moral panic

a feeling of fear spread among many people that some evil threatens the wellbeing of society.  It is “the process of arousing social concern over an issue – usually the work of moral entrepreneurs and the mass media” [a dictionary of sociology]

The mass media has become a key player in creating a ‘focus’ for this evil to be represented – even if the group in question is not consciously engaged in said issue. AN example of the mass media pushing a moral panic would be the red scare (mccarthyism, 1947)

 Stanley Cohen states that moral panic happens when “a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests”.

Fandom

1. Music Video: Ghost Town
2. Music Video: Letter to the Free
3. On-line Marketing: Maybeline campaign
4. Film: Chicken
5. Radio: War of the Worlds
6. Radio: Life Hacks
7. Newspaper: Daily Mail
8. Newspaper: The i
9, Advertising (print): Score
+ 1 unseen product (= 10 CSPs)

Theories to learn

> Semiotics
> Genre
> Narrative
> Postcolonialism
> Representation
> Feminist Critical thinking
> Liberal Free Press
> Transformation of Public Sphere
> PSB
> Ideology
> Audience theories
> passive / active
> reception theory / theory of preferred reading
> Cultivation theory
> Culture, politics, history
> (Fandom / Moral Panic)

Theorists to learn

~ Barthes ~ Pierce ~ Saussure
~ Neale
~ Todorov ~ Propp ~ Levi-Strauss ~ Chatman ~ Freytag

~ Gilroy ~ Said ~ Fanon

~ Butler ~ Mulvey ~ Van Zoonen ~ Hooks

~ Habermas ~ Curran ~ Seaton ~ Livingston & Lunt ~ Hesmondhalgh

~ Gerbner ~ Hall ~ Lasswell ~ Lasarzfeld ~ Shirky ~ Jenkins

~ Giddens ~ Gauntlett

~ McDougall / Fenton

metanarrative:

• overall stories – an overall narrative that makes sense
• the loss of metanrrative – the loss of a convenient overarching metanarrative -if we don’t believe anything big that brings us together there is a sense of isolation
• alienation/difficulty from others

Jean Baudrillard

• implosion – everything fell in to eachother – a loss of everything
• a ‘simulation’ of the real based on consumerism
• simulacra – mass media produces versions of reality to help explain our place and function in the universe
• the ecstasy of communication: the process of meaning making has exponentially expanded in the postmodern era, permeating modern life in ways that lie far beyond the cultural capacities of previous historical periods
• he describes the effects of postmodernity:
• 1. the media is everywhere: every corner of public space is an advertising opportunity. our public spaces are so saturated with media that it is impossible to avoid the tidal wave of cultural messages beamed at us
• 2. our private spaces have been invaded: baudrillard states that one’s private living space is conceived as a receiving and operating area, as a monitoring screen endowed with telematic power
• 3. authenticity is impossible to find or hard to keep: cultural products in postmodernity construct throw-away messages, forgotten almost as instantly as they are consumed
• 4: repetition and duplication effects: the postmodern media repeats and repurposes successful content to attract and maintain audiences
• implosion: where there is one political viewpoint there is always an opposing source or contradictionary analysis – as a result a world is presented where two simultaneous truths exist, leaving audiences with an inability to act

postmodernism & surface level intertextuality

• purely ‘surface level’ – links to tomb raider (lara croft as a character – advertising to the male gaze, also doesn’t have much of a character)
• surface signs over substance
• links to teen vogue article – kim kardashian surface level concern for incarceration – not actually doing anything to aid just advertising her show
• much more about imagery than work
• surface and style over substance

parody and pastiche

• satire – irony and ridicule
• pastiche – imitates a style/concept
• surface-level play

postmodernism and history

• population grew in the 20th century by 4 billion
• massive rise of people
• massive rise in things
• massive rise in consumption
• the more we consume the less we are satisfied
• more isolated and individual and alienated consumption

theorists

• habermas – transformation of the public sphere

• first episode on 17 april 2018
• aimed at young people – a talk podcast
• Life Hacks is both a traditional radio programme with a regular, scheduled broadcast time, but is also available online after broadcast for streaming and downloading. The broadcast itself and the accompanying website provides opportunities for audience interaction, which is central to the programme’s address to its audience. Life Hacks also exemplifies the challenges facing the institution as a public service broadcaster that needs to appeal to a youth audience within a competitive media landscape.

Media Industries
• Life Hacks is a Radio 1 product and therefore has a public service status as part of the BBC.
• Identification of funding for Radio 1 through the license fee, concept of a hypothecated tax.
• Issues around the role of a public service broadcaster – how does Life Hacks reflect the need to represent the nation. Arguments over the need for addressing a youth audience
already catered for commercially.
• Consider the programme as distinctive in its public service remit.
• The influence of new technology on media industries – Life Hacks as multi – platform media product.

Media Audiences
Life Hacks is reflective of the way the industry targets niche audiences and provides an opportunity to consider industry regulation and the availability of new technology shapes audience targeting and response.
• What techniques does the broadcast use to target a youth audience?
• Consider the way that external factors – such as demographics and psychographics – are likely to also affect audience response and produce differing interpretations
• Consider the opportunities for audience interaction and self-representation
• cultivation theory including Gerbner
• reception theory including Hall

Social and cultural contexts
Life Hacks reflects an acceptance of diversity and a degree of openness in contemporary culture around personal, social and identity issues.

life hacks is part of the bbc – a public service broadcaster. this means that it is funded through taxation

The programme includes discussion of health and social issues such as exam stress, sexual health, alcohol and drugs

How it attracts a young audience:

– The language used and the way the presenters present themselves suggest that they are trying to appeal to more of a youth audience as they tend to use informal language as if they were speaking to a friend – this also makes it more personal which may make the listeners feel as if they are being directly addressed.

– The content discussed is mainly targeting a youth audience as it specifically discusses growing up and going through life from a teenager/ younger persons position (university etc)

theorists:

• hesmondhal – psb funding reduces the risk – constant economic sustenance (Radio listening figures in the UK- 90% of the population tune in to the radio every week, 61% tune of the population tune in to digital radio every week.)
• young & rubicam – psychometrics – everyone fits into set “personality types”, e.g. young, millennial trendy people
• clay shirky – the “end” of the passive audience (war of the worlds), with the invention of the internet the link between institution and audience becomes more equal – social media (listeners use social media as a place to discuss media) – this relates to life hacks as they are frequently seen encouraging participation (for example, in life hacks, presenters frequently ask listeners to text in, at 14:51 vic and katie introduce the listener, who talks about crying over significant things)
• war of the worlds – laswell’s hypodermic needle theory – passive audience, not participatory (one-to-many)

the media becoming more participatory (egalitarian)

category	familiarities	differences	theory
characters	the hero – richard		PROPP – the idea of stock characters, including the hero, the false hero, the princess, the father figure, the dispatcher, the victim, the villain, the donor,
	the false hero – polly
	the chicken – the donor, the victim

hesmondhal – media production as a ‘risky business’

distribution

mubi uk – streaming site for indie alternative movies

film 4

b good picture company

chicken’s world premiere was at the 2015 Edenborough international film festival

ddistributed to many film festivals

in 2016 it was acquired by MUBI uk and had its british tv premiere on april 2017. It received its dvd and bluray release by Network on the 18th September 2017.

made in 2014

posters were created – advertising

social media presence including social media advertising on tiwtter and facebook

micro budget – 110k but earned 10k – hesmondhal – media industry as a risky business – potentially loans takeen out for production

Chicken had its world premiere on 27 June 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film had its international premiere in competition at the 2015 Busan International Film Festival, followed by screenings at the New Hampshire International Film Festival, Giffoni International Film Festival, Cine A La Vista International Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Schlingel International Film Festival and Dublin International Film Festival. It eventually received a limited theatrical release in the UK on 20 May 2016.

reception

1. Chicken received positive reviews and holds a 100% “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 critic reviews. 
2. Leslie Felperin of The Guardian gave the film 3/5 stars and said “first-time director Joe Stephenson elicits lively, empathetic performances from his small cast.” 
3. Mark Kermode, also in a Guardian review, rated the film at four out of five stars stating that Scott Chambers’ performance is “superb”. 
4. Anna Smith of Empire magazine gave the film a rating of four stars, responding that the film is “an enjoyable, involving British Drama with and impressive turn from newcomer Scott Chambers. 
5. Cath Clarke of Time Out, commented that Chicken is “an impressively acted British Drama about a young man with learning difficulties.” 
6. CineVue praised the film and mentioned that it is “the sort of British indie which restores faith in cinema”.

accolades

• Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature — Joe Stephenson (New Hampshire Film Festival 2015)
• Silver Griffoni Award for Best Film – Generation 18+ (2nd Prize) — Joe Stephenson & B Good Picture Company (Giffoni Film Festival 2016)
• Award for Best Film — Chicken (Cine A La Vista International Film Festival 2016)
• Scott Chamber’s performance as Richard got a Special Critic’s Circle mention (Dublin International Film Festival 2016)
• The film was shortlisted for Best Director (Joe Stephenson) and Best Newcomer (Scott Chambers) by the British Independent Film Awards.

Theoretical approaches

Chicken is characteristic of the ‘risky’ business of cultural production (Hesmondhalgh), £100K + is a lot of money for a single individual, without a guaranteed return. Chicken also represents diversity in media production (Curran and Seaton) as this film provides a voice and narrative to groups who are not necessarily represented in mainstream media. Henry Jenkins and David Gauntlett would acknowledge that web 2.0 enabled big businesses to exploit the web for commercial reasons, but would also argue that the internet remains the capacity to work as a social good and that online communities created via ‘participatory culture’ have the power to change the world for the better. Web 2.0 refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability for end users. Similarly, Clay Shirky argues that the media industry is increasingly driven by audience feedback systems rather than top-down control of proprietors. Read page 140 below.

the general meedia concentration of conglomeraates control the content wwithin the media, e.g the same stories the game genre.

this applies to chicken since it follows a radical approach to the drama genre, while following relevant themes of poverty. family abandonment as well as abuse. it is set in the uk which appeals to local audiences.

clay shirky – the media is dictated by the audience rather than a top down approach of propictors

participatory media – advertising on social media, such as facebook and twitter

Statement of intent: 

Music video: 

The music video I have produced follows themes of gender and identity representation and focuses on the idea of nonconformity in a conformative world. The main message of the music video as a whole is as follows: those who hold power will silence radical ideas of nonconformity, so it is up to you to find yourself and carve out an identity for yourself no matter what the world tells you. 

This product follows gender and representation theorists such as Judith Butler (who describes gender as a performance, as well as gender as a social construct). Furthermore, ideas of Jaques Lecain will be incorporated into this work. Lecain recognises that we never see ourselves, only a mirror image of ourselves. This can be argued that, if ideas that challenge the idea of gender roles are ignored, children are taught gender is a solid construct and internalise activities that do not fit their gender roles. 

 The song (Magazine) was created by Editors and permission will be sought for the use of this song. Editors is an indie band, so the music video will follow an indie perspective. Style models used for this project include: Heart by Flor and High by Young Rising Sons. The style, as from an indie perspective, will include features such as the use of low saturation shots and extreme close-up shots. Due to the nature of the song being sponsored by a headphones company, several headphones shots will have to be used. These must be relatively consistent, in order to solidify the fact that this is a sponsorship. 

Magazine: 

The main focus of the magazine is to create a house style to represent the indie theme, focusing more on low contrasted, washed-out colours designed after the indie style. This will ensure that the appropriate (indie) audience can recognize that the magazine is designed for an indie audience and therefore the magazine will appeal to the correct target audience. pictures of the fictional band will also be used here, to create anchorage for the band discussed in the articles within the magazine. The content of the magazine will be varied including the required two page band interview, the advert and the front cover. The style model used is INDIE magazine.