A2 media Television Industry - Audience Homework

1a) Identify the main target audience of Mad Men
- AMC's Mad Men is targeted at a niche and more active audience. You can see this through the use of typical conventions used to attract these types of audiences. 

1b) Identify one way the text has been encoded to appeal to that type of audience.
- One way in which Mad Men has been encoded to target an active audience is its use of only diegetic sound, and almost non existent use of score.

1c) justify how that point/technique/convention would gratify your previously identified audience.
- An active audience like to read into a text by questioning the meaning and connotations behind the narrative, therefore, would be gratified by Mad Men's small use of score as they will have to decode the feelings and emotions behind characters without being told, unlike J.J Abrahms' 'Lost', Where the use of score is used regularly to tell a passive reader how to feel in a certain moment in time.

1d) Describe a narrative sequence where this point/technique/convention is present.
- An example of this is during the scene where Peggy finally quits her job. You can tell by the narrative and acting that Don is unhappy, however there is no score to enforce that, therefore the text could no be read easily through passive eyes.

2) Does Lost target a passive audience? Justify your answer.
- Lost targets a passive audience though conventions such as; a use of score, use of constant enigma codes shortly answered, and by using non-linear narrative.

3) identify how lost is encoded to gratify a passive audience.
- Lost is encoded to gratify a passive audience by its use of score, this would gratify a passive audience as it allows them to decode the text easily by prompting them how to feel at a specific moment.

4) Justify one point/technique/convention that would force Mad Men's audience to decode the text actively in order to gain gratifications.
- A convention used to decode actively in Mad Men would be it's minimal use of score. This enforces the audience to read into the narrative to be able to understand the feelings and emotions that they should be feeling in a certain scene of moment.

5) Explain and justify how Peaky Blinders has been encoded to gratify both passive and active audiences.
- A way which peaky blinders has been encoded to gratify an active audience is though using historical references that an active audience will need to know about of have knowledge on to decode the text. An example of this is when Tommy and others are burning pictures of the king around the fire. However Peaky Blinders can gratify a more passive audience through its use of popular sound tracks. For example using the soundtrack of the White Stripes helps the passive audience to feel a certain way without having to understand the historical context.

6) Justify the statement "Lost is encoded to be inclusive"
- You can see that Lost is encoded to be exclusive by the conventions such as; ensemble cast and hybrid genre, used to attract a wider, more passive, mainstream audience which therefore attracts a larger audience.

7) Why does the use of score appeal to a more passive audience?
- The use of score appeals to a more passive audience as it is used to directly tell the audience how to feel and read the text, allowing the audience to be able to decode the text without much effort.

LOST exam response

'Most media texts target a rang of different audiences' How true is this to your chosen text?

JJ Abram's 'Lost' has the intended audience of a wide mainstream audience, both active and passive audiences are gratified by a use of carefully constructed conventions of mainstream texts.

A convention used in order to appeal to a wide, mainstream audience is the use of an ensemble cast. 'Lost' has a large cast with a wide range characters of different race, age genders and nationality for all audiences to relate too, such as 'John Lock' 'Syiid' 'Walt' and 'Clair' - an old man, an asian middle aged man, a child, and a young pregnant woman. 'Lost' has given each of these characters have an equal amount of screen time to enable the audience to be able to  relate to them.

Another convention used is the use of combining escapism and using a relatable plot to be able to appeal to a wider audience. To an audience that is gratified to the use of escapism, 'lost' appeals to them by the mise-en-scene, set in a mystical island creating fantasy and diverting the audience from real life.

books and quotes for essay.

1. Cultural - Studies  (chapter 13- bodies and things)

- "we project mental images into others minds through our bodily actions"

- "bodies change meaning depending on the context in which they are found"

2. Culture Theory and Popular Culture (chapter 7 - Gender and Sexuality)

- "it's here that women (and men) are offered the cultures definitions of themselves" (page 137 'women at the cinema')

- "whilst commodity consumption for female spectators in mid to late 1950's Britain concerns producing oneself as a desirable object"

How typical is your chosen text of its genre? Fish tank - clip 5

How typical is your chosen text of its genre?

The text I have studied is 'Fish Tank'. 'Fish Tank' falls into the genre of Social Realism. The concept of social realism is to enable the audience to gain empathy for the under represented characters within the text. The text mostly conforms to this genre by using different social realism conventions throughout.
An example of a technical convention present in the film is the use of shallow depth of field. Shallow depth of field is present throughout the whole film however a specific example would be when she's waking up in her bed, Mia is in focus and everything else such as the sheets and background are blurred and hazy. The shallow depth of field is a convention of social realism as it sees as the human eye would see, this enables the audience to see as if they were there. However when Mia's mum comes into the room she then becomes the main focus, giving us a point of view shot of what Mia is also seeing, which conforms to the the concept of empathy within the genre.

'Most texts today mix genres.' How true is this of your three main text? [30]

The text I have studied is District 9, this film adheres to the statement "most texts today mix genres." District 9 is a hybrid as it consists conventions from both the sci-fi and documentary style genre's. Being a hybrid District 9 conforms to the theory of postmodernism, the theory states that no text is no longer original. Today's texts are seen as hybrids, parodies or paying homage to texts from the past.

One particular science fiction convention that District 9 clearly conforms too is 'Body Horror', wikus' transformation from human to alien. This can be seen in the narrative when Wikus' hand is first revealed. Wikus' transformation occurs from his accidental exposure to a alien liquid substance. When the transformation is first revealed, Wikus is immediately taken in for experiments by the corporation, and treated like an alien himself. This also conforms to the sci-fi convention of social and political issues. The aliens of the film have a polysenic meaning and could be seen as a metaphor for the black people if south africa. When wikus' hand changes the MNU corporation begin to see him as a 'trater', In this scene you can see the power differences between the corporation and wikus.

DRAFT.

To what extent are young women such as Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift represented stereotypically in the pop music industry today?

 

The representation of young women differs in different areas of the media, but is rapidly changing. ‘The representation of females in film has become much more narrow and cartoon like than in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s’ (10). Young women from the ages of 18-25 in the pop music industry are becoming increasingly objectified within their material and music videos launched into the media proving this in the documentary Miss Representation it states ‘In the 1990’s studies found a steady increase in explicitly sexual images in advertising‘ But this could also conform with most texts within the media. I am going to be investigating how young artists such as Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift are represented and how they represent their selves in the pop music industry today, by analysing Miley Cyrus' music video 'We Can't Stop' (3) from her new album Bangerz (1) and Taylor Swifts music video 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' (4) from her album 22. (2)

Firstly I will be exploring whether young female artists are consciously objectifying themselves within their music video’s to increase their success or whether they are just puppets for the music industry. Secondly I will analyse the lyrical content of the two artists and how it investigates their chosen theme of the song. And lastly I will be discussing the effects that both of these points can have on the artists ‘intended’ audience and what the consequences of this might be. To help answer these investigations I will be applying a number of theories such as: Laura Mulvey’s – The Male Gaze and how women are objectified and seen through the eyes of a male. Hyperreality and postmodernism will be discussed to see if there is a true representation of ‘real women’. Uses and Gratifications will also be applied to assess how representations affect others and reasons why they watch and listen to music by artists such as Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift.

 

The Male Gaze, developed by feminist, Laura Mulvey describes how the audience, or viewer, is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. (5) This can be applied to most visual texts in the media industry and specifically music videos such as Miley Cyrus’ ‘We Can’t Stop’ (3) from her album Bangerz (1).  Discarding any technical aspects, in the first fifteen seconds we see Miley in a tight white crop top and leggings, being forced to see a lot of her body and this is where the objectification starts. However to contrast in Taylor Swifts music video ‘We are never ever getting back together’ (4) you could say that it subverts to the idea of objectification, and that the audience of this video is not necessarily put into the perspective of a male. There are no obvious ways of Taylor being objectified or looked at in a sexual way. Even in Miley’s video the mis en scene gives sexual connotations, as the first thing you see is a bed – the first thing that comes to my mind when seeing a bed is sleep, or sex. However in Taylor’s video again like Miley she is in her bedroom, but the environment that she is in would seem a lot more homely with things like bright colours in the background and stuffed birds, which would be seen as childish. Also Taylor is wearing some bright colourful pyjamas that do not show any skin or fragment or objectify her body.

Today people might say that young female artists are consciously objectifying themselves to increase their success in the industry. Laura Mulvey states that ‘There are circumstance in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as in the reverse formulation, this is pleasure in being looked at’ (6). This could conform to artists such as Miley Cyrus. Being a former Disney star meant that she had been given a ready-made image from the ‘good girl’ character she played for the show ‘Hannah Montana’. However to subvert the Disney image she had been given, in 2013 Miley bought out her new mature, all grown up album ‘bangerz’ (1) including the controversial singles such as ‘We Can’t Stop’ (3) and ‘Wrecking Ball’ (7). My question is whether or not producing such ‘mature’ and provocative music/videos have gained much more success compared to more laid back and not so sexualized music from artists like Taylor Swift. When the music video for ‘We Can’t Stop’ (3) came out it hit 10.7 million views within the first 24 hours, it was the fasted video to hit 100 million views and broke the record of most views in 24 hours (8). As of now the video has almost 300m views on YouTube (3) Where as Taylor Swift’s music video to ‘We are never ever getting back together’ has the smaller number of almost 200m views but was released 10 months before Miley’s. Is Miley’s video more popular because of the objectification and sexual connotations, and what are the differences between the two? There is such a big contrast within the visual content of both videos.  In the ‘We Can’t Stop’ video (3) during the chorus of the song the scene is shot where Miley is singing lying on a bed and the camera is placed in between her legs and shot with hand held motion, making it seem as if you were there. This is clearly putting the audience into the position of a male or someone who would gain scopophillia from the view of Miley’s crotch and cleavage. You can see that Miley here is consciously objectifying her self by the way she moves on the bed and leaning her chest towards the direction of the camera. However if you look at the first chorus of Taylor’s video (4) it’s a totally different story. The shot is of her almost, childishly dancing in big chunky glasses and a pair of printed pyjamas with her band members in fluffy animal costumes. The shot is of a room full of people so she isn’t the main focus disenabling you to really fragment or objectify her body as there are no close ups and there is a narrow depth of field therefore everything/everyone in the shot is clearly in focus.  Analysing both text you could definitely say that Miley’s video adheres to the idea that objectification and sexual maturity in her videos has gained her more success. You can determine weather it was a conscious decision by looking at previous music videos of hers that are not so grown up such as the video for ‘When I look at you’ (9) from 2010 only has 96,024,138 views, which isn’t even half of the views for her current video, and then later she bought out ‘can’t be tamed ’(9) which involved slightly more mature content later in 2010 and gained even more views.
(Ending of this needs to be improved…)

In society today, one of the stereotypes of women are that they are dependent of a man and that men are the ones with power. I the documentary Miss Representation Jackson Katz states that the media today is ‘socializing boys to believe being a man is being in charge and dominate’ (10) the content of Taylor swifts song ‘We are never ever getting back together’ from her album ‘red’ (2) subverts from this idea. The song is written about an ex-boyfriend, in which she has the power of saying that they’re never getting back together, in this she is the one with the power and in control of the situation.

- Miley Cyrus ‘we can’t stop’ – stereotype of teenager wreckless etc. trying to show maturity – not succeeding? (more to add... stuck on how to write/analyse lyrics….)

Lastly I am going to be discussing what effects the previous two points have on the ‘intended’ audiences of both artists. Considering Miley’s old image of being a ‘Disney girl’, her audience started rather young, as teenage girls would tune in to watch her on ‘Hannah Montana’ playing a young teenage girl living her dreams of being a pop star. But as Miley has grown up, so has her audience, now making her a role model for an audience of teenage girls and young women.

- Hyperreality: Miley is a false representation of reality. Copying a copy – such as Madonna.
 -18th June 2013 Miley Cyrus was voted to be ‘the worst celebrity role model for young girls’ in a poll of 2,407 parents (11)

 

 

! Conclusion !

 

 

(My second 2 aims are yet to be finished but there are some notes of things to include underneath)

 

 

Bibliography:

 

(1) Miley Cyrus ‘Bangerz’

(2) Taylor Swift ‘22’

(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrUvu1mlWco

(4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA4iX5D9Z64

(5) http://katiehamilton25.blo gspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-male-gaze-theory.html

(6) http://imlportfolio.usc.edu/ctcs505/mulveyVisualPleasureNarrativeCinema.pdf

(7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2FRPA3Gf8

(8)http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/5047747/miley-cyrus-we-cant-stop-video-breaks-vevo-record

(9) http://www.youtube.com/user/MileyCyrusVEVO/videos

(10) Miss representation documentary

(11)http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2343992/Miley-Cyrus-named-worst-celebrity-role-model-parents--beating-Lindsay-Lohan-Amanda-Bynes.html

 

‘Bangerz actually moved 270,000 copies in its first week, which is tops for any woman in the pop category during any week of 2013!’ - http://perezhilton.com/2013-10-17-miley-cyrus-bangerz-biggest-sales-week-female-2013-pop-album-daft-punk#sthash.vbqy9VVD.dpbs

 

Characters: Fish Tank, Sin City and District 9

Fish tank (social realism)

Connor: represents white middle aged male with power.
- becomes corrupt by misusing his power. First seen as Joanne (the mothers) love interest. Gains Mia's trust and then sleeps with her.
- stereotype of male - in power, head of the family.
- leaves when they are vulnerable

Mia: Representation of a young girl living in underclass situations. 
Propp - in the beginning Mia could be represented as the princess because of her family situations and Connor (the hero) being the first person to encourage her and give her hope.
By the end Mia can be seen as the villain, taking away Kiera (Connor's daughter)

Joanne (mum) : subverts from the stereotypical 'caring' and 'domestic' mother role. Lives in underclass suburban council flat. Aggressive towards children, not loving. however also stereotypical as we see that the family cannon function without a man (connor when he leaves).





Sin City (comic book and film noir)

 Nancy: (post modernism - femme fatal/love interest mix) 
She is objectified though the eyes of a male and camera techniques however compared to other characters such as Goldie she is not consciously objectifying her self.
Stereo Typical 'Princess' - propp: she's captured bu Rourk Jr. saved by John Hartigan who she later falls in love with.

 John Hartigan: Stereotypical protagonist: struggles with heart condition.
- Trench coat worn to symbolise hero/investigator etc. (film noir and comic book convention)

The Yellow Bastard/ Rourke Jr. : represents a villain in Sin City.
Yellow - connotation of sickness and infection, smell, gross etc. 








Marv: Protagonist suffers with self doubt. can't get a girl because he thinks he's ugly. chasing after the killer of the his femme fatal 'Goldie'.  
Again has the trench coat when in 'action' to symbolise his hero figure.




Senator Rourke: Father of the yellow bastard. frames Hartigan of capturing/raping nancy when it was actually his son.
comic book/film noir convention - middle aged which man of much power turns corrupt. 

Cardinal Rourk (Church): Father of 'Kevin the cannible' protects him from his crimes. lives in mistrust - convention of film noir (relates to the cold war living in paranoia) Lives hiding away in the church.
Again white middle ages man with a lot of power becomes corrupt.