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OCTOBER revision table

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.What Do I KnowWhat do I understand/ what does it mean
Noah Chomsky5 filters of media (ownership; advertising; official sources; flak; and manufactured consent. 1) corporations often own more than u think, 2) advertisers fill the gap by making you the product, 3) those reporting and those reported are essentially one, 4) flak is when a story doesn’t work for someone in power so they will ruin your story, 5) creating a common enemy
James CurranWrote the book “Media and Power” arguing that patterns of ownership and control are the most significant factors in how the media operate. Media is controlled by only a few companies. Quality as suffered as those involved are more profit driven.Could reference with an example of a “news” paper which has clearly been commercialised
Jean Seaton
Jurgan Habermauspublic sphere, not a physical thing, public sphere- Everyone i.e where the free discussion and debate of ideas occurs private sphere- just you i.e where the free discussion and debate of ideas occurs. Brought into existence mainly by newspapers
Could be used to describe the level on which a conversation is being had (or where an issue has gone from private sphere to public sphere)
Semiotics
Representation
Audience
Feminist Critical Thinking
Post-Colonialism
Narrative Theories Vladmir Propp
8 characters,
hero,
villian,
damsel in distress, donor,
helper,
dispatcher,
false hero,
princess,
GenreSteve Neal, states that genres all contain instances of repetition and difference, difference is essential to the to the economy of the genre, Repertoire of elements, Hybrid genres,
Key Terms for industry business ownershipPrivate Limited, Public Limited (corporations), Partnership, 1 owner (proprietorship) or Monopoly’s, Cross media ownership, vertical/horizontal integration
Public Service Broadcasting Supplied by a government organization, curran and seaton, chomsky, HabermasDuetshland 83 is a collab between channel 5 and german psb

STUART HALL

.What Do I KnowWhat Do I Understand
Stuart HallReception theory, media products are encoded by the write then uncoded by the reader, sometimes differently. Dominant, negotiated, oppositional viewing. (Media controlled by elites, who give the representation of things you may not have experienced) Dominant/Preferred Reading – The audience accept and agree with the
messages put forward in the media text
Negotiated Reading – The audience agree with some part but reject or are
opposed to other parts
Oppositional Reading – The audience reject the messages that are trying to
be conveyed and do not accept/agree with them
George GerbnerCultivation theory- which suggest those who frequently consume media view the world through its representation in said media forms (leading to acceptance of mainstream ideology’s) and not through real world experience (mainstreaming) . He also states those who view particularly violent media products may suffer from “Mean World Syndrome” and in turn view the world as more dangerous than it actually is.
Clay Shirky Theory on how Gerber’s ideas are no longer applicable as the masses have moved on as media has deeply expanded and diversified (i.e moved on)
Laswell (Communication Model)

Cultivation theory- which suggest those who frequently consume media view the world through its representation in said media forms (leading to acceptance of mainstream ideologies) and not through real world experience (mainstreaming)

Example- Doesn’t challenge social and cultural contexts, it jsut conforms to them. ( standard stereotype of a straight male on cover

  • Owned by Hearst, american business information conglomerate– so is less likely to be trying to be innovative and challenging social and cultural contexts as they are more interested in churning out generic likeable content to gain sales and money- furthermore Hearst also owns women’ health, showing that they are less of a specialised magazine aimed at helping men stay healthy and more of a business venture.

George Gurbner– Theory talks about how repeated exposure to media forms can warp your perception of reality leading you to believe the world is just like what you are seeing on platforms such as in video games or in movies which can lead to “mean world syndrome” – this magazine is a good example as it is a constant stream of examples of the “ideal man” either dressed up in a suit with a beard or in the gym with large muscles. Constantly being exposed to things like this can over time create an unrealistic idea of what it takes to be a man

Laura Mulvey Male Gaze– theory is about how the majority of media products are produced in a way that is meant to please the average straight, heterosexual man. An example of this in men’s health would be on page 148, in which Givenchy is attempting to sell to the ready by presenting a masculine man applying their product, with a woman posing in a suggestive manner in the background

Points

  • Print magazines, however around a quarter of purchases are digitally
  • The majority of those print copies purchased are made by women
  • There is a dominant ideology of men needing to be big and strong
  • There is a constructed stereotype that is being reinforced by media products such as this that it is normal for the average male to look like the man on the cover of men’s health, which is also convenient for most companies, as it helps sell the idea of men looking like this so they can sell more products.
  • Men’s health has identified its target audience, which is primarily men aged 15+, more specifically a more impressionable group of people who have taken an interest in their health, most likely after being heavily influenced by other things
  • Men’s health also aims for young men who are particularly impressionable and somewhat vulnerable as it offers a somewhat collective identity (men wanting to get fit) and a sense of belonging which would be appealing to most
  • features a counter-stereotype, of a 75-year-old running a marathon
  • the cover features masculine buzzwords such as blast, demolish, slay, war, burn
Audience, Notes, Theory

HALL

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Stuart Hall

Jamaican born, cultural/hegemonic theorist who moved to Britain before studying English at Oxford University. He worked at the Open University for a number of years, as a professor of sociology

“He looks at how producers use various signs to encode a programme’s meaning, according to their ideologies and resources, which is then decoded by the viewers, who have to interpret the message through their own framework of knowledge.”

The Theory of Preferred Reading

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He theorized that media texts contain a variety of messages that are encoded (made/inserted) by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences. Therefore what we consume is a ‘re-presentation’ of the real world, changed by producers to fit the ideologies they want to distribute.

He also communicate the idea that there is often a level of ‘distortion’ from reality through the media. He defines this distortion as the “gap between what one might think of as the true meaning of an event (or an object) and how it is presented in the media.”

  • Double meaning of the word – Representation. It means ‘to present’ and re-presentation gives the idea that there was ‘something’ in the real world and through the media, this is given a new meaning (re-presented).
  • Those in power, the elite/hegemony, have the power to limit or widen representations in the media. For example, often in the media Black men are presented as criminals, troublemakers although there is no space given for any positive representations to be portrayed.
  • https://www.mediaed.org/transcripts/Stuart-Hall-Representation-and-the-Media-Transcript.pdf

Reception Theory

He puts forward the idea that media audiences are ACTIVE and decode media messaged based on their SUBJECTIVE IDENTITY, therefore evidencing his point that messages are open for interpretation:

Dominant Reading = How the producer wants the audience to view the product.

Negotiated Reading = A compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings.

Oppositional Reading = The audience rejects the dominant meaning and creates their own reading.

https://media-studies.com/reception-theory/

Stereotypes

  • A large part of his work looks at how the Media represents identity features through stereotypes (negatively or positively) such as: age, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, sexuality etc.
  • In a lecture from 1997, in which Hall talks about stereotyping, he said that “the image (stereotype) is producing not only identification” but also “producing knowledge”. This is “what we know about the world”, therefore “how we see it represented”
Exam Prep, Revision

REVISION TABLE

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Theory/TheoristKnowledgeUnderstanding
Noam Chomsky– He wrote a book called ‘Manufacturing Consent’

– He said that the Media uses the so called ‘truth’ to persuade audiences to conform.

– He theorised the 5 Filters of Mass Media (propaganda model):

1. The role of advertising
2. Diversion (Flak)
3. Structures of ownership
4. Finding a common enemy
5. Links with the establishment.

– He theorised the idea that the government/ those in power are hand in hand with the media. 		– ‘Manufacturing consent’ encapsulates the idea that The Media needs to gain audience approval – The media uses audiences as a product for advertising.

– Often, the Media tries to find a common enemy that they can make out to be ‘bad.’ This could be: terrorism, capitalism, other cultures that we aren’t accustomed to. They use this tactic to divert audience attention away from the real problem, the spread of untruth’s and the fact that the media isn’t a “window into the world”, it is tainted by opinion and corruption.
Jurgen Habermas – Transformation of the public sphere
– Public vs Private sphere
– The Printing Press enabled one place that a different range of opinions and stories could be published at once.
– “Arena of public debate” – creating a ‘public opinion’
– Discussion vs Directorial
– Libertarian vs Authoritarian
– Free vs Slave
– He expresses his idea that “once the media is subject to regulation,” the public will lose their ability to share opinion in a public domain. 		– Libertarian is the idea that society shouldn’t be governed by dictatorship. The public should be allowed to dictate their own existence.

– Authoritarian is the idea that society should be controlled by those in power, everyone should be told what to do.

-Habermas’ ideas are fundamental to a society that is inclusive of all opinions.
James Curran – The role of public service broadcasting is to ‘diversify voices’ and create a wide range of programming to cater for age ranges, genders, different personalities.

– Regulation of the free press.
(LIBERAL FREE PRESS)
– Diversity: Ownership, industry etc.
– Role of the media -their power/ authority and influence on society.
David Gauntlett Gauntlett suggests that identity is nonlinear. It is non-binary/objective.

– Fluidity of Identity = The idea that identity is a changeable, unstable concept that is ever adapting based on experience and influence.

– Negotiated Identity = The ‘middle ground’ in which we find a balance within our identities. How can we display our self expression whilst also complying to societal norms.

– Collective Identity = The idea that groups of people who share interests or similar personalities are given a ‘stereotypical’ identity to typecast them into a category.

– Constructed Identity 		– He says that we live in a “post-traditional society” – Non binary existence Is becoming more of a normality.

Negotiated Identity is how we change/ adapt our identities based on the different situations we find ourselves in (who we are with, what we are doing, where we are etc.)

Semiotics– Sign
– Code
– Convention
– Dominant Signifier
– Anchorage
CS Pierce– Symbolic sign (Arbitrary/random)
– Indexical sign
– Iconic sign 		CS Pierce defines the difference between the different types of signs.
He says that a Iconic Sign has a physical resemblance to the object it is representing. A symbol has a random/arbitrary link to what it is trying to represent. It is a mutually agreed meaning eg. the fact that the colour blue relates to boys and pink relates to girls.

An indexical sign is one that codes for something else. They infer something relating to what is being represented eg. ‘smoke infers fire.’
Ferdinand Saussure – Signifier
– Signified
Roland Barthes– Signification
– Denotation
– Connotation
– Myth
– Ideology
– Radical
– Reactionary
– Paradigm
– Syntygm
Harold Laswell – Wrote a novel called the ‘Propaganda Technique in The World War’

– He created the Linear Communication in 1948. He breaks down this line of communication by identifying: (SENDER, MESSAGE, MEDIUM, RECIEVER, FEEDBACK)

Connection between the message sent –> message received.

Passive Audience – Laswell wrote around the time of the first world war and looked at propaganda/brainwashing/ how audiences don’t challenge or think about what they engage with.
– This can be described as a ‘HYPODERMIC MODEL OF MEDIA EFFECT’

‘Hypodermic Needle Theory‘– The idea that passive audiences are influenced by the media. They are ‘knocked into submission’ by the injection of the media. When audiences are being ‘injected’ with media, they are ‘knocked into submission’ and assimilate along with the messages promoted by the media.
Paul LazarfeldHe criticized Laswell’s model, saying that it was too simple and didn’t factor in the different ways messages can be interrupted whilst being ‘sent.’ Rather than looking at the ‘passive’ audience he looks at the ‘active’ audience (how audiences control how they think about what they consume).

Martin Moore: “people’s political views are not, as contemporaries thought, much changed by what they read or heard in the media.”

He theorises how those who influence us in daily life (parents, friends, teachers etc) can take the media and create their own perceptions. This makes this line of communication subject to bias, interpretation, rejection, amplification, support and change

– He created the ‘Two Step Flow Model’ in 1948.
Step 1: The media feeds messages to ‘opinion leaders’
Step 2: Opinion leaders influence the ‘masses’ with these messages.
Uses and GratificationsElihu Katz looks at the decision making process that audience go through.
He questions: “What do people do with media?” and “What does the media do to people?”

Audiences are becoming more active. Individuals choose what they consume based off of their interests and what they hope to gain from it.

He defines the different pleasures that media audiences try to extract from the content they engage with:

1. Information / education
2. Empathy and identity
3. Social interaction
4. Entertainment
5. Escapism
Shannon and WeaverNOISE, ERROR, ENCODING and FEEDBACK.
Magazines, Mens Health

magazines

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SEMIOTICS, PRINT LANGUAGE & REPRESENTATION

dominant ideology of body image

dominant signifier = the man (vin diesel)

dominant blue colour to represent the stereotypical male

negative stereotype of men having to be strong (repetition of losing fat)

constructed reality – men should be strong

collective identity = men all striving to lose weight and be strong ‘build a six pack for life’

counter-type – old people being weak – 69 year old man marathon running

blast, demolish, burn = violent language represents attitude to fat

Steve Neal – genre – genres all contain instances of repetition and differences

  • magazines repeat the same idolisation of the ‘standard’ man and woman

 Barthes – all narratives share structural features that each narrative weaves together in different ways

  1. Positive and negative stereotypes
  2. Counter-types
  3. Misrepresentation
  4. Selective representation
  5. Dominant ideology
  6. Constructed reality
  7. Hegemony
  8. Audience positioning
  9. Fluidity of identity
  10. Constructed identity
  11. Negotiated identity
  12. Collective identity

The school of life video ‘how to be a man’ presents the ‘cool’ man and the ‘warm’ man. This links to Gauntlets notion that identity is fluid and negotiated. Aklthough this is not a theory we can see examples of the ‘cool’ man and the ‘warm’ man in Men’s Health.

For instance, on the front cover we can see Vin Deiseal positioned as the ‘cool’ man. I can tell this from his alpha-male stance and face expression. Additionally, you can see the ‘warm’ man represented in the contents page.

Men’s Health (UK edition) has a circulation of around 120,000 (down 16% year-on-year and including 40k free copies) and a readership of closer to 1 million. It began as a health magazine in the USA in 1986 and has gradually evolved into a men’s lifestyle magazine. The UK edition launched in 1995.

Although Men’s Health was founded in the US, its international editions have made it the world’s largest men’s magazine brand. These magazines reach over 71 million readers worldwide.

Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, television channels, and television stations, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, Cosmopolitan and Esquire. It owns 50% of the A&E Networks cable network group and 20% of the sports cable network group ESPN, both in partnership with The Walt Disney Company.[4]

In the 1920s and 1930s, Hearst owned the biggest media conglomerate in the world, which included a number of magazines and newspapers in major cities. Hearst also began acquiring radio stations to complement his papers.[16] Hearst saw financial challenges in the early 1920s, when he was using company funds to build Hearst Castle in San Simeon and support movie production at Cosmopolitan Productions. This eventually led to the merger of the magazine Hearst International with Cosmopolitan in 1925.[17]

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CSP – magazines

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is mens-health-front-cover.jpg

– dominant signifier – vin diesel famous actor, appeal to men

– male representation– talks about men and has different men throughout

– reactionary representation – heterosexual man and what is expected in society

– colour of text is in traditional boy colours

–radicle as it is talking about men’s mental health

laswells modle appilied:

sender – hearst communication mens magazine

says what – a brand for active, successful professional men who want greater control over their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing

What Channel – print through lifestyle magazine and online on their website and social media sites.

to whom – active, successful professional men who want greater control over their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing, ‘educated men with families’ as the media kit states

with what effect- sell them to your audience

Lazarsfelds link to men’s health:

this links to his theory as with the front page of the magazine, there is an opinion leader on the front, Vin Diesel, who people will agree with as they actively choose to follow and listen to people who have the same ideas and morels of them and so people who agree with what he is presenting in the magazine are more likely to read the magazine.

Uses and gratifications applied to mens health:

looks at how especially online the pages that the consumers spend the most time on will be what they want, and they will profit of this as they will continue to show you similar ads to sell more of the products.

on the consumer profile, they have an audience of successful professional men who want greater control over their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing so they will play off this and show ads which are related to the kind of things they have an interest in and will more likely spend money on products as they are tailored to what they have an interest in.

Stuart Hall Applied:

PAGE.34

dominant readings –

negotiated readings – both sides of the argument can be taken into account as they may want to lose weight and use a detox however not all those who want to lose weight through that way so they may disagree with the message.

oppositional readings- not everyone who purchases the magazine will want to do a detox to lose weight and so there could be a more cynical meaning behind it

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Revision table

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What do you know about what meanings or understandings do you have of their ideas?
Lasswell Hypodermic model:
People are passive consumers of media. Harold Lasswell wrote “subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers knocked them into a submission.		There are 2 types of consumption active and passive.
Passive is receiving media such as watching the news. Active is looking for a specific type of news
LazarfeldPaul Felix Lazarsfeld, conducted large scale studies of the effect of communication through mass media on society, on voting behaviour. he developed the two-step-flow theory of communication.



He directed a study into the decision making process of voters. His team interviewed 600 people from the state of Ohio and documented the psychological and social factors.
Uses and Gratification
Stuart HallJamaican-born British sociologist and cultural theorist.
He was the founder of the influential “new left Review”( British bimonthly journal of ideas covering world politics, economy, and culture).
He has a Representation theory. its important because culture is always formed through meaning and language.
1.Dominant
2.Negotiate
3.Opposition
Stuart hall says these are the 3 ways people can interpret something from the media.
George GerbnerCultivation theory:
The media influences our ideas and opinion. IN the first instance, reception theory, suggests that exposure to reinforced messages will influence our ideas, attributes, and beliefs.
Clay Shirky Who believes that Gerbners ideas are no long applicable to contempory modes of media consumption.
Henry JenkinsWho beliees that modern audiences
David Gauntlett
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mens health

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Dominant signifier– Vin Diesel (man) Ideology of alpha male Character oppositions often recognised for manly features e.g. strength.

Reactionary cover- attractive person, fits to the stereotype of a male.

Use of capital letters, exclamation marks, dark colouring e.g ‘Blast body fat!’ connotation that you must not be fat. Emphasises what men should want for their bodies.

Language – slay, demolish, fast, stronger, blast

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Men’s Health Magazines

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Hearst publishing is a multinational conglomerate which publishes men’s health and a range of other fashion and lifestyle magazines. Developments in new technologies mean that many of their brands are now online as well as in print.

Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, television channels, and television stations such as the san Francisco chronicle, the Houston chronicle , cosmopolitan and esquire.

The company was founded by William Randolph Hearst.

Hearst is a leading global, diversified information, services and media company with operations in 40 countries.
has major interests such as
– Financial services leader Fitch group.
– Hearst Health (group of medical information and services businesses)
– Hearst transportation, including CAMP systems international, major provider of software solutions for managing maintenance of jets and helicopters
– Ownership in cable television networks such as A&E

The men’s health magazine had an average monthly reach of around 1.8 million individuals in the united Kingdom from April 2019 to march 2020.
The reach was lower among households with children.

WHO = Hearst communication, men’s health, editor – Morgan Rees
SAYS WHAT = They want greater control over their physical and mental lives
CHANNEL = print through lifestyle magazine, also online (website)
TO WHOM = Active men, professional men and educated with families.
WITH WHAT EFFECT = To sell magazines.

The men’s health magazines are lined to Paul Lazarsfeld as the audience consumes the magazine as a product are passive. This means they are passively consuming the information on the magazine.

what uses and gratification

You can see escapism on the Hugo boss advert as the consumer will use this magazine to escape and get away. It gives the consumer self confidence, stability and self-esteem, by using the same product that the influencer/celebrity is shown to be represented alongside the product.

  • Dominant
  • Negotiate
  • Opposition
    Stuart hall says these are the 3 ways people can interpret something from the media.

If you are dominant, you would accept the features and meaning behind the men’s health magazine.

If you are negotiated, the u see two sides towards and you understand the meaning behind it but also see the consequences of it, such as men feeling pressure to now look like the man on the front cover.

If you have a oppositional view, you don’t see the purpose of the men’s health magazine and wouldn’t sell you.

People that view the media on a person, influencer or world leader don’t have their own personal view on them due to how the media represents them. The media chooses how those people are viewed to the audiences that watches it. Even though those audiences haven’t spoken to or actually met that person in real life.

George Gerbner
cultivation theory:
the media influences our ideas and opinion. IN the first instance, reception theory, suggests that exposure to reinforced messages will influence our ideas, attributes, and beliefs

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Media Industries (Audience)

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Hearst – Hearst is a leading global, diversified information, services and media company with operations in 40 countries. A major provider of software-as-a-service solutions for managing maintenance of jets and helicopters; ownership in cable television networks such as A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime and ESPN; 33 television stations; 24 daily and 52 weekly newspapers; digital services businesses; and nearly 260 magazines around the world.

We are committed to fairly and fully reflecting diversity everywhere Hearst operates, fostering equity and respect and continuously expanding our efforts. Reporting on important issues and elevating diverse voices moves us forward.

Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Monthly reach of Men’s Health magazine in the united kingdom from April 2019 to March 2020, by demographic group

Adults 15+1,816
Men708
Women365
Adults 15-34519
Adults 35+ 554
Households with children391

The Big Dangers of ‘Bigorexia’

Muscle dysmorphia a psychological disorder marked by an obsessive desire for a jacked physique is on the rise.

Social media is exacerbating the problem, but it may also offer new solutions. Picture of Clean eating challenge for weight loss.

Relates to Steve Neal as they have talked about the subject to reflect on world effects and the needs of audience.