Question: ‘Explain how the social, political and cultural contexts of media influence how audiences may interpret the same media in different ways. Use Common’s Letter to the Free to support your answer‘

• Know social, political and cultural contexts of media
• Know how media influences audiences
• Know how audiences interpret the same media in different ways
• Include names, figures and dates

Cultivation theory – Gerbner

Cultivation theory is the long-term effects of television. “The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend ‘living’ in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality aligns with reality portrayed on television.” The theory is that the more you see things in the media, your perspective or the way you view things changes. Letter to the freedoms this by using the genre of hip hop to gain an audience as it is a popular genre to listen to. This is a way to persuade the world that their message is right. The music video is a part of a hegemonic struggle of black people in America and how they face racism and discrimination. This theory can be portrayed in Letter to the free because of the black lives matter message that it promotes.The fact that the song was also made in a music video format and used for a documentary

figures: letter to the free 2016

Common is an American musician and actor who has a net worth of $45 million

The music industry distributes their songs in different formats. For example the music video for letter to the free and the documentary. They do this to gain an audience.

The song letter to the free was used for a Netflix documentary on how America has private prisons which are required to be full. This caused especially black people to be put in prison for money. “Shot me with your ray-gun, And now you want to trump me, Prison is a business, America’s the company” are lyrics that refer to this. This also goes with the message that racism is still relevant today as there is more black people in prison today than there were slaves when America allowed slavery.

Knowledge to use

• processes of production, distribution and circulation by organisations, groups and individuals in a global context
• the relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation (streaming services, piracy, etc)
• the impact of ‘new’ digital technologies on media regulation, including the role of individual producers.
• the significance of patterns of ownership and control, including conglomerate ownership, vertical integration and diversification
• the significance of economic factors, including commercial and not-for-profit public funding, to media industries and their products
• how media organisations maintain, varieties of audiences nationally and globally
• the interrelationship between media technologies and patterns of consumption and response

• How media producers target, attract, reach, address and potentially construct audiences
• How media industries target audiences through the content and appeal of media products and through the ways in which they are marketed, distributed and circulated: widely distributed on video hosting sites aimed at a youth audience but also consumed by the audience for political documentary.
• How audiences interpret the media, including how they may interpret the same media in different ways (Hall Theory of Preferred Reading)
• Cultivation Theory
• Uses and Gratifications Theory

• how your knowledge of the institutional details of the text ie specifics facts, figures, names, dates etc about the text. At this point show your knowledge of the music industry and use key terms (see above)
• Next, show how audiences may (theoretically) interpret media texts ie audience theory.
• Follow this up with specific ideas that suggest how certain audiences may interpret this particular text (ie apply the theory to this CSP)
• Finally, make some summative conclusions based on your knowledge and understanding that show the importance of culture in terms of engaging with issues of power and control. For this you could reference Gramsci & his concept of ‘hegemony’ and/or Habermas and his concept of ‘the public sphere’

Facts:

Common works under Def Jam, which is owned by Universal Music Group, which is owned by Vivendi (french conglomerate). Vivendi also owns Vevo.

letter to the free released 2016 for the documentary 13th. it got the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Song – Contemporary

hall’s theory of preferred reading with examples

hegemony and the public sphere

layout

Describing what I have done for my layout is; firstly I created a dominant signifer of the title of the game and the master head at the top of the cover. I chose the layout of the subheadings and text to fit around the main image so it wouldn’t take away the focus of the main character. When consumers looked at my magazine I tried to put into consideration was how the front cover should feel to the consumer. My plan was to make it intrigue the viewer by give a sense of dramatic mystery.

Relating to “Applying Theory Of Audience”, my magazine would relate to the Struggler’s who have the need to escape from reality, which can be achieved in story arch video games. Since storyline video games help relate to gamers, and give a sense of joy playing.

I planned to layout my characters for “Oakvalley” in a “V” formation since I wanted to make the main character stand out the most, to show the importance of the character. I plan for the size of the magazine to be A4 since I don’t want to stretch my characters too much or have too much free space on the front cover. The advantages of keeping it A4 are; it is a suitable size to carry around, either by hand or in bags. Also if I planned to make the magazine anything bigger than A4, for example A3, it would be significantly heaver which is something I don’t want because I want my magazine to be a light weight and appealing magazine.

after creating the characters and background for my front cover I moved onto plugs and subheadings/titles. Now starting on titles I wanted to place the title in a “v” formation underneath the characters to keep the “v” formations of the characters in line with the title so they would both be matching.When choosing fonts for plugs I wanted a soft but sharp font to not convey more formal magazine but more fun “comicy”style that shouts out to kids to buy this magazine. I decided to use a different font for company title by making look more like the fonts used in story books which would usually read”Once Upon A Time…” I wanted the reader to understand maybe not right away but subliminally that the company is the narrator of the story or the company was the conglomerate who owned the magazine that supplied the adventure and mystery to the consumer.

after getting feedback on the front cover I changed my sizes and added more subheadings and plugs to entice more audiences to by the magazine since its widening the amount of contents that would relate or interest the consumer. On my original front cover I left to much space in the magazine so it made my proportions look uneven so by increasing the size of the main character in the middle of the page it evened out the proportions a lot better. after finishing over all I am very pleased with my work on these magazine pages and am proud about the time I’ve spent creating from scratch everything used in them so the magazine is 100% original.

Representation

Asking the question if my games cover is radical, or reactionary. Does my cover goes with the dominant ideology of video game covers, or if does go against them?

I would personally say my cover is radical. my reasoning behind my opinion is;

Firstly the layout, in usually gaming magazines would place their main character as their dominant signifier, on the front cover with no other side characters. (Unless they were important to the story AKA sidekick, or were other protagonists form other video games the magazine is covering). In my cover I have 8 characters in view, so who’s to say who the main character is? There is no big dominant signifier besides the positioning of one blue characters being at the front of the v formation.

references for layout and design for the front magazines

back story for video game

I changed my rough idea for my front cover to this new updated gaming cover about a game I created called “Oakvalley”. It’s a story driven, adventure mystery game. The lead character is College dropout blue who returns home to the crumbling former gold mining town of Oakvally seeking to resume his aimless former life and reconnect with the friends he left behind. But things aren’t the same. Home seems different now and his friends have grown and changed. Leaves are falling and the wind is growing colder. Strange things are happening as the light fades. And a town secret is about to be revealed.

Brief About Magazine

this magazine is going to be themed around mystery/adventure video games with hand drawn cartoons done by me

Next Step Forward

I am going to next upload my sketch to photoshop and use it as a background layer to draw on top. I will try to make a lot of different layers for the characters so I’m able to change scales of clothing or accessories

APPLYING THEORY: AUDIENCE

Looking at Maslows hierarchy of needs, my cover and game relates most to the loving belongs, and self-actualization levels in Maslow’s triangle. I think this because, when it comes to storyline games people can build real connections with the characters. So the way the characters are designed and written can give a sense of belonging or love. From the audience having a specific character that they can relate to and adore will help build up a loyalty of the audience. A story game could relate to the self-actualisation level since a certain games plot, could relate to someones home life on a basic or on a deeper level. It’s the same when an audience can relate to a certain character. It can make them feel more invested in the game, since it can help them feel less alone because the character might imitate the audiences feelings or emotions. So this all leads to a person having a subconscious connection to the game and make it more appealing.

double page spread

For my double page I want to theme it around the murder mystery games with using inspiration from video games like; bendy and the ink machine, little Misfortune, Fran bow, sally face. by inspiration I mean there art styles/ settings that I can use as backgrounds. I plan to use “Adobe photoshop” to create the double page spread of a landscape sensory that I have edited to give it a more cartoony style. I added my characters on top of the background so the page would have a better connection with the game instead of just being a landscape background. I drew plane with little “blue” characters in them to link to the main character and then scattered other side characters around the environment but placing them in place they would still be spotted and noticed. as a finishing touch on the double page I added orange boarders that were 1 cm each since I felt the page felt like it wasn’t fit for the frame but by adding the visual blocks the page looks a lot more together and fixed. If I was to improve my double page I would have chosen a different topic to talk about on the page, plus more subheadings about different topics in the game instead of just the backstory of the game. since I feel the long paragraphs make the page look less interesting to read and pay attention. unlike if it had shorter snap paragraphs about different sections of the game to keep the audiences attention.

after finishing my double page I am very pleased with how it turned out. this double page took a long time to finish from this whole page being original content that I drew from scratch, doing the background took the longest to draw from the never ending brush strokes needed to create the trees and the mountain sides. After getting my feedback on my original double page spread the things I improved on were the background changing it from a found image to a original by drawing my version of the scenery. since my magazines audience appeals to the younger generation having the enlarged starting letter which is a reference from most story book.

Contents Page

For my contents page I plan to use one of my references video game pages, for the layout designs. I personally liked the contents page that had the icons of the certain games linking to the page I thought it was a good technique to interest audiences more into buying the magazine as they can see small preview of what the magazine in-tales. I’m going to be using Photoshop to draw all the contents page images, possibly creating the icons to link with the reference content pages. background ideas for the page and I might use “Adobe indesign” for their text breaks and formal styles for their bios. I want the magazine to have the running theme of what age it’s directed to(audience theory). I want the pages text to be more round/soft but bold as well, giving a comic book vibe fitting with the gaming magazine.

I ended up creating my own little scene for the page linking to my video game “OakVally” from the from cover. I placed a character on the page in the same art style as the from cover so it was a noticeable linkage. as well by giving the character pilot goggles and a scarf like the main character has on the front cover. I referenced my colour palette to my double page by using much warmer colours like oranges, yellows and reds.

After getting the feed back I adjusted my format for the sections of content since before they were bit jumbled so now its more aline like proper contents pages in magazines.

Subsidiary- subsidiary company that is owned or controlled by another company.

Conglomerate- combination of businesses operating in different industries under one corporate group.

Synergy- aries when the combined effect or impact of a number of media activities is greater than the sum of their individual effects on consumers.

Subsidary – Smaller companies, owned by a conglomerate

Verticle Integration – Ownership of multiple companies – e.g all the companies invovled in the stages of creating a song/ music video.

Horizontal Integration – Ownership of similar companies

Monopoly – When a conglomerate owns all subsidaries

Diversification – A bussiness varying it’s range of products or field of operation – appealing to a larger audience

Vivendi – UMG – Vevo

Vivendi – 1853, subsidaries = UMG, Dailymotion

UMG = Subsidaries = Def Jam Recordings, virgin records

Vevo = Alan Price

Audience Theory – Gramci Hegemony

Gramci (General Secretary of italian communist party) – Refers to cultural hegemony which describes how the state and the bourgeoise use cultural institutions to maintain power in a capitalist society.

Cultural hegemony refers to domination or rule maintained through ideological or cultural means. It is usually achieved through social institutions (Government), which allow those in power to strongly influence the values, norms, ideas, expectations, and behavior of the rest of society.

Consent + Force = (Tug of War)

consent/ persuasion VS Violence

In relation to ‘Letter To The Free’

Therefore, in a Letter To The Free, Commons attitude towards the unfair treatment of black people in the supposed ‘Land Of The Free’ links into Gramci’s theory of Hegemony as the government – a social institution – is arresting masses amounts of black people, many of whom aren’t criminals, which therefore influences other peoples opinion of black people and their culture.

Common makes the video black (To show how colour shouldn’t matter(?)) and white is influencing his audiences via culture, making them listen and beleive in his POV. He is using Culture – His music video, as well as effects such as it being black and white, the symbolic shape, their surroundsings, in order to persuade his audience.

Common chooses the music video to engage in a struggle for hegemony with the ruling class and the dominant ideology. The music video is part of the hegemonic struggle

Audience Theory – Habermas ‘The public sphere’

His contributions have shaped the nature of debates over critical theory, feminism, cultural studies, and democratic politics. In this book, scholars from a wide range of disciplines respond to Habermas’s most directly relevant work, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. From political theory to cultural criticism, from ethics to gender studies, from history to media studies, these essays challenge, refine, and extend our understanding of the social foundations and changing character of democracy and public discourse.

Explain how the social, political and cultural contexts of media influence how audiences may interpret the same media in different ways. Use Common’s Letter to the Free to support your answer.

One way in which context can influence how audiences interpret the same media differently, would be culture and how peoples culture can differ/ be shared. For example, In the music video – ‘A Letter To The Free’, the American rapper and activist ‘Common’ can be seen in an old prison which is used to convey his message of the unfair imprisonment of black people; he is representing the black community who have been oppressed in the supposed ‘Land of the Free’, the song being the symbolic sign, a ‘Letter’ and other people such as capitalist whites being the ‘Free’ as they are ‘superior’ to the black community and have oppressed them. Cultural hegemony refers to the domination or rule maintained through ideological or cultural means (violence or consent), the dominant ideology being created by powerful social institutions. Therefore, in a Letter To The Free, Commons attitude towards the unfair treatment of black people links into Gramci’s theory of Hegemony as the government – a capitalist social institution – are abusing mass amounts of black people, many of whom aren’t criminals, just because they have the power and can influence what the dominant ideology suggests. To create a profit from the prisons for the owners – bourgeoisie business men. This view is evident through the lyrics – “Prison is a business, America’s the company”.

In comparison to common, the government, as a social institution, are far more superior and therefore more likely to have an influence on the public,; the dominant ideology portrayed through media sources such as the news, will have been most likely supporting government ideas. In this case, oppressing all these innocent people and the continuation of slavery under the 13th amendment simply to gain profit. When referring to the social contexts and it’s effects on an audiences view on the same media product, it is important to take into account conglomerates such as Vivendi and the influence they have on society’s beliefs. A subsidiary to Vivendi, UMG agreed to license premium videos from its artists, Common, onto Vevo. Vivendi, based in Paris, is a mass media conglomerate using horizontal integration so that they have activities in music, television, film and video games. “We exist to shape culture through the power of artistry”, this quote, taken from the UMG website, suggests that via the power of culture – song and music video – and taking a subject such as slavery in Commons ‘Letter To The Free’, the artist has the power to change and shape social beliefs. Similarly, George Gerbners Cultivation theory states that the more an audience is exposed to a media product, the more they are going to believe in it/ question their own ideologies. In this instance, the more amount of times ‘A Letter To The Free’ is played the more likely the people who are unaware of the situation in America are going to believe commons view.

The artists involved were Common and Bilal Sayeed Oliver. Bilal is an American singer-songwriter and is an independent artist who lives in New York City. He grew up in a religiously mixed household, his mother being a devout Christian and his father, a Muslim.

Letter to the free is a hip hop song which relates to the political issue of how criminals are just modern slaves and was released in 2016. It has been nominated for an NAACP image award for outstanding song. Letter of the free is in the album Black America Again.

Explain how the social, political and cultural contexts of media influence how audiences may interpret the same media in different ways. Use Common’s Letter to the Free to support your answer.

• Universal Music Group (UMG) is a major music conglomerate, which own the smaller subsidiaries, Viviendi, DefJam and Vevo.
• UMG has a horizontal integration, as it owns multiples music labels.
• However, “Letter to the Free” follows vertical integration as it is a song, has a music video attached to it , the song is part of the soundtrack to a film, Common talks about the song on a YouTube video and also because the song is available on Vevo.
• Companies like UMG make loads of money because they track the target audiences with what type of music they most commonly search through cookies and say for example the user really likes rap and political music, it will find more music that is related and will cater to their interest in order to get them to click onto the link to watch their video.
• As well as by getting artists to sign for their record label, UMG makes loads of money by advertising fees, because it is a relatively large conglomerate, it will cost quite a lot in order to advertise your business just before or after a music video released by UMG.
• UMG owns Vevo and in the music video for Letter to the Free, the Vevo logo is diplayed in the bottom left hand corner of the music video in order to entice the customer to visit the Vevo site and to discover more music. This is because they are being repetitively shown the Vevo logo, therefore they will want to click it because it is there and it also is a reminder about Vevo, therefore the customer will remember Vevo.
• What is unusual is that Common is a multi-millionaire, but there are many famous artists with a higher net worth and as a multi-billionaire monopoly, why can’t UMG help stop slavery?

Common

• His real name is Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn, however, he is better known by his stage name, Common.
• Common is an American rapper, actor, writer, activist and philanthropist.
• He was born in South Side, Chicago (Illinois) on 13th March 1972
• Illinois is a place which is known for being a poverty area.
• He has completed his Doctorate Degree.
• His music is influenced by culture as he wants to spread awareness of racism.
• Common has a net worth of approximately $45 million

Letter to the Free (Music Video)

• It is from an album called “Black America Again” which is the 11th studio album that was produced by Common
• It is a song that is under the Hip Hop and Rap Genre
• It was a low budget music video
• The video is all filmed in black and white bringing a message that having a colour is less important as everyone is equal
• It is a predictable hip hop and rap music video.
• The music video is hosted by VEVO.
• There is no main story to compliment this music video.
• The black box that features in the music video is a symbol that black things can represent infinity and something that the audiences need to know about.
• It appears to be quite a radical music video because it challenges the dominant ideology
• As suggested by the title “Letter to the Free” the free are the white people and Common is trying to show that everyone should be treated equally, no matter the colour of their skin.
• The prison setting represents how the black people are “locked away” as if they are criminals, however in reality they are the same as white people.

What to mention in my essay:

• George Gurbner’s cultivation theory states that the more you release over time, the more likely their ideas, views and beliefs are to be changed.
• The video is in black and white to show the authenticity and to also mimic old fashioned videos in black and white, indicating how long slavery has been happening
• The title “Letter to the Free” and the music video setting of an old prison emphasises how the black people in the prison are sending a “letter”, which is them try to communicate with the free (white people). It is not a literal letter it is a metaphor as stereo-typically ‘prisoners’ communicate to people outside the prison (ie their family) by sending letters.
• The repetition of “Freedom” creates a sense of urgency and the repetition also helps the listener to remember the message due to how much it is repeated. According to psychology, the brain remembers things after 3 cycles, so they are repeating “freedom” over 3 times in the song to ensure that the listener will remember the message being delivered through the song – Black Lives Matter and to end slavery!
• Common has released his video with Vevo (UMG) because it can help get his message across due to the large amount of audience that UMG/Vevo attracts daily.

The significant and political events that Common referenced includes the enslaving of black people in america, comparing the slaves in the past with the similarities there are to (specifically black) prisoners in the 21st century. He also makes references to the line of presidency with the 13th amendment and Trump, inferring that slavery has not truly been abolished, as through the legal system black people are often sent to prison for free labour as a result of minor misdemeanors. ‘Prison is a business, America’s the company’