Media Studies

Film Keyword Recap This process is the link between making and releasing a film. The process ensures that a film reaches the intended audience to make maximum profit . It heavily involves marketing strategies such as actor interviews and teaser trailers . -- Distribution This is the process of releasing a film to audiences . The process begins with a premiere gala event, followed by cinema release and finally, , the film will be made available for home exhibition through physical retail and digital platforms. -- Exhibition This is the process of making a film. It begins with developing a script, scouting locations and casting actors, followed by the shooting of a film on set and ends with post-production editing . -- Production Industry and Audience (focuses and theorists) Focus So far, we have focused our attention on the media language and representation aspects of our two set dramas.  We are going to turn our focus to the industry behind LFTVD ...

Feminism Third Wave Feminism - Van Zoonen, bell hooks and Butler A response to those who thought Feminism had achieved its purpose. ​ Emerged in the 1990s.  ​ Worked against the idea that feminists were victims.  Third wave feminism is associated with the emergence of lipstick feminists and raunchy culture . New feminists advocate for " expressions of femininity and female sexuality as challenge to objectification ". this included the rejection of restrictions - patriarchal or feminist - to define or control how women should dress, act, or express themselves. These contrasted with the fierce anti-pornography/female exploitation element of feminism in the Second Wave of 1960-1990. Second wave feminism held the idea of "victim feminism", viewing pornography as encouraging violence towards women. New feminists hold that ability to make autonomous choices about self-expression can be an empowering act of subversion of the dominant male cultural norms, n...

Narratology is the study of narrative and the function or purpose of narrative structure in communicating meaning, messages and values in media products. Todorov’s theory of narratology can be seen to be partly relevant when applying his ideas to long form TV drama. Although his ideas are designed to be applied to films with single narratives and clear resolutions, when applying his theory to long form TV drama, it exposes the complexity of long form drama narratives, which can be seen to be one of the reasons for the form’s success and popularity with audiences. Todorov’s theory of narratology can be seen to be useful, yet also have its limitations, when applied to dramas such as Stranger Things and Deutschland 83. Todorov described 5 different stages of narratology (Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition, Repair, New Equilibrium) which provide a simplistic and recognisable storyboard for most media products and narratives. In both long form TV dramas, there is explanation that Todoro...

L13 - Stereotypes (Hall's Representation theory) L14 - Under-represented and Misrepresented Groups Stuart Hall - Representation Theory Hall states that there is no forced meaning. It is essential that meaning can be created . Power/ authority try to fix and naturalise  meanings to imply that their representation is the only possible meaning. They aim to close language, close  meaning and stop the flow! An example of fixing meaning is  stereotyping .  Absence is equally important when decoding representations. How the theory is USEFUL when exploring News Can be applied to any media product, including newspapers.  Applies particularly to the way in which newspaper headlines and photos try to fix the meaning of a representation.  Highlights the role of power in representations- both the general distribution of power in society and newspapers’ institutional power- but also the audience’s power to decode representations in different ways...

The media contexts outlined for this course are: social cultural economic political historical Industry (economic) How is the Guardian owned and funded? The Guardian is owned by Scott Trust and is funded through the use of advertisements, donations, and subscriptions. How is the Daily Mail owned and funded? The Daily Mail is owned by Viscount Rothermere and is funded through the use of sponsorships, discount codes, and advertisements. This difference vastly alters to what extent the audience are treated as a consumer. Consumerism (social, cultural, economic, political) Treating audiences as consumers influences:  the quantity of lifestyle content in newspapers such as the Guardian and Daily Mail.  the celebration of celebrity culture as a lure to fickle consumers, particularly in online editions of newspapers, such as Mail Online.  the representation of audiences themselves, whether by letters to the editor in the print editions, or co...

Stranger Things and Deutschland 83 are both examples of long form television dramas. They are both set in the 1980s era, however, due to their difference in location (USA vs Germany), they contain different contexts and thus different representations. The 1980s was a time in which there were few positive moments for women in society – Thatcher was PM – but men filled the vast majority of powerful roles. The traditional nuclear family unit – father goes to work; mother raises the children – was very much the norm in western culture. These characteristics can be applied to the ideologies of the theorist Van Zoonen, who stated that gender roles change throughout history. Incidentally, the gender roles of the dramas can be assumed to reflect those of the 80s. Stranger Things participates in this in many ways. The show demonstrates this traditional unit through Mike Wheeler’s family: a happy, stable and stereotypical ‘nuclear’ group. Mike’s sister, Nancy, is reinforcing this theory as she...

LFTVD – Section B, Paper 2: ‘Evolving Media’ Notes and Details 2 questions: Question 3 is worth 30 marks and will take you about 45 minutes to answer. Question 4 is worth 10 marks and will take you about 15 minutes to answer. Assessment Objectives AO1 - knowledge and understanding of: the framework (theories) the influence of media contexts. AO2 - apply the theoretical framework to: analyse products (find meaning by breaking down the set texts) evaluate theories (assess how helpful the theories are to our understanding of the dramas) make judgments and reach conclusions. Question 3 Question 3 will always be the synoptic question on the two papers. This form of words will be indicated on synoptic questions. Students who are synoptic (e.g. respond on more than just one area of study in their answer, e.g. representation, contexts, audiences) can access the full mark scheme. A strong answer focusing only on representation would be capped halfway up the...

L10 - Representation: Selection and Combination L11 - Realism and Constructing Reality Much of what will be discussed in this section has already been studied elsewhere on the course. Paper 1+2=140 marks. News is 45 marks of this.  Recap - Media Language Theorists Structuralism - Levi-Strauss Postmodernism - Baudrillard Narratology - Todorov Genre Theory - Steve Neale Semiotics - Barthes Representation: Selection and Combination Newspapers SELECT which events, issues, individuals and social  groups they will represent and which ones they will ignore. This influences our view of the world.  Biases of representation are caused by the application of news values which include bias towards powerful people, celebrities and entertainment, and events or issues already in the news.  Different newspapers have their own agendas.  Newspapers combine representations to create a view of the world. Many newspapers have a strong ethos ...

Barthes: Semiotics We automatically associate certain images, shapes, colours, and objects with wider meanings. Media producers use these to help us understand media products better. Symbolic codes – specific objects are associated with wider meanings. For example, hoodies are associated with youth culture, rebellion and crime.  Semantic codes – audiences tend to understand hidden meanings behind colours such as red and black in horror movies to represent blood, danger and evil. Proairetic/action codes – events and actions signify that something is about to happen (like foreshadowing). E.g. a gun being pulled from a holster means that conflict tension is rising.  Hermeneutic/enigma codes - an event or hook which encourages the audience to actively engage with a media product and want to continue consuming it.  Cultural/referential codes – specific codes which are understood only by audience members who belong to a shared age group, gender, sub-culture etc....