Question 1B w/c 2nd December

b) Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.

                

  Media representation is how a media text shows the audience aspects of reality, whether it be people, events, objects, cultures etc. and these could be shown through the visuals of the medium or through narrative. Media producers often have a specific idea about certain people or characteristics for example, so they will re-present these in the media text in a way to allow audiences to decode the message in the same way. However, according to Stuart Hall’s reception theory, the audience can change how the read these encoded messages; they will either preffer the reading, negotiate the reading or will oppose to the reading.  But, a lot of the time audiences will at least negotiate the message and will accept the representations in some way, meaning that a producer can change the way certain groups are presented and thus change the way that the audience sees that particular group. Changing these representations can also create a depth in character.

                  The piece of coursework I am going to be evaluating in terms of representation is my A2 music-video brief. Although I am yet to undergo construction for this coursework, I have a strong idea and plans for the sort of product I am going to produce and the representations I am going to encode within them. For this piece of courswork I will be making an indie-folk music video for the singer Ed Sheeran, plus I will makes the home page for a promotional website and a digipak for the CD. A music video, no matter what the genre is, is usually constructed to encode two main represenations – a representation of the song itself in order to promote and encourage sales of the song, and a representation of the messages behind the lyrics and music of the song itself. Andrew Goodwin states that all music videos demonstrate genre characteristics – a pop video might aim to re-present the performer as a huge star whilst a dance routine might be included for a boy/girl band. There is also the idea that there can be intertexuality between music videos and film genres, such as rock/metal songs might be influenced by horror films whilst indie-folk music videos like my own might be typical of a sweet drama or rom-com. I am planning on re-presenting this idea in my music video, by constructing a narrative which conforms to this theory. By doing this, I can ensure that I create a representation of the stereotype which is linked with the genre, therefore allowing the audience to feel recognition and 'safety' when they view the final product.

Question 1A w/c 2nd December

1 (a) Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

            During the two-year media course I had to produce both a foundation portfolio and an advanced portfolio. For my foundation portfolio in the AS year, I created a music magazine front cover, contents page and a double-page spread. Now in my A2 year, I am currently in the research and planning stages of creating a music video, with ancillary products of a Digipak and a website home page to advertise the artist and the chosen song.

I feel like my skills in research and planning first developed during senior school when I had to conduct a dissertation as part of my Extended Project qualification. My chosen topic for the qualification looked into the impact the media world had on the fashion industry, particularly picking up on the impact the music of today’s society has. I chose this sort of a topic, as I briefly knew that I wanted to study Media Studies during college. With this in mind, I started work on my research skills, but I never really planned on how I was going to execute the said information I had found during the research. My research was also very basic, it simply involved me copying information from Wikipedia, but I have since learnt that this is one of the more unreliable sources and I should learn to take what I learn and apply it to my final product.

            Research and planning was essential for me during my foundation portfolio as this was the real basis for me to start creating the actual product, as I needed to identify a target audience for me to aim my coursework at. I conducted primary research in the form of a questionnaire and a focus group in order for me to identify a specific genre of music people preferred before I could go on to research into the codes and conventions of said genre through secondary research. The primary research allowed me to identify a demand and a niche for a music magazine specifically aimed at indie/acoustic music, whilst I then used secondary research methods such as the Internet, magazine publication records, existing media packs etc. to identify the requirements for such a magazine, and also the codes and conventions of magazines in general. It gave me a good understanding of all aspects of mise-en-scne in particular, as I found that magazines have to ‘look’ a certain way in order to have a successful impact on the audience. This really influenced my creative decision-making, as I understood that there were certain stereotypical codes of magazines that I had to conform to, but there were some that I could challenge also. For example, the layout of a front cover of any given magazine is very particular, as it has to have a strong impact on the audience’s vision when they come to make a product purchase. The heading of a magazine is conventionally stretched across the top of the magazine’s front cover as it means it is clearly visible by audiences, but if the magazines are stacked vertically on a magazine shelf, it means that the title will always be seen and therefore it would make that magazine in particular stand out more, and people will be able to identify it. However, research into existing music magazine covers suggested that some front covers might have the title aligned along the left-hand side binding of the cover, with the letters arranged in a vertical layout. This was useful if the magazines were to be stacked horizontally as this would mean that the title would still always be visible to audiences, but as this was a very unconventional technique, I chose to conform to this idea and keep my title positioned at the top as this looked much more professional.

            Also during my foundation year, a lot of the research and planning skills involved me taking on information from relevant media theorists. By researching theorists, I was able to begin to understand the basics of WHY certain things are applied to magazines. Laura Mulvey was a big theorist to study for my foundation portfolio as it had a strong influence on whether I used a male or female model for my main article images. The majority of music magazines will switch between whether they use a male or female cover star, but it is also dependent on the genre of music. A lot of pop music thee days are produced by female performers, whilst rock music for example is heavily dominated by men. The Male Gaze Theory developed by Mulvery suggests that women are used as cover stars in an attempt to increase demand from male audiences, as they typically like to see good-looking women and they objectify them – women become nothing more than something to stare at. Despite that my music magazine genre was dominated more by men, I chose to re-create a female cover star as I wanted to appeal to a larger female dominated audience, and rather than employing a model-esque girl for my images, I used a friend who I considered to have a very influential, ‘normal’ look, which I hoped would inspire more women to ‘purchase’ my magazine. In a similar sense, I could have easily hired an attractive male model for my images in an attempt to attract women, but I felt that having my female model smile and pose with a guitar was much more innovative and creative and separated my magazine from the majority of those already on the market.

            During the second year, these research and planning skills have become so vital for me to create an even better piece of coursework compared to that from my foundation portfolio. So far I have really learnt to develop my research and planning skills to allow me to understand that it is also acceptable to challenge conventions, as long as I can apply it to the genre and the audience. With the music video industry, I have learnt that there are three different types of music video; performance, conceptual and narrative – all of which I learnt about during initial research. I also feel that I have made a smart choice in creating a music video, as I will be able to apply the knowledge I learnt about the conventions of music genre into my video, and further improve and enhance these elements. In order to be more creative with my A2 coursework, my research so far has involved me looking at the specific requirements of the three main types of music video, and how different genres of music apply to these. My chosen genre of music is a hybrid of indie and acoustic, which research showed me, was more likely to require a narrative-based video. Pop and rock music videos were more likely to be performance-based, so in order to make mine look more creative and unique in comparison to others out there on the market, I have planned to create my music video as a narrative, but with performance-based elements mixed in to diversify away from the stereotypical market.
              Overall, over the past few years, the skills that I have developed have had a great influence on the way I consider the planning and production of my coursework, because it has allowed me to view media texts in a completely different light and it also effects the way that I deconstruct them all. My research and planning skills have certainly had a great impact on the way I consider the fine details in my coursework, allowing me to improve upon my creativeness as I progress through to the A2 year and produce something which is appropriate and specific to my target audience.

Exam Practice 27/11/13

Analyse Media Representation In Last Years Coursework Production.

As a part of my AS Media coursework, I created a music magazine targeted towards a specific market, using all my own original photos and content ideas. When creating the product, I was able to learn a lot about not only the conventions of the specific genre, but the magazine industry overall, taking on specific design techniques and ‘rules’ as well as new terminology. In order to carry out the production process, I learnt about the importance of research, especially considering the use of representation in the media, specifically similar existing products to allow me to gain inspiration for my magazine. In order to make my magazine a successful product, I had to ensure that the content of my magazine and the appearance was going to portray and attract my target audience appropriately. The idea of media representation looks at the way in which the media portrays the diverse society we live in today. The other way to look at this idea is the idea of stereotypes, where the media portrays a certain image or idea about a specific group of people in society. For example, ‘Essex girls’ are portrayed to wear nothing but pink, have bright orange tans and bright white teeth.

Firstly, in terms of representation, I had to consider the actual genre of my magazine – who was it aimed at? ‘Sound’ Magazine was aimed at mostly teenage and young adult females with an interest in music genres such as alternative rock and indie rock. As this is a music genre I was familiar with prior to research, I knew the basic interests and characteristics of this target market – they like to play music, listen to music and attend music events. They are quite feminine but in terms of fashion they like to follow slightly alternative trends. Because of this particular stereotype, I chose a colour palette and other design features to suit these people more so that they would be more drawn to my magazine compared to others on the market. I used warmer pastel to suit the more feminine side of my target audience, whilst I used more vivid oranges and black for the finer details to connote the ‘edgier’ side of my customers. Not only did these colours reflect the personalities of my target audience well, but I also chose them as I felt they reflected some of the album covers of some of the artists who were likely to be featured within the magazine, such as The Script, Ed Sheeran and Kodaline.

Looking at theorists such as Blumler and Katz (1974), who proposed the idea of the Uses and Gratifications theory, “readers can relate to the characters of a media platform through ‘personal identity’” which is also something I tried to portray through the images and models I used alongside the content. By using a model that resembled the stereotype I was trying to portray – i.e. someone who played the guitar and was interested in the ‘boho’ fashion trend – I believed that my audience would be able to make a more distinct connection with the magazine. If my audience can seriously relate to not only the contextual content of a magazine, but the appearance side as well, they are more likely to continuously support and buy the magazine, which is my optimum ‘goal’ as the producer of this product. I do believe however that I made a mistake in the planning of this magazine, as although the target audience is mostly female, I have completely forgotten about the male attention that my magazine could get, and so I should have therefore considered also featuring some male models within the content to appeal to this side of the target audience as well, which would have improved the overall quality and performance of the product.

         Similarly, I had to consider the representation of women within my media product. Stereotypically, women are often portrayed in a negative light within the media, especially in magazines due to the images that publishers decide to publish. Publishers will make models look more desirable by using the ‘prettiest’, the ‘skinniest’ and those who are wearing the least amount of clothes – this is to conform to Mulvey’s 1975 theory about the Male Gaze. By doing so to female models, magazine producers will hope that men will be attracted to buy the magazine, purely to look at the revealing images. With my magazine, I attempted to challenge this representation of women, not only because the majority of readers will be women anyway, but to also make my female models more like inspirations or role-models for my female readers. I made my model pose in a way that portrayed her as strong and confident, and by making the images particularly big, they appeal to my female-based target audience, inspiring them too to be like this.

The Male/Female Gaze in Music Videos

Introduction:

The Male Gaze Theory was first introduced by Laura Mulvey in 1975, suggesting that an audience for a media product are expected to 'view' the 'characters' from the perspective of a heterosexual male - i.e. suggesting that all men are fascinated by and attracted to the idea of objectified and sexualised women. Most media companies when producing their product whether it be a music video, film, advert, poster etc. will use a range of techniques and specific images to portray a particular stereotype of women to essentially attract the gaze of all male attention to further help sell their product. This stereotype will often show women as; thin but curvy in the right places to sexualise their bodily image; they are also typically blonde to portray the 'dumb blonde' character, and they are also often given occupations such as nurses, car-washers etc to allow them to wear short, skimpy outfits to maximise their sexual image. Read more on Laura Mulvey/Male Gaze Theory here.

This concept of the Male Gaze Theory can easily be applied to the production of music videos. An interesting read on the intentions of music videos is defined in Dan Moller's report, Redefining Music Videos. In the report Dan stated that, "a music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes." Interestingly stated by Dan in the report, we should in fact ask ourselves what the true purpose of a music video today is, as they are not necessarily used for promoting or advertising a song. In fact, YouTube views are not always necessarily translated into sales, so if that is the case, then what is the true purpose in producing a music video, when the main goal for singers and producers is to make the money.

The production of a music video essentially starts with the writing of the songs lyrics. The lyrics are then recorded with music produced to accompany the words. But at what point does the idea of the music video come into place? Does someone take the lyrics of a song and visualise a video to perfectly accompany it, or does someone write lyrics purposely to have an outrageous music video produced for them? Mediation is the process of taking something that is real and changing it's form and appearance to produce something which is much more outrageous than what is originally expected of the product. Mediation looks at heightening the processes input into producing the product - processes that aren't typically going to be seen by the consumers - to create something deemed as 'perfect' by the producers. Mediation may take place in any media format, such as the news for example. Hundreds of news articles are produced on a daily basis but it is the News producers which decide which stories are to be aired on screen. This way, they can choose the stories which they feel are the most exciting and the most important in order to attempt to reach out to the maximum capacity of their potential audience. In the world of music videos, mediation could be how the video is actually cut. The actors and singers in, for example, Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines video, probably had to prance around for hours on end to ensure that producers have enough footage. But it is the producers who have chosen to input the more revealing and sexualised clips into the 4 minute video, essentially removing anything that they deem 'too boring' for the product. Along with these chosen clips, zooming in onto various girls' curves and facial features, mediation decides for us what the most important parts of the product are, rather then us being allowed to make up our own minds. 

So in fact, in today's society, the music video isn't really perceived as a method of promoting the actual music or the band/artist - the vast majority are produced so that with the help of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, they go viral, and the artist/record label are fully thrown into the spotlight of the public eye through media attention, thus, generating the music sales. A more recent example of this is Miley Cyrus' video for her single, "Wrecking Ball," directed by Terry Richardson, a photographer renowned for working with the likes of Lady Gaga, of which he co-produced a photo-book with her, publishing some fairly controversial images. The music video for Wrecking Ball was released on the 9th of September 2013 on VEVO, of which to date it has received more than 60 million views (a new VEVO record), which is considerably high in comparison to how many copies the actual song will sell in it's lifetime. Why is this? Purely because of the controversy behind the star seen riding on a wrecking ball completely naked, and seductively licking a hammer. As obscure as the idea behind the music video is, there aren't many men that have been seen to complain. Overall, the majority of criticism for this video has come from feminists, who argue that behaviour like this only further sexualises the female identity, reminding men of the stereotypical ties that apply to the female body.



  The Male and Female Gaze in Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe

Directed by: Ben Knechtel (M)

The female gaze is heavily represented in Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen's music video for 'Call Me Maybe' which went on to become Britain's second best-selling single of 2012, and also a top-ten hit in 29 countries, and number one in 19 countries. Directors for the video wanted to put in a twist to prevent the classic 'boy meets girl' story being told again. In the video, Jepsen is seen spying on her neighbour, of whom she clearly has a crush on, as he is portrayed in a typically attractive manner in order to gain the attention of the female viewers. The character is seen topless, where his body is well-toned, tattooed and tanned, portraying the ideal image for most women viewers. The character is also seen performing typical manly chores such as mowing the lawn to build up the idealistic nature of the character. 

Similarly, this theory could be reversed to introduce the Male Gaze, as certain male viewers may idolize the male character and strive to adjust their own body image to look like that in order to gain female attention of their own. Close-ups and extreme close-ups are used within the video to focus directly on parts of the man's body, such as his well-built and toned physique and his 'pretty' features on his face. By using these camera shots, the main focus is put directly on these body parts, and allows the viewers, whether it be men or women, to directly interact with them, giving them more of a reason to find them attracted and feel dominant over the character.

However, the video does not just focus on the male character as a way of introducing The Male/Female Gaze theory. In the video, Carly Rae Jepsen is seen acting in a provocative way by washing her car - an action commonly seen performed by girls in American rom-com movies - as a way of gaining both the male characters' attention plus the attention of any male viewers as it supposedly makes her look more desirable, showing evidence of the Male Gaze in this video. The way Jepsen is directed also helps to connote the idea of the typical 'dumb' female, which men often associate women with as being 'easy'. By wearing her hair in two plaits makes her look more youthful and potentially vulnerable, and the tiny shorts and baggy vest make her look more desirable. By falling all over the place over this one guy, the character Jepsen is playing comes across really simple-minded, like the typical 'dumb blondes' from American teen rom-coms, which men find attractive as it makes them the more dominant gender.

The twist comes in towards the end of the video however where instead of the male character being typically interested in the woman, he is seen giving his phone number to one of Jepsen's male band members, suggesting that the character is instead attracted to men. This proves that in today's society, the Male/Female Gaze theory has evolved and may not necessarily continue to work in attracting either men or women. In modern media, like in this music video, employing the Male Gaze may not necessarily work by showing attractive women, as not all men may like this. Attracting a male audience may require more and more representation of attractive men, and vice versa for the Female Gaze. I think this works as a positive criticism of the theory, as it means less stereotypes are being falsely used in the media, which would evidently lead to less negative emotion and negative feedback.

Overall, due to the outrageousness of the video, it can be argued that this particular music video is more well known than the actual song is. If consumers are asked to describe the song, they are more likely to describe the actual video. This is mostly caused by the intervention of technology in today's society. The 'music video' became prominent in the 1980's when MTV was first launched onto cable TV. Back then, that was the only method to watch music videos, and at the time they were still being heavily experimented with, with a variety of different styles of music video being produced. Today, we have the intervention of the Internet, with sites such as YouTube and VEVO responsible for heavily advertising music videos practically EVERYWHERE.

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The Male Gaze in Thong Song by Sisqo

Directed by: Joseph Khan (M)

 As much as we all like to sing and dance to this catchy tune, Thong Song is renowned for showing the objectification of women in it's video. Despite the revealing video, Thong Song, released in 1999, received 4 Grammy award nominations and became the biggest hit in The States that year.The original video, seen above, sees Sisqo attend a Spring Break party on the beach in Miami, where young women are seen to wear nothing but bikini tops and thongs. The video received some minor criticism for exploiting women as sexual objects.

In the video, the camera is directed so that many close-up shots of the women's curves and thongs are the main focus of the male viewer. By primarily filling up the playback time of the video with these close-up shots, they instantly gain the attention of more male viewers, plus it insinuates the idea that these are the only part's of a woman that are worth worrying about - something that feminist critics would argue deeply, as women should be seen more as intellectuals and independent people, rather than sexual objects.

Many high-angle shots are also used in the video as a method of showing that society 'looks down on women'. The high angle shots make the viewers - primarily men - see the women models as lower, inferior humans to the men in society. Using many high-angle shots also give viewers a birds-eye-view of the models in their bikinis, which would attract more male viewers as it makes the images much more revealing, objectifying women even more as men would continue to simply look at women for good looks rather than intelligence and independence. 

The models picked to feature in this video all relatively look the same - that's because most directors will pick models to fit against a certain criteria - and this it to ensure that they are all 'attractive' enough to capture the male gaze. In the case of this video, the women are all relatively tall, slim and curvy, with dark, tanned skin and long hair. The use of the sea backdrop and the idea that these models have been into the sea gives them a wet/dampness to their skin, which also makes them more desirable to the male audience. 

However, to criticise this video further, the thought of the male gaze present is disturbing simply because of the involvement of a small child within the opening of this video. Seeing a young child might suggest to young viewers who do not know the true meaning of the song might be lulled into watching the video thinking that because a child is present, it's going to be quite fun and child-friendly, corrupting society as many young children will then be revealed to the sort of images that should only be open to adults. 

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The Male and Female Gaze in banned music videos

2013 has seen the release of a lot of successful new music videos, such as Daft Punk's Get Lucky, Icona Pop's I Love It and Naughty Boy's La La La, but two videos in particular are seeing major success for initially being banned from being to revealing and 'full of' the Male Gaze attributes. Robin Thicke's video for Blurred Lines and Justin Timberlake's video for Tunnel Vision were both released onto YouTube before quickly being removed for the over-use of female nudity and sexuality. Both the videos have now been re-uploaded to the site with adjustments made to make them less revealing and suitable for it's target audience.

Directed by: Jonathan Craven (M)

Directed by: Diane Martel (F)

Both of the music videos have been compared by critics for focusing on fully-dressed men dancing around naked women (original version). Since the edits of the videos, the models in 'Blurred Lines' were made to wear cropped t-shirts whereas in the original they were completely topless. In the original video for 'Tunnel Vision' there was simply more of the naked women revealed, but the topless images were allowed to be kept and published by YouTube as they stated that the video explored nudity in a tasteful and artistic manner.

Both of the videos, either edited or not, are examples of showing The Male Gaze, primarily because the main subjects are the scantily clad/naked models. Using naked or semi-naked female models is destined to guarantee attention from male viewers, similar to how the Page 3 models in newspaper The Sun generate lots of male attention. Also, the use of the singers/rappers sexually interacting with or looking at the models prove that that is exactly how the male eyes see these women. The models, like the music video for Sisqo's Thong Song, all fit a specific criteria in which they would be deemed as 'desirable' or 'attractive' and that seems to be: tall, skinny, toned body, long hair, pretty makeup and a good body shape.

Mulvey stated that, "women were objectified in film because heterosexual men were in control of the camera," but that's not totally true, as this video was in fact directed by a woman. Whereas nowadays it is more common or more acceptable to see homosexual or bisexual women, which could be the reason as to why this femlae directer wanted to sexualise and objectify the female models, but it also could be due to the fact that society in general has become a lot wiser, and so this director knows that by having desirable women as the core focus for the video will generate a lot of attention for her client's video. 

The shot-types for both of the videos also play a huge role in showing the male gaze. Medium long-shots are particularly used within the 'Blurred Lines' video to show the models from head to toe to ensure that male viewers can see every inch of their bodies. Close-ups are also used to show the models' faces, as this way the sultry, appealing poses they pull will connect directly with the male viewers, making women seem like they are useful for nothing more than being 'pretty-looking models'. In both videos, models are made to pull provocative poses to entice the male viewers and to make them look more desirable, showing off their skinny, 'idealistic' bodies. Quite disturbingly in the 'Blurred Lines' video, one of the props includes a wad of money being passed between the two men, suggesting the possibility that these women have been 'paid for' giving out the idea that women are seen as prizes by men, or like prostitutes, they can simply be bought for sex. 

The video for 'Tunnel Vision' on the other hand is much more tasteful, with mise-en-scene being taken into account a lot more to promote women in a slightly better fashion, but it still nevertheless suggests the male gaze theory. The combination of dark lighting and smoke gives the video a sultry, moody tone, adding to the desire and lust provided by the models. These effects give the video it's mysterious 'sexy' tone, therefore changing the mood of primarily the male viewers, to see the women as more-or-less sexual objects. Image projections are also used to project Justin Timberlake's face onto the naked bodies of the models, suggesting the idea that women are inferiors and that men have total control. 

The physical shooting of this video is arguably much classier too, as the close-ups of the women's curves do not show full-own adult nudity, but still act as a way to engage with the male viewers, as the smooth skin is typically desirable for any given male. A lot of silhouette-style shots are also edited in to outline the typical 'perfect' female body, a clear resemblance to stereotypical 'pin-up girls'. These silhouettes exaggerate the shape and size of the models, making them look more desirable to men as it is clearer as to how skinny, toned and curvy they all are, attributes which are all seen as 'idealistic' by men. 

 The complete idea behind this video is the concept of picking one 'perfect' girl out of many. It focuses a lot on the idea of a man being completely engrossed in 'his' woman, which the extreme close-up of Timberlake's eyes helps to suggest as viewers make a direct connection with the video in this way. This close-up however may create a source of the female gaze in the video, as Timberlake is represented as an attractive man, and his eyes may engage directly with female viewers as women typically like men with nice eyes.

Aside from Timberlake, the female models were all chosen because they physically look desirable because they are beautiful, desirable models. However, they have been directed to dance and pose provocatively and in a revealing manner to engage with and entice the male viewers.