History- The Score hair cream advert is an historical artefact from 1967, as such it can be examined for its historical, social and cultural contexts, particularly in its 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 changing attitudes to the role of women – and men – in society, something that the advert can be seen to negotiate. Produced in the year of decriminilasiation of homosexuality the representation of heterosexuality could be read as signaling more anxiety than the surface level of the advert. The advertising techniques of fifty years ago are fundamentally similar to today’s adverts but there are clear signs and evolutions of techniques through out the years.

Hypermasculinity in advertising
Hypermasculinity is defined as: a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behaviour, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality.

Advertising in the 1950s-1980s often featured a lot of hyper-masculine representation of men – and some representations in the media today still continue this.

Gelfer: Five stages of MasculinityGelfer suggests there are five stages of masculinity – how people perceive and understand what it means to be a man.
Stage 1: “unconscious masculinity” – traditional view of menStage 2: “conscious masculinity” – as above but deliberateStage 3: “critical masculinities” – feminist; socially constructedStage 4: “multiple masculinities” – anyone can be anythingStage 5: “beyond masculinities” – it doesn’t exist 
Gelfer says advertisers need to think about how their target audience views men and masculinity when creating campaigns.

Masculinity in crisis? David Gauntlett
Media theorist David Gauntlett has written extensively on gender and identity. He disagrees with the popular view that masculinity is ‘in crisis’:
“Contemporary masculinity is often said to be ‘in crisis’; as women become increasingly assertive and successful… men are said to be anxious and confused about what their role is today.”
Instead, Gauntlett suggests that many modern representations of masculinity are “about men finding a place for themselves in the modern world.” He sees this as a positive thing. (Gauntlett, 2002)

 

MEDIA LANGUAGE

MEDIA REPRESENTATION

—

Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. (born January 4, 1943) is a public speaker, writer, filmmaker and activist who is internationally recognized for her work on the image of women in advertising and her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising.^[1] She is also credited with introducing the idea of educating about media literacy as a way to prevent problems she viewed as originating from mass media advertising campaigns. She also lectures about the topic,^[2] and her documentaries (such as the Killing Us Softly series) based on these lectures are viewed around the world.^[3]

She is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a doctorate in education from Boston University, as well as an honorary doctorate from Westfield State College, for her “research [and] insights [that] lead us from consumerism to consciousness

B.F Skinner operant conditioning

behavioral conditioning/management

“the fiction of free will” meaning that we are coursed and shaped into what we do. when organisations condition peoples behavior into doing or being drawn into things.

propaganda vs persuasion

propaganda is overtly political and manipulative

persuasion though is seen to gain/ sway public opinion

harold laswell was the first one to talk about the first world war . that the militry was able to use a range of properganada to get knocked into submission

hypodermic model=direct injection =meaning the idea of a passive audience

“the age of surveillance capitalism”

zuboff has a book talking about the various forms of persuasion are used to stimulate certain types of behavior while suppressing others

“technology has developed or evolved the way companies manipulate there audiences. so new methods of behavior control.”

Harold Laswell

laswell explored how we only had mass communications at the turn of the 18th centre eg first world war

also the idea of propaganda and persuasion

 each government had ‘manipulated the mass media in order to justify its actions’ in World War 1

components of Lasswell’s model 1930’s

my example;

Who (sender) the daily mail

Says what (msg) asks has the stress of covid given Boris dandruff?

Channel (medium) the daily mail newspaper October 20th 2020

To whom (receiver) lower-middle-class British women

With what affect (impact/feedback) to mock the Toris priminister

Paul Lazarfeld 1940’s

we are more likely to be persuaded by people than the media.the key thing to remember is that the audiences are now active.

uses and grats 1960’s

this theory is linked with Maslows hierarchy of needs theory

George Gerbner 1970’s

George Gerbner, Larry Gross and others worked on a large-scale, positivist, in-depth, longitudinal study into the effects of television, which started in 1975. Looking primarily at the relationship between violence on television and violence in society. They developed what is known as CULTIVATION THEORY,

Gerbner and Gross assert that ‘television’s major cultural function is to stabilize social patterns and to cultivate resistance to change‘ (1978: 115). In other words, they assert the power of television to modify behaviour in support of the dominant structures of society.

(structures or organisations have more power over agencies)

Stuart Hall 1980’s

the theory of preferred reading

Hall proposed three distinct positions that could be occupied by individual viewers, determined, more or less on their subject identities. 

1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message 
2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

Towards this aim he proposed the encoding/decoding model of communication, or the theory of preferred reading, where individuals are not only active in the process of interpretation and the construction of meaning, but they are also able to dismiss and reject dominant messages.

Clay Shirky 2000’s

the theory of : The End of Audiences

intersectionality

To bring this summary of different audience approaches towards a conclusion, would be to look at Clay Shirky‘s notion of the end of audience. Because what could happen if, instead of the choice of three subject positions as offered by the theory of preferred reading, there were limitless, individual subject positions available to all of us, at any time, in any place, from any perspective? A position which allowed us to produce our commentary and communication on the outside world, while still maintaining the ability to comment, feedback, accept or deny those who choose to interpret the outside world for us?

In many ways, Shirky is not too removed from the work of Hall, prioritising the power of individual agency in the relationship between audiences and institutions, for example, recognising how the audience can be both producers and consumers of media text. This can be realised in the realm of new (interactive) communication media, where individual communications can be made in what appears to be beyond State or commercial control and interest.

Zuboff 2010’s

Noam Chomsky is a theorist who talks about the concept of “manufacturing consent”. Chomsky explains that there are 5 filters to manufacturing consent and furthermore they can be applied to our CSP’s of the i newspaper vs the daily mail. beginning with his filter of Structures of ownership, the I was an. independent newspaper that explore both political sides and dealt with hard news. but was recently bought out by the conglomerate Daily Mail and General Trust in 2019 and by them buying this newspaper they gain more profit and a can change they newspapers product and fill it with more click bait for exchange for even more profit.

the second filter is The role of advertising this relates more with the daily mails approach to news in their newspapers than the I newspaper in my opinion because of the amount of soft news and advertisement that can be seen in the newspaper. Therefore the daily mail and general trust who own both of the newspapers make even more profit for selling spaces in their newspaper to give the advertises access to their audiences.

the 3rd filter which is probably the most important would be the “Media Elite”. the media elite manages the news and stories through the third filter.

flack’ Uniting against a ‘common enemy’

the daily mail	the i
the daily mail began in 1896 on the 4th of May	the I stated in 2010 26th October
Daily Mail and General Trust plc	Daily Mail and General Trust plc
rightwing/ mixed	left wing and right wing
soft news very little hard news. daily mail focuses on celebrity gossip as a tabloid	hard news.I focuses on politics & social inequalities.
Oliver Duff (37) is a British journalist who has been the editor of the i newspaper since June 2013. As a younger journalist he provides new content which makes the I more interesting	George Carron Greig (59), is an English journalist and editor of the Daily Mail. because the editor of the daily mail is older it may explain why their content is targeted at an older audience
middle class women	aimed at “readers and lapsed readers” of all ages and commuters with limited time
15% decrease in sales from June 2019 to June 2020	38% decrease in sales from June 2019 to June 2020
the daily mail is shown on different platforms such as snapchat in their story section	the I also shows its self on different online platform
the daily mail uses more bold titles to fill their front covers. to pull in the readers with catching and somewhat odd titles or ie click bait	the I has more pictures used for their front covers than the daily mail. this could be a reflection on their readers liking less writing and more visual aids

When they were first introduced – ie do they have a tradition?

2.      Are they part of a bigger organisational structure?

3.      Are they known for a particular political perspective?

4.      What kind of journalism do they produce? What is their USP? What stories do they specialise in?

5.      What kind of people run the paper? Produce the stories?

6.      Do they have a similar readership reach?

7.      Do they have a similar readership profile / target audience?

8.      How are they currently doing? Increasing or decreasing sales and revenue?

9.      How are they looking to embrace new media technologies?

10.  Do they have a similar layout and design?

The Mail has traditionally been a supporter of the Conservatives and has endorsed this party in all recent general elections.

Before the outbreak of World War I, the paper was accused of warmongering when it reported that Germany was planning to crush the British Empire.

The Daily Mail has been awarded the National Newspaper of the Year 8 times from 1995-2019

an example of there more conservative views is their story on the suffragettes – The term “suffragette” was first used in 1906, as a term of derision by the journalist Charles E. Hands in the Mail to describe activists in the movement for women’s suffrage, in particular members of the WSPU. But the women he intended to ridicule embraced the term, saying “suffraGETtes” (hardening the ‘g’), implying not only that they wanted the vote, but that they intended to ‘get’ it.

Anti-refugee cartoon -Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, a cartoon in the Daily Mail by Stanley McMurtry (“Mac”) linked the European migrant crisis (with a focus on Syria in particular) to the terrorist attacks, and criticised the European Union immigration lawsfor allowing Islamist radicals to gain easy access into the United Kingdom. Despite being compared to Nazi propaganda by The New York Times,and criticised as “reckless xenophobia,” and racist, the cartoon received praise on the Mail Onlinewebsite. A Daily Mail spokesperson told The Independent: “We are not going to dignify these absurd comments which wilfully misrepresent this cartoon apart from to say that we have not received a single complaint from any reader”.

On 16 July 1993 the Mail ran the headline “Abortion hope after ‘gay genes’ finding”. Of the tabloid headlines which commented on the Xq28 gene, the Mail’s was criticised as “perhaps the most infamous and disturbing headline of all”.

the daily mail was accused of being sexist in 2014 after Emma Watson speech about the UN HeForShe campaign the mail was criticised for focusing on her dress and appearance rather than the contents of her speech

The Daily Mail’s medical and science journalism has been criticised by some doctors and scientists, accusing it of using minor studies to generate scare stories or being misleading. 2011, the Daily Mail published an article titled “Just ONE cannabis joint ‘can cause psychiatric episodes similar to schizophrenia’ as well as damaging memory“. Dr. Matt Jones, the lead author of the study that is cited in the article was quoted by Cannabis Law Reform as saying: “This study does NOT say that one spliff will bring on schizophrenia”.

Antonio Gramsci (Hegemony)-

Refers to the dominantly shared system of values, ideas, and ethics of a society or community during a particular historical period. The definition of hegemony is leadership or dominance off one group over another. An example of hegemony would be the government power over its citizens. a hegemonic struggle is the presentation of people going against and challenging the dominant ideologies and social norms placed in.

Jurgen Habermas (public sphere)-

 The public sphere is the concept of a social space where people would meet and discuss social problems in for example a coffee shop, and through that would influenced political action .

James Curran & Jean Seaton (theory of liberal free press)–

Curran and Seaton elaborate and further explain the theory by Habermas on the topic of the “Free Press” and how the press should not be influenced or heavily dominated by large companies enforcing opinions and views on daily news. by doing this is manipulates the viewers to seeing a certain side of a story when the news should be a unbiased platform to inform our community.

Noam Chompsky (5 filters that manufacture consent)-

The theory explains five general classes of “filters” that determine the type of news that is presented in media. These five classes are: ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak, and the common enemy or “fear ideology”.

Ownership-Mass media firms are big corporations. Often, they are part of even bigger conglomerates. Their end game? Profit. And so it’s in their interests to push for whatever guarantees that profit. Naturally, critical journalism must take second place to the needs and interests of the corporation.

Advertising-Media costs a lot more than consumers will ever pay. So who fills the gap? Advertisers. And what are the advertisers paying for? Audiences. And so it isn’t so much that the media are selling you a product — their output. They are also selling advertisers a product — YOU.”

The Media Elite- The establishment manages the media through the third filter. Journalism cannot be a check on power because the very system encourages complicity. Governments, corporations, big institutions know how to play the media game. They know how to influence the news narrative. They feed media scoops, official accounts, interviews with the ‘experts’. They make themselves crucial to the process of journalism. So, those in power and those who report on them are in bed with each other.

Flak-If you want to challenge power, you’ll be pushed to the margins. When the media – journalists, whistleblowers, sources – stray away from the consensus, they get ‘flak’. This is the fourth filter. When the story is inconvenient for the powers that be, you’ll see the flak machine in action discrediting sources, trashing stories and diverting the conversation.

The Common Enemy Or “Fear Ideology”– To manufacture consent, you need an enemy — a target. That common enemy is the fifth filter. Communism. Terrorists. Immigrants. A common enemy, a bogeyman to fear, helps corral public opinion.

Louis Althusser ( interpellation and ISA)–

Ideological state apparatus are the social things around us i.e the media, school, family, friends ans state and they shape us into what we are today and conform us using their values. They interpellate us into what they expect us to be using the ISA.

Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. In other words it is something learnt through repeated performance.

How useful is this idea in understanding how gender is represented? Compare and contrast your idea in terms of both print media and music videos

Rafer in detail to you chosen music video Style models, Men’s health and Oh..

Judith Butler is an American philosopher, and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminist, queer, and literary theory. Butler questions and explores ideas of how gender is socially constructed and states that through the media and repeated traditions and actions society has created its own rules of right and wrong or stereotypes for each gender. And from the repetition of the actions it becomes the “normal”, for example the stereotyping and or social norm, of boys liking the colour blue, and girls liking the colour pink. By looking at her work we can use theorist like; Jacques Lacan, Mulvey, Althusser, and Noam Chomsky, to further explain her points. As it is clear to see she was influenced by, Lacan’s mirror theory, and Chomsky’s theory on manufacturing consent, Mulvey Male gaze, and Althusser ISA, interpellation. We can use their theories to further link our case studies of men’s health and Oh along with our three style model music videos.

Starting with one of the style models “Little Uneasy” by Fazer daze. The music video starts with an open road and then slowly pans backwards, to see a girl skating. She’s wearing shorts, a plaid shirt over an orange t-shirt, with a pair of converses. She’s skating on a longboard, and just from these first few shots we can gather that she is the protagonist, and that the people who made the music video, have a more radical view on stereotypical girl protagonists. Just by her wearing more comfortable clothes, or what could be seen as more boyish clothing. We can see that the music video is going against Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze. And is using its resources to have an empowering women for their main character, to show diversity from the typical “pretty” girl lead, by her not wearing a skirt or provocative clothing which would support the male gaze theory, and can be seen in a lot of pop music videos.

Throughout the rest of the music video the girl skates along the road until the end where it pans out above her and the road, to get a wide shot view of where she was skating. commenting on here clothing again we can see that the way she’s represented can involve Lacan’s mirror theory, as from the more radical choice of clothing can give the audience a deeper connection to the protagonist and make them feel represented in the media in a positive lighting for how they choose to dress, and can give them a sense of identity and representation to feel more include in society.

Following Lacan’s theory we can see the negative connections when we relate it to “Men’s health” and their 2017 edition for the months of January and February. As in this chosen magazine the representation is more stereotypical, of how men “should” look. and with this, as Lacan describes it: “give a loss of identity to an individual”. From the way men are represented to be muscular, when realistically it can be quite unattainable for the average man to get to that level of fitness. And more often than not photos for magazines are altered to what we all see as better or more acceptable by society’s standards. so i would classify that as negative representation, as it isn’t representing the average man in a positive lighting but highlighting the one percent of men who are more muscular. So creating more of a loss of identity, for the majority of the audience. With an unattainable goal of how they should look instead of positive representation, showing what most men actually look like.

This also ties in with Noam Chomsky’s work, of manufacturing consent as from the mass evidence, of men’s magazines showing strong men on their covers. It can manipulate the audience to change their thinking, about how they “should” look, and what they “should” expect men to look like. Overall, it became the stereotype for men. Another point is Louis Althusser theory of the Ideological State Apparatus. The media is the apparatus transferring their dominant ideology and forming our ideologies in the process. Furthermore, how they use the colour for the background of their front cover is an indicator of a subliminal message for their target audience. Using the colour blue as the background shows one of their connections for the target audience which is men. Which again can also be seen as something that was a factor of manufactured consent, over the decades. That became the dominant ideology that men associate with the colour blue more than other colours, because of the media. This also further proves Judith Butler’s quote on gender being constructed by repeated action, from the points that I have made with “Men’s health” magazine.

Moving on to the other style model, I’m examining “ego” by Scruffpuppie. This music video is definitely on the more radical side of ideology just from the singer’s look. It opens with the protagonist leaning out a car window with the title of the song appearing. Just from this first scene we can see that he doesn’t dress like the typical dominant ideology of what a man should dress like. The first main point that suggests a radical look on gender, is that he has bright, long pink hair. This goes against my point of boys associating with the colour blue rather than other colours like pink, which is considered a softer, and more dainty colour in comparison which subconsciously was seen as a sign of weakness, liking the colour pink as it was a sign of girliness and a lack of toughness that men that was typically asked from men. In correlation of Butler’s statement this challenges it as it is the opposite of gender normality’s and stereotypes that the media constantly represented. It’s a more radical view that goes against the repetition and it’s a showing of diversity and thinking differently on how gender can be represented.  

This sort of diversity in representation fits more with the profile of our other case study “Oh”. Oh is an independent media company owned by “Iceberg Press” it is a lifestyle and environmental movement magazine. This magazine has more radical views on the dominant ideologies of gender from the lack of men on their covers to show that women can stand strong without them and can lead. Not only do they show women on their covers they go against Mulvey’s theory on the male gaze, and represents all types of women. A clear example of this would be in their spring addition of 2019 the women on the front cover wasn’t the conventional type of pretty. With one of her key features being her eyebrows. Which in typical media products are shown as small and neat. Oh’s front cover model has bushy eyebrows which shows a radical view on female beauty. This can also tie in with Lacan’s mirror theory in a positive way by giving more women representation so they can feel valid in their looks and identity

In conclusion I think Judith Butler’s statement of gender being learnt by repetition is a true claim in parts of the media. I think her statement was commenting on the negative sides of tradition, conforming people’s identity. But with new media products, and generations we are slowly showing more positive acts of representation, by filtering these more radical views, and representation of diversity throughout the media, to become the dominant ideology.

“OH!”  is a magazine brand that has 25,000 readers, with the average age being 27

Oh! is a brand that supports and participates in the lifestyle/environmental movements of the early 21st century which re-brand consumerism as an ethical movement.

the brand oh is showing there views on gender representation and women’s rights by having there magazine for women and empowerment for women and are not just reducing women to objects as some other magazines might do. Or in other words using Mulvey theory of the male gaze by catering there products to men to get more sales, or in online terms could be seen as click bate by using suggestive photos of women.

oh got bought out by iceburg

The Oh magazine is published by Iceberg Press which is an independent media company, this means they will fend for themselves and don’t need other companies to help them with publishing, they wan to stand alone

The main representations implied by the magazine include gender, primarily femininity but can also be understood in how this affects the representation of men

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

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

first published in 2010

(who owns mens health~check)

Media products often challenge the social and cultural context in which they are created.

To what extent does an analysis of the close study products Ghost Town and Letter To The Free support this view?(25 marks)

In the book “Fake news vs media studies” by j.mcdougall, quoted by N.fenton almost paraphrasing the first statement in the question, she stated: “I’ve always said you can’t understand the world without the media nor the media without the world”. This quote further implies why media products have such a key role in the world today and how they can easily challenge the world’s dominant ideologies but still shapes and enforce societies views all together. To the point where one can’t work without the other. Postcolonialism heavily affects how we the audience can interpret the media. The previous quote was from 2019 and is possibly even more relevant now, in 2020. With the current events happening in the news/media today with the BlackLivesMatter hashtag, raising awareness, of the worlds upset, at the law enforcement, and higher power allowing racism to still happen in this day and age. Following the line of postcolonialism, theories such as Jacques Lacan, with his theory on “ the other”. Or Edward Said, and views on orientalism, or  Louis Althusser with his notes on ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation”. As well as Antonio Gramsci and his theory on Hegemony.  All have strong connection’s and examples relating with the case studies, “Letter To The free” and “ghost town”.

The way these case studies link is by their similar narratives for both of their songs. As their ideologies are more on the radical side, challenging the dominant ideology on social issues of their time. With “Letter To The Free” speaking out about racism, and the division it’s caused in America in 2020. Together with “Ghost Town” speaking out their frustrations of the unemployment and division in the uk at the time. 

In addition it’s clear to see that the two case studies have ideas pointing towards postcolonialism theorist Paul Gilroy & WEB du Bois. As WEB du bois first explained the term, and idea of an audience having a “double consciousness”. With Paul Gilroy using the term, and concept again, in his book “The Black Atlantic” . With Double consciousness defining itself as the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society. We can see this in “letter to the free” with the subject matter being racism against the black community in America.

You can also link the theory of double consciousness to ghost town as the song is expressing the frustration of the uk with the government and the rise in unemployment that caused a lot of anger throughout the country.

By understanding the concept of postcolonialism, we can learn to understand the theories of “The Other” and “Orientalism”, by Jacques Lacan, and Edward said. To understand this term Jacques Lacan explains using 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 elaborated 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. 

To link this to postcolonialism would be to suggest that the West uses the East / the Orient / the ‘Other’, to identify and construct itself. How it sees itself as the ‘West’, in other words, it acts as The Other, a mirror by which a reflection of the self can be measured out and examined. When minorities or people of colour look at the media, they don’t see themselves from the lack of positive representation, giving the presence of lost identity from the desperate miss of representation.

Following the line of “the other” we can examine the theory of “Orientalism” by Edward Said, and how it challenges the social and cultural context of the easter world. The Link between culture, imperial power & colonialism, Said phrased it as; “it’s the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging”.”In this view, the outlying regions of the world have no life, history or culture to speak of, no independence or integrity worth representing without the West.”(Said, 1993: xxi). Orientalism (1978) alongside Culture and Imperialism (1993). I chose those two texts, specifically because I think they best explain what Orentialism is, and can give the direct link with Common’s music video.

Beginning with Commons “Letter to the free”, and his topic of racism we can see that his music video is challenging the media with this radical form of media, by going against the dominant ideologies or the western ideologies of narrative, and representation. His music video is shining a light on how America is not addressing its racist views to its citizens and is still allowing racism to fly past the radar with little to no consequence. This is clear to see in the media today with the black lives matter movement and the injustice that thousands of black americans face and who are stereotyped. And the even more distressing reply to some of the protests addressing the issue, is with police brutality being their answer to try control the situation. Instead of admitting their mistakes and changing for the better, they retaliate, and attempt to silence the voice of equality, that every person whether coloured or not, should have from day one. its human decency. Relating it back to the music video Common addresses racism with a more specific point on imprisonment of black Americans, as the song was written for a netflix documentary  “Amendment 13th”. Elaborating and exposing the government’s prison system. And how racism has evolved from that Amendment, from the constitution stating: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States”.

Furthermore French philosopher Louis Althusser talks about the Ideological state apparatus (ISA),  a concept developed by Algerian Born, which is used to describe the way society structures itself to a line with its ideologies of identity, and right and wrong. Althusser quotes “ ‘Ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way to ‘recruit’ subjects among individuals… through the very precise operation that we call interpellation or hailing.” Which in other words means, the way in which a subjects identity is formed, more often than not, corresponds to the dominant ideology. Because we are socially conformed and ‘despite its diversity and contradictions of society’s ideologies stays as the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’ examples being the government and people of power.

This correlates with the music video Ghost Town as Althusser talks about forced upon views of what is deemed as acceptable for self identity, and the power that the ruling class have, such as the government. The song is specifically about the frustration of the division caused by the government in the uk at the time when unemployment rates were record high. The song was commenting about the division around the country and which social ideologies can create the same division, because it sets rules that most people don’t identify. Whilst making self identity hard to figure out because society is in a sense labeling you.

in conclusion i think Letter to the Free and Ghost town both challenge world ideologies with their more radical views on it. I personally think the media does challenge the worlds view but it often creates the worlds ideologies to benefit the people in power. So, To keep those in charge happy, the world relays on the media to help with social cunstruction of people of powers ideologies, so to quote by N. Fenton

“I’ve always said you can’t understand the world without the media northe media without the world”.

we can’t understand how, and why they do it without looking at the medium they do it in.

• Media concentration / Conglomerates / Globalisation (in terms of media ownership)

A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet

• Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration

Horizontal integration is when a business grows by acquiring a similar company in their industry at the same point of the supply chain. Vertical integration is when a business expands by acquiring another company that operates before or after them in the supply chain.

• Gatekeepers

Gatekeeping is a process by which information is filtered to the public by the media. … This news perspective and its complex criteria are used by editors, news directors, and other personnel who select a limited number of news stories for presentation to the public. someone who allows information that they deem fit so someone with a lot of power.

• Regulation / Deregulation

a process in which a government removes controls and rules about how newspapers, television channels, etc. are owned and controlled: Critics of media deregulation say it can give too much power to individuals who own many forms of mass media.

• Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers

The free market is an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control. Cross ownership: ownership of different kinds of media (TV, newspapers, magazines, etc.) by the same group. Monopoly “in cross”: reproduction into local level, of the particularities of cross ownership.A media merger is defined in the Act as: • a merger or acquisition in which 2 or. more of the undertakings involved. carry on a media business in the. State; or.

• Neo-liberalism and the Alt-Right

• Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR

David Hesmondhalgh is among a range of academics who critically analyse the relationship between media work and the media industry. 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’ 

The Culture Industries (Sage, 2019, p.99)

Put another way, in an article he wrote with Banks (Banks, M., & Hesmondhalgh, D. (2009). Looking for work in creative industries policy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 415-430.) 

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.

Looking for work in creative industries policy. International Journal of Cultural Policy p.428

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 centre of their own unfolding occupational drama. Put precisely,

As can be deduced, 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.

As Banks and Hesmondhalgh argue, 

in 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) 

As Hesmondhalgh (2019) notes, one feature of cultural work in the complex professional era is that many more peole seem to have wnated to work professionally in the cultural industries than have succeeded in do so. Few people make it, and surprisingly little attention has been paid in research to how people do so, and what stops others from getting on.’ (p.99)

In my own research, I looked at theories of the self and identity in relation to aspirational ambitions and the realities of the creative economy which can often be found to out of kilter.

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