An internet meme is a concept that spreads from person to person via the internet. An internet meme may take the form, hyperlink, video, picture, website or hashtag.
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
postmodern media essay
1.How do postmodern media differ from other media?
Postmodern media displays several diverse features than differ it from regular types of media. Intertextuality, Intertexual references are scattered throughout films, directors take inspiration from other texts previously used for example Tarantino has taken a lot of inspiration for certain scenes in throughout his films (such as inglorious Basterds and kill bill) from spaghetti western films, we can see this from the way he sets up scenes and shots such the tension building using a ‘standoff’ type set up, another way he decides the link to the genre is the soundtrack that can also be heard in the bar scene this scene is based around typical spaghetti westerns, As well as inglorious Basterds Drive also plays as homage to the spaghetti western genre, this can be recognised because ‘the kid’ barely speaks throughout the film, and this also is tension building for the film.
Another intertexual reference in film can be seen in the flm Kill Bill (vol.1), Kill bill is an action thriller film again written and directed by Tarantino, the film plays homage to other films such as old Japanese martial arts films, the way that kill bill differs from these films is the use of hyper reality and self-reflexivity, the martial arts scenes aren’t realistic and challenge typical convention of martial arts films, it also challenges gender roles by using a dominant female in the fights scenes.
Intertexuality in music, a lot of modern artists recognise different texts and reference them throughout their albums and songs, David Bowie creates his own individual identities for his singles and albums for example, ‘The rise and fall of ziggy stardust’ tell the story of his alter ego. This is a postmodern trait because he is creating new characters and pushing boundaries between what’s real and hypereal. Merging of genres in music, David Bowie is known for mixing genres and changing his music style per album. Another way artist can be considered postmodern is how they invent their image for example Madonna takes a lot of style inspiration from Marylin Monroe
Hyper reality in film, films such as Tarantino’s inglorious Basterds which is primarily a war film when you compare films such as this with other war films like saving private Ryan you can see how the postmodern approach has been taken with the film, hyper reality is used throughout the whole film and reinvents a different way to showcase a war film which therefore makes the whole film postmodern because its crossing different boundaries regarding the genre of the film. Scenes in saving Private Ryan paint a realistic and hard picture of war compared to the light-hearted approach and vast amounts of dialogue that tarantino has used, another postmodern element is the distortion of time and space, the film is set during the war yet modern features have been incorporated.
Postmodern media is produced for literate audiences to recognise and understand, With postmodern media artists and directors push the boundaries and typical conventions of film and music regarding structures such as genre, You can recognise the difference from postmodern media and other media, in postmodern media features are placed or used for a purpose, references are taken to create new and individual media.
Applying Genre
Daniel Chandler (2001) - the word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for ‘type. The term is widely used in literary theory, media theory to refer to a distinctive type of ‘text’.
Steve Neale (1980) declares that “genres are instances of repetition and difference” – it is essential for genres to deviate occasionally in order to attract and engage audiences.
Which genre is your text?
Music video – which genre category is it? Performance, illustrative or disjuncture? (Andrew Goodwin)
Which generic conventions have you applied?
Pleasure of genre for audiences• Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences ‘a set of pleasures’.
Emotional Pleasures: The emotional pleasures offered toaudiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.
Visceral Pleasures: Visceral pleasures are ‘gut’ responses andare defined by how the film’s stylistic construction elicits aphysical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling ofrevulsion, kinetic speed, or a ‘roller coaster ride’.
Intellectual Puzzles: Certain film genres such as the thrilleroffer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mysteryor a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot andforecasting the end or the being surprised by the unexpected.
•Which set of pleasures does your genre offer?
In terms of your coursework...• How we define a genre depends on ourpurposes (Chandler, 2001).• What was your purpose and the medium?
• Your audience and the industry sector youwere working within will have defined whatyou understood as the genre and sub-genreof the texts you created.
Genres are not fixed. They constantly changeand evolve over time.David Buckingham (1993) argues that genre is not... Simply "given" by the culture:rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change’.
Steve Neale (1980) declares that “genres are instances of repetition and difference” – it is essential for genres to deviate occasionally in order to attract and engage audiences.
Which genre is your text?
Music video – which genre category is it? Performance, illustrative or disjuncture? (Andrew Goodwin)
Which generic conventions have you applied?
- Genre of our music video is dance/pop
- the video would probably fall into the performance technique because it matches the music but doesnt tell a story..
- generic conventions applied- lip syncing, dancing, camera shots (close up, mid shot, panning), bright colours.
Pleasure of genre for audiences• Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences ‘a set of pleasures’.
Emotional Pleasures: The emotional pleasures offered toaudiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.
Visceral Pleasures: Visceral pleasures are ‘gut’ responses andare defined by how the film’s stylistic construction elicits aphysical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling ofrevulsion, kinetic speed, or a ‘roller coaster ride’.
Intellectual Puzzles: Certain film genres such as the thrilleroffer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mysteryor a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot andforecasting the end or the being surprised by the unexpected.
•Which set of pleasures does your genre offer?
In terms of your coursework...• How we define a genre depends on ourpurposes (Chandler, 2001).• What was your purpose and the medium?
• Your audience and the industry sector youwere working within will have defined whatyou understood as the genre and sub-genreof the texts you created.
Genres are not fixed. They constantly changeand evolve over time.David Buckingham (1993) argues that genre is not... Simply "given" by the culture:rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change’.
Monday, 29 April 2013
representation
Think of this question as the first part of your revision...
“Representations in media texts are often simplistic and reinforce dominant ideologies so that audiences can make sense of them”. Evaluate the ways that you have used/challenged simplistic representations in one of the media products you have produced.
who, what, where
how, stereotypes, theories
why, audience
INTRO- refer to quote, agree/ disagree
refer to question, introduce coursework
MAIN BODY- go through different representations used
and stereotypes
and theories
around 4/5
(who- male + female, age group- target audience age, costume- simple young laid back, what- dancing/ smiling not taking themselves to seriously)
CONCLUSION- sum everything up
refer to question
“Representations in media texts are often simplistic and reinforce dominant ideologies so that audiences can make sense of them”. Evaluate the ways that you have used/challenged simplistic representations in one of the media products you have produced.
who, what, where
how, stereotypes, theories
why, audience
INTRO- refer to quote, agree/ disagree
refer to question, introduce coursework
MAIN BODY- go through different representations used
and stereotypes
and theories
around 4/5
(who- male + female, age group- target audience age, costume- simple young laid back, what- dancing/ smiling not taking themselves to seriously)
CONCLUSION- sum everything up
refer to question
Representation texts from powerpoint
You will be able to describe what representation is.• Be able to identify the types of groups that are represented? You will be able to discuss representation in your products
The media does not represent and construct reality, but instead represents it?
Representation - Definition• How the media shows us things about society – but this is through careful mediation. Hence re-presentation.• For representation to be meaningful to audiences there needs to be a shared recognition of people, situations, ideas etc.• All representations therefore have ideologies behind them.
Certain paradigms are encoded into texts and others are left out in order to give a preferred representation (Levi – Strauss, 1958).
Representing is about constructing reality, it is supposed to contain versimilitued and simplify people’s understanding of life.• Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of �reality� such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts
Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.• The term refers to the processes involved as well as to its products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity - Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity (the cage of identity) - representation involves not only how identities are represented (or rather constructed) within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people whose identities are also differentially marked in relation to such demographic factors.
Consider, for instance, the issue of the gaze. How do men look at images of women, women at men, men at men and women at women?
Richard Dyer (1983) posed a few questions when analysing media representations in general.
• 1. What sense of the world is it making?• 2. What does it imply? Is it typical of the world or deviant?• 3. Who is it speaking to? For whom? To whom?• 4. What does it represent to us and why? How do we respond to the representation?
How do you think the following groups are represented in the media?Types of people:
• Class • Age • Gender • Ethnicity • Sexuality • Disability
Theories• Particularly in relation to film – objectification of women’s bodies in the media has been a constant theme.• Laura Mulvey (1975) argues that the dominant point of view is masculine. The female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to provide erotic pleasure for the male (vouyerism). Women are therefore objectified by the camera lens and whatever gender the spectator/audience is positioned to accept the masculine POV.
John Berger ‘Ways Of Seeing’ (1972)“Men act and women appear”. “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at”.“Women are aware of being seen by a male spectator”
Jib Fowles (1996) “in advertising, males gaze and females are gazed at”.
Paul Messaris (1997) “female models addressed to women....appear to imply a male point of view”.• In terms of magazine covers of women,
Janice Winship (1987) has been an extremely influential theorist. “The gaze between cover model and women readers marks the complicity between women seeing themselves in the image masculine culture has defined”.
Jean-Francois Lyotard (1984) and Jean Baudrillard (1980) share the belief that the idea of ‘truth’ needs to be deconstructed so that dominant ideas (that Lyotard argues are “grand narratives”) can be challenged.
Baudrillard discussed the concept of hyperreality – we inhabit a society that is no longer made up of any original thing for a sign to represent – it is the sign that is now the meaning. He argued that we live in a society of simulacra – simulations of reality that replace the real. Remember Disneyland?
Merrin (2005) argues that “the media do not reflect and represent reality but instead produce it, employing this simulation to justify their own continuing existence”.
David Gilmore• Man the protector• Man the provider• Man the impregnator
We often judge a text’s realism against our own ‘situated culture’. What is ‘real’ can therefore become subjective.• Stereotypes can be used to enhance realism - a news programme, documentary, film text etc about football hooligans, for e.g, will all use very conventional images that are associated with the realism that audiences will identify with such as shots of football grounds, public houses etc.
Stereotypes?• O’Sullivan et al (1998) details that a stereotype is a label that involves a process of categorisation and evaluation.• We can call stereotypes shorthand to narratives because such simplistic representations define our understanding of media texts – e.g we know who is good and who is evil.
First coined by Walter Lippmann (1956) the word stereotype wasn’t meant to be negative and was simply meant as a shortcut or ordering process.• In ideological terms, stereotyping is a means by which support is provided by one group’s differential against another.
Orrin E. Klapps (1962) distinction between stereotypes and social types is helpful.• Klapp defines social types as representations of those who belong to society.• They are the kinds of people that one expects, and is led to expect, to find in ones society, whereas stereotypes are those who do not belong, who are outside of ones society.
Richard Dyer (1977) suggests Klapp’s distinction can be reworked in terms of the types produced by different social groups according to their sense of who belongs and who doesnt, who is in and who is not
Tessa Perkins (1979) says, however, that stereotyping is not a simple process. She identified that some of the many ways that stereotypes are assumed to operate aren’t true.• They aren’t always negative (French good cooks)• They aren’t always about minority groups or those less powerful (upper class twits)• They are not always false – supported by empirical evidence.• They are not always rigid and unchanging. Perkins argues that if stereotypes were always so simple then they would not work culturally and over time. Martin Barker (1989) - stereotypes are condemned for misrepresenting the ‘real world’. (e.g. Reinforcing that the (false) stereotype that women are available for sex at any time) . He also says stereotypes are condemned for being too close to real world (e.g. showing women in home servicing men, which many still do).• Bears out Perkins’ point that for stereotypes to work they need audience recognition.
The media does not represent and construct reality, but instead represents it?
Representation - Definition• How the media shows us things about society – but this is through careful mediation. Hence re-presentation.• For representation to be meaningful to audiences there needs to be a shared recognition of people, situations, ideas etc.• All representations therefore have ideologies behind them.
Certain paradigms are encoded into texts and others are left out in order to give a preferred representation (Levi – Strauss, 1958).
Representing is about constructing reality, it is supposed to contain versimilitued and simplify people’s understanding of life.• Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of �reality� such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts
Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.• The term refers to the processes involved as well as to its products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity - Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity (the cage of identity) - representation involves not only how identities are represented (or rather constructed) within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people whose identities are also differentially marked in relation to such demographic factors.
Consider, for instance, the issue of the gaze. How do men look at images of women, women at men, men at men and women at women?
Richard Dyer (1983) posed a few questions when analysing media representations in general.
• 1. What sense of the world is it making?• 2. What does it imply? Is it typical of the world or deviant?• 3. Who is it speaking to? For whom? To whom?• 4. What does it represent to us and why? How do we respond to the representation?
How do you think the following groups are represented in the media?Types of people:
• Class • Age • Gender • Ethnicity • Sexuality • Disability
Theories• Particularly in relation to film – objectification of women’s bodies in the media has been a constant theme.• Laura Mulvey (1975) argues that the dominant point of view is masculine. The female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to provide erotic pleasure for the male (vouyerism). Women are therefore objectified by the camera lens and whatever gender the spectator/audience is positioned to accept the masculine POV.
John Berger ‘Ways Of Seeing’ (1972)“Men act and women appear”. “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at”.“Women are aware of being seen by a male spectator”
Jib Fowles (1996) “in advertising, males gaze and females are gazed at”.
Paul Messaris (1997) “female models addressed to women....appear to imply a male point of view”.• In terms of magazine covers of women,
Janice Winship (1987) has been an extremely influential theorist. “The gaze between cover model and women readers marks the complicity between women seeing themselves in the image masculine culture has defined”.
Jean-Francois Lyotard (1984) and Jean Baudrillard (1980) share the belief that the idea of ‘truth’ needs to be deconstructed so that dominant ideas (that Lyotard argues are “grand narratives”) can be challenged.
Baudrillard discussed the concept of hyperreality – we inhabit a society that is no longer made up of any original thing for a sign to represent – it is the sign that is now the meaning. He argued that we live in a society of simulacra – simulations of reality that replace the real. Remember Disneyland?
Merrin (2005) argues that “the media do not reflect and represent reality but instead produce it, employing this simulation to justify their own continuing existence”.
David Gilmore• Man the protector• Man the provider• Man the impregnator
We often judge a text’s realism against our own ‘situated culture’. What is ‘real’ can therefore become subjective.• Stereotypes can be used to enhance realism - a news programme, documentary, film text etc about football hooligans, for e.g, will all use very conventional images that are associated with the realism that audiences will identify with such as shots of football grounds, public houses etc.
Stereotypes?• O’Sullivan et al (1998) details that a stereotype is a label that involves a process of categorisation and evaluation.• We can call stereotypes shorthand to narratives because such simplistic representations define our understanding of media texts – e.g we know who is good and who is evil.
First coined by Walter Lippmann (1956) the word stereotype wasn’t meant to be negative and was simply meant as a shortcut or ordering process.• In ideological terms, stereotyping is a means by which support is provided by one group’s differential against another.
Orrin E. Klapps (1962) distinction between stereotypes and social types is helpful.• Klapp defines social types as representations of those who belong to society.• They are the kinds of people that one expects, and is led to expect, to find in ones society, whereas stereotypes are those who do not belong, who are outside of ones society.
Richard Dyer (1977) suggests Klapp’s distinction can be reworked in terms of the types produced by different social groups according to their sense of who belongs and who doesnt, who is in and who is not
Tessa Perkins (1979) says, however, that stereotyping is not a simple process. She identified that some of the many ways that stereotypes are assumed to operate aren’t true.• They aren’t always negative (French good cooks)• They aren’t always about minority groups or those less powerful (upper class twits)• They are not always false – supported by empirical evidence.• They are not always rigid and unchanging. Perkins argues that if stereotypes were always so simple then they would not work culturally and over time. Martin Barker (1989) - stereotypes are condemned for misrepresenting the ‘real world’. (e.g. Reinforcing that the (false) stereotype that women are available for sex at any time) . He also says stereotypes are condemned for being too close to real world (e.g. showing women in home servicing men, which many still do).• Bears out Perkins’ point that for stereotypes to work they need audience recognition.
Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Audience theories
Is your text popular for a mass audience?
Julian McDougall (2009) suggests that in the online age it is getting harder to conceive a media audience as a stable, identifiable group.
Most dance music would be classed targeting a Niche / Alternative audience
We wanted the our audience to lean more towards a mass audience and although the song is ad dance genre it was very popular when released and has a fun pop twist but when the video and band was created we realised it perhaps leaned more towards a niche/ alternative audience.
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Media language Theory
Connotation of our music video= Dj mixer (fun, party lively)
Charles Sanders Pierce (1931)
–there are three types of sign that we use every day to createmeaning; iconic, indexical and symbolic signs.
•Icon/iconic
: a mode in which the signifier is perceived as
resembling
or imitating thesignified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar inpossessing some of its qualities: e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model, onomatopoeia,metaphors, 'realistic' sounds in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbedfilm soundtrack, imitative gestures.
•Index/indexical
: a mode in which the signifier is
directly connected
in some way (physicallyor causally) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke,thunder, footprints, echoes, non-synthetic odours and flavours), medical symptoms (pain, arash, pulse-rate), measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level).
•Symbol/symbolic
: a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which isfundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g.language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letters, punctuation marks, words,phrases and sentences), numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags.
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