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Exam Prep, Representation

REPRESENTATION – KEY DEFINITIONS

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  1. Male gaze – The objectification of woman for the pleasing of a male eye.
  2. Voyeurism – Watching and gaining interest by watching undressed, naked individuals.
  3. Patriarchy – A male dominated society.
  4. Positive and negative stereotypes – A group of people stick by an idea to receive positive or negative feedback.
  5. Counter-types – An opposite view to a stereotype.
  6. Misrepresentation – People giving misleading or wrong information to put off other people or teams.
  7. Selective representation – Only showing specific bits of events and media.
  8. Dominant ideology – This is the ideas, attitudes, values, beliefs and culture of the dominant/ruling society.
  9. Constructed reality – Advertisement that views media as reality.
  10. Hegemony – The leadership or dominance by a state or social group.
  11. Audience positioning – Explaining the idea behind the text to the audience.
  1. Fluidity of identity – To be able to change how you see yourself and the world around you.
  2. Constructed identity – Your identity which is formed by you and others opinions of you.
  3. Negotiated identity – Having a constructed discussion on other peoples identity.
  4. Collective identity – A common, shared identity .
Uncategorized

REPRESENTAION – DIVERSITY

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Diversity in video games:
DIVERSITY MATTERS

‘Playstation recently sponsored Pride London, providing a joyous, hugely colourful presence in the parade’ – This displays how playstation is supporting LGBTQ+ events and supporters, not to try get into another selling group, but actually to support the companies.
‘For every forward step however, there is often a reminder of how far is left to travel‘ – This shows how that no matter how much effort or help that a company can put in, there is always more to go, or more to do before people are happy.

Ethnicity in video games:
LEVELING UP

‘Sony’s most recent masterpiece showcases people from all walks of life in a way that seems natural and refreshing‘ – This is a quote displaying how newer games are getting better, the quote is supporting “The Last Of Us Part 2”

‘Not only did Parvati show some great representation for Southeast Asians, she also represented the LGBTQIA+ community amazingly.’ – This supports the game “The outer Worlds” and how they well supported both a different ethnicity and the LGBTQIA+ communities.

Oversexualisation in films:
Laura Mulvey

‘Woman as image, man as bearer of the look’ – This displays Mulveys idea on how woman are made to be in films.

‘Woman displayed as a sexual-object is the erotic spectacle’ – displays how woman are treated unfairly within films.

Male unfairness and superiority in society:
Feminist Frequency

“Woman are unfairly put in the Damsel in Distress role” – displays that woman are unfairly treated in video games and are used as a plot point instead of playable characters.

“Simply made the main character into a plot point instead of giving her the original game she was the main character in.” – following the story of Dinosaur planet that follows a female main character, the gamer was cancelled and the main female character was used as a plot point in star fox adventures.

Exam Prep, Semiotics

STATEMENT OF INTENT FOR GAME COVER

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I’m aiming for my game cover to be directed towards teens and adults above the age of sixteen, I’m doing this by making a similar game cover to the well know Call Of Duty franchise with soldiers in the front and a battleground behind, however when I go to my radical cover, I’m going to have oversexualised males and females on the cover which goes against the typical fighting games. As well as this I’m going to specifically focus my characters so that it is Caucasian Male.

I would utilise dominant signifiers with weapons (assault rifles) which is an icon and a sign for war, As well as this I would have a dark background that focuses the attention to the main character, who is the main embodiment of the game and what it is about. As well as this an index sign to refer to the companies that “produce” the game, I’m going to use the typical game makers logos to fit the cover properly.

I’m including weapons and vehicles that correspond with the idea of war. I’m going to dress my character in the typical navy green, camo soldier costume and include pictures of nature and an American flag around the cover, this is to set the scene and idea behind the game where you are fighting within a safari and within the home county of America

I would want my game to be made and produced by the large company Activision. The reason why is because the followers of Activision are normally the type that play war games and fit within the bracket of players that I would like to target my game too. My game is typically targeted to people above the age of 16.

Exam Prep, Notes, Representation

The male gaze – representation

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  • The Male Gaze – This is the representation of women in video games or any form of media, over sexualising them for the male attention, this also presumes that the viewer/player is a straight male.
  • John Peter Berger – Is an English art critic who wrote the book “Ways of seeing” which introduced the idea of The Male Gaze to the world.
  • Laura Mulvey – Is a British film critic who focuses of the feministic views on the obvious male drive in films. She is most well known from her journal “Screen” where a specific essay speaks about the “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” which focuses on Johns idea of THE MALE GAZE within cinema.

Examples of the male gaze within films:

This comes from the Transformers film where, as you can see, they oversexualise the actor Megan Fox with the angle of the camera and her body language.

Exam Prep, Induction, Semiotics, Uncategorized

Key Language:

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  • Sign – a gesture or action used to convey information or an instruction.
  • Code – Tools that use signs to create meaning.
  • Convention – Media code that is accepted.
  • Dominant Signifier – The main thing.
  • Anchorage – An image posted with something else to provide context.
  • Signifier – Stands in for another thing.
  • Signified – The idea that has been created by the signifier.
  • Icon – Looks like the object its referring to
  • Index – Links to the object its referring to
  • Symbol – A sign that has a random meaning and doesn’t have context
  • Signification – Levels of meaning, signification or representation
  • Denotation – The most basic or literal meaning of a item or sign
  • Connotation –  The other or secondary meaning for a sign
  • Myth – A changed or distorted meaning of signification.
  • Ideology – Pieces and signs that reinforce powerful structures.
  • Radical – Something that goes against and challenges dominant, typical ideas.
  • Reactionary – Something that goes with and agrees with dominant, typical ideas.
  • Paradigm – A collection of items relating to a thing
  • Syntagm – How signs and things are put together and fitted together.