Critical investigation - An investigation into stereotypes of male teens in contemporary urban dramas.
Linked production - To produce a front cover, contents page and features for a teen magazine.
3 articles related to my critical investigation:
1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2008/feb/24/pressandpublishing.gender
Why the media will hound the girls - but leave the boys alone
The difficult and damaged lives of female celebrities are covered aggressively by the US media - but men in the same situation are treated completely differently
Theresa Rebeck
The Observer, Sunday 24 February 2008
In October 1999 the New Yorker magazine ran a picture of two pretty teenagers. They had way cute jewellery on, and they sort of loosely held onto pillows in which they were not even vaguely interested; they looked at the camera with a sultry teenage confidence as if to say, 'Ah, you've interrupted us in the middle of our girlish pillow fight but we all know this pillow-fight thing is really a sham, a wry set-up cooked up by this photographer to give some sort of narrative to a picture that is actually merely being taken because we're young and pretty and rich.' It is a sensational picture. The two girls are Paris and Nicky Hilton, and they were 18 and 15 years old at the time.
They were also - we are told by the column of copy accompanying the photo - New York's new 'It' Girls. It's kind of a charming little piece about how their great-grandfather was Conrad Hilton, and how they now swan around New York. The issue that presented this fabulous picture of these two at the time completely unknown teenage girls was titled 'The Next Generation'. The premise being that, in the waning months of the 20th century, the New Yorker would tell us which rising stars we should take note of, as they were going to be 'big' in the New Millennium.
Other folk who were featured in this issue were David Howell (an eight-year-old chess champion), Sergio Garcia (the golfer), Zadie Smith (babelicious young novelist), Haley Joel Osment (11-year-old movie star), Vincenzo Sarno (11-year-old football star) and McSweeney's, a literary quarterly begun by ultra-hip lit star David Eggers.
To date, the one from which we've heard the most is Paris Hilton. Those New Yorker editors were definitely right about her. The question does remain, however: why would the New Yorker - the most literary of all literary magazines - run a picture of Paris Hilton in the first place? Why on earth is the New Yorker publishing puff pieces about pretty girls who go to parties? Does the New Yorker ever run photos of cute boys just because they're cute and they come from money and they go to lots of parties? Where are the puff pieces on Paris Hilton's brothers? (You didn't know she had brothers, did you? She does, though: she has two.)
The evidence of the 'Next Generation' issue suggests that boys achieve, and girls are pretty. Zadie Smith is definitely an achiever, but she's also pretty. But I don't want to come down on the New Yorker for a cultural trend that infects every media outlet everywhere, it seems. The New York Times has recently decided that this is news. A piece by Alex Williams in the 17 February Style Section tells us that, 'Boys will be boys, girls will be hounded by the media.'
It's a pretty interesting compilation of facts about how the media basically look the other way when the boys have a problem or two, but when the girls behave in much the same way, it's a free-for-all. For instance, when Owen Wilson attempts suicide, people are pretty sensitive about the fact that the actor and his family maybe need some privacy. When Britney Spears goes into hospital for treatment for mental illness, we don't get quite so much sensitivity from the press.
Even, or maybe especially, when tragedy strikes, the boys get much better treatment. Heath Ledger's recent death, like that of River Phoenix, was handled with great care by the press. Anna Nicole Smith's not so much. When Kiefer Sutherland went to jail for drink-driving, you barely noticed it. When Paris Hilton went to jail - well, everyone on the planet knows what happened.
I was actually staying at a friend's house in LA when that happened and believe it or not, my friend lives on Paris Hilton's street. One day some reporters knocked on the door and asked me what I thought of all the media coverage and did I think that Paris should be asked to move off the block? Apparently another neighbour was trying to get her kicked off her block because it was just too crazy having all those paparazzi and reporters swarming up and down the street all the time; did I think Paris should move?
I wanted to say, 'Oh well, it's a free country and it's not like she's a sex offender - isn't she really just a pretty girl who parties a lot?' But I copped to the fact that I was just visiting my friend Lisa and when they found out I didn't actually live there, the reporters didn't care what I thought. It's just as well. I was about to also say: 'Maybe the people who should be forced to move off the street are you guys.'
But back to the point. The New York Times reports that the reason there's this obsession with pretty girls making big public mistakes is that women really like to read about that, and look at pictures of pretty girls doing self-destructive things while wearing fabulous clothing. Seriously, People and Us and all the magazines that feature these kinds of stories are largely read by women, and women like reading about crazy behaviour when girls do it, but not boys. Like doting mothers, apparently, we believe the boys are really just a little rambunctious or something, and the less said the better. But women readers actually like to see pretty girls screw up, we're positively obsessed by it, to the degree that we want them to do drugs and get into drink-driving accidents and act like total freaks and end up in rehab or worse.
In the interest of full disclosure, allow me to admit that of late I have become somewhat obsessed with the media obsession with these young women. I got it in my head about six years ago that I might write a novel about It Girls. So I started reading all these magazines, and looking at the pictures. Mostly, I conducted my research at the gym, where a lot of people leave these magazines lying around. So I would go through the left-over magazine rack, and find old copies of OK and Star and Life & Style, and try to get a sense of what the appeal was.
My friend Julie calls these magazines 'crack', and she knows of what she speaks. Within no time, I had opinions about a lot of things I know nothing about. I could hold long discussions about whom I liked better, Angelina or Jen. I developed a preference for issues that covered the awards shows because it was so much fun to look at everyone wearing those pretty dresses. I found some It Girls boring (Britney - sorry, couldn't care less) and some fascinating (Lindsay Lohan - seems like a nightmare but what an actress). Before I started conducting my 'research' I spent my time at the gym listening to books on tape, or sometimes I even listened to lectures, say, about the fall of the Roman Empire. But bettering my mind was no longer on the agenda: all I wanted to know was who Cameron Diaz was dating.
My husband, meanwhile, had no interest in these magazines, nor did my son, a 13-year-old who thinks that Jessica Alba is a really good actress, especially when she's wearing her superhero spandex. While both of them seem to be red-blooded heterosexuals they could not be less interested in the It Girl narrative of glamour and destruction. When I bring these magazines home, they couldn't care less. They don't look at the pictures of pretty girls in fabulous clothing; they don't read about Brad and Angelina; they don't even check out Rihanna on the red carpet.
Not so long ago my feminist education taught me to ask the question: 'Is the gaze male?' The answer, apparently, is yes, which is why so many movies and television shows are about men, and not women. Our distorted media culture sees men as subjects and women as objects; in films Woody Allen gets older and older and still dates 20-year-old babes; movies about women are called 'chick flicks' and men make fun of them. Because women's stories are about women and men don't want to understand women; they want to look at women, as long as they're young and beautiful. Because the gaze is male.
But if the gaze is male, then why don't guys want to look at endless pictures of gorgeous It Girls? Trust me, Britney Spears isn't dressing like a slut because she's trying to get the attention of a bunch of ladies at the gym. But it's the ladies at the gym who are buying. Why? Because Us and OK and Star and Life & Style are chick flicks. It Girls, apparently, are the objects of male desire who have found themselves in a chick flick.
So we have created a culture that celebrates girls as sex objects, turned that into a cultural ideal, and moved it to the centre of a bunch of addictive narratives for women. It's not a brilliant equation, frankly; it's like turning athletes into meth heads and sending them out to play the Super Bowl. Whatever. In any case, I'm done with it. All these gorgeous young girls getting drunk and partying and sleeping around and ending up in rehab, or jail, or the morgue? Come on; there's a better equation out there; there has to be. Maybe somebody should buy Lindsay some books on tape. I recommend Our Mutual Friend.
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/feb/26/features.mirandasawyer
The film that speaks to Britain's youth in words they understand
Fighting, stealing, sex and boozing - your average 24 hours for west London teenagers. It will ruffle feathers, but Kidulthood is a refreshing slice of urban life
Miranda Sawyer
The Observer, Sunday 26 February 2006
'It examines every current teenage media cliche you'd care to name, from hoodies to unwanted pregnancy' ... Kidulthood
Corrine Burton, 18, is on the phone to her friend, Mario. 'You have to see this film!' she trumpets. 'Oh my days ... you would love it! You would so relate to it.'
Production year: 2005
Country: UK
Cert (UK): 15
Runtime: 91 mins
Directors: Menhaj Huda
Cast: Adam Deacon, Aml Ameen, Jaime Winstone, Red Madrell
Corrine and I have just watched Kidulthood, a slick, contemporary, British-made movie set in and around the streets of west London. But there's no Richard Curtis cutesiness in this Notting Hill flick. It's about a group of 15-year-olds given the day off from school due to a suicide in their year. What they get up to in their 24 hours is, frankly, knackering: sex, drugs, booze, fighting, stealing, knifing, gun-toting and an entire Trisha series-worth of arguing.
This is no finger-wagging get-thee-to-a-Jobcentre film, though, but a refreshing, energetic, modern movie that documents urban teenagers' lives with wit and vigour. Slicker and less worthy than last year's acclaimed Bullet Boy, Kidulthood has been described as London's City of God: it's not quite that, but it's a good sight closer to that kinetic portrait of street life than Love Actually. Kidulthood and its talented team of actors showcase what this country is really good at - anti-authoritarianism, music and lust.
The fact that there's a mobile phone or two in there has led some (the Sun) to label Kidulthood the 'happy slapping movie' but, in fact, it examines every current teenage media cliche you'd care to name, from hoodies to unwanted pregnancy. What's different is that it deals with them all from the teenagers' point of view. Adults are on the periphery: either out of reach, out of touch or, as in the open-minded mother who urges her daughter through her bedroom door to 'use a condom, darling', completely on the wrong track. The daughter's boyfriend is actually about to beat her up.
Kidulthood has had some criticism, from those who accuse it of being unbelievably bleak or, weirdly, voyeuristic (as though we're only allowed to watch films that directly depict our own lives). But for Corrine, from Streatham, south London: 'The film definitely felt real to me. I mean, all that stuff wouldn't have happened in one day, they crammed it in. But the way everyone in that film is, that's how everyone I know is. And the talk is perfect, to be honest.'
The talk is the slang-filled youth vernacular that you hear every day on buses across urban Britain. It's exhilarating to hear it on film in all its filthy, furious glory. And it is filthy: the first thing that one female character says is: 'So I told him, brush your teeth after you lick me out.' That's Becky, played by Jaime Winstone, daughter of Ray. Becky leads the main female character Alisa (Red Madrell) into all sorts of dodgy situations involving blowjobs and full sex for drugs and money. In fact, all of the sex in Kidulthood is part of a barter situation, whether for specific items, respect or love. Often, it takes place in front of other people.
'That's normal! I know girls who are like, any boy will do! It's not about boyfriends,' says Corrine. 'And in front of other people? I do know people like that. Sex isn't really a big issue, it's nothing no more. That is common, you don't think nothing of it.' When I talk to Kidulthood's writer, Noel Clarke (Mickey in Doctor Who), who also plays Sam, the film's bullying bad guy, he agrees with Corrine. 'It seems like sex isn't a big deal these days. There's a weird hippy attitude, like all bodies are the same ... and everyone knows a girl like Becky, just dirty.'
Clarke wrote the screenplay three years ago and based the trio of central male characters - Trife, Jay and Moony, played by Aml Ameen, Adam Deacon and Femi Oyeniran - on himself and his schoolfriends. He says that some of the film's action came from his own life (taxis refusing to stop for him, being falsely accused of shoplifting) and some from friends' experience or the media.
Kidulthood has its fair share of violence; there's a particularly nasty torture scene involving Trife, his bad uncle Curtis and some face-carving. This scene was added to Clarke's original screenplay 'to get a real sense of where Trife could end up,' he explains. 'Either as someone like Curtis or someone on the wrong side of Curtis, the person on the table.' There's also a horribly aggressive girl-on-girl bullying scene which takes place in front of a whole class of kids who fail to intervene. Corrine was shocked that no character stopped it: 'I would have said something,' she says. 'I wouldn't have jumped in, but I would have said, "Can't you leave her alone?"' This lack of loyalty leads to Corrine's only criticism of the film: how the characters turned on each other.
'That's not friends! That's junior school stuff to me.' She wonders what young people would gain from watching Kidulthood. 'You can see them being influenced for the worse by it or you can see them going, "I don't want to live that life."' Clarke insists that, though he doesn't want to moralise, he thinks that the film is a cautionary tale: 'It might look cool but you don't want to end up like any of them, not even Alisa [Kidulthood's moral centre]. You shouldn't want to end up like any of them.' And what of older viewers; parents, say? 'Well, how can a parent win?' asks Clarke. 'If you're liberal, you're too liberal; if you're strict, you're too strict. The mother who sanctions her daughter's love life by telling her to use a condom is trying her best. It doesn't matter what's happening on the other side of the door, she's still trying to communicate with her daughter, to reach her. Parents can't win.'
Never mind: even loser parents would be hard-pressed not to enjoy Kidulthood, even as they cringe. This is a rollicking UK youth ride, cinematically filmed, persuasively acted and bumped along by a fantastic all-British soundtrack from the Streets, Audio Bullys, Dizzee Rascal and Roots Manuva. Some youth style publications love it so much that they have offered ad space for free. It's also very funny, laced with a humour of the slapped-in-the-face-with-a-kipper sort: you can't help laughing because it's so outrageous.
It also captures another part of west London, the part the Japanese tourists have missed out on so far. 'Yeah, so far we've only seen one side of the road in films,' says Clarke. 'If you walk out of that nice house and cross that road, there's a council estate bang opposite.'
3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jun/05/noel-clarke-interview-doghouse
'I'm not patient. I just like to get it done'
Writer, director, actor, Doctor Who sidekick, Bafta winner - when chances come Noel Clarke's way, he takes them. And now: zombies. Cath Clarke (no relation) met him
Cath Clarke
The Guardian, Friday 5 June 2009
Noel Clarke wrote and acted in the two films that best captured the public fear of "hoodies" - Kidulthood and Adulthood, directing the latter, too. So when he gives me a hoodie - a sweater, not a teenager - it throws me a bit. Clarke picks up two more (the sports brand in question sent clothes to the set while Kidulthood was being filmed, and still sends Clarke bags of the stuff). Perhaps clocking the unlikelihood of it being worn, he adds: "You could give it to your boyfriend or husband or whoever. Red or brown?"
Production year: 2009
Country: UK
Cert (UK): 15
Runtime: 88 mins
Directors: Jake West
Cast: Danny Dyer, Emil Marwa, Emily Booth, Keith-Lee Castle, Lee Ingleby, Noel Clarke, Stephen Graham
In February Clarke won the rising star award at the Baftas for his two-film mini franchise. They were a pure word-of-mouth phenomenon - films about kids that kids actually wanted to watch - and Adulthood eventually grossed £3.4m. Which of course means they are packed with the stuff of their parents' nightmares: hand jobs, sex, pregnancy, suicide, stabbings and nasty-sounding slang.
"I'm really not that young any more," says Clarke, protesting at the suggestion that he's at the head of a young British film-making bratpack. At 33, he is not exactly old either - though if you asked the teenagers who watch his films they'd probably say he's well past it. I heard a bit of sniping when he got the Bafta. That he'd put himself about, campaigned too hard to win by doing interviews and television appearances in the run-up (the award is voted for by the public, though a jury decides the shortlist). But working hard is what Clarke does. "Look," he says: "You don't go from gym instructor to Baftas by not being on it."
He has assumed a relaxed position; sitting in a bar, arms stretched out across the back of the sofa. But he keeps his eyed fixed ahead for a lot of the time, concentrating. He got his first break 10 years ago, when the playwright Rikki Beadle-Blair cast him in the TV show Metrosexuality. Beadle-Blair was a regular at the gym that Clarke worked at; he had recently left a media-studies course at university in order to act full-time. "I hustled to get an audition," Clarke says. Beadle-Blair says he's never met anybody as driven. Months before the audition, Clarke was pestering him for a script, practising lines. "His success is not a surprise," says Beadle-Blair. "He made it inevitable. He's got an insatiable desire to learn."
Clarke says his work ethic comes from his mum, a Trinidadian nurse who brought him up in Ladbroke Grove, the area of London in which he set Kidulthood. As a teenager he found his way into a bit of mischief, the occasional scrape, but was never afraid to say no to anything heavier - thanks again to his mum. Did he always want be an actor? "Always," he answers, before the question is even finished.
His career to date feels a bit all over the place. "Diverse, I'd call it," he says. After Metrosexuality he was in the BBC's Auf Wiedersehen, Pet revival, did a couple of plays, won an Olivier for promising newcomer and then, in 2003, he landed the role of Mickey, a slightly hapless Tardis hanger-on, in Doctor Who. One minute he was playing Billie Piper's on-off boyfriend and flirting with Anne Robinson on Celebrity Weakest Link, the next on a film set hearing Jaime Winstone telling her pregnant best mate she ought to sort herself out with a coat hanger.
Still, it all fits. There is a touch of the tea-time charmer about Clarke. When I ask what he does when he's not working he answers: "PlayStation or Wii. Or shenanigans with the missus." Or, describing his time as a trainer: "I could tell you stories. Naughty stories that the lads would find funny."
Clarke says it was the quality of scripts he was getting that started him writing. "I was reading stuff thinking, 'Fuck this, man, I can write better.'" He went out and bought screenplays of his favourite films: Pulp Fiction, Clerks, American Beauty. He always pictured himself playing the lead in Kidulthood: "But by the time it came around the director was like, 'Dude, you're too old to play this part.'" He had to fight his corner to get to play the older bully, Sam. Does that experience explain why he chose to direct the sequel himself? He says not; the suggestion came from the film company after Menhaj Huda (who made the first) turned it down. "At first I was like, I dunno. I thought maybe I want to direct in five years' time. But, you know what, in five years' time I might be working behind a bar." He nods over to, well, the bar. "You never know. It's a weird industry."
He didn't much care about the flak that Kidulthood got - or the praise for that matter. "People can criticise me all day long. It just washes off me. You might as well be talking to a wall." It was accused of everything from pandering to middle-class voyeurism to glamorising violence. Which it wasn't. Like teenagers themselves, it was actually very moralising - and prone to a bit of melodrama. I have no idea if the slang was accurate, but the kids' solipsism was. Look at their reactions to a suicide - "Did she mention me in the note?" "She was really tall and pretty. I'd like to be that tall."
Clarke can be quite moralistic, too. He says he can't stand celebrity car-crash culture or the media that reports it: "So-and-so is drunk again on the floor. Let's buy her album. No, let's not, really. Let's stop giving her income completely and see if she cleans up." He's never taken drugs, he barely drinks. He looks horrified when I ask him if his wife works in the industry. "No, God no. No." They have a one-year-old son, but Clarke says he is still a bit of a workaholic. "Why am I going to waste it? Why am I suddenly going to get up at noon now? I get up at 6.30am, go to the gym and come home and write. Or I'm learning my lines. And I'll do it. I'll learn them backwards. I'm not patient. I just like to get it done."
That level of intensity that can seem cold, even arrogant. "I'd always much rather be second choice on anything because it makes you work harder." But there must be a bit of doubt in there too. I tell him he looked cool as a cucumber sauntering up on stage to get his Bafta. He did a flashy thing with his dinner jacket, making a show of turning the collars up, as he stood up. "Maybe there was a bit of smugness." He looks at me sharply. "Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but that's me. I'm just who I am. I don't try to change myself for other people."
When I tell him I don't think it's one for the ladies, Clarke says that two of the projects he's got "bubbling" will be. What he has in mind for himself now is a kind of producer/writer/fixer role - "like Tarantino in America" - using his name to get films by lesser-known writers and directors made. One of the two he is talking about he says is girl power "reborn and rebranded. Forget those platform heels." The other is about a woman in her late 20s which he has worked on with a female writer, who would direct if it gets the go-ahead: "I think it's important that we have a new batch of British film-makers that aren't doing the same old stuff. And that includes me."
Wednesday 25 November 2009
Thursday 19 November 2009
On and off representation
On and off representation would have an impact on my critical investigation and linked production and this would also affect the way that the audience is showing representations of groups. On and off representation would have an impact on my critical investigation because I would be looking at the stereotypes of male teens in contemporary urban dramas and this would have an impact based on the on and off representation. By this we can tell that the stereotypes of teenagers on urban dramas would be because of how the off screen producers represent teenagers. This would mean that if the off screen producers agreed with the stereotypes of teenagers, they would represent teenagers in this way in urban dramas which would mean that teenagers would be involved in crime, knife crime etc. By this we can tell that the way that the off screen producers represent teenagers, male teenagers would be shown in this way on screen and this would mean that the audience watching the film would also think this representation of male teenagers. This would mean that because of the off screen producers, the audience is shown what the off screen producers want to show them and this would mean that the audience as a whole would think bad about male teenagers.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Guardian cover work
Guardian Article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/15/bbc.television
The BBC will only survive by understanding its diverse consumers
Peter Salmon
The Guardian, Monday 15 September 2008
A snail could crawl the entire length of the Great Wall of China in just slightly more time than the 200 years it will take for women to be equally represented in parliament. That was just one of a series of striking statistics from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in their Sex and Power report published last week.
It added that women hold just 11% of FTSE directorships, with the judiciary and others also strongly criticised. At the BBC, the figures are a bit better - almost 38% of all senior managers are women - but it does bring into sharp focus the challenge the whole media industry is facing to improve diversity among its workforce.
Tomorrow's Guardian Ethnic Media Summit is a chance to debate what is arguably our most pressing diversity issue - ensuring more talent from ethnic minority communities reaches the upper echelons of broadcasting. The growth particularly of young ethnic minority audiences, is soaring - way above the population average - making them a critical cultural and business challenge for everyone in our sector.
Things are definitely changing but still not quickly enough. The whole media industry needs to look afresh at what more can be done.
So why does a white, middle-aged bloke like me feel compelled to write about this? As the BBC's chief creative officer, overseeing our programme production made in-house, I believe passionately that only by drawing on the talents of every part of society can we best reflect the lives and concerns of our diverse audiences on screen.
We must do more and the BBC is certainly redoubling its efforts. And though ethnicity is very important, it is only one part of this story. We must also think in terms of age, disability, gender, social class and regional difference.
That is why I think the historic changes to move a significant proportion of BBC network production out of London to places such as Glasgow or North West England over the next decade might be key to all this.
We will transfer large numbers of staff from London but we will also recruit many new faces - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to add something substantially new to our gene pool of talent, to change the BBC's DNA a little.
We seem to be moving in the right direction, increasing opportunities for people from ethnic minority backgrounds at most levels.
The proportion of our staff from ethnic minorities is 11.5% - again comparing very well with both public and private sector organisations including the civil service, health service and the police. But as the Edinburgh Television Festival heard, still not enough people make it into senior management roles, particularly as controllers and commissioners.
The BBC has looked closely at the barriers to progress and announced new schemes to tackle them - costing £3m over three years.
Firstly, we need to change the way we recruit. We are dramatically increasing the outreach work we do - in community groups, colleges, schools and through open sessions across the UK - to encourage under-represented groups to apply to the BBC. I recently worked with an energetic bunch of young students, mainly from ethnic minority backgrounds, who were introduced to the BBC by the University of Central Lancashire - from the former mill towns of Blackburn and Preston, not places we'd traditionally think to look for the next generation.
Then we need to be better at retaining talented individuals and supporting them in reaching their full potential and moving into senior roles. Our new mentoring and development programme, which offers greater one-to-one and intensive personalised support, is so important. In addition, our new trainee production scheme, which has just kicked off, and our journalism trainee schemes, have a strong diversity focus, so we are providing clearer pathways into all parts of the BBC.
On screen, we must constantly strive to reflect as accurately as possible the rich cultural mix of the UK.
Earlier this year BBC non-executive director Samir Shah criticised what he called "inauthentic representation" of ethnic minority communities, citing the Ferreira family in EastEnders.
It is unfair to highlight one five-year-old example from a drama series that remains the most popular programme on television among ethnic minority audiences. This example fails to reflect many other aspects of our work, particularly our in-house drama output. Our continuing drama series, including Holby City and Casualty, have led the way in casting diverse talent, in leading roles as well. Though we do not always get it right, overall we have much to be proud of.
The BBC set up the Writers' Academy, under John Yorke, four years ago, increasing the number of writers from diverse backgrounds working on our biggest programmes, including some of our continuing drama series.
In addition, programmes such as Criminal Justice, No1 Ladies Detective Agency, Life Is Not All Ha Ha Hee Hee, Shoot the Messenger, the entertainment series Last Choir Standing and a lot of our children's output have also been praised for the way they have represented diversity or addressed issues faced by communities from different backgrounds.
Part of this is ensuring we get closer to audiences when making programmes. For example, White Girl - part of BBC2's groundbreaking White Season - told the story of a white family relocating from Leeds to a predominantly Asian community in Bradford. Here the production team worked very closely with the community to ensure a sensitive and accurate portrayal.
In an increasingly globalised creative economy where competition will intensify, it is only by understanding our diverse consumers that we can stay relevant and survive. The BBC prides itself on keeping in touch with its audiences - to do so successfully we'll need to keep making changes, and fast.
3 Articles on Media Guardian: Race and Religion:
1. Nick Griffin to lodge formal complaint with BBC over Question Time
BNP demands BBC give Nick Griffin second Question Time appearance, 'in correct format', outside multicultural London
Mark Sweney
guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 October 2009 12.53 BST
BNP leader Nick Griffin is to lodge a formal complaint and freedom of information request to the BBC over the way his appearance on Question Time was handled.
He will argue that the format of the show was skewed to focus almost solely on the BNP, not wider issues, that the makeup of the audience was primarily anti-BNP and that a broader range of questions were not fielded, a spokesman for the party said.
The BBC has fielded more than 400 calls and emails about Griffin's appearance on Question Time last night – with more than half complaining that the show was biased against the British National Party leader.
BBC online forums were flooded with support for Griffin and attacks on the BBC, the other panellists and the anti-fascist demonstrators outside Television Centre yesterday. However, there were also comments supporting the BBC for its decision to invite Griffin on to the Question Time panel.
Question Time attracted 7.9 million viewers, half the total TV audience for its 10.35pm slot – which is thought to be a record figure for the show.
The BNP spokesman said: "He was not treated the same as other elected politicians [who appear on the show]; it was a completely unfair showing.
"Question Time changed the whole format of the programme. The BNP will be putting in a freedom of information request to the BBC and programme makers to ask about the process of changing the format of the whole programme. [We want to know] why they felt they had to break with the usual format."
He said that the BNP wanted a second outing on Question Time to be "re-run in the correct format". "If people want to be critical, fair enough – they should not dominate the whole programme."
The spokesman added that Question Time had a history of moving locations and that London was too "multicultural" to be fair to the BNP and that perhaps a location like the northwest of England would be an option.
"It is logical: that is where he was elected and an audience would contain a representative cross-section of voters, some of whom may have voted for the BNP," he said. "It would make for a more balanced programme."
Griffin is also keen to challenge Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to a one-on-one debate over Labour policies.
Griffin himself said today he was planning to make a formal complaint to the BBC about last night's show, telling Sky News: "That was not a genuine Question Time; that was a lynch mob."
The media regulator, Ofcom, said it had received a "small number of complaints" about the show – understood to be less than 100 – and was considering whether to launch a formal investigation of whether Question Time breached its broadcast code.
BBC Information, the corporation's call centre, had fielded a total of 416 calls on the controversial show by about noon today. Of these, 243 were complaints of bias against Griffin.
Question Time was filmed late yesterday amid chaotic scenes outside BBC Television Centre as anti-fascist protesters clashed with police, and attracted a record audience of almost eight million viewers.
The BBC also received 114 complaints about Griffin being allowed to appear on the Question Time panel at all. There were a further 59 calls applauding the BBC's decision to have the BNP leader on the show.
Ofcom is understood to have received fewer than 100 complaints and will now make a decision on whether to investigate. The complaints fall under the broadcasting code section on harm and
offence.
An Ofcom spokesman said: "Ofcom has received a small number of complaints which are currently being assessed against the broadcasting code."
Under the BBC's complaints procedure, the corporation will respond to the calls after the issues have been discussed with the Question Time programme team. Those who remain unsatisfied with the response can refer their complaint to the BBC's editorial complaints unit.
If they are still not happy with its decision, complainants can take their grievance to the editorial standards committee of the BBC Trust, the corporation's regulatory and governance body.
2. Cartoon row claims Swedish minister's job
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/mar/22/race.pressandpublishing
Nicholas Watt, European editor
The Guardian, Wednesday 22 March 2006 08.21 GMT
The row about cartoons of the prophet Muhammad yesterday claimed the career of Sweden's foreign minister, who resigned after allegations that she shut down a far-right website for soliciting new caricatures. Laila Freivalds, who succeeded the popular Anna Lindh after she was stabbed to death in 2003, said she could no longer continue in the face of intense media criticism.
Opponents said Ms Freivalds, 63, broke Sweden's strict freedom of speech laws when her department allegedly took steps to close down a website that was trying to publish fresh cartoons of Muhammad.
The site was closed on February 9 after a foreign ministry official contacted the firm that hosted the website. No orders were issued to the company, according to the ministry, which said the official had merely pointed out that the website was endangering the lives of Swedes.
The website took the step of soliciting cartoons at the height of protests across the Muslim world against a Danish newspaper which ran cartoons of Muhammad last September. Any depiction of the prophet is offensive to Muslims.
Ms Freivalds insisted she did not order the official to contact the web company. But opposition politicians accused her of lying after a foreign ministry report said she was involved in the decision.
"The reason I have decided to request my dismissal is that it is impossible to carry out a serious job, and that is damaging for the government, the party and not least for the foreign ministry," she said.
3. Rising UK anti-semitism blamed on media
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
The Guardian, Tuesday 25 January 2005 07.14 GMT
Britain suffered the sharpest rise in anti-semitic attacks of any country last year, and British press coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a leading cause, according to an Israeli government report.
Natan Sharansky, the cabinet minister responsible for the diaspora, said the report found that violent attacks on Jews in Britain rose by almost half.
The government's global forum against anti-semitism, which wrote the report, said France again topped the list of anti-semitic violence with 96 attacks, but the number in Britain rose sharply to 77.
The total number of incidents in Britain rose to 304 from 163 a year earlier when verbal assaults, damage to property and swastikas daubing were taken into account. The report has been relased as Israel focuses on anti-semitism to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Mr Sharansky attributed the British figures to "years of hostile reporting and commentary about Israel in the British press now spilling into the streets".
His officials singled out the Guardian and the BBC, accusing them of "likening Israel to a Nazi state". The Independent was also criticised.
David Weinberg, coordinator of the forum and an adviser to Mr Sharansky, said the report found that most acts of anti-semitism in Britain were carried out by Arabs or Muslims, but press coverage of Israel, and the actions of some politicians created a climate that encouraged such attacks.
"Among west European countries there is a red flag flying over Britain and it's particularly disturbing because Britain is a country friendly to Israel and the British government takes anti-semitism seriously."
He added: "Sharansky believes you have to look at the intellectual environment that has developed toward Israel in Britain and the effect that has on the broader public."
He singled out the coverage of the Israeli army assault on Jenin refugee camp in 2002, in which 58 Palestinians were killed, mostly armed men.
The attack was characterised as a "massacre" by some of the media. He said this was demonisation of Israel and anti-semitism.
Tehila Nahalon, an adviser to Mr Sharansky on anti-semitism, said: "You can't brainwash people for four years that Israel is an illegitimate country and that Israelis are like the Nazis and that Israelis are monsters and expect that nothing will happen to Jews."
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, which is publishing its own statistics next month, supported the report's conclusions. Its spokesman, Jason Pearlman, accused the BBC of "unrelenting anti-Israel bias".
"The British media has portrayed Israel in a very unfair light," he said. "It's what's not said as much as what's said: the fact that most Palestinian attacks on Israel are not reported in the British press, and the fact that almost all the attacks on the Palestinians are reported."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/15/bbc.television
The BBC will only survive by understanding its diverse consumers
Peter Salmon
The Guardian, Monday 15 September 2008
A snail could crawl the entire length of the Great Wall of China in just slightly more time than the 200 years it will take for women to be equally represented in parliament. That was just one of a series of striking statistics from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in their Sex and Power report published last week.
It added that women hold just 11% of FTSE directorships, with the judiciary and others also strongly criticised. At the BBC, the figures are a bit better - almost 38% of all senior managers are women - but it does bring into sharp focus the challenge the whole media industry is facing to improve diversity among its workforce.
Tomorrow's Guardian Ethnic Media Summit is a chance to debate what is arguably our most pressing diversity issue - ensuring more talent from ethnic minority communities reaches the upper echelons of broadcasting. The growth particularly of young ethnic minority audiences, is soaring - way above the population average - making them a critical cultural and business challenge for everyone in our sector.
Things are definitely changing but still not quickly enough. The whole media industry needs to look afresh at what more can be done.
So why does a white, middle-aged bloke like me feel compelled to write about this? As the BBC's chief creative officer, overseeing our programme production made in-house, I believe passionately that only by drawing on the talents of every part of society can we best reflect the lives and concerns of our diverse audiences on screen.
We must do more and the BBC is certainly redoubling its efforts. And though ethnicity is very important, it is only one part of this story. We must also think in terms of age, disability, gender, social class and regional difference.
That is why I think the historic changes to move a significant proportion of BBC network production out of London to places such as Glasgow or North West England over the next decade might be key to all this.
We will transfer large numbers of staff from London but we will also recruit many new faces - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to add something substantially new to our gene pool of talent, to change the BBC's DNA a little.
We seem to be moving in the right direction, increasing opportunities for people from ethnic minority backgrounds at most levels.
The proportion of our staff from ethnic minorities is 11.5% - again comparing very well with both public and private sector organisations including the civil service, health service and the police. But as the Edinburgh Television Festival heard, still not enough people make it into senior management roles, particularly as controllers and commissioners.
The BBC has looked closely at the barriers to progress and announced new schemes to tackle them - costing £3m over three years.
Firstly, we need to change the way we recruit. We are dramatically increasing the outreach work we do - in community groups, colleges, schools and through open sessions across the UK - to encourage under-represented groups to apply to the BBC. I recently worked with an energetic bunch of young students, mainly from ethnic minority backgrounds, who were introduced to the BBC by the University of Central Lancashire - from the former mill towns of Blackburn and Preston, not places we'd traditionally think to look for the next generation.
Then we need to be better at retaining talented individuals and supporting them in reaching their full potential and moving into senior roles. Our new mentoring and development programme, which offers greater one-to-one and intensive personalised support, is so important. In addition, our new trainee production scheme, which has just kicked off, and our journalism trainee schemes, have a strong diversity focus, so we are providing clearer pathways into all parts of the BBC.
On screen, we must constantly strive to reflect as accurately as possible the rich cultural mix of the UK.
Earlier this year BBC non-executive director Samir Shah criticised what he called "inauthentic representation" of ethnic minority communities, citing the Ferreira family in EastEnders.
It is unfair to highlight one five-year-old example from a drama series that remains the most popular programme on television among ethnic minority audiences. This example fails to reflect many other aspects of our work, particularly our in-house drama output. Our continuing drama series, including Holby City and Casualty, have led the way in casting diverse talent, in leading roles as well. Though we do not always get it right, overall we have much to be proud of.
The BBC set up the Writers' Academy, under John Yorke, four years ago, increasing the number of writers from diverse backgrounds working on our biggest programmes, including some of our continuing drama series.
In addition, programmes such as Criminal Justice, No1 Ladies Detective Agency, Life Is Not All Ha Ha Hee Hee, Shoot the Messenger, the entertainment series Last Choir Standing and a lot of our children's output have also been praised for the way they have represented diversity or addressed issues faced by communities from different backgrounds.
Part of this is ensuring we get closer to audiences when making programmes. For example, White Girl - part of BBC2's groundbreaking White Season - told the story of a white family relocating from Leeds to a predominantly Asian community in Bradford. Here the production team worked very closely with the community to ensure a sensitive and accurate portrayal.
In an increasingly globalised creative economy where competition will intensify, it is only by understanding our diverse consumers that we can stay relevant and survive. The BBC prides itself on keeping in touch with its audiences - to do so successfully we'll need to keep making changes, and fast.
3 Articles on Media Guardian: Race and Religion:
1. Nick Griffin to lodge formal complaint with BBC over Question Time
BNP demands BBC give Nick Griffin second Question Time appearance, 'in correct format', outside multicultural London
Mark Sweney
guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 October 2009 12.53 BST
BNP leader Nick Griffin is to lodge a formal complaint and freedom of information request to the BBC over the way his appearance on Question Time was handled.
He will argue that the format of the show was skewed to focus almost solely on the BNP, not wider issues, that the makeup of the audience was primarily anti-BNP and that a broader range of questions were not fielded, a spokesman for the party said.
The BBC has fielded more than 400 calls and emails about Griffin's appearance on Question Time last night – with more than half complaining that the show was biased against the British National Party leader.
BBC online forums were flooded with support for Griffin and attacks on the BBC, the other panellists and the anti-fascist demonstrators outside Television Centre yesterday. However, there were also comments supporting the BBC for its decision to invite Griffin on to the Question Time panel.
Question Time attracted 7.9 million viewers, half the total TV audience for its 10.35pm slot – which is thought to be a record figure for the show.
The BNP spokesman said: "He was not treated the same as other elected politicians [who appear on the show]; it was a completely unfair showing.
"Question Time changed the whole format of the programme. The BNP will be putting in a freedom of information request to the BBC and programme makers to ask about the process of changing the format of the whole programme. [We want to know] why they felt they had to break with the usual format."
He said that the BNP wanted a second outing on Question Time to be "re-run in the correct format". "If people want to be critical, fair enough – they should not dominate the whole programme."
The spokesman added that Question Time had a history of moving locations and that London was too "multicultural" to be fair to the BNP and that perhaps a location like the northwest of England would be an option.
"It is logical: that is where he was elected and an audience would contain a representative cross-section of voters, some of whom may have voted for the BNP," he said. "It would make for a more balanced programme."
Griffin is also keen to challenge Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to a one-on-one debate over Labour policies.
Griffin himself said today he was planning to make a formal complaint to the BBC about last night's show, telling Sky News: "That was not a genuine Question Time; that was a lynch mob."
The media regulator, Ofcom, said it had received a "small number of complaints" about the show – understood to be less than 100 – and was considering whether to launch a formal investigation of whether Question Time breached its broadcast code.
BBC Information, the corporation's call centre, had fielded a total of 416 calls on the controversial show by about noon today. Of these, 243 were complaints of bias against Griffin.
Question Time was filmed late yesterday amid chaotic scenes outside BBC Television Centre as anti-fascist protesters clashed with police, and attracted a record audience of almost eight million viewers.
The BBC also received 114 complaints about Griffin being allowed to appear on the Question Time panel at all. There were a further 59 calls applauding the BBC's decision to have the BNP leader on the show.
Ofcom is understood to have received fewer than 100 complaints and will now make a decision on whether to investigate. The complaints fall under the broadcasting code section on harm and
offence.
An Ofcom spokesman said: "Ofcom has received a small number of complaints which are currently being assessed against the broadcasting code."
Under the BBC's complaints procedure, the corporation will respond to the calls after the issues have been discussed with the Question Time programme team. Those who remain unsatisfied with the response can refer their complaint to the BBC's editorial complaints unit.
If they are still not happy with its decision, complainants can take their grievance to the editorial standards committee of the BBC Trust, the corporation's regulatory and governance body.
2. Cartoon row claims Swedish minister's job
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/mar/22/race.pressandpublishing
Nicholas Watt, European editor
The Guardian, Wednesday 22 March 2006 08.21 GMT
The row about cartoons of the prophet Muhammad yesterday claimed the career of Sweden's foreign minister, who resigned after allegations that she shut down a far-right website for soliciting new caricatures. Laila Freivalds, who succeeded the popular Anna Lindh after she was stabbed to death in 2003, said she could no longer continue in the face of intense media criticism.
Opponents said Ms Freivalds, 63, broke Sweden's strict freedom of speech laws when her department allegedly took steps to close down a website that was trying to publish fresh cartoons of Muhammad.
The site was closed on February 9 after a foreign ministry official contacted the firm that hosted the website. No orders were issued to the company, according to the ministry, which said the official had merely pointed out that the website was endangering the lives of Swedes.
The website took the step of soliciting cartoons at the height of protests across the Muslim world against a Danish newspaper which ran cartoons of Muhammad last September. Any depiction of the prophet is offensive to Muslims.
Ms Freivalds insisted she did not order the official to contact the web company. But opposition politicians accused her of lying after a foreign ministry report said she was involved in the decision.
"The reason I have decided to request my dismissal is that it is impossible to carry out a serious job, and that is damaging for the government, the party and not least for the foreign ministry," she said.
3. Rising UK anti-semitism blamed on media
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
The Guardian, Tuesday 25 January 2005 07.14 GMT
Britain suffered the sharpest rise in anti-semitic attacks of any country last year, and British press coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a leading cause, according to an Israeli government report.
Natan Sharansky, the cabinet minister responsible for the diaspora, said the report found that violent attacks on Jews in Britain rose by almost half.
The government's global forum against anti-semitism, which wrote the report, said France again topped the list of anti-semitic violence with 96 attacks, but the number in Britain rose sharply to 77.
The total number of incidents in Britain rose to 304 from 163 a year earlier when verbal assaults, damage to property and swastikas daubing were taken into account. The report has been relased as Israel focuses on anti-semitism to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Mr Sharansky attributed the British figures to "years of hostile reporting and commentary about Israel in the British press now spilling into the streets".
His officials singled out the Guardian and the BBC, accusing them of "likening Israel to a Nazi state". The Independent was also criticised.
David Weinberg, coordinator of the forum and an adviser to Mr Sharansky, said the report found that most acts of anti-semitism in Britain were carried out by Arabs or Muslims, but press coverage of Israel, and the actions of some politicians created a climate that encouraged such attacks.
"Among west European countries there is a red flag flying over Britain and it's particularly disturbing because Britain is a country friendly to Israel and the British government takes anti-semitism seriously."
He added: "Sharansky believes you have to look at the intellectual environment that has developed toward Israel in Britain and the effect that has on the broader public."
He singled out the coverage of the Israeli army assault on Jenin refugee camp in 2002, in which 58 Palestinians were killed, mostly armed men.
The attack was characterised as a "massacre" by some of the media. He said this was demonisation of Israel and anti-semitism.
Tehila Nahalon, an adviser to Mr Sharansky on anti-semitism, said: "You can't brainwash people for four years that Israel is an illegitimate country and that Israelis are like the Nazis and that Israelis are monsters and expect that nothing will happen to Jews."
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, which is publishing its own statistics next month, supported the report's conclusions. Its spokesman, Jason Pearlman, accused the BBC of "unrelenting anti-Israel bias".
"The British media has portrayed Israel in a very unfair light," he said. "It's what's not said as much as what's said: the fact that most Palestinian attacks on Israel are not reported in the British press, and the fact that almost all the attacks on the Palestinians are reported."
Thursday 12 November 2009
Gender Theories
Gender Theories
Gender Theorist - Judith Butler -
Judith Butler (1956-) is Professor of Comparative Literature and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and is well known as a theorist of power, gender, sexuality and identity. Indeed, she is described in alt.culture as "one of the superstars of '90s academia, with a devoted following of grad students nationwide". (A fanzine, Judy!, was published in 1993).
Judith Butler says that Gender is performative. It is a 'doing' that makes gender what it claims it is. we are not a gender
Gender Theorist - Judith Butler -
Judith Butler (1956-) is Professor of Comparative Literature and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and is well known as a theorist of power, gender, sexuality and identity. Indeed, she is described in alt.culture as "one of the superstars of '90s academia, with a devoted following of grad students nationwide". (A fanzine, Judy!, was published in 1993).
Judith Butler says that Gender is performative. It is a 'doing' that makes gender what it claims it is. we are not a gender
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Critical investigation and linked production
Critical investigation - An investigation into male teenagers, looking at how far stereotypes in movies are true in today's media.
Linked production - The start of a documentary exploring teenage life at high school.
MIGRAIN analysis
Media language:
1. I would look at the use of shots in movies and if there is close up shots on teenage males, it may connote the use of drugs/gangs as there may be a close up shot on the drugs. If these shots take place, it would mean that teenage males are involved in negative things.
2. I would be analysing the sound in movies and analysing if the the music used on males is rap and fast music because this would show if teenage males are being represented negatively by the use of sound that comes on when they are seen in the movies.
3. I could analyse the use of props in movies on teenage males because they might always have props such as guns, knifes and etc. This would connote if males are being represented negatively or positively.
Ideology:
1. Analysing films, I would be seeing if ideologies are being shown of male teenagers being involved in gangs and if the gangs are being represented negatively e.g. if the film is showing a number of people in a gang and if they are causing disruption to other people.
2. A ideology could be shown that teenage males are always out to cause trouble in society. This could be shown through the use of clothing that male teenagers are wearing in films such as hoodies and dark clothing that connotes negativity.
3. Ideology of teenagers always being involved in crime. This could be shown through the use of props in the films that I analyse e.g. are male teenagers using guns, knifes etc. If they are this would be representing them as negative and the representation of teenage males would be true to an extent through movies.
Genre:
1. For my critical investigation a genre that I could analyse is drama because many films that have male teenagers in are drama. By this I could look at this genre and analyse to see how male teenagers are being represented. This would mean I could see a pattern on how they are being represented in this genre e.g. Kidulthood.
2. I could look at the genre horror too because a few horror films do involve teenage males and by this I could see how in different genre films, males are being represented. I would see if males are being represented and stereotyped positively or negatively.
3. I could analyse the genre action because I would see how male teenagers are represented in this genre and I would see if overall the representation of males is negative or not and what similarities are being seen e.g. are males mainly being represented as trouble makers and criminals.
Representation:
1. I would need to see if male teenagers are represented as always being involved in gangs. I would see this by analysing movies and seeing if the majority of males are shown in gangs. This would show a negative representation of male teenagers.
2. In movies, are teenage males being represented as criminals? This would be shown if male teenagers are always carrying guns, knifes and dealing drugs. This connotes they would be represented in a negative way and stereotypes of males in the media would be shown in movies.
3. Are teenage males being represented positively and are movies overcoming the stereotypes of male teenagers in movies. This would be shown if male teenagers are not being involved in crime and violence.
Audience:
1. Teenage males would be targetted because they would want to watch these kind of films because of personal identity because they could see their own behaviour and relate to it. E.g. males who are in gangs and taking part in violence would be interested to watch these kind of films.
2. Teenage females may also be attracted but not many females because only a certain amount of females would want to watch these kind of films. This is because the females that would watch the films would be masculine and would be interested in doing masucline things that males do.
3. These types of films would attract a niche audience as many lower class people would watch these kind of films and teenagers would watch it as they may be able to relate to it.
Institution:
1. I would need to look at different institutions to see in what different views are male teenages presented. E.g. newspapers may represent teenage males as negative and movies may view their behaviour as acceptable in society.
2. For my critical investigation, I would need to look at newspapers and see how teenage males are being represented. E.g. is there only negative news on teenage males in newspapers or are newspapers showing the public a positive side of teenage males.
3. I would need to look at movies and see how the different institutions in movies have represented teenage males. Are males always being given a negative role? Does their role only involve crime and violence or is there more to male teenagers in movies.
Narrative:
1. I would need to look at Propp's theory and see if this theory is being used in films related to male teenager. E.g. is there a hero and princess in the film or is it just based on Todorov's theory. This would give an idea for my linked production to see what theory should be used.
2. I will be using enigma codes in the linked production because I would be creating suspense in the audiences mind to keep them interested. I would need to analyse teenage films and see if there is a use of enigma codes which would help understand more on how to use it.
3. For my linked production, the narrative could be based on how male teenagers are stereotyped and how they are expected to behave. E.g. taking drugs, drinking and etc.
SHEP Analysis
Social:
My critical investigation is a social factor because it is something which has caused a moral panic in the media because of many people assuming that all male teenagers are trouble makers and out to cause crime. This is a talkable issue in the public and would make it a social factor.
Historical:
My critical investigation would be a historical factor because this is a new issue that is causing a moral panic now and this was not the issue in the past because at that time male teenagers were not causing trouble and being involved in knife crime.
Economical:
Our linked production would be a documentary and would not economically cost too much to be produced. My critical investigation could be an economical factor because many male teenagers may begin to take part in crime because of the economic downturn and this could increase because of the economy.
Political:
My critical investigation would be a political factor because it would mean that there would be more violence happening because of teenage males. This would mean that more people will be at risk because of knife crime and robberies etc.
Issues and debates
My critical investigation could relate to representation because my focus on my critical investigation is to see how teenage males are being represented and if the way that they are being stereotyped in the media is true by looking at movies. I would see how teenage males are represented and if it is negative or positive.
My linked production would relate to reality tv because we will be doing a documentary on life at high schools. This would relate to relaity tv because we would not be using any actors but would be using real footage that would show how both males and females are being represented in schools and how their behaviour is like.
My critical investigation could relate to violence and the media because the way that teenage males are beginning to behave is violence that is happening in the media. The violence that teenage males are involved in are drug taking, robberies and knife crime and has created a moral panic in the media especially knife crime.
Media theories
My critical investigation would relate to gender theories because in my critical investigation I am focusing on teenage males and analysing their behaviour in the media and in movies. By this we can tell that I would be focusing on this gender and it would relate to gender theories because I would also be seeing what gender has more importance in the media and how each gender is presented.
My linked produciong would relate to audience theories because I would be looking at what audience would want to watch the documentary that will be produced on teenagers. I would need to see if there would be a mass audience or a niche audience and what type of audience is interested in watching this kind of text such as what class and gender.
My critical investigation would relate to post colonialism theory because I would need to see if there is a specific 'race' of teenage males that is making the stereotypes of teenage males true in the media. There will be many different representations of differes races and for my critical investigation I would need to see if there is a certain race of teenage males that are mainly fulfilling stereotypes of teenage males and what race of males.
This study fits in to the contemporary media landscape because the issue that I have chosen to focus on is a important factor in the media and is attracting a lot of attention and creating a moral panic. This is because teenagers are beginning to be involved in crime now more especially male teenagers e.g. knife crime and drug taking. This is a contemporary media landscape because it is an issue which has been quite big in the news and there have been many tactics used to stop the crime that is going on from teenagers. This means that this issue is very important in the media because of police trying to stop it too. This would be contemporary because this is something the public is worrying about and this then creates a moral panic.
Linked production - The start of a documentary exploring teenage life at high school.
MIGRAIN analysis
Media language:
1. I would look at the use of shots in movies and if there is close up shots on teenage males, it may connote the use of drugs/gangs as there may be a close up shot on the drugs. If these shots take place, it would mean that teenage males are involved in negative things.
2. I would be analysing the sound in movies and analysing if the the music used on males is rap and fast music because this would show if teenage males are being represented negatively by the use of sound that comes on when they are seen in the movies.
3. I could analyse the use of props in movies on teenage males because they might always have props such as guns, knifes and etc. This would connote if males are being represented negatively or positively.
Ideology:
1. Analysing films, I would be seeing if ideologies are being shown of male teenagers being involved in gangs and if the gangs are being represented negatively e.g. if the film is showing a number of people in a gang and if they are causing disruption to other people.
2. A ideology could be shown that teenage males are always out to cause trouble in society. This could be shown through the use of clothing that male teenagers are wearing in films such as hoodies and dark clothing that connotes negativity.
3. Ideology of teenagers always being involved in crime. This could be shown through the use of props in the films that I analyse e.g. are male teenagers using guns, knifes etc. If they are this would be representing them as negative and the representation of teenage males would be true to an extent through movies.
Genre:
1. For my critical investigation a genre that I could analyse is drama because many films that have male teenagers in are drama. By this I could look at this genre and analyse to see how male teenagers are being represented. This would mean I could see a pattern on how they are being represented in this genre e.g. Kidulthood.
2. I could look at the genre horror too because a few horror films do involve teenage males and by this I could see how in different genre films, males are being represented. I would see if males are being represented and stereotyped positively or negatively.
3. I could analyse the genre action because I would see how male teenagers are represented in this genre and I would see if overall the representation of males is negative or not and what similarities are being seen e.g. are males mainly being represented as trouble makers and criminals.
Representation:
1. I would need to see if male teenagers are represented as always being involved in gangs. I would see this by analysing movies and seeing if the majority of males are shown in gangs. This would show a negative representation of male teenagers.
2. In movies, are teenage males being represented as criminals? This would be shown if male teenagers are always carrying guns, knifes and dealing drugs. This connotes they would be represented in a negative way and stereotypes of males in the media would be shown in movies.
3. Are teenage males being represented positively and are movies overcoming the stereotypes of male teenagers in movies. This would be shown if male teenagers are not being involved in crime and violence.
Audience:
1. Teenage males would be targetted because they would want to watch these kind of films because of personal identity because they could see their own behaviour and relate to it. E.g. males who are in gangs and taking part in violence would be interested to watch these kind of films.
2. Teenage females may also be attracted but not many females because only a certain amount of females would want to watch these kind of films. This is because the females that would watch the films would be masculine and would be interested in doing masucline things that males do.
3. These types of films would attract a niche audience as many lower class people would watch these kind of films and teenagers would watch it as they may be able to relate to it.
Institution:
1. I would need to look at different institutions to see in what different views are male teenages presented. E.g. newspapers may represent teenage males as negative and movies may view their behaviour as acceptable in society.
2. For my critical investigation, I would need to look at newspapers and see how teenage males are being represented. E.g. is there only negative news on teenage males in newspapers or are newspapers showing the public a positive side of teenage males.
3. I would need to look at movies and see how the different institutions in movies have represented teenage males. Are males always being given a negative role? Does their role only involve crime and violence or is there more to male teenagers in movies.
Narrative:
1. I would need to look at Propp's theory and see if this theory is being used in films related to male teenager. E.g. is there a hero and princess in the film or is it just based on Todorov's theory. This would give an idea for my linked production to see what theory should be used.
2. I will be using enigma codes in the linked production because I would be creating suspense in the audiences mind to keep them interested. I would need to analyse teenage films and see if there is a use of enigma codes which would help understand more on how to use it.
3. For my linked production, the narrative could be based on how male teenagers are stereotyped and how they are expected to behave. E.g. taking drugs, drinking and etc.
SHEP Analysis
Social:
My critical investigation is a social factor because it is something which has caused a moral panic in the media because of many people assuming that all male teenagers are trouble makers and out to cause crime. This is a talkable issue in the public and would make it a social factor.
Historical:
My critical investigation would be a historical factor because this is a new issue that is causing a moral panic now and this was not the issue in the past because at that time male teenagers were not causing trouble and being involved in knife crime.
Economical:
Our linked production would be a documentary and would not economically cost too much to be produced. My critical investigation could be an economical factor because many male teenagers may begin to take part in crime because of the economic downturn and this could increase because of the economy.
Political:
My critical investigation would be a political factor because it would mean that there would be more violence happening because of teenage males. This would mean that more people will be at risk because of knife crime and robberies etc.
Issues and debates
My critical investigation could relate to representation because my focus on my critical investigation is to see how teenage males are being represented and if the way that they are being stereotyped in the media is true by looking at movies. I would see how teenage males are represented and if it is negative or positive.
My linked production would relate to reality tv because we will be doing a documentary on life at high schools. This would relate to relaity tv because we would not be using any actors but would be using real footage that would show how both males and females are being represented in schools and how their behaviour is like.
My critical investigation could relate to violence and the media because the way that teenage males are beginning to behave is violence that is happening in the media. The violence that teenage males are involved in are drug taking, robberies and knife crime and has created a moral panic in the media especially knife crime.
Media theories
My critical investigation would relate to gender theories because in my critical investigation I am focusing on teenage males and analysing their behaviour in the media and in movies. By this we can tell that I would be focusing on this gender and it would relate to gender theories because I would also be seeing what gender has more importance in the media and how each gender is presented.
My linked produciong would relate to audience theories because I would be looking at what audience would want to watch the documentary that will be produced on teenagers. I would need to see if there would be a mass audience or a niche audience and what type of audience is interested in watching this kind of text such as what class and gender.
My critical investigation would relate to post colonialism theory because I would need to see if there is a specific 'race' of teenage males that is making the stereotypes of teenage males true in the media. There will be many different representations of differes races and for my critical investigation I would need to see if there is a certain race of teenage males that are mainly fulfilling stereotypes of teenage males and what race of males.
This study fits in to the contemporary media landscape because the issue that I have chosen to focus on is a important factor in the media and is attracting a lot of attention and creating a moral panic. This is because teenagers are beginning to be involved in crime now more especially male teenagers e.g. knife crime and drug taking. This is a contemporary media landscape because it is an issue which has been quite big in the news and there have been many tactics used to stop the crime that is going on from teenagers. This means that this issue is very important in the media because of police trying to stop it too. This would be contemporary because this is something the public is worrying about and this then creates a moral panic.
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