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Audience Theory, Representation

MEDIA AND AUDIENCES

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Deutschland 83 and Capital

Capital:

Kudos TV Productions —> Roger Yount —> audience

Deutschland 83:

BBC —>Martin Rauch —-> audience

– As Martin Moore suggests, ‘people’s political views are not, as contemporaries thought, much changed by what they read or heard in the media. Voters were far more influenced by their friends, their families and their colleagues’ (2019:124).

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Uses/Gratifications of Deutschland 83 and Capital

– Knowledge about the World

– Enjoyment through watching a TV programme

– Escapism from the daily grind of work and life

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Audience Theories

– A socio-economic classification developed by the NRS (National
Readership Survey)
– Approximated Social Grade of six categories A, B, C1, C2, D and E.
– It applies to every Household Reference Persons (HRP) aged 16 to 64.
– A discriminatory tool for media consumption and purchasing power in general.
– Based on employment status, qualifications, residence and working full time, part time or not working.

Young and Rubicam’s Physiographic Descriptors:

The Explorer – motivated by the need for discovery.
The Resigned – motivated by survival needs.
The Aspirer – motivated by esteem/status needs.
The Mainstreamer – motivated by belonging needs.
The Reformer – motivated by enlightenment needs.
The Succeeder – motivated by the need for control.
The Struggler – motivated by escapism need

– It can be argued that Deutschland 83 and Capital are aimed at people who are Explorers and Strugglers because the audience will resort to achieving the needs of escapism by watching the programmes.

– It can also be seen that for English Audiences, Deutschland 83 satisfies the needs of the Explorer , as the get to learn more about a foreign country through watching a TV programme set in that country. Similarly, the Explorer can be applied to international audiences who watch Capital, as they may watch it to explore more about England.

Blumler and Katz

– Blumler and Katz identified 4 needs of why people might consume media:

– 1. Surveillance = give information at what is going on around the world.

– 2. = Personal relationships = allows us to become sociable with each other and openly discuss conversations and possibly create debates

– 3. = Diversion – media acts as a source of escapism and relief from the pressures of everyday life.

– 4. = Personal identity = audiences can compare their own life and the situations of characters in the programme, which will help the audience to explore their individual problems.

– For example, Deutschland 83 is set during the War in Germany, so it can visually show the audience what life was like during the war.

– Both programmes can be used a source of enjoyment and escapism from the daily grind of life and pressures you face in life.

– The story lines of these programmes are very dramatic in order to gain audience attraction and people will be open to talk about the programmes, the plot and their personal opinions on events in the programme and different characters.

The Cultivation Theory

– A theory established by George Gurbner

– Quote = ‘television’s major cultural function is to stabilize social patterns and to cultivate resistance to change‘ (1978: 115)

– They suggest that ‘television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources‘ (Gerbner et al 1986).

– The cultivation theory explores how people act through what media they consume. For example, if a person likes to watch TV shows that include violence, the person may start to become more violent in real life because they are acting like the characters they see on TV.

Institution, Representation

LIVINGSTONE AND LUNT

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What’s the difference between a consumer based media regulation system and a citizen based regulation system?

– Consumer based regulation = media makers create media based on what people want. There are regulation, but it isn’t chosen what they publish by the government. it focuses on what people want and media is created that is appropriate for audience consumption.

– Citizen based regulation = media makers create media based on what the Governments want them to do. It should contribute to the social and cultural health of the societies which they operate in.

What impact did the 2003 Communications Act have on media regulation?

– Designed by the Uk Labour Government to modernise Uk regulatory systems and help the UK television company become competitive.

– The act promoted independent television production by requiring conglomerates such as the BBC and Channel 4 to commission more from smaller television companies

– Television production was given more freedom in creating content and allowed production to become more commercially viable.

– The replacement for the Broadcast Standards commission (BSC) and Independent Television commission (ITC) with OFCOm through the communications act diluted the public service requirements of TV broadcasting.

– As a result, Independent television production where freed up to produce content that was more commercially viable

– OFCOM tried to ensure that media wasn’t dominated by one organisation, such as the BBC.

Whats the draw back of a self regulated system?

– Self regulated systems can be seen as disastrous as there is too much freedom and companies are free to produce whatever they want as there is no rules and regulations that they have to follow.

– Companies can’t regulate themselves

– No Government control, so companies can create media following their own codes and conducts.

– However, if companies don’t follow rules and regulations and someone complains about it, they won’t own up to breaking the rules and regulations as they have the freedom to make up their own codes and conventions.

– Currently, it can be argued that the media is self-regulatory and as we live in a neo-liberal society, people are being allowed more to do what they want to do.

How do you regulate media content and organisations on a global scale?

– There is an absence of Government guidance, so organisations are left to create their own morals, codes and conventions.

– Tech giants don’t author their own content, this is because user generated content is published which makes it impossible to prevent or properly check problematic material.

– Some companies have embedded content-vetting algorithms to automate their gate keeping processes, but they lack the standard to solve meaningful regulatory issues in a satisfactory way.

– Agreements between countries to make a global law that companies have to follow

– Companies are trying to regulate technologies on a global scale.

– One way to regulate media is to regulate technology alongside it.

CSP research, Representation

HESMONDHALGH AND TV

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How do media companies maximize profit and minimize risk

HESMONDHALGHDEUTSCHLAND 83 AND CAPITAL
Star formattingCapital stars Toby Jones, who goes on to star in many other different episodes that the audience may recognise.
Television HybridisationCapital is a program that is a hybridisation of crime drama with social realism
SerialismAn spin off prequel of Deutschland 83, called Deutschland 89 was released in 2020.
GlobalisationDeutschland 83 is an American-German program that was shown locally on German TV, the BBC4 and a partnership is currently being created with Netflix.
RemakesThe program is being remade with Netflix through Anna Winger on a spin off which tells the story of a Jewish woman who flees her arranged marriage and religious community to start a new life abroad.
InternationalismDeutschland 83 is a German TV program, that became very popular in America and has been translated for these purposes.
Technological AdvancementsDeutschland 83 is available on BBC 4, which is on TV as well as a website, so it can be accessed on any device.
Artificial ScarcityDeutschland 83 is only available on the local German network and BBC 4, which will make the audience go onto the channel and discover new, similar channels, thus creating more awareness of other programmes published by the media institution.
Publicity functionsCapital has been widely advertised, such as the starts were included in interviews and other media sources, such as newspapers focused very heavily on the programme.
Independent StylizingIn Deutschland 83, the Germans are presented in a very positive way, although the programme was set in 1983, way after WW1/2, where a pejorative viewpoint has been held among the Germans.
Advertising, Audience Theory, genre, Language, Practical, print, Representation

a2 nea

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For the last weeks of this Autumn term we are looking to complete the A2 NEA.

  1. For details of the NEA briefs visit the NEA page.
  2. For up to date information and answers to questions that other students have asked pleased make sure you REGULARLY look at out FAQ’s page.
  3. Make sure your intentions and ideas match the set brief.
  4. Make sure you are fully aware of what you need to do – ie the exact requirements for each production.
  5. Make sure you don’t lose sight of the theoretical perspectives! So this part of the course is about applying narrative theory, audience theory, representation, semiotics, feminist critical thinking, postcolonialism, postmodernism etc etc to your own practical production work.
  6. Make a plan of action (you have 5 weeks!) so plan your time, your resources, your skills, your participants.
  7. Complete your statement of intent and submit to me on relevant form (can be found on the NEA page). DEADLINE IS FRIDAY 18th @3:20 – email, blog, office 365 etc
  8. Make sure you have gone through your personal statement with me.
  9. Make sure you have reviewed your AS work with me.
  10. Makes sure you are on track to complete your work by the deadline!!

Representation

CSP13 – Score Advert

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The advert was produced in 1967. 1967 can be seen as a period of change in the UK with legislation on (and changing attitudes to) the role of women and men in society. Produced in the year of decriminalisation of homosexuality and three years before the 1970 Equal Pay Act, the representation of gender could be read as signalling more anxiety than might first appear. The reference to colonialist values can also be linked to social and cultural contexts of the ending of Empire. The contraceptive pill was introduced around this time.

It is important to know the context when studying the advert as the representations depicted in the advert can be read as signalling more anxiety than might first appear. The advert may be trying to reinforce traditional stereotypes and traditions at the time in order to calm those individuals who did not like the drastic changes that were occurring.

http://areejsmediablog1.blogspot.com/2018/03/advertising-score-case-study-and-wider.html

Hyper-masculinity in advertising
Hyper-masculinity 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 hyper-masculine representation of men and some representations in the media still do this today.

Gelfer: Changing masculinity in advertising
Joseph Gelfer, a director of masculinity research, suggests that the way masculinity is represented in advertising is changing. Looking at advertising over the last 20 years:
“Previously, masculinity was mostly presented in one of two ways: either a glamorous James Bond-style masculinity that attracted ‘the ladies’, or a buffoon-style masculinity that was firmly under the wifely thumb. 
Thankfully, and somewhat belatedly, things are beginning to change.” (Gelfer, 2017)

Gelfer: Five stages of Masculinity

Gelfer 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 men

Stage 2: “conscious masculinity” – as above but deliberate

Stage 3: “critical masculinities” – feminist; socially constructed

Stage 4: “multiple masculinities” – anyone can be anything

Stage 5: “beyond masculinities” – it doesn’t exist 

Jean Kilboure

Jean Kilboure is an activist in changing the image of women portrayed in the media.

Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. | Senior Scholars | Active Researchers | Scholars & Trainers | About us Wellesley Centers for Women

“Indeed the very worst kind of man for a women to be in an intimate relationship with, often a truly dangerous man, is the one considered most sexy and desirable in the popular culture.”
― Jean Kilbourne, Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel

“Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture.”
― Jean Kilbourne, So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood, and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/27499.Jean_Kilbourne

Representation

CSP 13: SCORE

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Media Representation

– Links to CSP 1 (Tomb Raider) = women are wearing minimalistic clothing which is following the dominant ideology

– It is a reactionary piece of media that follows the dominant ideology of how people saw males and females during the 1960s, which was known as the “swinging 60s”

– Male dominance is shown through the mis-en-scene: the females are gazing at the male figure, he is placed higher, possibly showing he is the main subject and the man is carrying a what looks like a gun, showing male dominance as only the male figure has the gun. The male figure being raised above the females suggest that males have more power over females.

– Since this is from 1967, it is very different to the adverts we see today because it follows the dominant ideology of females wearing minimalistic clothing and being seen as a sex symbol towards males.

– The women are wearing loads of make-up, which sexualises them and can link to Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, because the minimalistic clothing and heavy make-up would make the females attractive for males.

– The setting of the jungle suggest that the male with what looks like a gun is the hero because we typically associate the jungle with danger. Presenting the male as the hero associates with the dominant ideology of men being the risk-taker.

– The placement of 1 male character surrounded by 5 female characters is attractive for males and will tempt them to buy “Score” because it is presented that by wearing “Score”, females will be attracted to you.

– The Slogan we see in the top right hand corner (“Get what you’ve always wanted”) suggests to males that by buying “Score”, they will be like the male we see in the advert: surrounded by woman and powerful. This will entice males to buy “Score” because in the 60s, men were seen as more powerful over women.

Media Representations

– It is clear that the creator of this CSP is trying to present males as a more powerful figure than females.

– Mulvey’s male gaze can be applied to this CSP because the females in minimalistic clothing and lots of make-up will be attractive to males because they are lead into a reality that by wearing “Score”, females would be attracted to them

– Voyeurism can also be applied to this CSP because the females are presented as sexual objects, and this will make men attracted to the females in the advert and the men will have a sexual desire to these women due to the defining of their body from the minimalistic clothing.

– Van Zoonen can be applied to this CSP. Van Zoonen believed that the way females were presented can reinforce views in society. This links to this CSP because in the 60s there wasn’t much gender equality and females being presented as sexually attractive towards males and the male figure carrying a gun presents the male as the dominating figure in society, while the females are just seen as a sexual pleasure for males.

– bell hooks explored inequality and how people who weren’t white skinned, male or upper class were discriminated and weren’t represented truly in the media

Jean Kilbourne

Jean Kilbourne - The Naked Truth: Advertising's Image of Women | St. Jerome's University

– TEDx Talk = The Dangerous Ways that Ads See Women (2014), transcript = https://singjupost.com/jean-kilbourne-on-the-dangerous-ways-ads-see-women-full-transcript/

– Kilbourne is a public speaker, writer, filmmaker and activist who is internationally recognized for her work on the image of women in advertising

Killing Us Softly 4 - Jean Kilbourne on Advertising & Women

– “Women’s bodies are dismembered in ads, in ad after ad, for all kinds of products, and sometimes the body is not only dismembered, it’s insulted.”

– “advertising has become much more widespread, powerful, and sophisticated than ever before. Babies at the age of 6 months can recognize corporate logos, and that’s the age at which marketers are now starting to target our children.”

Jean Kilbourne quote: Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell...
Jean Kilbourne quote: Advertising doesn't cause addictions. But it does create a climate...

Audience Theory, Language, Representation

CSP 13 Score

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Advertising and Marketing – Score pre-1970 product.

This is a targeted CSP and needs to be studied with reference to two elements of the Theoretical Framework (MEDIA LANGUAGE and MEDIA REPRESENTATION) and all relevant contexts.

TASK 1: look at the CSP below and use some of the starting points provided to make your first post. Make this post broad and contextual (ie get as much information as you can) but divide up your responses in terms of: 1) MEDIA LANGUAGE & 2) MEDIA REPRESENTATION

Media Language

Detailed study of Score should enable students to develop an understanding of the dynamic and changing relationships between media forms, products and audiences. Analysis should include:

  1. Mise-en-scene analysis
  2. Production values and Aesthetics
  3. Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
  4. How advertising conventions are socially and historically relative
  5. The way in which media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies
Language-and-representation-SRPDownload

Narrative

  1. How does Score construct a narrative which appeals to its target audience
  2. How and why audience responses to the narrative of this advert may have changed over time
  3. How does this advert create desire for the product
  4. Techniques of Persuasion
  5. Students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the persuasive techniques used in the advert and issues surrounding brand values, brand message, brand personality and brand positioning should inform the analysis

Media Representations

Discussion of the Score advertisement will focus mainly on representation of gender including

  1. The processes which lead media producers to make choices about how to represent social groups
  2. How audience responses to interpretations of media representations reflect social, cultural and historical attitudes
  3. The effect of historical contexts on representations
  4. Theories of representation including Hall
  5. Theories of gender performativity including Butler
  6. Feminist theories including bel hooks and van Zoonen
  7. Theories of identity including Gauntlett

Historical, social and cultural contexts

The Score hair cream advert is an historical artefact from 1967, as such it can be examined productively by considering its historical, social and cultural contexts, particularly as it 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 legislation about and 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 might first appear. The reference to colonialist values can also be linked to social and cultural contexts of the ending of Empire (see this link).

In comparison, Men’s Health magazine represents a notable social and cultural shift in expectations of contemporary masculinity (a shift which could be usefully compared with the advert for Score Hair cream). The study of Men’s Health can be linked to social and cultural contexts through reference to body image and changes in what society deems acceptable and unacceptable representations.

http://areejsmediablog1.blogspot.com/2018/03/advertising-score-case-study-and-wider.html

Similarly, comparisons with Maybelline campaign and Oh! magazine would be useful in exploring a range of different theoretical ideas and approaches: feminist critical thinking, postcolonialism, postmodernism.

https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/why-brands-need-change-approach-marketing-masculinity/1442291

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/07/13/boy-can-brands-gender-and-new-masculinity

The advertising techniques of fifty years could be compared to those of today. For example, references could be made with the Lynx Effect advert and the Specsavers adverts (both from 2010) which received criticism from the ASA, read this link or this link. And again reference to body image and changes in what society deems acceptable and unacceptable representations. So have ideas and acceptance around representation of gender really changed since the 1960’s?

AQA Media Studies. Feminist Theory and the CSPs.

Task 2: Create 1-2 slides that look at this CSP from 1 of the following critical perspective: (save as jpeg and upload to blog). Be prepared to show this in class and talk about it.

>feminist critical thinking
>postcolonialism
>postmodernism
>narrative
>social / historical backdrop

Task 3: 1 lesson formal mock exam (hand written, silence, no notes)

Task 4: create a parody or pastiche (ie postmodernism) of the Score advert from you particular theoretical perspective – I will explain . . . But you MUST use photoshop. Create 1 or 2 products.

Representation, Uncategorized

HIGHER ORDER THINKING

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Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky came up with the 5 filters of manufacturing consent. These 5 filters are financial ownership, advertising, sourcing news, flak and ideology. These 5 filters should be visible in mass communication media, which includes newspapers, radio, TV and advertising. In this instance, we are going to apply the 5 filters to the Daily Mail and the I newspaper.

The first filter of the manufacturing consent is financial ownership. In this instance, the Daily Mail is a conglomerate who contributes towards the monopoly of Murdoch’s News Corp UK, which have subsidiaries including the Daily Mail, The Sun, The Sunday Times and The Mail on Sundays. While these are huge newspaper corporation that publish the most popular newspapers within the UK, the Daily Mail bought out the I for £49.6 million. This is significant because while the I is a smaller, independent newspaper, the Daily Mail is very popular and famous, therefore by buying out the smaller newspapers, they can bring brand loyalty and encourage the Daily Mail readers to purchase the I, meaning they will generate more revenue.

However, while the Daily Mail and the I are owned under the Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT), it is apparent that these newspapers source their information very contrastingly. For example, the Daily Mail has had a load of controversy and has been removed as a reliable source from Wikipedia because they rely on media sensationalism and using inaccurate headlines in order to bring in customers to buy their newspaper, however the I is very different in the fact that although it is owned under the DMGT, it hasn’t been classes as controversial and instead has a reputation for having accurate information and therefore haven’t received backlash for media sensationalism and what some call ‘fake news’. What’s also different is that they have very contrasting political views, even though they are under the same company. The Daily Mail is very right-wing politically aligned and support the Conservative Party. However, the I contrasts this by being left-wing politically aligned and supporting the Labour Party. The way these 2 newspapers contrast each other and are differently politically aligned could be a marketing strategy by having a newspaper that’s left winged and one right winged in order to attract more consumers because they are differentiating from other newspapers, which usually will stick to one politically aligned viewpoint.

Another one of the 5 filters’s flak. Flak is when you have a negative viewpoint towards something in the media. An example of Flak in the Daily Mail was in 2016, with the election of the new Prime Minister. The Daily Mail was heavily supporting Teresa May, a Conservative, yet had a negative viewpoint towards Jeremy Corbyn (Labour). One example of this was their use of support such as their masthead “Your tactical voting guide to boost the Tories and Brexit”. However, the I juxtaposes this viewpoint held by the Daily Mail and instead was showing support for Corbyn and the Labour Party and tried to create a negative viewpoint towards Theresa May and the Conservative Party.