Media Messages Section A - News

Stereotypes and Cultivation Theory

Media Representations are:

- Powerful

- Appear truthful

- Saturate our lives

- re-cycle existing ideas in our society 

- appear natural

Construction - The most Basic use of our media language - the layout of the page, the balance of image to text and the prominence that a story is given. If the lead front page is always dominated by stories by stories of asylum seekers and problems of illegal immigration then this will come to be seen by readers as the most important issue. The fact that such stories are repeated day after day reinforces this idea

Mediation - How newspaper or magazine photographs are cropped and captioned; how real life events are portrayed in a news report - which image is selected; what the caption says; amount of space allocated; front page or page 4

Selection - This refers to what has been selected to include in a media product. Stories that might offer a different view to that of the newspaper are often not reported or reported with a different spin

Stereotypes - The simplified representation of a person, groups of people or a place, through basic or obvious characteristics - which are often exaggerated. They can be used to describe people quickly, relying on existing audience recognition. Stereotypes are dangerous as they can lead audiences to generalise about people or places

Ideology - The ideas and beliefs, held by media producers, which are often represented in their media products*: IN a newspaper, the ideology of the owner or senior editors could influence the way stories are represented, such as leading support to a particular political party 

Cultivation Theory :George Gerbner - The idea that exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them (i.e. cultivating particular views and opinions). The idea that cultivation reinforces mainstream values (dominant ideologies)

Reinforcement Theory - 

Mean World Syndrome - Mean world syndrome is a cognitive bias where people perceive the world to be more dangerous than it actually is due to long-term, moderate to heavy exposure to violence-related content on mass media, mainly television.

12A Radio 1 Breakfast Show

radio 1 construction

Daily Mail Front Cover Analysis

For both front pages, the main story is that the ex Duke and Duchess of Sussex have decided to leave the royal family in pursuit for a more normal life. Both front pages are presented in different ways due to their political views and standpoints.
The daily mail is a conservative newspaper aimed at social groups ABC1 which are upper middle class, middle class and lower middle class. The daily mail is pro-monarchy so this story for them is more important than it is to the Guardian.
The Guardian is a more left-wing and labour favoured paper and is also aimed at ABC1 social groups. The Guardian is a more anti-monarchy so the relevance of this story is lower compared to the Daily Mail.
On the daily mail front cover, the story takes up the whole of the front page and is addressed as a 'Royal Bombshell Special Issue'. The font size is large and in bold. In yellow, 'WE QUIT' is used to stand out as it is the main focus of the headline. The language used on the cover of the Daily Mail makes the story sound more scandalous and serious whereas the language used on the cover of the Guardian makes the story seem less severe. As the Guardian is a more anti-monarchist paper the story is less relevant which explains the fact that the font size is smaller and the picture is smaller. The Daily Mail sees this story as more important as the are a pro-monarchy newspaper. To make the headline seem serious the Daily Mail state that the Queen is furious and that the Sussex's 'dramatically step down as senior Royals - WITHOUT telling Her majesty, Charles or William'. The use of capitals and words such as 'dramatically' make the article seem more interesting and exciting as it is seen as a sot of scandal. Unlike the Daily Mail, the Guardian has one than one story on the front page. Whereas on the Daily Mail cover there is no article discussing the topic, the article for the Sussex's is on the front page, perhaps giving a brief insight which will be further elaborated on in the paper.
On the cover for the Guardian other stories such as 'Trump edging away fro war with Iran' to 'Suzanne Moore on Elizabeth Wurtzel'. This shows that although it is big news, the Guardian do not feel that the story is important enough to warrant a special edition or a whole front page to its self due to its anti-monarchy stance, whereas the Daily Mail who are more pro-monarchy feel as though the story is important enough to have a special edition such as this which is titled 'Royal Bombshell Special Issue'
On the daily Mail cover, the picture is edited to make it more dramatic. The photographs on each cover are the same but just fro a different angle. The Guardian's picture looks unedited and natural whereas the Daily Mail's cover is seen to be edited to add effect. The colours look more saturated and shadows look like they have been added or darkened to create a sense of dramatisation.

News language

Radio

Summer Work

Task 1

In the trailer for Channel 4's 'Deutschland 83' the director uses split screen at the beginning to differentiate the character from when he is in uniform as a soldier compared to when he is undercover as a spy. The director uses split screen here to highlight the two different lives that the character is portrayed to play during the war; as a spy in the west, and as a soldier. in the east. The music used in this part of the trailer seems to be similar to that of a war documentary as it contains orchestral sounds and dramatic notes which add suspense and tension. The dramatic music then fades and blends into a typical 1980's style of electronic music.

The costumes used fit perfectly into the time period and make it easy for the viewer to follow the plot and understand when the character is a soldier or spy. When a soldier, the character is dressed in the army suit with the badges stitched onto the lapels of the blazer. In the trailer you see the character being handed a red Puma t shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of white Adidas trainers. Adidas and Puma are both were both German brands and very popular during the 80's because of their sporty as a well as stylish look incorporating bold colours. When wearing this, the idea for the character is that he fits in to the public and does not look suspect when undercover. 

When split screen is being used large white bold writing is used on either side contrasting each other such as; 'east' and 'west', 'over the wall' and 'undercover', and 'soldier' and 'spy'. This is used to contrast and create an opposite to show the complete opposite lifestyles that the character has to live.



Task 2

The 'Big 6' consists of; 20th Century Fox, Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount, Sony and Warner Brothers. However, now, it is the 'Big 5' as Walt Disney Studios bought '20th Century Fox' meaning that '20th Century Fox' is no longer part of the 'Big 6' as it is now owned by another company. The 'Big 5' all own other companies as well. 'Walt Disney Studios' owns companies such as 'Lucasfilm', '20th Century Studios', 'Marvel' and many others. Universal Studios owns companies such as 'Dreamworks' and 'Carnival Films'. Paramount Pictures has assets such as 'Nickelodeon' and 'MTV'. Sony owns companies such as 'Sony pictures animation' and 'Tristar'. Lastly, Warner Brothers, has assets such as 'TNT', 'Boomerang' and 'Cartoon Network'.
A recent product from Disney would be, 'Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker' which is the latest film production from the Star Wars franchise which has recently been bought by Disney. 'Rise of the Skywalker' included actors and actresses such as, Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Adam Driver. The budget for this production was $275Million and profited at around $927.5Million.  Universal Studios have recently released '1917' which is a film set during WW1 and directed by Sam Mendes, actors such as George Mackay, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth and Mark Strong. The budget for this production was $90Million and profited at around $249Million. 'Joker' was produced by Warner Bros in 2019 and directed by Todd Philips. The budget for this production $55-$70Million and had profit levels of around $1.071Billion. The main actor of 'Joker', Joaquin Phoenix, played the Joker, and went through a lot of physical changes to be able to play the character. A lot of the acting during the production was improvised which added to the effect and authenticity of the acting.
'Rocketman' is a recent production from Paramount pictures about the life of world-wide superstar Elton John. The budget for this production was $40million and included a cast containing actors and actresses such as Taron Egerton, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jamie Bell, Rocketman was directed by Dexter Fletcher and grossed $159.2million in box office. Lastly, a recent production from Sony is Bad Boys for life. The budget for this production was $90million and it grossed $226.9Million at the box office. Bad Boys For Life is directed by Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi and produced by Will Smith, Jerry Bruckheimer and Doug Belgrad. The big names starring in this production are Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig. Bad Boys for life is a follow up sequel from its prior 'Bad Boys' which was first produced in 1995.