Migrain Index

Introduction to Media: 10 questions

Media Consumption Audit

Language: Reading an image - advert analyses


Reception theory

Semiotics: Icons, Indexes and symbols

Genre: Factsheets and genre study 

Narrative: Factsheet Questions

Narrative blog task

Factsheet 14:

1) Give an example from film or television that uses Todorov's narrative structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium.

The Hunger Games


2)  Complete the activity on page 1 of the factsheet: find a clip on YouTube of the opening of a new TV drama series (season1, episode 1). Embed the clip in your blog ad write an analysis of the narrative markers that help establish setting, character and plot.



The above is the first few minuets of the new season of the walking dead (season 9). From the end of season 8, we know most of the backstory and season 9 is almost like a new beginning for all the characters as their torture from negan is finally over. In the first half of this video, we see Rick and Michone and Ricks daughter where things seem all nice and happy until the scene changes.We see the kingdom, the hilltop and Alexandria formed as one whole group. Once the camera shot changes to the sight of a not so pleasant looking zombie, the music intensifies and we get back to reality where the world is swarmed with zombies. The group work together to try and kill all the zombies off and as this is a sci-fi thriller, you know there are bound to be a lot of fighting situations that get out of hand, a lot of deaths and lots of sudden zombie enters throughout the season.


3) Provide three different examples from film or television of characters that fit Propp's hero character role.

In The Hunger Games, Katniss is shown to be the Hero

In The Walking Dead, Rick is shown to be the hero along with the main cast who are on Ricks side.

In Criminal Minds, the group of the main cast who are in the FBI, BAU are shown as the Heroes.


4) Give an example of a binary opposition.

As an add on from above, an example of binary opposition could be a hero fighting a villain.


5) What example is provided in the Factsheet for the way narratives can emphasise dominant ideologies and values?

One example was the one about a policeman capturing a criminal. It was in a crime drama and by having the policeman successfully capture the criminal it shows the audience how important the law is too keep.


6) Why do enigma and action codes (Barthes) offer gratifications for audiences?

Enigma and Action codes are present to have an effect on the audience. They want the audience to starting thinking more about the media text, ask themselves questions about it and make them want to watch or read on so they get to the end and understand completely what they have just read or watched.


7) Write a one-sentence summary of the four different types of TV narratives:

• Episodic Narrative: This is a series of episode where each episode has their own mini storyline meaning there is no chronological order to how you must watch it.
• Overarching Narrative: The opposite of the episodic narrative where each episodes continues form the last episodes and they ted to go over a large number of seasons. There is only one main storyline within the entire series.
• Mixed Narrative: This is a mix of the above (episodic and overarching narratives) where there is a main story line but also smaller story lines within the series.
• Multi-strand Overlapping Narrative: This is when more than one thing is happening at the same time but show one after another. There is always something that would signify to the audience that the two scenes were occurring at the same time. Often used in Soaps.

8) How does the factsheet suggest adverts use narratives?

Many adverts promote their product by showing the audience a problematic surrounding, then the introduction of their product which will clear out the earlier problems making everything all nice and calm again. It is to emphasise how their product can help in real life situations again. An example where this is used are cleaning products.

Genre questions

Genre Questions

Media Fact sheet 3 questions:

1. What example is provided of why visual iconographies are so important?

Visual iconographies like codes and conventions are so important because they can indicate what genre it is to the audience members.

2. What examples are provided of the importance of narrative in identifying genre?

One example is TV Westerns and the other is News broadcasts.

3. What is the difference between character representation in action movies and disaster movies?

In action movies, they tend to only have one 'hero' character within the movie and the focus is solely on how they save the say, even if there are characters who help, there will only be one real 'hero'. In disaster movies, the focus is more on a group of people who play this 'hero' role and the focus is distributed between them. 

4. what are the different ways films can be categorised according to Bordwell?

It can be Period or country, Director(star), technical process, style, series or audience.

5. List three ways genre is used by audiences.

• Using any prior knowledge about the genre
• They can choose which genres they prefer
• Compare it to other media form of the same genre

6. List three ways genre is used by institutions or producers.

• They can use it to attract certain groups of audiences
• Different genres usually have some sort of pattern and they can use this as a guideline accordingly
• They can emphasise on certain points to make the genre more obvious.

7. What film genre is used as an example of how genres evolve? What films and conventions are mentioned?

The genre used as an example was the 'gangster' genre. 

Media fact sheet 126 questions:

1. List five films the fact sheet discusses with regards to the superhero genre.

• Super
• Iron Man
• Scott Pilgrim vs The World
• Chronicle
• Avengers Assemble

2. What examples are provided of how the super hero genre has reflected the changing values, ideologies and world event of the last 70 years?

An example that they have given us is the movie superman. Throughout the past superman movies, there have been different problems used within the movie addressing that period of time, for example, events such as the world war two were addressed in some of the older superman's and the ones from more modern times are addressed to problems that are more recent problems that occur in modern time.

3. How can Schatz's theory of genre cycles be applied to the superhero genre?

Innocvation can be used to take a comic book story and adapt it to become a movie where certain features of the comic book story like flying hero's or transforming armours can be brought in using CGI (computer generate imagery) works. For classic films, the genre can be shown through the cliché story line which tend to be expected form the audience. Parodies tend to add in comedy aspects and involve a lot of irony and jokey scenes despite the serious side of the superhero genre.

Own genre analysis questions:

The First Purge

1. I recently watched the first purge on TV so I decided to choose it for this section of the homework.

2. I watched it on television on some TV box that has a ton of movies. I first heard about it from a friend and decided to watch it when i saw it on the list.

3. I understand the devastation built up anger can cause especially when you give people the chance to commit crimes with the reassurance of no consequences. The movie shows the true wants that people hold when they are truly free.

4. Genres include: Action, Horror, thriller, Crime and Adventure.

5. I quite like this genre of films because theirs always sudden scares and it keeps me wondering what would happen in the next few scenes. I like how the genre of film can make me feel a number of different ways within the time of the start of the movie to the end of the movie.

6. Some of the traits in other same genre films are also shown in here like the dramatic and loud music to the low key lighting and the serious atmosphere throughout the film.

7. I would say it is quite typical as many scenes take place at night and in the dark which is very like most thriller movies. There are also a lot of loud and dramatic sound effects and soundtracks to build up the tension within the film.

8. When I watch a thriller or a horror, you expect to be scared you expect to be shocked. The music should add to it and create an eerie and intense atmosphere around you.

9. There is a lot low key lighting to create shadows and intensify the feeling that something is about to happen even when sometimes nothing happens. So the thrills and sudden shocks are used a lot throughout the movie. (IMDb)

10. People decide that horrors and thrillers aren't supposed to be for younger audiences and they tend to aim it at 15+ audiences. Also, they probably do not expect the elderly to go and watch a horror or a thriller so they will add in effects and ideas that suit mainly teens to maybe people at 40.

11. The First purge really follows the guidelines in the horror/thriller genre. By using the dark lighting in many scenes and the shadows and the intense loud music, it doesn't really differentiate itself from other horror/thrillers. Those are clear signs that the movie you are watching is a horror.

12. In my opinion, I think it is extremely generic as most scenes are just dark scenes with shadows and chasing. To further emphasise on how generic it is, even the story line is very over used. Someone gets hurt, wants revenge, ends up running away. There is nothing much that makes it very different from other films of the same genre.

13. You could argue that the sole idea of 'the purge' was different as not many movies are about 12 hours where any action is legal including murder theft etc. This is something that differentiates itself from others of the same genre and also the fact that they do not use any 'ghosts or monsters' also makes them different.

14. The relationship between two characters could have been classified as romance but I don't think that was the initial idea of having the two characters to have a past relationship with each other.

15. A lot of violence and illegal acts. The rough clothes. Aggressive tones within the characters.

Mode of Address:

1. I feel like the target audience is around 16+ as there is a lot of violence involved.

2. If you like a lot of tense moments and not knowing what will happen next, you will divert yourself towards the horror and thriller genres s they will satisfy that want of on the edge watching.

3. A thrill seeking person who likes to try new stuff. you want to do something even if you know the risk to it. The adrenaline fuels you up.

4. Male, 16-20s, working class, any race

5. More activities that have a chance of injury like free running, paintballing, sky diving, bungee jumping etc.

Relationship to other text

1. The First Purge is a reference to another movie from Blumhouse Productions coming out in 2018: The sequel to John Carpenter's Halloween. Also, the KKK hoods were used in the movie which is a reference to racism as they decided to use the hoods of a well know group of racist people called the KKK.

2. The purge is very similar to Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City.

3. Both movies are about legalizing criminal activities for a period of time. 

4. The difference is that in Zebrama, acts are legalised everyday for 1 hour whereas in the purge, it is a 12 hour time period which happens once a year.

Reception Theory (25 marker)

Reception theory (25 marker)

According to reception theory, ‘the media attempts to transmit specific messages to audiences, but audiences are free to interpret these messages in a variety of ways – or even reject them’.

How valid are reception theory’s claims about audience responses?

The media always tries to portray a specific message to their audiences and yes, people are free to interpret this message in any way they choose to whether it be negative or positive or if they even accept it at all.

The media will use either icons, indexes, symbols or a mix of the listed to create a meaning for the audience to understand, however, this meaning is not always crystal clear. The medias' intentions will be specific but if audiences interpret the media in a different way that doesn't match what it is supposed to show, it is completely legal and fine. For example, when Nivea came out with their 'white is purity' advert, it caused huge uproars of racism as people believed that they were trying to say that if you were not white, you were dirt and filth whereas white people are pure and flawless. Because the audience interpreted the message a different way, it cause alot of controversy and many negative comments were made towards Nivea.

Since the media has a message they are trying to convey, so the audience should understand that their intentions may not always be what the audience have interpreted from the media text. That is why symbols, icons or indexes can be risky as to different people, they may suggest different things. For bigger brands, they would rather choose not to make the audience be able to interpret their own meanings. They make their point very clear in order to prevent any negative news or comments aimed at them.

In conclusion, yes people are free to internet the media text in any way they wish. If they decide to talk about their interpretation, justification will be needed. Even though whoever put up their adverts or articles had initial intentions on what the message to the world was supposed to be, it doesn't stop people from seeing it in a different way. If this does happen, maybe it shows that the company or brand needs to rethink on the way they put our their ideas.

Semiotics: Icon Index Symbol blog task

Semiotics: Icon, Index, symbol blog task

Icon:

 Toxic

  Flammable

 Nuclear

Index:

 No Smoking

 No drinking

 No dogs

Symbol:

 Snapchat

 Instagram

 Twitter

Icons, indexes and symbols can be interpreted in many ways. That is why putting in icons or symbols or indexes in texts whether it is online or on hard copies like newspapers, can be so important. Furthermore, sometimes people say that pictures speak louder than words, so having symbols and pictures in media texts can have a bigger impact on the reader rather than just stating your words so many companies choose to add in symbols or icons or indexes in order to get their ideas through to the audience hoping for a bigger impact.

Global brands might want to choose not to use symbols in their adverts because they want their ideas and initial thoughts to be made clear to their audience. They do not want their audience assuming ideas form their advert because they have used symbols in them.

An example of an advert that was communicated in an unintentional way is this one on the left from Nivea. This came across to people as very racist as the audience interpreted this as a way of saying that if your skin colour is white, you are pure and that any other skin colour is dirty. This is an example of symbols as the letters of the alphabets are used to form sentences which was interpreted this way by the people who saw this advert. To expand on their advert, they posted a tweet with this image saying 'Keep it clean, keep bright. Don't let anything ruin it, #invisible' which was left with quite a 'few' negative comments to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI4LHl4yFuo  

The above is a link to one of googles adverts. It relays the message on how much we depend on google to find out information. Day in day out, people search on google for how to do this or how to do that or what is this or that etc. When you usually use google, you never really think about how much you depend on google to find out what you want. When you watch this advert, you come to realise that you really do spend alot of time just on google searching for stuff you are curious about and it makes you feel relieved that google is there for you. To some people, it finally makes them feel thankful that google exists as they rely on it so much. The use of symbols are used in this advert and through these words, it creates an impact to the audience. This is how much power symbols can have on people.

Reception Theory

Reception theory

1. 

 50 cent advert:
Dominate reading - The dominate reading for this advert is that if you buy Reebok products, you will be unique and you will be who you are as said by the quote at the centre of the advert and strong and powerful.
Negotiated reading - The people who see this advert may believe that Reebok will make your life seem dull and boring as of the colours used in it. Some may think that
Oppositional reading - The secondary image of the fingerprints may make some people believe that wearing Reebok will make them criminals and weak against the world.
 Nike advert:
Dominate reading - The dominate reading is that those who wear Nike products will be skilled, strong, world changing.
Negotiated reading - Some people may see this and think that buying Nike products will make you like the person in the advert (young people are seen as rude and criminals in the making).
Oppositional reading - The background image of the estate doesn't look exactly very rich so people who see this may think that Nike is for less wealthy people and if you do buy it, you're seen as someone with a low status and no money.

2)

50 cent advert:
Yes, I believe that Reebok did put in clues for the oppositional reading. This is fingerprints as the choice of secondary image. By doing this, a lot of people start to think it is more related to crime than bravery. It is a risk to use that image for an advert where they wanted to be seen as wearing their product to make them look brave and powerful.

Nike advert:
I think that they didn't really do anything that would of raised oppositional readings to their target audience. Their target audience are mainly teenagers around the same age as the person in the image, therefore by using someone of the same age, to who they target, it doesn't raise any oppositional reading. However, for older readers, maybe they may see it differently to younger audience members.