Ideology: further reading and tasks

MM52

Page 34: The World Of Mockingjay: Ideology, Dystopia And Propaganda

1) Read the article

2) What view of capitalist ideology is presented in the Hunger Games films?

The capitalist ideas portrayed are the powerful beings at the top and the poor at the bottom. People with the money retain all the money and also retain the control of the districts and the power. Whereas the poor have to break laws to get through life and succumb to those in power. This is the biggest issues regarding capitalism as many are left suffering due to no jobs. This isn't fair on those that cannot work or cannot get a job. This me\ans that the top 1% have all of the money and live in luxury and the rest work to survive and live tough lives. 

3) What do the Hunger Games films suggest about the power of the media to shape and influence ideological beliefs

The media seems to be able to control the way people think by reinforcing certain ideas repeatedly until they become ingrained into society and are accepted as normal. This means that the people with the power, who are in charge of the media, can spread ideals that they want to be relevant and influence the masses, which is a typical use of hegemony. This directly links into capitalism and the way society functions. If there is a strong belief ingrained into the society that the media is always factually, morally correct and informal, people will listen and this will in turn allow people to be easily influenced and believe whatever the media feeds them.


Page 48: They Live - Understanding Ideology
1) Read the article

2) What are the four accepted ideological beliefs in western societies highlighted by the article?

The 4 accepted ideological beliefs in western society highlighted in the article include, money leading to happiness, buying goods equal fulfilment, marriage family and children cause happiness, and obedience and hard work equal fulfilment.

3) What does Gramsci's theory of hegemony suggest about power and ideology in society?

In Gramsci's theory of hegemony he states the ideology about power in our society comes from the structures that support the people at the top and that it enables the people with power to gain more power.

4) What does French theorist Louis Althusser suggest about ideology and consumerism?

Althusser says states that institutions have an elite influence behind them and they also influence people within the institutions that seem to be morally correct such as the church to influence people about morals and certain behaviours.

5) Do YOU agree with the idea behind They Live - that we are unthinkingly controlled by the media which is run in the interests of the economic elite? 

Yes I do agree with the fact that we are all controlled by the media and accept certain ideologies without thinking. As there seems to be an underlying message throughout every marketing campaign, this is because they want to reinforce social norms, making everyone maintain the same ideologies.. The people at the top control the people beneath them, establishing a social hierarchy dictated on the amount of wealth you have, meaning  the more money you have, the more power you have.

Binary opposition analysis

Binary oppositions and ideology

   1) Watch this clip from BBC Question Time with Russell Brand and Nigel Farage. The BBC deliberately placed the two against each other and the episode resulted in far more people watching and tweeting than usual.

What examples of binary opposition can you suggest from watching this clip?

We see there is a common theme of rich and privileged vs poor and unfortunate in this episode, the binary opposition here shows the viewer that the two people are at the top with money despite coming from different backgrounds and are spreading their values to the poor in different ways, this links to the media theory suggested by Richard Dyer. We also see the opposition of upper class/elite and working class, this binary opposition highlights to the viewer that there is a clear difference in the ideologies of these people within the general public, they seem to be assuming stereotypes are true and that all of these stereotypes are applicable to all, the use of this links in to Medhurst's value judgement theory. Another use of binary opposition is within Russel Brand and Nigel Farage themselves, this contrast shows the audience that there is a clear difference in morals despite both having a lot of money and being part of the elite percentage of the country, this links into Perkins' theory around stereotypes. We see that they are both from this class but Brand seems to be against it and believes that we could all be sharing a similar lifestyle without the others selfishness. They both accentuate the idea that they can help to change peoples lives for the better.

What ideologies are on display in this clip?

The ideology of the rich is quite clearly portrayed in this clip, with Farage, the ideology is dominant as we see that he is effectively the embodiment of what the public sees the elite 1% of the UK as; full of themselves and pretentious. He seems to believe that he is superior to everyone and everything he says is right. This is challenged by Brand and his alternative representation as he does have money like farage but doesn't seem to flaunt his position in society compared to Farage. We see that he is from a poor background and has worked his way up and is now trying to help the people with his image that he has gained. He is the epitome of success through hard work and it shows that despite your wealth, you can still help the people that you came from. Which is a very effective alternative representation of the rich and wealthy 

Ideology and your own choice of clip

2) What examples of binary opposition can you suggest from watching your clip?

In the trailer we see a dominant binary opposition of males and females. All representations of them are dominant, allowing for the binary opposition to be more obvious and easier to consume by the audience. This is due to the fact that binary opposition allows for stereotypes to be created and certain ideologies and beliefs to be promoted the use of this links to Perkins' theory about stereotypes in the media. In the trailer, we see that the woman are trying to change the men that they are dating by playing them at there own game this opposition links perfectly with Mulvey's male gaze that woman are made for men to look, but in a sense the film also subverts this theory. As well as this another theory that this opposition links to is Bergers' 'way of seeing' as it suggests that men look at women and women watch themselves being watch themselves being watched. This is highlighted in the trailer with the use of the book which all the women follow to ensure that there other half pays attention.

What ideologies are on display in your clip?

The ideology of men and women in the film is clearly shown that one is the dominant sex. This ideology is dominant in todays society and in the film as we see the characters conform to this in the trailer. However, the ideology is subverted to an alternative idea that two can be dominant in a relationship by the end of the film. But in the trailer we only see the idea that woman can be dominant as well but the man are swayed by this. 

Representation Theory: 500 word analysis

Kingsman Representation Theories

The representation in the ‘kingsman’ trailer is very subtle however there are several examples of representation in the trailer and many of them fit into media representation theories perfectly.  As do many media texts in today’s day and age.

The first theory that is most noticeably utilised in the trailer is Perkins stereotype theory. Perkins theory suggests that many stereotypes are positive and partly true. In the trailer, the ‘chav’ or ‘hooligan’ stereotype is fulfilled. We see this in the scene where the ‘kingsman’ confronts them about their manners towards the protagonist and their immediate reaction is violence.  This suggests to the audience that these are typical loud council estate hooligans.  Perkins puts into the category of stereotypes not always being false.  Another ideal of Perkins theory that is fulfilled in the trailer is that the powerful are also stereotyped. As we see that the stereotype of the more privileged being snobby and stuck up is in constant effect throughout the trailer with the constant mockery of the protagonist who is in a lower class. We also see the constant a constant prejudice of social classes in general.

Medhurst’s shorthand value judgement theory is put into action in this trailer. The theory suggests that many media texts stereotype in order for the audience to know what is going on in a short space of time. In the ‘kingsman’ trailer we see that the group of ‘hooligans’ are suggested to be loud and violent due to the short fight scene we see. This is a dominant representation of their stereotype.  It also has negative connotations which Medhurst suggests in his theory is usually the effect.  

Dominant representations are present in the trailer mainly as stereotypes which Levi-Strauss suggests may be the ideals of the producers of the media text. This means that many of the stereotypes are those believed by the creators of ‘kingsmen’. For example the use of conceit amongst the upper class may be a stereotype that the writer holds.  However, because it is such a common stereotype the audience overlook this and believe as well.  The use of the alternative representation in the protagonist leaves more to the audience’s beliefs to find the true representation.

Representation Dominant and Alternative: Analysis Blog task

Find a YouTube clip from film or TV and complete the same activity we have just done in class:

1) List the different people/groups represented in the trailer (men/women/Americans etc.)

• English men/ aristocrats
• Chavs
• Youths
• Americans
• Celebrities
• Black American
• White supremacists

2) For each group, decide whether the representation is a dominant or alternative portrayal.

• English men/ aristocrats

The stereotype of the aristocrat in this film is reinforced and subverted.  Therefore, there are both dominant and alternative portrayals of this group in the film. An example of dominant representation in the film is when all the ‘kingsmen’ are gathered around the table and everyone has suggested specific candidates that are typical to their set of people. E.g. white and from a privileged background and attending a specific set of schools. However, this coincides with the alternative representation as one of the ‘kingsmen’ has suggested a less typical candidate which goes against the organisations usual ideals. This is because this specific ‘kingsman’ believes in giving everyone a chance and that anyone can be a part of them. Making this representation alternative

• Chavs

The representation of chavs is dominant in this film. This is because the stereotype of them being loud, ignorant and violent is reinforced a couple times during the film. Especially, in the bar scene where the contrast between the chav and the upper class can be seen clearly by audience.

• Youths

The representation of youths in the film is quite alternative. This is seen at the training camp where there is an array of talented and successful youths looking to join the organisations. This subverts the stereotype that youths are lazy and useless.

• Americans

Americans are represented as close minded and narrow in the film, which may seem like a dominant representation. But it also may be trying to subvert the stereotype as the only person that is a visionary in the film is an American. This may suggest the idea that Americans are more further ahead than others maybe.

• Celebrities

The stereotype of celebrities is that they only care about themselves and the people like them and don’t appreciate their audience. In the film this dominant representation is enforced as all the celebrities take the opportunity to be saved without thinking of their fans and the people that support them etc.

3) What stereotypes can you identify in the trailer?

There are several stereotypes such as the portrayal of the people that live on the estate with the protagonist. This is effectively presented in the trailer in the bar scene. Where the main 'kingsman' confronts the group about their manners and their attitude towards the protagonist. Their reaction is what the audience would expect from a group of people such as them - violent and loud. Another stereotype that is visible in the trailer is the representation of upper class people. This is seen in the training period when the protagonist is amongst an elite group of candidates from very privileged backgrounds. Their behavior towards the protagonist is seen as stuck-up as they all put him down due to his less privileged background, This fulfills the stereotypical view of upper class people being conceited and looking down on others less fortunate than them.

Audience Pleasures - The Battle of the Christmas Adverts

MAN IN THE MOON 2015

MONTY THE PENGUIN 2014




So what are the gratifications offered by their latest offering, Buster the Boxer?

Watch the advert again and consider the questions below:

1) What audience gratifications / pleasures are offered by the John Lewis brand? Consider all three adverts from 2014-2016. How are they similar in the pleasures they offer? How are they different?
The john lewis brand offers several main gratifications/ pleasures, including identity and diversion. Since 2014 all of their adverts have had a certain element of relatablity that there customers and target audience can relate to. Allow for the identity gratification to be offered to the audience as the find themselves reflected in this media text. Furthermore, the adverts in general all have the diversion gratification as it seems that for an advert there is a large amount of detail put into the story etc. which allows for the audience to escape into the advert. However, the diversion gratification has been lost throughout the years on the john lewis adverts as the most recent ad campaign doesn't have such a strong story line compared to its predecessors, this may because people are no longer interested or because john lewis are trying for a new approach.


Now read the criticism about the new advert:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/sssgreater-manchester-news/john-lewis-2016-christmas-ad-12154739
The Manchester Evening News

https://www.theguardian.com/media/shortcuts/2016/nov/14/wildlife-charities-react-john-lewis-christmas-ad
The Guardian

2) What are the objections of some members of the audience? Do you agree or disagree with these viewpoints? Why?

The Battle of the Christmas Ads 2016

Many brands have jumped on the 'Christmas Ad' bandwagon in the past but 2016 seems to be the year where the advertising industry has really outdone itself, with many large industrial names fighting for recognition on social media through hash tags and the development of narrative arcs that involve the audience. Huge amounts of revenue have been spent on developing and making these adverts, including getting celebrity voice-overs; recording cover versions of new songs that can then be sold in connection with iTunes and downloaded on Spotify; producing merchandise connected to the ads and entering running times comparable with some short films. 

Watch the most popular 2016 offerings and then answer the questions below in a new blog post:

Sainsburys

Heathrow airport

Very.co.uk

Aldi

Marks & Spencers (tissues out!)



1) Which do you think is the most appealing and why? Try to use some of our audience theory in your answer. 
 Personally, i believe that the most appealing advert is the Marks And Spencer's campaign. Due to the fact that, what is portrayed is a feel good story line which utilises non-fictional characters - humans, which allows for the audience to become emotionally attached to the idea of giving during the Christmas season and therefore become attached to the message that marks and spencers is sending. This links to Gillian Dyer's theory on lines of appeal. As the advert is a form of communication and makes people that are connected to Christmas or cherish the feeling of love and family to feel apart of the advert more. The lines of appeal that this advert conveys are happy families, as the advert shows that the love that families have between each other will never fade away, the second line of appeal would be childhood as this advert shows the innocence of a child. 

2) Are there any audience pleasures that two or more of the adverts have in common? Choose two examples to illustrate your point. 
The audience pleasures that most of the adverts presents is the idea of giving. The Very advert is a lady giving gifts to everyone and receiving one back and also the Marks and Spencers advert is the young boy giving a gift back to his family members. The adverts also include audience pleasures such as family. For example, the Salisbury's advert is the father spending time with his family on Christmas and the Heathrow advert is the grandparents coming home for Christmas and being with the family.

3) Choose a different advert and identify the target audience for the advert. Answer in terms of demography and psychography. What tells you this?
The littlewoods christmas 2016 advert is a very family orientated advert with a trace of humour. In terms of demographics, the age group class would be seen as the consumers of the products shown in the video and the age bracket of 11-40. The advert has a middle class, typical family (mother, father children, and grandparents) which is the image that comes into ones mind when family and Christmas is mentioned. In terms of psychograpgics, the two families in the advert look as if they both live similar lifestyles with each of the family members mirroring the other family. Therefore they had similar attitudes and values. This tells us that Christmas is for everyone, every family no matter the shape or size.

4) Why do you think Christmas adverts, in particular, often use emotive language and narratives to appeal to a wide audience?5) Choose an advert with a narrative and, just for fun, apply one of our narrative theories to it. Why does a narrative have a place in an advert?     
Waitroses 2016 Christmas advert campaign tells the story of a robin's journey during Christmas time. The narrative theory that i am going to apply a this media text would be Todorov's theory of equilibrium. The beginning of the advert where the robin starts its journey and the girl is placing a mince pie out is the equilibrium of this story - as we assume that the mince pie is for the robin that it will arrive eat the mince pie and leave. However it s journey is diverted by many things including predators, bad weather, getting stepped on by a sailor etc this then becomes the adverts disequilibrium. After all the struggle, we see that it has been protected and it is finally able to continue its journey and it eventually finds its way to the girl's house and gets its mince pie - which is the new equilibrium. In my opinion, i think that narrative has a strong place in adverts as it grabs the audience's attention in a way that just showing them the products can't do and causes the audience to pay more attention which makes it more likely for them to purchase a product due to the memorable storyline

Audience Theory Blog Task

Audience theory: blog tasks

Hypodermic needle model

1) Read this Mail Online article about the effects of videogames. How does this article link to the hypodermic needle model?

The article links to the hypodermic needle model as it contains very subjective information about this topic. It also seems as if this newspaper is trying to give the point that video games have a negative effect on young people. As the hypodermic needle model suggests that the media injects information into the audience which could potentially be dangerous for them. The article seems to be injecting the idea that video games are bad for children which could be potentially dangerous for the video game market and put many companies out of business.

2) How does coverage of the Talk Talk hacking case link to the hypodermic needle model? Why might someone criticise this front page? 

This front page links to hypodermic needle model as the paper seems to be injecting the idea that it was the mothers fault and it was all down to bad parenting. They also link it to violent video games even though they have no solid proof that this was the cause, so it is more of an opinion then a statement which makes the newspaper bias. The criticism that the daily mail may receive from this is that they seem to not be presenting the facts clearly and leading the audience to believe something else. 

Two-step flow model

1) Summarise the two-step flow model. In your opinion, is the two-step flow theory still relevant today?
The two step flow theory is still relevant today in some aspects as in the media there is a certain group of institutions that have certain influences on certain topics and ideas in the media. This then goes onto to mediate how the audience reacts to certain ideas that are then presented in the media. As well as this, nowadays audiences are more consicious and make decisions according to how they believe they would like it to happen to them, which means they integrate their own ideas and social factors.

2) How does this YouTube blogger fit into the two-step flow model?

The youtube blogger 'total biscuit' fits into the two-step flow models as the opinion leader and he has a heavy influence of the audience, his viewers. Even though, his influence is only down to games he plays and reviews, it is still an influence and if he was too he would be able to influence audience ideas and views on other things possibly.

3) How this this Telegraph article on influential tweeters fit the two-step flow model?

 The article fits the two-step model because it shows us that Britain's public feel like they are most influenced by One Direction, a young music boy band. There are people on the list e.g. Richard Branson that have done more influential things than One Direction and contributed more to society, but because of their growing popularity among young people who use the app more then any other demographic and the fact that they themselves were teenagers when they rose to fame, it makes them more influential on this website.

4) Read this BBC profile of Jamal Edwards. How does Jamal Edwards link to the two-step flow model?

Jamal Edwards and the two-step flow model link well as we are told that he went from being an average teenager in a council estate to a multimillionaire and this runs as a message to the millions of viewers that he has. The fact that there have been several other similar channels set up in inspiration of SBTV shows this

Uses and Gratifications theory

1) For each of the four categories, write about one media text that fits that particular audience use or pleasure. Make sure you explain WHY it fits the category and use images or clips to illustrate your points.

Diversion: escape from everyday problems and routine - entertainment.-

For diversion, I chose the new film Assassins creed which is based on a successful video game. This is a good example of diversion because it is easy to get lost in the film and focus on something much more entertaining and engaging than your everyday life. Furthermore, because it is based on a game both people that haven't  played the game and people that have can get lost in the storyline and try and relate the storyline back to the game.

Personal Relationships: using the media for emotional and other interaction (e.g. developing affection for characters in TV)-

For the personal relationship category, i have chosen how i met your mother which i think is a show with many lovable and relatable characters.The main protagonist is a hopeless romantic who his friends see as too trusting. He also seems to be more ahead of his friends in his interest therefore they class him as the groups 'granddad'. The other protagonist include a classic couple that have been with each other since college and have just got engaged. They both always seem to know what they want and even what there friends want even if there friends dont know. As the audience you begin to feel the same way towards them. The final two protagonists include a modern independant women who is trying to pursue her career as a journalist but also trying to jugggle her love life and other challenges such as being infertile. As the audience throughout the series she turns from a stale female to a relatable part of the show that you love. Finally, the last protagonist is a humourous businessman who is afraid of commitment due to previous heatbreak but has unstable realationships with many women. However, on several occasions in the series he falls in love and matures in these relationships and becomes more then just a character to laugh at. 

Personal Identity: finding ourselves reflected in texts or learning behaviour and values from the media. Reality TV or documentary (Educating Yorkshire) are good examples.-
I chose the exclusive documentary series from channel 4 'secret life of 4 year olds' because there are many oppurtunites to learn about different behaviours in the children. As well as this, many parents would be able to identify there children from the children in the show which makes it more enjoyable and also allows for them to see how to deal with such situations.

Surveillance: Information useful for living (e.g. Weather, traffic news, holiday bargains etc.)-

For Surveillance, I have chosen  the documentary 'Wanted Down Under'  - This reality ducumentary series is popular among many ABC class families who are planning on migrating to Australia for jobs or lifestylets etc. It is seen as a less intimidating way of house hunting or learn about the culture and the life that they would be changing to. As well as this it is easy for the audience watching to find out more if they see something they like in the shoe as they have a whole website dedicated to the migrating process in australia.