Narrative

Roland Barthes-  "a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language"

Genre
Character
Form
Time

What he is basically saying is that a media text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter an large number of potential meanings. We can start by looking at narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experience, and create one meaning for that text. You can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle by pulling a different thread if you like and create a entirely different meaning, and so on. An infinite number of times, if you wanted to. (THERE ARE NO LIMITS TO NARRATIVE INTERPREATIONS)

Pam Cook- Stories/Narratives should have a beginning, a middle and an end (linearity) in which somthing happens (cause and effect) causing a series of problems (enigmas) which to be solved (resolution). THEY SHOULD ALL INCLUDE A BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND END.

Tzvetan Todrov- 5 stages of narrative;
1) A state of equilibrium (all is as it should be)
2) A disruption of that order by an event
3) A recognition that disrupition has taken place
4) An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
5) A return or restoration of a new equilibrium

Vladimir Propp- Propps concluded that regardless of the individual differences in terms of plot, characters and settings, such narratives would share common strucural features.
He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into only seven character types in the 100 tales he analysed:
1) The Villain- struggles against hero
2) The donor- prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object
3) The (magical) helper- helps the hero in the quest
4) The princess and her father- gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought  for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished
5) The dispatcher- character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off
6) The hero or victim/seeker hero- reacts to the donor, weds the princess
7) [False hero]- takes credit for the hero's action or tries to marry the princess

Claude Levi Strauss- Binary oppositions
His ideas about narrative amount to the fact that he believed all stories operated to certain clean Binary Opposites e.g good vs evil, black vs white, rich vs poor.
The importance of these ideas is that essentially a complicated world is reduced to a simple either/or structure. things are either right or wrong, good or bad. There is no in between.

 



The Binary oppositions for this music video are:
Black vs White
Man vs Women
Domestic vs Breadwinner
Danger vs Safety

Representation

Possible questions:

1. How does your video represent different social groups/people/places/lifestyle? What values/ideologies are you representing/promoting?
2. Does you production create a hegmonic (dominate) representation/ Does it represent and reinforce the dominant ideology?
3. What positive/negative/sterotypical connotations and representation are you constructing/using/challenging.?
4. How are represenations in your production the products of your own culutural experience/background/ideology/value.

What would Laura Mulvey say about your production???

"the gaze is male whenever it directs itself at, and takes pleasure in, women, where women function as erotic objects" - Laura Mulvey.

Laura Mulvey is controversial individual in the media due to producing the term 'Male Gaze' in 1975. She introduced her beliefs that film audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. For example, the video is based around women and using them sexually to create a viewing point for the males. However, females can see it in three set ways, how men look at women, how women look at themselves, and how women look at other women. I believe this has potentially played a big part of how society has been shaped and led to the insecurities of women today and how many feel the need to be 'perfect' and criticise the way they look, particularly if the focus is continually on women in a sexual way. Women often feel the need to change how they are for this reason.

Features of the Male Gaze include the camera shots and editing focusing on the female body and attractive parts of the body such as a women's figure and curves, exploiting their sexual aspects. There are also features regarding events which happen to the women but are presented in the aspect of the man's reaction. The way the women is portrayed, immediately produces the main focus on them and the way the male interact and view them. Although, there is also a slight focus on the male and the representation of the males and how the females view them. However, they are secondary and this is seen as not as important, showing how the main focus is from the male point of view.

 

Reflective view- Creating a identical replication. E.g News

Intentional view- Opposite of reflective, representation of person presenting. E.g an attractive person in a coke advert

Constructionist view- A Response to what has been seen as a weakness on the other two theories.

1. The thing itself

2.The opinions of people doing the represenation.

3. The reaction of the individual to the representation.

4. The context of the society in which the representation is taking place.

E.g the film Independance Day

 

John Berger- "men act women appear"

                      "men look at women, woman watch themselves being watched"

 

Barthes- Sexualisation

 

Walter Lippmann- a shortcut or ordering process  in ideological terms, stereotyping is a means byw hich support is provided by a groups differences against another. The way we see things automatically pick out things palcing them into sterotypes by us.

 

Richard Dyer (1997)

Details that if we are able to be told that we are going to see a film about an alcoholic then we will know that it will be a tale either of sordid decline or of insuring redervition.

Suggests that this is partisucarly interesting potentional use of stereotypes.

Collective Identities- Byker Grove

Byker Grove is a British television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 and was created by Adele Rose. The show was broadcast at 5.10pm after Newsround (later moved to 5pm) on CBBC on BBC One. It was one of the few television series to air on CBBC that was aimed at an older teenager and young adult audience, as it tackled some controversial storylines.

The show ran between 1989 and 2006, and was set in a youth club in the Byker district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Byker Grove was the original idea of lthe TV executive Andrea Wonfor. In 1987, she approached soap writer Adele Rose. Together they created a single pilot episode featuring children aged 8–11 at an out-of-school club (transmitted on Tyne Tees TV in 1988). In autumn 1988, Wonfor gained the backing of Anna Home, then Head of the Children's Department at BBC Television. Home gave the go ahead for a run of a series of six 25-minute episodes to be broadcast by the BBC. The age of the main characters was raised to 12-16 after support from first producer-director, Matthew Robinson. The first series therefore centred on young teenagers crossing the bridge from childhood to adulthood. Although some of the action took place outside the youth club, the series was unusual among dramas in that the characters were rarely shown in school. One of the major settings was the foster home run by the kindly but strict Lou Gallagher, the longest-running character.
          

Collective Identities Case Study- Grange Hill

Grange Hill is a British television dram series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest-running programmes on British television when it ended its run in 2008. It was created by Phil Redmond who is also responsible for the Channel 4 dramas Brookside and Hollyoaks; other notable production team members down the years have included producer Colin Cant and script editor Anthony Minghella.

http://www.grangehill.com/


 First ever episode of Grange hill 1978 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdI1kWkl-N4 
This portrays the youth to have innocence, naivity, curiosity, respect for elders etc,

 Last episode of Grange hill 2008- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7iSNV0NAUg
This portrays the youth to be less smart (personalised uniforms), less respect for elders, looking for relationships (dating) and their use of technology (internet)

Samuel 'Zammo' Maguire - 1981-1987

It is impossible to think about Grange Hill in the 1980s without mentioning the character of Samuel ‘Zammo’ Maguire, the cheeky chappy whose life spiralled into heroin addiction in one of children’s television’s most ground-breaking storylines. Actor Lee MacDonald played Zammo for six years and helped to make Zammo one of the iconic characters of the 1980s. The 1986 cast released Grange Hill: The Album, with two singles: "Just Say No" (tying in with a character's heroin addiction)
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkrAmH6H5eU

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Andrew Goodwin theory

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
   (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).    [this is also known as iconography]
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.
   (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
   (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

Usher- Burn:-

Genre characteristics- RnB flashy car, designer clothing, nice location 

Lyrics relate to the visuals "Let it burn" the trees start to burn and the pool bursts into flames

Communicating to the audience using metaphors

The car relates to James Bond

Usher's hat represents his origin 

Voyerism- womens chest and usher's topless body 

Red Light Race Car Driver:-

Genre characteristics- musical instruments, cars, indie rock dress code

"Runaway with me"- shows protagonist getting ready to runaway with a boy 

Close-ups of the band members playing the guitar and drums

Voyerism- protagonist applying lipstick and fixing her hair

"Stay with me"- boy and girl hugging  

Introduction to Semiotics

Semiology is an attempt to create a science of the study of signs, systems and their role in the construction and reconstruction of meaning in media texts.

The theorists of this Semiotics are Rolan Barthes, Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Pierce.

Semiotics is "the study of signs that help us deconstruct Media Texts". What this means is that we look at representations within media texts (any outlet of media), and we use them to understand the subtextual meaning of that media text.

Codes
A system of signs, languages or symbols that allow audiences to decode meaning. In simpler terms, this is a collaboration of signs to implement a meaning behind it. Examples usually derive from technical and symbolic codes, or narrative codes. In our trailer, we will collaborate a variety of shots to ensure that it is known that the girl who commits suicide is the killer. This will include running shots, distorted shots, and possibly an eerie voiceover.

Connotations
The various meanings/suggestions produced by the sign. For example, in our trailer, we could use destauration of shots to show the colour and vibrance being sucked out of life. We could further evaluate and say that this is the life of the protagonists that are suggestively being abducted. It could be said that they become much more weary of their surroundings, and become cautious of their own well being rather than enjoying life as they did before.

Decoding
The Process where meaning is deconstructed or 'read' by audiences

Denotation
The physical form of the sign.

Collective Identities Theorists: Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall- Born: Kingston, Jamaica 1932 is a cultural theorist and sociologist.

Stuart Hall states our personal cultural background influences the way in which we consume media.

Collective Identities: David Gauntlett

" Identity is complicated- everybody thinks they've got one"- David Gauntlett

 

 

 Representation: the way reality is 'mediated' or 're-presented to us.

Collective Identity: the individuals sense of belonging to a group (part of personal identity)

                   Mediation
         Reality  ^^^^ Media
                   (Exaggeration
                               Sterotypes)
                               
David Gauntlett a professor of media and communications at Westminister Univeristy, author of several books including Media, Gender and Identity (2002) In 2007 he was shortlisted for young acdemic author of the year.

He believes you can express your identity in a creative form. For example the lego pieces

 

 

Uses and Graification theory

The theory emerged in the early 1970's by Elihun Katz, Jay Bulmer and Michael Gurevitch.
We all have different uses for media and we make choices over what we want to watch.

Four key uses:

1) INFORMATION- find out about society, to satisfy your curiosity

2) PERSONAL IDENTITY- people watch television in order to look for models for our behaviour

3) INTERGRATION and SOCIAL INTERATION- use media to find out about the circumstances of other people

4) ENTERTAINMENT- for enjoyment or relaxation

Two Step Flow Theory

Two Step Flow Theory

In 1944 Paul Lazarsfeld, (1901-1976) an American Social Researcher, Bernard Berelson (1912 – 1979) and Hazel Gaudet was introduced The Two-Step Flow of Communication in the book called “The people’s choice: How the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign. New York: Columbia University Press”.

Theory Introduction:
The purpose of the study was focused on Presidential election Campaign and the people decision-making process towards the campaign. All three researchers were wanted to find out practically whether the mass media messages affect direct influence in voting decision among the people. Unexpectedly they found the media messages (like radio and newspapers) are very less influence then an informal, personal communication on voting behavior. Based on this researched data, The Two Step Flow Communication Theory of Mass Communication was developed by Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld.

Opinion Leader:
Opinion Leader is a leader for a certain group who gives details and information to lesser active persons in the group. In office, the managing director is an opinion leader and in public, a political leader is an opinion leader. They interpret the information to their own group. But one thing the Opinion leader is a leader only for their own group not for all.
In Public, Political leader is an opinion leader. Here few people are not influenced by the leader and their political views and thought. These people won’t support opinion leaders and isolated from the population.
Katz and Paul seems “the flow of media messages from radio and print to opinion leaders and then the leaders leads the messages to lesser active users in the population”. Through this transformation of message, the leaders may add their opinion on the actual content which may affects the low active users. In some cases the Opinion leaders are filtering the actual content ensures the information is needed by the people. Mostly the opinion leaders are selective and they pass the messages to the group. (Low-end media users: Poor, Worker and People who are not affordable for getting information directly).
Note: The Opinion leaders have enough voice only in structured social groups not in an isolated individual in the population.
Example:
Carol watching News in ANB Channel they flash the headlines with “Research reveals some toys are leads the children’s aggressive and Violent”. That day Carol calls her little son and went for shopping and carol warn her son some toys are not good and made skin allergy which leads her son to avoid those toys.

• Opinion leader: Mom
• Audience: Her Son
• Added information in actual content: Skin Allergy

Critics:
-Researchers found substantial evidence that initial mass media information flows directly to people on the whole and is not relayed by opinion leaders.
-The two-step hypothesis does not adequately describe the flow of learning. Lazarsfeld and his associates in the 1940 election study were unable to determine the specific flow of influence.
- Today most of the advertising researches are based on this theory. Especially opinion leaders role in the society as well as in home to which helps to improve the market with less efforts.

Collective Identitites Theorists: Stanley Cohen

To understand the basics of Stanley Cohen 'Moral Panic' theory.


Stanley Cohen- 1987
"When a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as threat to societal values and interests."




Stanley Cohen looked at societal reaction disturbances involving the Mods and Rockers, which took place in Clacton over Easter Bank holiday in 1964.
Mass Media presented the disturbances as a confrontation between "rival gangs"- "hell ben on distruction".
Cohen discovered that the amount of vandalism and violence was not that great. In fact Mass Media exaggerated the confrontation and the cameras didn't even get there till the day after.
The Mods and Rockers created threat to norms and values fights between their vespers and motor bikes.
The media helped plan the next incident in Whitton, by asking "when will this happen again". It was believed that the Mods and Rockers only made the headlines because there was nothing else to cover that day. The Media coverage led to public concern with the Mods and Rockers, this set in motion a deviance set in motion spiral.

The 5 stages leading to moral panic:

1) Someone or somthing is defined as a threat to normal values
2) Threat is depicted as a sterotype by the media
3) A rapid build up of media interest arouses public cocern
4) Authorities respond to threat
5) The panic results in social change

According to Goode and Ben yemuda (1994) the major characteristics of moral panic are as follows;
-Concern
-Hostility- "them and us" Devision in society
-Concensus- agreement through society
-Disprorpertionality
-Volability - the moral panic blows up but quickly short lived

Other moral panics =
1970's- Mugging
1980's- Football hooliganism/skin heads
1990's- Rave Culture, paedophile
2000's- hoodies, binge drinking, terroism

David Buckingham

His research focuses on children's and young people's interaction with electronic media, and on media education.

Buckingham relates the development on Genre to the complex issue of ever changing identities.

Discovering the depth of Identity - Buckingham explores the development of how individuals understand the concept of identity. As a child identity is seen as a simple concept where by a child will simply differentiate between male and female genders.

According to Buckingham, as we grow older our understanding of identity becomes very complex no longer a simple method of just establishing gender.

He argues..."Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather it is in a constant process of negotiation and change"



We can apply Buckingham's theory when looking at the two music video's; Karyn Whites- Superwoman and Neyo- Miss Independant.

 



 

 

The first music video portrays the stereotypical view of females. The video shows the protagonist to be extremely domesticated, looking after her child, taking care of home responsibilities and craving her husband’s attention. The lyrics also suggest she is only there to cater to her husband and child.

In contrast the second music video portrays females in a very different light, the title and chorus of the song “Miss Independent” tells it all. It’s show how the modern women is a business woman who is concerned with her career. Also in this video the male employee is craving the attention of his female boss, which is the complete opposite of the first video.

 

Applying David Buckingham’s theory to legendary band the Bee Gees and currently active boy band JLS

To some extent the Bee Gees were an early prototype to the more recognisable boy bands of today. The band consisted of 3 initial members; Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb who were all brothers formed the group in the late 50s and early 60s. The Bee Gees defined the disco and pop era of the 60s and 70s and created the initial stereotypes for that genre from clothing to their hairstyles.
In contrast, recently established boy band JLS were formed as a result of their second placed triumph on the X-Factor reality show. The boy band consists of 4 members

Appearance wise, the Bee Gees are wearing quite flamboyant and less recognisable clothing to today’s fashion. As the Bee Gees career developed so did their attire, as they soon established their own trademark clothing of polyester flares, bell bottoms and platform shoes. However, surprisingly there isn't a stark contrast between JLS' outfits. Although they wear completely different outfit and have different hairstyles they both essentially wore tight clothing.

 

Gunther Kress

Gunter Kress- Born on the 26th November 1940
He is a professor of semiotics and education at the Institute of education of the University of London.

"Genre evolves with society"
Kress believes that genres change and new genres are developed when situations in society change and situations begin to reocur.
He believes that the sequencing to staging (Metz theory) is relevant. If genre entirely overlaps in other social processes, it means that unless we view society itself as static then neither social structures, social processes nor therefore genre are static. He argues that genre only exists in so far as a social group declares.


The basic Triangular model:  Interpreter
                                               Producer
                                               Text  
Genres first and foremost provide frameworks within which texts are produced and interpreted.He believes that texts are embedded with assumptions about ideal reader including their attitudes towards the subject matter (often class,age,gender and ethnic and political matters)


Think of two ways in which societal beliefs have changed in the last two decades. Find videos which exemplify the shifts in beliefs.

Portrayal of women:

 

2005: In this music video; the artist 50 cent portrays women to be inferior to men as they are extremely sexualised. We are taken into “Candy Shop Lane”, which is a mansion filled with large-breasted women in lingerie, analogous to the playboy mansion. 50 Cent, the only man in the video, is constantly surrounded by partially naked women. The camera switches back and forth between close-ups of the women in the mansion as they make seductive facial expressions and 50 Cent rapping outside of the mansion.
 

 2011: Six years later Nicki Minaj music video shows the complete opposite as she is the dominant one in the video and is surrounded my semi naked men. She is also rapping which something that is common with men. It can be considered as the female version of the 50cents "Candy shop".

Voilence:

This song is very disturbing as it Eminem talking about his hatred for women in particular his ex wife. The lyrics promote him planning to murder her and overall the domestic violence women suffer from their husbands/partners. In this song its about the man causing suffering to the women.

However Rihanna's music video "Man down" portrays how music videos have shifted with time, as it is about a women shooting a man who raped her the night before. The video shows casuing suffering to the male instead of the female.

Christian Metz

Christian Metz (Decemeber 1931- September 1993) was a French film theorist

 

 

He believed there are always certain structures that goes into the construction and pleasure of the cinematic spectator and that genre develops in four stages.

 

The stages are:

 

Stage 1: Experimentation- the early stages: setting up buildint blocks for future texts of the genre. This is when the generic codes and conventions are being developed.

 

Stage 2: Classic- Texts which become seen as inconic of the codes and conventions.

 

Stage 3: Parody- Media texts which mock the codes and conventions of the genre, becoming farical.

 

Stage 4: Deconstruction- Text which begin to unpick the well established codes and conventions to form hybrids and often 'uncoventional' texts from the genre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Genre

What is Genre?
Genre is a class or catergory of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content or technique. For example in the music industry there are different genres such as Classical and Pop.

A text is classified in a genre through the identification of key elements (paradigms).

Paradigms may be grouped into the following:

Iconography- Main signs/symbols what you see or heard
Structure- The way a text is put together and the shape it takes
Themes- Issues and ideas it deals with
Narrative- Something formalic plots and structures, predicatbale situations, sequences, obstacles, conflics and resolutions
Identify- Similar types of characters (sometimes stereoptypes) roles personal qualities behaviour