http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/dec/15/as-itv-prepares-for-the-sound-of-music-live-are-we-watching-tvs-future

BUNS AND STUFF

In case the news-blip passed you by, Amanda Platell  a columnist for the Daily Mail made ripples by suggesting in print that one of the Bake-off contestants, a middle-class woman called Flora Shedden, and her chocolate carousel, were booted off the BBC’s Bake Off cake contest in favour of Muslim mum Nadiya Hussain, gay doctor Tamal Ray and “new man” Ian Cumming, because she wasn’t “politically correct” enough. Perhaps, wrote Platell, “if she’d made a chocolate mosque she’d have stood a better chance”.


Follow the link below to the article on the Daily Mail coverage of Bake-off. How can a programme about buns create such an ideological storm?
In the lesson today we're going to explore some of these issues



DAILY MAIL AND BAKE-OFF

LESSON 920152: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

The figure of the vampire has been a rich source of ideas for films for almost 100 years.  Frederick Murnau's Nosferatu [1921] being the first great introduction to a figure familiar to audiences from literature and stage adaptations of the Bram Stoker novel.
The first talking Dracula - and the genre setting template - was Universal Film's DRACULA [1931] starring Bela Lugosi that went on to have a series of film's based around the immortal figure of the Count.  The Hammer Films series in the 1960s has become a classic representation of the vampire. the late 20th Century saw a glut of vampire inspired films - Francis Ford Coppola's DRACULA ; INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE; VAMPIRE 2000; BLADE TRILOGY - all of which explored the vampire legend.
Post 9/11 the figure has seemingly developed into a much more sexualised figure with TWILIGHT franchise and representations on TV such as TRUE-BLOOD, BEING HUMAN.
Each generation has seemingly constructed a version that reflects that era's concerns and values: the zeitgeist
Consider that in the post WW1 era of the 1920s with concerns of re-populating a European society devastated by war and the destruction of the 'flower of humanity' the vampire was a figure that represented a homophobic ideology.  In the 1930s it represented the blood-sucking rich preying on the working poor [the time of the Great Depression].  In the liberated 1960s the representation was sexual and sexualised represented by the change in victims and their seduction by the creature. In the 1990s - with the repeal of capital punishment and a more liberal approach to mental health -  the vampire is no longer a monster but a figure to be understood rather than hunted and destroyed. Post 9/11 the desire for romantic escape from the horrors of an uncertain world and the issues of 'living together' underpin Twilight and True Blood and certainly Being Human.
Much of the enduring fascination has been ascribed by psychologists [and they should surely know!] to a sense of The Other.

,Vampire’s can be found in the folklore of virtually all cultures.  Their physical appearance may have changed but their social function has remained the same, suggesting that the vampire is as much a symbolic being as a supernatural one.

Within Eastern European lore vampires are often depicted as dirty, stumbling and mindless peasants whose victims are often their own family or neighbours. Their existence was used to explain sudden deaths or the spread of disease within the community, clearly indicating that the image of the vampire, for this culture at least, was one of a contagious pestilence. From what you have already researched it should be clear that such a description is dramatically different to the image most Western readers and audiences are familiar with. To us, [despite the gruesome representation in Murnau’s Nosferatu – which itself clearly owes much to the mid-European background of the auteur himself] the vampire of Hollywood has - in general - come to be represented as a clean and sophisticated creature, a supernatural being that is personified by the Count in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897). In this narrative, the vampire comes to English shores from abroad and begins its seduction of virginal young women, biting their necks and turning them into his undead brides. Even from this simple description of Stoker’s complex narrative, a similar symbolic value to the East European folklore emerges: this time the vampire is a sexual predator that infects the innocent with their disease.

From these examples emerge two of the vampire’s most potent symbolic qualities:

·         they are a direct threat to the safety of the family unit  

·         their primary symbolic function is to represent that which is Other.

The Other

As a broad definition, the term the Other refers to those characters who stand in opposition to characters who represent the ‘normal’ within any narrative. In essence, the Other is simply that which is wholly different to the ‘normal’. Relating this to the vampire, consider any adaptation of Stoker’s Dracula: here ‘normal’ is represented by the protagonists Jonathan Harker and Van Helsing whilst the Other is, obviously, Count Dracula and those he infects. The opposition is obvious in that Harker and Helsing are good, moral, and pure, whereas Dracula is evil, immoral, and diseased. To take the character’s symbolic values further, it can be suggested that the protagonists represent a patriarchal, heterosexual and (more than likely) Christian society that is attacked by the satanic force of the vampire.

Clearly then the vampire, in all of its manifestations, is a prime example of the Other. But, in recent years the figure of the vampire has steadily changed: although historically depicted as a disease-ridden, aggressive and uncommunicative creature, contemporary depictions of the vampire have given them back their humanity and their voice so that they can communicate the pain of their ‘illness’ and reflect, in a melancholy manner, upon the horrors of immortality. Films such as  Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992) and Interview with a Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994) all provide the opportunity for their vampire (anti)heroes to speak about their condition and so elicit the audience’s sympathy. Some vampires have such a loathing for their condition that they actively hunt and kill their own kind [Blade; Seline]. Such a transition clearly lends a certain sense of humanity to them as they talk of their human past, of those they have left behind and the horror of the vampiric infection. These recollections add a further sense of sympathy to these creatures, suggesting that most, if not all, contemporary vampires are as much victim as villain, and remind the audience that they were once us. In this context, these vampires can be read as ambiguous as they question their status as Other: their sense of disgust and regret for their condition implies a yearning to return to the normal, to be accepted as human as opposed to inhuman. Yet, for all of this, their fundamental sense of Otherness still remains: they are still vampiric regardless of their emotions, their regret and the ‘good’ deeds they perform. It would seem then that once one has become the Other there is no possibility of a return to the ‘normal’.

With this in mind, we can now begin to explore a very contemporary spin on the mythic tale of the Other, the ideas surrounding the representation of vampires in  David Slade’s 30 Days of Night (2007) returns the vampire to its original state as visceral and brutal monsters who crave only one thing – blood.
TASK:
From the sequence viewed [the arrest of the stranger to the group of survivors taking refuge in the attic] in what ways have the vampires been represented as 'Other' 

LESSON 820152: THE OTHER

We now need to move on with a consideration of a different representation of 'monster' : the vampire.
We will be using some ideas that have found their way into popular culture from cinemas changing representations of what has become a classic monster.
As we shall see, each generation creates a reinterpretation of the vampire. such evolving representations tell us much about the values and concerns of each era - the zeitgeist.  the fact that the figure of the vampire is capable of constant reinvention also says much for how it resonates with deep psychological needs of audiences over a period of almost 100 years.
The accompanying booklet to the lessons fills in some of the history and developments of this classic monster enabling us to spend the next few lessons exploring a contemporary manifestation of the vampire in David Slade's 2007 film  30 Days of Night.  In this we are concerned with notions of the Other and in the vampire as terrorist.

In the opening sequence we have the 'Classic hollywood Realist' conventions of the horror genre layered on top of the Todorov narrative structure we are now familiar with.

Equilibrium-disruption-complicating events-climax-resolution-new equilibrium.

The film opens with a sketched outline of the lives of the people of Barrow - their domestic situations, their frustrations, their coping with the particular climate of Barrow.

TASK:

What observations does it offer of small town American life?
What impression do we have of its people and their values?

RLA Digital Media: Lessons 1-5

After a few technical issues, I'm finally able to post on the blog!

Digital media is any media that is encoded in a machine-readable format. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified and preserved on computers. Computer programs and software; digital imagery; digital video; web pages and websites including social media; data and databases; digital audio such as mp3s; and e-books are all examples of digital media.
Digital media is frequently contrasted with print media, such as printed newspapers and magazines, and other traditional or analog media, such as film and audio tape.

We looked at our individual consumption of such media formats, and many were shocked to discover the huge amount of time we spend consuming digital media! On average, we discovered that youth tend to skew the data of the overall public, and that you babies of the digital revolution consume far more digital media in the form of social networking, music and video streaming and computer games than your older counterparts, who tend to use digital media more for video calling, reading e books and doing research.

You can see from

But why have they had this effect on our media consumption?

You can use a smartphone to:

• Watch TV (both legally through sites like iPlayer or Netflix.com, and illegally through streaming websites).
• Stream films (again, both legally and illegally)
• Shop online
• Be advertised to in the form of banner ads on games, internet sites, apps etc.
• Broadcast advertising is quickly becoming far more usable and prevalent on smartphones - youtube has started using adverts before their videos on phones now, not just on desktop accessed videos. This change only came into effect in 2014, a big change in how they advertise to us!

 Simply put, this is technological convergence, a buzzword from your AS Media Studies exam in May.

Jenkins says that convergence is:

"the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences who would go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they wanted“

Essentially, when focusing on technological convergence alone, it is the accessing of multiple media platforms from a single device, or the ability to do so. Not to be confused with synergy!

Mobile Apps study
U.S users spend the majority of their time consuming digital media within mobile applications, according to a new study released by comscore in 2014.
That means mobile apps, including the number 1 most popular app Facebook, eat up more of our time than desktop usage or mobile web surfing, accounting for 52% of the time spent using digital media.
Combined with mobile web, mobile usage as a whole accounts for 60% of time spent, while desktop-based digital media consumption makes up the remaining 40%.
Apps today are driving the majority of media consumption activity, the report claims, now accounting for 7 out of every 8 minutes of media consumption on mobile devices. On smartphones, app activity is even higher, at 88% usage versus 82% on tablets.

 

As you can see, it is clear that desktop usage is falling whilst mobile usage, particularly in the form of "apps" is increasing month by month, with a huge leap of 12% in just over a year.
Why are apps so appealing?

Well, they are converged technology access through more converged technology! The average consumer is lazy; we like to access our media "on the go" and instantly, with minimal effort on own part. Apps allow us to do this in the easiest possible way. They are often free, or very low cost, have easy user interfaces than their web-counterparts, and speed up the process of accessing the media products we love.

So, with all of this in mind, think back to your AS media exam and consider the question you were asked:

[TASK] What impact has convergence had on the way that audiences access and consume the media product from your case study?

LESSON 720152: ONE MILE AWAY

This sequence of lessons we are going to develop some of our ideas a little further. We have explored some of the ideas of veracity and verisimilitude of the fictionalised reality of 'based on a true story' and seen that our understanding is very much from one perspective: Aileen Wurnous.
The film One Mile Away is a C4 documentary which charts the attempts of Shabba and Flash over a period of a year to find a truce between two warring Birmingham gangs - the Johnsons and the Burger Boys.
The story of the film begins with the film 1 Day which was made in 2008. the film was a crowd funded Kick Starter fictional narrative of gangs and drug deals in the city. The film maker was contacted in 2010 by Shabba one of the gang members of the Johnsons to see if she could use her contacts with the Burger Boys from the filming to broker a peace deal between the two gangs.
From the start, the subjects of the film are not treated as wholly good. Shabba openly admits that he would rather kill a policeman than a rival ganger. To get the filming they need they enlist the help of Zilla who has served eight years for attempting to shoot two police-officers. In this sense, the documentary tells a different kind of 'truth' to Monster.

TASK:

[1] Compare the poster products for the two films:

What representations are offered - how are these constructed?

Do the posters represent differences in the products [fictional film; documentary film]? How is this done?

Are different audiences targeted by these products - How is this represented?

LESSON 620152: RESOLUTIONS

The 'end' of the film fulfils all of the ideas we looked at in AS regarding Todorov's Narrative Structure Theory.

Equilibrium  

Disruption 

Complicating events 

Climax 

Resolution / New Equilibrium

The final sequences draw together much of what has happened previously in the film and what we know of Aileen's character and that of Selby. The resolution of the 'disruption' is the capture and trial of Aileen. The betrayal of Selby and Aileen's acceptance of it, her own final sacrifice to her love for Selby has been set up by all we have learned of Aileen - her capacity to endure; her capacity for self-sacrifice; her determination and resolve; her desperate need to be loved; perhaps even her desire for notoriety and attention.

 

What we now need to do is try to bring our understanding of the film to a conclusion as to how you feel about the characters, events and the way that the film has represented them to audiences.

 

We will watch the 'making ofs' and the documentary background in order to support how we come to this conclusion - what the film-makers were trying to do [their intention; their values and ideologies; their agendas] and the actuality of Aileen [what she says of herself; her beliefs about what she did and why].

Nick Broomfield, the documentary film-maker who spent many days interviewing Aileen for his two documentaries - the Selling of A Serial Killer and Life and Death of A Serial Killer - believes that there is a 'truth' that only a narrative fictional approach such as in MONSTER can get at when those involved are reluctant to talk about events that involved them.

 

Task:

 

[1] Assign the key events of the film to the Todorov model by creating a timeline of the film.

 

[2]  Write a 500 word evaluation of your response to the film.

For Q2 : Remember to include an analysis of the film rather than a description of its narrative. How does the film create its story? What devices are used? Consider the mise-en-scene but also think of genre and narrative devices and the expectations of audiences.

A plan might include:

• Brief introduction [look at IMDB for data]
• The style of the film - how is the story narrated [devices?] How does it fit into a genre - which features lead you to this conclusion?
• Analyse a key sequence [the meeting; a killing; the relationship; the ending]
• Why was the film successful [box office; awards; critical reception]? What you thought of it
• Conclusion 

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO

LESSON 520152: WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND? AUDIENCE POSITIONING

In Lesson 4 we explored some ideas around how media language constructed an understanding of Aileen as a killer.  We may each have arrived at differing points on a line of understanding but each of us used the information provided by the music, the shot choice, the editing to form an opinion as to Aileen's motives and the judgement we make of her.

Now we can move to consider how the mid-section of the film attempts to convey more complex ideas/understandings of Aileen and her relationship with Selby.  The details here - a further murder, the incident with the character with the disability, the visit to the funfair all add to our view of Aileen, supporting or challenging our perceptions of 'what she is'.

There is no doubt that there are apologists, those who whilst not excusing or even condoning Aileen's rampage, see some understanding of the justification of it .In this, they see Aileen as she depicted herself in court; the victim of a misogynistic male dominated society in which her main crime was to to be a woman who fought back to punish those who had exploited or abused her throughout her life.

There are others, the vast majority, who see her as a killer, an emotionally unbalanced woman who saw conspiracy's all around her and used violence to take what she wanted.

Patty Jenkin's film seeks to shed some light as to why this should be so and offers an opportunity for audiences to make up their own minds. We must bear in mind that her film is a partial account, one that has only one voice in it - that of Aileen who even, at key moments, narrates it.

A key narrated sequence occurs in sequence 3 which we viewed in Lesson 3.  Aileen returns from the second murder and as she washes up in the bathroom whilst Selby waits at the door she narrates in a voice-over the story of the huge Ferris wheel that arrived in her town one day - The Monster.  This wheel saw captivated the young Aileen that she could think of nothing but riding it but when she finally did she was terrified and violently sick. Clearly, the voice over is significant - why else include this one seemingly meaningless fact from her childhood when there are so many much more relevant stories of abuse committed upon her.

TASK: 

• What is the significance of the story of the Monster Ferris wheel? 
• What do we learn from the incidents with the man with disabilities; what about the incident with the killing of the ex-police officer?  How does the film use these to further our understanding of Aileen?
• What is the impact of Aileen's ride on the Ferris wheel with Selby in this film

LESSON 420152: CHARACTER BUILDING

Having explored verisimilitude [appearance of reality] in the representation of Aileen and then considered why it was 'broken' in the representation of Selby we now need to consider how the narrative of the film positions the audience regarding the actions of a woman who moves from possible 'victim' in the original murder of Vincent to the brutal, seemingly cold-blooded monster of the title.

The second killing is positioned at a very significant time in the narrative. we have seen Aileen's attempts to put her life back together - her desire to be normal, conventional.  We have also seen the results of this - rejection, humiliation and, finally degradation at the hands of the patrolman in the underground car-park.

We have also witnessed the reactions of Selby - her anger, petulance, selfishness - that force Aileen to reveal what happened with Vincent and also her decision to return to her work as a prostitute.

Task:

• The second victim is portrayed as that: her victim. How is this done? 
• Consider mise-en-scene elements
• does the representation of Aileen change at any time during this sequence?
• Do we understand anything new about her?  what?  how?
• Why does she kill him?
• why does the film's narrative representation of Aileen now change?

The next sequence takes us through a series of events surrounding Aileen and Selby.  Each incident is now clearly there to shed light on their characters, to help us understand what it is that motivates them. It also illuminates the nature of their relationship. The incident at the funfair is one that we shall explore in lesson 5 as it seems key to understanding Aileen's emotional state and also seems to offer some insight into understanding why she may have become the 'monster'.

LESSON: 320152 AGENDA SETTING AND REPRESENTATIONS

Today it's all about verisimilitude - the appearance of reality, or, in the case of film, the construction of a believable reality.  So, with this in mind we will be looking at the second series of sequences from Monster that chart the development of the love story between Aileen and Selby.

First, take a look at these images of Aileen and of Charlize Theron as Aileen and as herself. You will see the startling transformation of the actress into a believable resemblance of Aileen.  We know that Theron went to great lengths to create a representation of Aileen that audiences would find realistic, studying movements, gestures and expressions from videos of the trial and from Nick Broomfield's documentary on Aileen. A glamorous Aileen would have been ridiculous and undermined the narrative. - Aileen's trial had been world famous at the time, as were the almost iconic images of Aileen herself.

Then, take a look at those of Christina Ricci, then her appearance as Selby and then the real 'Selby'.

One of the key questions we might start to ask of these representations is 'WHY'? 

If  Charlize Theron - at the time described as one of the most desirable actresses in the world - was put through hours of make-up to create an accurate representation of Aileen then why was the character of 'Selby' represented in such an unrealistic manner - slim and elfin-like compared to 'Selby' who in reality was large and stocky?

Here, we enter the territory of intention, specifically the narrative and conceptual intentions of the director of the film, Patti Jenkins. Her concern is that we need to understand what drives Aileen to do the terrible things that she does. why, if is solely about her abuse at the hands of so many men did she not start her spree earlier? Why does [did] it coincide with her relationship with Selby? Clearly, if Selby is not the instigator of these murders [and Aileen claims she was not and Selby was never tried for her part in them] then it is linked into changes wrought on Aileen by finding a loving relationship. The desire/need to protect Selby is what drove her. to be understood by audiences it was felt that we had to 'see' Selby not as she was but as Aileen saw her - fragile and vulnerable. Hence the casting of the actress and the representation that is of the idea of Selby rather than an accurate representation of the actuality. Here art overrides truth.

LESSON: 220152 - SOME KIND OF MONSTER

Today we begin the process of exploring some media products that may well have passed some of you by. These are products that open up areas rich in discussion as to their intentions and to their receptions by audiences.
We are going to begin with a film that challenges your values, your attitudes towards a variety of issues. It will shock you, create debate amongst you and provide a very memorable start to our work for A2 – the ‘WHY’ question that will preoccupy so much of our work this year.
This text is very much linked to the new AQA topic area of ‘Identities’ and may also serve as a base text for those of you who are considering the option of the WJEC AS Film Studies next summer.

 

WHOSE TRUTH?

We may feel that we know the difference between fact and fiction, between a news story and a  creative fiction, a documentary and a fictional story. However, even our news is constructed - who to film; where to film them; how to edit the interview - and programmes such as TOWIE and Benefits Street have blurred the lines between the idea of a strictly factual objective documentary and fictionalised narrative. We need to keep in mind that each media product we are going to examine is the result of a number of decisions [choices] made by the production team and that these are what shape the finished product and how audiences decode and understand them. In this sense, there is no objective truth, simply versions of an event.

The film Monster is based on a true story but we must always keep in mind that this, like any other true story, is situated from the perspective of one person: Aileen Wuornos.  With this in mind, the details of the meeting, her state of mind, issues around how she sees those around her and, more specifically, the events leading up to and provoking the first murder, are hers alone.  For some things we may have other sources of evidence – her school records detail her expulsions; her welfare etc – but the murder is purely based on Aileen’s account of events.

The director [Patty Jenkins] also has a perspective on this.  She has a story to tell but she also has a purpose [a set of values/ideologies] that drive the narrative of that story [how the story is told to us]. Her agenda was to tell Aileen’s story and to examine why Aileen came to be the Monster of the title. The agenda is clearly also feminist.  she is telling the story of a woman who saw herself as the victim of a male dominated world [a patriarchy; a misogynistic culture].

Here, then, we might see a use for McComb’s theory of agenda setting, that the manner in which an event is presented can actually shape how audiences understand that event and subsequently come to believe that point of view, that representation. The story telling – the narrative presentation – becomes the version that people take to be a universal ‘truth’ of those events, that person.

 

Social Media Resources for Section B

Here is a link to the story on Facebook's new algorithm 'INSTANT ARTICLES' and how it will re-shape news feeds to its members.

Media debate Issues:

gatekeeper
hegemonic
agenda setting
agenda framing
media influence
impact of social media

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology


This might link really well to the following research finding:

facebook-study-finds-people-only-click-on-links-that-they-agree-with-site-is-an-echo-chamber

This is good BBC page for considering media influence and the notion of two step flow and agenda setting as well as hegemonic/pluralism etc. Have a look at the April page then look at the post election analysis


start of social media election?


IT WASN'T SOCIAL MEDIA 'WOT WON IT'

Social media and the election

BBC articles..The Election and social media. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-32590917
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32673439

The Independent...influence of social media in the Election:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/the-media-column-post-election-the-jurys-still-out-on-the-power-of-social-media-10239879.html

Channel Four News:
http://www.channel4.com/news/social-media-general-election-2015-youtube-facebook-twitter

LESSON 120152: MOVE ON UP

We will be introducing the course and the changed approaches to A2 – the case of the enigmatic ‘WHY’ questions But first… Let’s go back to that exam task and see what we learned last year

The task was very much focused on issues we have explored previously in AS – representations, ideas of gender tropes such as masculinity, the gratuitous appeal of violence and impact of media products on their intended audiences [the effects debate]. So we’ll begin by looking at what issues you might have addressed and how you might have constructed a response to satisfy your examiners.
To begin with, the product is a familiar one, a game franchise that you have all grown up with so it will have some cultural resonance for each of you. For some, games like this and the representations and ideologies [values] contained in them are part of your constructed identity so their appeal is both very well known to you but also might be difficult to step away from to allow the distance necessary for deep evaluation and analysis.
So, we will begin by looking at media context as a stepping off point. This will be a key part of our work in A2 and also for those of you opting for the AS Film Course.

What; Who; Why
One of the key ideas we looked at last year [AS] was always starting our analysis of a media product by being clear what it is. In this case, a You Tube advert for a computer game franchise, specifically a first person shooting game that has become one of the most famous and profitable media icons.
From here we can then establish who it is aimed at. in doing this, we need to think about not just the demographics [though this is pretty important and relevant to our analysis] but the needs that such an audience has of this media product.
Once we understand this need we can consider the expectations the target audience will have of such a product and the extent to which the product fulfills such needs.
When we have all this, we might be able to consider how and why the product is successful.
in this manner, we can see that the media forms task – how camera-work is used to show the excitement of playing the game – depends on knowing who the product is aimed at and their expectations [the needs they see it fulfilling]. if we understand that the average gamer is not the stereotypical teenage boy sitting alone in a darkened room listening to thrash metal but is, in fact, a male aged  31 according to ESA statistics published in 2014:

The average age of someone who plays games is 31 years old. In fact, more gamers are over the age of 36 than between the ages of 18 to 35 or under the age of 18. They are also mostly men, but by a slimming margin. Men make up 52 percent. From 2012 to 2013, the number of women gamers over the age of 50 grew by 32 percent.

We might then start to consider that the camera work is not just about a simple listing of the type of camera-work used but the genre factors in the choice of shot and editing that have a resonance with the 30 year old gamer. It will also have some relevance to the choice of music and some of the elements in the question about brands [institutions task], representation of guns and also the audience task of exploring the appeal of the product to a male audience.

So, we need to consider how camera work shows the excitement of the game. We might begin by considering our foreknowledge of the reasons why certain camera choices are made in the first place - wide-shots allow understanding of context or might suggest the epic scope of the product [the Vegas city with its iconic landscape; the fountains at the end etc]; the close-up is all about emotion and awareness of character's feelings [the shots of the characters faces both straining -its a tough game - but also having fun]; the pan shots for location [the Vegas sign]; the angle for both the power of the characters themselves but also the threat of the helicopter and the taking it down. We have tracking shots that follow the characters through the events stressing the manner of playing [it has a strong narrative for game-players] but also involvement as we follow the journey. We have first person point of view shots that mimic the game-play. We also have some use of slow motion [emphasis] and we might consider the syntagmatic choices of which shot follows which thought these last two are not truly camera work but post production effects and decisions.

WHOSE TREWS

A follow up piece - how the [right-wing] media respond to Brand 



http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/29/ed-miliband-russell-brand-interview-sun-mail

THE TREWS IS OUT THERE

Here is a comparison task to get you thinking about some key issues that Section B will be covering.

The first is our old friend Steve Emerson from good old Fox News. This clip has become part of the popular cultural landscape [and as Brummie's we have a particular issue with it] but it does offer something a little more serious about the power of media institutions and in particular the rise of the 'expert'. We might begin by thinking about relevant media theories here - let's start with 2 Step flow and proceed from that point to see which deeper tools might be applicable

The second product is a little more left-field but offers a comment on the power of the media. Russel Brand launched a you tube TV channel called 'The Trews', essentially a platform for his anti-hegemonic stance in taking apart the language and focus of mass media.

Here is his response to an editorial from Fox news on the same issues

Does this develop the applicable theory - how might 2 Step Flow be used here? 

Why has old Rusty Rockets decided to launch such a venture?

Let's now look at a episode where he responds to an attack on Trews by Fox.

What issues arise here regarding your own personal understanding of Citizen Journalism; the impact of technology on media access; pluralism versus hegemonic; gatekeeper theory etc

There have been criticisms of Brand - that the venture is self-serving publicity for his career as stand-up comedian and writer. the most vicious attacks on him have come from the media institutions he himself savages most frequently - Murdoch and the Sun; the Daily Mail and. most notably, Fox news. Watch the opening 4 minutes of this episode.

Here we can see some of the issues played out. 

• Brand himself points to the ludicrousness of a major Media corporation taking time to attack a one-man-band You Tube channel - [why do they do so?]
• the David vs Goliath issue that plays to Brand's sense that he must be doing something 'right'
• the one man and a camera channel - developments in technology
• the notions of celebrity -Brand is often portrayed as a 'Champagne Socialist'
• The personalisation of issues and positions - attacks on Brand for 'who he is' rather than on his points
• The economic elite - hegemonic power of Murdoch
• news agendas - the economic interests of Murdoch in oil and military [gatekeeper]

TWITTER FEEDS

TWITTER 2015

SUPERBOWL ADVERTS 2015

It's that time of year again - Superbowl. And that means only one thing. Superbowl adverts!

Around the world, an estimated one billion people watched last year's Super Bowl. 

Research suggests that up to half of viewers in the USA tune-in specifically for the adverts, which are the most expensive in global television.

A 30 second slot during the event sells for around $4.5 million (£3.0 million).

The average price of Super Bowl ads have risen more than 50 per cent in the last 10 years, defying economic downturns.

The game could easily generate over a quarter of a billion dollars in ad sales.
The importance of the event as a media product is shown by the way American TV stations devote whole programmes and large features on regular news programmes to examining and analyzing the adverts as if they are works of art to be reviewed. Certainly, given the scope of the audience and the fact that 60% say they watch whilst using social media to post/discuss the adverts shows that the trends these adverts represent are indicative of the state of the [USA] advertising market.

Experts call it fragmentation. TV shows no longer attract big audience that once made mass marketing possible, so advertisers lost faith in making big budget emotional spectaculars to move the general public. 

How often do you watch media products with your parents or wider family?
What kinds of programmes?
Why/why not?

Critics called Breaking Bad the greatest show of all time, but fewer than 3% of Americans actually watched it. The Super Bowl is the exception.  

More than a hundred million Americans come together to watch the game. And a hundred million viewers glued to their TVs for four hours is a big deal for advertisers.
The airtime alone costs $4.5 million for 30 seconds. Many advertisers budget a further $4-6m to preview their spots on YouTube and promote them on Twitter. They have staffed social media command centers with sitcom writers to talk their way into the online conversation and spin it the way of the advertisers and their client.  Add the cost of shooting special effects and hiring the star name or director [usually in the region of $1 million] and the fifty advertisers who appear in the Super Bowl have staked half a billion dollars on a night’s popularity.
Some struck early. The 2014 game was the first Super Bowl where the ads were already in the public domain weeks in advance of the event and in that year Budweiser racked up close to 20m YouTube views of their Super Bowl spots before game time.



We might consider how this impacts on our understanding of the AQA MEST3 examination, specifically Section B and the Impact of Technology task.

[1] When did Superbowl move from being a programme about the sports to one in which over 50% of the audience admitted that they watched it as much for the adverts as the football? The fact that the audience can utilise social media to discuss in real time the adverts suggests that the impact of social media platforms is a key issue. We might usefully employ Blumler and Katz here - social identity - as a reason underlying audiences use of this media product.

[2] The preview of adverts phenomenon across TV stations and internet indicates that broadcasters themselves now comprehend the value of the advert as social media product. There is as much written about the adverts in the run up to Superbowl as to the game. the fact that the companies themselves use You tube to preview their products for Superbowl indicates their understanding that audiences now actively seek out adverts - a marketing dream!

[3] The spend on adverts [$4.5 million for 30 seconds, $1 million for production of the advert; some $4 million for You Tube and web promotion] suggests that these slots are seen as being special in their appeal in a way that no other adverts usually are. That the adverts are designed to evoke a social media response [ Controversial - the Go-Daddy and Carl Jr adverts from past finals; Emotional appeal - Clint Eastwood Halftime for America from 2014]; Humorous - the Geico adverts; Family Values - the Dove Mencare adverts; McDonalds advert 2015; Warmth - Budweiser puppy adverts] is good example of Blumler and Katz as well as Hall's Encoding/Decoding response or the Perception theory of Morley etc.

[4] That the adverts are designed to create and set agendas for the product - McComb's agenda setting theory - such as the BMW clean fuel advert or the McDonalds 2015 advert.

[5] The employment of social media intervention strategists working live in real time to steer conversations on line suggests the power of 2-Step Flow as well as agenda setting and directing. That social media is a form of audience approval [or not] highlights the impact of new technology on advertising campaigns and audience interpretations of their messages.

Maybe the Samsung advert from 2013 gives an insight into the whole process.

SUPERBOWL 2015 ADVERTS AND CAMPAIGNS

Below are some examples from 2015 and some that explore continuing issues.

BUD LIGHT:

DORITOS

Doritos ran a lengthy 'home-made' advert contest with the winner to appear in the final. A neat way of avoiding the production cost whilst generating massive audience interest. A good example of products that ride a wave of Superbowl interest for many months ahead of the event. Last year the use of audience to vote for which Beckham advert was shown ['naked' or 'clothed'] took on similar approach. Again, we might apply our theory to the campaign and also to impact of social media - the control debate.

DOVE MENCARE 

 

MCDONALDS 

 

TRYING TO IMPROVE BRAND IMAGE
Some companies had a lot to prove — and it showed in their ads.
McDonald's returned to the Super Bowl with an ad for its latest promotion, which will let randomly selected customers pay for their orders with acts of love, like a high-five, fist bump or a call to a relative. The promotion starts Monday and runs through Feb. 14
The McDonald's ad was an extension of the company's recently launched campaign seeking to associate its brand with the positive emotion of loving as it fights to hold onto customers amid intensifying competition.
According to the contest rules posted online, McDonald's says each participating restaurant will select 100 winners over the course of the contest.
Meanwhile, Carnival Cruise Lines' ad included a voiceover by John F. Kennedy speaking about the sea. The world's largest cruise company was trying to boost the image of cruises with its first ever Super Bowl ad after several years of bad publicity from illnesses on ships and the Costa Concordia wreck in 2012.
And Coca-Cola's ad called for positivity in the face of online negativity.
The company's "Make It Happy" ad was an update on its long-running strategy of getting people to associate its soft drinks with happiness at a time when people increasingly see them as unhealthy

 

SKITTLES AND SNICKERS

In the battle of candy-coated sugar pebbles, Skittles pulls ahead of M&Ms for at least one night. The fruit chews will feature their first-ever Super Bowl ad this year while Mars chose to push Snickers instead of the chocolate candies. Here are teasers for each of the coming ads. Danny Trejo as a member of "The Brady Bunch" is priceless. And former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner stars in the Skittles spot.

VICTORIA SECRET

GEICO

 

MERCEDES-BENZ

'BANNED' SUPERBOWL ADVERT

There's always one - last year Soda Stream were forced to withdraw or re-edit a spot that featured Samantha Morton pitying Coke and Pepsi because soda stream was going to destroy their market [Pepsi and Coke are major sponsors of Superbowl and the TV channel that shows it]. Smantha Morton was also forced to resign a United Nations role she held because of her links to Soda Stream who had built a factory on disputed land in the Gaza Strip.

This year it was Go-Daddy. Not because of a continuation of what many had seen as previous Superbowl sexually offensive adverts but because they used a puppy! A preview showing of the advert on a major TV channel lead to such a hostile social media campaign that they withdrew the advert.

 

 

Not all advertisers play safe. the Nationwide insurance company opted for quite a controversial offering