Common

Doctor Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn (Common) is an American rapper, actor, writer, philanthropist and activist. He is 47 years old. His albums include: Black America Again, Let Love and Nobody’s Smiling. He has a net worth of $47 million.

Bilal

Bilal Sayeed Oliver is a 40 year old American singer, songwriter, and record producer. His genres are Neo Soul, R&B, Funk, Jazz and Hip Hop. He has been nominated for four career Grammy Awards, winning one. His net worth is $3 million.

‘Letter to the Free’

• In 2017 he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics – for his song ‘Letter to the Free’.
• Its all in Black and White.

Media Concentration/Conglomerates – when less people control the mass media, increasing shares of the mass media.

Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) – when a viewpoint is shown across the globe in the media.

Vertical Integration – the combination in one firm of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate firms.

Horizontal Integration – is merging of one or more firms at the same stage of production.

Gatekeepers – decide what is being published to the masses, effectively deciding what their viewpoint should be.

Regulation – rules made by someone in authority.

Deregulation – reduction or elimination of the power that the government had.

Free Market – where the government has no control over what is produced.

Monopolies – when there is no competition in a market.

Mergers – when two or more firms come together to increase their power.

Neo-Liberalism – there should not be equality (the opposite of liberal).

Surveillance/Privacy/Security/GDPR – protecting something (GDPR = General Data Protection Regulation).

Hidden Figures was released in December 2016 and was directed by Theodore Melfi. The film’s budget was $25 million (the average film budget is between $70 and $90 million) and at the box office it got $236 million .

It is based on the book called “Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox.

It is set in 1961 and is about three black women that were recruited by NASA as “human computers” to help figure out the maths to ensure that the rocket will have no faults.

It was nominated for many awards and won 11 awards including: BET Award for Best Movie, MTV Movie Award for Best Hero and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. IMDb gave it a 7.8/10, on Rotten Tomatoes it was rated 93% and Metacritic gave it 74%.

Repertoire of Elements – elements of a film/TV show that are shown in almost every video that is a certain genre.

Corpus – new texts that are added to the body of similar texts.

Hybridisation – the term used to describe when two genres are merged into one film.

Historic Specificity – when a genre is associated with a specific time period – e.g. war is associated with WW1 or WW2 or Vietnam.

Repetition and Sameness – when a new film repeats stuff in the genre to achieve the successful formula that many others have used previously that are in this genre.

Variation and Change – when a new film varies parts of the film so the audience see it as a new different product but to still keep it similar so the audience still has some familiarity.

Narrative Image – how the story progresses in a similar format to other examples that are in the same genre.

Expectations and Hypotheses– what the audience expects and predicts will happen.

Suspend Disbelief – when the audience feel as if they are in or part of the film or TV show.

Generic Regime of Verisimilitude – what is likely to occur in a genre text.

CATEGORY	SIMILARITIES	DIFFERENCES	THEORY
CHARACTERS	– The hero was a female. – The victim was a female.	– The hero in the killing is a woman. However, in the missing the hero is a male.	PROPP – Every character fits into a type.
NARRATIVE	– The first episodes introduce the themes.	– In the missing the victim dies so it can not be fully resolved.	TODOROV – There is a beginning, middle and end. There will be a dilemma and at the end it will be resolved.
THEMES	– The city is safe and the countryside is bad.	– The killing someone dies so there is no hope about getting her back. – Whereas, the missing the girl comes back and it is about the hope of finding out what happened to her for all those years.	LEVI-STRAUSS – there are 2 binary opposites (good or bad)
REPRESENTATION	– The girl is the victim. – The hero is the detective.	– The Killing has a woman detective higher up in power than the male detective; this is radical as typically the male detective would be in charge of the female detective. – The lead detective in the missing is a male so this is reactionary.	SEMIOTICS
TECHNICAL CODES / LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE (music, setting, props, lighting, use of camera, editing etc)	– The first 5 minutes of the 1st episode shows us what happened before or shows the conclusion and it will work back from there.	– The music in the missing fits well with what is on screen (mysterious and similar to music in a horror film. – However, the music in the killing is more cinematic and upbeat. This contrasts to what is showed on screen.	None

Production – the process of creating a product.

Distribution – the process of sharing something to a large audience.

Exhibition – a public display of something; this is usually a piece of art.

It was set in Denmark

Producer: Søren Sveistrup

Genre: Danish Police Drama

Broadcast on: Amazon, BBC4 and Netflix

Technical Code	Denotation (what is it)	Connotation (what does it signify)
Setting	A Hotel room in New York	New York is one of the worlds most financially rich city.
Clothing	At the start plain normally clothes but by the end it all the clothes are gold	Plain normal clothes are ordinary. Gold is linked with power and wealth and these unordinary
NVC – Non Verbal Communication	Before a more relaxed posture whereas after their posture changes to be more confident and strong.	Before are regular people but after they are more professional
Dialogue	casual friendly speech	these people are friendly and you have a good relationship with them
Sound Effect	sparkle SFX	makes it like the product is magic and will change your life
Music	the music is quite and not so noticeable until they get bossed up then the beat drops and the volume increases	Before your life is quiet and after getting “Bossed Up” your life is like a musical
Camera shot size	Mostly mid shot with a couple close ups	the mid shots are similar to the eye so feel natural.
Camera movement	tilt down with push in to the suitcase with the mascara	this empahsises the mascara
Editing	Smooth with no extravagant cuts and lots of slow motion. Most cuts are on the beat	This gives it a professional look

Narrative Theories

Theorist	What does it mean? (Own Words)	How does it apply to the advert? (Own Words)
Equilibrium ( Todorov )	That every video has a beginning, middle and end.	The beginning is when they enter the room (“This room is EVERYTHING”) to the middle putting it on and finally the end when they have the make up on.
Binary Opposition ( Levi-Straus )	We can understand stuff through opposites. e.g. East/West Straight/Gay Good/Bad	They are in New York so they are smart, modern, where dreams come true. And that without make up you are nothing and that with make up you are everything.
Character Types ( Propp)	This is a theory that suggests the type of characters that are used. For example, Harry Potter = hero and Voldemort = villain. However, not all of these types will be present in every video.	In the Bossed Up I think the hero is the make-up and the Helpers are Manny MUA and Shayla.

Source – https://cpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.grammar.sch.gg/dist/a/4/files/2015/01/Narrative-Theory-Booklet-1t43d0p.pdf

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In this essay I am going to be explaining to you how gender is represented for males and females in the media; focusing on two examples: the Tomb Raider Anniversary cover for the representation of females, and Men’s Health for how males are represented. 

Firstly, I want to talk about gender as its meaning has changed recently. The dictionary says gender is “Either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones,”. This takes into account two genders (male and female), however now people are saying they were born the wrong gender; this creates multiple new genders including: genderqueer, transgender, cisgender, gender expression and gender nonconfirming. This makes it more difficult to analyse gender in the media as now it is harder to distinguish between all of them.

In the cover for the Tomb Raider Anniversary game the protagonist, Lara Croft, is central on the cover. If we were to put a rule of thirds grid on the cover then Lara Croft would take up the entirety of the three central squares; for one sign to take up this much space on the games cover is to show it is the dominant signifier on the cover, which is rare for a female to be as typically males are the protagonist. The text has been strategically placed to draw your attention to her breasts and butt. This over sexualises her and the way she is positioned is unnatural. Along with the unnatural theme her breasts and butt are abnormally big, especially since she is so skinny,(the dominant ideology for women is to be skinny but have big breasts and butt; an hourglass figure) this shows its target audience is straight males. To these straight males it gives a false impression as typical women do not look like that. Another way, Lara Croft is over sexualised is her skin-tight and very revealing clothes this again gives a false impression to the over 12 year old (the age rating symbolic sign that shows it is rated for over 12s) straight males that the game is targeted at as most females do not wear as much makeup as her or wear clothes like that; or they did not when the game was released in 2007. Also she is dressed for an adventure and the fact she is holding guns in each hand shows she does not need a male to protect and take care of her; a radical view. The image of Lara Croft helps to is an iconic (as she is a human) and an indexical sign (as she is from the original game and a well known figure). Going to the back of the cover and we can see that the paradigm of images from the in-game footage show Lara Croft does not look anywhere near as good quality (more pixelated) as she does on the front cover. I think that the gaming cover for Tomb Raider Anniversary represents woman in mostly a reactionary way, however it has some radical signs in it.

On the other hand, men are represented differently in the media as they are pretty much opposites, what would be radical for a female is reactionary for a male and vise-versa. To see how men are represented in the media we are looking at Men’s Health magazine. The layout is pretty similar to the games cover as the iconic sign is the image in the centre that fills at least two of the three central squares on the rule of thirds grid. The iconic sign of Vin Diesel denotes males should be muscular, covered in oil and poorly lit as most of the photo of Vin Diesel is shadow apart from his arms and chest, this signifies that these are the areas the audience should be looking at; this view of males is a reactionary viewpoint. Similarly to Lara Croft, Vin Diesel’s stance is unnatural and uncomfortable as his shoulders and arms are not in the position we are used to seeing, this is done to make him look stronger and to emphasis how men should look. This unusual body position could also be a away to show he is different to the average man as he is special and we can not be like him however we should strive to become as close to being like him as possible. Additionally, words that stand out on the front cover are: blast, stronger, demolish, slay, lose, fast, muscle and six-pack; these connate either destruction or strength as these are words a man should surround himself with as he needs to be strong and needs to show it. A reactionary page in the Men’s Health magazine is the article titled “The Marathon Man” as it shows the dominant signifier as a man running however the photo is staged as it was taken in a studio; this suggests that men should stage and fake things (especially on social media) to give the impression we are someone that is stronger and better than the person we really are. The man in the photo is a radical photo as he is not the strongest male and does not look like the pretty negative stereotype we are used to portraying males as; instead he is an old man that is skinny but is still active. This is strengthened further with the quote on the image “Your only limit is your self belief” which denotes that if you believe you can do it you can. However, I think that this article was selectively included to represent what we should inspire to be like when we are older and to stay ‘in shape’ no matter what. The quote could also be spun to suggest that if we put our mind and have self belief that we will look like Vin Diesel, The Rock or Zac Efron we can, is this a myth? From this I would say that Men’s Health is still more of a radical text than a reactionary one, however it is far closer to being more 50/50 than it was in the games cover.

I conclude that both forms of media are radical and support the dominant ideology, and try to make us want to achieve unrealistic results that the dominant signifiers have. However, they both show ways that support the reactionary viewpoint (Men’s Health shows more reactionary views than in Tomb Raider Anniversary).