Representation in the media

Representation

• According to Bennett

“we often analyse representation in the media according to categories such as:

• age
• disability
• gender
• socio-economic grouping
• race
• nationality
• sexuality”

(2005,p8)

Stereotypes

• According to Bennett

“Stereotypes are usually defined by their role and this will not usually be developed in any depth” (2005, p8).

• According to http://www.oxforddictionaries.com

“A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing” (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/stereotype, date unknow)

• According to Bennett

“Stereotypes also usually represent an entire social group in a single character” (2005,p9)

Gender representation in the media

• According to Bennett

“As female audiences continue to grow and the way that films are Consumed changes, new genre of film are developing, such as the chick flick and teen movies which are clearly aimed at women not men” (p147)

 

I think that traditionally women were presented in a realistic way which reflected on a more traditional society where women are weaker, less aggressive and more emotional but times have changed and the media has only just started to catch up, but now it has its becoming more and more realistic . Traditionally the key characteristics of a woman in the media are that they are much more sensitive than men, they’re gentle, loving, submissive and nurturing. They’re also seen to be more dependent and less violent than men. The key characteristics of an unconventional woman which is what were seeing more and more in the media lately is aggressive, emotionally distant independent and intelligent. Even though times are changing and the stereotypes of a female character and a female audience are changing gender does still have and influence on representation because some of it is true some of the time.

 

Audience

Audiences

An audience is a single or group of people who read, view or listen to media text, video, imagery or sound. Examples of these audience include: Radio listeners, Television viewers, Newspaper and magazine readers or film viewers. others include: music listeners, web page viewers/readers.

Audiences are very important. Without them there would be no media because otherwise there would be no point in media being created. The production of media creates profit and jobs so no audience means no jobs for people working gin the media. The mass media is becoming more competitive than ever to attract more and more audiences in different ways and stay profitable.

New technology has impacted audiences greatly. Traditional audiences were limited to print (newspapers and books) and music. Then came the Radio which became available to the general public in the first half of the 20th century,  this was the beginning of high audience numbers as millions of people could tune into a radio station and listen to the latest music or hear a radio broadcast. Later on came cinema and then TV which introduced mass viewings of moving pictures. Now we have digital technologies which has opened viewing of media to everyone with an internet connection. This has also led to the fragmented audiences, large groups of people viewing media at the same time is becoming less common, this is down to the vast selection of media available, more then anyone could ever view in a lifetime.

Company’s now make there money from new sources, most of there income comes from advertisements. Free media has adverts and to remove the adverts comes with a fee. This has opened up a new multi billion pound businesses with lots of money being put into advertisement research to maximize income. Newspapers and other print platforms are starting to rely more on online distribution to reduce printing and distribution costs.

There are two main types of audiences;

• Mass audience

Those who consume mainstream or popular texts such as soaps or sitcoms. Media and communication that targets a very large group of people (women, men, children, adults etc).

• Niche audience

much smaller but very influential. A niche audience is a small, select group of people with a very unique interest.

 

Audiences can be divided into segments or categories based on demographic and psycho-graphic profiling. Audience segmentation and profiling is crucial to media producers so that they have a clear idea of who they are targeting; who is their ‘typical’ reader/ viewer.  They gather information on their audience by using a range of audience research methods. Media companies produce texts that target a particular category of audience and promote it to that type of audience to maximize profits. Advertising agency’s do a similar thing, they tailor the advert and product to a specific audience category to increase the likely-hood of them buying the product being advertised.

Demographic Profile;

The factors for a demographic profile are; Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Socio-economic status and Geographical location. The socio-economic status of a person can be described using the JICNARS scale.

Phycographics: 4C’s Phycographic model (Young and Rubicam)

 

The Selby & Cowdery (1995)

Trendies-Those who crave the attention of there peers and follow trends in fashion, technology etc.

Innovators-Those who whish to make there mark and aspire to being successful.

Rebels-Those who are non-conformists, unconventional and don’t want to follow rules.

Drop-outs- Those who shun responsibility

Traditionalists-Those who want things to stay as they are, don’t embrace change easily and avoid adopting new ideas.

Utopians-Those who want the world to be a better place.

Cowboys- Those who want to earn easy money.

 

Virgin trains advert demographic profile;

Advert 1-Female, British, young (20’s), C1-E on the JICNRS scale.

• The age group for this advert is 18-30yo because of; texting, love, boyfriend, make up, fashion, heart on window, says ‘snog on a sofa’ at the train station which is something a young person would say, the music is young, cant be younger than 18 because it features alcohol.
• The gender is definitely female because of; the colours (pink), heart, flirtation with the men, make up, fashion, the music is very romantic girly music, a romantic narrative, heart tunnel, it features a female main character and a female attendant to reassure women that women work on the train too and its safe for them to travel alone.
• The geographical location is England because; its spoken in English, its set in England, the song is English, the company is English, the green fields are English, it featured Manchester city in the advert, it had a sign for Stoke-on-Trent which was changed to ‘snog-on-sofa’.
• The socio-economic status is E because the main character is a student based on her clothing and age. The adverts socio-economic status can go up to C1 because any higher and they would get first class or other forms of transport.

Advert 2-Male, British, middle aged, B-C1 on the JICNRS scale.

• The age group for this advert is 30-50 because of The age of the main character (about 32) the age of the other people (ranging from 30-50), his job is a businessman so the age of that would be 30+, the music isn’t young and modern, the main character is using modern technology, he has brown source which young people don’t tend to have.
• The gender is definitely male, this is because; the main character is male, the other characters are male, it’s about a businessman, which is a male dominated businessman, the music is confident and empowering and very male.
• The socio-economic status is C1 but could possibly be B on the JICNARS scale. This is because; he’s a business man so he’s high up on the scale but he’s not the boss because he got a phone call from his boss so he’s not A, he’s in first class, he dresses smart.
• The geographical location is England because Virgin trains is an British company, it’s set in England, the ticket says he’s traveling from London to Glasgow, there speaking English, the song is English, he’s eating an English breakfast.

 

The audience profile for my National Emergency Services Museum video

The video I made for the national emergency services museum was definitely targeted at a niche audience. After some primary and secondary research I came to the conclusion that the target audience age is between two groups; 5-10 years old and 30-45 years old. This is because the people who are most likely to visit the museum are parents taking young children. The social grade that would most likely visit the museum would be C1 and up because it cost money to visit the museum.

Laws and ethics 2.1 and 2.2

Copyright

• Copywritre products are protected by the copywriter symbol ©.

• According to Oxford English Dictionaries

copywriter is “the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film or record literary, artistic or musical material”

• According to BBC Bitesize

“copywrite gives the creators of some types of media rights to control how they’re used and distributed. Music, books, video and software can all be covered by copyright law.” (2014)

• Copyright lasts for the life span of the creator and 70 years after his or her death. In the case of joint creators the term of copyright protection is calculated with reference to the date of the death of the last surviving author.
• In film- Copyright in a film runs out 70 years after the death of the last two key directors
• Broadcasts- Copyright expires 50 years after broadcast
• Sound Recordings- Copyright lasts for 50 years from when it was made or published.

• According to Baylis and Proctor

“Copyright is an important issue to be considered during your production planning. Make sure that the ideas you are presenting are your own and avoid mimicking too closely any that already exist in the creative media sector” (2010,p37)

Pixar got in a legal copywrite situation after the release of there film “Monsters inc”. After the film was released song writer Lori Madrid claimed that the film had stole the idea from her 1997 poem “there’s a boy in my closet”. Poster Artist Stanley Mouse (real name Miller) claimed that Monsters Inc stole his idea for the two main characters, they both tried to take legal action under this law.

Libel law

• According to Baylis and Proctor

“ The lible law prevents media producers publishing or broadcasting anything about somebody that is untrue or may damage his or her reputation” (2010, p94)

An example of this was in 2007, Keira Knightley sued the Daily Mail under the Libel law for comments about an alleged eating disorder and was awarded £3,000 in compensation.

Race Relation Act

• According to In Brief

“Under the Race Relations Act 1976 (RRA) people are protected against discrimination on racial grounds. Racial grounds are defined as colour, race, nationality, or ethnic or national origins.” (ND) It goes onto say “It covers employment, education, housing, advertising, and the provision of goods and services.” (ND)

 

The BBFC

The BBFC gives ratings to films for the appropriate age for viewing bed on the content. There classifications are U (viewing for 4+), PG (means parents are warned and its up to them), 12A (appropriate for under 12’s to view whilst accompanied by an adult), 12 (No one under 12 can see the film), 15 (no one under 15 can see the film), 18 (no one under 18 can see the film).

The differences between PG ratings and 15 ratings are, 15 ratings can include;

-strong violence
-frequent strong language (e.g. ‘f***’).
-portrayals of sexual activity
-strong verbal references to sex
-sexual nudity
-brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
-discriminatory language or behavior
-drug taking

but PG rating at most will include mild language and occasional mild sex and drugs references.

 

My work

When shooting the footage for the national emergency services museum I was aware of the wide viewing age so I had to make sure that the final video would be rated ‘U’ based on the BBFC’s regulations for this certificate. This meant my video could not contain; drug references, frequent use of mild language and no violence, racism, sex references or antisocial behavior. I made sure my video didn’t contain any of this so it was appropriate for anyone to view meaning that children (the target market for the museum) will see the film and want to come. I had to stick to copywrite law and use licence free music in my final video, this is because the client didn’t have the funding to licence a song.

Effects theories 1.1

Hypodermic needle theory

passive audiences are injected with ideologies, beliefs, messages and values. Our behavior is easily and directly shaped by these messages from the media and is is more likely to have an effect on children and elderly people.

Two step flow

The two step flow assumes a more active audience who will discus the media texts with each other but still assumes we can be passive. It also proposes that we are influenced by “opinion leaders” like our parents, doctors or other experts in the field.

Cultivation theory

Repeated exposure to a media message, will lead to “desensitization” i.e. audience becomes less sensitive

Uses and gratification theory

Looks at why the audience use the media

Assumes that audiences are active consumers- they are not passive

Uses;

diversion – use the media to avoid something in the viewers life

Another is personal identity – the viewer identifies with a character

Personal relationships – gives a common talking point

Surveillance – find out what’s going on in the world

Reception theory (Stuart hall)

The audience do not passively accept a media text

He proposed three different reading;

Dominant reading – media text interpreted in the way intended by the producer.

Negotiated reading – audience accepts some of the media text but not all aspects

Op-positional reading – audience is in conflict with the text message

Audience readings of a media text depends on:

Gender, situated culture (background upbringing, culture, lifestyle), age, experience and knowledge.

 

Hypodermic needle theory suggests that the media is vary powerful and can implant images and ideas in our heads whereas cultivation theory is almost the opposite of the. Its suggest that the media isn’t very powerful and were desensitized to the topics and themes occurring regularly in the media. I think the most realistic theories are the two step flow theory and the uses and gratification theory. This is because the two step flow suggests a mixture of media consumption behavior, where audiences can view or consume media passively whilst still being able to view in depth and discuss the content. the uses and gratification theory is very realistic because it gives the four main categories of why audiences consume media and that when they do they do it actively even if its on a subconscious level. The media companies hope for and rely on audiences the hypodermic needle theory suggests. They hope for passive audiences who are easy to implant ideas and messages into, this is because it makes them more powerful as they will be able to control there audiences viewing patterns and ideas meaning a potential for more profit.

 

The national emergency services museum pre-production

My pre-production started of with research into the types of people that visit the museum. Through research methods including vox pops, internet surveys and secondary from the internet I found that the target market for the museum is parents (30-45 yo) taking young children (5-10 yo). I conducted this research so I could tailor the video to the target market making the video more appealing to the people that will visit the museum so more of them visit. To make it appeal to both parents and children iI had to make the video upbeat, lively and fun to keep the attention and interest of the children whilst portraying it as an informative educational day out to persuade the parents, I did this by having lively music and shots of the firemans pole whilst including an interview with a visitor and images of interesting exhibits from the museum.

Other pre-production included a map of the museum so we knew the way arround the location on the shoot day. Thisw as found on the museums website.

 

The other pre-production included the equipment list for the shoot-(Equipment Requirements) this is so I remembered to take all the equipment I needed for the shoot.  I had a risk assessment sheet- (Risk Assessment New) and we were given a call sheet for the first shoot day-(Call Sheet 12) and the second shoot day-(Call Sheet 2-2). I was in group 4 and we were given a list of shots for the shoot to make sure everything in the museum was covered by a group. (Shot List Group 4).

 

continuity editing

 

 

Freelance work

Freelancing

Freelance is the term given to someone who is self-employed. They will be temporarily employed by a company to do a set amount of work and then after they have finished the work the employment will end. It differs from a normal job because you aren’t fixed to a single company and your income can differ depending on the amount of work your getting at the time. Some of the advantages of working freelance are; you can get to work from home, you get can work for allot of companies so work on a  wide variety of projects, the pay can be high for a small amount of work. Freelancing does come with disadvantages. Work is not guaranteed so your pay isn’t constant, starting out is difficult because you don’t have a reputation, theres allot of competition, because you work for yourself you have to buy your own equipment and some of the equipment required is expensive. Some freelances are represented by a larger company who find work and freelance there workers out to the other companies. Networking is very important in freelancing because you create contacts which are needed for getting work, also companies recommend good freelances to each other. A good short showreel of only your best work is very important, this is so clients will see your best work but not get bored from a long showreel.

guest speaker- Joel the guest speaker spoke about his work with companies such as cartoon network and nickelodeon, he spoke about how starting out is difficult because you have to get a name for yourself. He said you should do one or two jobs for free to “gain experience” and “for your portfolio” but not many otherwise people will always expect free work. He also said that you shouldn’t take a job if it has an unrealistic deadline because you wont be able to deliver the product.

manual exposure experiments

 

Aperture

The aperture is effectively the hole in the lens that lets the light through. The size of the hole is measured in f stops. The smaller the hole less light gets through so the bigger the f stop and the larger the depth of field. The larger the aperture more light get through so the smaller the f stop number and so the shallower the depth of field. E.g.an f stop of 1.8 will let in more light than an aperture with an f stop of f8, it will also have a shallower depth of field meaning less of the subject is in focus, this creates a bokeh affect where the subject is in focus and the background is defocused.

 

Shutter speed

The shutter speed is the time that the shutter is open for.Its measured in fractions and decimals of a second, for example 1/50th of a second is open for longer than a shutter speed of 1/20th or 1.5 seconds. A longer shutter speed (a smaller fraction) will let in more light than a slower shutter speed. A longer shutter speed will also be more prone to motion blur and light streaks. In video a shutter speed of 1/50th is most commonly used because it gives the most natural looking motion blur.

ISO

ISO stands for international standards organisation. It’s basically a measurement of how sensitive the sensor or film is to light. The higher the iOS the brighter the image, this also increases the noise and the grain in the image.

TV studio reflection days 3 and 4

Pre-production between day 2 and 3

Between tv studio days 2 and three my group completed the pre-production for the tv program. This included the Running Order and the script which was later modified on the third day to cut the program to the desired 12.5 minutes. I was assigned the role of the vision mixer in the gallery, I was happy with this as I enjoyed this role because I got to have a crucial impact on the production of the final product. I got to work closely with the director to achieve the best possible results.

TV studio reflection day 3

On the third day we started the rehearsals for a 12 and a half minute program we had planed out in our groups. The class was divided into two groups so we produced two TV programs and everybody got a role to work on. I was assigned the role of the vision mixer, this meant that my job entailed previewing shots for the director to have a look at and decide on the next shot then when told I would change the live feed to a different camera. I also had to follow the script carefully to make sure I was ready for the cut to the VT’s when the presenter finished talking.I enjoyed this job even though it was difficult at times, I liked the challenge and importance of the role.

In the rehearsals we practiced different shot combinations and sizes for the interviews, we also practiced timings with the VT’s and the live stream to make sure it would end at 12 minutes 30, we left out 30 seconds for the introduction which was still not ye finished. The hardest part of the rehearsals was definitely the timing of the TV program and we had to keep adjusting the teleprompter to make the program last for the required length without going on for too long.

TV studio reflection day 4

On the fourth day we recorded the final program. We planed to start of with one rehearsal run through so everyone in the group was ready for the recording but we had issues with the timings so we ended up doing three rehearsals. The rehearsals paid of as our end production time was exactly 12:29 which is one second of our target time. The timing was crucial because otherwise it would throw of the rest of the program in a snowball effect, it would start adding up and eventually the program would be several minutes of the target time, this is what happened in one of the rehearsals).

The teamwork on the final recording day was crucial. Without the teamwork the whole thing would have broken down and the program wouldn’t have been a success. Everybody had to and did communicate well over the headsets so everyone was clear on there roles and the timings. The teamwork between the director and me was crucial because I had to change the shot exactly when the director needed it changing, I also had to realise when the director was becoming overwhelmed with too much to think about and take control the vision mixer by myself (which Im more than capable of doing) to take some of the workload of the director. I set up the previews for the director and then cut to the correct cameras at the correct times and notified the director on things like timings and shot sizes, all like a professional would.

I found the vision mixing was difficult because of the short time between having to start the VT’s near the beginning I almost missed the timings on several occasions, I also had to adjust the volume of the VT’s because all the volumes were different, I found this difficult because I had to change the window very quickly from selecting the VT to then the audio mixer to adjust the volume before the audio started, I then had to change the window again so the director could see the countdown so they could get the timings right. I overcame this timing issue with lots of practice in the rehearsals so I could get it right in the final recording.

There were quite allot of cuts that went well in the program. Shots like when Isaac reviled he was the farther and I cut straight to tin’s face at the correct time to reveal his expression and then did shot reverse shot between the two. This made the shot very comical because the timings were perfect. Some of the cuts towards the end of the program though started to get a bit lengthy. I kept some shot on for about 5-8 seconds which is quite long, I thought at the time that this would be ok as the Isaac and Tin were talking for quite a while.

 

The finished TV program ‘playtime with Isaac’