Section A, Question B - Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

• Section A, question 1b of the A2 exam is worth 25 marks
• You will choose to evaluate one of your pieces of coursework in relation to a media concept
• In the exam one of the following areas will be selected for you to write about:

- Genre
- Narrative
- Representation
- Audience
- Media Language

Last June's Question:

Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience.

Macro

• Genre
• Narrative
• Audience
• Representation
• Media Language

Micro

• Mise en scene (costume, props, location)
• Lighting
• Camera Angle, movement, position
• Editing
• Sound

Genre

Genres are categories or types of media text. Genres are recognisable through the repeated use of generic codes and conventions:

• Iconographies
• Narrative
• Representations
• Ideologies

Which of the above codes/conventions does your c/w use and how?

Genre and Audience

• Genre offers audiences a structure of framework
• Audiences gain enjoyment from "spotting the conventions" (repetition) and making comparisons with other films of the same genre
• If a text deviates from the conventions it can confuse us, but at the same time we enjoy seeing the rules broken
• Audiences like the anticipation of waiting for predictable features

How did you use genre to offer your audience a framework? Do you think your target audience enjoyed spotting the conventions or seeing the rules broken?

Buzz Word: Stereotype

Narrative

You should aim to apply the narrative theorists which can be applied to your c/w:

• Prop - 8 character roles
• Todorov - equilibrium - disequilibrium - new equilibrium
• Barthes - 5 codes (action, enigma, cultural, symbolic, semic)
• Levi-Strauss - binary opposites (good vs evil)

Buzz Word: Verisimilitude

• All media texts tell stories. The structure of these stories is called narrative
• A story must have verisimilitude (appear to be real) in order to engage us - how does your c/w have verisimilitude?
• It might seem more obvious to apply narrative theory to a film, but if you created a magazine you need to consider the following:
• How is your magazine structured? How does the front cover lead the reader into the magazine? How does the contents page lead the reader in to the rest of the magazine?

Representation

Everything in the media is a representation - everything we see is being represented e.g regions/locations, individuals, groups, places, nations, ideas

Questions we would ask when analysing representations:

• WHO or WHAT is being represented?
• HOW is the representation created?
• WHO has created the representation?
• WHY is the representation created in that way?
• WHAT is the effect of the representation?

Consider the representations in your c/w and answer the above questions in detail.

• To maintain a representation of reality, media language elements such as lighting, music, editing, camera work and mise en scene are used. How did you use these micro aspects to create representations?
• Sometimes, representations are seen to be a deliberate attempt to create associations and ideas for the audience

Audience

• Consider: age, gender, demographic profile, socio-economic group, existing/new, lifestyle, values, attitude
• Categories A, B, C1, C2, D, E
• Is your audience mass or niche?
• What would the three reactions to your c/w be:

1. A preferred reading (your intended interpretation)
2. An oppositional reading (someone who didn't like it)
3. A negotiated reading (someone who isn't the target audience but might appreciate it for whatever reason)

• Every media text is made with a view to pleasing an audience in some way - how did you try to please your audience?
• Success is measured by the audience's response to a media text and those that do not attract and maintain an audience do not survive
• At the heart of this fact that all media texts are created in order to make money

Media Language

You will need to write about:

• Denotations
• Connotations
• Anchorage
• Micro elements

You made lots of desicions regarding the following micro aspects:

• Camera
• Editing
• Lighting
• Sound
• Mise en scene
• Special effects: visual, sound and ligthing

Choose one page or scene from your c/w and analyse the above aspects in as much detail as possible. Analyse the effectivness of each area as if you were analysing an unseen text.

Section A Question 1a Support and Guidance

Introduction: PDQ (Point Data Question)
Answer/give point of view to the question (I think my skills have developed in ………over the course of the two years/from AS to A2)

Outline briefly what you made across both years

Explain to the examiner how you are going to structure the essay


Structure
You should approach your essays using 3 stages:

1) Pre-production

2) Production

3) Post-production

(Digital technology, creativity, use of real media texts)

You need to ask yourselves the following questions:

What digital technology did you use at AS pre-production (3 examples)

What digital technology did you develop in A2 pre-production (at least 3 progression examples)



What digital technology did the students use at AS production (3 examples)

What digital technologies did you develop at A2 production? (at least 3 progression examples)



What digital technologies did you use at AS post-production? (3 examples)

What digital technologies did you develop at A2 post-production (at least 3 progression examples)

Exam Prep Section B

How do contemporary media represent different collective groups 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, The Inbetweeners, Attack the Block, The London Riots news coverage, The Internet and self-mediation

How does contemporary representation compare with that of the past?

·         Examples needed for similarity and difference

·         Examples from the past – Quadrophenia – the film and the representation of Mods and Rockers

·         Have they changed? – Plato Quote…?

What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?

·         Stereotyping: What is the impact?

·         What power does the audience have to ‘resist’?

·         Propaganda, Moral Panic, youth as an 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?

·         Representation 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 media – at least two different forms (film, print, 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 example

·         Contemporary examples

·         Connect examples together

·         Conclusion – return to start. Prediction to 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 examples – 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 the key idea

·         Prediction for the future

·         Mass media construct representation 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

Section 1a Exampler Essay

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.

Explanation / analyisis / argument -   7/ 10

Use of Examples -   6/ 10

Use of Terminolgy -   3/5

There is some sense of progression and of how examples have been selected, and some descriptions of technical skills. Progress made is described and evaluated simply. They offer mostly clear, mostly relevant and reasonable examples of digital technology in relation to creative decisions and outcomes. The answer makes basic use of relevant media terminology.

Which areas was this essay an answer for?

1) Digital technology

2) Creativity

3) Research and planning

4) Post production

5) Using conventions from real texts

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

Breakdown of Section A

Question 1a

• section a, question 1a of the A2 exam is worth 25 marks
• You will be evaluating your AS and A2 coursework in terms of the skills you have developed over the two years
• You will have 30 minutes to answer this question

Skills Evaluation of Production
Question 1a
Describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work -  this can include the preliminary tasks, your actual c/w, ancillary tasks and any other pieces you have created in the past year

In the exam 1 or more of the following areas will be selected for you to write about:

• Digital technology
• Creativity
• Research and Planning
• Post production
• Using conventions from real media texts

What is it about?

• What did you do?
• How did you do it?
• How did your skills develop?
• All supported with specific examples
• In relation to the area(s) in the question

Representation of Young People

• "What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders; they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?" Plato 4th Century (suggests British youth has always been viewed in a negative manner)

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are social constructs

• They originate in and reflect the power relations in society because they are part of the culture's ideology
• They foster values that reinforce group and individual subordination
• They marginalise people treating them as the "other"
• They categorise people into groups whose members supposedly share inevitable characteristics, most typically negative ones

Characteristics of stereotypes

• Stereotypes are categorical and general suggesting the traits that apply to all group members
• They are inflexible or rigid, thus not easily corrected
• They are simplistic
• They are prejudgements not based on experience
• Can be conscious or unconscious

Hegemony in News Representations of Youth

• Media industries operate within a structure that produces and reinforces the dominant ideology via a consensual 'world view'
• This world view is produced predominantly by white middle class, middle aged, heterosexual men
• It is their ideas and values that infiltrate media texts and ensure that other voices do not get heard

Propaganda

• Propaganda is a form of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of community toward some cause or position
• The end result of propaganda : moral panic

What is Happening at the Moment?

• What are the social implications of these representations?

• What words describe youth and youth culture in today's media?

- Yob
- Chav
- ASBO
- Gangs
- Scum
- Trouble seekers
- Hoodies
- Aggressive
- Confrontational
- Outspoken
- Out of Control
- Wild

• What words describe old people in today's media?

- OAP
- Lonely
- Fragile
- Elders
- Critical
- Angry
- Crazy
- Stubborn

"The Youth of Today" DVD

• Less than 2% of youths in Oxfordshire have committed a crime

Press Representations

Teen Trouble (26th November 2007)

• Teenagers are a public enemy
• Parts of the media now attack teenagers
• Creates a wide gap between adults and teenagers
• The public has a view that teenagers cause most of the crime in the UK (about 80%) due to the media where in fact on 12% of crimes are committed by teens
• News of the World journalist states that "teens out of control" is a more dramatic and interesting story
• The public have a concern about teens and the media satisfies this
• Police get calls about youths where in fact most of the time they have been causing no problems
• Society doesn't accept youths as part of a community
• Adult fears are out of proportion to the real threat caused by teens
• Orders put in place such as mosquito alarms and dispersal orders
• During the Mods and Rockers era the papers were paying teenagers to be violent so they had something to write about
• Murder of 2 year old boy by two 10 year old children has changed societies opinion of youths
• In 1997 age of criminal responsibility taken down to the age of 14
• 4.2 million CCTV cameras across the country
• Impact of CCTV images makes us fear crime even more
• 6 times more likely to die falling down stairs than getting stabbed
• Cultivation theory - amount of proliferation coverage makes people believe what they see is true, which is effect creates moral panic
• Hypodermic needle theory - injected information as passive consumers, we accept everything we are told by the media. This is particularly true with older generations
• Desensitisation - because we see something so much in the media it no longer effects us which leads to the media over exaggerating
• "Generation ASBO"

Reading the Riot Acts

• IPSOS MORI Survey 2005: 40% of articles focus on violence, crime, antisocial behaviour; 71% are negative
• Brunel University 2007: TV News: violent crime or celebrities; young people are only 1% of sources
• Women in Journalism 2008: 72% of articles were negative; 3.4% positive. 75% about crime, drugs, police. Boys: yobs, thugs, sick, feral, hoodies, louts, scum. Only positive stories are about boys that died young

TV News Broadcasts

• TV was covering the riots on a round the clock basis
• An endless search for "experts" (any one with an opinion, all very negative)
• Anyone who spoke positively about the riots were shot down by the media

Rioting 2.0?

• Turning off the internet
• What role did new media technologies, particularly social networking sites play in London riots?
• Do media cause new revolutions?
• Technology and surveillance: mobile phones, CCTV, 24-hour news...

The Guardian Article: 'Broken Britain' rhetoric fuels fears about state schools

• How can you link cultural hegemony to this article?

Jessica Shepherd comments on the fact middle class attitudes are dramatically influencing how we view children in state schools "Tory "broken Britain" rhetoric has fuelled middle-class anxieties about state schools, an influential thinktank warns today". Cultural hedgemony is evident here as it is the fears of the middle class that are the concern, rather than the working class. The views of the Conservatives reinforces the views and attitudes of the middle class "Tory MPs and ministers group poverty and bad behaviour together...and risk entrenching class divisions in education even more deeply." This is stating that the opinions expressed reinforce cultural hedgemony by creating social division.

• How does the article suggest moral panic is being caused?

 The Consevatives are "playing to middle class fears and invoking 'a moral panic'" The Fabian society accused the Conservatives of  "massively exaggerated the problems in state schools" which has then lead to moral panic from the middle class. We can see that in fact the problems have been exaggerated as "While thousands of pupils come from low-income families and attend schools in deprived neighbourhoods, just a small number behave anti-socially or commit crimes".

• Can you link in McRobbies Symbolic violence theory? How?

 The article suggests that the working class have been represented in such a way as to scare the middle class, symbollically challenging their views and attitudes. The article states that David Cameron made a "comment in July that he was "terrified" by the prospect of sending his children to a local state secondary school". This clearly suuports the idea that symbollic violence is being used to reinforce cultural hedgemony "They link together issues such as bad discipline, falling standards, crime, and 'feral children' with educational standards in disadvantaged schools". State schools have been used as a symbol that links to crime and violence.

• How far do you agree with this article that governments decisions and policies are continuing to create a divide between the middle and working class? Discuss

 I agree with this article as the government are not working class, so they can't understand their issues and opinions. The government have a middle class attitude which means they are likely to reinforce their dominat idealologies in order to retain dominant idealologies. The negative representation of the working class and links between state school children with crime and anti-social behaviour from the government is obviously going to cause moral panic within the middle class as they fear a culture different from their own. This is most likely also the fears of the government.

• Between 6 and 10 August 2011, several London boroughs and districts of cities and towns across England suffered widespread rioting, looting and arson.

Online Media

What are the connotations of this image?

• Social networking
• Keeping in contact with friends and family
• Sharing information - text, videos, pictures
• A profile of yourself - creating an image, representing yourself
• Statuses
• Events
• Conversations
• Memories
• Time Wasting
• Gossip
• Nosy
• Stalking
• Venting feelings
• Judgemental
• Lack of privacy - you choose to have that

What is the impact of this kind of media on British Youth and Youth Culture?

Posotive

• More contact with friends and improvement of social lives - easy access
• Allows youths to express themsleves
• Youths can make a name for themselves/ create a certain image
• You can use it as a forum to help advertise yourself - your band, photography, art
• Accessible to everybody no matter what class or status
• Keep contact with people who you can't see a lot quickly and easily - friends that have moved, friends you have lost contact with
• Can keep contact with a lot of people at one time
• Can find out news and information
• Fits in with all the areas of uses and gratifications theory

Negative

• Allows for people to be judgemental - arguments, cyber bullying
• Always being watched by other people - constantly trying to keep up an image to avoid judgement
• Opens more doors to "stranger danger"
• Snooping - can look at friends/ partners relationships and conversations
• Stripped of privacy
• Allows people to put up photos of others that can not be taken down
• Jobs, Universities can look at your facebook
• Fraping

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 and recirculate messages
• Increased voice
• Consumer communication with business (greater influence) - mass collaboration
• Awareness - bands/skills
• Communication has become an interactive dialogue
• User generated content
• Self-presentation and self-disclosure
• Increasing diversity within cultures
• Online media focus on some or all of the seven functional buildings blocks - identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation and groups (Kietzmann et al)
• "Online media are especially suitable to construct and develop several identities of the self" (Turkle, 1998)
• "The mobile phone has become a central device in the construction of young people's individual identity"

Using Facebook

For what purposes can you use facebook?

• Personal updates
• sharing links, beliefs
• Spreading ideas

Two Levels of representation

1. Personal events through own specific language: Short messages
2. Constructing own images

If facebook were a country it would be the third largest in the world

The Modern Identity Concept

• Personal identity - sense of being a unique individual
• Social identity - results from being a member of a group, in former times: nationality, race, gender, occupation, sport club
• Mediation of self

Digital Identity

• A person has not just one a stable and homogenerous identity
• Identity consists of several fragments that permanently change
• Multiple but coharent (Turkle 1998)
• A live-long developing and new conceptualized patchwork (Doring 1999)

Media Use in Identity Construction

Katherine Hamley

Highlight ke points/quotes that you think are important and then answer these questions when reading this text:

•      Young people are surrounded by influential imagery – popular media (Examples?)

Young people are constantly surrounded by influential mass media such as television, internet, magazines, advertising, films, music and news. All these have different attitudes and place within society which is particularly influential to youths when creating a self-identity.

•      It is no longer possible for an identity to just be constructed in a small community and influenced by a family (Discuss)

This is true in some ways, but it is still possible to gain influences from family and community in order to create a self-identity. For example, the way a young person is raised can dramatically influence how they choose to present themselves, as well as class and living situation. For example, a working class young person is most likely to have different attitudes to a middle class young person due to the influences from their family and community. However you may argue that these influences come from the way class is represented in mass media, and young people feel they have to follow these representations in order to create a self-identity.

•      Everything concerning our lives is ‘media saturated’ (What does this mean?)

Media saturated means that everything is influenced by the media. We are constantly under the observation and representation of mass media in a growing range of mediums. Our lives now revolve around the use of media which suggests that most things we do within our lives are influenced by some form of media.

In society today the construction of a personal identity can be seen to be somewhat problematic and difficult. Young people are surrounded by influential imagery, especially that of popular media. It is no longer possible for an identity to be constructed merely in a small community and only be influenced by family. Nowadays, arguably everything concerning our lives is seen to be ‘media-saturated’. Therefore, it is obvious that in constructing an identity young people would make use of imagery derived from the popular media.
However, it is fair to say that in some instances the freedom of exploring the web could be limited depending on the choice of the parents or teachers. So, if young people have such frequent access and an interest in the media, it is fair to say that their behaviour and their sense of ‘self’ will be influenced to some degree by what they see, read, hear or discover for themselves. Such an influence may include a particular way of behaving or dressing to the kind of music a person chooses to listen to. These are all aspects which go towards constructing a person’s own personal identity.
Firstly, it is important to establish what constitutes an identity, especially in young people. The dictionary definition states the following:

“State of being a specified person or thing: individuality or personality…” (Collins Gem English Dictionary. 1991).

The mass media provide a wide-ranging source of cultural opinions and standards to young people as well as differing examples of identity. Young people would be able to look at these and decide which they found most favourable and also to what they would like to aspire to be. The meanings that are gathered from the media do not have to be final but are open to reshaping and refashioning to suit an individual’s personal needs and consequently, identity. It is said that young people:

“…use media and the cultural insights provided by them to see both who they might be and how others have constructed or reconstructed themselves… individual adolescents…struggle with the dilemma of living out all the "possible selves" (Markus & Nurius, 1986), they can imagine.” (Brown et al. 1994, 814).

When considering how much time adolescents are in contact with the popular media, be it television, magazines, advertising, music or the Internet, it is clear to see that it is bound to have a marked effect on an individual’s construction of their identity. This is especially the case when the medium itself is concerned with the idea of identity and the self; self-preservation, self-understanding and self-celebration.

 “With a simple flip of the television channel or radio station, or a turn of the newspaper or magazine page, we have at our disposal an enormous array of possible identity models.” (Grodin & Lindlof 1996)

I believe the Internet is an especially interesting medium for young people to use in order to construct their identities. Not only can they make use of the imagery derived from the Internet, but also it provides a perfect backdrop for the presentation of the self, notably with personal home pages. By surfing the World Wide Web adolescents are able to gain information from the limitless sites which may interest them but they can also create sites for themselves, specifically home pages. Constructing a home page can enable someone to put all the imagery they have derived from the popular media into practice. For example:

“…constructing a personal home page can be seen as shaping not only the materials but also (in part through manipulating the various materials) one’s identity.” (Chandler 1998)

This is particularly important as not only are young people able to access such an interesting and wide ranging medium, but they are also able to utilise it to construct their own identity. In doing this, people are able to interact with others on the Internet just as they could present their identities in real life and interact with others on a day to day basis.
In conclusion it can be seen that the popular media permeates everything that we do. Consequently, the imagery in the media is bound to infiltrate into young people’s lives. This is especially the case when young people are in the process of constructing their identities. Through television, magazines, advertising, music and the Internet adolescents have a great deal of resources available to them in order for them to choose how they would like to present their ‘selves’. However, just as web pages are constantly seen to be 'under construction’, so can the identities of young people. These will change as their tastes in media change and develop. There is no such thing as one fixed identity; it is negotiable and is sometimes possible to have multiple identities. The self we present to our friends and family could be somewhat different from the self we would present on the Internet, for example. By using certain imagery portrayed in the media, be it slim fashion models, a character in a television drama or a lyric from a popular song, young people and even adults are able to construct an identity for themselves. This identity will allow them to fit in with the pressures placed on us by society, yet allow them to still be fundamentally different from the next person.

Media and Collective Identity

• "Identity is complicated - everybody thinks they've got one" (David Gaunlett)
• "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 for social groups" (David Buckingham)

Buckingham
He classifies identity as an 'ambiguous and slippery' term;

• Identity is something unique to each of us, but also implies a relationship with a boarder group
• Identity can change according to circumstances
• Identity is fluid and is affected by broader changes (How can you relate this to Britishness? - Cultural Imperialism, culture is injected in to us. For example, if America changes, we do. American culture is imprinted on to British culture. There is also the influences from past generations where ideneity changes and flows to the next form. For example, mods and rockers moving to goths and emos)
• Identity becomes more important to us if we feel it is threatened

David 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 wether this is an illusion and we are all much more similar than we think

5 Key Themes for 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

What is Collective Identity?

• 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)

An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube, Michael
'Stars' Created by the Internet:

• Star Wars Kid
• Gingers do have souls
• Charlie Bit My Finger

1. When was Youtube first released?
2005 April 23rd, has videos posted that day.


2. According to Michael Wesch what does Web 2.0 allow people to do?
Connect to each other and rethink identity, ethics and so on. It links people in ways we have never linked before.


3. When media changes what else changes?
When media changes human relationships change.


4. What influenced the loss of community? And what has now filled this void?
When women joined work force, large supermarkets, massive communities of suburbia only connected by TV. Individuality has now filled the void.


5. How are communities connected?
Through television and now the internet


6. Explain what he means by voyeuristic capabilities?
You don’t want to stare at people or watch them, but with YouTube videos you can without them knowing you are looking and making them feel uncomfortable.


7. Write 3 points about what he refers when he discusses playing with identity

8. What does the ‘Free hugs phenomenon’ suggest about people?

Media Effects/ Theory

Media Effects

• Do media representations of young people effect how they are percieved?

Media is particularly influencial as is covers mass areas such as newspapers, films, televison and so on.

• If so how does this effect occur?

- Hypodermic model
Idea that information is directley injected in to the consumer and accepted. This suggests that the way the media represent youths is immediatley accepted and remembered and therefore influences opinions aimed at British youths.

 

- Cultivation theory
The theory that the mass audience consuming television are directley influenced. People who watch a lot of television have exaggerated opinions of society and this is therefore applicable to the representation of british youths. For example, Harry Brown is particularly over exaggerated as are many other television programmes, meaning that people who watch a lot of these sort of influences are going to have negative opinions of youths.

 

- Copycat theory
This suggests that the consumer will copy what they see. This is applicable to both adults and youths. Youths may copy violent behaviour they see in films because of the way they see their age group being represented. Adults my also copy the attitudes they see of adults in films towards youths.

-Moral Panic
This theory suggests that when a group appears that challeneges cultural hegemony and reflects the fears and anxieties of adults belonging to "social normality", the media step in and exaagerate the representations. This group then appear as "folk devils" in society, which is applicable to may contemporary media texts where the representations of youths are over exaggerated. For example, when 'yobs' started to be represented negatively, people began to panic about youths, which was where the law stepped in and introduced ASBO in an attempt to remain cultural hegdemony

Contemporary British Social Realism

• What do you understand by contemporary british realism?
• Social realist films attempt tp portray issues facing ordinary people in their social situations
• Social realist films try to show that society and the capitalist system leads to the exploitation of the poor or dispossed
• These groups are shown as victims of the system rather than beiign totally responsible for their own behaviour
• 'These places represent an everywhere of britian where relationships are broken down and where people have become isoltaed and disconnected. Their britishness is their culturally specific adress to audiences at home' (Murray 2008)

 
Audience

• Social realist films whicha adress social problems in this country offer a very different version of cellective 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 low 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 identity is the more powerful or has the most impact

 Analysing Representations 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 ebing represented?
• What seems to be the intentions of the representastions?
• What is the dominant discourse? (world view offfered by 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 diffferent versions that change over time
• Representations can cause problems for the groups being represented because marginalized groups have litttle control over their representation/ stereotyping
• The social context in which film/ TV programme is made influences the messages/ values/ dominant discourse of the film

British Social Realism

• Relate to contemorary example - Fish Tank/ Harry Brown/ Attack the Block/ Eden Lake
• Compare to more commercial products and exaplain the difference. Use Love Actually/ Notting Hill
• Consider what representation is most powerful in contructing a collective identity for Britishness in view of audience size

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

• Encoding -decoding is an attractive audience theory developed by Stuart Hall which examines the relationships between text and it's audience
• Encoding is a process by which a text is constructed by it's producers
• Decoding is the process by which the audience reads, understands and interprets text
• Hall States that texts are polysemic, meaning they may be read differently by different people, depending on their identity, cultural knowledge and opinions

Preffered Reading/ Dominant hegemonic

• When an audience interprets the message as it was meant to be understood, they are operating in dominant code.
• The position od professional broadcasters and media producers is that the messages are already signified within the hegmonic manner to which they are accustomed.
• Professional codes for media organizations sevre to contribute to this type of indsutrial phycology.
• The producers and the audience are in harmony

Negotiated reading

• Not all audience may underatand what media producers take for granted. There may be some acknowlwedgment of differences in understanding
• Decoding within the negotiatted version contains a mixture od adpative and oppositional elements: it acknowledges the legitimacy of the hengmonic definitions to make the grand significations (abstract) while at the mopre restrcited situationl (situated) level it makes it own ground rules

Oppositional Reading

• When media consumers understand the contextual and literary infections of a text yet decode the message by a completely oppositiional means. This is globally contrary to postion/oppositional reading
• The detotalization of that text enables them to rework it to their preffered meaning. This requires operating with an opposition code which can underatnds dominant hegmonic postions.

Any Representation is a Mixture of:

• The thing itself
• The opinions of the pople doing the representation
• The reaction of the individual to the reperesentation
• The context of the society in which the representation takes place

Stereotyping

• Why do we sterotype?

It's puts people in to categories and boxes so we can categorise them easily. producers fall back on sterotyping so we can immediatley identify characters and beging to relate to them quickly.

• The fact that we see the world naturally in this kind of way with connections between character traits allows the media to create simplistic representations which we find believable. Implict personality theory explains this process...

• As humans we use out own unique store house of knowledge about people when we judge them
• Our past experience is more important than the true features of the acutal personality that we are judging - traits exist more in the eye of the beholder than they do in society
• We have each a system of rules that tells us which characteristics go with other characterisitics
• We categorise people into types (eg workaholic, feminist etc) to simplify the taks of person perception
• Once we have in our minds a set of linked traits which seem to us to go together, they form a pattern
• Once a few of the traits seem to fit our prototype we will imediatley bundle onto the person the rest of the traits from the prototype
• We find people who do not fit into our prototypes we form very strong impressions of them
• All of this happens naturally in our mind sbeforte the media have the chance to simplify and distort. We do a lot of business of stereotyping ourselves. It is almost as if we

Indentity

• Is this then what helps us to create out own identity?
• Dio we judge people in the same wayas we categorise films in to genres?
• How do we create our own identity?

The Inbetweeners (Ben Palmer 2011) and Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold 2009)

Representations in The Inbetweeners

• Age

There are fairly positive representations of youths in the opening scene, but perhaps because humour is added to their situations. Will is the first character we see in the film, also the narrator, and he is immediately represented positively by talking about his further education at university and even applying to Oxford. He is well spoken suggesting he is from middle class which is also implied through his father. The second and third characters we see are Jay and Neil, who are represented negatively, but because humour is added we perceive these situations as positive. For example, because Neil's character is entertaining and humorous for the audience, we take the fact he dropped the man's prawns on the floor as soon as he finished work in a light hearted manner. He is also friendly towards the man which supports the positive representation. Finally we see Simon who is again represented positively in a humorous manner. He is implied to be innocent and shows complete respect towards his girlfriend, then showing his sensitivity when he breaks down crying once she breaks up with him. The representations are quite realistic, but the humour added makes it slightly over exaggerated.

• Ethnicity

There doesn't seem to be much ethnic diversity within The Inbetweeners. This is associated to class as they live in a London suburb, dominated by white middle class. The representations within the film are predominantly white which is symbolic towards the information we are perceiving. This perhaps means that the audience the film is aimed at is white middle class, which means other classes and ethnicities may not be able to relate.

• Gender

The film goes against gender stereotypes, but it is dominated by the male sex. Simon is overpowered by a female when his girlfriend breaks up with him and he breaks down crying, going against male stereotypes. However, the film clearly orientates around the male perspective, sometimes realistic and sometimes unrealistic. The media predominantly covers the representations on male youths, as supported in The Inbetweeners.

• Social Class and Status

The teenagers within the film use colloquial language but are well spoken, especially Will. They seem to rely on the parents, emphasising the lack of independence, contrasting against relationships to parents within lower classes. The shots we see of the suburban neighbourhood is a complete binary opposition to the representation, for example found in Harry Brown. Their location emphasises the idea of middle class, Will even narrating how safe and secure the area is. The fact they are also even going on holiday also suggests wealth and social 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, Quadrophenia, Eden Lake
• Middle class British youths are generally represented as being more law abiding, conscience 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

Representations in Fish Tank

• What ideas are used to introduced the main character?

Stereotypical representations of working and under class are immediately used such as location, clothing, lack of parenting and education, language and so on. There is immediately violence and conflict, however we see her as a victim rather than the inflicter. The audience is postitioned to indetify with her, meaning we percieve her as the protagonist rather than the antagonist. The use of cineatography gives an immediate idea of social reality and issues, also used in films such as Harry Brown and Quadrophenia.

• What are the similarities and differences of representations of youth between Fish Tank and Harry Brown?

The immediate difference is that we follow a female character, where as in Harry Brown the youth culture is dominated by males. We see her as the protagonist because of the way the audience is placed to relate and identify with her, therefore making us see her as a victim.

• Fish tank represents young people in a similar 'broken Britain' context, but is no more sympathetic to them
• The behaviour of the characters is less extreme/exaggerated - no torturing and general mayhem
• Issues of genre/audience
• Female Protagonist
• Mia is seen as more of a victim
• Almost all teenage characters in representations are clearly working class
• Main adult characters tend to be middle class
• Representations may be said to reflect middle class anxiety of working class to their hegemonic dominance
• Is on of the functions of these representations to remain hegemony? Why?

How does contemporary representations compare to previous time periods?

Comparative analysis of Quadropheina (Franc Roddam, 1979)  Vs. Harry Brown (Barber, 2009):

‘How are British youths represented in Quadrophenia and Harry Brown?'

Throughout many different time periods, new cultures and attitudes are introduced, which are usually taken up by a fresh generation of youths. Cohen studied mods and rockers in the 1960’s and created a theory that argues “folk devils” often emerge within society that go against social normality, reflecting the anxieties and fears of adults. This leads to “moral panic” when the media exaggerates the “folk devils”. This theory is applicable to the 1960’s time era of Quadrophenia and the modern day Harry Brown, although the representation of these deviant youths differs slightly.

The main themes in Quadrophenia are belonging to a group and fighting against “social normality”, whereas the themes in Harry Brown are still about belonging to a group, but fighting for “social normality”. There are also themes of drugs and violence in both films, but perhaps not as severe as in Harry Brown. The themes are portrayed in different ways in both films, as in Quadrophenia we follow the main character as part of the youths and in Harry Brown we follow the main character against the youths. In Harry Brown the themes of drugs and violence are very severe and over exaggerated, for example when Harry enters youth territory to purchase a gun, both him and the audience are stunned by the mass amount of marijuana being grown within the derelict building. However, in Quadrophenia we only see the purchasing and consumption of drugs from youths, which are looked slightly less harshly on than the severe criminal activity involved with drug dealing in Harry Brown. In fact, the overall themes of criminal activity within Quadrophenia are less exaggerated than they are in Harry Brown. For example although Jimmy was at the fighting against the rockers in Brighton, he was not directly causing as much of the damage like some of the other youths, which suggests to the audience that not all youths are as dramatically rebellious as others. This fighting in Brighton was exaggerated in media coverage, again relating back to the moral panic theory.

The gang ideologies in Quadrophenia are very different to Harry Brown. There is the idea in Quadrophenia that the Mods chose to rebel and fight for their opinions against the government. They chose to be in these groups for a reason, showing their opinions against capitalism and consumerism in post war Britain. In contrast, the groups of thugs in Harry Brown are mindlessly attacking and rebelling for no true reason except they were born in to such a society. For example, in Quadrophenia we see rebellion against parents and clearly in Harry Brown we see the youths following parent’s examples, such as Noel stating he is following on from what his father did. On the other hand, there is also the idea that Mods were committing mindless acts due to the attitudes in post war Britain. Because teenagers no longer had to put money they earn from their jobs towards their parents income, they had disposable cash that they supposedly spent on money and drugs. We see an example of this when Jimmy disrespectfully quits his job and blows his money on drugs which has no real cause against consumerism and capitalism. This however, is perhaps not an accurate representation. The gang ideologies in both films stereotype the two groups of youths. The Mods are represented as the way they were in the media, and as are the thugs in Harry Brown. For example, British Newspapers created a certain image for the Mods which can be seen in an 1964 article in The Sunday Times. It interviewed a 17 year old mod who claimed they went out clubbing all night every night and spent Sunday afternoons shopping for clothes and records. This created an unrealistic image of mods as theorists Jobling and Crowly argue Mods most likely had nine to five jobs with low income, which meant they were unlikely to have such money to spend on clubbing and shopping. This is also applicable to the articles we see on yobs in today’s newspapers. We can clearly see how Moral Panic has been created due to these articles, therefore leading the unrealistic representations of youths both today and previously. In my opinion, I view Mods more positively that I do the yobs in Harry Brown. This is perhaps because of the less severe representations in Quadrophenia, perhaps due to the fact it was created during the 70’s where Mods had passed and therefore the opinion of the group had changed. I feel that the ideology of “folk devils” within their time is drastically negatively exaggerated, whereas in later eras they may be viewed differently.

The groups of youths are represented with different identities, but there is the same theme of belonging to a certain group, but perhaps for different reasons in each film. There is a sense that identity gives the characters power. Giroux’s theory suggests that youths are an empty category and open to influences, which is applicable to Quadrophenia in the way Jimmy’s attitude and lifestyle is influenced by the way he sees the Mods and how adults react to them, appealing to his desire to break free of his parents grasp. The idea of identity within Harry Brown is more about power as well as belonging. The youths have control over the estate, their threatening appearance allowing them to reign on most that pass through their territory. The youths in Harry Brown are represented to want this identity just to have mindless power and authority, which isn’t always true to society as there is the idea of wanting to belong. The characters in Qaudrophenia seem to want to just belong to a group and have an identity that isn’t controlled by government. The idea of identity seems to be more important within Quadrophenia as when he starts to fall out of the group, he becomes so hysterical that it leads to him riding his scooter off a cliff, a dramatized example of teenage angst. This however could be viewed as Acland’s Ideology of Protection in the way something bad happens to him because he was a Mod, perhaps to influence youths not to have attitude. The same applies to Harry Brown where the yobs are brutally murdered by Harry because of the acts they committed and the gang they belong to which is intended to discourage teenagers and encourage adults to have a negative opinion of youths and enforce that their child does not commit the same acts.

The parents within two films seem to juxtapose against each other. The parents in Quadrophenia are against what their son is doing and result in kicking him out of their house. The influence is clearly not from them and Jimmy feels he wants to break free from their control and join the rebellious lifestyle of the Mods. However, in Harry Brown Noel wants to continue his parents attitudes, following in his imprisoned father’s footsteps. We see an opposite reaction from his mother compared to Jimmy’s when the police arrest Noel from his home. She becomes hysterical and upset begging them not to take him away and to leave him alone, where as Jimmy’s mother forces him to leave “you should be locked up!” This supports my previous idea that the current “folk devils” of society are born in to such a lifestyle therefore leading to this mindless rebellion, where as the Mods chose their identity and rebelled for a reason. In Quadrophenia the parents are used as another object of opposition for the Mods. They seem to fight against everything that is social normality, and this includes their parents. Conversely the parents in Harry Brown are used as a vessel to transfer opinions and attitudes to the youths. We see the young yobs behaviour mirrored by their parents and family members.

In my opinion, the preception and representation has changed from past eras to modern day. However, this could be because we are looking at past generations with a modern view point, meaning that Mods and Rockers were still represented negatively in the 60's, more so than they are today. The film Quadrophenia was produced during the 70's, supporting my point that the representations of teens from past time periods are not represented as severly negative as they are from films viewing current youths such as Harry Brown. I feel that Cohen's theory is completely applicable to both modern day and previous time periods as it is true that once these "folk devils" appear in society, control of hegemony comes in to play in order to remove these 'imperfections' within social normaility.

Section B marked:

Explanation/ analysis/ argument; Very valid points well backed up and sensible in relation to the question.
15 marks

Use of examples; More examples in from the movie could but used however still very good as well developed afterwards.
17 marks

Use of terminology; From what i gathered from the exemplar answers more theorists and terminology was used. 6 marks

Level descriptor; Really good and clear but sometimes strays away from the question slightly.