Introduction to Media Theory

 Tuesday 13th September 2022

Stranger Things

Media language:

 how the media through their forms, codes, conventions and techniques communicate meanings. Camera work, editing, sound, Mise en Scene.

Media representations

-Representation of different audiences, and races, and sexualities. Relative to shoving inclusivity in your face 

-How the media portrays events, issues, individuals, and social groups.

Media industries

how the media industries' processes of production, distribution and circulation affect media forms and platforms. 

Media audiences:

how media forms targets reach and address audiences

Postmodernism & Baudrillard:

post modern cultures, representation in the media are more powerful than real life.

Hyperreality: how representations are more powerful &"real"than reality

Hyperreal: representations don't represent reality, they are representations of representations.

Simulacra: artificial copies of reality

 in postmodern cultures, representations are powerful than reality and representations themselves no longer relate to reality.

Postmodernism:

• Irony
• Bricolage
• Intertextual references
• Fragmented narrative
• Self reflectivity
• Common themes - What if?
• Loss of reality 
• Lack of Versimilitude (the appearance of being true or real)

Stranger Things:

synth keyboard music background, background music 80s 

simulacra of the 80s

Loss of reality

intertextual references: D&D, Lord of the Rings,  The Hobbit 

hyperreality: using a walkie talkie to communicate.

irony of getting caught in the game and irl

Representation:                                    examples:                                         ideologies created:

family life    

female roles

1980s icons/life

Small town america

Family life: 

-The Wheelers and the Byers. Joyce Byers is a single mother - which was looked down at- with her two sons Will and Jonathan, the eldest acts like the second parent. The Wheelers, who have a stable household with a stay-at-home-mum and a working dad.

Ideologies- The Wheelers have the stereotypical American family life. The Byers are not perfect and aren't particularly the stereotypical family. 

Tuesday 20th September

Media Theory: Hip Hop and beyond

LO: 

• To investigate the principles about theories.
• To discuss various theories
• To critically apply theory to texts

What is representation?

Representation is how people are viewed and how they are seen by other people.

How are these people represented?

These people are represented as "hipsters" like they would have they have their own gang that they are apart of.

What tells you that?

They are all dressed with big chunky jewellery and baseball caps, they are wearing branded clothing and they are all wearing similar jackets.

Followers, dressed the same, gang culture

Attire, USA, baseball hats, jackets.

sportswear, informal, casual

chains, gold chains, big, representation of wealth, over the top

emotions, stoic

mise en scene, poor socio-economic suburb

contradicts the idea of wealth

helps connect to desired audience

Sidran, B. 1975

Black music as protest over time.

"Black music tells the story of social problems."

Sam Cooke- A change is gonna come.

What does it ask for?

What did it mention?

Why is it powerful?

How does Sidran's theory apply to this?

He implies social injustices in this song

Rose, T- 1994 Black Noise.

"Rap music criticises injustices for black men but maintains sexist attitudes towards black women"

NWA- Express yourself

upbeat, non-confrontational 

social power is represented as white male middle class. 

Sidran-> Implied told of injustices, slavery, death row, prison, police brutality.. 

Rose-> females were used as objects of desire/status -> hid behind females- lack care. 

Keep Ya Head Up - 2Pac

2Pac does have music that represents certain social injustices

'And since we all came from a woman got our game from a woman and got our game from a woman

I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women?"

The lyrics are encouraging change of how men treat women, instead of using them as objects. He wants people to respect women because in reality, they wouldn't exist without women.

the track is an ode to black women and emphasizes the abuse they face in society.

you can address cultural identity in this song, as the first lyrics are " They say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice."

There are no negative representations being enforced about women or any profanity used at all. The only negative representation is about the world. Therefore Rose's theory doesn't apply in this circumstance.

The term audience is used primarily a focused demographic of people for a certain product

Who are the audience?

The audience for this photo in particular, is heterosexual men and teenagers.

Media Theory: Gender and Bond

LO: To investigate the principles behind gender theories. To discuss various theories. To critically apply theory to texts.

Van Zoonen states:

Women are often objectified in media representations.

Women can be represented differently depending on the historical context.

How are women represented in the text?

Women are represented in text as objects. This is seen when the camera was primarily focused on the belly dancer's body. When the belly dancer was trying to flirt with Bond a sensual song was playing in the background. The gender roles in this sections establishes that men are superior to women for example, the women was showing a lot of skin compared to Bond, who was in a suit. Here we can see that the texts support what Van Zoonen says about women being objectified and also about how the historical context is coming into play. The historical context reveals why women are viewed as objects and men are viewed as superior, also at the time of production the sexualisation of women was socially acceptable at the time the film was created.

Missing "5"

Butler

Gender roles typically have stereotypes in film that are frequently enforced and we need to break the mould.

bell hooks

feminist

 there are so many issues: class, race, sexuality

media reflect these oppressive ideologies. Inequality 

female no purpose - sexual purpose.

positioning on bed provocative  high angle

walked behind

costume filled, stereotypical =- dress- revealing vs suit- formal

close up on her mouth + key, connotations.

bennett -  tames widow- reveals secrets through sexual advances, seduces her

over the shoulder- reveals sexual position.

mise en scene- rich- opulent, identifies her class

butler- heterosexual female role, costume , make-up, vulnerable, position - man to save her

shot reverse shot build up of violence and sexual dominance 

Yes, you can apply Van Zoonen's theory in scene one, as the women is viewed as a sexual object.  The character is objectified by how easily Bond succeeds to seduce her. The way she is dressed makes her in the film, viewed as easy and submissive. We can also apply butler in this situation due to the gender roles forced into the characters. The gender performance is naturalised in Bond is the idea that women are used as sexual objects and  nothing more whereas men are seemingly more dominant and - like James Bond- in a role of leadership, commanding where to go, when and how.

Media Theory: RuPaul and Identity.

LO: To investigate the principles behind theories.

To discuss theories

To critically apply Theories to text.

• gender
• sexuality
• clothing style
• culture
• music taste
• hobbies
• the way you present yourself
• social class

Gauntlett

Gender identities and sexuality are no longer what they once were There a lot of contradictory messages in the media when it comes to identity.

Butler:

gender is social construct, the way the media represents can affect those that do not conform to the heterosexual norms.

identity: 

gender identity - drag artist,  

sexuality - make-up elements, clothing, 

personality - bright bubbly, 

lifestyle - extravagant, OTT, 

interests - Drag, talents, typically feminine talents

appearance - important

religion - positivity, doesn't show reality

 roots/location proud, reality?

gender roles:

Male: 

Female: sewing, female stereotyped activities, sexualisation of women, dresses, bodysuits

societal values

culture of America: not typical american culture but apart of american sub-culture history

Heterosexual norms

We can apply Gauntlett due to the fact that we aren't following typical gender norms ie. Men dressing up as women.

 

we can also apply Butler due to the fact that RuPaul's Drag Race is enforcing female gender norms ie. Sewing, long dresses, revealing clothing

Butler states that gender is created based on typical gender roles. An example of this is in Sleeping Beauty. Like many of the Disney movies, it is very stereotypical for the princess to be rescued by a prince which links in with Butlers theory. Over the decades that these princess movies have been created, there always seems to be a more powerful man who is able to do things that the woman cannot do. In Sleeping Beauty we are introduced to Aurora who does the "typical" things that a woman is expected to do such as singing and simply just being beautiful. She is a young woman that only manages to achieve her goals with the help of a man which puts the message across that women are meant to have a male love interest who can protect them. The relationship between the prince and Aurora is one of the bases to the film, much like the other Disney princess films. There has never been any examples of non-conforming homosexual relationships in Disney which makes the younger generation grow and think that this is this the norm, and that women are inferior to men. Due to the large number of children grow up watching Disney films, they are exposed to these concepts of inferiority of women just as Butler's theory states, girls are taught that they are supposed to be heterosexual and unrealistic beauty standards, such as: small waists, slender body types.

Black panther

"How does black panther depict different racial representations?"

Black Panther does well at showing the two different racial representations (cultural, street smart (ie. gangster from the "hood")).  The majority of the film depicts the pride of their culture and traditions. Although the black characters are depicted differently from white characters. The white character, despite being represented as well-versed on culture and academically smart, she appears to know nothing about the artefacts shown on screen whereas the man of the opposite race that was with her was indeed well-versed on the history of the historical artefacts shown, therefore being more knowledgeable than the white women who only gives off the aura of an intelligent woman.

Therefore Levi Strauss theory can indeed be applied here, with the black/white opposition with their knowledge on these native artefacts from Wakanda.

Masculinity:

The representations shown here are of the "ideal" man: strong & muscular.

Masculinity is represented here as a big tough man, with muscles and a sharp jawline.

This give us the audience expectations of this stereotype that men are strong and muscular, also that they work-out and that is what they should be: a real man.

Tuesday 8th November

Representations can vary within long for television dramas . discuss how and why audiences might respond to and interpret these representations differently.

what are the representations

camera angles

mise en scene

note audience impact 

note theory that appliesButler

butler

Gender roles typically have stereotypes in film that are frequently enforced and we need to break the mould.

baudrillard

post modern cultures, representation in the media are more powerful than real life.

Hyperreality: how representations are more powerful &"real"than reality

Hyperreal: representations don't represent reality, they are representations of representations.

Simulacra: artificial copies of reality

 in postmodern cultures, representations are powerful than reality and representations themselves no longer relate to reality.

editing between characters to show their excitement 

low angle double shot

hair cuts and clothing accurate to the time period

sub urban house

sound used to immerse the viewer

contrasting rep. ie. two houses

wide shot to show the mise en scene, more run down 

silence causing an effect of anxiousness.

messy house disarray, panoramic shot, sleeping on the sofa 

smoking culture, different rep of character once in uniform. sheriff eating doughnuts. lack of responsibility 

the buyers family, is broke 

shot reverse shot editing. oldest son also responsible. single parent family.

 bullying

mise en scene, conservative clothing, carrying books around, not late to class, responsible. 

past context out of lgbt representation.

Levi strauss binary oppositions 

structure of meaning was making dependent on binary oppositions.

Tuesday 22nd November

Dirt

LO: To reflect on areas to improve , to improve application of media theory. To improve critical exploration of a text using theoretical framework.

Exam question: 

Representations can vary within long form television dramas.' Discuss how and why audiences might respond to and interpret these representations differently.

(50 mins to write)

The representations do vary,

Theorists: Levi Strauss- binary oppositions.

Gauntlett- identity varies in the media so audience has lots of identities to choose to identify with

Butler - performance of gender roles.

family life Will vs Mike, middle class vs working class.

- Mise en scene: safe area, suburban area, American dream house. Vs Will in the woods in a shack, trailer style.

Gender roles - Mike's mum vs Joyce - housewife in charge of the family vs working mum trying to provide for the family.

- Mise en scene: Mike- light, warm, setting. vs Will-  dark cold atmosphere. 

Dialogue & sound: reinforces the difference in gender roles and authority - calm and firm vs hysterical and lack of authority. 

Police roles: hidden vices -  drunk and incapable. Vs later in the show he is responsible and taking action to lead the search.

Camera shots and editing: close up on empty drink cans , ash trays, takeaway items, mess and unorganised. Reveal the hidden elements of the police chief, incapable. Long shots of him later in uniform coordinating the search for will- authoritative and caring

The representations are shown in a larger variety in Stranger Things through different roles and forms of structure. Multiple representations are shown through the life of the Byers and Wheeler families, this is seen in the mise en scene. When we are given a wide shot of the Wheelers family house which is shown to be a stereotypical suburban house for the time period, the house gives off a sense of security as it appears welcoming and overall an American "dream" home. The Wheeler household represents a stereotypical 1980s household, Mike's mum being shown as a common housewife who is meant to take care of the family, whilst the father provides a source of income. Here we can apply this to Butler as this shows how the different gender roles are presented.