Blog LR

WWW: A solid start to Media - I particularly admire your courage for pursing an A Level in a subject that you previously did not study for GCSE. It is evident that you are interested in things that are associated with the media and you have an opinion which is crucial to the your success in this subject. I particular liked your Semiotics blog post and the examples you provided for Icon, Index & Symbol.

EBI: The concern is your missing work – which suggests a lack of organisation and attention to detail. Reading an Image and Reception theory are neither posted– I hope they are in drafts but I shouldn’t have to ask you to post them. I have no doubts that you have the mind of an A grade A Level student so please address immediately.

LR: Update your blog to make sure all work is fully completed. Then, reflect on your work in A Level Media so far. What is your strongest piece of work? What is your weakest? What specific skills or knowledge do you need to develop over the rest of the course?

I think my strongest piece of work is both of the semiotics tasks.

I think my weakest is the factsheet activities.

I need to develop my knowledge of different forms and genres of media and also being able to look at pieces through different viewpoints.

Iconographs

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

Sci-Fi, Star Wars and Star Trek.

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

Independence Day and The Day after tomorrow. 

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

Disaster places the hero role into a group of people. Action is isolated from other people.

4) What are the different ways films can be categorised according to Bordwell? 

• Period or Country, e.g. US films of the 1930s
• Director / Star, e.g. Ben Stiller Films
• Technical Process, e.g. Animation
• Style, e.g. German Expressionism;
• Series, e.g. Bond;
• Audience, e.g. Family Films

5) List three ways genre is used by audiences.

a) They use their prior knowledge of the genre to anticipate
whether or not they are likely to enjoy a text. This helps when
selecting a media text whether it is a lifestyle magazine, a film
or a television programme.

b) They are able to compare a text through its shared
characteristics with another. If you try to describe a TV
programme to someone who has not seen it, you are likely to
define its genre and then clarify what other text it is similar to.

c) They also use their knowledge of genre to reject a text. For
many of us there will be genres we actively dislike and therefore
will avoid accessing texts we assume to hold those

characteristics.

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

a) Production
Genres are paradigms or templates media producers can follow.
If a media producer wants to produce a new sit-com, there are
certain ’rules’ that must be followed. This actually makes life
easier for writers and producers as they don’t have to invent
things from scratch. They can also look to successful examples
of the genre and attempt to replicate what was popular and, of
course, avoid the mistakes made by texts which have
disappointed the audience.

b) Attracting an Audience
Some genres have loyal fan-bases. People will try out a new sitcom
simply because it’s a new sit-com and this can help media
producers minimise the potential for failure.

c) Marketing Texts
Good examples of this are film trailers which usually attempt to
clearly define the genre of the film and then show as many of the
codes and conventions in the trailer. This acts to attract fans of

the genre and set up the expectations of the film.

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

Horror. 

• vampire movies (Blade (1998: dir. S. Norrington)),
• psychological horrors (Saw (2004, dir. J. Wan)),
• gothic horrors (Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992: dir. F. Coppola)),
• ghost stories (The Grudge (2004: dir. T. Shimuzu)),
• the teen slasher (Scream (1996: dir. W. Craven)),
• haunted-house movies (The Amityville Horror (2005: dir. A.

Douglas)).



Read Media Factsheet 126 - Superheroes: A Genre Case Study and answer the following questions:

1) List five films the factsheet discusses with regards to the Superhero genre.

Avengers Assemble (2013)
Scott Pilgrim (2010)
Chronicle (2012)
Super (2010)
DC’s Arrow
2) What examples are provided of how the Superhero genre has reflected the changing values, ideologies and world events of the last 70 years?

Superman represents WW2.

Superman battles against Lex Luther=In the 1930s, the blame for the
Great Depression was put on the greed of capitalis

One of Batman’s enemies in the 1995 film Batman Forever is

Two-Face = The latter half of the 20th Century saw the secure knowledge and understanding of
previously stable binaries become eroded.

In X Men (2000), Mutants are outsiders who are seen as freaks

by ‘normal’ people=Superhero films are often seen as reactionary and conservative. The first X Men
film has quite progressive values and foregrounds tolerance, community and
communication.

Spiderman 3 (2007) gives Spiderman several different enemies
– Sandman - a man made of sand and Venom, created by an
oily substance that infects from within and turns people into

monsters=The film offers a not too hidden metaphor for the conflict the US found themselves
in during the 00s. Wars had been fought in desert regions with the main prize being
the control of oil.

3) How can Schatz's theory of genre cycles be applied to the Superhero genre?


The Theory Applied to the Superhero Genre
• Innovation: The visual codes for the superhero genre were
largely established via the comic books. As soon as film and
TV began to use the comic book characters other codes and
conventions regarding the presentation of the genre in moving
image were set. This can be seen in the early superhero shorts of
the 1940s.
• Classical: By the 1950s the superhero genre could be seen to
be in its classical stage with the codes and conventions being
replicated in the film and TV programmes of the time.
• Parody: Batman (1966) was intentionally funny and camp and
wouldn’t let its audience take the superhero too seriously. It
had an ironic tone that flagged up the daft nature of the genre
and allowed the audience to enjoy the awareness of that. After
Batman, the classical and parodic versions of the genre were
largely located in children’s animation, from Spider-Man whose
animated adventures were on TV from the late 1960s, to the less
than serious versions of the genre in Mighty Mouse (a perennially
popular cartoon first made in the 1940s), Atom Ant (from the late
60s), Captain Caveman
The Theory Applied to the Superhero Genre
• Innovation: The visual codes for the superhero genre were
largely established via the comic books. As soon as film and
TV began to use the comic book characters other codes and
conventions regarding the presentation of the genre in moving
image were set. This can be seen in the early superhero shorts of
the 1940s.
• Classical: By the 1950s the superhero genre could be seen to
be in its classical stage with the codes and conventions being
replicated in the film and TV programmes of the time.
• Parody: Batman (1966) was intentionally funny and camp and
wouldn’t let its audience take the superhero too seriously. It
had an ironic tone that flagged up the daft nature of the genre
and allowed the audience to enjoy the awareness of that. After
Batman, the classical and parodic versions of the genre were
largely located in children’s animation, from Spider-Man whose
animated adventures were on TV from the late 1960s, to the less
than serious versions of the genre in Mighty Mouse (a perennially
popular cartoon first made in the 1940s), Atom Ant (from the late

60s), Captain Caveman

Reception Theory

Preferred: RBK embraces all kinds of people and encourages everyone to be their self.

Negotiated: Everyone can change and RBK encouraged people to always be the best they can be.

Oppositional: RBK endorses and encourages criminal behaviour.

Preferred: It is important to have strong opinions and stand by them.

Negotiated: We should be brave and state opinions even if other people disagree.

Oppositional: Kapernick is foolish and ungrateful for his career as he is easily throwing them away just to say his opinion.

I believe that these adverts do provide evidence for the idea that audiences are free to interpret messages in a variety of ways, including rejecting them, but can also disprove it.

Reception theory is evidenced by these adverts to a degree, as it is possible for different interpretations to be drawn from all sorts of media, whether it be video advertisements, television programmes, posters etc. As seen by my own interpretations from the Reebok advert, I found it quite easy to draw multiple different readings from the poster, with ideas accepting the ideas attempting to be portrayed by the brand, and almost meeting the brand halfway by offering a different interpretation that doesn't accept the desired message at face value, but also doesn't quite reject those ideas, but instead takes in both sides to come to a somewhat neutral conclusion. However, as the Reebok advert does contain some possibly controversial content, it makes it very easy to draw out negative conclusions to the brand, rejecting the ideas that Reebok are trying to portray and instead making different conclusions about the advert, completely separate from what the brand want everyone to see about them.

However, the reception theory is also  disproved as, seen at least in the Nike advert it was much easier to draw the intended conclusions that the brand wanted to portray from it, rather than the negative views which were harder to interpret. Some Media texts can be formed in such a way that only the desired reading is able to be taken away from it, using such specific ways of communication through whatever material they are creating, that it would be extremely hard to pick the media apart to find a way to reject the views that the creator is trying to convey. 

One way in which this can be achieved is through outright saying what the producer is trying to portray to the receiver, to remove all ambiguity regarding what they are trying to say by being direct towards their audience. Although, this effect is very hard to achieve, as no matter what, something is usually able to be taken a different way in which we intended, no matter how hard we try for that not to happen, with Stuart Hall's reception theory being mostly proved true ; if it were able to be disproved, we as humans would be going against our natural instinct to question anything and everything rather than passively accepting it.

Reading an image

The Denotation of this image is 50 Cent standing in the dark on one side and finger prints on the other side with "I am who i am" written on the image in graffiti style writing. The conotation of this is that 50 cent is accepting of his past, but also realising that he made wrong choices and is trying to be a better person. The lighting is very dark and he is posed at a 45 degree angle to the camera possibly hinting a hidden past and that there is more to him than what he shows to the camera.

The Deonotation of this image is Colin Kapernick Facing a camera head on, His head the only thing in shot. With the words "Believe in something, even if it means sacrificning everything.". The conotation of this image is that Kapernick has strong believe in a certain subject and is prepared to put his face and name on it. The sentence also connotes teh idea that Kapernick is willing to risk his career for what he belives in.