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.



• 
  
  



• 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.



• 
  
  



• 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