Criminality: Case Study Day 1

Introduction to case study brainstorming idea: Analyze the representation of criminality in the media.

• Platforms: Broadcast, Print, E-media



• Broadcast Text Types: Scarface, Goodfellas, American Gangster & Game Over: The Alpo Story.



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• E-Media Text Types: Wikipedia pages on Big Meech, Larry Hoover and Frank Lucas all real life criminals who have been referenced in the media. Also comupter games such as The Godfather, Scarface, Warriors and Mob City.



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• Print Text Types: newspaper (the sun, metro, mirror etc.)articles on crime and criminals



• Wider contexts:



• Timeframes: Comparison of two films one old and one contemporary for example scarface and law abiding citizen.



• Theoretical findings: Feminism because women are rarely shown in criminal representations in the media. Marxism because of the moral outcome in the majority of crime stories/films/other results the same. Postmodern because the films question the so called truths of who in soceity are actually the heroes and villains.



• Media Issues and debates: That the films/tv drama and fictional portrayal of crime inspires and influences society to act in a more aggressive manor. Enforces the macho male image problematic to society. The arguement that UK imitates the USA.

Merrin

Merrin (2005):

Argues that the media doesn't represent the reality of society any more but instead produce simulations to justify there own existence. An example of this would be a gossip magazine produce articles on non-factual information to ensure their production and continuation.

E-media: http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127640658084479636

Print: Baudrillard and the media

Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard (1980):

Baudrillard argues that we have lost contact with the 'real' world are living through a state of lies similar to the film the matrix. He pins this on our misunderstanding that television and cartoon characters are fake and incapability to understand the difference between the two.

E-media: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/mar/07/guardianobituaries.france

Broadcast:

Print: Simulacra and simulation

Jean-Francois Lyotard

Jean-Francois Lyotard (1984):

"I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives... The narrative function is losing its functors, its great hero, its great dangers, its great voyages, its great goal."

E-Media:http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/lyotard.htm

Print: The Postmodern Condition

Dominic Strinati

Dominic Strinati (1995):

"Postmodernism tries to come to terms with and understand a media-saturated society. The mass media, for example, were once thought of as holding up a mirror to, and thereby reflecting, a wider social reality. Now that reality is only definable in terms of surface reflection of the mirror" Strinati suggest that previously the media simply used to re-present society to us but have now moved to a position of dictating how society now works. Instead of an image we are being shown a simulation and now imitating it to try and match the projection; times have moved and metaphorically speaking us, as in the audience, have now become said mirror. "Postmoderism is sceptical of any absolute, universal and all-embracing claim to knowledge and argues that theories or doctrines which make such claims are increasingly open to criticism, contestation and doubt". For me this is the clearest definition of postmoderism, although it is still undefined.

E-Media:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Theories-Popular-Culture/dp/0415235006

Broadcast:

Print: An Introduction to theories of popular culture

John Berger

John Berger:

Berger believes that seeing is one of the more important senses, he talks about children seeing and recognizing before words come. Also about never quite being able to describe a sight which has been seen to its full potential. To further this he talks about the skill of our eyes to more than just view an object, we also examine the distance from us as well as take a mental note of the surroundings. In terms of representation he believes that Men act and women appear, men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at.

E-Media:

Broadcast:

Print: Ways of Seeing

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey 1975:
Mulvey argued the male gaze theory, which is that the media is an unsymmetrical power relationship between the audience and institutions showing them. It highlights the masculine perspective and ignornes the feminie side. Also it suggest that man objectifiy women in the media, which essentially means that they ignore the fact that women have emotions and intellagence; suggest that they are slaves simply there for vouerism and to serve this purpose."According to Laura Mulvey mainstream film staisfies esspeacially the male spectator by projecting his desirers on the screen. Women are regarded as objects of fetishistic dsiplay for male viewers' pleasure."

E-media: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/laura_mulvey_and/
Broadcast:
Print: Fetishism and curiosty

Claude Levi Strauss

Claude Levi Strauss (1958):

"Social anthropology is devoted especially to the study of institutions considered as systems of representations, cultural anthropology, to the study of techniques which implement social life." This quote basically suggest that the social norms are set out by the institutions behind the representations.Strauss believed that representations are made and this means that all representations have ideologies behind them; with certain messages being encoded into them and others left out.

E-media: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/6496558/Claude-Levi-Strauss.html

Broadcast:

Print: Structural Anthropology

David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett (2007):
"It is highly unlikely that these ideas will have no impact on our own sense of identity. At the sam time, tough, it's just as unlikely has a direct and straightforward effect on it's audience." David Gauntlett believes that our personal identities are very complex and no one thing came determine it. A number of factors come into it and we take some charcteristics from the representation in the media as you can't escape from it.

• E-Media: www.theroy.org.uk/david
• Broadcast:
• Print: Media Gender and Identity

Richard Dyer

Richard Dyer (1983):

' How we are seen determines how we are treated, how we treat others is based on how we see them. How we see them come from representation' (Matter of Images) Richard Dyer believes that the representations we see determines how we then treat a certain people or situations. He argues that how we see something in the media is then how we react to it within a reality; for example if we see gays being abused on television we will imitate this behavior. He also comments on the idea of stereotypes having an impact on the social classes within society. 'the feeling that how social groups are treated in life, that poverty, harassment, self-hate and discrimination are shored up and instituted by representation.'

• Emedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dyer


• Broadcast:
  


• Print:Matters of image

Media Conference Reflection

Chewing gum for the brain: Why do people talk such rubbish about Media Studies?
Why Media Studies is worth studying. Professor David Buckingham

1.The claim that media studies is a soft subject and that schools pushing their students into to get higher grades and get higher up the league tables.

2. I learnt that media is given a bad name because it allows the lower classes to interact with the power positions but also that it is experiencing the same predujice as english literature.

3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/culture_industry

Online media, Cleggmania, and the Cowell Factor.
How do online media and convergence impact on the ways audiences and producers use and create media? Dr Julian McDougall

1. He speaks about the idea of media 2.0 comparing it to the internet 2.0, saying that the media has envolved and every media is expriencing convergance. Also he examines whether or not people such as simon cowell has dictatership or democratic power; aswell as the impact of the live political debates.

2. The idea of power and how he suggest it should work interested me, in particular whether simon cowell has as much power as the priminster.

3.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk5hvjmy_yg

Perfecting your production work.
How to get the most out of your practical projects. Pete Fraser

1. He remind us of the importance of planning aswell as taking a lot of shots for each scene. Also he said don't be affraid to take risk

2. I took from the lecture that i should plan for things to go wrong.

3.http://www.petesmediablog.blogspot.com

Paranormal Media: audiences, spirits and magic in popular culture
Supernatural media, audiences, and key concepts at A level. Professor Annette Hill.

1. She spoke about the fascination in the paranormal activity within the current media landscape.

2. I learnt from her lecture to look deeper into your chosen genre than the most popular shows and explore the less popular text.

3.http://www.westminster.ac.uk/schools/media/camri/research-staff/hill,-annette