Revision guide update

A minor update has been made to the revision guide, and it now has an 'at a glance' list of all the set texts and which questions to talk about them. This update was made in response to a student suggestion.

Remember, this is your revision guide. So if you have any suggestions on how to make it better, please let me know 

Please please please can you submit images for a potential new front cover because I am fed up of the current one (sorry Jack).

And if you haven't used the revision guide yet, now is a great time to check it out. You can find the link in the 'key resources' section in the top right of this blog.

The fluidity of normative hegemonic values

Faye Lanfier won Miss California in 1924 and Miss America in 1925. From the heteronormative perspective of early 20th century America she was  the pinnacle of stereotypical female beauty. But would she be considered so universally beautiful today? 

Stereotypical standards of beauty have evidently shifted. Compare Faye Lanfier to modern Miss America contestants and she looks quite different.

Even something as apparently subjective as attractiveness is cultivated and inculcated through a tightly held system of hegeonomically constructed norms and values. What is now considered beautiful will surely shift, much like the fluidity of genre conventions. 

But consider: who is it that codifies standards of beauty? How is this achieved? And, most importantly of all, what benefit does this impart to those who construct them?

                                        

                                                 

Key resource - tomorrow's papers today

Here's a Twitter account you should definitely follow (and if you don't have a Twitter account yet, you really need to set one up tonight). Neil Henderson is a journalist working on the BBC news desk, and regularly tweets sneak peeks at tomorrow's newspaper front pages. It's an excellent resource for analysing what is considered newsworthy, and what ideological perspectives different newspapers have.

Les Revenants - initial screening notes

Michael wrote these notes while watching the first episode. They are not exhaustive, but give a little context to the episode when revising or considering themes. Remember to include a range of media language every tie you textually analyse a media product.

• Initial opening shots of the alps situates the show instantly. Themes of exoticism (for international audiences) and a popular holiday destination for French audiences.
• Montage of coach interior. School trip: an instantly recognisable situation for both young and old audience members.
• Coach crash and the death of schoolchildren is a potentially alarmist and extreme opening event.
• Iconography of death and impermanence. The scene of the butterfly breaking free from the glass is a particularly effective symbolic and hermeneutic code.
• Rural setting is emphasised through montage. Drained, desaturated MES made possible through post production colour grading.
• Opening credits use a restrained, low-key and atypical opening theme for a horror TV show.
• The lake pub - a stereotypical, even hyperreal location. Intertextual references to similar locations, such as the Double R diner in Twin Peaks or The Bronze nightclub in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
• Delivery and performance is slow, considered and understated.
• The bleak, desaturated, highly stylised twilight MES has possibly influenced other TV shows, for example Netflix's Ozark.
• Jérôme's distaste of the support group raises interesting themes about grief, community and togetherness.
• The Séguret family's middle class status is continually reinforced through through the MES of their house and it's surroundings/ This forms a binary opposition with Julie's smaller (state provided?) flat
• Horror elements are quiet and existential. Mogwai's soundtrack emphasises the horror that the mother suddenly experiences when her dead daughter emerges from the bathroom and asks for a bathrobe.

• Camille's status as the gendered other puts her square in the same realm as other horror film threat. The creepy little girl who comes back from the grave.
• Julie watches The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in a sly intertextual reference to a conventional horror film.
• A range of characters of different demographic groups. An effective targeting of many target audiences.
• Camile's apparent nonplussed reaction to her radically fantastical situation is confusing and alienating to the audience.
• Aside from the symbolically hermeneutic issues 'the returners' represent, and the still enigmatic murder scene in the underpass, there is a definite lack of antagonist in the first episode.
• MES of Camille's bedroom that of a stereotypical middle class teenager
• Again, Victor fulfils the 'creepy child' archetype. Julie's 'adoption' of Victor is as close as Les Revenants has to a cute, feel good story arc.
• The murder in the underpass may be an intertextual reference to Gaspar Noé's Irréversible (2002), which features a particularly notorious and unpleasant rape scene that happens in an underpass.
• Setting of brutalist, 60's style housing blocks
• Monsieur Costa killing his returned wife is an alarming and distressing scene, a confusing reaction for those used to the hyperreal romances of Hollywood TV and cinema
• Intertitle: FOUR YEARS EARLIER. A bold narrative choice, that confirms to the audience that many of their assumptions are wrong. Camille is not recently dead (in fact all of 'les revenants' have been dead for some time), and Camille and Lena are identical twins! Playing with the audience's expectations  suggests a potentially high level of maturity... or something.
• The sex scene between Lena and her boyfriend is potentially shocking for British audiences. Depicting at an underage sexual relationship is seen as taboo (despite that fact that Britain has a much higher teen pregnancy rate than France...). It must be stated that while the character is 15, the actor was 18.
• The French for 'orgasm' is 'le petit mort' (the little death). What symbolic and ideological signification does this scene have?

Themes

Existentialism
Abjection and disgust
Death and rebirth
Challenging horror conventions
Loss and grief
Community and rural life

Les Revenants - key scene textual analysis

Question - underline key terms

“In the 21st century, it is essential for TV shows to offer multiple meanings” – evaluate this claim with reference to Les Revenants 

Knee jerk reaction - Yes, polysemy is an absolutely essential concept!

Argument - in order to reach a larger audience, but in particular a devoted cult audience.

Key scene one

Camille comes home

• Non-diegetic soundtrack - establishes a creepy and oppressive atmosphere.
• A range of CU shots presented in standard shot reverse shot conveys to the audience and  establishes that Camille and her mother are talking at cross purposes. This further establishes a binary opposition between the mother and daughter, creating conflicted responses for the confused audience.
• The mother climbs the stairs in a series of close up shots before knocking on the bathroom door. Her confusion and horror is immediately anchored by the sudden use of Mogwai's non-diegetic soundtrack anchors the interpretation that mother is potentially mad. This presents a confusing and potentially polysemic narrative to the intended cult audience.
• The family home setting is familiar to Camille and to the target middle class audience. However, a binary opposition is established between Camille's comfortable familiarity and her mother's absolute terror.
• Low key lighting emphasises the disconnectedness of the Seurat family. Also highly paradigmatic of the horror genre.
• OSS from Camille to the mother demonstrates Camille lit in high key lighting and her mother in low key lighting, further demonstrating the disconnect between the two previously close family members. Non of this is however made explicit to the audience, forcing them instead to form their own detailed and negotiated response
• Post production colour grading favours muted colours, which symbolically encodes the depressing and panic inducing nature of the scene for Camille's mother. Key theme is mortality and the inevitability of death. Existentialist philosophy, almost stereotypically french. The mother is horrified by her daughter's reappearance

Cheers for this one Q block!

Key scene two 

Opening 

• use of music - reaches a crescendo at the point here the butterfly emerges from the display, demonstrating to the audience a key symbolic code, helping them to understand the complicated narrative
• Low key lighting and desaturated colour grading in the scene where Camille returns home emphasises to the audience a potential hermeneutic code, and forces the audience to negotiate their own perspective on the narrative. This enforces a polysemic reading of the text.
• Camille has more screen time on the bus, and is consistently framed in a montage of close up shots which positions the audience with the young Camille. Camille's age allows teenage audiences to invest in the complicated narrative. 
• The sudden and mysterious dip to black following the long shot of the traumatic bus accident is symbolic of not only the audience's own confusion and the show's primary theme of death and finality
• Establishing shot and the subsequent long shots of the bus establish an isolated and exotic setting for the secondary British and international audience. This emphasises the importance of Les Revenants adopting a polysemic narrative. It must mean different things to audiences of different nationalities. 
• Generically highly unconventional of the supernatural/horror genre. Lacks generic paradigms such as corpses, blood, monsters etc. It is not until much later in the narrative Camille is established to be a very unconventional 'zombie'.
• Long shot static shot of bus flying off highway is accompanied by diegetic screaming, yet no other camera movement demonstrates to the audience that the show will take an unconventional perspective on death and other grand themes.

Cheers for this one R block!

Les Revenants and representation

Representation is the study of...

1.     The group, place or issue on which a media product is focusing.

2.     The media language the media product uses in order to present these groups or issues.

3.     The ideological perspective about the group or issue being created within the product.

4.     The impact of this ideological perspective on the target audience.

Simon Delaitre

Camille Séguret

 Claire Séguret

Mme Costa

Julie Meyer

Principal cast

Exploring media bias and agenda

Every media product is biased to a certain degree.This is because media products are created by real people (!), with real ideological perspectives, and with reasons for representing people, issues or events in a certain way. We refer to these reasons as an agenda.

The front cover of The Daily Mirror, presented below is clearly very much ideologically opposed to Donald Trump, and there are a range of excellent examples of how below. But perhaps a better example is why?

Why does a newspaper, whose sole function is surely to inform the audience what is happening in the world, take a definite point of view? 

Why do newspapers demonstrate bias and agenda?

1) In order to appeal to a certain target audience. In many cases, newspapers will even construct a target audience, and will maintain certain political campaigns (for example Brexit) over a period of years

The Daily Mail has demonstrated itself to be pro-Brexit in every
conceivable way, as this frenzied and highly controversial
front cover demonstrates

2) To provide entertainment for the audience, a newspaper will often present extremely opinionated views, in order to entice the audience. This creates narrative conflict

3) Certain benefits including celebrity endorsement and guest columns by politicians who share similar ideological views

Boris Johnson's column for The Daily Telegraph is a massive deal for the newspaper.  This endorsement is only made possible through
the newspaper's pro-Conservative ideology

A textual analysis of how the front covers to The Daily Mirror and The Times demonstrate ideological bias

The Daily Mirror

Cheers to R block for the brilliant analysis!

• Headline provokes a rhetorical question to the audience, creating an uncomfortable direct mode of address. This anchors the audience in such a way that they will share the same feelings.
• use of sans serif font has a hermeneutic connotation for the audience, that it is formal and blunt. This suggests Trump's presidency will lack formality. It is also a connotation of the tabloid newspaper. 
• The mise-en-scene of the pillar of smoke is symbolic of of the World Trade Center bombings . An explicit example of intertextuality
• Mise-en-scene pf the red text situated at the bottom connotes failure and destruction, further insinuating that the Mirror is biased against Trump's ideologies 
• Main image of the statue of liberty crying is connotative of Trump's imminent destruction of America
• A Binary opposition is formed through the dark clouds and the green statue of liberty, suggesting that America itself is situated in a dark 
• The mise-en-scene of destruction demonstrates to the target working class audience that the world's narrative narrative is currently in a state of disruptive, unbalanced equilibrium. This directly refers to post apocalyptic genre conventions in order to inform the working class audience that we are in a state of drastic unbalance

The Times

Cheers to T block for the excellent analysis!

• The mise-en-scene of the American flag is symbolic of of freedom, justice and american values. This anchors the audience to believe that Trump is a positive force. 
• The headline, 'THE NEW WORLD is presented in a serif font, which has connotations of positivity, seriousness, and the ideology that Trump will be a global force for good. 
• Trump's red tie is connotative of hope, positivity, and patriotism. Red is also the colour of the republican party. 
• Placement of headline is directly over Trump's heart, demonstrating his love and intentions to shape the world. 
• A possible polysemic reading: slightly wary of the future. Bias through selection: a slightly smug picture of Trump has been elected, suggesting that Trump is unprepared. For other audiences, it might connote confidence, or Trump's fear at responsibility
• Lexis: choice of the word 'shockwaves' is perhaps symbolic of natural disasters. Potentially, the audience may negotiate a negative response to Trump
• Pull quote's lexis demonstrates the new president's egotism, but may be comparative to other orators like Martin Luther King. ~However, also an intertextual reference to a comic book super villain. Yellow has connotations of strength and superiority. 
• Ultimately, by generally supporting Trump, The Times has demonstrated a significant right wing bias. Further reinforces the ideological perspective of the newspaper. 

How does the Mail Online sexualise women, and why does it do so for it's predominantly heterosexual female target audience??

Task one - 'messy bedrooms'

"Shame about the bedrooms! Scantily-clad women's sizzling selfies are overshadowed by their VERY messy backdrops"

What issues, use of stereotypes and processes of representation are used here?

1.     The group, place or issue on which a media product is focusing.
2.     The media language the media product uses in order to present these groups or issues.
3.     The ideological perspective about the group or issue being created within the product.
4.     The impact of this ideological perspective on the target audience.

Task two - the 'sidebar of shame'

Sexualisation - To make something, be it person or object exhibit sexual aspects. To define somebody purely by their perceived physical attractiveness

Objectification - To present somebody as something inanimate or unfeeling To define somebody purely by their use or function. 

Autonomy - to have a choice over one's own actions

• As the most visited newspaper site in the world, it is safe to assume the online version of the Daily Mail has significant reach. Therefore, it’s an interesting case study for the representation of women in particular.
• Go to Mail Online (just Google)
• Scroll down a little to the ‘Don’t Miss’ sidebar
• Pick three articles that represent women. 
• In your blogs, write the code that is representing the woman, the message that is being delivered, and the impact this may have on society.

The 'don't miss' column, screencapped on Friday 30th November 2018.

• What language is used in captions? How does it anchor audience response?
• What are women doing? What are they wearing? Why have these images been selected?
• What ideological perspective is constructed about women? What hegemonic ideologies are encoded?
• What are these articles saying about women? What 'should a woman be'?

Les Revenants - making a question

Les Revenants: 

c'est toujours tres mystérieux...

In order to be completely familiar with the exam structure, the best course of action sometimes is to make your own questions. 

Below, we have every question that could come up for Les Revenants if the focus is on media language (the other four potential areas are representation, industry and audience). These are not secret, and every potential question can be found in the media studies revision guide.

However, the exam will take these question 'nuggets' and spruce them up. So you need to reword them. Have a go at rewording three of the below questions, maybe including reference to a theory, maybe including reference to Les Revenants, and we'll pick one of yours for a class analysis.

• What media language is associated with this product? And how does it create multiple meanings?
• How does media language combine to create meaning?
• What are the genre conventions of this product, how do they work, and how have they developed?
• What is the historical context of the genre? How has it shifted over time?
• How do audiences respond to and interpret all the stuff above?
• How do the genre conventions of this product reflect the sociohistorical context, and how does it use genre hybridity?
• In what ways does this product use media language to encode the ideology of the producer?

The Truth About Killer Robots (2018)

"Engineers, factory workers, journalists, philosophers and Isaac Asimov (Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics) share cautionary tales of a world controlled by artificial intelligence. Directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin."

"The rise in robotic pleasure dolls was something that Pozdorovkin knew he had to cover, but he wanted to avoid a sensationalized approach... “The most interesting questions are ‘what are the social factors that will bring this into the mainstream?’ The obvious answer is demographics. It’s just a fact that certain people will not have mates. This is exacerbated in China because of the one child policy, but it will be true around the world as inequality skyrockets.”

Exploring anchorage and political bias

Can representations construct reality?

Anchorage refers to how the meaning of a media product is fixed through media language. This is most efficiently achieved in newspapers through the choice of caption. Think of anchorage as a big anchor, weighing down the meaning of the media product.  In many cases, different media producers can utilise the same image, or a very similar image, and anchor it in such a way that fixes a very particular meaning.

Examine these two newspaper front covers from Thursday 8th June 2017, the day of last year's general election. The first is from The Sun, a right wing tabloid, while the second is from The Morning Star, a left wing tabloid. Make sure you click the images so you can read the sluglines, copy, and so on.

Click here to access the 'bias, agenda and construction of reality' task (when prompted!)

Hyperreality, homogeneity and cyborg influencers

Jo Fuertes Knight on ethnic homogeneity and virtual beauty standards

While apparently ethnic diversity in the beauty industry has become more commonplace, the standards of beauty are just as homogenous as ever before. This article outlines several examples of current hegemonically defined beauty trends,including the K-beauty trend, which is facing a low-key backlash in Korea. But she then explores the recent and utterly baffling concept of 'virtual influencers'. Lil Miquela seems to be the virtual influencer de jour, an ethnically ambiguous yet completely fabricated model constructed by an LA tech company. She is an excellent example of Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality, of "substituting the signs of the real for the real", and creating a hyperreal simulacrum whose very 'fakeness' is presented as a desirable and elusive fetish.

Welcome to the desert of the real...

Lil Miquela has 1.5 million followers at the time of writing this post, which is not bad for a self-professed 'robot'. However, it raises an interesting point about social media and the construction and cultivation of our own identities online. By choosing what information to share, and digitally manipulating the images of ourselves that we do share, we are creating hyperreal cyborg identities at once totally fake and yet more real than anything else...

Anyway, definitely check out this article by Jo Fuertes Knight. And you should probably follow her on Twitter because she's awesome.

What is the difference between left and right wing politics?

Ideology and bias

Politics and ideology is a fraught topic, especially for teachers who must remain politically neutral from an ethical perspective. Therefore, in order to illustrate the difference between left and right wing ideology, we would like you to research it yourself. Here are a few links to get you started.

Why can't you just look at one source? Because every media product has an ideological bias. I have not vetted these sites for ideological bias, so as always with internet sources, precede with caution.

Wikipedia entry
Diffen.com - left and right wing
Fact/Myth - the left/right political spectrum explained
Information Is Beautiful - left vs right (The website in general is excellent, so bookmark it)

This image is absolute nonsense, and is an example of the confusion that
surrounds discussions of political ideology. Make sure to assess everything you see or hear in the media for political bias!

What political ideology do you have?

One way of discovering your political ideological perspective is to complete a simple political spectrum quiz. There are several issues with this process. Firstly, you need to understand several concepts such as unionisation, the free market, globalisation and taxation. These are concepts you should definitely make yourself familiar with, but you may have little actual first-hand experience of taxation and marriage, since you are teenagers. Secondly, these quizzes are dry as hell. There's no context or examples given. But give it a go anyway.

A more useful test is one that tells you how your political ideology matches up to party political manifestos. One common complaint among young people is that they don't know enough about politics to vote. This can be solved right now by completing this quiz on I Side With. It works better if you choose more responses and to answer more questions. After you get your results, make sure to research the political parties that you most closely match with.

SNEAK PEAK!

Second years will definitely know, and first years who have been using the blog might also know that the final unit before all the revision mush is component 2c: online media. One of the media 'products' we will be exploring is Zoella, who has recently rebranded herself as Zoe Suggs. Suggs's carefully cultivated online media presence hit it's peak around 2013, which makes it pretty strange that the exam board decided to set her (they ended up abandoning Pewdiepie as a set text after it turned out he was a bit of a Nazi, so that's good).

 However, Suggs is still doing stuff, and has recently released a new book which, if this totally serious and not at all condecending Vice article is to be believed, is a provocative work of transcendental insights on par with Camus's The Stranger or Kafka's The Trial.

All jokes aside, it's easy to make fun of such a self- conscious online 'brand'. But we have to remember that her target audience is year nine girls (five years ago) and she represents a particularly cogent utilisation of the vlog format. Please also remember that often the very worst media products make the very best case studies. I have deliberately taught Made In Chelsea, The Only Way Is Essex and The Jeremy Kyle Show because I firmly believe that media studies isn't just about what you love, but also what you love to hate. These negotiated readings will allow you to explore ideological perspectives far more effectively in the exam.

Also, maybe you're a fan of Zoella. And fair play to you! Hopefully there will be some interesting debates in class that ultimately will translate to EXAM GOLD.

Media Newspaper Quiz

Take the following quiz to develop your knowledge and understanding of the newspaper industry!

Define the following;

1 – Skyline
2 – Pull quote
3 – Masthead
4 – Standalone
5 – Byline
6 – Gutter
7 – Folio
8 – Barcode
9 – Furniture
10 – Caption
11 – What is agenda?
12 – What is bias?
13 – What does T.A.P stand for?
14 – What are the key texts for this unit?
15 – What are the five biggest newspapers in the U.K? (by circulation)

Men act, women appear? The cultivation of patriarchal hegemonic values in a Marks & Spencer display

John Berger suggested in his (highly recommended) book Ways of Seeing that men and women take on radically different roles in media products. While men are represented as active, able and important, women generally do not influence the narrative, and appear only to appeal to a heterosexual male audience. Liesbet Van-Zoonen explores this idea further in Feminist Media Studies, comparing the intradiegetic gaze (that is the way in which other characters look at each other) and the respective movements and physicality of male and female characters. Van-Zoonen also explores Laura Mulvey's suggestion that the primary function of women in media products is to appeal to a 'default' heterosexual male audience. This assumption of the audience being straight and male is an example of heteronormativity, as well as an example of patriarchal hegemony.

So men and women fulfil different roles in media products. And this is something we all know. But how is this important to our everyday lives. As Stuart Hall argues, media representations influence the ways in which groups are treated in our society. And George Gerbner explored how being constantly exposed to an ideology can manipulate our own view of the world, influencing our dominant ideology and what we consider to be 'normal'.

I've name checked a lot of theorists here,  and a good example of that links to each of their theoretical perspectives is the image below:

Image via @filia_charity on Twitter. Click to see full size.

What assumptions has the producer (in this case the manager of the shop and the team who assembled the window display) made about men and women? What expectations and roles are men and women expected to conform to? Why was there an online backlash to this display? And what would the dominant response be if the gender roles of this display were reversed?

Check out this article on The Guardian for more images and details on online responses by feminist groups  to this display. 

Regarder une série télévisée française: une analyse textuelle de Les Revenants

One thing that will strike you quickly is that Les Revenants is French. Very French! This might sound like a completely superfluous statement. But Les Revenants is completely different from a British cult TV show like Dr Who, a Swedish cult show like äkta människor, a Danish cult show like The Kingdom or an American cult show like The X Files.

What links all of this programs, including Les Revenants  is that they have the capacity to become a cult show, or a show with an enthusiastic and ultimately active audience. Les Revenants almost seems to have been created purely to elicit a strong love/hate relationship with it's deliberately enigmatic storylines, it's range of varied characters and it's highly atypical soundtrack by cult Glaswegian post rock band Mogwai.

As you watch the first episode, consider the following:

Cinematography
Editing
Soundtrack
Performance, character archetypes and characterisation
Setting
Representation
Hermeneutic codes and enigmas
Generic conventions and atypical features. Zombie? Drama? Mystery? Cult? Horror? 'New French extreme'???
Intertextuality
'Frenchness' 

Newspaper key terms and textual analysis

1) Key terminology

Masthead
Barcode
Caption
Headline
Main Image
Page Numbers
Target Audience
Pull Quote
Classified Ad
Skyline
Edition
Stand First
Byline
Body Text
Standalone
Centre Spread
Lead Story
Gutter
Folio
Page furniture

2) Textual analysis - deconstructing newspapers

A powerful binary opposition is formed through…
This specific aspect of mise-en-scene functions as a hermenutic code…

The conflict created through this binary opposition positions the audience…

The proairetic code formed by the typeface suggests… 

The target audience will of course be aware of the symbolic connotation of…

3) Whole class example

i) T block

Click to view full size

• A powerful binary opposition is formed through the contrast in tone between the headline story and the secondary stories. The raducak difference in tone suggests typically the newspaper is targeting a working class audience.
• The mise en scene of the feeding tube is immediately interesting to the target audience. This specific aspect of mise-en-scene functions as a hermenutic code, inviting the audience to read the headline article in it's entirety.
• The conflict created through this binary opposition positions the audience to feel sorry for the young child who needs a heart. 
• The proairetic code formed by the typeface suggests an urgent, exciting and potentially devastating situation.
• The target audience will of course be aware of the symbolic connotation of the hospital bed, which suggests that the boy is in a life threatening situation.

ii) R block 

• A powerful binary opposition is formed through the contrast between a story about the series issue of suicide and the far less serious issue of making money.
• The headline announces a bold and alarmist statement. This specific aspect of mise-en-scene functions as a hermeneutic code, suggesting a mystery that the audience wishes to solve.
• There is a clear contrast between the positive Danny Dyer story and the negative video game story. The conflict created through this binary opposition positions the audience to make them feel Dyer is a helpful person, and a good father.
• The statement teens video game hell is presented in red and block capitals. The proairetic code formed by the typeface suggests that the video game in question is violent and indeed dangerous to it's audience.

Regulation of the TV industry - harm and offence

This post contains upsetting themes and images

In it's own words, “Ofcom is required to assess the likelihood of material encouraging or inciting the commission of crime or of leading to disorder”. However, the regulatory body is vague on what material actually will cause harm and offence to potential audiences, and cases are resolved on a trial by trial basis.

Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt argue that regulatory guidelines in the UK are largely ineffective, in part due to advances in digital technology that allow audiences the opportunity to completely bypass regulatory issues. Gone are the days of waiting for the watershed to watch something objectionable: now audiences can use smartphones to view potentially harmful media anytime, anywhere.

Humans was initially broadcast on Channel 4 at 9pm, just after the watershed. However, it can be viewed at any time through the streaming service All4, or of course through digital download, DVD or BluRay.

The following images were sourced by students by U block

Imitable behaviour - bullying - rebellion against social norms - teenager using a gun - sadism - potentially racist from an allegorical perspective

Kidnapping - may trigger memories - depicts unconscious woman being dragged away - connotations of murder and sexual assault

Potentially traumatic scene - depicts prostitution - objectification of women - taboo theme: man having sex with a robot - depiction of sexual assault

Black synth has been branded: connotations of slavery - also alludes to the holocaust - audience may have family members affected by these events  

Depiction of lifeless/dead Odi - may be potentially upsetting to parents: Odi is a son figure to George - emotionally manipulative 

Leo attacks Sadiq - violent, intimidating scene - may be particularly offensive to those involved in violence - possible racial violent undertones

Want to do more practical work? Then do more practical work!

A few people mentioned they would like to do more practical work in the recent survey. This is great and all, but please remember that at 30% assessed coursework, A-level media studies is as practical as a course can actually be.

However, that's not to say that you shouldn't be doing practical work. Please remember that we have a wide selection of equipment for you to borrow. In fact, we are actively encouraging you to borrow it. If you want to do practical work, then do practical work. Make a short film, a documentary, a music video for a friend's band, a cheesy slasher film. As long as there's free equipment, you can borrow it, and you can come in and edit at plus time.

You currently have thirteen and a half hours of contact time at Long, and regular holidays too. Even counting wider reading (13.5 hours a week, and making a film definitely counts as wider reading) and a part time job for ten hours a week you're still working less that the average UK employee.

Fun fact: most of your favourite directors made films for free with their friends when they were kids. I want all of you to borrow equipment, to make something, and who cares if it's crap? You'll do better next time. And you have to start somewhere.

Jämförelse genom textanalys - undersöker Äkta människor

Lisette Pagler as Anita/Mimi in Äkta människor

Despite sharing the same premise and most of the same characters, the Swedish Äkta människor is very different from the British Humans. When analysing the Swedish show, consider: what changes were made to make the show appeal to a British target audience, beyond the language? What choices were made when casting the actors in both versions? Why did Channel 4 choose to make Humans darker and 'edgier' than Äkta människor while also toning down the nudity, sex and violence? Which version of the show do you prefer, and why?

Humans mini textual analysis - the breakfast scene

How does Humans target and maintain its audiences?

• Establishing shot of the nuclear family. 'Normal;, two parents, two kids. Creates an aspirational audience for the 30 something male middle class audience.
• Slow pan to the mise en scene of the breakfast table, an easily identifiable scene for the middle class audience
• Polysemic reading - simultaneously funny and and creepy, hinting at situations to come
• "We should throw a party for the dishwasher, it's been working for years" - confirms Anita's status as a slave and commodity - a challenging concept to be decoded by the middle class audience
• C/U of Laura's face establishes her dislike of Anita. A relatable situation for the target audience, who may debate oer weather or not to get a maid or cleaner
• High key lighting - connotations of wealth and comfort - presents a relatable situation for the middle class audience
• Mise en scene of the breakfast table: "this is what breakfast is meant to be like - a chaotic family setting relatable and aspirational for the middle class audience. A hyperreal representation of middle class lifestyle
• "This is what breakfast is supposed to be like" - a low key dig at laura, and that she is failing to provide and to play the role of mother.
• Mise en scene of the cups of tea, stereotypically British, specifically targeting a British audience. RELATABLE.Provides a hyperreal fantasy aspiration for the middle class audience. 
• Costume - pyjamas and loungewear, apart from Anita - intertextual reference to British sitcoms, stereotypical 'waking up' scene, for example Outnumbered. Anita removes all of the negative stress

Detective Pikachu - marketing a cult film

Cult film - Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase, an elaborate subculture that engage in repeated viewings, quoting dialogue, and audience participation - Wikipedia, lol

1 - Research

What the hell is this? Who is producing this (there's two production companies), where are they from, and what are they famous for? Who's directing it? Who's acting in it? What is Pokemon anyway?

2 - Textual analysis

In what ways does the trailer to Detective Pikachu use media language to create meaning? Make reference to the following repertory elements:

• Cinematography
• Editing
• Mise-en-scene
• Sound
• Semiotic codes (hermeneutic, proairetic etc)
• Structuralist readings (instances of diametric oppositions) 

3 - Intertextuality and referential codes

What intertextual references does this trailer make? What films/TV shows does it most resemble?Why has the producer chosen to this?

4 - Digital convergence

What does this term mean, and how can it apply to Detective Pikachu?

5 - Audience response - identifying a target audience

Who is the target audience for this film? How do you know? Be as specific as possible.

• Name (!)
• Age
• Gender
• Nationality
• Location
• Sexuality
• Demographic
• Psychographic
• Socio-economic class
• Occupation
• Hobbies

6 - Audience response - reception theory and audience negotiation

Outline a preferred, negotiated, oppositional and aberrant reading of this trailer. In order to do this, you will need to outline the dominant ideology. So, what are we supposed to think and feel when we watch the trailer to Detective Pikachu!

Preferred - agrees with the ideology presented by the producer
Negotiated - agrees with some aspects, yet disagrees with other aspects of the ideology presented by the producer
Oppositional - Wholly disagrees with the ideology of the producer
Aberrant - completely misunderstands the product

7 - Representation

What groups, locations, events and situations are represented in this trailer?

1. Select one of the above
2. How is this representation constructed through media language? Be explicit!
3. What ideological signification is encoded about the represented group? What message does the producer impart about the represented group/issue/event? Does the representation use stereotypes, and if so, why?
4. How does this ideological standpoint affect the group who are being represented?

8 - Fan response - how do individual producers affect the film industry

Fan edit with Alex Jone's voice

Detective Pikachu: 'Gross' furry Pokemon divides fans

Pokémon Apokélypse: Live Action Trailer (2010)

Trailer analysis mini task

Select a film trailer that has been released this year. This may well mean the film it is advertising has not been released yet. Paste the link to the trailer in to a blog post, and chuck some screencaps in too.

In what ways does this trailer use media language to create meaning? Make reference to the following repertory elements:

• Cinematography
• Editing
• Mise-en-scene
• Sound
• Semiotic codes (hermeneutic, proairetic etc)
• Structuralist readings (instances of diametric oppositions) 

Initial course survey

Regardless of what year you are in, we would like you to take part in this survey. Please make sure to fill out question two in detail, as your responses will be discarded if you get this question wrong. This is what's know as a security question, to stop internet gits from wrecking our stuff.

Click here to take part in the survey. One lucky responder will win a fabulous prize. Yes, it's probably going to be one of Michael's DVDs that he doesn't want. 

Oh, and while I've got your attention, please can you all publish your blog posts. It makes it very hard for me to check up on your current attainment when I can't see your work. Your notes and responses to activities can and do influence many things, including your UCAS predicted grades. So sort it out.

Channel 4 - Ownership and economic factors

Ideological perspectives - experimental, style, content. First film shown: L'age D'or. Late night strands like Head Fuck.
Funding - Initially 100% funded by advertising. However Channel four is also partially funded by public funding, through a small portion of the licence fee.
Associated channels - Channel 4, E4, Film4, More4. Each channel targets a specific, niche audience. Eg. E4 specifically targets a young, studenty type of audience. Channel itself opened by then popular youth icon Ali G.
Scheduling - Makes use of the watershed, placing shows later at night. Reputation for challenging, programming
Notable releases - Big Brother, Hollyoaks, Brookside, Celebs go Dating, Gogglebox, Made in Chelsea, Skins, The Inbetweeners, Misfits
Notable distributed/imported releases - Friends, Big Band Theory, Frasier etc
Ownership - Channel Four Television Corporation

Possible question: how have ownership and economic factors shaped the TV programs you have studied?

Example responses - sixteen minute Humans mini-mini mock

The following are all good examples of responses to the following question: "According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, texts convey their meanings through a system of binary oppositions. Evaluate this structuralist theory. Refer to the set episodes of Humans and The Returned in your response". 

For this task, students were given sixteen minutes to briefly form and then write a response. As such these should not be seen as fully fledged answers. In fact, most of these responses require a more precise structure and more consistent reference to key scenes and media terminology. However, these should serve as inspirational examples of how you can address a question like this. 

One

In humans a huge binary opposition which is highlighted in many different ways is that of the roles between men and woman. specifically when we see the over the shoulder shot of laura looking at anita in shock. This anchors the audience into the idea that the husband has replaced his wife with a synth. As a result the reinforcement of the patriarchal society of today is shown by the husband telling his wife that they are not taking the synth back which is shown in a mainly dominated mid shot of the husband. His superiority highlights the idea of Liesbet Van Zoonen's male gaze theory which incorporates the idea that women are shown to be looked at by hetrosexual male audiences. By the husband investing in a younger more attractive woman may seem as if the stereotypical house wife role taken on by laura is passed on to anita. The men in this episode are also subversive of this binary opposition as the establishing shot of the Hawkin's kitchen which is messy which then brings into it the husband, demonstrates that men are also involved in housing duties. The iconography of Anita suggests that Freud's madonna and whore theory is revealed as we see Anita looking very innocent and act in a very polite manner making her a madonna which may anchor the audience who are most likely heterosexual males into finding her appealing this is demonstrated in the long shot of Anita in the doorway and showing her figure and mise en scene.

The way the episode is in medias res suggests that the audience have to make assumptions one of these is the binary opposition between synths and humans the way Niska is portrayed as a sex slave in a brothel, and her emotion suggests that the binary opposition set out by the producer is obscured due to her face showing pain "i want to feel pain" this is what Niska says to Leo and as a consequence shows that the binary opposition between synths and humans is not very obvious, this is demonstrated by the crane shot in the room where Anita gets raped. On the contrary synths and humans binary opposition is clear as when seeing Anita talk it is stereotypically robotic and obedient. Clearly this difference of having no soul is highlighted and consequently anchors the audience into thinking that although the iconography of synths and humans is similar doesn't mean that we talk the same. This links in with the hermeneutic code and shows that may in the future these may be subverted.

Two

In HUMANS binary oppositions play a key role in the telling of the story. One of the biggest binary oppositions is that of Human vs Robot. This is personified in the conflict between Anita (the synth) and Laura (mother of the Hawkins family). In one scene in the first episode of HUMANS Anita is reading a book to the young daughter and Laura feels disturbed and let out in this situation. This creates conflict as she see's Anita as an invading force trying to take over her position as a mother which leads to questions about the purpose of the synths and their ability to replace humans. As their synth, Anita is owned by the Hawkins family and make their lives easier by doing cleaning, cooking and looking after the children which are stereotypical housewife roles. Laura, as a lawyer, is often away from home for long periods of time meaning she subverts this stereotype and as such many feel from societal hegemony that she is not doing her job as a mother right. Her protective nature, especially over her youngest daughter, when around Anita may be caused by some of these anxieties as well as any other concerns over the physical safety of the synth. Anita as a free minded synth who has been reprogrammed, has motherly instincts slip through time and time again. She wants to look after Sophie but to Laura this is not natural. Laura see's Anita looking at the moon which greatly confuses and distresses her as Anita says "The moon is beautiful tonight". How could a synth have concept of beauty and enjoyment from that beauty? This causes Laura's anxieties to increase even more creating a bigger opposition between them.

Another binary opposition is Free-will vs Slavery. In one of the very first scenes we are shown a group of synths who are said to have feelings and independent thought. Three are captured including Fred, a black synth. When we next see Fred he is in an orange farm picking fruit from the trees with a brand of the company which owns him on his arm. This is an extreme allegory of the situation concerning the slave trade and black cotton pickers in the past. He was abducted against his will and forced to work, being owned by someone, against his will. In order to maintain a low profile he does as he is told until he can find a chance of escape to reunite with his friends. This is a situation that would occur in real life cotton plantations and so with its allegorical truth creates a strong sense of sadness and unity with the audience. It raises ethical considerations because we, the audience, know Fred is sentient so how is his treatment okay? It once again raises the question of whether synth emotions are real or can be considered as such.

Three

Humans uses Claude Levi-Strauss theory of binary oppositions to add meaning to the text. A specific example of one of the binary oppositions used is between cyborgs and 'real' humans. We can see this through the way the synths are treated compared to the way humans are treated. In the orange picking scene, Fred, a synth, is approached by a human and when he attempts to run, he is shot at, consequently killing him. The mise en scene shows him having a number printing on his forearm, which allows the audience to draw parallels between the treatment of synths within the show and the treatment of slaves in the 1800's. This plays upon a referential codes of something most audience members would have knowledge of, and help them to make sense of the text. It also helps the producers of the show to push forward their ideology of making the audience question how synths should be treated and whether or not they should have the same rights as humans. In a similar way, Human's uses female synths to highlight the hegemonic standards set for women in the real world. Each female synth takes on a role that's stereotypically feminine - i.e Anita being motherly and Anoushka being a sex worker. This demotes the characters and objectifies them to nothing more than their gender. Examples of this is in the brothel scene when a client, a man. demands her to 'pull down her underwear' and she has to do so without question. It could be argued that this kind of synth would promote rape culture, since they never actually get to give their consent - and its rather treated as a given that they have to say yes. This goes back to the theory of binary oppositions due to the lack of this kind of treatment towards the men. Even the human characters follow the rules that their gender follow - the dad is the one who chooses to get Anita, the hawkins family's synth, and when his wife Laura expresses discomfort within this he doesn't listen to her, and rather uses his masculinity to get his own way.

Four

In Humans, binary oppositions are extremely important and effective in creating the understanding of the tension between the Humans and "Synths"(Cyborgs). We see this most prevalently with the 2 characters Anita And Laura. When Laura returns from her business trip she discovers that her husband has purchased a Synthetic Android(Anita), to help out around the home. We first see Anita from a mid shot where she is holding a cloth and spray. These items are stereotypically used by women for cleaning so Laura almost feels attacked by this. Anita is dressed in completely oppositional and un-sexualised clothing (binary opposition in the way they're dressed as Anita is wearing extremely plain clothes, straight, black hair, no makeup whereas Laura has more extravagantly coloured hair, more interesting clothes etc) however she feels through the stereotypically hegemonic and patriarchal values of the household that she has been replaced and will no longer serve a purpose in the household. Anita is purposefully un-sexualised because and drawn as a binary opposition of laura purely because it conveys that women are still liable to be offended and almost hurt at another woman 'stepping on their territory' and therefore shows how women somewhat still subconsciously follow the hegemonic and patriarchal rules of society. There is also a binary Opposition between Anita and Niska. Niska is a sex 'slave' and is therefore over sexualised to quite a high degree due to her wearing very little clothing whereas Anita is not Sexualised whatsoever by wearing very straight clothing to not reveal any features. However the audience is more enticed by Anita because she is shown as very sexually repressed and unobtainable and is therefore seen as more desirable to the stereotypically male audience watching the program.

Five

Within Episode 1 of 'Humans', the binary opposition between human and synth (cyborg) is cleverly conveyed through several features of mise-en-scene. For example, in the first cut, the warehouse filled with synths has a blue tint to it and the lighting is incredibly high key, connoting to something modern and futuristic, and also has a coldness about it. This compares to the next image of nature, which is filled with colours like green and yellow, connoting warmth and life. As well as this, when Anita first enters the Hawkins' home, she is dressed in a plain blue outfit and has straight and shiny hair. She over takes the stereotypically maternal role within the family, and she is seen holding cleaning products when Laura walks in. She seems much more clean whereas Laura has messy hair and more brown coloured clothes. Even though Anita has taken on Laura's role, there is still a separation between them, and the synth taking care of Sophie seems unnatural. Laura reinforces this by repeatedly telling Anita, "that's my job", which we can infer displays how uncomfortable Laura is having a cyborg in her home. The binary opposition of what Anita is wearing therefore adds to how she is abnormal, and does not fit into the family, conveying to the audience Laura's intimidation on witnessing Anita within her home - she could feel that Anita's clean and perfect looks challenge her, and her actions also displace her position in the household.

What this also cultivates is the idea of a 'nuclear family', as Joe's decision to buy a female synth reflects a husband and wife dynamic that he wishes to achieve. Although Laura is uncomfortable with the synth, Joe is dominant and tells her that "we're not taking it back". This could reflect that Joe enjoys having her around the house, and taps into the fact that gender is constructed through your actions, as theorised by Judith Butler. At the start of the episode, Joe is seen washing dishes and caring for the family while Laura is away, which subverts from stereotypical views of men working away from the family and the mother caring for them. In order to tip it back, Joe has taken on a more assertive stance and chosen the female synth to fit in with gender and cultural norms associated within a household.

Six

Binary Oppositions are evident in Episode 1 of Humans and help the audience understand the meanings of the text. One main binary opposition is Freud's theory of the Madonna and Whore complex. Where we can relate this to Anita and Niska. Anita being the madonna who is pure and a virgin so she is attractive and Niska being the whore who is not as attractive due to her easiness etc.
The way in which we can understand this ideology is that Niska is a sex worker in a brothel. We know this due to the setting she is in when Leo wants to see her he has to pay and has to choose her from the list of girls, also the mise-en-scene of Niska's costume shows that she is there to have sex with customers. Also the way that Niska is spoken to is aggressive and not passionate. For example, at the end of ep.1 when a man enters Niska's room she is told to pull her underwear down and she has to obey, showing her lifestyle and how she is dehumanised and objectified by this male and any other male that comes into the brothel. Whereas this is majorly different to Anita being the housewife the mise-en-scene of the colour of her face shows she is pure. The mise-en-scene of her costume is also very basic as she is still in the outfit from the factory so she is in no way sexualised yet she is attractive to males, we know this due to the non verbal communication of the son in the Hawkins family when he see's Anita he licks his lips showing her attractiveness. We can also see that Anita is desirable and wanted due to Leo's urge to find her, he is adamant to find her and we know this through the scene of when Leo confronts Sadiq and shows him a photo of Anita he is forceful and confident in trying to find answers. The photo shown of Anita to Sadiq is also a binary opposition in favour to Anita as she is seen in nature so this emphasises her purity compared to the rundown area that Leo and Sadiq are in. By having this binary opposition in Humans we can see the difference in cyborgs and it shows how they do have feelings as they are both taking different paths and have their own character traits it also emphasises what other characters would think of the cyborgs and deepens our understanding of them and their personality traits, which is vital in the first episode so we are able to understand the characters from early on.

Another Binary Opposition shown in the first episode of Humans is the difference between young and old. Anita being young and Laura being old. Anita is a young cyborg and is attractive to the males in the Hawkins family, we know she is attractive as when she entered the room the son of the family licked his lips showing his interest. Also when Anita was bought Sophie wished she was pretty, evidently proving she is attractive. Whereas Laura is older and she is not seen in the same way Anita does we know this due to the mise-en-scene of Laura's costume she does not wear anything very flattering or anything that would make her be seen as attractive. As soon as Laura had walked through the door she noticed the shoes being moved and was not happy and later revealed that she was upset

Seven

Levi Strauss considered binary oppositions as fundamental organiser of human philosophy, culture and language. In Humans, binary oppositions are used to encode the representations of men. In one pivotal scene, George, who owns a synth named Odie, fixes him up as if he was a broken car or toy, however, he shows a lot of love towards fundamentally, something that is not real, just a replication of human behaviour. the way Odie is presented encodes the expression of a young child, his appearance is boyish and simple, but shows verbal characteristics of somebody old (particularly in memory loss) and encodes a father-son type dynamic between the two of them. However although Odie is meant to be the one looking after the much older George, the dynamic is clearly switched as George is fixing Odie and helping him recover his malfunctions.

This opposes the relationship the father of the main family shares with their synth Anita. He sees her as a supplement for the mother figure as his wife, Laura works regularly away and is not at home very often. He holds a sexual attraction towards Annita, when he first purchases the synth he is immediately reactive to her looks, clearly forming an attraction. There is a possibility that he wanted a female synth, like George wanting a son for him to look after and almost raise, the father wants almost an attractive maid to subserve to him as he is her primary user, not Laura.
What this opposition encodes about the representation of men is that the stereotypical representation of the father presents him as wanting someone young, attractive and subservient woman to do whatever he says and to hold possession over her. This fits into Van Zoonen's male gaze theory as it shows that men like women who are visually pleasing and purchased her because she was a stereotypical representation of a beautiful woman, a simulacra towards both synths in these scenes as they are representations of their own personal “perfect humans” but they are only that, representations and are not real. George however, subverts classical representations as he is not interested in a synth for their beauty or subservience but for company and companionship. He sees his synth as a replacement for a child like the father sees Annita as a replacement for the mother figure, George wants to look after a synth that is designed to help him. He is unable to let go because of the relationship he has formed with Odie and like when he fixes him up, finds it hard to be able to let go of somebody he feels a connection with, he notably doesn't have any other human connection and instead spends his time with his synth. What the father's representation shows about encoding meaning through binary opposition is that although in that universe is a progressive world with the mother is the one working and him being a stay at home father, that there is still an exploitation of the female form, that it is something to be enjoyed by men and something they are able to purchase and use for sexual or any other purpose the man desires.