UNIT 50 LO4ASSIGNMENT 1

By Daniel Hans

This PowerPoint is going to inform and

demonstrate the obligations of journalists. It

contains information on social and cultural

awareness, representation, connotation and

denotation and also the different reading

theory by Stuart hall.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL AWARENESS

Social awareness means that you should know what

is socially acceptable from you in society and you

should act in that manner.

Cultural awareness means that you know the

different cultures in your community and you should

respect and appreciate the differences.

As a journalist you must be socially and culturally

aware when writing your piece as there are many

ethical boundary's that potentially you could cross.

If you cross these boundary's you could cause

offence to cultures or social minority's.

EXAMPLE This is an example of where a

journalist must be culturally aware as

he is writing about an terrorist.

Because of this he must aware of

the Islamic culture so he does not

write something that sound like he is

accusing the Islamic faith of being

full of terrorists.

This particular article also links to

offence and harm as if he did not use

certain language people may think he

is saying Muslims are terrorists and

be offended.http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/anton-du-beke-should-be-sacked-422781

REPRESENTATION OF RACE

Race, ethnicity and colour are biological

characteristics however there are also cultural

elements in those defining characteristics.

Representation of race in the media can consist of

stereotypes that enforce a races portrayal, this could

be seen as harmful as media representation may be

the only experience of a particular ethnic group that

an audience (particularly an audience of children)

may have. Racial stereotypes are often based on big

events (Such as 911), these may provide a child with a

set of narrow prejudices which will affect the rest of

their lives.

EXAMPLE

An example of an issue with representation of race

would be the BBC sitcom Citizen Kahn.

This got a couple of complaints from the Muslim

community as they thought it was a false

representation of their race and could be considered

racist.

However it was done in a comic way for a comedy

show, so it was allowed by the BBC.

EXAMPLE

An issue of race that was in

the newspaper would be the

John terry scandal.

He was accused of being a

racist after using an offensive

word against a black player.

The newspapers then

reported on this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2220039/John-Terry-racism-affair-harmed-Englands-reputation--David-Bernstein.html

REPRESENTATION OF GENDER

Gender is the basic category we use for telling the

difference between people, and it is a key issue when

discussing representation. 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 is 'appropriate' characteristics.

Again in the media you have to be careful how you

represent gender as there are stereotypes for them as well as

race. A classic stereotype of women would be that they are

meant to be a house wife and cook and clean, however this is

not a accurate representation and would cause offence.

EXAMPLE

In the media the representation of

gender in mostly stereotypical, but

there is a fine like to being

stereotypical or sexist which is a

Ethical offence.

An example of this would be adverts,

one in particular is the fairy liquid

advert where it features no men, giving

the stereotype that it is only women

who use it for washing up.

REPRESENTATION OF SEXUALITY

Sexuality is another way of categorising people,

there are 4 main sexuality's, gay men, gay women,

straight people and bisexuals.

As with any representation of people there are

stereotypes, gay men have a stereotype of being

extremely feminine and like fashion where as

lesbians have a stereotype of being butch or manly.

In some cases this may be true but when

representing them in the media you must be careful

how far you present the stereotype

EXAMPLE

Another example in journalism is when

Elton John wrote about the appalling

treatment that gays get in Ukraine.

In this article it shows that the

representation of gays is that they want

freedom to express them selves and be

proud of who they are.

If another journalist were to write about

this he would need to consider what words

he used so he would not be accused of

being bias or homophobic if he offended the

gay community

EXAMPLE

Another example of

sexuality is how the

represent straight women.

Journalists have over

time modified Katie prices

image by presenting her

in a very sexual way, as

you can see, in this

picture she is being

brought across in a very

sexy way.

However the role of a

journalist can do the

opposite as with princess

Kate, they bring her across

in a very elegant way as she

is the future queen and

could be an ethical offence

to bring her across as a sexy

model, as which the French

press did when they

snapped topless photos of

her.

CONNOTATIONS

dentations are the literal meanings of words

or objects.

The denotations of a dove could be is a white

plump bird.

The opposite to a denotation is a connotation,

this is the meanings behind of words or

objective, in this case the connotation of a dove

is religion or peace.

EXAMPLEAn example of use of connotation in my own

print work would be the front cover image of

my Mixmag article.

This is because Adam Who was dressed in a

onesie.

The denotation of this is that he like to wear

onesies as it states it in the magazine, but the

connotations are that he is fun and wild and

not afraid to be different.

I created this connotation by making up the

fun loving Adam who and then thought how I

could show this through a picture and thought

a onesie gave him that meaning.

CREDIBILITY

Credibility is the term used when describing how

reliable and believable something is.

In media this term is used when talking about

research and sources.

An example of this would be evaluating sources

when I did a documentary unit, I had to find the

source and then think whether it is reliable and

believable in terms of credibility.

EXAMPLE

Another issue surrounding

this story would be that is it

credible due the fact that it was

off camera. The only way that

this could have became a story

would be from the word of a

witness.

We now know that this story

is credible as he himself

admitted that he used a racist

term and apologised.

READABILITY Readability refers to how well you can read a

piece of text.

This is based on a couple of factors which are,

language used, punctuation, grammar, spacing,

paragraphs and spelling.

An example of this would be that a music

magazine would be more readable than a

Shakespeare script as the vocabulary in a music

magazine would be up to date English words

which people to day could read easily, however

in Shakespeare it uses old English which people

today would have difficulty reading.

EXAMPLE

In my own copy for my Mixmag

article on Adam who I had to change

the language and vocab used to suit

the target audience I was aiming for as

they would read it a lot better.

Also I changed the spacing and

paragraphing to follow the

conventions of Mixmag as if they do it

then it must be readable to their

target audience.

ALTERNATE READINGSThe encoding and decoding theory created by Stuart Hall says there

are 3 different types of readings, these explain how the audience

perceive a piece of media.

The 1st is preferred reading, this is when the director makes a media

piece with a meaning that he wants to bring across. The audience also

see’s this meaning and agree with it.

The 2nd reading is negotiated. This is when the audience partly

accepts the preferred reading and agrees with the author, but

sometimes have their own opinion and modify it in a way which reflects

their own social position.

The 3rd is oppositional. This is when the reader is at the opposite of

what the encoder is trying to bring across with the preferred meaning

and they completely resist it and make they're own meaning.

EXAMPLEAn example of alternate reading would be a music

review of a band.

The preferred reading would be that the band that is

being written about is good and you should listen to

them. This would be because the reader likes that type of

music.

The oppositional reading would be that yes they have

some good song but I wont listen to them a lot. The

reason for this would be that they can stand the type of

music but like other things.

The negotiated meaning would be that they dislike the

band and wont listen to them. This could be because they

hate that music or they don’t like being told what to

listen to.