Representation In Relation To My Coursework

Media representation is the way in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics. Media institutions use various methods such as stereotypes and existing ideologies to represent different individuals or groups in a positive or negative light. For representation to be meaningful to audiences there needs to be a shared recognition of people, groups and the representation of the individual or group must be portrayed in a natural way.

            Gender is not biological but refers to a socially constructed set of behaviours. Femininity and masculinity are culturally determined and refers to pattern of behaviour. Traditionally males have been represented as superior to females, held power, been the breadwinner, good with tools and manual labour. Women were often shown in roles that suited men, traditionally these relate to specific domestic roles such as mothers, housewives or sexual objects. My Production of a local newspaper features both stereotypes of gender and countertypes. A story that features within my production depicts a community’s fight to keep the local post office open. The story features an older 60 year old woman named Rebecca; she is a part of the campaign. I did not adhere to the stereotype of a woman and instead employed a countertype. Rebecca is presented as a strong woman, who is behind the driving force of a protest. Strong, political and independent this representation of the female gender is positive and the opposite of what is considered usual.  The usual representation of a women would be as inferior, happy with things the way they are and uninvolved. Laura Mulvey is a media theorist who argued that the dominant point of view within the media industry is masculine and that often the female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to provide erotic pleasure for the male. Women are therefore objectified and presented on most occasions in the way men want them to be presented. I stayed far away from this portrayal of women in my production, as the story I just discussed shows I didn’t sexualise women and portray them as inanimate objects I instead gave them a voice and made them powerful. The reason for this is so that my paper would appeal to all of the local community, all of my target market and so it would coincide with the vast majority of local newspapers i have researched.

            Age is another issue that i had to deal with when creating my paper. Media tends to emphasize youthfulness, beauty as well as physical and emotional health. The mass media is catered toward children, teens, adults but not the elderly. In a way the elderly are portrayed as non existent in our world and are on the whole neglected. The majority of stories that feature in my paper involve members of the older generation this is because the elderly tend to be more involved in the community and are in fact a large chunk of the consuming market. Studies show that when the elderly do appear in media, they tend to be portrayed in these one dimensional, stereotypical ways. As grumpy, conservative, resistant to change, Mentally challenged, dependent on other young members and as helpless economic burdens. I chose to take a reflective approach and present the elderly in a way that is positive, fair and accurate, to do this I took a diverse approach to represent age and incorporated both counter types and archetypes to produce my stories and choose how the older generation are presented. A story that features within my paper discusses two 50 plus gentleman’s struggle to purchase land to build allotments on for the local community. The gentleman were striving for change in laws, fighting against the government in an effort to bring something to the community, while this story might adhere to some stereotypes such as the elderly being stubborn and involved in allotments it completely contradicts beliefs that older people are dependent on others and economic burdens, because they have raised money to purchase the land for the allotments by themselves, and have given something back to the community by communicating and discussing plans with the government which takes a bit of intelligence. I am happy with the way that I have represented age in my production as i believe that it is positive and represents a large part of the local community in a positive way.

            In conclusion I believe that I have done well in countering negative stereotypes that exist within the media by employing positive stories that relate well to the community. In future productions i will look to employ the same tactics i have done in creating this paper so that groups can be displayed in a realistic and reflective manor and not how the media perceives they should be represented.

(new) Audience Theory In Relation To my Coursework

Audience Theory Overview

Audience Theory In Relation To My Coursework

Audience theories concern how the audience perceives media and how the views and opinions of the viewers are influenced. There are multiple theories that address the audience’s role in communication and interpreting different forms of media. It’s essential for a media product such as the one I’m producing (a local newspaper) to appeal to the target audience because if this is not achieved the venture is doomed to fail, it will not be viewed, be perceived in a positive light, make money and be a success. I found during research that the audience for local newspapers was on the whole extremely broad with individuals of all ages from 16 to the elderly saying that they read local newspapers. The 30 plus range are however the main target age range for my production, with a high percentage of younger readers claiming that the stories featured were too mundane and not interesting enough to appeal to them. To determine what the likely Audience of my product was I used electronic web based survey software called survey monkey. The survey was in electronic format that could be sent via email or shared through embedment, it asks a range of questions that gave me a greater understanding of who my audience are and what they look for.

          I found that a majority of my audience read their local newspaper in order to read positive stories about their local community and learn of any great community spirited events that have occurred. I believe this is because it makes them feel better about the area in which they live and makes them feel as though they are a part of a great respectful community. There is a lot of incredibly upsetting news out there in the world and in this day and age it’s very hard to escape that, but for my reader to feel as though the dark side of life is distant and far from their local area paints for them a better, rosier view of their world and makes them feel safer and more comfortable. Blumber and Katz proposed a media theory that states that audiences want media products that gratify particular needs, these include, Surveillance, Diversion, Personal identity and Personal relationships. I believe that my audience actively seeks Diversion; this is an escape from everyday problems that exist outside and within communities. I know from research my audience would strive to escape and hide in denial from any bad events in the local community and would like to hear only positive stories about where they live to escape the reality that some bad events occur.  I featured as my headline, an article about a large group of individuals in the local community rallying together to help stop the closing down of a post office. This story is very positive and features only information that reflects positively on the community, I intentionally included this story in order to comply with the guide lines set by Blumber and Katz. Placing stories such as this in my production ensures reader’s needs are satisfied; they read the positive stories, feel good and escape the reality of the darker side of the local community.

Media is present on a mass scale in this day and age, and what is present in media is often interpreted as the solid truth. This means that media institutions both global and local hold great power over their audience and have a great deal of responsibility to act in a correct responsible manner. Before embarking on producing my media product I talked to some local residents in order to gain an increased understanding on what their opinion was on the subject of responsible, truthful journalism. The general view was that they would prefer to have news presented as it is without the media institution putting negative spins on it or over exaggerating positive stories. Katz and Lazarsfeld proposed the two step flow theory, it suggests that media messages flow in two steps first to the opinion leaders (media institutions), who then pass on their own interpretation of media along to the rest of the audience. So meaning is filtered by the opinion leaders. To comply with my research and provide my audience with a product that they want, I did my best to act as an appropriate and truthful opinion leader. I featured a story about two local men purchasing a plot of government land for the community. When reporting on this I stuck to my values and reported the uncontaminated facts. These were for example information such as the cost of the land; information on the struggles faced by the two men and I also provided information on the plans to build allotments. I believe that I was effective in representing the individuals and the government fairly and appealed to what my audience was looking for as I featured quotes from each side of the struggle and presented my audience with appropriately filtered news without spinning the story to negatively represent one side.

I feel that my target to comply with what my audience wanted and give my audience a production that holds great value was achieved. The stories featured in my local paper were positive, accurate and fair, all aspects of what my audience wanted. My production offers a solution to the issues that my audience had with media institutions. Richard Dyer teaches that audiences want media products that offer them utopian solutions to their problems and I feel as though this was achieved in my production by adopting the correct principles.

Genre Theory In Relation To My Coursework

Genre theory in relation to my A2 production

Genre is a style or category of video, art, music, or literature. Genres have characteristic features that are known to and recognized by audiences. This same and recognized formula is reproduced again and again in order to appeal to the target audience, For example in an adventure book we see similar characters, situations and settings take place this would include such events as a chase, quest or fight; It helps the audience choose and categorize what they are about to view or read. We associate typical features with a particular genre and they all have similar conventions such as the style, setting, narrative, characters and themes. Genres provide readers and viewers with the element of prediction, expectation and anticipation. Audiences know what to expect and are comforted by that. A sense of expectation, pleasure and anticipation also comes from the repetition of key elements within the production, for example an audience expect a crime to be solved in a murder mystery genre and the inspector or police to prevail. This same element can be applied to local newspaper productions in that those often specific types of articles or genre can appear such as crime, sports, science and investigative articles.

Daniel Chandler is a British media theorist who proposed a number of detailed genre theories. Daniel Chandler believed that genre can be defined by convention and form. It teaches that what the audience sees within a piece of media decides on the genre. He believed that it was difficult to make clear cut distinctions between one genre and another and that they overlap. Mixed genres can occur frequently within media this includes productions such as comedy-thrillers or romantic comedies but on the whole productions often stick to specific conventions. During my production of a local paper i followed the teachings of Chandler as closely as possible and stick to specific conventions of genre. For example I Featured a story about outraged citizens protesting against a post office closure. In covering this story I adhered to the conventions of community journalism, this is a genre of journalism that covers locally oriented professional news. The content of articles in this genre revolves around core values that communities can relate to. In order to keep in line with the genre I continuously refereed to values that are held by local residents and recognized by the community. I kept within the genre and kept to the conventions as this will make articles more relatable to my target audience and help entice readers into my production.

Stephen Neale is a British analytic philosopher of language. He has written extensively about how meaning and interpretation is lined within a text or certain part of media. Stephen states that genres are instances of repetition and difference and each of these factors state what genre a media text falls into. Difference is believed to be absolutely essential in deciding what genre a production falls into. When producing an article within a certain genre I tried to make the difference between other genres and the genre my article belongs to clear and repeat common conventions found within the genre. I planned to write an article based on crime within my local community. To use Neale’s theory to stay within the crime genre i would have repeated characteristics common within the crime genre for example and make sure the key elements are significantly different from other genres. The key elements of crime genre include resolution to a mystery and question of morality.

General Conventions of local papers

Planning- Inside Page

Potential Layouts of 1st page

Applying Narrative Theory To My Local Paper

Applying narrative to my course work

Narrative is any account of connected, linked events presented to a reader or viewer. In stories, narrative is constructed in terms of language and code. Numerous theories about how stories are portrayed in media exist and I will discuss some theorists and how they apply to my coursework and newspapers in general.

Roland Barthes is a French Linguist who described 5 codes which are present and woven into any narrative. Barthes’s code consists of the enigma code, action code, semantic code, referential code and symbolic code. The enigma code refers to any element of a story that isn't fully explained and is left a mystery until the end. This is to keep the readers interested in the story that is being told. The enigma code can be easily applied to my production as often in a papers article, a short summary is given in a headline, however the story is not fully explained to the very end of the article when a short conclusion and resolution is given. Also some local newspapers often feature follow up articles too, in which readers find out more information on a subject at a later date when more information comes available. The most common examples being articles on crime, where the resolution to a crime is published at a later date.  The action code is the second of Barthes’s code; it applies to any action that implies another narrative action. For example a women standing by a bus stop implies she is waiting to travel somewhere using a bus. This code can be applied to papers, in that a photograph and bold title next to an article leads readers to assume the paper is on a specific subject. An example that will feature in my local newspaper would be a picture of a boy posing with a can of monster energy drink. This will suggest that the article is going to be on energy drinks and young people. The semantic code points to any element in a text that suggests a particular additional meaning by the way of connotation which the story suggests. Basically the semantic code is symbols that are present that might suggest an idea. For example a row of clothing outlets and coffee shops might suggest a shopping centre and urban scene without actually explaining something. The Referential code relates and refers to an external body of knowledge which could take the form of scientific, historical and cultural knowledge. This specific code applies to local newspapers as they often take advantage of the readers cultural knowledge especially knowledge of the local area and current/past events. Local Papers often feature several references which can only really be understood by someone who is living within the local community or surrounding area, seemingly it would only interest locals as well. The symbolic code acts on a wider level, it organises semantic meanings into more in depth meanings and is based around binary opposites, for example good vs evil. An example of how this could be in an article in my paper would be a story covering a criminal and a victim.

Todorov is a Bulgarian author who proposed a narrative theory. He proposed that narrative followed a 5 step program. The first of the stages is the Equilibrium; this is the stage where life is ordinary, and disruption free. Then following the equilibrium the stage of disruption occurs, this is where disruptive, unusual events occur and people’s life’s change, usually for the worse. The third step is the conflict stage. In this stage subjects face there issues and do something about the disruption. After the conflict and disruption has occurred there is generally some sort of resolution where by things are made better and a new, positive equilibrium is created. Only Parts of Todorov’s theory can be applied to articles in local newspapers and therefore to my production of a paper. Local newspapers tend to only feature some elements of his 5 stages, for example usually an article in a local paper starts with disruption, explains the disruption and then states the resolution to the story and the new equilibrium for the subjects. An example of when i will use Todorov's structure to format an article will be when i discuss a local man and his neighbors struggle with a plot of land in front of their house and their campaign to purchase the land. I will initially report on the disruption of how the government didn't take care of that land and the struggle to purchase it. After this i will discuss how the issue was resolved and how the land was obtained and all worked out in the end.

In conclusion there are some key theorists whose work applies to my production of a local newspaper. In order for me to create articles and create a local newspaper that interests and keeps my audience interested in the articles, I will look to use the structures proposed by narrative theorists such as Todorov and Barthes. I will look to follow Barthes’s codes very carefully, more so than any other theorist’s codes. This is the case because the 5 codes proposed can be applied to papers easily in comparison to any other theory and will surely aid me in producing extremely high quality articles that should appeal to my target audience.

Schedule and checklist for producing my newspaper

 

I produced this table in order to help keep track of what needs to be completed for my course work.