A theorist called Julian McDougall wrote a book, “Fake News vs Media Studies”, talking about how the place of Media Studies in the age of ‘fake news’, analysing the calls for a curriculum of critical news literacy as part of a cyclical policy debate. McDougal quotes that “There are always points historically where populations have been discontented or economic hardships have been exacerbated” which can link with the CSP’s, Letter to The Free and Ghost Town due to Letter to The Free, a hip hop song being written solely about the continued mistreatment of black people in america (populations being discontented) and Ghost Town being made about the economic crisis happening in the UK (economic hardships being exacerbated). Both of these music videos are similar in a sense that they are both radical as they go against the current dominant belief and that they both bring a political awareness to their audiences to help them see what really is going on around them. We can understand the seriousness of both of these issues presented as a hegemonic struggle through culture, a theory that Antonio Gramsci states that is a continual exchange of power through the use of ideas. This is very clearly a struggle that links to these music videos as Letter to The Free is about the very little equality and negotiation between the black people of America with the rest of their nation, and Ghost Town with the struggle to keep an equal exchange of power with the economic crisis that was happening in the UK at the time. Gramsci’s hegemonic struggle theory is also quite similar to Louis Althusser’s ideological state apparatus theory as Althusser’s theory talks about how most modern day structures of today are built to serve the dominant and ideal perspectives of society a.k.a, they’re built so that there can be a continual exchange of power through the popular ideas created by society which therefore helps us form our own identity and grow as a society. So, with these two theories in mind, by having more popular, dominant and mainstream artists create a discussion on sensitive subjects like Common’s Letter to the Free about how black lives are still being sacrificed and treated like slaves or in The Specials Ghost Town about how economic hardships were being exacerbated, we can therefore make more modern day structures such as the current education system shed light to important issues helping society realise these wrongens and lessen the hegemonic struggle.Not only are these two videos similar in the sense that they are both radical, but they also bring this sense of knowledge post-colonialism through how they convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world and how these may be systematically reinforced across a wide range of media representations. With both videos being set in a post-colonialist oppressed society yet with different issues that we can identify ourselves in, this can be linked with Jacques Lacan’s theory of “The Other”. “The Other” theory can be understood; as we can’t entirely see ourselves, we instead use a reflection of things we like and don’t like to interpret ourselves. So, Applying this to media studies, it is understandable why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves and so, applying this to the two music videos, “The Other” actually links very closely to it as we know that by just simply listening to the lyrics throughout each video e.g. the repeated chant of “freedom” in Letter to the Free, each listener will have their own interpretation and reflection of the lyric and therefore will allow them to decide for themselves on how they want to identify with that specific lyric and learn about themselves.Another post-colonial perspective can be from Paul Gilroy’s point of view is that audiences have a “Double Consciousness”, which is how we can’t dismantle and get rid of oppression from the bottom lower working class, but rather how it has to be from the upper classed privileged people and so the only way these privileged people can get rid of oppression is by letting them see and imagine how life would be like for those who aren’t as privileged as them. In Common’s Letter to the Free, Common talks about how African Americans and other people of colour can still be considered as slaves due to the 13th amendment allowing prisoners to be treated and punished to work as slaves so therefore, with the title “Letter to the Free”, Common is calling to those with more privilege and freedom to have this “Double Consciousness” and use their freedom to help speak up and raise awareness about the mistreatment of people of colour in the USA. In Ghost Town, The Specials are calling their audience to recognise the economic crisis happening and help people who are out of work and refused to leave the house because they were scared about getting robbed or murdered in the UK.I truly do believe that music videos can possibly change the way we view different ideas, such as dominant cultural and social ideas such as race, gender and class, because Letter to the Free was and still is a powerful song made by a black man about the discrimination of black people across America, making Letter to the Free a petition to end this mistreatment against people of colour and same goes for Ghost Town, a song that brought awareness to the economic crisis violence that was happening across the UK. The concept of post-colonialism helps us understand the traumatic events that lead up to almost everything that happens today alongside with the help from sub theories within this topic such as Lacan’s “The Other” theory or Gilroy’s “Double Consciousness” allowing us to learn about different cultures as well as understand more about ourselves.

Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely. ‘Different stances different news organisations or types of organisations take toward different audiences in the marketplace‘ (Curran, 1980). Compared to free media/press, the free market is an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control. Free markets are characterized by a spontaneous and decentralized order of arrangements through which individuals make economic decisions. The radical press, newspapers or print media that emphasises ideologies that are considered extreme or against dominant ideologies, was so influential that the backing of other daily newspapers may convey the idea of shared interests. In addition, the rise in costs of print media during the nineteenth century meant that there was large competition between newspaper enterprises. ‘The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market’ (Curran, 1980).The i was launched to pose a challenge to existing ‘quality’ newspapers with low cover prices and tabloid formats. It has battled to remain ‘cheap’ or at least ‘cheaper’: the weekday edition rising from 20p to 50p but can be freely read in many large UK airports. This relates to The Free Market theory as The i making their prices the lowest they can means they are trying to make their information as accessible as possible to their audience. This can also relate to Habermas’ Public Sphere theory as by making their papers as accessible as they can be, this can allow for wider demographics to connect and share ideas rather than these ideas being mainly restricted and accessible to only socially higher powers such as government and royalty or letting these ideas be changed and sent out to better suit the image of the government or royalty. The i doesn’t have a definitive political stance and is used more to convey factual news stories rather than manipulate it’s audience with propaganda from either right wing or left wing stances and has maintained a reputation after winning National Newspaper of the Year in 2015. An example of The i’s neutral stance is an article, written by Cahal Milmo, named “Biden edges closer to power after night of deadlock and rancour” which talks about how Biden and the Democrats managed to take the lead by gaining Wisconsin’s and Michigan’s votes after a close call of republicans almost taking Wisconsin and Michigan instead. Milmo manages to remain neutral with the article by referring to each party and referring to each presidential candidate by their real names rather than using name calling or bullying them like other papers have been, such as The Daily Mail calling Biden “Sleepy Joe”. This connotes that The i has an active audience as opposed to passive as with the neutral articles they produce, the audience can form their own views and opinions which therefore can refer to Bulmer, Katz and Haas’ Uses and Gratifications theory as it assumes the audience chooses themselves with what they want to watch and therefore the audience aren’t forced to buy, read and believe a certain view and opinion and are simply just reading it to get a balanced amount of information and education. The i is active on social media as well, reinforcing it’s radical balanced views by being up to date with new technologies and being able to keep up with the generational shift on how most teens and young adults use technology to keep updated with the news. There is also a discounted student subscription to The i that lasts for one academic year. This relates to Free Press/Media as The i tries to provide the most politically unbiased articles and views as possible and isn’t particularly swayed by specific politicians or government views/actions when producing articles. But, as of 10 months ago the owner of The Daily Mail, Lord Rothermere gained ownership over The i newspaper. This can be seen as an issue because even though Lord Rothermere and The i editor Oly Duff have both insisted that editorial independence would remain, The Daily Mail is well known for publishing fake news and therefore the fake news produced in the daily mail editor offices may carry over to The i editor offices, ruining the reputation and quality non-biased news articles The i has produced in the past. This links to Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent (How the media can manipulate stories ideas and concepts in order to portray a feeling of agreement and consent.) as having more richer higher powers own more media outlets, this means more filtered, manipulated and potentially propagandized information to better suit the narrative of governments and other higher powers to make them appear to be omnibenevolent amongst their people.Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for the purpose of profit or influence. The Daily Mail is published in London in a tabloid format. Established in 1896 by Harold and Alfred Harmsworth and Kennedy Jones in 1896, it is the United Kingdom’s highest-circulated daily newspaper but tends to promote extremely biased articles, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency and/or is fake news. Harold Sidney Harmsworth is also known to be an admirer of Mussolini and a supporter of Nazi Germany which can link to Free Press/Media as this can mean that The Daily Mail has most likely been promoting and producing Fake News and right wing propaganda since it first started in 1896 which goes against what Free Press/Media is as this means that The Daily Mail has been providing their readers with false information and misleading their audience for decades. The Daily Mail’s is a subsidiary of DMGT, a media conglomerate which owns newspapers including the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, which again can link to Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent as having already large conglomerates, such as DMGT, own more media outlets means more manipulated narratives and makes the production and spreading of propaganda easier. Another theory that relates to this is Habermas’ Public Sphere but because The Daily Mail’s audience may connect and spread the ideas produced from fake news they read from The Daily Mail which ultimately creates gossip and even more fake news. This makes The Daily Mail a reactionary news outlet as they produce articles that are purposefully structured to create and bring out a reaction from their audience, whether good or bad. An example of The Mail’s reactionary right-winged articles is “The Biden Landslide that Never Happened” written by Arthur Martin, within the article Martin talks about how Biden’s (left-wing) major promises he made if he were to become president, such as climate reforms like having a net zero emissions target, would completely tank and fail due to how likely the Republicans (right-wing) are to remain control of the Senate. A quote from the article, proving the article’s right-winged stance even more is “As he inched closer to the White House last night, Joe Biden and his supporters cautiously started to celebrate. But as the dust settles on the nail-biting race, Mr Biden’s team will privately hold a post-mortem into why he came so close to defeat”, which talks about how Biden and his supporters will slowly start celebrating his victory as he is very close to winning himself but as the presidential race comes to an end, Biden’s team will try look into why he “came so close to defeat” which is a lie as currently (Thursday 5th November), Joe Biden is at 264 votes compared to Donald Trump who is at 214 votes. This can be seen as Cultivation Theory as The Daily Mail has a passive audience that they are repeating the message to that the left/democrats are “bad” as they have unrealistic plans and views that could never actually be achieved, so therefore their audience shouldn’t vote for left-wing politicians or else they would be disappointed because of false promises that are unachievable like Joe Biden has apparently done according to the article they have written about him. Martin has also named Biden “Sleepy Joe” making fun of Biden’s old age and used an image of an African American male wearing a “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” t-shirt, contradicting the dominant belief of POC being against trump.

Score hair cream is an advert that emphasizes the continuous historical character of gender with the fact that it is constituted in time. In terms of Feminist Critical Thinking, the advert was created and advertised in the 1970’s, a prominent time for the second wave of feminism with the introduction of the pill, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, equal pay act and so on, which was seen as a radical view at the time due to the heavily patriarchal powered society there was in the 70’s. Within the advert, the women are wearing little to no clothing whilst reaching up to the only male in the advert in order to be sexualised and eye catching to the consumers of the advert (males), this can be seen as an example of the “Male Gaze”, a theory Laura Mulvey introduced that suggests that every piece of media that we consume is formed and structured around the dominant views of a white male hegemonic society and also and example of fetishism and how women are viewed as objects of desire rather than being respected and acknowledged as actual humans and in Score’s case, the women are not only in skimpy outfits, but are also purposefully positioned below the male, who is also on a throne, to connote the amount of superiority and power a female has (very little) compared to a man which is also apparently amplified if the male uses Score Hair Cream. Ariel Levy’s Raunch Culture can also be referenced to this advert due to the amount of exposure each woman inside of the advert has with how much clothing they are actually wearing further promoting the over sexualisations of women. This Score advert can be seen as an example of Gerbener’s cultivation theory for an advert of its time as other adverts, such as Tipalet’s cigarette advert “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere”, tended to repeat the dominant ideology that women are solely objects that only exist for male entertainment and with Score, the objectification of women is reinforced even more as they are perceived as trophies due to the m. this means that the audience reading and consuming this print advert is passive and accepts all messages this print advert is trying to promote which is the oppositional binary between men and women that men can gain more power by using Score hair products and more women will submit to you if you use it.In contrast to the Score print advert, “Oh..” is a magazine that celebrates authenticity and empowerment within feminism shown by its front covers that solely present women and only women and their articles that celebrate women for being the modern day feminists they are, for example, in issue 35 of “Oh..” magazine (Oh Comely at the time), they did an interview with Amali De Alwis, the CEO of Girls Code First and celebrating her as a woman of colour who is encouraging other females to start coding and join STEM, which tends to be a male dominated technology industry. Set up by three women who used to work for a popular publishing conglomerate, they felt that they could set up a magazine that constructs a representation of femininity with its focus on creativity and quirkiness. With this focus on femininity and quirkiness, Oh focuses on promoting body positivity and that all females are beautiful no matter what they look like which is very much outside of the male perspective and therefore can be seen as a radical hegemony suggesting that Oh magazine’s sole purpose is to empower women representing the main feminist message as women should feel comfortable in their own skin and that they should work together to power through modern day social injustices such as the gender pay gap.Judith Butler quotes “gender as performativity.” Which means that the actions deemed appropriate for men and women have been released and presented to produce a social impression that keeps and authenticates a “natural” gender binary. Butler is basically saying we associate these different themes with the genders, such as girls wearing pink, only exist because as humans, we collectively agree it exists; it is a social construct. In reference to Score Hair Cream, it supports Butler’s ideas that gender is just a repertoire of acts as the dominant ideology in the 70’s was that for something to be considered masculine, it needed masculine features such as, the one male within the advert with strong muscles, healthy looking hair and and a gun in contrast to the women within the advert in crop tops and mini skirts with long hair.Oh! And Score have very different views on the different binaries between men and women as Oh! Suggests a more feminist and radical approach on these binaries suggesting that women should feel empowered rather than inferior to men and that they should be equal, but, Score suggests otherwise solely from the mise-en-scene of the print advert with the women in little to no clothing exposing themselves, objectifying women and suggesting that they are only there to please men, carrying the only man who has stronge muscles and a gun to defend himself, radiating his masculinity that has been enhanced because of Score Hair Cream. Though 50 years apart, they are manifestations of the same ongoing process that is happening today due to the hypersexualisation of women on new media such as music videos like “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke contrasted with digital feminist campaigns such as the “MeToo” movement, creating the illusion of gender difference.

• the ways in which different parts of a product’s audience may offer quite different readings of that product according to how they are positioned to it socially, culturally and politically
• For example, the structuring of a dominant ‘white’ representation with clear references to a colonial past (dominated by white males, served and supported by white females) and how that narrative fits into ideas of postcolonial reception.
• There is an opportunity to employ both cultivation theory (Gerbner) and reception theory (Hall) to support an examination of how groups might be positioned by their socio-cultural status (reinforced by dominant modes of representation) and may position themselves politically to offer ‘dominant hegemonic’, ‘negotiated’ and ‘oppositional’ readings (Hall, Gramsci)
• Such an approach allows for an examination of the advert in terms of DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY), CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM / CULTURAL SYNCRETISM, in other words how is society representing itself? How are individual groups within society being represented? Does the text require a reading of double consciousness to mask the veil (W B Dubois)
• The advert creates ideas of the ‘other’ (Lacan, Said, Fanon etc). Of the way in which the exotic = the erotic, that is ideas of Orientalism developed by Edward Said.
• In doing so does the advert create a ‘diaspora’ of existence for those who are not included? Does it work against the values of multi-culturalism and plurality / pluralism?

“Gender as an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts” means that the actions deemed appropriate for men and women have been released and presented to produce a social impression that keeps and authenticates a “natural” gender binary. Butler is basically saying we associate these different themes with the genders, such as girls wearing pink, only exist because as humans, we collectively agree it exists; it is a social construct. Butler’s theory is interesting to take into consideration when looking at print media products as it allows us to pick up on common themes such as women being shown as objects and men being shown as the alpha gender. This is strictly not a representation of gender identities but rather simulations of them that we all choose to accept and conform by: they are signifiers without a stable signified: these are essentially hyper-realities: images that refer only to other images as gender functions as a simulacrum, an image without an original.“Oh..” is a magazine that celebrates authenticity and empowerment within feminism shown by its front covers that solely present women and only women and their articles that celebrate women for being the modern day feminists they are, for example, in issue 35 of “Oh..” magazine (Oh Comely at the time), they did an interview with Amali De Alwis, the CEO of Girls Code First and celebrating her as a woman of colour who is encouraging other females to start coding and join the male dominated technology industry. Set up by three women who used to work for a popular publishing conglomerate, they felt that they could set up a magazine that constructs a representation of femininity with its focus on creativity and quirkiness.“Oh..” uses a, what some may consider, feminine colour palette with pink pastels contrasted with deep navy and crimson hues which is used to attract females, due to the stereotype contraptions with pinks tones as a feminine colour and therefore reflects their target audience of women. The magazine also has a large title written in a handwritten style giving the maize a more homely and do it yourself feel and making it have a unique element to it, again reflecting it target audience of unique, quirky feminists. Some people may like to view themselves with this interpellated opinion and aesthetic if they don’t feel the same in real life as they may tend to feel too shy to speak up about these feminist issues due to toxic masculinity considering the idea of talking about issues that happen with other females as “bad” and “repetitive”, and these experiences are evident through how little these common issues amongst other females are spoken about in schools or offices, therefore finding these niche magazines as a interpelleted reflection of themselves and a safe haven for them to rant these issues and celebrate how they aren’t alone.As “Oh..” is a magazine focused on feminism, the absence of men throughout the magazine’s issues are a very prominent thing showing the radicalism of the magazine and acts as a stand up towards these patriarchal publishing conglomerates. A third wave feminist theorist that can really feel for this “standing up to the patriarchy” is bell hooks. Bell hooks talks about multicultural intersectionality where how general political concepts are always intertwined and intersect with feminist concepts, these general concepts can be topics such as sex, identity, age etc. “Black feminists have pointed out the differences between black and white womens experiences, cultural representations and interests” (2016:346), a.k.a. Arguments around gender also intersect with postcolonial arguments around power relationships between black and white women. Feminism will always be somehow linked to these topics. Van Zoonen, another third wave feminist theorist, also talks about a similar theory on how cultural hegemony and interpellation are also heavily related to feminism, with the oppresion of women whether it be their right to vote, the gender pay gap around the world, or even sexual harrassment towards women in the work place. In a post-colonial context, women have always carried the double burden of being colonised by imperial powers and dominated by colonial men.In contrast to “Oh..” magazine, “Men’s Health” magazine gives off a completely different feel with its big blocky blue, gray and black text and typeface that conforms to the dominant male ideology of how we as a society associate these strong, bold colours with men. “Men’s Health” is very different in comparison with “Oh..” in not only terms of topic theme throughout the magazines, but also in terms of publishing companies, “Oh..” is owned by an independent press company in London called “Iceberg Press” who publish only one other magazine as well as “Oh..”, “The Simple Things”, whereas “Men’s Health” is published by Hearst Magazines, a subsidiary owned by the very popular and patriarchal based media conglomerate named Hearst Corporation. Hearst Corporation owns cable companies across the US such as ESPN, History, and other big branded magazines such as ELLE, COSMOPOLITAN, BAZAAR, so therefore they can reach their targeted male audience with ease, actually reaching a circulation of 1.5 million people a year. This can be heavily linked to Noam Chomsky’s ‘Manufacturing Consent’ theory as Chomsky proposed that the mass communication media of the U.S. “are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion”, this means that the more power a company has, the more prone other institutions such as government organisations are to falling under the control of the said company due to them being able to control most mass media communications. With Hearst Corporations owning a majority of popular US media outlets, this makes them viable and able to use manipulatory consent techniques. An example can be how Hearst Corporations have links with ‘The Establishment’, William Randolph Hearst III is the chairperson of Hearst Corporations and inheritor of the Hearst family fortune being estimated at $24.5 billion net worth. With that amount of money, this means that William is bound to have other connections to the establishment as he is an inheritor to a big percentage of the world’s wealth. As Iceberg Press are an independent company, they don’t get as big of a reach to their targeted audience as Hearst Magazines has been able to, especially with having “Oh..”’s targeted demographic as a very niche audience (modern day feminists) and it’s circulation reach is estimated at 25,000 physical issue readers. Even though niche audiences tend to be a small minority of society, they can hold great value for indie brands and their success because the audience members are often more engaged, active and responsive and shows how development in new technology means indie companies such as Iceberg Press can also use the internet to communicate and target audiences.

– The Score hair cream advert is an historical artefact from 1967

– It relates to gender roles, sexuality and the historical context of advertising techniques. 1967 can be seen as a period of slow transformation in western cultures with legislation about and changing attitudes to the role of women – and men – in society, something that the advert can be seen to negotiate.

This advertisement sexually exploits the women in this image by making them wear revealing clothing showing off their skin making them seem like an asset or a slave to men

The man in the image is raised on a pedal stool and made to seem like royalty and a king to “beautiful” women just because he wears the product. There is a sense of the orient with the leopard print and the jungle leaves scattered around the image giving a sense of the eastern life.

The hunting rifle gives the sense of dominance and control in the traditionalist views that the men are meant to provide food and money and the females are meant to be nurturing and submissive to the males.

The product at the bottom of the image it shows the product that will be a “life changer” and get you all the woman in the world.

In this image the misogyny and sexualisation of women is clearly displayed through a variety of different ways. One way in which this can evidently be seen is through the use of short clothing worn by the female characters in this image, this is done to attract the focus of the target audience which in this case is males.

“Get what you’ve always wanted” imperative, command, demanding you do what the advert says

Man is higher than the women, suggesting he is more important

Man shown with a gun, portraying his masculinity, women shown wearing minimal clothing, suggesting that they are submissive to the man

Advert mentions the verb “groom” which holds negative connotations that you most likely would not see in an advert today

“Score” suggests the man’s aim is to “score” lots of women, the advert in general is portraying the idea that buying the hair cream allows you to receive a lot of female attention

Score uses advertising to market their product to there consumers, they do this through using media language to encourage consumers to buy their products.

Media Language

Mise-en-scene- the man holding the gun represents masculinity and power, the fact he sitting above everyone shows he has dominance and is in control of the situation. The fact he is surrounded by girls in very little clothing suggests that he gained all the girls through this magical hair cream.

The image is set in the jungle- links to post colonialism- white man has power over minorities, empire.

Slogane- “get what you have always wanted” this suggest through using the hair cream you can get all greatest desires.

1967- during this time this advert would be very appealing to men, as it fits into the style and aesthetics of the 60s, with the hair and makeup the girls were wearing, women were also regularly objectified and seen more and as an object that could be won, which would tie into the idea that men could win women with this hair cream.

Representation

This advert was designed before the 2nd wave of feminism and the sexualisation was widely acceptable which is why and advert like this would have been popular.

This advert feeds into the dominant ideology that women are only useful as an object of a mans desires. This plays on sexist stereotypes that men should be masculine and that women should obey them.

Laura Mulvey- Male Gaze, this advert plays into the idea that media is tailored to the male gaze (having pretty girls in little clothing), score uses this to advertise there hair cream to men by gaining their attention through women.