Recent Work

I havent been posting much recently due to the fact that our group has been finishing our video editing, which we have now done,  and we are currently working on our digipak and magazine advert.

Theory Work: Audience Theory- The Reception Theory

The Effects Theory, and the Uses and Gratifications Model both have surroundin controversies and limitations, and so a new approach was developed by Stuart Hall inthe 1970s. It considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded, or understood, by audiences. This suggests that when a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience.
Sometimes, the meaning is misinterpretedm, as is the case for the song 'Born in the USA' by Bruce Springsteen, which was actually about rejection from the USA after returning from the war. Nowadays, the song is wrongly recognised as an athem for America, singing its praises.
Sometimes audiences correctly decodethe message of meaning and understand what the producer is trying to say, but sometimes the audience will rejcts or fail to correctly identify or understand the message.

There are three ways that texts can be read, or decoded, by the audiences;

1. Dominant/Prefered- The audience decpdes the messgae correctly, and broadly agrees with it.

2. Negotiated- The audience accpets, rejects or refines the elements of the text, in light of previously held views. They neither agree, disagree or are disinterested.

3. Oppositional- The dominant meaning is recognised but is rejected for cultural, political or ideaological reasons.

The above diagram shows the 3 interpretations, and by height, how much they are wanted by the producer, Dominant being the prefered reading.

In the next few weeks i will be looking at what would happen if our video was decoded with each of the 3 readings.

Theory Work: Audience Theory- The Uses and Gratifications Model

The fact that it is unclear that there is any link between the consumption of text and violent imitative behaviour weakens the Effects Model. It is also weakened by the fact that may people watch violent texts and do not appear to be influenced. An alternative theory is the Uses and Gratifications Model, in which the audiences uses the text. This is the opposite to the Effects Model, as where in the Effects the audience is passive, in this model, we are actively using the text for various gratifications or needs. This means that the power lies with the audience, and their is emphasis on how and why we use the text. The model encoporates the idea that we are able to reject, use , or play with the media meanings as we see fit.

Audiences may use the media text to gratify needs for;

• Diversion
• Escapism
• Information
• Pleasure
• To compare
• Sexual stimulation

Audiences may use the media to help them with such issues as;

• Learning
• Emotional satisfaction
• Relaxation
• Help with issues with personal identity/ social identity
• Aggression/violence

This theory is controversial as it suggests that violentimagescan be helpful and help a person deal with issues, rather than harmful. The idea is that the audience act out their violent inpulses through the consumption of media violence. Audiences inclination towards violence is therefore subliminated, and they are less likely to commit violence acts.

Theory Work: Audience Theory- Evidence for The Effects Model

Last week in lesson, we continued with some of the theory work we began a few months ago. We looked at Key Evidence for the Effects Model, which we looked at before Christmas.

The Frankfurt School theorised in the 1920s and 30s that the mass media acted to restrict and control audiences to benefit of corporate capitalism government.

The Bobo Doll Experiment; Albert Bandura conducted an experiment in 1961, in which a group of children watched adults beat a bobo doll, then seeing their behaviour, 88% of children copied them and did the same. The results suggest that children copy violent behaviour, and imitate violent media content. This is one of the main pieces of evidence for the Effects Model; however it has a number of flaws. Firstly, the purpose of the bobo doll is to knock it to the ground and let it bounce back up, that is how it works, so that is all a child could do to the toy. Also, there is no proof that the behaviour displayed was because of what they saw, it may have been related to their background, and how they had been brought up- whether they saw violence as wrong or not.

In the 1950s, Marlon Brando’s film ‘Wild One’ was band for 15 years, due to the fact that it included rebelling teens overtaking a town- there were fears that the behaviour would be imitated.

Key examples of media texts being cited as causing or being contributory factors to behaviour are;

·         The film ‘Childs Play 3’ in the murder of James Bulger in 1993

·         The game ‘Manhunt’ in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004, by his friend Warren LeBlanc.

·         The film ‘Clockwork Orange’ (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacks.

·         The film ‘Severance’ (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt.

In each case, there was a media and political outcry for the texts to be banned. In some cases, laws changed, films were banned, and newspapers demanded the burning of films.

However no case could prove a link between the text and the violent attack that followed

The Effects Model contributes to the Moral Panics whereby;-

Media produces behaviour of inactivity, such as couch potatoes, failures, and people who make no effort is made to get jobs.

The media produces violent ‘copycat’ behaviour, or mindless shopping in response to advertising.

Finished Music Video

Below is the complete music video.

Digipak & Advert: Real Digipak Analysis

Planning: Actual Filming Schedule

We have recently looked back at our initial filming schedule, and have created another schedule, this time the actual reality of when we filmed what, as a comparison. As we previously thought, weather and room availability dud hinder our progress. Also, on a positive note, we were able to get all of our filming done in one day in London, although not on the day we anticipated, due to the weather. And we were able to film at both Toms house and Party Go Go in one day. We had to film after the christmas holidays, which was not expected, but does not effect much.

Filming/Editing: Filming in London

Yesterday we spent the whole day in London, filming at famous, recognisable locations. This included; Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, The London Eye, and on a bridge over the Themes, with a landscape shot of London, including 'The Gherkin' and St Pauls Cathedral. At each place, Tom would have a different 'indie' looking top, and different coloured pieces of card, with different key words from the second verse of our song on them. Today we are spending time putting them in the right order, to the song and hopefully finishing most of the editing. When looking at the footage, we have noticed that the lighting at the London Eye is really bad, and by changing the lighting on Final Cut, it makes it look different from the others and has bad resolution. For this reason, we are only using one shot of the London eye. But we also captured footage of boats on the Themes by the London Eye, which we might speed up and use, like we have with footage of Tom on the swings and other things at the park.

We also filmed the end of the 'story' that we have in our video whilst in London, where me and Tom see each other, only for me to then run past him into the arms of another boy. Again this is quite a comical scene, but you then again feel sorry for Tom. We are debating whether to feature this bit of footage, baring in mind we need to tie the story part of our video up in some way.