Oh Comely is also a magazine about people and what makes it different to the rest? It makes people feel better about themselves as it try to inspires people to be creative, talk to their neighbors and explore new things, rather than gossip, buy stuff or lose weight. So it is trying to bring a more positive outlook to the media magazine industry.

OH Comely now OH is part of a development in lifestyle and environmental movements of the early twenty first century which re brand consumerism as an ethical movement. Its representation of femininity reflects an aspect of the feminist movement which celebrates authenticity and empowerment

 OH is an independent magazine published by Iceberg Press, a small London publisher which publishes only one other title.

Which shows how developments in new technology mean that small companies can also use the internet to communicate and target audiences. So with this they can increase the likely hood of consumers purchasing there products as it would be the focus market instead of a whole bunch on random people

Presenting new strategies for institutional development and creative working practice. As well as suggesting ways for keeping print popular and relevant – Iceberg’s branding includes a commitment to print over other media forms, so a newspaper for example

bi-monthly published in print and digitally,

started by three friends.

You can find oh in some Salisbury’s and Wait rose, most WH Smiths and many small newsagents, indie mag shops and some cafes, museums and galleries.

vertical integration is when a production company owns the means of production, distribution and exhibition of their film and are of the same company, because of this they will receive all of the profit.

Media concentration / Conglomerates / Globalisation (in terms of media ownership): are powerful influential groups that own various businesses

Horizontal Integration is same chain of production and command

Gatekeepers is someone with high power which controls what/who goes through

Regulation is controlling and setting rules to keep things in control / Deregulation

Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers: monopolies own everything/dominant the market where as free market is open where anyone can join

Neo-liberalism and the Alt-Right

Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR

David Hesmondhalgh

In his seminal book, The Culture Industries (Sage, 2019) he suggest that:

the distinctive organisational form of the cultural industries has considerable implications for the conditions under which symbolic creativity is carried out’

A critical reflection that highlights the ‘myth-making’ process surrounding the potential digital future for young creatives, setting up a counter-weight against the desire of so many young people who are perhaps too easily seduced to pursue a career in the creative industries. Where the promise of wealth and fame and the celebration of a range of unlikely popular heroes including various dot.com millionaires, Young British Artists, celebrity chefs, pop stars, media entrepreneurs and the like, have according to Banks and Hesmondhalgh (2009), encouraged nascent creatives to imagine themselves as the ‘star’ at the center of their own unfolding occupational drama.

the individualizing discourses of ‘talent’ and ‘celebrity’ and the promise of future fame or consecration, have special purchase in creative work, and are often instrumental in ensuring compliance with the sometimes invidious demands of managers, organisations and the industry

 this approach looks to spotlight a prevailing assumption around cultural production as one that is ‘innately talent-driven and meritocratic – that anyone can make it’ (ibid).

Although, as Angela McRobbie (2002) (2016 ) and others, (Communian, Faggian, & Jewell, 2011); (O’Brien, Laurison, Miles, & Friedman, 2016); (Hesmondhalgh, 2019) have argued, the study of creative work should include a wider set of questions including the way in which aspirations to and expectations of autonomy could lead to disappointment and disillusion

Banks and Hesmondhalgh argue, in its Utopian presentation, creative work is now imagined only as a self-actualizing pleasure, rather than a potentially arduous or problematic obligation undertaken through material necessity

Rupert Murdoch media empire

Organizations founded: Fox News, Sky Group, Sky News,

media products often challenge in which they are created to what extent does ghost town and letter to the free support this.

When considering media in this case Media video they are a great visual medium to express a message across the video when you look beyond the surface. In this case Commons Letter to the Free, with its surface of hip-hop rap style, sends the audience a message of the historical and current oppression of African Americans as he talks bout how jail is modern slavery as it is a form of business where they have people to do cheap labour for them to which they sell and that why there must always be people in jail. when look at The Ghost Town by The Specials, it’s surface is of reggae as well as ska beyond it once again there is a deeper message as it conveys a message about the lack of employment in London what lead to an economic depression.

when considering Postcolonial theories we should think about Paul Gilroy and his ideology of Double Consciousness which was inspired from W. E. B. Dubois who explores the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonised groups in an oppressive society for example African slaves which were brought over to America to work, his theory involves ‘Black Atlantic’ who are people who want to be both European and Black through their birthplace as well as their ethnic political constituency . When we link this back to Commons Letter to the free we can apply double consciousness as it sends the message of the historical and current oppression of African Americans in modern day as he talks bout how jail is modern slavery as it is a form of business where they have people to do cheap labour for them to which they sell and that why there must always be people in jail and thats why they prominently pick lower class people like a-lot of African-American are. postmodernism theory we could look at is hybridisation what is when two genres/forms/ideas combine together to create a new form of combined media. We should relate back to Ghost town by the specials because they use hybridisation to combine ska and reggae into one medium.

Post-colonialism is a way of understandingthe other’ so for this we should consider Orientalism by Edward Said what is the acceptance of the West as well as the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, mind, destiny etc and this relates back to Post-colonialism as it operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘ and another useful quote when consider orientalism is “the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”

Music videos can change ideas considering this we should explore Alhussser who drew part of his inspiration from Gramsci theory of Hegemonic struggle the chance to reclaim. Gramsci raises the concept of Hegemony to show how certain ideas are more influential than others and normally is in line with dominant ideas as well as the dominant groups and their corresponding dominant interests. Hegemony is an issue that derives from negotiation as well as consent due to this it is not total domination but a continuous exchange of power, through ideas. Post-colonialism tries to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and maintain power of The Empire

To conclude media products often challenge in which they are created to what and I extent does ghost town and letter to the free support this and if we were simply looking at the surface all well see is an interesting music video but when we look beyond it we realise they are trying to convey a greater message of current or past time.

I personally believe that the idea of narrative when analysing music videos are useful as firstly we must consider the narrative, what fundamentally is the story/ structure of something, and what meaning or thing is it try to portray/ narrate. when we are trying to understand/ explain narrative we should look at a range of theories and in this case when looking at “letter to the free” and “ghost town” we should consider 4 main theorists: Tztevan Todorov and his 3-part structure theory where he says there’s a beginning, middle, end to a narrative as-well as the three parts to which also applies, the equilibrium where everything is balanced and no conflict has yet to arise but may have some foreshadowing, Then the narrative shifts into disequilibrium/Disruption as conflict/ an issue that is introduced what tends to be the majority focus the film where it gets more thrilling as they attempt to resolve whatever conflict has arisen then finally finishes into resolution/new equilibrium where the story gets balanced again after the issue or change has been resolved or even accepted. Claude Levi-Strauss on binary oppositions states that we do not know what truth or meaning is but we know what it isn’t for example we know Black isn’t White, Good isn’t Bad etc. Vladimir Propp’s theory on character Types and Functions where he believes a character type is a certain trait or role a character will have to progress the story, for example, the Hero(protagonist), Villain (antagonist), princess(the character who gets rescued in one way or form) etc. Chatman theory resolves on Satellites and kernels where main elements of the stories that if changed, affected the story greatly are referred to kernels, for example, the film is a sci-fi planet, whereas satellites are changeable elements of the stories that won’t affect the story too much Eg. he has a blue hat in part 1 but in part 2 changes to a black hat.

Using this knowledge as we look at “Letter to the Free” by Common lyrics and signs relates to historical and current oppression of African Americans as he talks bout how jail is modern slavery as it is a form of business where they have people to do cheap labour for them to which they sell and that why there must always be people in jail.Commons Music video starts off in the inside a prison and is presented throughout the video which is a direct representation to who he is singing, the black community as prisoners,  In the music video Commons, there is a black box that also is shown throughout the video to which “represents the infinite thing about blackness and blackness can’t be defined in time or space” and what common means by “defined” he is referring to the labelling of black people. When considering Commons video in a narrative theoretical sense it doesn’t have a clear narrative and doesn’t follow so trying to apply one of the theories Tztevan Todorov and his 3-part structure theory is hard, however, when we consider Tztevan Todorov and his 3-part structure theory to the video in the sense of the beginning when common is in the prison alone is short equilibrium but when were shown the flashes of the black box we can argue for this to be the disequilibrium to the point of the end where the black box is sort of “resting” in the filed at the end of the video and is the new equilibrium.

When we look at Ghost town written by Jerry Dammers by the Artists British two-tone band “The specials” which was released in 1981. It has a more clear narrative at the beginning of the music video where the shots are quite still and are of the car and the surroundings which is the equilibrium but then it transitions to the disequilibrium as the shot of the car gets shakier as the car swerves around but then once again returns back to normal to which is then transitions to the new equilibrium so this relates to Tztevan Todorov and his 3-part structure theory again. When looking at the video there could be the symbolism of was happening at the time of the 1980s in the UK where CND was starting to happen what is the Campaign for the disarmament of nuclear weapons so at the beginning of the video could be the symbolism of how people have hidden away due to fear of nuclear weapons and in the middle when they are swerving is the fear getting to them but at the end, when they are skipping rocks, is the sort of acceptance that something bad could happen.

Once again looking at “Ghost town” I feel that we should look at the narrative theory of satellites and kernels by Seymour Chatman, kernels are the main elements of the narrative that if changed would affect the story greatly where as satellites are changeable elements of the stories what if changed wont affect the story much to the point where we will no longer be able to understand the story

Overall I believe that ideas about narrative in analysing music videos are useful as with the correct theories we get a greater understanding for the narrative and what it is trying to portray that at first glance you might not commonly notice and we can achieve this though the help of the narrative theorists of Tztevan Todorov, Chapman, Vladimir Propp and Claude Levi-Strauss.

Postmodernism can be understood as a philosophy that is characterised by concepts such as RE-IMAGINING, PASTICHE, PARODY, COPY, BRICOLAGE. It’s an approach towards understanding, knowledge, life, being, art, technology, culture, sociology, philosophy, politics and history that is REFERENTIAL – in that it often refers to and often copies other things in order to understand itself.

new expressions of identity and being – often found in popular culture and/or modern technology, are actually new iterations (versions) of previous expressions of popular culture. It is therefore possible to understand postmodernism as a complicated and fragmentary set of inter-relationships, a practice of re-imagining, pastiche, bricolage and self-referentiality, which may be understood alongside another key expression / concept: intersectionality

Postmodernism can therefore be understood as deliberate, intended, self-conscious play, signs about signs, notes to notes? Often (and again unlike other creative movements such as modernism or structuralism) this may be frivolous, trite, casual, surface, throw-away. It may even be ironic, joking, or literally, ‘just playing’. However, it is always a deliberate copy (of the old). Therefore, the old has been re-worked into something new,