Statement of intent L/O: To share plans To begin to think how you could write a concise, precise, conceptual and theoretical statement of intent

Statement of intent How will you use media language and media representations in order to create a product that meets the requirements of the brief, would appeal to the target audience and also reflect the appropriate media industry? (Maximum 400 words) Be specific about the ways in which you will use aspects of media language, media representations, target your audience and reflect the appropriate media industry for your chosen brief. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Media language 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Media language Media language refers to the ways in which media producers make meaning in ways that are specific to the medium in which they are working and how audiences come to be literate in ‘reading’ such meaning within the medium.. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

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Media language For example, the ‘language of film’, print layout conventions, web design and navigation conventions and rule economies in gaming. These medium specific languages will often be closely connected to other media concepts such as genre or narrative and candidates are at liberty to make such connections to a greater or lesser extent in their answers. In the examination, questions will be set using one of these concepts only. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Media language In some cases you will be describing their productions in terms of them not relating straightforwardly to the concept. For example, a candidate producing three websites over their two portfolios might describe ways in which websites cannot be understood easily through applying conventional narrative theory. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Semiotics The study of codes and conventions within media texts 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Semiotics The signifier any material thing that signifies, e.g., words on a page, a facial expression, an image. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Semiotics The signified the concept that a signifier refers to. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Together, the signifier and signified make up the Sign: the smallest unit of meaning. Anything that can be used to communicate (or to tell a lie). 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Semiotics 16/11/2018 LDV 17

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AUDIENCES DECODE MESSAGES 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Denotation The most basic or literal meaning of a sign, e.g., the word "rose" signifies a particular kind of flower. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Connotation: the secondary, cultural meanings of signs; or "signifying signs," signs that are used as signifiers for a secondary meaning, e.g., the word "rose" signifies passion. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

“denotation is what is filmed, connotation is how it is filmed” John Fiske (1982) “denotation is what is filmed, connotation is how it is filmed” 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Paradigmatic relations Where signs get meaning from their association with other signs 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Syntagmatic relations Where signs get meaning from their sequential order, e.g., grammar or the sequence of events that make up a story. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Myths a combination of paradigms and syntagms that make up an oft-told story with elaborate cultural associations, e.g., the cowboy myth, the romance myth. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Ideologies Codes that reinforce structures of power. Ideology works largely by creating forms of "common sense," of the taken-for-granted in everyday life. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Media representations 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Key questions Who/what is being represented? How is the representation constructed (mediated)? Why is the representation constructed this way? - Target audience - Audience pleasures - Cultural prejudice - Aim of the text 16/11/2018 LDV 17

TASK 1: fill in the sheet 16/11/2018 LDV 17

All texts, however 'realistic' they may seem to be, are constructed representations rather than simply transparent 'reflections', recordings, transcriptions or reproductions of a pre- existing reality. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Representations, which become familiar through constant re-use come to feel 'natural' and unmediated. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Reality is always represented - what we treat as 'direct' experience is 'mediated' by perceptual codes. Representation always involves 'the construction of reality'. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Ideologies within the media are often mythic because they represent things as natural or common-sense even though this might not be the case (Barthes) 16/11/2018 LDV 17

TASK 2: which theories can be applied to your product? 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Representation theory Stuart Hall (Marxist) Hall argues that media texts are encoded and when audiences consume a media text they decode the codes and conventions. He argues that audiences will decode in different ways depending upon their context of consumption and the strength of the preferred reading. As a Marxist he contends that most media messages are accepted by audiences because they are encoded as common sense and they are repeated over and over again by the elite owners/producers of the mainstream media. However, he does not view the audience as completely passive (unlike traditional Marxists), he accepts that many audiences can create a negotiated reading and will understand the text based upon their own experiences, views and media literacy. Moreover, some audiences can also reject the preferred reading and create an oppositional . Most texts however are heavily anchored and manipulate the audience to think a certain way. Polysemic texts are far lesson common in the mainstream media. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Representation theory Stuart Pryce Representations represent dominant ideologies in society: 'If gender differences are socially constructed, and society itself is based on unequal relations of power, then we can see why many writers argue that mainstream representations will be biased against subordinate groups. Dominant ideology is supposedly used to keep the downtrodden in their place... Ideologies of gender promote sexist representations of women... ideologies make equalities and subordination appear natural.' 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Representation theory Richard Dyer Re-presentation, which consists essentially of media language, the conventions that are used to represent the world to the audience; “representation insists that there is a real world, but that our perception of it always mediated by [the media's selection]” 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Representation theory Tessa Perkins Stereotypes are always erroneous in content (usually wrong). They are pejorative (negative) concepts. They are about groups with whom we have little or no social contact; by implication therefore, they are not held about ones own group- that’s a stereotype of a stereotype. They are about minority or repressed groups. They are simple. Rigid and do not change. Because someone holds a stereotype of a group, his or her behaviour towards a member of that group can be predicted. Stereotypes are an invaluable aid to understanding the world and all stereotypes must have a bit of truth or they would not have such an influence. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Postmodernist readings 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Jean Baudrillard Representation is problematic Representations are simulations of realities which don't exist Hyper reality - 'a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are blended together so there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins‘ EG: Celebrity images There is no distinction between reality and and representation, only the simulacrum. Baudrillard researched hyper reality, noting how humans accepted simulation as reality.  Realized that many people now couldn't identify the line between reality and altered representation.  Baudrillard questioned if anything was truly real in the age of mass media.   EG: The Only Way is Essex.   16/11/2018 LDV 17

Marxist readings 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Marxism Antonio Gramsci and Louis Althusser Marxists argue that the most powerful largely control the messages that are produced by mainstream media. The media, as a form of secondary socialisation is part of the ideological state apparatus and serves to transmit the values of the ruling class. Thus, representations within the mainstream media tend to encourage consumerism and support capitalist ideology. Also, the media tends to promote the idea that certain things such as inequality are natural and is not the fault of the powerful. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Marxism Theodor Adorno and Horkheimer It is also argued that many representations serve only to distract us from the things that matter (such as inequality). Much of the media only encourages us to want to be entertained and to focus on immediate gratification. The media is labelled the culture industry – it is selling ideas and dreams rather than trying to educate and create social change. Thus, lots of use are obsessed with purchasing new things – this is known as commodity fetishism. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Feminist readings 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Feminist readings Naomi Wolf Naomi Wolf argues that much of the media objectifies women and presents them in such an ‘perfect’ and ‘idealised’ way – she calls this the ‘iron maiden’. This is achieved through the use of complimentary lighting, angles, framing, makeup, styling and post production. It means that ‘normal’ women can never ever achieve such perfection. For Wolf, this is incredibly damaging for females because the media is transmitting the ideology that they should always be striving to look better and that their main goal in life is to be admired by men. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Feminist readings Laura Mulvey Mulvey develops Sigmund Freud’s theory of ‘scopophilia’ – the pleasure of watching people. In particular, she argues that the media is dominated by the ‘male gaze’ – media images are produced primarily by men for men, therefore women are often objectified and represented in a manner which gratifies men. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Feminist readings Does your product pass the Bechdel test? Created by Allison Bechdel in her famous comic series Dykes to Watch Out For, all the Bechdel Test does is determine whether women are portrayed as humans in a story. To pass the test, a story only has to answer yes to three fairly simple questions: Are there more than two named female characters? Do those two named characters have a conversation at any point? Is that conversation about literally anything other than a man? 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Orientalist readings 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Edward Said Said argues that the West often represents the rest of the world as an ‘other’ – Western media representations represent themselves as a superior culture; one that is more civilised, educated and progressive. Whilst other cultures from Asia and Africa, for example, are viewed as exotic, undesirable and inferior. This is mainly a legacy of the colonial past of countries such as Britain which promoted this ideology of superiority. 16/11/2018 LDV 17

Target audience + audience pleasures 16/11/2018 LDV 17

How did you segment your audience? Target audience Segmentation How did you segment your audience? Questionnaires Research into similar texts

Target audience Segmentation: Primary Secondary Mythical ideal consumer

Target audience Demographics Psychographics Geographics

How did you use the following to target your audience? Mise en scene Camerawork Editing Sound

How active is your audience? Hypodermic syringe model – passive Uses and gratifications model (Blumler and Katz) – active Stuart Hall – audience reception theory – passive and active

How might your audience decode your text? Stuart Hall How did you encode the media text? What is the preferred reading? How might people negotiate the reading? How might audiences oppose the reading and why?

What audience pleasures have you offered? How? Why?

Generic pleasures Dyer - “Genres are pleasurable because they offer escapist fantasies” Abercrombie - “We derive pleasure from observing how the genre is manipulated” Steve Neale - “Pleasure is derived through repetition and difference” Fowler – ‘…readers having a pre-existing knowledge and expectations…’

Audience pleasures Cognitive Sensory Vicarious Generic Visceral Representation Emotional Schadenfreude Comedic Sex tactics Shock tactics Likable characters

Audience pleasures Representation pleasures Stereotypes Subversion Alternative

Audience pleasures Comedic pleasures Slapstick Repartee Satire Gross out

How have you created awareness, interest, desire and action?

AIDA (Awareness, interest, desire, action) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (http://kjsa2media.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/maslows- hierarchy-of-needs.html) Young and Rubicam (https://prezi.com/ckjx3qg5k- tw/young-and-rubicam-4-cs/) Vance Packard (http://changingminds.org/explanations/needs/packard_need s.htm)

Media industry/institutional context 16/11/2018 LDV 17