How typical is your chosen text to its genre?

How typical is your chosen text to its genre?

The British film "Fishtank" is a social realist film, directed by Andrea Arnold.  The film focuses on Mia, an aggressive fifteen-year-old girl, who lives on an Essex estate with her mother, Joanne, and little sister Tyler. She spends most of her days aimlessly. She begins an uneasy friendship with her mothers boyfriend, Connor, who encourages her one interest, dancing. The film is full of many conventions which are typical to the social realist genre.

In the scene where Mia is about to leave her family to go to Wales, her mother is dancing to music while having a cigarette. This scene is very typical to its genre as the music being played is coming from a stereo present in the scene which means the director is using diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is commonly used in social realist films because they want the audience to feel part of the text and create a feel of realism. The song which is being played repeats the lyrics of "life's a bitch and then you die", this reflects the situation which Mia has found herself in as her life has been troubled and hard. This theme is common in most social realist films as they focus on the under represented - the underclass, who find themselves in a very difficult and troubled life. Also Joanne, Mias mum is shown smoking, this is typical iconography of its genre. Alcohol, drugs and cigarettes are very common within the social realist genre as most characters tend to turn their frustration of being trapped in an underclass society to such things.

Identify 3 sci-fi conventions that are present in the narrative and note down scene/narrative descriptions. Try to also identify one genre convention which is not present.

The hunger games is a mixture of many different film genres; sic-fi, action and adventure conventions are all present in the film. An example of a typical sic-fi narrative theme present in The hunger games is the anti establishment ideology, this is projected to the audience in a polysemic narrative device. We see the difference in two societies, we see the rich and beauty of the higher society and the 

What noir conventions are present in the film 'Drive

Technical conventions - A common convention present in the noir genre is the shadow caused from light shining through venetian blinds, this is shown in the scene when Blanche is in the bathroom after a confrontation with Ryan Gosling, the shadow from the blinds is shown across the back of the bathroom. Another common convention used in the noir genre is the use of low key lighting. Directors use the lighting to show the morales of a character. Ryan Goslings character is shown regularly in the film with half of his face in the light and the other half shadowed, this shows how he has elements of bad about him but also has good intentions. Also this is shown in the scene where the assassin is shown walking towards the lift, he is shown in total darkness which represents his evil side and that he has bad morales. Also in the scene where Standard, Irene, Ryan Gosling and the young boy are at the table, the young boy is shown in full lighting, this shows his innocence and how he is yet to develop a bad side. 

Character roles - Typical noir films include a cynical protagonist, a femme fatale, and an authoritative figure who is corrupt. These character roles are evident in the film. Ryan Goslings character acts as the cynical protagonist, we know this as he is the character who is focused on throughout the film, he also has a flaw which is his mental state as he seems depressed at all times and rarely smiles, his main aim is to please the femme fatale and to protect her. Irene acts as the femme fatale as Ryan Goslings attraction to her leads to him attempting to protect both herself and her family. Irene is Ryan Goslings constant motivation and by trying to protect her Ryan Gosling finds himself in very dangerous situations. Blanche is shown as a corrupt character in the film, this is shown when Ryan Gosling finds that she knows that Standard is going to 

First draft, Introduction

First draft, Introduction 

How does the representation of young people vary in todays media, looking specifically at the BBC 1 reality television program 'The Junior Apprentice' and the BBC 3 documentary 'Sun, Sex and Suspicious parents'? 

The representation of young people varies in different television programmes, some media texts view young people in a stereotypical way and attach youth with a negative label - "Youth are often portrayed by news media as a social problem, as immoral or anti-authority and consequently constructed as folk devils as part of a moral panic" (1), other texts represent young people in a more positive limelight "We found some news coverage where teen boys were described in glowing terms – 'model student', 'angel', 'altar boy' or 'every mother's perfect son',"(2). I will question whether the representation of young people does vary by analysing the BBC 1 reality television show 'The Junior Apprentice' and the BBC 3 television documentary 'Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents'. My first aim is to identify common and reoccurring representations of young people in mainstream British programmes, and to see whether the representation varies or conforms to stereotypes. The other aim of my investigation is to find out whether the way in which youth are represented in some of today’s media actually affects their behaviour and acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy. I intend to use different media theories during my investigation to support my study; one of these theories will be the uses and gratification theory, which questions why people find certain texts engaging? I will also use the hypodermic needle theory, which suggests, “media content is injected with a hypodermic needle” (10). I will also use active and passive audience theories and the cultivation theory – how the media injects ideologies in to passive audiences.

The two media texts I have chosen to compare are both broadcasted on the BBC which is the most popular British broadcasting company therefore most shows viewed on their channels have a high amount of viewers making most of their texts mainstream. The first media text I have chosen to analyse is "Sun, sex and suspicious parents". This documentary is broadcasted on BBC3, whose main target audience is young people of ages from about 14 to 25. The show involves two groups of friends going on holiday to popular party destinations such as Magaluf, Zante and Malia. The show regularly represents teens getting drunk, partying and abusing their independence. In the show, 1 young person from each friendship group is focused on the most and followed throughout their holiday. The programme has a twist though; the young lads/ girls do not know that their parents are watching their every move. The episode which I have analysed follows Joe Major and Millie Butler, both 18 years old and on a holiday to Malia with their respective groups of friends.

The other media text I will be analysing will be the BBC1 reality show “The junior apprentice”. This narrative involves a group of young entrepreneurs who have a big business idea, each of them take part in competetive tasks and try to show off their business skills to Lord Sugar, who will then finally decide which candidate he feels is the strongest and invest in his/her business idea. The episode, which I have chosen to analyse, is the first episode of a series, which concentrates on a big group of youngsters at the beginning of their journey.

The media often represents youth with limited variety and complexity. Youth are often represented as irresponsible, lethargic and disrespectful. "Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control." (3) This is a very generic statement as it assumes that all young people are the same. The negative stereotype of youth evolves from extreme incidents involving young people, such as the 2011 London riots. "The image of young people in Britain was severely tarnished by what happened last August and the stream of court cases and convictions that followed were equally damning" (5). Such events cause moral panics – “The majority of moral panics since the 1950s have been manufactured around concerns about young people’s behaviour, such as their membership of specific ‘deviant’ sub-cultures”,(11) society is then affected as audiences consume the ideologies of the media and assumes that the representations are true this then leads to people labelling the demographic stereotypically, which has been represented poorly in the media. Young people are represented in a negative and sterotypical manner on "Sun, sex and suspicious parents", this is shown when Joe is talking about his hotel room, the camera shows the audience Joes untidy room with unmade beds, and clothes scattered around the room, while Joes says how “there is pants everywhere and there is rubbish everywhere”. This shows Joe’s lack of respect for the room, it also shows his laziness, as he has not bothered to tidy the room. During this scene a high angle shot is used, this shows how his behavior is wrong as the camera angle used makes us look down on him. Joe then goes on to say “but we don’t care”, this supports the stereotypical representation of youth, proving young peoples lack of responsibility. However "The junior apprentice" does not represent young people in the same light. Young people are much more polite in this show, they are all hardworking and mature. This is shown when all of the contestants are having their first meeting with Lord Sugar, the contestants do not talk while others are talking and respect each person. Most contestants are well spoken and really polite. This goes against the common stereotype. The majority of the audience will believe the representations that are shown in each text. Most audiences are passive, this type of audience presumes that the different representations of youth are true as they do not interact with the media text and believe all of the information, the media ideologies are injected in to their minds, on the other hand the minority of the audience would be active audiences who question the representations and are much more involved with the text.

The majority of the media focus on other negative stereotypes attached with youth, such as ‘drunkens and troublemakers’ “Underage drinking in Britain is among the worst in the world” (6) Many people say that the recent generation of young people are growing up to quickly, “Experts feared that young people were growing up too quickly” (12) and that this is proven by the alcohol in which many young people do consume and the way in which they dress as well. Sun sex and suspicious parents shows many scenes where this is evident, in a specific scene Joe is shown playing drinking games with his friend, the game involves Joe spinning round after having a considerable amount of shots, this shows how young people abuse the privilege of buying alcohol. The show proves that young people enjoy getting drunk and having a good time. In another scene, Joes friend Chidgey is shown with blood over his face after being involved in a fight, this shows the violence of young people and how alcohol can affect them. On the other hand the junior apprentice does not show any scenes which support this stereotype, throughout the show there are no violent scenes, and there is no alcohol consumed by any of the contestants.

Some media texts give a varied representation of young people and do not just focus on the common negative stereotype. Some media texts represent young people as intelligent, mature and promising "21.3% of students received A*/A grades this year". This is quite a rare representation in the media, as many types of media like to focus on the negatives and usually ignore the positives. The positive representations are shown in the opening sequence of the junior apprentice when the narrator is introducing the contestant and he says “Britain’s brightest and youngest business minds” this shows how there is bright young people being represented in the media. At times sun sex and suspicious parents contradicts this representation, one scene shows Joe with an injured foot and a bleeding mouth after a ‘play fight’ with one of his friends, this shows the immaturity of youth and how there is two sides of youth, the mature grown up side – of going on holiday without their parents and drinking alcohol, and the childish and immature side of them – fighting with their friends and playing games.

Other representations in the media of youth include “fun and energetic”. Sun sex and suspicious parents uses this representation as the show includes many scenes showing the young people dancing, joking and having a good time, this is shown in the scene where Joe and Millie are in a night club on a night out and are seen together dancing and laughing, this is a positive representation as it shows young people as innocent and having a good time. Audiences could interpret this differently, younger audiences may watch this to entertain themselves or to personally identify with the fun that Joe and Millie are having. However older audiences may be watching the show for information on young peoples holidays, and may see the behavior shown by Joe and Millie as immature or rowdy. The junior apprentice also represents young people as energetic and fun, this is shown in the scene where the candidates are exploring the house that they are going to live in, the contestants are shown running around the house, deciding what bed is theirs and playing table tennis. This shows that although the main representation of youth in the reality show is intelligent and bright, there is proof that they have a more childish and energetic side to them

The majority of the media represents youth in a negative way, but does the way in which they are being represented in the media, mirror the way they behave in reality? One side suggests that young people’s behavior is effected by their representation in the media and that it acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy, the independent carried out a study on young people and found that because of the negative portrayal of young people that other youths feared each other “Nearly three-quarters said they had changed their behaviour as a result of this” (2) “Figures show more than half of the stories about teenage boys in national and regional newspapers in the past year 4,374 out of 8,629 were about crime. The word most commonly used to describe them was "yobs" 591 times, followed by "thugs" 254 times, "sick" 119 times and "feral" 96 times. (2) With all of the negative press surrounding young people there is no doubt that they will change their behaviour because of it, whether they are becoming more aware/scared of other young people, conforming with the negative stereotypes as they see them as reality and want to settle in, or fighting the negative stereotype and wanting to change the perception of young people. Theories such as the hypodermic needle suggest that the media injects their ideologies in to audiences and depending on the type of audience that they are they will react differently, passive – the audiences that just take in the information that the media gives out and instantly believes it. And active audiences are more involved with the text and question it. Passive audiences are more likely to conform to the stereotype as they presume that the representations are reality.

The other side of this argument is that the portrayal does not affect the behaviour of today’s youth and that in fact the behavior of young people effects how media represents them. Many argue that young people are as bad as the media make out and that the representations aren’t over exaggerated. Others argue that the representation is fair and that there is a suitable amount of positive stories about young people as well. The cultivation theory says that because of the huge increase in media consumed on a day to day basis by the majority of the population, that any ideologies of media texts are likely to be believed as they are being exposed to it at all times. The cultivation theory suggests, “that television is responsible for shaping, or ‘cultivating’ viewers’ conceptions of social reality” (9)

In conclusion, different programmes offer a variety of representations of youth, although there is negative representations of youth in the media, there is also positive representations, but the negative representations are much more common within media texts. The national youth agency found in one of their investigations that “the media produces both positive and negative stories about young people however overall the media as a whole tends to report more negative news stories.”(7) The negative representations do effect young people’s behaviour and this is because of the amount of media which they consume (the cultivation theory). Theories such as the hypodermic needle also explain why young people’s behavior changes. The National youth agency also found that “The young people taking part in the research felt that the way the media portrays them and other young people can have an impact on the way they view themselves”. Overall media does offer a variety of representations of young people and the young people’s behavior is effected when they are exposed to it

Bibliography-

(1) http://revisionworld.co.uk/a2-level-level-revision/sociology/mass-media-0/media-representations-age-social-class-ethnicity-gender-sexuality-and-disability

(2) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hoodies-louts-scum-how-media-demonises-teenagers-1643964.html

(3)http://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/mar/17/ephebiphobia-young-people-mosquito

(4) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hoodies-louts-scum-how-media-demonises-teenagers-1643964.html

(5) http://metro.co.uk/2012/07/02/young-britons-will-do-something-to-change-image-after-last-years-riots-488826/

(6)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10484563/British-girls-have-almost-worst-drinking-habits-in-Western-world.html

(7) http://www.participationworks.org.uk/news/young-people-publish-research-how-negative-media-portrayal-affects-their-lives

(8) http://www.participationworks.org.uk/news/young-people-publish-research-how-negative-media-portrayal-affects-their-lives

(9)http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzic/Levels%20of%20theories/macro/Cultivation%20Theory/

(10) Key ideas in media (book)

(11) http://revisionworld.co.uk/a2-level-level-revision/sociology/mass-media-0/media-representations-age-social-class-ethnicity-gender-sexuality-and-disability

 (12) The coming of age in America – The transition to adulthood in the 21^st century (book)

Further research -

"Figures show more than half of the stories about teenage boys in national and regional newspapers in the past year (4,374 out of 8,629) were about crime. The word most commonly used to describe them was "yobs" (591 times), followed by "thugs" (254 times), "sick" (119 times) and "feral" (96 times)" http://www.independent.co.uk

Investigation Question (temporary)

How are young people represented in mainstream national newspapers? Looking specifically at 'The Guardian' and the 'Daily Mail'.

Fish tank - Exam question 1

A1 - To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre? [30]

The British film 'Fish tank' fits in to the social realism genre. Social realism is a way of representing real life and real problems which occur in peoples lives through a media text. Films that fit in to this genre are usually gritty, urban dramas which represent the struggle of everyday life.

The film 'Fish tank' is very typical to its genre and this is proven in different scenes. Fish tank represents females from the under class, as its main character Mia, is brought up in a rough area of London with her poor excuse of a mother. This makes it typical to its genre as social realism films represent those who are under represented in media. The majority of films focus on the celebrity lifestyle with the main characters being male. Fish tank is completely opposite to that.

In the scene where Connor leaves Mia and her family, Mia is shown running

Narrative - Insidious

Narrative - Insidious

Narrative is a way of organising various spatial and worldy data into a cause and effect, chain of effects, with a beginning, middle and end. Narrative contains judgments about the nature of various events as well as demonstrates how it is is possible to know, and hence to narrate the events. Narative does this in 3 ways; structure, roles and codes.

Todorov looked at structure, and found 5 key stages of narrative, he carried out his research on russian tales in 1930, so his theory may be outdated. I have compared these 5 stages to a modern horror film (Insidious), to see how realistic Todorovs theory is in todays world.

1 - State of equilibrium

A

Insidious begins in a normal manner. Everything is calm, and Dalton and his family have just moved into a new house. Everything seems normal meaning there is a state of equilibrium. 

2. A disruption of that order 

One day Dalton hears a noise in the attic and he decides to go and check it out. When investigating the noise, he falls and bangs his head. That night Dalton goes to bed as normal but in the morning he does not wake. Dalton goes into a coma, His parents think this is down to the incident which happen the night before. The equilibrium has now been distorted.

3. A recognition that the order has been distrupted

Dalton returns home, still in a coma. He is kept in his room, where he is constantly monitored by medical equipment. His family begin to notice a few strange things occurring in the family house, these include blood prints on Daltons cover, weird noises from other rooms and noises coming from the baby monitor. The family then think that the house is haunted and decide to move house to getaway from the weird and spooky house. It is then when they notice that the haunted atmosphere and the unnatural things are following them. They then realise that it is not the house that it is haunted but it is Dalton that is haunted. This means that they have now noticed that something not right is happening.

4. An attempt to repair the damage begins

The family then decides to call Elise and her two assistants to help deal with the ghosts who are haunting the Lambert family. Elise (who previously helped Daltons father when he experienced a similar problem when he was younger) helps dalton by sending his Dad into 'The further' to guide dalton back to his body so that he will then wake up and all of the unexplainable things will stop occurring.

5. A state of new equilibrium is restored

Dalton then wakes up, as his dad has saved him from 'The Further'. Everything seems o have resumed back to normal. The family, who are still extremely cautious and aware begin to try and live normally again.

This example shows that Todorovs theory is still very much apparent in todays media.

Genre - The good the bad and the ugly.

The film 'The good, the bad and the ugly' is typical to its genre by using generic conventions and codes.  The genre of the film is western. We know this because the iconography, representation, narrative and ideology used, all fits in with this specific genre.

Iconography - during a clip from this film, many close ups of guns are used. This is typical icon used in western films, as many of them include scenes where characters shoot at others with guns. Also at the time period that the film is set in, guns showed power and control. Also two of the characters shown are wearing cowboy hats. This icon also represents western films, as many characters involved have their stereotypical look, of wearing a cowboy hat, scruffy clothes and a gun holster. Many people would suggest that is a typical looking person in a western film.

Narrative - The storyline of the clip I viewed is also very typical to the genre. The scene is a shoot-out scene which is always seen in western films. Also in western films, it is usually the good who defeat the  bad, and this is shown in the scene as the individual who is considered 'good' kills the individual who is considered 'bad', making it very typical to the genre.

Representation - in the scene I watched, not one women was shown. In a typical western film, the main character are men, as in the time the scene was set, the world was very patriarchal meaning the representation of gender is also very typical to the genre used.

The male gaze - James Bond 'Die another day'

The James Bond franchise is a clear example of a film objectifying females and forcing the audience to view females via the male gaze. The scene within "Die Another Day" when James Bond meets the character Jinx demonstrates my previous statement by objectifying Jinx for the pleasure of both James Bond and also for the audience. The scene begins with a view from Bonds perspective. This instantly has the audience viewing the text through a males eyes, meaning even females are viewing other women through the eye of a man. Also when Bond sees Jinx the scene is showed in slow motion, showing how the presence of the female has slowed down the text, giving the audience time to appreciate and focus on Jinx. When Jinx begins to walk on the beach towards Bond, she walks unnaturally, over exaggerating the movement of her hips, which catches the viewers eye and also highlights that area of body meaning she is not actually being looked at as a women but as an object. When bond and Jinx meet, Bond says "magnificent view" this is clearly aimed towards Jinx, showing how he has judged her by her appearance. This then feeds in to the audience who will then solely judge other women on how they look. Also in that section of the scene Jinx is always looking up to Bond which represents the patriarchal society that we live in as Bond is in a position of power as he is being looked up to, and then Jinx is not in a position of power as she is being looked down on. Finally once Jinx has left the sea and is drying herself with the towel,  a close up of her face is used, showing that she is wearing make up and it hasn't been ruined by the sea that she is was just swimming in. This then gives a false representation of women. Women will look at this scene and think that they have look like that all the time, increasing self consciousness and the use of make up. Also males will look at this thinking that all females should look like that at all times. This is then called a hyper reality, this is because the film is not representing reality and is instead reflecting a fake reality.

stereotypical representation of gender

Stereotypical representation of gender

Insidious Chapter 2

Audience Types

Audience Types

There are two different types of audiences in media. One of these is called a mainstream audience and the other is known as a niche audience. these two different audience types are completely different.

A mainstream audience is when a media text appeals to a whole range of different people. A media text with a mainstream audience would be popular with the majority. Television programmes with a mainstream audience would be scheduled at prime time as that is when most viewers are available. They would also be on popular channels which the majority of people have access to, such as BBC1 and ITV. A media text with a mainstream audience usually has lots of uses and gratifications as there is lots of different reasons as to why people would use that media text. An example of a mainstream TV programme would be the Eastenders as it is a very popular TV show which is shown on BBC 1 at around 7 o'clock. Eastenders is a very popular show because it uses many different story lines which many different people may either relate to or enjoy to watch.

A niche audience is the opposite to mainstream. A niche media text would only appeal to a smaller group of people with specific interests and hobbies. Television programmes with niche audiences would usually be scheduled at a less popular time (such as midnight, or midday) and usually on channels with a smaller target audience (such as ESPN). A niche audience would not use as many uses and gratifications as viewers would only use the media text for small specific reasons and not for a range of reasons. An example of a TV programme with a niche audience would be Bargain hunt. This is a TV show with a niche audience because people would only watch it if they were interested in the specific aspects of the show. Although the show is on a mainstream channel of BBC1 and BBC2, the show remains a niche media text because of the show is shown midday on weekdays meaning their viewers are limited due to people being at work or school.