A2 Revision

Media A2 Revision- Contemporary, Historical and Now on Prezi

Theorist Cards - Revision

DAVID GAUNTLETT
“Identity is complicated, everyone think they’ve got one”

This means that identity is complex as our identities are mediated by many factors

Case Studies:

Music artists – Rihanna, Lady Gaga

Rap – glorifying violence and sexualisation

Ever-changing fashion + trends of celebrities (Richard Dyer Star Theory)

David Buckingham:

Quote: “a focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups”.

Meaning: “this means with the constant rise in technology it can keep influencing youth’s lives in more ways”

Case study: related to London riots and how with increased technology made it easier for them to rebel in relation to the Brixton riots.

STUART HALL

“The media as a principle of ideological dissemination produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals.

This explains how the media reflects social ideas that are relevant to how society is regulated

Encoding/Decoding Theory

This explains that the media encode messages within their texts for audiences to decode in ways which apply to their situation and personal lives.

Case Studies:

Tabloids vs. Broadsheets

London 2011 Riots

Music videos – Rihanna, Lil’ Wayne

Henry Jenkins:

Quote: “teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles online, adding photos and posting on each other’s virtual walls.”

Meaning: this means that teens are constantly updating their life and constructing there identity.

Case study:  web 2.0

Brixton riots vs London riots 

Merlau Ponty

We have an embodied experience and anything  in which we use our bodies to create new things with builds our identity.

This relates to youths creating online profiles on the Internet such as Facebook and Twitter and how we feel a sense of belonging because of this

Case Studies:

Web 2.0

London 2011 Riots vs. Brixton Riots

Expressing views and opinions and creating a sense of belonging online.

Internalised Sterotypes

1. Kidulthood written and directed by Noel Clarke is a british drama film which follows the lives of several teenagers, living in the inner area of West London. Kidulthood is a anti - youth film as it actually depicts youths as a complex and contradicting collective identy through their actions, and colloquialisms. This thus constucts a negative representation of youths. That the media/ institutions such as revolver given their opinons as Adults to construct anti - youths film which given a visual depictions criminal, sexually decadent and drug crazed. Which has been able to create a growing threat to the public order.

2. However I do believe that Kidulthood has been able to give an accurate depiction of youths living in London today. However this is my personal opinon speaking as a youth, however from an adults perception we can see that Kidulthood has constructed a sense of Moral panic through its overexaggerations. Look at what review said "Our teenagers are reckless hedonists, living for their moment under a whirl of as much sex, coke, blowjobs, weed and booze as they can cram into their "Oh my days!" lives."- The fact that it is exxagerated from an adults opinion shows that it is not accurate.

3. The fascination of youths froms an adults viewpoint of Fish Tank,

Mock Essay

Media Essay

Analyse the way in which the media represents youths

“Media appears to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it” – David Gauntlett mentioned this in reference to youths. This suggests that the current and proliferating society that we continue to live in is highly saturated by the media and their representation of youths as social group.

Thus for youths identity is complicated. The relationship between collective identity and media representation is not and will never be straightforward. Stuart Hall mentioned “media appears to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it”. This statement is indeed true because we see that in today’s society they tend to link youths with a moral panic especially since the London 2011 riots.

Stuart hall encoding/decoding states how the media gather information and represents it to their audience. This is through the use of tabloids especially during the London riots. The daily mail newspaper mentioned this of a group of youths “A sense of glee pervaded these accounts – youths were often grinning while describing their experience – a delight that the normal order of things was turned upside down.” This is proof that in fact the portrayal in tabloids newspapers are often exaggerated to the furthest degree as class youths as not being govern and carless as they are essentially a form of light entertainment as opposed to broadsheets which tends to be more factual and thus is a reflection whereas a tabloid is constructions as its constructs a moral panic.

The reason being is because the guardian a broadsheet in fact represents youths differently from that of a tabloid sheet. The guardian mentioned “just imagine for a moment that you’re a British teenage boy. You’re struggling to grow up, to find out who you really are?” which is in fact true as youths today are trying to find their identity.

However because newspapers are generally given out to the majority of lower class/ middle class citizens, who read tabloids rather than broadsheets, youths in Britain are now classified with moral panic stating things such “The brazen facebook user posted a picture of himself with suspected goods” the word brazen itself just indicates to its readers that young people are not longer governed and are in fact careless and heartless.

This thus links to Althusser’s interpellation theory, the fact that it represents human subjects in this case youths are constructed by pre-given structures. This has been taken up by the media in a form of television, web 2.0, or tabloids/ broadsheets to impose their ideology on the audiences. Thus if we think about it, were bombarded by messages from the media, messages that make certain assumptions for us, and as soon as we engage with the message we are positioned as a ‘subject’ rather than an individual. The idea is that we are controlled y these messages and go some way to defining our or anyone’s identity.

This is in fact linked to youths through the use of media and their ideology they have somewhat positioned youths as a collective identity, whom are careless, not governed and give out a sense of moral panic. Through the use of Web 2.0 such as:

·         Facebook

·         Twitter

·         Tumblr

·         YouTube

We have been able to see that youths have been able to use all this to form to that collective identity rather than an individual.

Thus in conclusion the way the media represents youths is complicated as the media, either reflects or constructs an identity for youths thus enabling youths to form a collective identity based on pre –given constructions. Thus we allow the media to form and shape our reality.