Oh (previously Oh Comely) is part of a development in lifestyle and environmental movements of the early twenty first century which rebrand consumerism as an ethical movement. Its representation of femininity reflects an aspect of the feminist movement which celebrates authenticity and empowerment.
Their focus is on women as artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and female empowerment is a major theme. The absence of men as a part of the representation of masculinity in Oh, shows how women don’t need men and they can stand alone.
Van Zoonen (a feminism and patriarchy theorist) believes the media portray images of stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views. The media does this as they believe it reflects dominant social values and male producers are influenced by this. However, Oh opposes this viewpoint.
Oh’s content is more relatable to “normal people”, instead of “celebrity gossip”. It has about 25 thousands readers and their average age is 27.
Oh Comely is an independent magazine published by Iceberg Press, a small London publisher which publishes only one other title. Iceberg Press do everything themselves (production, distribution). This shows how the advancements in technology has allowed smaller companies to enter the market.
Alternative media is, typically in developed countries, media that is alternatives to the business or government-owned mass media. They argue that mainstream media is biased.
Media Concentration – a process where less businesses control increasing shares of the mass media.
Conglomerates – a company that owns multiple companies involved in mass media enterprises.
Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) – when businesses grow large enough to operate on an international or global scale.
Vertical Integration – when one company owns multiple firms that can complete two or more stages of production.
Horizontal Integration – when a company increase production at the same stage of production.
Gatekeepers – someone who controls what is allowed; e.g. CEO.
Regulation – a rule that is maintained by an authority.
Deregulation – the reduction or elimination of government power in an industry, usually used to create more competition in an industry.
Free Market – when governments have little or no control so businesses can produce goods/services based on demand.
Monopolies – when one business controls the supply in an industry.
Mergers – when to businesses join to form one in order to achieve higher market control, better productivity and better economies of scale.
David Hesmondhalgh
David Hesmondhalgh is an academic who critically analyses the relationship between media work and the media industry. In his seminal book, The Culture Industries he wrote: “the distinctive organisational form of the cultural industries has considerable implications for the conditions under which symbolic creativity is carried out” – (The Culture Industries, Sage, 2019, p.99). In other words, there must be serious concerns about the extent to which this business-driven, economic agenda is compatible with the quality of working life and of human well-being in the creative industries.
He also goes on to say that young creatives are aiming to be in the media industry for the fame and wealth, he says that they will be disappointed when they start working there as it is not the myth that they got told it would be like when they were young. “its utopian presentation, creative work is now imagined only as a self-actualising pleasure, rather than a potentially arduous or problematic obligation undertaken through material necessity” (2009, p. 417)
Murdoch Media Empiere
Media Regulation
Murdoch went to the UK and wanted magazines, newspapers and television as with all of them you have control and power over the media. He wanted to buy Sky but the government stopped it and made him a shareholder of 39% of Sky. Murdoch later became friends with the prime minister so he could influence them to benefit himself as well as them. For example, Murdoch influenced Tony Blair to not go into the Euro and to keep the Pound; this led to Brexit.
This links to Chomsky and manufacturing consent as they are keeping the power between friends as he states that the media and politics need each other.
Post modernism is about how we view and interpret the world at the current time. Post modernism makes us question what we actually know and what is real.
Definitions
Pastiche – piece of work which piggybacks ideas from other works (imitates)
Meta-narrative – an overarching account or interpretation of events and circumstances that provides a pattern or structure for people’s beliefs and gives meaning to their experience
Hyper-reality – an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies.
Simulacrum – A simulacrum is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. The word was first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, used to describe a representation, such as a statue or a painting, especially of a god
Consumerist Society – A consumerist society is one in which people devote a great deal of time, energy, resources and thought to “consuming”. The general view of life in a consumerist society is consumption is good, and more consumption is even better.
Fragmentary Identities – idea of a many personalities (digital or analog )
Implosion – idea of society collapsing due to offshoring and other corrupt practices within our world
Cultural appropriation – the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.
Reflexivity – is defined by such devices as looking into the camera, taking advantage of two-dimensionality of the screen, or simply making a film about making a film. In other words: A reflexive film is a film with self-awareness.
Parody v Pastiche
Pastiche is a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist.
Parody is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony.
Bricolage is a useful term to apply to postmodernist texts as it ‘involves the rearrangement and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’ (Barker & Jane, 2016:237).
Inter-textuality
Inter-textuality suggests signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding with individuals both taking and creating meaning in the process of reading texts.
Shuker says “the fragmentary, decentred nature of music videos that break up traditional understandings of time and space so that audiences are ‘no longer able to distinguish ‘fiction’ from ‘reality’ “
Surface and style over substance
The emphasis is on the surface, in other words, if the main focus is the idea of just connecting one product to another, then the focus is superficial, shallow, lacking depth, so ‘in a postmodern world, surfaces and style become the most important defining featuresof the mass media and popular culture‘ (Strinati: 234)
In terms of the key principles of art and design the priority is in formal elements: of shape, colour, texture, movement, space, time and so on. As opposed to more discursive principles of: narrative, character, motivation, theme, ideology.
Economic, historical and societal backdrop to Post-modernism
In 1959, Richard Hoggart (Uses of Literacy) noted the shift in modern societies particularly the impact on our ‘neighborhood lives’, which was ‘an extremely local life, in which everything is remarkably near‘.
In other words, there is an argument that postmodern culture is a consumer culture, where the emphasis on style eclipses the emphasis on utility or need. So that ultimately there is no real value to postmodern culture other than the need for consumption.
Different consumption = Different identities (real life vs Instagram profile vs YouTube profile).
“Putting it very simply, the transition from substance to style is linked to a transition from production to consumption.” Strinati (235)
The loss of a meta-narrative
A good starting point would be to return to the concepts of pastiche and parody, as Fredric Jameson claimed that Postmodernism is characterized by pastiche rather than parody which represents a crisis in historicity. Jameson argued that parody implies a moral judgment or a comparison with previous societal norms. Whereas pastiche, such as collage and other forms of juxtaposition, occur without a normative grounding and as such, do not make comment on a specific historical moment. As such, Jameson argues that the postmodern era is characterised by pastiche (not parody) and as such, suffers from a crisis in historicity.
This links to Jean-Francois Lyotard’s proposition that postmodernism holds an ‘incredulity towards meta-narratives‘ (1979:7) those overarching ideas, attitudes, values and beliefs that have held us together in a shared belief, For example, the belief in religion, science, capitalism, communism, revolution, war, peace and so on. Lyotard points out that no one seemed to agree to on what, if anything, was real and everyone had their own perspective and story. We have become alert to difference, diversity, the incompatibility of our aspirations, beliefs and desires, and for that reason postmodernity is characterised by an abundance of micro-narratives. It can be also characterised as an existence without meaning, as Žižek suggests it is an existence without ‘The Big Other’ , an existentialist crisis of existence when we realise we are alone (Lacan).
Strinati points out that ‘the distinction between culture and society is being eroded’ (231) and suggests that our sense of reality (the overarching meta-narrative) appears to come from the culture (eg the media), rather than from society which is then reproduced, represented and relayed through media communication. In terms of media studies, this marks a juncture from previous conceptions of mass media communication, for example, as a ‘relay system’ – a process which just relays information and events in real time to a mass society, or the conception of the media as a ‘window on the world’ (Strinati:233). From a societal perspective the ‘real’ seems to be imploding in on itself, a ‘process leading to the collapse of boundaries between the real and simulations’ (Barker & Emma, 2015:242). A process which the French intellectual Jean Baudrillard would describe as implosion, which gives rise to what he terms simulacra. The idea that although the media has always been seen as a representation of reality – a simulation, from Baudrillard’s perspective of implosion, it is has become more than a representation or simulation and it has become SIMULACRUM not just a representation of the real, but the real itself, a grand narrative that is ‘truth‘ in its own right: an understanding of uncertain/certainty that Baudrillard terms the hyper-real.
Todorov – Tripartite Narrative Structure – beginning/middle/end. It has an equilibrium (beginning) then disruption (middle) then a new equilibrium (end).
Propp – Stock characters – that perform stock functions – hero, helper, princess, villain, victim, dispatcher, father, and false hero.
Claude Levi -Strauss – Binary Oppositions – e.g. good vs bad, rich vs poor, educated vs stupid, old vs young.
Seymour Chatman – Satellites and Kernels – kernels are moments elements that are essential to the narrative development. Satellites are moments that could be removed and the overall logic would not be disturbed. Think about the way satellites orbit something bigger like a planet. Satellites can therefore be thought as useful to develop character, emotion, location, time and so on, but NOT ESSENTIAL. In this way they are really useful creative elements but not essential to the story.
When watching the film I will be looking at the narrative structure through Todorov’s Theory.
The beginning of the film is not like a typical narrative structure as the key event happened before and we are trying to find out what happened before he lost his memory. However, like many other narratives the start is still used to set the scene and introduce us to the main characters.
Seymour Chatman – Satellites and Kernels. Kernal = memory lose – otherwise the plot wouldn’t make sense. Satellite – his Jaguar – could be any car.
Proairetic code: action, movement, causation
Hermenuetic code: reflection, dialogue, character or thematic development
Enigma Code: the way in which intrigue and ideas are raised – which encourage an audience to want more information (Create puzzles and questions).
Elision or Ellipse: are when you drop rid of something, something is missing (e.g. a flight takes 8 hours in a film it takes 20 seconds)
Flash-forward: when we jump forward in time
Flashback: when we jump back in time
Foreshawdowing: a warning or indication of a future event.
Parallel/Simulations Narratives: Are when two different people’s narratives are shown.
Non-Sequitars: is when a something happens in the film that gets them nowhere / is pointless.
Post modernism is about how we view and interpret the world at the current time.
Definitions
Pastiche – piece of work which piggybacks ideas from other works (imitates)
Meta-narrative – an overarching account or interpretation of events and circumstances that provides a pattern or structure for people’s beliefs and gives meaning to their experience
Hyper-reality – an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies.
Simulacrum – A simulacrum is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. The word was first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, used to describe a representation, such as a statue or a painting, especially of a god
Consumerist Society – A consumerist society is one in which people devote a great deal of time, energy, resources and thought to “consuming”. The general view of life in a consumerist society is consumption is good, and more consumption is even better.
Fragmentary Identities – idea of a many personalities (digital or analog )
Implosion – idea of society collapsing due to offshoring and other corrupt practices within our world
Cultural appropriation – the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.
Reflexivity – is defined by such devices as looking into the camera, taking advantage of two-dimensionality of the screen, or simply making a film about making a film. In other words: A reflexive film is a film with self-awareness.
Parody v Pastiche
Pastiche is a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist.
Parody is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony.
Bricolage is a useful term to apply to postmodernist texts as it ‘involves the rearrangement and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’ (Barker & Jane, 2016:237).
Inter-textuality
Inter-textuality suggests signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding with individuals both taking and creating meaning in the process of reading texts.
Shuker says “the fragmentary, decentred nature of music videos that break up traditional understandings of time and space so that audiences are ‘no longer able to distinguish ‘fiction’ from ‘reality’ “
Surface and style over substance
The emphasis is on the surface, in other words, if the main focus is the idea of just connecting one product to another, then the focus is superficial, shallow, lacking depth, so ‘in a postmodern world, surfaces and style become the most important defining featuresof the mass media and popular culture‘ (Strinati: 234)
In terms of the key principles of art and design the priority is in formal elements: of shape, colour, texture, movement, space, time and so on. As opposed to more discursive principles of: narrative, character, motivation, theme, ideology.
Economic, historical and societal backdrop to Post-modernism
In 1959, Richard Hoggart (Uses of Literacy) noted the shift in modern societies particularly the impact on our ‘neighborhood lives’, which was ‘an extremely local life, in which everything is remarkably near‘.
In other words, there is an argument that postmodern culture is a consumer culture, where the emphasis on style eclipses the emphasis on utility or need. So that ultimately there is no real value to postmodern culture other than the need for consumption.
Different consumption = Different identities (real life vs Instagram profile vs YouTube profile).
“Putting it very simply, the transition from substance to style is linked to a transition from production to consumption.” Strinati (235)
The loss of a meta-narrative
A good starting point would be to return to the concepts of pastiche and parody, as Fredric Jameson claimed that Postmodernism is characterized by pastiche rather than parody which represents a crisis in historicity. Jameson argued that parody implies a moral judgment or a comparison with previous societal norms. Whereas pastiche, such as collage and other forms of juxtaposition, occur without a normative grounding and as such, do not make comment on a specific historical moment. As such, Jameson argues that the postmodern era is characterised by pastiche (not parody) and as such, suffers from a crisis in historicity.
This links to Jean-Francois Lyotard’s proposition that postmodernism holds an ‘incredulity towards meta-narratives‘ (1979:7) those overarching ideas, attitudes, values and beliefs that have held us together in a shared belief, For example, the belief in religion, science, capitalism, communism, revolution, war, peace and so on. Lyotard points out that no one seemed to agree to on what, if anything, was real and everyone had their own perspective and story. We have become alert to difference, diversity, the incompatibility of our aspirations, beliefs and desires, and for that reason postmodernity is characterised by an abundance of micro-narratives. It can be also characterised as an existence without meaning, as Žižek suggests it is an existence without ‘The Big Other’ , an existentialist crisis of existence when we realise we are alone (Lacan).
Strinati points out that ‘the distinction between culture and society is being eroded’ (231) and suggests that our sense of reality (the overarching meta-narrative) appears to come from the culture (eg the media), rather than from society which is then reproduced, represented and relayed through media communication. In terms of media studies, this marks a juncture from previous conceptions of mass media communication, for example, as a ‘relay system’ – a process which just relays information and events in real time to a mass society, or the conception of the media as a ‘window on the world’ (Strinati:233). From a societal perspective the ‘real’ seems to be imploding in on itself, a ‘process leading to the collapse of boundaries between the real and simulations’ (Barker & Emma, 2015:242). A process which the French intellectual Jean Baudrillard would describe as implosion, which gives rise to what he terms simulacra. The idea that although the media has always been seen as a representation of reality – a simulation, from Baudrillard’s perspective of implosion, it is has become more than a representation or simulation and it has become SIMULACRUM not just a representation of the real, but the real itself, a grand narrative that is ‘truth‘ in its own right: an understanding of uncertain/certainty that Baudrillard terms the hyper-real.
We are looking at post-colonialism, specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.
Orientalism
Orientalism is the stereotyping the East from the viewpoint of the West (Europe). This view is typically that people and the culture from the East is lesser than the Wests.
” thepower to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism ” – Edward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii
Edward said, the link between culture, imperial power and colonialism ‘the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism’,‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. Media is not neutral, western culture defines the orient as a lesser culture due to stereotypes. ‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’
The Orient as the ‘Other’
In his book Orientalism, Edward Said, points out that ‘the Orient has helped to define Europe (Or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience [as] . . . One of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other’. So what does this mean? What is the ‘Other’?
This means the recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. A good way to develop an understanding of this term is in his exploration of the mirror stage of child development, whereby, as we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror. Applying that theory to culture, communications and media studies, it is possible to see 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.
Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation‘
‘All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject’.
Ideological state apparatus (ISA), is a theoretical concept developed by (Algerian born) French philosopher Louis Althusser, which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society (education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc) which keeps people in there place. ‘the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’.
Frantz Fanon
In terms of post-colonialism, we can look at The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Frantz Fanon, which for many is a key text in the development and ancestry of postcolonial criticism. Fanon was born in the French colony of Martinique and appears to recognise the ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared’ (McLeod 2000:20) when he remembers how he felt when, in France, white strangers pointed out his blackness, his difference, with derogatory phrases such as ‘dirty Nigger!’ or ‘look, a Negro!’
These articulated the way he was constructed as ‘other’ specifically through the way he was hailed, called, perceived and understood. ‘Colonialised’ people to reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity.
Assimilation of colonial culture corresponding to the ‘mother country’ Chinua Achebe talks of the colonial writer as a ‘somewhat unfinished European who with patience guidance will grow up one day and write like every other European.’ (1988:46)
Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.
Antonio Gramsci – Hegemonic Struggle and the Chance to Reclaim
‘From America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light’ – Frantz Fanon ‘on national culture’
Hegemony is a tug of war for power, and that the balance of power can be changed, how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than other, post colonialism articulates a desire to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and thus maintain power of The Empire.
Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation
“Ain’t No Black In The Union Jack” — A proposal for a new flag for the UK and other socially engaged art work by Gil Mualem-Doron
Paul Gilroy is insistent that ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’ (2004:13) His theme of Double Consciousness, derived from W. E. B. Dubois, involves ‘Black Atlantic’ striving to be both European and Black through their relationship to the land of their birth and their ethnic political constituency.
As with much postcolonial criticism the aim to understand and reconcile individual and national identity. Gilroy highlights Enoch Powell’s notorious 1968 ‘rivers of blood speech’ full of the ‘terrifying prospect of a wholesale reversal of the proper ordering of colonial power . . . intensified by feelings of resentment, rejection, and fear at the prospect of open interaction with others.’ (2004:111) Put presciently, ‘it has subsequently provided the justification for many a preemptive strike’.
The stress on ‘cross-cultural’ interactions is indeed a characteristic of postcolonial criticism. Often found by foregrounding questions of cultural difference and diversity, as well as by celebrating ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’. A unique position where ‘individuals may simultaneously belong to more than one culture – the coloniser and the colonised’. (2016:198) Even Fanon suggests an emphasis on identity as ‘doubled, or ‘hybrid’, or ‘unstable’.
Definitions
COLONIALISM – acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.
POST COLONIALISM – the academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands.
DIASPORA – a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale.
BAME – a term used in the UK to refer to black, Asian and minority ethnic people.
DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY) – a term describing the internal conflict experienced by subordinated groups in an oppressive society.
CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM – when one cultural is deamed more supreme than another and all have to belong to one cultural/the belief in a genetic or biological essence that defines all members of a racial category.
CULTURAL SYNCRETISM – is when distinct aspects of different cultures blend together to make something new and unique. Culture is a large category, this blending can come in the form of religious practices, architecture, philosophy, recreation, and even food. It’s an important part of your culture.
ORIENTALISM (SAID) – refers to the Orient, in reference and opposition to the Occident; the East and the West, respectively. Edward Said said that Orientalism “enables the political, economic, cultural and social domination of the West, not just during colonial times, but also in the present.”
APPROPRIATION – the act of taking something such as an idea, custom, or style from a group or culture that you are not a member of and using it yourself: Theft is the dishonest appropriation of another person’s property.
CULTURAL HEGEMONY – cultural hegemony refers to domination or rule maintained through ideological or cultural means. It is usually achieved through social institutions, which allow those in power to strongly influence the values, norms, ideas, expectations, worldview, and behavior of the rest of society.
THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS) – Habermas says, “We call events and occasions ‘public’ when they are open to all, in contrast to closed or exclusive affairs”. Jürgen Habermas defines ‘the public sphere’ as a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens”.
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS – PSB’s role is to reflect multiple community interests and news, and different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds to be all inclusive to there audience.
Hybridisation – is a term used to describe a type of media convergence whereby a new mode emerges containing elements of combined media. Hybrid media represent most modern media and the concept that different media forms can work together to create new media.
Syncretism – the merging of different inflectional varieties of a word during the development of a language.
Ghost Town by The Specials
Ghost Town by The Specials conveys a specific moment in British social and political history while retaining a contemporary relevance. The cultural critic Dorian Lynskey has described it as ‘’a remarkable pop cultural moment’’ one that “defined an era’’. The video and song are part of a tradition of protest in popular music, in this case reflecting concern about the increased social tensions in the UK at the beginning of the 1980s. The song was number 1 in the UK charts, post-Brixton and during the Handsworth and Toxteth riots.
The aesthetic of the music video, along with the lyrics, represents an unease about the state of the nation, one which is often linked to the politics of Thatcherism but transcends a specific political ideology in its eeriness, meaning that it has remained politically and culturally resonant.
The representations in the music video are racially diverse. This reflects its musical genre of ska, a style which could be read politically in the context of a racially divided country. This representation of Britain’s emerging multiculturalism, is reinforced through the eclectic mix of stylistic influences in both the music and the video.
http://mymediacreative.com/postcolonialism/
Questions – Letter to the Free
Q1:How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?
This could be applied to Letter to the Free as it tries to reverse stereotypes given to black Americans by the West (Europe) through orientalism.
Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?
Common is educating (phase 2) to the hybrid cultural people (phase 1) so that these people can make up their mind in what they want to believe in and what action they might take (phase 3).
Q3:How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellated)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?
The audience is called to look at systematic racism in the USA that has been caused by the 13th amendment. They use emotive language to demonstrate what has been happening for years but has be looked away from and ignored. Lyrics such as ” The caged birds sings for freedom to bring, Black bodies being lost in the American dream” make you feel sympathetic towards the black community and as we have seen through recent events with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement they are changing to make a difference and change the world for the better.
Sexism – a mechanism used by males as a way of exerting power and control in society.
Patriarchy – when a man is in charge.
Feminism – a critical articulation for equality.
Intersectionality – the belief that there is more then just two types (male/female, straight/gay) there can be blurs between them.
Toril Moi
As a final part of this brief introduction, it is useful to draw upon Toril Moi’s (1987) crucial set of distinctions between: ‘feminist’, ‘female’ and ‘feminine’.
Feminist = a political position
Female = a matter of biology
Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics
Laura Mulvey
Wrote an essay in 1975 called ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’.
Her thesis being the role of the male gaze.
Theoretical approach that suggests the role of ‘women as image, man as bearer of the look’.
Active male (the one who’s looking), passive female (one who’s being looked at).
Scopophilia- pleasure in looking.
Vouyerism- sexual pleasure gained in looking.
Fetishism- erotic attachment to an inanimate object or an ordinarily asexual part of the human body – objectifying and dehumanising.
Jacques Lacan (the mirror moment)
Psychologist, specialised in child development.
Mulvey draws on his work on the mirror moment.
Mirror stage of development, realising you’re a human being and your own person, at a young age.
Mulvey highlights the mirroring process that occurs between audience and screen ‘complex process of likeness and difference’.
Sut Jhally
His work at the Media Education Foundation (where Jean Kilbourne also produced much or her work) draws a connection between the aesthetics of pornography and the codes and conventions of the music video.
Differences between 2nd and 3rd Wave Feminism
an emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion
individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics
fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
cyberactivism
the re-appropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes
sex positivity
Raunch Culture– 3rd Wave Feminism
3rd wave of feminism characterised as a reaction to 2nd wave feminists coined by Naomi Wolf . Fighting against the Anti-sexualised narrative of 2nd wave feminists. More aware of feminist divisions, gay, straight, black, white – less blanket terms across ‘all-woman’.
‘Raunch culture is the sexualised performance of women in media that can play into male stereotypes of women as highly sexually available, where its performers believe they are powerful owners of their own sexuality’ – Hendy and Stephenson.
Judith Butler
Applied queer theory to Feminist Critical Thinking.
Reductionist, essentialist approach towards binary oppositions, male/female, feminine/masculine, man/woman.
Suggests gender is fluid, changeable, plural.
She thinks you act/perform in a way that links to who we want to be perceived as.
Time – in moving image products time is linear (has a set time unlike print).
Sequential – the narrative has a set order and is chronologically.
Theme – almost all videos have a theme in them so they fit into a genre.
Narrative – the overall structure.
Story – things, ideas etc.
Plot – how the story is organised.
Key Theorists
Todorov – Tripartite Narrative Structure – beginning/middle/end. It has an equilibrium (beginning) then disruption (middle) then a new equilibrium (end).
Propp – Stock characters – that perform stock functions – hero, helper, princess, villain, victim, dispatcher, father, false and hero.
Claude Levi -Strauss – Binary Oppositions – e.g. good vs bad, rich vs poor, educated vs stupid, old vs young.
Seymour Chatman – Satellites and Kernels – kernels are moments elements that are essential to the narrative development. Satellites are moments that could be removed and the overall logic would not be disturbed. Think about the way satellites orbit something bigger like a planet. Satellites can therefore be thought as useful to develop character, emotion, location, time and so on, but NOT ESSENTIAL. In this way they are really useful creative elements but not essential to the story.
It was single of the year in 1981 and won the NME Best Single
It was one of the last songs The Specials made before they broke up
The song was also inspired by the band splitting up and tried to make it relatable to the general public
The Specials were formed in 1977 and were known for their mix of reggae and punk sound
Cultural, Social and Historical
The songs themes are urban decay and deindustrialisation, and how that lead to unemployment and violence in cities
In 1981 unemployment rates in the UK were at the high with almost 3 million unemployed
1981 was the height of youth unemployment as the UK reacted to Margaret Thatcher’s cuts and riots were erupting all over the country
Ghost Town is believed to be a prophecy that sounds like an aftermath as the Ghost Town it describes of is gutted by recession and appears to be the terrain before a riot.
The song includes lots of unusual sounds to represent the chaos and confusion occurring happening during 1981
Ways music videos create and communicates meaning using media language
The name of the song is Ghost Town and in the video they are the only people there. It was also shot at night to give it a horror genre look and how we associate bad things happening in the dark at night.
During the 80s racism was still a big problem and the band members wore dark suits whereas others wore bright clothes; possibly to show this.
Mid-way through the song the car spins out showing how the unemployment rate in the UK is out of control at the time.
I took photos of my mouse to go in the magazine as an article for it but never actually made it. When we got told we had to make an advertisement page for our gaming magazine I thought this shot would work really well as it looks similar to a shot you would see for a mouse advertisement. I then found the style model (above) that was similar to how I imagined it to look. I then took logos from the internet and placed them in similar places as the style model. I then went on to find a name/number for it to show it is a new product as the mouse is actually a G203. All gaming products by Logitech are called G— ( – represents a number). I found the name/number G279 was not taken so to make the mouse different I photoshopped the wire out. On the text I changed the g to look like the g in the logo. I ended up using two o’s where I photoshopped half of one out so it can go underneath the other to look like a g.
