Restrictions & Changes

Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic my learning and ongoing projects have been hugely affected. The university and my tutors have tried their best to provide me with all the materials and resources they possibly can during this tough time, but nothing compares to in-person teaching and experiences. Personally I have really struggled with conducting my own learning from home as I know I learn best in a classroom environment.

Practice Projects:

In terms of the practice projects module I have noticed the most restrictions and had to conduct the most changes. With this module being such a high percentage of my final grade I have been particularly concerned with the degree of changes and restrictions in place.

I have had to change my original idea from two magazine articles to an online webpage featuring my article ideas as blog posts. This change has been the most drastic change as I have gone from a well constructed and designed article, to a blog post where I have to adhere to the website’s layout and restrictions. This is the change that has flustered me the most because the article layout and choices I had already made were choices I was really happy with and confident that I could create some really effective content.

In my original project plan I had organised to conduct in-person, semi-structured interviews with two music industry professionals. With COVID-19 putting restrictions on social gatherings (social distancing) I can no longer meet with my interviewees and have had to conduct the interviews over email. This is also a huge restriction for the quality of my content has the answers given are no longer natural and flowing but now over thought and processed. This is a major concern of mine.

From talking to my tutors I have had my ideas approved and had constructive feedback, I also know that the portfolio of progress is being considered more in terms of grades too which is a huge comfort for me because I have been documenting my entire project process in detail from day one.

Media Context & Production:

The restrictions haven’t had as much effect on this module as it has on Practice Projects but I still have come across some challenges.

I think the most challenging aspect has been not having face-to-face teaching. Usually in lesson the layout and structure of written work is discussed in length to make sure we are structuring our work in the correct way. This has been the biggest struggle for me because I know what is expected content wise but I am unsure of how to structure my work in the best way possible.

From communicating with my tutor I have received the help I need, but it doesn’t compare to being taught and receiving help in-person.

Overall I have experienced a lot of restrictions and changes in my upcoming projects and work, but with the help from my tutors I should still be able to complete my work to the same standard I would have if I were still physically at the university.

Narrative, Genre and Audiences.

Still images also have narratives, we can see images as part of a freeze frame of a narrative.

‘One set of questions that any photograph must generate concerns what happened just before this photograph was taken and what would have happened subsequently.’ (Alvardo, 1979)

Looking at Behind the Gare St. Lazare we can think about what happened before and after the shot. 

Before – the man would have been stood on the ladder. 

After – the man would have ended up in the water. 

There is a narrative being told through the still image. As an audience we only see part of the narrative but using ideological understanding we can guess the before and after.

Narrative in Music

Narratives can be seen in music lyrics and videos. Looking at two songs I identified some narrative elements: 

The Beatles – I Want to Hold Your Hand (1963)

-there is a clear character ‘I’ and a goal. 

-there’s a character to reciprocate the affections ‘you/your’

-someone wants to hold someone’s hand – this is the narrative of the lyrics. 

-someone wants to hold someone’s hand – this is the narrative of the lyrics. 

Gloria Gaynor – I will Survive (1978)

-there are causal events – something has caused these emotions.

-they chronologically make sense.

-characters ‘you’ and ‘I’.

-“At first …” “But then …” “Now you’re back …”

As an activity I found a list of songs that have a narrative in their lyrics and then group them into 3 groups I chose to group them in categories of revenge, love and heartbreak. 

• Dixie Chicks – Goodbye Earl. 

• Elvis Presley – Return to Sender.

• Dusty Springfield – Son of a Preacher Man.

• Taylor Swift – Love Story. 

• Panic! At the Disco – I Write Sins Not Tragedies. 

• Rihanna – Stay. 

Causality

-character-centred – personal or psychological reasons.

-natural causes – floods, outbreaks of disease etc.

-social causes – for the needs of a group or institution. 

Narrative Meaning

Bordwell and Thompson when discussing classical narrative (in relation to Hollywood filmmaking) state that there are various levels of narrative meaning – e.g. we can ‘get’ a story at various levels. I’m going to look at the levels using the example The Wizard of Oz (1939).

1. Referential (literal) meaning (a concrete, bare bones summary)

‘in the depression, a tornado takes a girl from her family’s Kansas farm to the mythical land of Oz. After a series of adventures she returns home.’

• Explicit meaning (what is the point of the film?)

‘a girl dreams of leaving home to escape her troubles. Only after she leaves does she realise how much she loves her family and friends.’

• Implicit meaning (more abstract – broader themes – our interpretation)

‘an adolescent who must soon face the adult world yearns for a return to the world of childhood, but she eventually accepts the demands of growing up.’ 

• Symptomatic meaning (situates the meaning of the film in the historical and social context – clearly links back to the semiotics and ideology)

‘in a society where human value is measured by money, the home and family may seem to be the last refuge of human values. This belief is especially strong in the times of economic crisis, such as that in the US in the thirties.’

I really enjoyed looking at narrative in music as music is a media form that I love and enjoy exploring. The activity where we had to find music videos was a particular favourite activity of mine and going forward into teaching media studies will definitely be using a similar activity for my own students because I enjoyed it so much. 

What is genre: 

“Genre is a French word for ‘kind’, ‘category’ or ‘type […] Categorisations are meaningful to both producers and consumers of texts.” (Long and Wall, 2013)

Genre is a meanings system:

• A social construct
• Not fixed, but fluid
• Contested, and contestable
• Tied up in discourses of authenticity 

As an activity we had to think of a definition of musical genres without using the internet. These are the definitions I came up with: 

-Rap Music – storytelling, fast paced, lyrical, rhythm, themes.

-Dance Music – energetic, feel-good, electronic.

-Jazz Music – relaxed, entertaining, instrumental.

-Classical Music – high society, skilled.

-Pop Music – catchy, enjoyable, popularity, celebrity. 

As someone who enjoys all types of genres of music looking at the different definitions of genres was really interesting because I could refer to different songs from each genre and find those components. It has also sparked ideas for future teaching activities when it comes to music genres and narratives. 

Screenwriting

During week 6 we looked at screen writing with screenwriter Andy Conway. As someone who has never seen or written a script before this session was really interesting. I liked the fact that I was entering the world of screenwriting a blank slate because it meant that I was able to take everything in without thinking back to other things I have written or seen. 

We looked at what a screenplay looks like – these are the elements needed for a successful script: 

• Font: courier 12 point. 
• Grammar: the screenplay unfolds in the present tense. 
• Camera Directions: avoid them. 
• Character Names: written in CAPS when they first appear. 
• Styles: underlining is okay to add emphasis. Avoid italics and bold.
• Sluglines: Start with INT. or EXT. then the location, then either DAY or NIGHT.

             Slugline Example: EXT. THE SHOP – DAY

• Start with FADE IN and finish with FADE OUT. 
• The Four Line Rule: keeping all descriptive paragraphs under four lines makes the script easy to read. 
• Dialogue: (V.O) = voice over. (O.S) = off screen. 
• Capitals: actions, sounds effects and special effects can be capitalised, which has the added effect of the screenplay seeming more active.

My first attempt at a screenplay.

I don’t think that I will pursue a career in screenwriting as I didn’t enjoy having to adhere so many small rules that I kept forgetting to follow. But I liked the fact I know have a small amount of script writing in my repertoire if I ever need to use it throughout the rest of my course. 

Research Methods

Participant Identity Characteristic Data

In order to provide more detail to the data you need to know about those who are answering the questions – these questions are asked at the end of the survey. 

• Age
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Ethnicity
• Social Class 

We need this information to know what demographics we have covered with the survey and that we are not generalising the answers to everyone when they’re only representative of one demographic. 

When is a quantitative approach useful? 

If you want to know if people agree or disagree with statements or if the question you are answering is already numerical E.g. ‘how many…’ questions. 

A Likert scale provides more complex numerical data, it is scaled so it’s more nuanced than just yes/no binary questions. 

When is a qualitative approach useful?

To be used when the information we require will not be served well by numbers E.g. it’s too complicated to make into a numerical format or you are interested in the nuances or details of an experience. 

Qualitative approaches include: 

• Interviews
• Focus groups 
• Open questions on surveys – where people can respond in their own words. 

Focus Groups

A focus group is a gathering of people together (random or specific) to discuss a topic. Audio or video recorded for future consideration by the researcher. 

Interviews

These are the different types of interviewing: 

• Structured – set questions, formal and 1 way. 
• Semi-structured – some set questions but open to being led by the participant. 
• Unstructured – no real agenda but hard to compare across participants and you might forget something. 

Mixed Methods

Textual analysis – looking at a media text and taking into consideration semiotics, narrative, ideology etc. 

Audience interviews – tells us a more detailed response to the media text. 

Thinking about my research report as well as future investigations I enjoyed learning about research methods as it will inform all of my media work going forward – especially as one day I will be teaching other students how to perform these methods. 

In terms of my research project I will be using a textual analysis method to research my chosen topic. I will also be using a semi-structured interview technique in my practice projects module to form the main body of work. 

Classical Narrative Structure

Narratives are EVERYWHERE.

Different types of narrative include:

A narrative connects a series of events within a specific context to create coherence and meaning. There must be a teller of the story, a narrator, and an audience. (there is some kind of ‘narrative exchange’)

Narrative Theorists.

Tzvetan Todorov, Vladimir Propp, Roland Barthes & Claude Levi-Strauss. 

Todorov’s ABCD Theory.

‘narratives move from a) a state of equilibrium b) a disruption of that equilibrium by an event c) the attempt(s) to repair the damage of the disruption d) a return to old equilibrium or establishment of a new equilibrium.’

Todorov, Tzvetan. “Structural Analysis of Narrative.” Novel 3 (1969): 70-76.

This is an interesting theory that will appear in my research report to support my character theory research. 

Another way of looking at narrative is Aristotle’s 3 Act Structure:

Hollywood Cinema.

A classic Hollywood narrative structure includes these 4 elements:

• A beginning, middle and end.
• The end has to be a resolution – it has to be satisfying. 
• Character (heroes, antiheroes)
• An appropriate subject, last an appropriate time and be in an appropriate medium. (the story has to be conveys in a way that makes it clear)

‘A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space’ (Bordwell and Thompson, 2001: 60) 

This directly links to causality. Causality is where we look for the cause and effect in narrative – as humans we naturally look for the cause of the problem. 

An example of causality comes from E.M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel (London: Edward Arnold, 1958):

‘The king died and then the queen died’ is not a ploy; it is a story made up of two separate events. But ‘the king died and then the queen died of grief’ IS a plot because it provides a connection between the two, a cause and effect.’

Narrative is in all media texts therefore elements of narrative research will appear in my research report to support my findings in character types. I enjoyed the narrative sessions and learning about Hollywood cinema narratives as it makes me think about all the films I have watched that follow this narrative type. 

Health and Safety

Health and safety is a key component in the media industry as there are many factors that can go wrong but also ways to prevent them. Within this session we looked at all the measures we, as future media practitioners, need to consider when we produce our own work.

It’s common sense to protect yourself and others!

In order to be as safe as possible planning is key. The idea is to identify the risk and put safety measures in place. 

When planning a production communication is key for maximum safety, everyone on the production staff must have the same information otherwise things can go wrong very quickly. 

An example of things going very wrong due to lack of communication is when live on TV presenter Anthea Turner was burned during a pyrotechnics display because the signal was changed last minute and a member of production staff wasn’t informed. 

Risk Assessments:

Risk assessments are how we record our findings and actions towards health and safety. A risk assessment is a legal requirement for all media activity. 

A risk assessment outlines all the potential risks that could occur in production and requires a member of production staff to outline the measures put in place to prevent these risks causing injury. 

What to do if things go wrong:

• Stop all activity immediately.
• Make sure everyone is safe.
• Call 999 if needed.
• Speak to a superior member of the team – they’re the ones who signed off the risk assessment.
• A senior member of the team MUST call the Health and Safety Executive. 
• It’s key to report near misses too. 

Where to find more health and safety information: 

• www.hse.gov.uk
• Industry organisations and websites 

I found this session really insightful as I had not realised how much background work has to go into production just from a health and safety perspective. From looking at risk assessments and understanding the measures needed to complete work safely I now understand the importance of considering every risk working in any environment can bring.

If I enter my chosen profession (teacher) I will still need to conduct risk assessments and conform to health and safety rules, so this session has informed me in both a media industry sense but also from a teaching perspective.

Documentary

A documentary is ‘a film or television or radio programme that gives facts and information about a subject.’ (Cambridge Dictionary)

Documentary theorist Bill Nichols developed a conceptual scheme that identifies six different ‘documentary modes’. The six modes are as follows:

Poetic: moves away from the ‘objective’ reality of a given situation or people. E.g. The House is Black (1963)

Expository: uses narration over images. E.g. Our Planet (2019)

Observational: ‘fly on the wall’. E.g. Brother’s Keeper (1992)

Participatory: when a subject is recorded. E.g. Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017)

Reflexive: Acknowledge the way a documentary is constructed. E.g. The Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Performative: opposite of observational mode, encourages filmmakers to be involved with the subject. E.g. Supersize Me (2004)

In class we were tasked with watched the hard-hitting documentary Blackfish (2013). We were told to pick out our ‘WOW Moment’ and some unarguable facts that were included in the documentary. 

! SPOILER ALERT !

‘Shocking, never before seen footage and riveting interviews with trainers and experts manifest the orcas extraordinary nature, the species cruel treatment in captivity over the last four decades, and the growing disillusionment of workers who were mis-lead and endangered by the highly profitable sea-park industry. This emotionally wrenching, tautly structures story challenges us to consider our relationship to nature and reveals how little we humans have learned from these highly intelligent and enormously sentient fellow mammals.’ (IMDB Synopsis – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2545118/plotsummary )

WOW Moments: 

• SeaWorld feed their employees false facts about whales, which are then relayed to the public as truth. (40 mins)
• The footage of the trainer being dragged under by a whale and her broken arm afterwards. (47 mins)
• The fact that SeaWorld tried to blame Dawn for her own death. (1 hour 12 mins)

Unarguable Facts:

• Orca offspring hardly ever leave their mothers sides – SeaWorld actively took baby whales from their mothers and illegally discarded of any that did not survive. 
• SeaWorld were trying to hide the fact that Tilikum had shown any aggressive behaviour towards humans. 
• Whales have unlocked a part of the brain that humans haven’t – the paralimbic system which processes emotions.
• SeaWorld initially lied about Dawn’s death to cover their own backs. ‘She slipped.’
• There were clear signs that Tilikum was a danger to the trainers but SeaWorld ignored those signs in order to keep Tilikum for breeding purposes. 
• “SeaWorld makes their money from the exploitation of orca’s” (1 hour 17 mins)

I found the documentary sessions to be interesting and informative. I enjoyed looking at documentaries I may not have looked at before – like Supersize Me. The session has helped influence my practice project for this semester as I am now interested in a journalistic approach to media (if it is only for this module) just to explore if it is a medium I enjoy producing.

Representation

‘To represent something is to describe it or depict it, to call it up in mind by description, portrayal or imagination. To represent also means to symbolise, to stand for, to be a specimen of or to substitute for.’ (Long and Wall: 103)

How can media ‘represent’? 

Media can represent through the use of advertisements, the news, comedy, language or actor choice for certain characters. Whatever choice a writer, director, actor or costume designer makes for a certain character, location or narrative is choosing to represent that person, place or problem in a certain way. Everything is a choice. 

‘Representation is ‘one of the central practices which produce culture […] To put it simply culture is about shared meanings.’ (Stuart Hall, 1997: 1)

Why is representation important? 

‘It informs out outlook on various groups and cultures and those of other – potentially in turn affecting how social relations are played out.’ (Long and Wall, 2012: 102)

There are forms of media that represent real people and tell their stories through media text: 

Stereotyping:

‘Stereotyping is a process involving the expression of an exaggerated belief about a group that serves to qualify or justify the conduct towards that group.’ (Long and Wall, 2012 :107)

‘Stereotypes are often, but not always, negative ascriptions and they tend to be limited in the range of meanings they articulate. We could add that in this they are, like the more innocuous sense of ‘typing’ a form of shorthand, reducing the complexity of an individual, group or situation to a familiar and quickly understand and defining set of attributes.’ (Long and Wall, 2012 :108)

Archetypes: 

‘An archetype is a ‘perfect’ or idealised person or thing that exhibits certain core values and identities that offer a model or pattern for the way in the way in which cultures are viewed.’ (Long and Wall, 2012 :107)

Archetypes can be positive or negative.

In class we looked at 3 media texts that use stereotyping to portray different characters. Below are some notes on each.

The IT Crowd (2006-2013):

• Men in power are intimidating.
• People who work in offices are stupid.
• People who work in IT are nerds.
• Nerds are nervous around women and are unlucky in love.
• Women portrayed as not knowing about technology.
• ‘Othering’ Jen because she’s new and a woman. 

Doc Brown, Slang 101: 

• Represents black people.
• Stereotyping the working class.
• Rap is portrayed as aggressive.
• Middle class people don’t understand slang words.
• Rap music and artists mostly talk about sex and violence.

Man Like Mobeen: 

• Was written by someone of that ethnicity. 
• Police brutality towards black people.
• Assumed a person of colour was selling drugs. 
• Representation of police being unreasonable.
• Racial profiling by police.
• Asian cultures in Birmingham.
• Reverse gender stereotype – brother doing sisters hair because mum isn’t around.
• Brother and sister relations. 

In each of these text stereotypes were used for comedic purposes meaning that the slightly demeaning or self-deprecating representations were seen as funny whereas if these examples were from a drama they would be seen as an issue rather than funny to an audience. 

From the representation session I have decided to base my research plan on representation. I found the session exciting and enjoyable which helped me on my decision – I want to be able to enjoy writing my research plan.

I also felt confident in my knowledge after the session as I have come across some of the key representation theorists in past studies. From this I feel confident enough to be able to construct a high quality research plan which is well informed with key theory.

Ideology

Ideology describes the way we think and the frame we see the world through.

All images (and words) are ideological describes the way our ideas are manipulated and formed creating ‘false perceptions’ of the world. 

The film They Live (1988) is a good visual explanation for ideology as the main character puts on sunglasses and views the world without subliminal messages – only true meanings. 

‘The largely concealed structure of values which informs and underlies our factual statements is part of what is meant by ‘ideology’ I mean roughly, the ways in which what we say and believe connects with the power-structure and power-relations of the society we live in.’ (Eagleton, What is Literature, 14)

What is Capitalism?

Capitalist society = Capitalist ideology as dominant

An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and the operation of these means of production to make a profit. Capitalism feels ‘normal’ but it is NOT a natural structure of society it has developed – it is a system. 

A Marxist Critique of Capitalism

Karl Marx looked at Capitalism and noticed that there were two main groups of people within a capitalist society – the Proletariat and the Bourgeoisie. The Proletariat are working classes and those who sell their labour and the Bourgeoisie are those who own the means of production and takes the profits from other people’s labour.

In the film A Bugs Life (1998) the difference between ants and grasshoppers gives a good representation of a Capitalist society. The ants are portrayed at the Proletariat as they gather food for the grasshoppers and keep just enough for themselves, whereas the grasshoppers are portrayed as the Bourgeoisie as they are using the ants for their labour and keeping the profit, which in this case is the food. The representation of the two different classes is very clear in this film as the grasshopper use force and scare tactics to keep the ants working for them without questioning why they are doing it. The film touches on another Marxist theory, false consciousness or hegemony. False consciousness is where a society thinks things are normal but the systems in place should be questioned. In the case of A Bugs Life, the ants do not question why they are collecting food for the grasshoppers but continue to do so anyway – that is until Flick decides that enough is enough and questions the grasshoppers. 

Within a Capitalist society there are two ways of maintaining order, ideological state apparatus (ISA) and repressive state apparatus (RSA). In A Bugs Life there are clear representations of both. ISA is a way of controlling the way people think about the way things are, for example in A Bugs Life until Flick questions the grasshoppers there is no questioning as to why they collect so much food for them, grasshoppers are seen as a higher power over the ants and they do not believe any different. RSA is a physical way of stopping society from doing things, this is mostly shown through the use of police or military. In A Bugs Life the grasshoppers have one ‘rabid’ grasshopper who is used to scare the ants into obeying their orders, there is always the threat of letting him loose which keeps the ants in line. 

I really enjoyed looking into ideology because it can be applied to everything in the world not just a media context. I especially enjoyed deconstructing the messages in A Bugs Life because it’s a film I watched as a child and hadn’t revisited it until this session – from looking at the messages that hidden within the text.

Semiotics

‘Whenever we produce an interpretation of something’s meaning – a book, television programme, film, magazine, t-shirt or kilt, piece of furniture or ornament – we treat it as a text. A text is something we make meaning from.’ (McKee, 2003 :9)

Semiotics is a theory of signs. Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure put forward the idea that a word and concept equals a sign – he suggested that the relationship between the signifier and signified are cultural and contextual agreements. 

FDS made the point that the relationship between most ‘signifiers’ and ‘signified’ is random. We agree as a society or ‘linguistic community’ for certain words or images to signify certain things.

There are two exceptions to FDS’ ‘random’ rule:

1. Onomatopoeic words – words that ‘sound like’ the thing they describe. E.g. ‘Bang’ ‘Boom’.
2. Words made up of multiple smaller words – where the concept is made up of two or more smaller concepts. E.g. ‘Keyboard’ ‘Carwash’.

How does this relate to my own work? 

Whether I am writing and article or creating the title sequence for a film, knowing how my audience is going to interpret my words is crucial. 

Roland Barthes took FDS’ theory and expanded on the terms of semiotics. Barthes came up with three new semiotic terms.

Denotation: the literal meaning of an image, what is in it?

Connotation: the wider meaning brought to the images by the audiences interpretation of what they see within the image. What do we understand the image to mean? 

Anchorage: often in the form of text/word. Enables us to make clearer connections between the signifiers and signified. 

Charles Sanders Peirce looked that the end product of the signifiers and signified, the signs. He came up with three different signs that we have come to know. 

Icon (iconic signs): looks like the thing it represents. E.g. The Queen. 

Symbol (symbolic signs): references cultural conventions. 

Index (indexical signs): direct physical relationship to what it represents. E.g. medical symptoms. 

Peirce also said that signs can be a combination of all of the above – these categories aren’t absolute, signs can be more than one of these things.

I left the semiotics sessions still slightly confused in regards to the definition of semiotics and how I can apply it to my own work – but I have done some wider reading into semiotics and revisited the session slides to help clarify my understanding of semiotics.