Genre theory- Exam practice

"Audiences feel safe with the idea of genre". How far do you feel this statement is true?

Audiences feel safe with the idea of genre, because it's something they understand. They understand iconographies of a genre such as guns, horses, desserts and cowboy hats signifying that its a western. In some ways society likes the boundaries of genre as by knowing the genre, they know what to expect from the text. For example they know that at some point there will be a fast paced fight scene or dramatic explosion in a action film.

Secondly, genre is culturally dependant in the society it's created in. This allows audiences to identify with characters, events and the genre itself. For example the reality genre is very much apart of British culture and is known as Reality TV by its audiences, although its a hybrid genre of soap opera, game shows and cinema verite something that audiences may not know.

This idea of hybrids becoming new genres is where boundaries get mixed and may confuse audiences. With a new genre, audiences might not know what to expect as they are unaware of the codes and conventions it adopts. This however is based on audiences being very unaware of the media which is unlikely and in somecases audiences might like the mystery of a new genre- they want to explore where the genre is going. And as the more recent reality TV and Docusoap genres have become so popular, it suggests that audiences do like new genres and changes to TV.

Therefore, I think audiences do feel safe with genre and should do because producers use genre as a way of strongly communicating to their audiences- like stereotyping. Producers wouldn't do something extremely out of place as they might lose audiences. However, there are examples of changes in genres have been successful as they adopt from existing genres.

News Values- Exam practice

Analyse a news broadcast in terms of news values employed during selection and construction, possible gate keeping and possible bias in the broadcast. How explicit are these factors to the audience? Does this matter?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b010r2nj/

Frequency is one of BBC's news values as they had mentioned protests in Libya and the recent attempts at protesting in Syria. As in the last few months Lybia and Egypt have been in the news with protests, BBC see it fitting to report on these events. There is also continuity news values here as there is repetition regular updates on these ongoing events.

The report on Kate Middleton and future King, William, is a perfect example of refering to the elite as it is about royalty, and this is seen as a world wide event signifying the BBC's patriotism. Their particular focus is on where she grew up in Bucklesberry interviewing people from her village that knew her. This report could therefore be linked to proximity as she grew up in England.

Another report linked to proximity is the death of a 15 year old girl who lived in West London. Though lots of shots showed her friends and family crying, reinforcing this idea of British community, which I sense is what the BBC want to portray themselves as; patriots also highlighting how they choose to focus on local news.

In terms of the way the show was structured, the gatekeepers have decided to show news outside of Britain as negative with news about Lybia, or Afghan criminals escaping their prison. The news became closer to home, with the death of the teen, and negative news about the IRA rejecting a visit from the Queen. The news report ended with a positive one; the royal wedding.

There was a bias report about the IRA report as the reporter said only 300 people turned up to the affair, in a village of 10,000. In particular, the tone was mocking the IRA to make them seem inferior and almost childish for rejecting the Queen's visit.

These factors are not explicit to audiences. The news report I watched was only 10 mins long and audiences would recgonise that the BBC have chosen a few reports to briefly show. However, they might believe that reports are chosen in more simpler ways like the most important or biggest stories. In some ways, its not important for them to be aware of this mediation of the news as audiences are becoming more active and are aware of the internet and its abilities to provide information all events going on in the world. The News is just the primary source of information that hopefully insipires audiences to inquire more information.

The only downside to this, is many audiences would trust that those 10 mins of information is enough for them to know for the day, before they go to bed.

Gender Studies- Exam practice

"The male gaze dominates Hollywood movies". Using the top 5 films of the week, would you agree with this statement?

1. Source Code (12A)



2. Little White Lies (15)



3. Limitless (15)



4. Your Highness (15)



5. Red Riding Hood (12A)



It seems that male gaze still dominates hollywood. It appears that if women are significantly present in a film, they are the object of male gaze. For example, in Your Highness, although Natalie Portman's character is a strong female, she is still sexually objetified by the shot of her stripping off by a lake. The shot is vouyeristic and takes the viewpoint of the two gazing male protagonists. This contrasts with the protgaonist of Red Riding Hood where she doesn't seem to be the object of male gaze, most likely because she is the protagonist and she is represented as young and innocent, rather than a sexual object.

If women aren't an object of male gaze, then they seem to be not present in these films. Both Limitless and Source Code have little attention on women. In Source Code the female protagonist seems to bring little to the plot, other than be a general representation of "normality" as it is the male protagonist who is the changing factor in the film. A Marxist would argue that this brings out hegemonic ideologies about gender; men are the active ones while females are the passive ones.

The only text that doesn't seem to have commented on gender roles is Little White Lies. This might be because it's a foreign film so doesn't contain Hollywood ideologies.

Postmodernism- Exam practice

To what extent would you say that contempoary television news broadcasting is postmodern?

The news is very postmodern as there is inertextuality, bricolage and metanarrative, and Baudrillard's simulacra and hyper reality theories are also present.

Firstly, it is said that intertextuality and bricolage is a concept of postmodernism and it could be said its present in the news. Intertexuality is when one texts refers to another to add meaning. Sometimes, the news almost refers to itself. For example a news report might have content from the last report such as the same images or same dialogue, but with more information. This give audiences who have seen the last report a feeling of develoment in the event. For those who haven't seen the previous report, they are still able to follow the event. This is what is expected from post modern texts; all audiences should be able to understand whats going on wheather they've watched the intertextual reference or not.

There is also a sense of bricolage in the news. The news and documentary have very similar elements e.g. the sound bridging, voice overs, expert interviews, accounts from real people, footage from the event that links to the story. However, the news mixes in this live event styling, with reporters, presenters and live footage. The the news, which has be regarded as its own genre could have arguably been adopted by documentary and live events.

Metanarrative is also in the news as is provides a range of narratives (reports and stories) that help shape our society and culture.

Bauldrillard came up with the simulcrum and hyperreality theories which is "the simulation of something which never really existed". Live news simulates event around the world in our own society, so we think we are experiencing the event it when we are not. The event we are experiencing isnt real as no one in the "actual event" is watching it from the comfort of our home.

Overall, I would say that the news is very post modern as it has all the ingredients of a postmodern text, from intertexuality, to the simulation of reality.

Censorship- Exam practice

Will we ever reach a point where as an audience, we are so desensitised that we don't need the bbfc anymore?

I don't think the BBFC would ever stop.

If audiences do become more desensitiesed to texts, then producers would make their films more and more explicit and there will always be age groups that these films would be unsuitable for such as young children.

Some may argue that the BBFC won't be needed in the future as audiences are becoming more desensitiesed. This is due to things like lad mags with sexual content on the front covers being displayed openly in shops or explicit songs being played on day time radio or daytime music channels rather than being after watershed. This exposure to extreme content is also seen in video games like COD that is often played by younger childern below the certificate rating.

Some may feel that as many young people do already ignore ratings of texts they consume, that there is no point to the BBFC. However, cases from the past suggest that the BBFC should continue to exist and where possible people consider the rating before they let others watch if. the Jamie Bulger case is a clear example of why the BBFC exist. Two young boys had taken a little 3, Jamie Bulger, attacked and killed him. The methods they used to kill him were also present in the film Childs Play 3, which one of their parents had rented. This suggests they had watched the film and were influenced by it. The film is rated older than the kids, which instantly deems the film inapproprate for their age. This shows that if a text is not appropriatly cataogrised for different age groups, it could have a negative impact on audience, such as the copy cat theory and media effects theory.

If audiences do get more desensitied in the future, maybe instead of getting rid of the BBFC, maybe consider adding higher age ratings or creating a new way to classify films and other texts.

Media Ownership- Exam practice

Disney has four major sections of their conglomorate: The Walt Disney Studios entertainment, Disney Consumer Product, Media networks and Parks and Resorts.

The Walt Disney Studios Entertainment

This is where all their shows are produced and created, some of these companies also distribute films. There are also some theatre companies and music labels as they also produce their own music. They also own some non Disney related compaines like Touchstone pictures which produce a range of films.

Parks and Resorts

Disney is famous for its resorts, originally the ideas of the first owners, the Disney Brothers Rob and Walt. They have Parks in different coutries and other things like curise lines and clubs.

Media Network

In terms of owning companies outside the "Disney" brand, this is their biggest success. They joined the ABC network to create Disney-ABC Television Group which is responsible for all the ABC and Disney's channels and shows. They also own ESPN incorporated and its channels.

Disney Consumer Products

This is all the things available for audiences to buy. This includes their films and shows, merchandise and any other items that are Disney brand. They also have a publishing company for publishing their famous disney books.

Representation and Regulation- Exam practice

Family has more stereotypes than Eastenders as it representations are very limited compared to the diverse range of representations seen in Eastenders. Mostly represented in Family is gender; men through the father, Peter, and women through the mother, Lois. Men are represented as loving gadgets like cool cars, and never listening to their wives which are a dominant representation of men. Women are represented as practical as Lois asks if they can afford the expensive car. She is also represented as a mother who is always tired and worn out as she is resting on the sofa, and the baby begins to cry (though it can talk) for her attention. Women are also represented as a sex object as on the news, the presenter was shown just as her legs, not her body or face. Interestingly, her opinions are voiced even though it’s limited to 2 taps of her shoe for yes and one for no.

This contrasts with Eastenders where there are a range of representations of different groups. Firstly women are presented as chatty and nagging signified by a character nagging her husband and another woman nagging a teen for his behaviour. Women are also represented as always being concerned with love as one character is really excited to go on a webdate with someone else.

There are alternative representations of men, such as being sad and emotional, as one character grevies his child, and other men being concerend about him and caring towards him.

Unlike usual, ethinic minorties are represented as caring and concerened about their communitity, which is an alternative representation in a post 9/11 era.

From this episode, the most stereotyped group are teenagers. They are seen as angry aggressive, teasing and troublesome signified by one character getting angry from being teased by another. This stereotype of teens is reinforced by the way another teen is dressed. While the whole family is eating at the tabele, one is wearing a cap, hoodie and tracksuit bottoms.This character always dresses like this, reinforcing negative and typical expectations of teens.

As a result, Family Guy has a lot more stereotypes than Eastenders because it uses stereotypes as a way of creating humour. Audience would be able to identify with these comic characters because they are the extremes of what they recognise in their own lives. The fact that it's an american show again suggests why there are extremes because their crude and offencive humour involves a lot of stereotyping.

Most of the groups in Eastenders are represented fairly, as not all groups are represented in stereotypical ways such as men being emotional and caring.Though there is less stereotyping, there seems to be some of women and teens and questions if the institution still has hegemonic values as the men are represented fairly where women and teens are not.

Task 4: Gangster films

From 5.30 to the end

What effects theories are relevant to this scene from a gangster film?

Scarface presents many ideologies about a gangsters life and the hyperdermic needle theory would suggest these ideologies will be "injected" to its audiences who will too adopt them. Some of these ideologies include drugs, money and guns are factors needed to live a poweful and exiciting life as all the gun shooting is exiting for audiences. This shows how powerful the media are and the responsibility that producers have over what they produce,though relies on audiences being passive.

The extreme violence seen in Scarface could mean audiences become desensitied to things like violence and other things seen like drugs. This theory considers that too much exposure to things in this scene like extreme gun shooting, blood and gore means that audiences will become desensitised to it in real life. This raises concern about violence in the media and if we see too much though, like the hyperdermic needle theory it relies on passive audiences, and it is hard to prove or measure its effects on audiences as there are many other contributing factors.

The copy cat theory, more pushed by the media iself, suggest that if audiences (usually children) see it in the media, they they will go and copy it. This text would be an example of a film that might lead to "copy cat" behaviour as it involves a lot of dangerous but exciting violence, but also its an iconic film and still today shows use it as intertexual reference. The theory reflects concerns of parents and communities, however it seems to be more of a moral panic created by the news. Though the Jamie Bulger case seems fitting to this theory, the suggestion that Childs Play 3 had a hand in the matter was finally dismissed by the court.

All these theories rely on passive audiences, but they can be active too, and this theory applies to Uses and Gratifications. This suggests that audiences take from a text whatever they wish. For example, to some audiences this could be "information" on what kinds of large guns are available, but to others this is just "entertainment" for cartharsis. This realises the power audiences have, though some might argue this theory give too much credit of power to audiences.

Finally Reception analysis and enthography suggests audiences create their own meanings from text basedon their background. For example, someone who has been apart of gangs and gun violence in the past may take different readings and views of this text compared to someone who has grown up with a more sheltered life. Though this takes into consideration people's life experiences, again it belives in the power audiences hold when the power is more likely in the hands of the institutions producing it.

Task 5: Readings

Dominant reading: The Simpsons is a funny show that reflects life in America. The characters always do something more extreme than you expect which makes the show exciting.

Negotiated reading: Some of the jokes are a bit extreme but the characters are entertaining. You can see how the producers are satirising the "American Dream"

Oppositional reading: The Simpsons is a show that makes it socially acceptable to mock and riddicule different groups of people, through what they call "comedy". Its not funny or clever, its just silly and offensive to Americans and other countries.

I think I take a negotiated reading. I understand why people would take a dominant reading but you can see how they satirise the american dream and family life with extreme sterotypes of America and American families.

Task 3: Representation essay

"Media representations rarely challenge the dominant values of society nor do they give a voice to those with little power". To what extent is this true for the group of place you have studied? Why?

When looking at historical representations of women and familes, they are very much fixed by shows like Father Knows Best and films like Double Indemnity. These ideologies were created by the dominant in society- powerful males. Now, in a post feminist era with very active audiences, you'd think that texts gave all goups that were subordinated in the past, a voice to represent themselves, but this is not true in all cases. Some text are still ideologically fixed to the past, usually for comic entertainment. This essay looks at how women and families have been represented over the years, and how and why these representations have been created so.

Media representations favour dominant values of society and this is seen with historical representations where men used their power of the media to subordinate women. During the war, men had to go and join the force, and women had to leave their homes to experience work and jobs to esure the economy and business still existed when the war ended. When the war did end, men returend to see that women enjoyed the power and freedom they'd been given and demanded more. In a bid to gain control of society, men used the media to perpeturate negative representations of women to subordinate them again. This was in the form of the femme fatale; a deadly and dangerous woman who was seen in film noirs from the 1940s. A particular example of one is Phyllis from Double Indemity; her innocence and charm made her more deadly as the man she seduced did not notice her manipulative and deceptive nature, like the audience would have seen. This made men lose trust in women as they all belived women evil and deceptive like the ones shown in films reinforcing the hypodermic needle theory. This shows that the elite with their hegemonic values- the “idea of domination of one group over another" (Gramsci, A.)- is able to inject their values making them dominant and unchallnged by subordinated groups.

This power struggle wasnt over for women as the feminist era rose, where women were set to gain equality within society. As a result, more modern texts give women a voice which they didnt have before, making the statement not entirely true. Doghouse is a example where female zombies are a metaphor for deadly women who are out to get men who treat women badly- the kind of men that create dominant ideologies to favour the powerful and elite in society. Some of the zombies are seeminly the typical, helpless female like the bride who never got married, but the twist is she has the knife, the phallic symbol of power and contol. She stabbs the most mysogynistc character in the hand, which could be signifed as defiance against the powerful and elite in society. This shows that not all represenations favour those in power but aim to reflect the anger of the subordinated.

However, it could be argued that these women only pose a tempoary threat to the men in the film as they escape. This could be mocking of the femninst movement as to men it only posed a tempoary threat as women still haven't gained equality. Therefore this would suggest that men are still using the media to perpetuate negative representations of women being angry, annoying zombies, that don't succeed in attacking men.

Hip hop and rap videos have also played a part in rarely challenging dominant values of society as the men have the money and the power and control, while the women have no power and are just objectified. In 50 CENT's P.I.M.P video, men are glorified, as they are all dressed in white, living in beautiful houses with nice cars and "magic sticks" to represent their status and manhood. This contrasts with the women, who are only sexually objectified, they never talk except saying "We love you Snoop Dogg" again focusing the attention to the men. A particular shot is an extreme low angle of a scantity clad woman dancing and you can seen up her skirt. The shot is slowed down providing a voyeristic view. This is Laura Mulvey's male gaze and the text forces all audiences to identify a male view point. This focus drawn to men in the text and also when viewing the text suggest men perpetuate the dominant ideology of men being in power, and give little voice to women who are just there to be vouyered.

This contrasts with the Black Eyed Peas' "Where Is The Love?" gender is no concern, but they are attempting to challenge dominant values by questiong "where is the love" and literlly giving voices to those without power. The narrative of the text is the group, like an actvist group or mini force, go around the city, sticking up "?" like anti- status quo propaganda. They are trying to challenge what's dominant in society through their song and video. They also give voices to those without power, by making a range of people, different ages, gender and ethnicity lipsync the song, to be apart of this society- challenging group. This shows that not all instituions allow the dominant values to always be reflected and ignore the powerless.


Historically families were represented to fit what males wanted, it didn't challenge the norms nor did it give power to those without. Father Knows Best, an American TV show which showed a family; a housewife, loving mother that was expected of women during the 50's, a doting daughter that wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps, signified by them both dressing the same. The father was the man of the house and when he came home for work, the rest of the family were ready to greet him. The son wanted to follow his father's footsteps too as he dressed in a suit like his father. And they had a little daughter, who was happy being the innocent loving daddy's girl. These representations of each family member, was in some way created to benefit men in society, suggesting they had control of the media and made it a dominant value that everyone should abide by. This was a role model for families across America.

Some modern texts still have historial values such as the Simpsons where a negotiated reading might be that family are still nuclear, and have very typical roles within the family making the text fit dominant ideologies about perfect families. Like Father Knows Best, The Simpsons has a housewife mum, a breadwinner father and 3 children. However a dominat reading is that The Simpsons satirises the so called "perfect nuclear family" as they are far from perfect, more dysfuctional through their comic nature. Though the Homer Simpson is the breadwinner at a dangerous powerplant, he is lazy, childish and rather ignorant of social issues such as homosexuality seen in a particular episode. Lisa is a young daughter that reflects the feminist era, as she smart, mature and one day wants to become president of the USA. These alterntive representations not only provide comedy, but give voices to those without power (through Lisa) and mock the ones with power (Homer). This shows that not all texts reinforce dominat values, and if they do they might use them though satire.

Finally, it could be said that Everybody Hates Chris only perpetuates one stereotype of black familes, and rather than giving them a voice, a voice of dominant values is metaphorically talking for them. Though the show represents a ethic minority family, it does nothing to challenge black stereotypes, but only reinforces them to create humour. The family are loud, embarrasing to the children and comical. Though some audiences might respond to in in terms of uses and gratifcations- they might see it only as entertainement- some might repond to it in terms of the hypodermic needle theory- audiences might see this as what all ethic minority famlies act this way. Therefore some modern representaions still favour the powerful as subordinate groups are sterotyped through comdey. This however, like the hypodermic needle theory relies on audiences being passive.

To conclude I think in historical representations were never challenged as the elite had full control of the media; they could manipulate groups and represent them in whatever way they wanted to benefit themselves. More modern texts uses these representations and use humour/comedy to satirise how society use to work. As audiences are becoming more active, they are able to take different readings of texts to distinguish what they feel is a accurate representation, or at least in some way that representations are constructed.

Task 2: New and Digital Media essay

"The new generation of UK media power players are going straight to their audience via web" www.mediaguardian.co.uk, Monday July 14 2008.

How have media institutions responded to the opportunities offered by new and digital media?

Media institutions are beginning to suffer due to the free content, flexibility and portability that the internet allows. Therefore TV broadcasting institutions like the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and print institutions owned by Rupert Murdoch, have made use of new digital media, in order to reach their audiences and keep hold of them.

In TV broadcasting, institutions have now made their shows available from their website in order to keep their audiences. These are called catch up services; BBC I player is the most popular accounting for 98% of catch up service internet traffic. Others include 4OD by Channel 4 and ITV player. Due to the introduction of web 2.0 the internet has give audiences more freedom and power and this has led to more demands in what they want. Catch up services mean that audiences don’t have to stick to scheduling giving them the choice to view it when they please. This also gives new audiences the chance to view shows as they might have not been able to view it in the past due to scheduling. This shows how the freedom that broadcasting shows on the internet can guarantee audiences for these institutions to keep them alive.

New and digital media developments led to the deregulation of TV into digital channels, and this has provided a way for institutions to broadcast more on TV. Now most of the first 5 channels have HD channels and time shift channels. For example channel 4 has 11 channels, 3 are HD allowing audiences to view shows in better quality for their digital TVs and 3 are time shifted allowing audiences to view a show an hour after it was first broadcasted. These technological developments allow institutions to reach and give more freedom to their audiences without the use of the internet.

As social networking has become very popular in the last few years, with sites like Twitter and Facebook, TV institution ITV attempted to join in with the new and digital craze. In 2005 they bought Friends Reunited, one of the first social networking sites, for £175m but 4 years later sold it at a loss for £25m. This shows how difficult it is for institutions to get into the e-media platform to keep business alive, but also how fast moving the e media industry is; Like Myspace, a site could be big and popular and in a few years forgotten about.

C4 attempted a more successful business decision again in the digital TV sector in order to keep profits alive. They joined Emap to create 4Music, a music channel that brought 28m revenue.

As TV content is free online, many assume audiences always expect free content and will do things like opt out of the license fee so institutions like the BBC will lose out, but that isn’t always the case and there are possible opportunities for the institution to benefit from it. Micropayment is a small business for paying small fees for TV content, which has often been criticised as audiences are too comfortable with watching free content. However, according to the entertainment company, Freemantle Media, their research says audience are “willing to pay small amounts for on-demand TV programmes from 5p up to as high as £2”. This infers that pay-walls and micropayments could have a successful place online because the institutions will benefit from the audience who are willing to pay for an online service. This has been a similar idea of Rupert Murdoch who has added a pay-wall for his successful and well regarded online version of the news newspaper, The Times (thetimes.co.uk/tto/news). The success of the pay-wall hasn’t been fully analysed but the institution expected a loss of 90% of consumers, but so far has only lost a third. Therefore, if institutions decide to put up a pay-wall for TV it would be beneficial as it is clear that audiences are happy to pay for TV if they choose not to stick to scheduling.

Newspaper institutions could benefit from citizen journalism, something that the introduction of web 2.0 and active audiences has allowed. As audiences can now produce their own content and post it on line, newspaper institutions can use some of their user generated content to help research events that should be in the news. For example the journalist researching the Ian Tomlinson case was successful because he embraced the “mutualisation of news. The guardian journalist, Paul Lewis, came across someone who had filmed Tomlinson getting beaten up by the police and later that day Tomlinson died of a heart attack. Without the user generated content from the citizen journalist, the police wouldn’t have discovered what had happened to Tomlinson. This shows how media institutions can optimise existing content online for themselves.

Ability to add comments
Audiences might expect free content from now on- the might have to continue to make it free- cant make profits
Audiences want more interaction
BBC add chat service
Will this mean institutions constantly have to adapt to audience’s needs
Marxism- powerful obtaining audiences
Pluralism- more freedom and choice in terms of audience consumption
Murdoch and Myspace
News content online
The Daily newspaper- online only

Post 9/11 and the media

What are the issues raised regarding representation of ethnic minority groups?

Since 9/11, the media have prejudice behaviour towards ethinic minorities, in particular muslims and groups from middle eastern countries. They make audiences feel that like the group that did the attacks, most ethinic minorities pose a threat to society and this is called orientalism.

This can be seen in texts like the news, where examples like "muslims buring poppies" and "christians burning the qu'ran" still managed represent all muslims as negative people but only one man as wanting to burn their holy book who in the end, apologies and was forgotton about.

The film Four Lions (Morris, 2010) is about 5 muslim extremists who plan to bomb their area. Though looking at a very serious theme and topic, the text is a black comedy and mocks these 5 people, by putting them in ridiculous and comical situations. By making the matter comical, it makes the text more approachable, but also negativly represents muslims as violent and destructive but also silly and incompetent.

This however contrasts from West is West (Emmony,2010)the sequel to East is East. According to a Guardian review, though its focused around being a British Muslim and the struggles they have to face, it seems to ignore major events like 9/11 and its effects in society. The reviewer said:

"anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the current turmoil among British Muslims, or even just some sense of what lies behind Pakistan's current troubles, will leave disappointed – as a chronicler of Pakistan, Khan-Din is concerned to present the most harmless, cheery view possible....Think of all that's happened since 1999. You wouldn't have guessed it from this."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/19/west-is-west-review-pakistan

This suggests that either the media has moved on from the negative post 9/11 attitudes towards Muslims, or that when faced with representing Muslims, they would rather ignore the real issues that still unfortunatly exist.

Task 1: Section One practice

Watch the trailer for Bully (2001) and the opening of Skins (Series 1, episode 1, 2007).

Answer the following exam questions

1. Compare and contrast the representations of teenagers in the two texts

Both these texts have a negative representation of teenagers, showing them as troublesome but one is more comical while the other is serious.

The representation of teenagers in ‘Bully’ are serious and extreme mostly sutured by the voice over of the mother saying they “smoke”, “drink” and “don’t do anything”. The most shocking representation is their violence with shots of one punching another character in the face, a shot of one raping a girl and a shot of one hitting a base ball bat towards an unknown character. Though in more contemporary representations there are news reports of knife crime, gun crime and violent deaths amongst teenagers, this text seems to exaggerate a dominant representation of teen.

This contrasts to the troublesome nature of the teenagers in Skins. They appear to annoy their parents to create humour, such as the protagonist turning the radio to max and ignore his father but refusing to turn it off or locking the bathroom door and exiting through the window. What is more comical is how this was apart of a plan for the teen girl to sneak in who reflects a dominant representation of rebellious teens who sneak out at night to parties for example.

Not only does this represent teenagers as mischievous and annoying, but also willing to help each other out and clever as their extreme and funny plan left the father unsuspicious of both the son and daughter.

Similarly, towards the end of Bully, the audience get a sense of community between a group of teens, even though they plot to kill a fellow member. This also brings ups issues of rivalry between teenagers such as gangs which is often shown about teens in the media.

Both texts also look at sexuality, which is always linked to the representation of teenagers. Again Bully takes a more serious view to it while Skins look at it in a more comical way. Bully’s trailer signifies that there is a lot of sex and nudity with shots like a low angle of a girls bum, a close up of a girl’s legs, and many shots of people having sex. The most noticeable and shocking shot is the still shot of a girl screaming while having sex which suggests she is being raped.

This contrasts with the themes of sex and nudity in the opening of skins. The establishing shot zooms out to see the protagonist lying in bed with a duvet cover of a naked man and a naked woman, which is comical. Also he checks the time on his watch and promptly looks out his window to stare at his naked female neighbour who shockingly doesn’t seem to be bothered that a teen boy is staring at her. This reinforces teen stereotypically seen as being concerned with the opposite gender.

2. Consider the view that the current representation of teenagers is simply another ‘moral panic’

Cohen believed that the media can sensationalise particular news and constantly recreate ideologies about certain groups, usually negative, and he called this ‘moral panics’. These are defiantly present in the media as the same representations of teens are causing parent and other members of society to be concerned or even fear teenagers. Some might argue that current representations aren’t just moral panics but truly represent teens today. This may be due to events in the news such as an article in the Metro about teens recruiting gang members via YouTube. Audiences might see these constant negative representations of teens as the truth as the news represents itself as the truth.

Others say that these are only moral panics and misrepresent teenagers. The media is mostly the cause of these moral panics, as one big event can trigger the media to select certain reports that constantly reinforce particular stereotypes of teens, at the moment, its is often about teenagers and pregnancy, drugs, alcohol and violence. As the news selects what they think is news valuable content, it makes it hard for other teen representations to be shown, cornering them into particular stereotypes and creating moral panics.

3. To what extent has new and digital media given younger audiences the opportunities to shape their own media representations?

The introduction of web 2.0 and the rise of the internet have had a major impact on all members of society, especially teenagers and younger adults. These young people that many years ago were powerless and not heard amongst others in society now have the ability to represent themselves via the internet.

Firstly the introduction of social networking sites have played a big part in shaping representations. With sites like Facebook, teens can now represent who they are with information such as their interests in music, TV shows and films. Though this provides basic information, audiences get to see what sort of people teenagers are really like rather than basing it on what they see in the media.

Though Facebook allows democracy amongst audiences, its often been negatively represented in the media for privacy and safety issues. This moral panic about safety and privacy could lead to bad representations of users, who are typically teens and young adults. This therefore means that teenagers’ ability to represent themselves has little purpose as larger media institutions still uses the site as a platform to negative stereotype the group. This also reinforces hegemony theory where the “dominant classes rule other classes” (Gramsci).

Web 2.0 has also allowed many well regarded media platforms to be available on the e-media platform, but also allow audience participation in a way that was not able before. Now anyone can comment on things like blog, magazine and newspaper websites and catch up services websites. All major institutions allow audiences to comment allowing themselves to represent their groups.

However, there is a sense of representation and stereotyping with these institutions and who they are targeting. For example, the guardian is a well regarded newspaper and is targeted at adults who are well educated, and therefore are more likely to comment, which allows them to be represented through a well regarded institution. On the other hand, E4’s popular comedy series Inbetweeners, has more comments from younger audiences as they are the target. This may be a negative representations teens as they “love the inbetweeners”, a show full of negative stereotypes of teens which others might see as a true representation. Therefore, the platform and institution that audiences comment on could reinforce particular stereotypes about them.

Section A practice

Exam paper: http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA-MEST3-W-SQP-07.PDF 1. Compare and contrast the two texts, with particular reference to the representation of teenagers (8 marks) Text 1 and text 2 both represent teenagers, but do it in very different ways. What is most noticeable is the misrepresentation but now dominant representation of teenagers in text 1; as “teen thugs” or “gangsters”. Not all teenagers are like this, but are often represented like this because of past issues in the media like gun and knife crime that was seen as a “moral panic” in the last few years, which suggests why this paper was written in 2007. This moral panic was quite problematic as many people began to believe teenagers were all thuggish which led its being seen in all aspects of the news and gaining high news values, which reinforces the cultivation theory; as groups constantly get represented in a particular way, audiences begin to believe that the representation is accurate, though this relies on audiences being passive when consuming the news. Interestingly text 2 is challenging all these representations and stereotypes, by attempting to change the attitudes of audiences towards teenagers by not referring to them as “gangs” but “groups”. Unlike text 1, this text is aware that audiences have pluralistic views towards the stereotypes of teens as it says that anyone who has been “victimised” by them will find this “hard to swallow” and that by calling all teens “gangs” will offend them. While text 1 blames teens for their difficult behaviour signified by them actively “recruiting over the web”, text 2 uses research to suggest that teens involved in criminal activity have been brought up in “conflict and single parenthood” signifying their troubled behaviour is not entirely their fault. These texts bring up issues power as text 1 uses its power to reinforce stereotypes about teens through research (being the particular gang who recruit online). The other text uses research to challenge these fixed ideologies about teens. 2. Consider the view that the current press treatment of teenagers is simply another moral panic (12 marks) 3. There are always concerns about new technology. In your view, what are the possible benefits and problems attached to social networking, particularly on the Internet? (12 marks) One of the issues that social networking brings up is ownership and control. Audiences are becoming more powerful which has allowed them to have moe control of the internet with the introduction of Web 2.0. In particular, audiences have more power on websites like Facebook, twitter, and even Youtube as they can represent themselves by actively joining groups for example. This is both beneficial to audiences and producers as they work together to produce content. However a Marxist would argue that institutions such as YouTube exploit audiences for content, which they host and make money out of. On the downside, audiences could in the future expect more power and more content to choose from, putting strain on institutions or even consumer-producers within the audience. Another issue with social networking is how is has taken over face to face communication. Though the internet on a wide scale has benefited audiences across the globe because they can communicate to anyone in the world, social networking has gotten to a point where audience live in this “virtual world”. This is also called hyper reality where “the simulation of something which never really existed” (Baudrillard, j.) or the “virtual irreality” (Sparrow, P.) which can have a negative impact on society’s basic form of communication; face to face talking! There are also a lot of recent concerns to do with privacy and safety on social networking sites. Sites like Facebook encourage audiences to provide information about themselves such as likes and hobbies but also more personal information such as location, employment, education and age. Piracy