PAPER 2 LONG FORM QUESTIONS:
1. Metroid, Sims, Tomb Raider (Gaming / New Media) – Paper 2
As Jaron Lanier writes in his book Who Owns the Future, “right now is the time when people are learning how to live with digital networks”. So, when considering the effect of new media on society what does this future look like?
In this essay, I want to draw on ideas by Jarod Lanier, Benedict Andersen and David Gauntlet in an analysis of Tomb Raider, Metroid and Sims, to establish just what kind of effects new media gaming technologies have had on society. In particular, I want to look at the impact of mental wellbeing (Lanier), identity (Gauntlet) and our the way in which our society is more imagined than real (Anderson). I want to reference these theoretical approaches as they will provide a focus for traditional ideas of audience behaviour. In particular, I want to consider if audiences are active or passive.
Lanier suggests that we are passively consuming new media, and particularly gaming technologies, passively. He argues that . . . .
2. Men’s Health and Oh (Magazines) – – Paper 2
Although magazines sales are declining rapidly in the age of new media with a decrease of 38.56% within the last three years, according to an on-line article written by Dean Talbot. As such, an analysis of Oh and Men’s Health provides an interesting focus for this type of media form. In particular, the notion that masculine and feminine identities are, what Roland Barthes would call ‘myths‘ created by modern day society, that still expose the patriarchal nature of society that still exists today. However, more radical notions of identity around multiculturalism, which challenge the notion of ‘Orientalism’ as theorized by Edward Siad, may now be found in a new wave of magazine production.
3. Teen Vogue and The Voice (on-line, participatory journalism) – Paper 2
In his book ‘We Media’ Dan Gilmor celebrates the rise of grassroots journalism, which provides a more participatory experience, of which Clay Shirky advocates. This new form of media production and consumption has given rise to a blurred line between those who produce and those who consume (the prosumer), which The Voice and Teen Vogue both illustrate. Clearly Teen Vogue is an example of mainstream, traditional media expanding into the digital era, which can be compared with The Voice which exemplifies the concept of grassroots journalism of which Gilmor writes as it attempts to challenge the established orthodoxy and prevailing social, political and economic viewpoints. As such, much of this essay will be underpinned by theoretical perspective presented by Gramsci (cultural hegemony), Chomsky (the Manufacture of Consent) to argue that new media journalism has had a beneficial impact on the media landscape of society.
To begin it would be worth looking at a couple of stories from both The Voice and Teen Vogue which I found pertinent from my own research . . . .
4. TV – – Paper 2
The production of what we may call television drama has dramatically changed with the advent of new forms of digital distribution and exhibition. New platforms of consumption, new modes of production have had the result that domestic television drama is now produced in consortium with a range of intereseted parties and as a result is seeking new transnational audiences.
However, although the nature of production, distribution and exhibition has radically altered, the content of contemporary television drama appears to have changed very little.
Therefore, in this essay I will be looking TV SHOW 1 and TV SHOW 2 to show how the process of manufacture is both complicated and intertwined, whereas the content of production remains generic, conventional and familiar. A notion of genre production characterised by Steve Neale‘s concept of ‘repetition‘ and ‘difference‘.
For instance, looking at TV SHOW 1 it is clear that . . .
PAPER 1 LONG FORM QUESTIONS:
Score / Boss Life (Advertising, Marketing) – q. 4 Paper 1?
One key area of Media Studies is the focus on representation. David Gauntlet (drawing upon ideas originally established by Anthony Giddens) is a key thinker around notions of identity. Giddens talks about the concept of the reflexive Self in his book Modernity and Self-Identity (1991). The notion that identities can be changed through individual agency and through specific institutions seems applicable to Boss Life in comparison with Score. Boss Life challenges the notion of marginalisation, it takes on board and plays out the concept such as, intersectionality as expressed by feminist critical thinker bel hooks and double consciousness as articulated by academics such as Paul Gilroy most notably in his book There ain’t no Black in the Union Jack (1987).
For instance, in Score we can see . . . .
Ghost Town and Letter to the Free (Music Videos) – q. 4 Paper 1?
Antonio Gramsci made it clear in his Prison Notebooks that political action is inextricably linked to cultural change. Music provides an inspiration and starting point for both political and cultural change, which Gramsci termed a battle for ‘hegemony’.
Clearly both Letter to the Free and Ghost Town present music video as a challenge to mainstream culture and political thought. As such, looking at these videos in terms of both how they are structured ie narrative and genre as well as what they mean ie representation will help to support Gramsci’s notion of hegemonic struggle. In particular, both videos seek to explore identity in terms of postcolonialism and what academics Franz Fanon and Paul Gilroy would term double consciousness.
For instance, in . . . .
Daily Mail and The i (Newspapers) – q. 7 Paper 1?
An exploration of newspapers reveals a number of key ideas, however, in this essay I want to focus on 1) the significant role a free liberal press can play in the transformation of the public sphere – ideas explored by Jurgen Habermas, Noam Chomsky and James Curran (among others) and 2) the extent to which media literacy demands a reading of news / newspapers to ensure that we are all aware of the specific individual bias that each newspaper or news outlet reproduces either deliberately or just a result of its’ organisation and mode of production.
Defining the political compass of both the Daily Mail and The i through a comparative analysis of their editions from Monday June 6th 2022 will help me to explore the 5 filters established by Noam Chomsky and to argue that while we still need newspapers (and in a new media environment) established news production agencies, to ensure that the Transformation of the Public Sphere into a vibrant, engaging and relevant space continues. This must be tempered by a clear understanding that news and news agencies are neither wholly ‘truthful’ or with prejudice and bias.
To start with, I would like to contrast and compare the front covers of both papers which are reporting on the celebration ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II’s jubilee.
Looking at the Daily Mail it is clear that . . .
Newsbeat and War of the Worlds (Radio) – q. 7 Paper 1?
The relationship between media producers (institutions) and media consumers (audience) remains complicated. As David Hesmondhalgh makes clear, the culture industries – unlike other manufacturing industries – is ‘a risky business‘. Cultural production is not as straightforward as the production of other ultilitarian products – pens, pencils, tables, chairs etc – because cultural consumption rests upon taste (Bourdieu) and individual uses and gratifications (McQuail, Blumer and Brown et al).
An investigation into Newsbeat and War of the Worlds provides an opportunity to explore some of these issues and in this essay I want to advocate the need for some form of regulation and control exerted over the BBC by it’s Charter and supervision by Ofcom, as opposed to a less regulated, commercial model of cultural production which allowed CBS to broadcast its’ Halloween Special in 1938. Indeed, as we move towards a less regulated, new media environment that will become increasingly dominated by A.I. we may need to be mindful of the need for a public sphere (what Elon Musk calls the ‘Town Square’) that from the invention of the printing press onwards has provided the possibility of a ‘transformation’ of public interaction and a growth in Media Literacy.
In this essay, I will draw upon the ideas of Jurgen Habermas and James Curran to argue for the need of some regulatory framework to ensure that media production, in this instance, radio production, maintains a focus on ‘truth’, ‘authenticity’ and ‘public interest’ to guard against what postmodern thinkers such as Jean Baudrillard would see as an ‘implosion’ of society into a world of shocking simulations that seek nothing more than commercial gain for the institution and offer little more than irresponsible escapism for the audience.
To start with, it is clear that although we cannot really know ‘the truth’ that surrounded the claims of moral panic as a result of the War of the Worlds broadcast, this particular media production clearly had the potential to misinterpreted by those members of the audience didn’t have the media literacy skills to take on board its’ ironic and artificial content. For instance, there are claims that . . . .