenge the big media powers, as ordinary people can post their news via blogs and other online communications’. Gilmor’s theory suggests that an increase in globalised media has positive effects on distribution and consumers can now become producers (web 2.0). A positive example of this would be the Syrian Arabic protests. Although news correspondents are unable to enter parts of Syria due to government restrictions, through an increased in globalised media with distribution, local suffering citizens were able to let the world know about their issues, an example being the internet video programme youtube user 25Bahman1389 posted mobile phone footage of Syrian Protests on youtube. Through this globalisation this account of citizen journalism was able to be posted around the world to highlight the problems. This suggests a positive impact of globalised media.
However, coming from an economically developed countries point of view and affluent society where internet access is readily available, it is far too easy to assume everyone has access to this. Leadbetter’s theory of 2008 supports this as he claims that “only 4% of the Arab nation has internet access’ so although globalised media can have positive effects on the distribution of media text, the less economically developed countries are unable to receive this distribution due to the inability to access the internet which suggests that globalised media is not as global as can be argued.
However, coming from an economically developed countries point of view and affluent society where internet access is readily available, it is far too easy to assume everyone has access to this. Leadbetter’s theory of 2008 supports this as he claims that “only 4% of the Arab nation has internet access’ so although globalised media can have positive effects on the distribution of media text, the less economically developed countries are unable to receive this distribution due to the inability to access the internet which suggests that globalised media is not as global as can be argued.
Discuss the positive and negative effects of globalisation of the media.
Discuss the positive and negative effects of globalisation of the media.
Globalisation of the media has become a major issues over the past twenty years, with technological advances – such as the rise of the internet as platform - making it possible to produce and consume media from all around the globe. However, this advance can be argued to have come at a price as this ‘global media’ could only be inclusive of first world countries having influence as a study of the BBC – who presents itself to be a global corporation would demonstrate.
McLuhan argues that society has become “increasingly mediated” and that we all now live in “global village”. In regards to our news provision, this is true. The BBC consider themselves to have global provision in that they employ more correspondents, reporters, and international bureaus than any other news channel. They also have approximately 51 million unique visits to their news website each week with a significant amount of this from other countries. This suggests a positive effect as the internet has enabled the BBC to bring their products to other countries.
However, it could be argued that the BBC has only responded to what Robertson calls the “compression of world and the intensification of the consciousness as a whole”. For example is it through our demand for world news – as we now have a far greater interest in international events – that the BBC has needed to provide it. For example the recent news stories on the Pope’s resignation were first reported within 15 minutes onto the BBC, which then provided 24 hour access to news through twitter feeds, video reporters and live access to the Vatican. This requirement for reporting is easily traceable back to the fact that Britain has significant number of Catholics and therefore would have a connection to the news and the BBC could provide this, which suggests a positive effect of Globalisation.
A particularly positive effect for corporations of global media is – as Plunkett argues – that many media producers are now “bypassing traditional gatekeepers” in response to the rise of the individual audience member. This means corporations like the BBC are needing to engage with their audience as a local level, however this is now happening across the globe. For example the BBC makes regular requests on its websites for audiences to contact them with their own experiences for example on a local level with the recent Stansted airport developments to across the world with the recent Brazilian night club fire where the BBC contacted a local blogger who could give them an eyewitness account, which suggests a more positive move towards a global media where everyone can take part.
However, as Leadbetter points out “only 4% of the Arab world has internet access”, which also highlights the issue of access to media in general. Despite the BBC’s claim that it is a global corporation – only 33% of the world can actually access the internet (and with filtering policies in countries like China and Iraq we can assume this percentage is even less) therefore which suggests a negative effect is actually a move towards a ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, for example, the BBC devoted far more screen time towards the Syrian uprisings, the success Psy’s Gangnam Style and the Pope’s Resignation rather than the estimated 500m that have been killed in the ongoing Darfuri conflict . Although this could be partly explained by Hacup’s news values deeming a long term conflict not newsworthy, it is also worth considering that much of Darfur does not have access to any form of media – therefore the avenue for consumption is not there, whereas the Syrian uprisings have been heavily influenced by social networking demonstrating the already existing audience for news provision companies like Al Jazeera and BBC to engage with and take advantage of.
This then also raises the issue of the devolution of culture, particularly in the provision of the phenomenon of “global tv” and the rise Hybrid Programming –especially within the BBC. Currently the BBC markets many of programmes and programme concepts to countries worldwide, for example its most successful programme -‘Strictly Come Dancing’ marketed as ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (in various languages) – is the most successfully marketed programme around the world. The concept is the same, the narrative structure of the series is the same and very often the mise-en-scene and sound is strikingly similar. Although it could be argued that as the show is such a generic format, easily identifiable in any language with the standard trope of the ‘competition’, that it global success would come naturally, however it just as easily be argued that it is only due to the BBC’s money and influence that shows like this can be shown and – ultimately – this will lead to a rapid decline in local programming from local cultures and the imposition of the BBC’s own ideologies over cultures – the classic Hegemony. Or, Irvine argues, that we are “putting all our cultural eggs in one basket”.
However, a counter-argument to this is Moores theory that we have not lost our interest in “localization”. This is true for the BBC’s provision of media as very few of its programmes actually travel as a complete product: only Doctor Who is a well-known brand that is only subtitles and dubbed into different languages, not other changes are made, possibly due to its science fiction non-culture specific routes. Most of the BBC’s “global” programmes are sold as formats only, allowed local culture changes to take place. For example, the programme “What not to Wear” was recently launched in India but with less of a focus on up to date fashion and criticism and more about “building Indian’s women’s confidence and style”, with the addition inclusion of very well-known Bollywood stylists and actresses as presenters to create a more “Indian” appeal. This suggests more of a “glocalisation” effect, as Waters argues that our ideas are instantly “pluralized”. He also argues that that we can “virtually visit” areas instead and evidence for this is substantially positive with the BBC as not only can we consume the “original” UK version of programmes but we can also see others countries – primarily America – versions which can provide cultural comparison. Also, the BBC are bringing in more global programming with great success such as Wallander and The Killing which indicates a positive effect of global media as demand is rising for non home-grown programmes. This suggests that a positive effect of Global Media is actually the rise in the power of the audience.
Within this new world of global provision, Gilmor argues that we now have the rise of the “citizen journalist” that bypasses the “big media” control and uses the tools of technology and convergence to produce their own news and opinions, some of which become powerful in their own right, for example the social networkers in the Arab Spring orchestrating a revolution. Judging by the move of AL Jazeera and BBC News to engages in social media websites like facebook pages and Al Jazeera had a twitter database to monitor patterns within the Arab countries, this indicates a more positive force from the audience towards have a say in their own media. In television too, audiences are beginning of use their diversity of choice to search out media that is out of their own country’s production and format, which then forces companies such as the BBC to provide each-more-global online provision and VOD programming to seek to avoid the even more evitable rise of piracy online.
Global Media can be argued to have had a generally positive affect of both audiences and producers in that both are being forced to diversify, without seeming to lose their cultural identity and current trends dictate that this pattern will keep on rising. However, with the media becoming utilized by the audience to provoke political and social change and the rising move of governments towards filtering and monitoring, it has to be argued that ultimately Global media could lead people to – what Bauman argues is “a crueler fate.”
However, it could be argued that the BBC has only responded to what Robertson calls the “compression of world and the intensification of the consciousness as a whole”. For example is it through our demand for world news – as we now have a far greater interest in international events – that the BBC has needed to provide it. For example the recent news stories on the Pope’s resignation were first reported within 15 minutes onto the BBC, which then provided 24 hour access to news through twitter feeds, video reporters and live access to the Vatican. This requirement for reporting is easily traceable back to the fact that Britain has significant number of Catholics and therefore would have a connection to the news and the BBC could provide this, which suggests a positive effect of Globalisation.
A particularly positive effect for corporations of global media is – as Plunkett argues – that many media producers are now “bypassing traditional gatekeepers” in response to the rise of the individual audience member. This means corporations like the BBC are needing to engage with their audience as a local level, however this is now happening across the globe. For example the BBC makes regular requests on its websites for audiences to contact them with their own experiences for example on a local level with the recent Stansted airport developments to across the world with the recent Brazilian night club fire where the BBC contacted a local blogger who could give them an eyewitness account, which suggests a more positive move towards a global media where everyone can take part.
However, as Leadbetter points out “only 4% of the Arab world has internet access”, which also highlights the issue of access to media in general. Despite the BBC’s claim that it is a global corporation – only 33% of the world can actually access the internet (and with filtering policies in countries like China and Iraq we can assume this percentage is even less) therefore which suggests a negative effect is actually a move towards a ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, for example, the BBC devoted far more screen time towards the Syrian uprisings, the success Psy’s Gangnam Style and the Pope’s Resignation rather than the estimated 500m that have been killed in the ongoing Darfuri conflict . Although this could be partly explained by Hacup’s news values deeming a long term conflict not newsworthy, it is also worth considering that much of Darfur does not have access to any form of media – therefore the avenue for consumption is not there, whereas the Syrian uprisings have been heavily influenced by social networking demonstrating the already existing audience for news provision companies like Al Jazeera and BBC to engage with and take advantage of.
This then also raises the issue of the devolution of culture, particularly in the provision of the phenomenon of “global tv” and the rise Hybrid Programming –especially within the BBC. Currently the BBC markets many of programmes and programme concepts to countries worldwide, for example its most successful programme -‘Strictly Come Dancing’ marketed as ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (in various languages) – is the most successfully marketed programme around the world. The concept is the same, the narrative structure of the series is the same and very often the mise-en-scene and sound is strikingly similar. Although it could be argued that as the show is such a generic format, easily identifiable in any language with the standard trope of the ‘competition’, that it global success would come naturally, however it just as easily be argued that it is only due to the BBC’s money and influence that shows like this can be shown and – ultimately – this will lead to a rapid decline in local programming from local cultures and the imposition of the BBC’s own ideologies over cultures – the classic Hegemony. Or, Irvine argues, that we are “putting all our cultural eggs in one basket”.
However, a counter-argument to this is Moores theory that we have not lost our interest in “localization”. This is true for the BBC’s provision of media as very few of its programmes actually travel as a complete product: only Doctor Who is a well-known brand that is only subtitles and dubbed into different languages, not other changes are made, possibly due to its science fiction non-culture specific routes. Most of the BBC’s “global” programmes are sold as formats only, allowed local culture changes to take place. For example, the programme “What not to Wear” was recently launched in India but with less of a focus on up to date fashion and criticism and more about “building Indian’s women’s confidence and style”, with the addition inclusion of very well-known Bollywood stylists and actresses as presenters to create a more “Indian” appeal. This suggests more of a “glocalisation” effect, as Waters argues that our ideas are instantly “pluralized”. He also argues that that we can “virtually visit” areas instead and evidence for this is substantially positive with the BBC as not only can we consume the “original” UK version of programmes but we can also see others countries – primarily America – versions which can provide cultural comparison. Also, the BBC are bringing in more global programming with great success such as Wallander and The Killing which indicates a positive effect of global media as demand is rising for non home-grown programmes. This suggests that a positive effect of Global Media is actually the rise in the power of the audience.
Within this new world of global provision, Gilmor argues that we now have the rise of the “citizen journalist” that bypasses the “big media” control and uses the tools of technology and convergence to produce their own news and opinions, some of which become powerful in their own right, for example the social networkers in the Arab Spring orchestrating a revolution. Judging by the move of AL Jazeera and BBC News to engages in social media websites like facebook pages and Al Jazeera had a twitter database to monitor patterns within the Arab countries, this indicates a more positive force from the audience towards have a say in their own media. In television too, audiences are beginning of use their diversity of choice to search out media that is out of their own country’s production and format, which then forces companies such as the BBC to provide each-more-global online provision and VOD programming to seek to avoid the even more evitable rise of piracy online.
Global Media can be argued to have had a generally positive affect of both audiences and producers in that both are being forced to diversify, without seeming to lose their cultural identity and current trends dictate that this pattern will keep on rising. However, with the media becoming utilized by the audience to provoke political and social change and the rising move of governments towards filtering and monitoring, it has to be argued that ultimately Global media could lead people to – what Bauman argues is “a crueler fate.”
1b Essay Example Representation
Fiske argues that our interpretation of a representation is only based around previous ones that we have seen: the “car chase” theory. Within music videos representation of the genre itself often relies on the audience awareness and prior knowledge of media products they have already seen. Our own video demonstrates this in that the performance scene, several of the techniques directly relate to existing videos in the genre, for example the canted angle on the neck of the guitar during the instrumental scene, the heavy use of low key lighting for the performance and the increased cutting rate in the instrumental sections. These are all common features of rock videos that often represent artist’s skill and the idea of the artist being an ‘authentic’ musician . Therefore representation of the genre relies heavily on audience prior knowledge into order to decode the messages embedded within the text.
Hall also argues for the different ways approaching representation in that there is reflective, constructionist and intentional. Within music videos there is clearly a reflective approach taken as music videos often seek to reflect meanings and messages already present in the world, particularly within the target audience. For example in our own genre and work much of the hip-hop genre is judged to be criminal and urban with a heavy emphasis on individual performers and their personal history which needs to be represented. We demonstrated this through the use of black and white filters, which have connotations of the past as well as using low angle shots in conjunction with the expected dress code of hoodie and snap-back cap within the performance scenes in order to connote power and dominance. Therefore, this reflects the interests and cultural choices made by the target audience as well as providing a representation that audience members can emulate and aspire to be, a concept with is argued by Stewart in his theory of music videos providing an “inspirational lifestyle”.
Hall also argues for the different ways approaching representation in that there is reflective, constructionist and intentional. Within music videos there is clearly a reflective approach taken as music videos often seek to reflect meanings and messages already present in the world, particularly within the target audience. For example in our own genre and work much of the hip-hop genre is judged to be criminal and urban with a heavy emphasis on individual performers and their personal history which needs to be represented. We demonstrated this through the use of black and white filters, which have connotations of the past as well as using low angle shots in conjunction with the expected dress code of hoodie and snap-back cap within the performance scenes in order to connote power and dominance. Therefore, this reflects the interests and cultural choices made by the target audience as well as providing a representation that audience members can emulate and aspire to be, a concept with is argued by Stewart in his theory of music videos providing an “inspirational lifestyle”.
Friday, 1 June 2012
Theories with topic areas!
Theory List
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Nicholas Abercrombie
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“Television
producers set out to exploit genre conventions”.
"Audiences
are not blank sheets of paper on which media messages can be written; members
of an audience will have prior attitudes and beliefs which will determine how
effective media messages are."
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Representation
Audience
Media Language
Genre
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Katie Wales
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'genre is... an
intertextual concept'
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Genre
Media Language
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David Buckingham
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“Genre is not
simply given by the culture, rather, it is in a constant process of
negotiation and change.”
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Genre
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Christian Metz
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genres go
through stages: the Experimental/ the Classic/ the Parody/ the
Deconstruction.
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Genre
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Tzetvan Todorov
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“Equilibrium –
Disequilibrium – New Equilibrium”
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Narrative
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Claude Levi-Strauss’
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binary
opposites
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Narrative
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Roland Barthes
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The Enigma Code
Proairetic/
Action code
Signs and
Signifiers
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Media Language Narrative Representation | |||||||||||||
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Christine
Gledhill
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“Differences
between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered
to... This made it easier to standardise and stabilise production”
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Audience
Genre |
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Antonio Gramsci
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Hegemony
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Audience
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Hypodermic
Needle Theory
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Audience
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Michel Maffesoli
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"urban
tribes"
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Audience
Genre |
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Denis McQuail
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The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping
any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its
production to the expectations of its customers.
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Audience
Genre
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John Fiske
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A representation of a car chase only makes sense in relation to
all the others we have seen - after all, we are unlikely to have experienced
one in reality, and if we did, we would, according to this model, make sense
of it by turning it into another text, which we would also understand
intertextually, in terms of what we have seen so often on our screens. There
is then a cultural knowledge of the concept 'car chase' that any one text is
a prospectus for, and that it used by the viewer to decode it, and by the
producer to encode it.
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Media Language
Audience
Genre
Representation
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Christine Gledhill
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'Differences
between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered
to... This made it easier to standardise and stabilise production'
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Genre
Audience
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Andrew Goodwin
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Visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and
music.
Genres often have their own music style/iconography.
Close-ups should always be included.
Goodwin also suggests that the essential narrative component of
a music video is found in its ability to frame the star.
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Genre Media Language Narrative Audience |
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Firth
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Music videos may be further
characterized by three broad typologies: performance, narrative, and
conceptual.
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Narrative
Media Language |
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Archer |
Music videos
will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band to
show ‘real connection’ with the music. A carefully choreographed dance might
be part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed
to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor
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Media Language
Narrative Audience Representation |
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Duff
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"a recurring type or category of text, as defined by
structural, thematic, and/or functional criteria."
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Genre
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Frith
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“musicians, producers, and consumers are already ensnared in a
web of genre expectation.”
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Audience
Genre
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Horton and Wohl –
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Parasocial fans
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Audience
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Hall - encoding/decoding
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Encoding and
decoding model
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Media Language
Genre
Audience |
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Stewart - |
The music video
has the aesthetics of a TV commercial (focus on the star’s face). Stewart’s
description of the music video as ‘incorporating, raiding and reconstructing’
is Intertextuality (using familiar thing to generate both nostalgic
associations and new meanings). The video allows more access to the performer
and the mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise an
aspirational lifestyle.
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Genre
Audience
Media Language
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Dyer
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"A star is
an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other
aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising,
magazines etc as well as films [music])."
"Stars are
commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their
meanings."
" In these
terms it can be aargued that stars are representations of persons which
reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of
what it is to be a human being in this society."
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Genre
Representation
Audience
Media Language
|
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David Gauntlett
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'The power relationship between the
media and the audience involves a 'bit of both' or to be more precise, a lot
of both. The media sends out a huge number of messages about identity and
acceptable forms of self-expression, gender, sexuality, and lifestyle. At the
same time the public have their own even more robust set of diverse feelings
on the issues. The media's suggestions may be seductive but can never simply
overpower contrary feelings in the audience.'
" A CULTURAL SHIFT TO A
'MAKING-AND-DOING' CULTURE:
We are (hopefully) moving from a 'sit-back-and-be-told culture' to more of a
'making-and-doing culture'. This can be seen in the shift from
television-watching to the more creative uses of interactive media,"
"the
notion of 'audience' is collapsing as people become producers as well as
consumers of media."
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Audience
Media Language
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Richard Kilborn
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Uses and gratifications
theory 1. Part of routine and entertaining reward
for work 2. Launchpad of social and personal interaction 3. Fulfilling
individual needs – a way of choosing to be alone or of enduring enforced
loneliness 4. Identification or involvement with characters 5.Escapist
fantasy 6.Focus of debate on topical issues 7.Kind of critical game involving
knowledge of rules or conventions of the genre
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•
Audience
Media Language
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Ien Ang
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“Audiencehood is becoming an even more multifaceted,
fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices and experiences.”
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Audience
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Propp
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He concluded that
all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100
tales he analyzed:
1.
The
villain — struggles against the hero.
2.
The donor
— prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
3.
The
(magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4.
The
princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable
to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. the
hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating
the villain.
5.
her
father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the
hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally,
the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
6.
The
dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
7.
The hero
or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8.
False
hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.
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Narrative
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Saussure
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SIGNIFIER +
SIGNIFIED = SIGN
• The SIGNIFIER is the sign’s physical form
in the real world while the SIGNIFIED is the mental concept evoked by
the signifier.
• If we perceive a four legged animal with a very
long neck (the signifier), this evokes the mental concept of a giraffe (the
signified). This combination creates the sign “giraffe”.
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Media Language
Genre
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Burton
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Repetition and
novelty
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Genre
Audience
Media Language
Representation
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Hall . |
There are three different approaches to
understanding how representation works: Reflective, Constructionist, Intentional
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Representation
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Peirce |
Levels of signs
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Media language |
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