Stereotypes

What are stereotypes?
A stereotype is a fixed, repeated  view of an individual, or a comunity.
Different media texts showcase different stereotypical views offten.
One example of stereotypes in media in recent years, were the London Riots.
The media viewed this as if only young people took part in the riots, however, older people were also getting involved, but it was only young people that were talked about and shown in the news.
I've recently watched a fiew videos in my media lessons which show different stereotypical views. Here's a video which I found really interesting in case of stereotypical representation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPlBqiVrTx8
This clip shows 2 builders discussing the British economy in a very informative way. The usual stereotypical views of builders is that they don't usually talk about things like the economy. However, in this case the builders are discussing the economy and working at the same time, this dissagrees with the stereotypical view. However, then the clip reverses back to the usual stereotypical view of builders when the sout towards the woman trying to park a car.
Another stereotypical view that also is viewed in a positive way, is the view of women. The usual stereotypical view is that women aren't good at driving, however, in the clip we see a woman parking her car perfectly in the parking space. This also then opposes the previously made stereotypical view of women shown in media for generations.
The point of that clip is to show that stereotypical views aren't always the right views, and that there are people which don't fit that view, and that these views can change.

Textual Media analysis

Recently I've done a practise textual media analysis in preparation for the exam.
Here's what I've done

Those that Can’t Media analysis

 

This is an audiocomedy, set in south Wales, some of the accents in the audio piece indicate that the people in it are welsh. However, not all accents sound realistic to where the audio comedy is set.

The clip starts with upbeat rock music, which shows that the programme is going to be light hearted.

In the first scene, we can hear a head teacher discussing the idea of forming a school council. The school council idea indicates that the audio piece is set in a school, and the head teacher giving the name of the school “Tom Johnes Comprehencive” shows that the school is set in south Wales, and named their school after the singer tom Johnes. From the head teacher’s voice, we can tell the she sounds very different to her colleagues, which we can hear later on in scene 1, her accent doesn’t sound Welsh, from the head teacher’s voice, we can also hear that she’s well spoken, and that she’s been well educated, and knows what she’s talking about.

Also in the first scene, we can hear the voices of staff members which sound as if they are in a small room, a room which has many objects inside, like notice boards on the walls, and book shelves. We can also hear children playing in the background of scene 1, which does once again indicate that the audio piece is set in a school.

From the sarcastic approach to the idaea of the school council given by the other members of staff, of who majority are male, we can work out the the school views on equality and gender are very old fassioned, and the fact that the male staff are mocking the idea also shows the stereotypical view that men don’t like to be told what to do, especially by a woman.

The strong accents of the members of staff suggest that they are all from the local community, but the accent of the head teacher is much different. This could explain why the other members of staff do not want to agree with her on the idea of a school council, they think she’s an outsider. It could also show that the members of staff don’t trust her only because of rthe accent difference.

 

When the scene changes, you can hear loud, energetic music, which also indicates that it’s a comedy.

The next scene, you can hear children playing and talking in a playground, different to the previous scene, as now the sound of children playing is not a background sound, but the main sound of the scene.

The children are talking about voting in the election, and jobs. This scene also shows the children’s attitude towards jobs and voting, as they’re talking about how one of the kid’s dad doesn’t have a job.

Then, scene 2 crossfades into scene 3, with children singing in the assembly, which again, indicates that the comedy is set in a school. The music teacher talks with a very strong Welsh accent, and sounds very old. This could indicate tradition and a long standing, much preferred way of doing things, a way that does not include making any changes to the school system. When one of the staff members, Mr Williams asks a student to help the music teacher of her piano stool. When the student points out to Mr Williams that the music teacher is not on a stool, Mr Williams, despite the fact that he’s realised this fact, and knows that the student is right, calls the student an idiot, and tells him that he’s being disrespectful. This part in the scene shows the old fassioned student and teacher relationship, the teacher is always right, and the student is always wrong, if the student dissagress with this view, they’re being disrespectful towards the teacher.

In the scene, the head teacher is talking to the students about making decisions, asking them about examples of decisions. When the children are starting to give examples of decisions, which include make up and clothing, it shows how what’s happening around them affects the way they think. In other words, if their parents or parents of their friends don’t have jobs, they think that they will be in the same or a similar situation, so they worry about other things.

Sound wise, you can hear the children talking louder, wanting to be heard in a big room, so it does indicate the assembly hall. Also in the scene, when the head teacher asks for student opinions, and one student replys with negative opinions of the school, then one of the teachers Mr Williams tells the student off, saying that if the teacher wanted his opinion, she would ask for it. After the student saying that the teacher did in fact ask for his opinion, the teacher is clearly confused but in the end realises that the teacher did in fact ask. If the teachers are confused themselves about simple situations, then what hope of success do the students have?

Some accents heard in the extract sound exadurated, which once again outlines that this is a comedy extract.

Over all, this is a school based comedy, set in Wales, putting forward stereotypical views, mainly regarding gender.

Other people however, may find this comedy offencive, for example, people that live in Wales. They may interpret this comedy as a false representation of the Welsh culture.

The extract features diagetic and non diagetic sounds. Non diagetic being the theme tune at the beginning and the track which ends scene 1 and starts scene 2. Diagetic sounds, the ones that not only the listener can hear, are: The children playing in the background in scene 1, the ball bouncing and children playing in scene 2, and children singing in the assembly hall in scene 3.

Media Language Part 1

Different genres

Road Wars
This show is a crime documentary series.
The one aspect at the very start of the programme that shows that Road Wars is from the Crime genre, are the images and sounds of police cars.
Also the main contents throughout the programme clearly shows that's it's a crime series, as it features police officers dealing with road related crime, including car theft and drink or drug driving. The programme also features footage of police stations, and what procedures go on there related to drunk drivers.

The Radio 1 Breakfast Show
The genre of this radio programme is music based entertainment. This programme fits this genre because, it's on a music based radio station, BBC Radio 1, the show contains lots of current and upcoming music. As for the entertainment side of the show, not only it contains lots of entertaining chat between the Breakfast show team, but also features entertaining features, such as Call Or Delete, where celebrities prank call contacts in their phone. The show also features interviews with guests from the world of entertainment, comedy, music, film and much more.

Castaway
This fil is a drama/adventure film. On the drama side of the film, the film starts with a dramatic plane crash, which then puts the main character on a desert island. As for the adventure side of Castaway, the adventure is the main character trying to survive on a desert island starting from scrach. Then watching him escape on a raft that he's made, reaching his home land at the end of the film.

Ideaology

What is ideaology?
Ideaology is the message that the creators of a media text want to give to their audience. If the audience understands the message that the creator wanted them to understand, this is called prefered reading. If the audience do not understand the message, and mistake it for something else, this is then called oppositional reading.
Examples of ideaology:

Top Boy

Aiming to highlight gang crime and the negative impacts of it on other people.

Coronation Street

Highlighting real life problems, and the affects they have on the individuals and the people around them. Also providing some entertainment within the storylines.

X Factor

Aiming to show people one way of making new artists enter the music industry. Showing that if you’re determined to do something, you’ll do it.

This Is England

This film aims to highlight how gang culture, race and mental issues can affect different people, in many different ways. Also showing that if you have friends, instead of trying to make friends with people you hardly know, putting your true friends last, stick to your original friend group.

Finding Nemo

How people can rely on one another and help each other in difficult

situations. Also highlighting how important is a father and son relationship.

Breaking Bad
The ideaology of this is that you can't go into something horrible, and expect to come out unscaved.

My Media Consumption

My media consumption

 

In a week, I don’t watch TV frequently. But when I do watch TV, it’s usually short programmes, now that I’m at college, I spend more time watching TV on demand than live TV.

I don’t read news papers, if I want to get some news, I mostly rely on news updates I get through Twitter’s BBC news accounts, and if the headlines contains something that I’m interested in, then I would usually read the story and find out more.

With radio being one of my biggest interests, not only in the case of leisure, but also as a future career, I listen to the radio every day. I listen to both live radio, and radio on demand. I also listen to podcasts of radio shows, so radio features a lot in my daily life, it could be news, music, sport or drama programmes, or even documentaries. I also like listening to entertainment and comedy programmes, such as the Scott Mills show on radio 1.

With magazines, most of magazines mainly these days include lots of images, so I don’t really read much magazines, however, I look at the websites of some magazines or magazine blogs to see what stories or other articles are on offer, however, this isn’t something that I do very often.

Films are the one part of media that I have the least interest in, I don’t watch many movies, and if I do, it’s not often. I never watch movies at the cinema, if I ever do watch a movies, I would rather watch it on a DVD at home, on my own or with other people.

Music, together with radio being one of my biggest interests, I would say features in my life even more often than radio. I listen to music when I do most things in my daily life. I listen to music every day for most of the day, music is a big part of my life, I listen to all genres of music, and like a bit of everything. I’m interested in discovering and listening to many different styles of music.

Another big part of my daily life, is surfing the internet, for talking with friends, news, tv and radio, or music, the internet is my main source of information and my leisure time.

I don’t watch the news, if I ever do, it’ll be on the radio, however, I much prefer to get news online, through social network like Twitter or Facebook mostly.

I only watch one soap and do my best to keep up with it, it’s the kind of programme that I’ll watch every day, but it’s not something that I’ll put the time aside for, if there’s something better to do, I’ll do that instead and catch up online.

          My favourite type of documentaries, are radio documentaries, mostly the issue covered in the documentary isn’t a problem, I’m interested in many things, and some documentaries even make me interested in things that I never was interested in doing or learning about before. I don’t really watch documentaries on TV, however sometimes I will give some documentaries a watch.

Despite the fact that I do like my comedy, TV or radio, sitcoms is something that I never really watched, and don’t really think I’ll watch soon, I don’t watch sitcoms at all.

With comedy shows, it really depends on many things, the people featuring in the show, what’s the show taking a mick out of, the presenter etc. There aren’t many comedy shows I watch on TV, more on radio.

Quiz and game shows is something that I watch a lot, on radio or on TV, I always love a good game or quiz show, I always learn something and have fun, some of my favourite games shows are the ones that feature celebrities, they are always funny.

There are many music programmes that I watch and listen to on radio, my interest in music is big, and I always love music programes about current and upcoming music, from any genre apart from classical. My music taste is very open, and I’m always interested in different styles of music, also, I love listening to other people’s opinions on music, on the Radio 1 Review show people giving their views on upcoming music, this is the show that I mainly listen to, and always love listening to it, just so I can get different points of view on the music that I like, and hear music that I may not usually choose to listen to, but which I might listen to more often in the future. Another music programme that I listen to every Sunday, without faile, is the official chart on Radio 1. I love my current music and I’m always interested in how it’s doing in terms of sales.

I don’t listen to many arts programmes, they are not something that I’m really interested in.

TV drama is not really something that I spend a lot of my time watching, the only TV drama I would really watch is Law and Order. However, I love my radio drama, and I listen to a lot of it on Radio 4, because they provide a wide range of plays covering many different issues, and the stories are always really interesting and enjoyable and keep you listening till the very end.

I love my football, and one sport programme that I love watching on TV is Final score, they give you lots of information the the currently played games, and the socres, also the league tables. Also Match Of The day, I like this show because of the sport discussions, and getting different views on the sporting action of the day. I also love listening to live commentary on radio 5 Live, mainly because the radio commentary is much more detailes than TV commentary.

If I do listen to the radio or watch TV, I do it on my own most of the time, however, I do like doing it with other people too, especially people who share the same interests. So that I can talk with them about what we’re watching and share opinions on what’s happening in the show. This gives me the opportunity to socialise and listen and watch what I like at the same time.

One programme I really love listening to on radio, the one that I’ll always make sure I’ll catch up with, via iPlayer or podcasts, is the Scott Mills show on radio 1. I love my current music, which is what they play on the show, I also live the entertainment chat that’s on the show, and always keeps me laughing away. I do also love the many ways that the listeners can get engaged with the show.

The one thing that I really don’t like listening to on radio, the one thing I always avoid, is cricket, many of my friends are fans of the sport, but for me, I just don’t understand anything about the sport, or it’s rules.

Regarding the views of RNC students or the public, everyone’s views are different and individual. I can’t really say if my views are typical, because eac view of each and every person is different and unique in their own way, so are my views.

I think that looking at the people I got to know at RNC, lost of my friends do like similar programmes to me, and watch and listen for similar amounts of time. In some ways, my media consumption is different from other RNC students, but then similar to habits of other students. I pay more attention to current music shows on radio than some of my friends at RNC, but like other students I know, I listen to radio 4, which again, not every student here does. As for the amount of time listening or watching, many students mostly socialise with each other, so there’s not much time for media, however, some students to find some time for it, so do I, that’s also why I think that in some ways my media consumption is similar to other students at RNC.