Practical Elements of producing a media product include:

• Actors
• Set
• Props
• Technicians
• Post Production Teams
• Equipment
• Scriptwriters
• Producers
• Musicians

Conceptual Elements of producing a media product include:

• Storyline
• Performance
• Emotions
• Events
• Characters
• Themes
• Protagonists/Antagonists
• Linear/Cyclical Structure

Key Terminology

1. Linear – A straightforward structure with a very smooth progression and a definitive beginning/middle/end.
2. Chronological – An order where events pass in an order of time.
3. Sequential – When a media product is following a logical order or sequence.
4. Circular structure
5. Time based
6. Narrative arc
7. Freytag’s Pyramid
8. exposition,
9. inciting incident,
10. rising action,
11. climax,
12. falling action,
13. resolution,
14. denouement 
15. Beginning / middle / end
16. Equilibrium
17. Disruption
18. New Equilibrium
19. Peripeteia – A drastic and sudden change in fortune.
20. Anagnoresis – A sudden dramatic revelation, usually occurs within the protagonist.
21. Catharsis – The idea that we as humans can feel and absorb emotions from consuming a piece of media.
22. The 3 Unities: Action, Time, Place
23. flashback / flash forward
24. Foreshadowing
25. Ellipsis
26. Pathos
27. Empathy
28. diegetic / non-diegetic
29. slow motion

Peripeteia in Blinded by the Light – When the tickets are ripped up.

Anagnoresis in Blinded by the Light – When his father is badly hurt.

Catharsis in Blinded by the Light – At the end when Springsteen’s music is played by his father in the car.

My Film Synopsis:

A kid who lives an average life keeps waking up in a slightly altered reality, when things take a turn for the worst he becomes obsessed trying to find a way back to his reality but then in the midst of this madness, he realises his new life may not be as bad as he initially thought.

Statement of Intent:

I intent to produce a Mystery/Thriller film where a 16 year old’s average life is disrupted by an uncanny occurrence where his reality is slightly changing around him, one day at a time. Suddenly, when things take a turn for the worst he becomes certain of what has been happening to him even after the people around him deny anything that he’s saying so he decides to find a solution alone.

1. Cultural industries– Types of media in which a cultural/creative company produces, distributes and exhibits a product
2. Production– Making or producing a product
3. Distribution– Advertising or marketing the product
4. Exhibition / Consumption– Showing the product/releasing it
5. Media concentration– Organisations control increasing shares of the mass media
6. Conglomerates– When a business owns a massive group of companies
7. Globalisation (in terms of media ownership)- Worldwide integration of media/cultural companies
8. Cultural imperialism– Western nations dominate the media around the world which has a powerful impact
9. Vertical Integration– When a company does all 3 production, distribution and consumption
10. Horizontal Integration– When a company only produces
11. Mergers– Combining two or more things into one
12. Monopolies– When a company owns all the three
13. Gatekeepers– When you can only choose through what the company has chosen for you-
14. Regulation– A rule/restriction made by government/authority
15. Deregulation– When the government restrictions are loosened
16. Free market– A system where prices are determined on
17. Commodification– turning something into an item that can be bought and sold
18. Convergence– Merging platforms through networking
19. Diversity– Diversity of options
20. Innovation- Inventing new values in the market

1. A
2. X
3. B
4. X
5. C

-Wrote the book ‘The Cultural Industries’. It’s about the relationship of media workers and media industry

– HESMONDHALGH explores the idea of the vulnerable and precarious nature in the creative industry.

-He also states that young people especially can be seen to desire a career in the creative industry as they are almost promised millions and a celebrity status.

-There is a common misconception about the creative industry since when people consume a type of media, for example film or television, they commonly think that making a film is as entertaining as watching it.

The media industry is a risky business, it’s likely that the taste/opinions of music/film won’t be the same as yours. This is where the ‘Distribution’ process comes into action. For example, if you made a song and wanted it to be sold to the masses because you personally think it’s an amazing song, companies who help with distribution would evaluate the product possibly hold focus groups before investing into your product to get a general grasp of the publics current taste in music.

Production – Distribution – Consumption

• The media industry is reliant on marketing and publicity functions.
• Media businesses are reliant upon changing audience consumption patterns.
• Media products have limited consumption capacity.

This is to make sure that the company won’t lose money. There are however, strategies to reduce risk, one of these ‘strategies’ used by distribution companies is ‘Serialisation’, this is where companies/studios exploit a genre/format of song and/or film that performed well in sales and would make sequels and/or prequels for the sole purpose of making the most money they can out of it. This method in-turn makes it more difficult for a ‘new-star’ to come into light as once companies know what works they may not take a risk with a new format. Once the ‘serialisation’ process is complete, when there has been enough prequels/sequels where the public is starting to lose interest, a strategy called ‘genre-based formatting’ may be used to reduce risk of losing money. ‘genre-based formatting’ is essentially where the same genre/story, that shows to do well, is reused or changed slightly.

Having had enough of her boss’s sexual harassments, Gretchen Carlson files a lawsuit against Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Her bravery triggers a domino effect, culminating into a liberation movement.

LINKING WITH PREVIOUS THEORIES:

You can understand misogyny (the poor representation of women in the media) in the same way you can understand racism, homophobia, ultra-nationalism and other forms of casual stereotyping, bias and prejudice, that is, through TEXTUAL ANALYSIS and the notion of REPRESENTATION.

However, prejudice may also occur beyond the level of text and can be identified as operating at a systemic INSTITUTIONAL intersection of race/class/gender <> power. Such ideas are proposed by Sut Jhally in his work for the Media Education Foundation – ‘Dreamworlds’ which looks at the role of MTV and music videos as a form of institutional / corporate sexism and misogyny

As such, this film provides a narrative of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM, in the same way that we could look at other stories that are concerned with other institutional prejudices – racism, homophobia, Islamaphobia etc. In other words, this film presents a version of the story of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM and MISOGYNY. It suggests a link between the presentation / representation of the female form and the ideas of a ruling patriarchy (Fox News, specifically Roger Ailes) and perhaps explains why we are presented with the stories we are presented with and how those stories are presented to us.

1. Introduce the overall aim and argument that you are going to make
2. Establish your first main critical approach (I would suggest Gender as Performance by Butler, but . . . )
3. Develop this approach by using key words, phrases and quotation (Mulvey, Kilbourne, Moi, Wander, Wollstonescraft, Woolf, de Beauvoir, Van Zoonen, Dollimore, Woolf, Levy)
4. Apply your theoretical ideas to either or both of the set CSP’s
5. Show some historical knowledge about societal changes
6. Establish a secondary theme or idea that you wish to raise (1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th wave feminism, Raunch Culture, Queer Theory, Intersectionality)
7. Develop this approach by using key words, phrases and quotation
8. Apply your theoretical ideas to either or both of the set CSP’s
9. Show some historical knowledge about societal changes
10. Establish a contradictory argument that shows your ability to think and engage
11. Develop this approach by using key words, phrases and quotation
12. Apply your theoretical ideas to either or both of the set CSP’s
13. Apply your theoretical ideas to either or both of the set CSP’s
14. Summarise your main arguments
15. Ensure you have a summative, final sentence / short paragraph

Toril Moi’s (1987) distinctions of feminine, female and feminist:

Feminist = a political position

Female = a matter of biology

Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristic

The first wave of feminism was around 1848 to the 1920’s, which included the Suffragette and Suffragists movements where women campaigned for basic rights such as an education.

The second wave of feminism came later, around halfway through the 20th century. Changes such as the facilitation of of birth control and divorce, the acceptance of abortion and homosexuality and the abolition of hanging and theatre censorship arose during this period (around the 60s-70s) due to cultural counter movements in society.

Third wave feminism is different from feminism in the 60s, yet still similar. It tries to embrace pluralism (having multiple identities) which is shown in the Maybelline advert, and these plural identities are know as intersectionality.

According to Barker and Jane (2016), third wave feminism, which is regarded as having begun in the mid-90’s has the following recognisable characteristics:

An emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion, individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics, fluid and multiple subject positions and identities, cyberactivism, and the appropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes and sex positivity.

Raunch culture is the sexualised performance of women in the media that can play into male stereotypes of women as highly sexually available, where its performers believe they are powerful owners of their own sexuality.

Fourth wave feminism is very similar to third wave, and it is a rather grey area as to where third ends and fourth begins. Overall, fourth involves the use of modern online social platforms to spread and increase the influence of these ideas.

Gauntlett Text Notes

“The roles that men and women are expected to fulfil are tightly regulated” – this implies that men and women already have preset expectations which can not be worked around, and these are also constantly enforced with notable punishment for absconding to the ideas.

“Most story structures are concerned with the transformation of a central hero” – this could link to the idea that we can relate ourselves to the central core character in fiction and aspire to be like them in the challenges they face and overcome.

“Marketing and advertising agencies construct multiple possibilities of who we might be through products branding” – this could relate to the idea that there are multiple future identities we could attain, and that the potential range in identities that they could inspire have very few bounds.

“Gender is socially constructed” – this means that gender defers from the biological term of “sex” but is instead something made up by our society, and by the views of other people.

“Contemporary media practices mean that heteronormativity does not completely dominate” – this could indicate that heterosexuality is becoming less and less prevalent as time goes on and new ideas surface.

Butler Text Notes

“Gender does not exist inside the body” – this suggests that the biological idea of sex has no correlation to someone’s gender, and as such gender’s definition is a rather grey area.

“The normalisation of heterosexuality is established as a result of long-standing social rituals” – the idea that long ago, homosexuality was not typically accepted or even remotely believed in, and as such heterosexuality dominated in society.

“Alternatives to the gender binary exist but are presented as subversive.” – This means that genders that are not clearly labelled as male and female are disruptive to society and are therefore not needed or wanted.

“The absence of homosexuality in mythic stories provides evidence that our natural sexual inclinations are heterosexually orientated”- This shows that the dominant ideology is straight couples, and this has been shown to us in stories passed down from long ago.

Fluidity of Identity – The idea that identity can change over time due to changes in circumstances. For example, you may develop different ideas about your identity as you grow older and become more mature, or you could even experience it when something as simple as just moving house or country occurs.

Constructed Identity – The process of people developing certain ideas about themselves and their identity based on their experiences. – follow opinion leaders – two step flow

Negotiated Identity – The idea that many people can discuss and have different views about someone’s identity, and communicate this to change views. This can lead to changes in identity based on the input of other people.

Collective Identity – The idea that people are grouped into certain stereotypes. This may be for many different reasons, such as physical features, where someone is from or how someone acts. This often may not be positive, as countertypes ar very common in society, sometimes even more so than stereotypes.

Styles Notes

“The mission of this venture is to bring joyful experiences and products that excite the senses and blur the boundaries” – I think this is disingenuous because due to the idea of negotiated identity as described by David Gauntlett, the experiences that Styles describes as “joyful” may not always be such. because the opinions and viewpoints of others may affect the user of the counter typical make up’s experiences and thus change their identity.

Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. In other words, it is something learnt through repeated performance. This means that gender is not fixed, and is rather achieved by things you do and the ways in which you do them. This makes you find your gender in yourself, and also prove to others that your gender is what you say it is. For example, girls are allowed to be more fun and silly, compared to boys being more serious and mature, with boys partaking in more strenuous activities and girls appearing more “soft” and more caring.