Exam Question from past paper

Q3. Using your own detailed examples, explore the representation of gender in the media today?

In the modern day gender is represented both positively and negatively in the media. Firstly, the BBC 3 documentary 'Stacey on the front line: girls, guns and ISIS is a positive representation of gender as it is made to show women are just as capable of fighting on the Front line as Male troops. The documentary follows Stacey Dooley in Northern Iraq as she experiences life with a group of female soldiers who are fighting against ISIS. It is also key to note that women would not be doing this on the other side in the ISIS camps. This is a positive representation of Gender as women who are usually portrayed as the weaker of the two sexes are shown to be just as strong physically and mentally as they fight on the front line.

There is also more negative representations of gender in the media, one example is a news story from the BBC on the 19th of march 2017 which had the headline 'chatted up tourist beaten by man' this story was about a female tourist who rejected a strangers sexual advances and ended up being brutally beaten by the man. The story claims that after she rejected the man he "grabbed her from behind and repeatedly punched her in the face" this story is obviously a negative representation because it shows a man physically injuring a women for no good reason, this makes men in general look bad because the story makes it seem like this is the way men generally act after being rejected when this is really just a rare case. 

Lastly, another story from the BBC in February 2017 is headlined 'Transgender girl,11, shot in school with BB Gun' this story was about a girl who was being bullied at school because she is transgender, according to the article the parents of the girl contacted the school about the bullying in December and no action was taken and 2 months later the girl was shot with a BB Gun in school. This is again a negative story because the girl is being bullied for being transgender, not only has the school let this continue but they waited until there was a very serious issue before taking any action. 

In conclusion, in the media today Gender is represented both Positively and negatively, examples of this are the BBC 3 documentary 'Stacey on the front line' and the News stories from the BBC News website.

Weekly News #23

Weekly News #23
Sources: BBC News

Teacher Christopher Metcalfe 'raped girl in front room'

Christopher Metcalfe ,70, from Nottingham was a rural studies teacher in Mansfield in the late 70's. Derby crown court was told that he had raped a girl aged 15 or 16 in his front room and told the girl he would "get her" if she told anyone, he has denied 5 other sex offences. The jury was also told he touched a 9 year old during 'story time' and after a swimming lesson when he first began teaching. He was also charged with assaulting another girl aged 9 or 10. A statement released by one of the victim says "The women do not know each other, their complaints are quite separate. 

Sketch from the court case

I thought this story is made worse by the fact that it is being dealt with 40 years after the incidents took place, Metcalfe is now 70 years old and will not be able to serve the lengthy sentence he deserves because of his advanced age. This story shows representation of age because he became a teacher so he could work with and assault children, it also represents issues of sexual assault because has been charged with 5 different sex offences. 

Question 3 15th march

With detailed reference to two or three examples you have studied, explore how media texts are constructed to position audiences?

The media is constructed to show things from a specific perspective, this is usually so the audience can see it and take it on board before looking further into it. This is audience positioning because consumers will trust outlets they like for example a specific newspaper or news channel as they present stories differently.

An example of this is a news story from The Sun which was published on the 5th of September 2014. The headline of this story was 'Muslim convert beheads gran, 82 in garden'. This may just look like a normal headline but in fact you could say that the way it mentions that a 'Muslim convert' beheaded the women could be seen as an attempt to distract the audience from the story and concentrate on the fact it was a Muslim that committed the crime. This is an example of audience positioning because The Sun are trying to put more importance on the fact that a Muslim committed the crime, this is then seen by the hundreds of thousands of people that read The Sun and makes the whole Muslim community look bad when in fact this is just one case.

Another example is the This Girl Can campaign, the first advert was uploaded to the National Lottery YouTube channel on the 23rd of January 2015 and is aimed at all women. The advert is made to convince women to be more active and they do this by showing clips of your everyday women taking part in sports and other leisure activities such as Swimming. The reason they didn't use the typical swimsuit models in this advert is because they wanted to appeal to all women, they also show multiple activities so the women know they don't have to limit themselves to one specific thing. The advert is made like this to encourage all women to become more active regardless of there: age, ethnicity or possible disability. This again shows how the media is shaped to give a certain message across but this time it is in a more positive way than the article in The Sun.

In conclusion, the Media can shape texts to appeal to different people or to get a certain view across, this is evidenced through the news article in The Sun and the This Girl Can advert.

Weekly News #22

Weekly News #22
Source: BBC News

'Chatted up' tourist beaten by man

The women suffered horrible facial injuries

A tourist was repeatedly punched in the face after she rejected the advances of a man who followed her from a tube station. The 60 year old women was attacked on the 10th of march after she "politely" rejected the man attempts to "chat her up". Detectives are now appealing for information to fin the attacker, to aid the appeal the women who didn't want to be named released a picture of her injuries that she received after she was "grabbed from behind and repeatedly hit in the face".

This story shows representation of gender because the man attacked the women because she rejected his advances, this is also representation of ethnicity because the women who was attacked was a tourist. Lastly it is representation of issues regarding people being attacked as there was no real reason to attack the women and there also was no need to hurt her as badly as he did. 

Weekly News #21

Weekly News #21
Source: BBC News

Muslim detective Nighat Hubbard sues Met over racism and sexism

A Muslim detective who was made an MBE for her charity work is suing the Met police for alleged racism and sexism. Det Con Nighat Hubbard claims that male colleagues made discriminating comments to her and other females officers when she worked in the force. She further claimed that she was held back whilst White colleagues were allowed to go on more complex investigations. 

This story shows representations of religion because the woman was a Muslim and discriminated against because of it by not being put on more complex investigations while white officers were given more of an opportunity, also representation of gender because she claimed that her and other female officers were discriminated against by Male officers in the work place, you would expect better from the police themselves. In my opinion this story shows that there is still a huge amount of inequality and discrimination towards ethnic minority's and women in the workplace despite the many laws that have been passed in recent years.

Question 3

Using detailed examples discuss representations of modern issues in the media

Different media texts show representations of modern issues in society. Firstly different films present these representations to get a point across, in the film Crash (produced by Paul Haggis and released in 2005) uses characters to represent the issues in modern society. Racism is a key theme in this film and many characters get discriminated against, Farhad the Persian shop owner is referred to as Osama at the start of the film because the man he is buying a gun off of assumes he is an Arab. Also the Hispanic locksmith is discriminated against because when he is fixing the woman's lock she becomes suspicious and tells her husband she thinks he will give a spare key to his gang. The next representation is Gender, this is shown when the police officer pulls over the couple in the car and begins to inappropriately touch her despite her telling him to stop. This addresses the problem that men have power over women in society. The next representations are age and disability and they're represented by the older man in the film who is disabled and requires assistance from his son who desperatly tries to get the hospital to help him throughout the film but they keep turning him away. This shows the discrimination shown towards older and disabled people but disabled people in particular because the hospital show a lack of interest in the man with the disability. This film goes deep into the majority of issues in the modern day and that is why it is an important case study to use.

The next piece of media is a news story from the BBC on the 9th of February, the headline is 'Transgender girl, 11, shot in school with a BB gun'. This was a story about a young girl from Manchester who had been bullied for months and shot by a BB gun in school. According to the mother the school were informed in December about the bullying but did nothing about it until the girl was shot. This story is representation of Gender because the girl was being bullied because she was transgender, it is also representation of issues of bullying as bullying is a huge problem in schools more should be done about it, the article said that the parents of the girl had informed the school of bullying 2 months before the incident. Lastly representation of issues regarding children carrying weapons, even though BB guns are supposed to be toys and are legal they should not be given to 11 year olds to use, there is an 18 age limit on BB guns but this still doesn't stop people giving there children these sorts of toys. I think the people reading this article would agree that these are serious issues that schools need to keep under control. Although the pupil with the BB gun was permanently excluded it does not make the situation any better as they shouldn't of had it in the first place. In conclusion, this news article from the BBC and the film Crash help us understand the modern issues in society. 

Demographic and psychometric audience profiles

Demographic and Psychometric audience profiles.

Demographic audience profile

Categorises an audience from A to E according to their class, occupation and income, where categories A and B are the wealthiest and are assumed to have the most disposable income. It is used by advertisers to determine where advertisements should be placed according to the demographic profile of the audience. Some media texts will use the demographic profile of the audience to inform advertisers of the target audience. Retired people used to be in category E to reflect the loss of income but with the rise of early retirement this group has moved to a higher category to reflect their disposable income.

A psychometric audience profile

Defines an audience by their values, attitudes and lifestyles. As the concept of class and income became a less appropriate way of defining an audience. One of the most useful to consider when discussing how advertisers define audiences is Young and Rubicams Four C's. This advertising agency considered how Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics can group people into 7 recognisable stereotypes: security, control, status, individuality, freedom, survival and escape. The main groups are

• Mainstreamers: These make up 40% of the population. They like security, tried and trusted brands and like to think they belong to a group of like minded people. They like value for money and are unlikely to take risks.
• Aspirers: This group want status and prefer brands that show their place in society. They are happy to live on credit and will buy items like designer labels. They are stylish and dynamic and may be persuaded by celebrity endorsement.
• Explorers: Like to discover new things. They are attracted by brands that offer new experiences and instant results.
• Succeeders: These are people who already have status and control and have nothing to prove. They prefer brands that are serious and reliable and believe they deserve the best. 
• Reformers: This group are defined by their self-esteem and self-fulfilment. They tend to be innovative and are less impressed by status. They are not materialistic and are socially aware. They may be more inclined to buy brands that are environmentally friendly or those that are considered healthy.

Black Mirror review

Black Mirror review

Black Mirror is a television anthology series that shows the dark side of modern day life and technology from the view of multiple different people throughout the seasons. The show first came out in 2011 and was created by Charlie Brooker. In episode 1 of Black Mirror titled 'The National Anthem' the entire country comes to a stand still when the princess is kidnapped and a video is posted online stating that her life will be spared if the prime minister has sexual intercourse with a pig on live TV.

The first thing this episode teaches us is that media can be spread anywhere in a very short amount of time as one of the PM's associates tells him the video was uploaded to YouTube and in the 9 minutes it took them to remove it, it had been downloaded and spread and there was a potential 50,000 views already. This comes as a shock to the prime minister who wanted the information to remain between the people who had showed him. He also understands the newsrooms will soon be broadcasting to the entire world. Later in the episode it is revealed that the original video had 18,000,000 views on YouTube.

Next, the show tells us that the world is full of corruption and blackmail, firstly when one of the women working for the local news sends revealing images to one of the PM's associates hoping for some inside information in return. The news company also try to pull the wool over the eyes of the public by not revealing details of the ransom put forward by the kidnapper, they also push people to believe that a terrorist group is behind the kidnapping even though they are unaware of their identity. This leads the general public (who we see throughout the episode) to spread rumours and group up in the workplace and in pubs to watch the situation unfold.

Lastly, the episode shows how powerful technology can be when the kidnapper brings the entire nation to a standstill when the broadcast begins and no one even notices that the princess is returned safely before the broadcast even begins, it is now revealed that the kidnapper was proving a point about how easy it is to control people's lives using the media. The show puts a message across that technology can be dangerous if used in this sort of way and that is the message the kidnapper leaves us with before he hangs himself at the end.

The first episode of Black Mirror shows us representations of issues regarding corruption . This shows us that the government will do whatever they can to hide details of incidents like these and will leave the public with leaks and fake news to influence the way they view the situation. Also representation of national identity as whilst the event was unfolding many British citizens took to the pub (a common British pastime) to watch the events unfold from there. The last representations are Ethnicity and Gender as the PM and the majority of his associates are generally from the dominant ideology: White, middle class, middle aged men.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the first episode of Black mirror because the idea of technology being potentially dangerous and the media taking over the world interests me, I also enjoyed the strange but intriguing storyline and I think that important lessons can be learnt from watching this show.

Weekly News #20

Weekly News #20
Source: BBC News and The Daily Mail

Groom raped woman in a park hours before he got married.

Snaresbrook crown court

A 28 year old man who was recently released from prison raped a woman hours before he was due to marry his pregnant fiancé. The attack took place in Hackney, East London and it was said that it took place within sight of the woman's front door. Later in the day he married he's partner and posted pictures of himself and his bride on Facebook. The court heard that McCann, 28 taunted his victim and stole her phone. In court he pleaded to 3 counts of rape, 1 count of assault and 1 count of robbery and the judge at Snaresbrook crown court say's he will receive a minimum of 9 years.

This story is representation of gender because the man assaulted and raped the woman simply because he felt like it and also representation of issues with crime because rape is becoming more common and not enough is being done to stop it.