G325Question 1 – Analysing things you have created.(Thriller opening, music video).

Question 2 – Analysing things others have created (Media and Collective Identity).

LO: To analyse a self piece of media by applying theory where appropriate.

Question 1(a) asks students to describe their skills development and will consequently need discussion of at least two productions.

Question 1(b) is specific to one production piece. The second question will require students to evaluate their work in relation to one of the following concepts- genre, narrative, representation, audience and media language.

Applying theories - guidance

•You do NOT need to:⁻ Learn a load of quotes⁻ Explain their theories in great depth⁻ Know them all

•You DO need to:⁻ Use a few⁻ Be able to apply them to your work⁻ Consider and explain how useful/not useful they are when

discussing your work⁻ Play them off against one another, if they are opposite

viewpoints

LO: To analyse a self piece of media by applying theory where appropriate.

•Quote•Summarise•Comment

LO: To analyse a self piece of media by applying theory where appropriate.

• Assume your reader knows about the theory/theorist

• Don’t explain the theory; use it, apply it, evaluate it

• Bring it in using sentence starters such as:“A Todorovian analysis of the narrative

would argue. . .”“Mulvey’s notion of the Male Gaze

(1982) provides a useful way of understanding my music video in that. . .”

“An analysis using Dyer’s concept of Star Theory (1979) would suggest that my artist is represented as. . .”

Applying theories - guidance

Representation in Media ProductsRepresentation can be broken down into four areas:

AgeRaceGenderDisability

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

How someone or something is represented is communicated to us by codes. It is encoded by the sender (producer), and decoded by the receiver (audience).

Barthes and MythsCodes also function at the symbolic and ideological level.

These interpretive frames or linking grids were termed "myths" by Roland Barthes in his seminal collection of essays called Mythologies.

The nearly automatic and unconscious use of codes pervades all aspects of culture from basic verbal communication to mass media. We have codes for all kinds of popular culture genres, all the symbolic moves in advertising, political terms, race, and identity.

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

Mythologies, 1957.

Complete the worksheet!

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

• These are accepted views constructed via the media, which according to Marxism are created by the ruling classes to ‘hypnotise’ the masses.

• Many other representation theories plus into this, such as Mulvey’s notion of the Male Gaze, which argues that women are sexualised in the media because it is male dominated and that is the ideology it wants the audience to accept.

• What dominant ideologies might be present in a music video? What about a thriller?

• Answering these successfully requires you to think in terms of stereotyping.

Dominant ideologies

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

• These are accepted views constructed via the media, which according to Marxism are created by the ruling classes to ‘hypnotise’ the masses.

• Many other representation theories plus into this, such as Mulvey’s notion of the Male Gaze, which argues that women are sexualised in the media because it is male dominated and that is the ideology it wants the audience to accept.

• What dominant ideologies might be present in a music video? What about a thriller?

• Answering these successfully requires you to think in terms of stereotyping.

Dominant ideologies

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

Stereotypes• O’Sullivan et al (1998) details that a stereotype is a label that involves a

process of categorisation and evaluation.• Theorists such as Dyer (1977) argue that stereotypes act are a kind of

narrative shorthand and are therefore simplistic in order to quickly communicate ideas to an audience – e.g. in a horror film, the audience quickly know who is good and who is evil. Their suggestion is that stereotyping is, by definition, a negative process.

• Others such as Perkins (1979) argue that stereotyping is actually quite a complicated process, in which meanings are a negotiation between media producer and media consumer. She argues that consumers find a representation of themselves in stereotypes.

• This also linked to Althusser, whose theory is used to suggest that consumers often mis-represent themselves in constructed stereotypes. A loose example would be people seeing a superhero film and identifying with the super humans, thus mis-representing themselves.

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

Star Text (Dyer, 1979)Dyer specifically talks about the use of stereotypes in constructing artist image – in a process that typically involves four stages.

Whatever style of video you have chosen for your A2 project, you have represented the star in a way which either conforms to or challenges stereotypes.

The stages:1.Star is a real person

2.Star is a performer, we encounter them through the ‘role’ they play.

3.Star is a persona – a merging of the real person and the role they play.

4.Star is an image, a cultural signifier – a concentration of desired/expected attributes.

Gender RepresentationGender is perhaps the basic category we use for sorting human beings, and it is a key issue when discussing representation.

Essential elements of our own identity, and the identities we assume other people to have, come from concepts of gender - what does it mean to be a boy or a girl?

Many objects, not just humans, are represented by the media as being particularly masculine or feminine - particularly in advertising - and we grow up with an awareness of what constitutes 'appropriate' characteristics.

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

Laura MulveyMale Gaze, 1975

A theory about how men in films are represented as 'bearers of the look' which is usually directed at physically desirable, sexually submissive female characters who connote 'to-be-looked-at-ness' and are denied a female gaze.

Viewers often see films from a 'male perspective'Gendered and sexistMale controlling characters who do the looking are who the audience identify withFemme fatales buck this trend.

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

Janice WinshipOn magazine covers (DigiPacks):

“The gaze between cover model and women readers marks the complicity (involvement in crime) between women seeing themselves in the image masculine culture has defined”

“A magazine is like a club. Its first function is to provide readers with a comfortable sense of community and pride in their identity”

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

Freud - ScopophiliaSimply put – deriving pleasure from looking.

The foundation for other theories such as Male Gaze and Goodwin.

Also defined as voyeurism – deriving gratification from observing or seeing others. This can be sexual gratification, but it can also mean identifying with or seeing yourself in a character on screen (link to Barthes and Althusser).

LO: To analyse a self made piece of media video by applying theory where appropriate.

Application - Homework

LO: To analyse music videos using Goodwin's five key aspects.

Q: How is representation addressed in your media product? Post on your blog by January 2nd to get it marked and fed back on ready for the mock.

• Freud (Scopophilia)• Barthes (Signs reinforce cultural beliefs)• Althusser (Mis-recognising your self)• Mulvey (Male gaze, cinema screen enhances

voyeurism)• Dyer – simplistic stereotypes create easily

identifiable meanings in a promotional text such as a music video.

• Dyer also argued a process of star image construction.

• Perkins argued stereotyping is complex and negotiated.

Remember!

How has it been challenged? If it's missing, why did you not include it?