Within the media today, age is represented in a variety of ways. Youths are often stereotyped, the stereotypical representation of youths in the modern day is very negative, they are portrayed as alcoholics and drug abusers, criminals, lazy, complaining and aggressive. Some media texts conform to this stereotype, others go against it.
The Daily Mail produced an article discussing Tom Daley winning an Olympic medal. This represents youths as hardworking and successful. Language such as 'impressive' give a positive representation of his talent and 'Daley does it again' suggests it isn't a one off, he is a consistent athlete and is very talented. The image used is Tom Daley and his diving partner with their arms around eachother holding up their medals smiling, this adds to the positive representation of youths as it shows them as friendly and proud of their achievements. This representation goes against the stereotypical representation of youths in society today
The Daily Mail also produced an article about the Brooklyn Riots, which featured over 100 16 year olds rioted in Brooklyn after a 16 year old boy was shot, this is a negative representation of youths. It has been constructed to represent the riots as a tragedy, with language such as 'chaos', indicating that the riots were chaotic. The article also compares the event to war, by saying 'sounds like a war zone', by comparing the riots to as something as horrible as war gives an overall negative representation of the riots, thus resulting in a negative representation of youths.
Thursday, 22 May 2014
With reference to your own detailed examples, explore how audiences are categorised by the producers of media texts
In the media today, producers of media texts categorise their audiences allowing them to understand their target audience and encode the text with the correct uses and gratifications for the audience to take the preferred reading.
Matthew Weiners Mad Men has been encoded to attract an active audience. One of the ways this has been done is through the usage of complex female characters. The stereotypical representation of females is that they are very dependant on men, and they are often sexualised, we are regularly put into the male gaze within texts such as James Bond. Mad Men is a little more complex than that. The character Joan uses her sexuality to gain power, she is implicitly forced to sleep with the head of Jaguar so that he will sign a deal with Dons advertising company, this conforms to the stereotypical female. The character Meg is a progressing female, she has disobeyed her husband and become a more independent woman, but is then sexualised by casting agents at an audition who merely look at her appearance. The character Peggie goes against the stereotypical female by using her intelligence to gain power, rather than sexuality, she leaves Dons agency and doesn't look back. An active audience would appreciate the thought Weiner put into the show by breaking the female stereotype, whereas a passive audience would gain no gratification from it as they are used to seeing women in a certain way.
J.J Abrams Lost has been encoded to attract a wide mainstream audience, which are mainly passive. One way this has been done is with the usage of an ensemble cast, within the show the characters are of mixed race, gender and age which all get equal screen time, this attracts a wide audience as they are to personally identify with the characters. Lost attracts a passive audience via the usage of the score. The score is used to tell the audience how certain characters feel within in a scene and how they are supposed to react, an example of this is during the scene where Walt finds a pair of handcuffs, the music becomes very eerie and tells the audience that Walt as this moment is curious and afraid. This would not gratify an active audience as they like to be challenged when watching texts, many actually think that the usage of such an obvious score is almost patronising.
Matthew Weiners Mad Men has been encoded to attract an active audience. One of the ways this has been done is through the usage of complex female characters. The stereotypical representation of females is that they are very dependant on men, and they are often sexualised, we are regularly put into the male gaze within texts such as James Bond. Mad Men is a little more complex than that. The character Joan uses her sexuality to gain power, she is implicitly forced to sleep with the head of Jaguar so that he will sign a deal with Dons advertising company, this conforms to the stereotypical female. The character Meg is a progressing female, she has disobeyed her husband and become a more independent woman, but is then sexualised by casting agents at an audition who merely look at her appearance. The character Peggie goes against the stereotypical female by using her intelligence to gain power, rather than sexuality, she leaves Dons agency and doesn't look back. An active audience would appreciate the thought Weiner put into the show by breaking the female stereotype, whereas a passive audience would gain no gratification from it as they are used to seeing women in a certain way.
J.J Abrams Lost has been encoded to attract a wide mainstream audience, which are mainly passive. One way this has been done is with the usage of an ensemble cast, within the show the characters are of mixed race, gender and age which all get equal screen time, this attracts a wide audience as they are to personally identify with the characters. Lost attracts a passive audience via the usage of the score. The score is used to tell the audience how certain characters feel within in a scene and how they are supposed to react, an example of this is during the scene where Walt finds a pair of handcuffs, the music becomes very eerie and tells the audience that Walt as this moment is curious and afraid. This would not gratify an active audience as they like to be challenged when watching texts, many actually think that the usage of such an obvious score is almost patronising.
Sunday, 12 May 2013
Waterloo Road - Case Study [AGE]
In this episode of Waterloo Road, teenagers are shown in a very negative way. To start off with, there are kids on the playground throwing around another kids bag whilst he tries to get it back, this is bullying, and from this you straight away get a negative representation of teenagers. Then the scene goes to the toilets, I high angle shot over the cubicles, and the cubicles have lots of writing and vandalism on them, the camera looks down on the two girls doing drugs and talking about getting 'baked' this camera shot was chosen for the reason as almost as if you're looking down on them, they're very foolish and weak, giving a negative representation.
Brooklyn Riot - Daily Mail - Case Study [AGE]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291941/Brooklyn-riot-Teens-protest-death-Kimani-Gray-Flatbush.html
This article shows a negative representation of young people. It discusses the Brooklyn Riot which involved 100 teenagers, 16 years of age, rioting after a 16 year old was shot dead.
The use of language to create a negative representation is straight away used from the word 'chaos'. This word shows what these riots were like and what these teenagers caused, making the audience & readers not like these teenagers, creating a negative representation.
Something else used was 'sounds like a war zone' this emphasises how bad these riots were, once again creating a negative representation of youth.
To counteract this, 'peaceful protest' was used to show that even though it wasn't going to be violent protest and was going to be fair, and teenagers still created chaos by rioting.
This article shows a negative representation of young people. It discusses the Brooklyn Riot which involved 100 teenagers, 16 years of age, rioting after a 16 year old was shot dead.
The use of language to create a negative representation is straight away used from the word 'chaos'. This word shows what these riots were like and what these teenagers caused, making the audience & readers not like these teenagers, creating a negative representation.
Something else used was 'sounds like a war zone' this emphasises how bad these riots were, once again creating a negative representation of youth.
To counteract this, 'peaceful protest' was used to show that even though it wasn't going to be violent protest and was going to be fair, and teenagers still created chaos by rioting.
Tom Daley - Daily Mail Article - Case Study [AGE]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2119121/Tom-Daley-wins-silver-medal-Beijing.html
This article shows a positive representation of young, where as most representations of young people shown through the media is negative, this shows success and dedication by 17 year old Tom Daley.
Straight away you see 'He does it again' implying Tom Daley has once again done something remarkable and achieving. In the paragraph when discussing what he did and where he was to achieve his silver medal, the use of language such as 'impressive' gives a very positive representation of Tom Daley and his diving.
The image that has been chosen to be shown is once again a very positive one, showing Tom Daley and his diving partner both next to eachother, arms around eachother showing their friendship, both smiling holding up their silver medals, this overall gives a very positive representation of Tom Daley and young people.
This article shows a positive representation of young, where as most representations of young people shown through the media is negative, this shows success and dedication by 17 year old Tom Daley.
Straight away you see 'He does it again' implying Tom Daley has once again done something remarkable and achieving. In the paragraph when discussing what he did and where he was to achieve his silver medal, the use of language such as 'impressive' gives a very positive representation of Tom Daley and his diving.
Friday, 3 May 2013
Chris Brown - Strip - Music Video - Case Study [GENDER]
More or less all the women in the video are wearing either bikinis or revealing clothes, which would attract men and see them as a sex object.
The lyrics in the video are sung by male singer 'Chris Brown' and the chorus is 'I just wanna see you strip' which shows the representation of both genders, men just using women for sexual gain, and women once again just being shown as sex objects.
Thursday, 2 May 2013
50 Cent - Many Men - Music Video - Case Study [ETHNICITY]
- Two men in the car, get an idea of the kind of people they are as they're discussing murdering someone, negative representation.
- Gun shots, shooting of a man walking down the street, negative representation of black people.
- People gathering round a table, all drinking alcohol, negative representation of ethnicity again.
- Use of strong language in the video, such as 'nigger' and 'f**k'.
- Clothes 50 Cent is wearing, short sleeve top, wearing jewellery, cap on backwards, pure stereotype of a black rapper.
- Blood up the wall, negative representation.
All these different things give off a negative representation of black people.
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