100MC

This is my page for the module 100MC.

Narrative – Week 8

For our first task, we had to choose 3 media objects – 1 had to be print and 2 had to be television or film based. We had to look and discuss whether the objects we chose fitted with Todorov and Propp’s theories of narrative.

The first object i chose to study was the novel ‘Atonement’. This followed Todorov’s theory of construction. It has an equilibrium stage. This is right at the beginning of the novel when you are told about the families house, the gardens, the family itself, and even with the hints that Mr Tallis is having an affair, you still get hints that the family is content with family life. The disequilibrium stage is where Lola and the twins arrive. This causes upset among the family as they have 3 new editions to look out for and they don’t really know what to do with them. The ultimate disequilibrium is the rape of Lola. This is because to the reader it is obvious that the rapist is Paul Marshall but the characters in the book believe it is Robbie. Robbie gets framed for the rape by Briony, Cecilia’s sister after she becomes jealous of his relationship with her sister. Later on in the book, Briony goes on to reject her place at Cambridge University in favour of following in her sister’s footsteps and becoming a nurse in the war. Cecilia herself cuts herself off from her family after they all accused him of Lola’s rape. Whilst in her nurse’s chambers, Briony begins to write a novel about the trials and tribulations of young lovers who are not allowed to be together. This is the point of recognition. In an attempt to make it right, Briony visits the household of Robbie and Cecilia to apologise for her wrong-doing. At first, Robbie makes it clear that he does not want anything to do with her and rejects her apology, but Cecilia talks him round and eventually he forgives her. This is Briony’s attempt to make it right. However, later on in the novel, we find out that this was fabricated by Briony because Robbie died in the war and Cecilia dies in a bomb attack on the underground. At the end of the novel Briony writes to atone for her actions, she ensures that Robbie and Cecilia live happily ever after and that she, Briony, is forgiven for her actions. In reality Briony has been diagnosed with a brain condition which means that she will eventually lose all of her memories and this is the enhanced equilibrium.

It also follows Propp’s theory to some extent as Briony is the villain, Robbie is the hero and Cecilia is the princess.

 

The second media object i chose to assess was the film ‘Beauty and the Beast’. This follows Propp’s theory very accurately. The hero is Belle, the villain is Gaston, the helper’s are the magical objects in the castle e.g. Lumiere and Coggsworth, the prince is the Beast and Belle’s father is the one who persuades her to follow her heart.

The film also relates to Todorov’s theory of construction. The equilibrium is where Belle lives with her father in a peaceful town and her only problem is the vile Gaston constantly proposing to her. The dis-equilibrium is where Belle’s father goes out to a science convention but gets lost and gets imprisoned by the Beast. Belle offers her own imprisonment for the release of her father. Belle soon realises that the Beast isn’t as horrible as everyone makes him out to be and instead he is just very unhappy with his life. She tries to make him happier but when Belle finds out that her father is sick, the Beast releases her and he realises he is in love with her. Gaston then goes to kill the Beast and in an attempt to make it right, Belle races to the castle to try and stop him. Gaston ultimately dies after falling off the roof of the castle and the Beast is left wounded. As the Beast starts to deteriorate, Belle realises she is in love with the Beast and tells him so just a the last petal of the rose falls. This leads to the Beast becoming human again and they end up living happily ever after….

 

The third media object i chose to do was the Haribo Interrogation advert. This follows Todorov’s construction theory because it starts with a normal family who seem to have been sharing a packet of Haribo. The dis-equilibrium appears when it is made apparent that someone has eaten all of the fried eggs and the father is not admitting to it. The point of recognition is where the father admits to eating all of the fried eggs because he is interrogated by his young daughter. This then leads to him signing the confession and equilibrium is restored.

Propp’s theory is represented a little bit with the Dad being the villain, the son being the helper, the Mum being the dispatcher  and the daughter being the hero.

Genre – Week 7

For our individual task we had to pick a genre which we loved and analyse it. I picked romantic comedy films. When thinking about the location they are shot in, i found that the majority were set in city environments.  All of the films were made for a Western audience and therefore, almost all of the films were set in and around an American way of life.

I then went on to interview two people; one who liked romantic comedies and one who didn’t. I found that one of the main reasons for liking a romantic comedy is that the storyline and endings are predictable and you know that it is going to follow the boy-meets-girl, problem, resolution, happy ever after format. It was also said that it doesn’t make you think s it is good if yo have had a busy, stressful day and you can come home and relax.

These points were mentioned by the person who did not like romantic comedies, stating that predictability makes a film boring and the lack of thought needed to watch the film just makes for dull viewing.

For our group task we had to take this a step further and discuss the genre in more depth. We decided that rom-coms were more demographically viable for females of any class, ethnicity and age.

We then went on and chose three films from the romantic comedy genre, these being 50 First Dates, The Break-Up and Hitch. Again, the plots on most are predictable, with the possible exception of 50 First Dates which also involves the girl having a memory problem. However, this still poses the problem and resolution part of the film which results in a happy ever after. Again with the exception of 50 First Dates, the films are set in city locations in America and follow idealic  Western culture. These films also all have big budgets and big name stars in them to attract the audiences.

Media Activity Week – Week 6

We had to make a media object under the title of ‘Something I Have Always Wanted To Make’. My group decided to focus on the effect the media has over people and used the slogan ‘Do the things you own, end up owning you?’. This was a more serious approach to the task compared to others which took on advertising products which already existed or that hey had made up themselves. Some also did film trailers and information pieces.

Overall i think my group worked well together, taking consideration of other people’s ideas and comments. We did find it difficult to come up with an original idea and we experienced problems with the idea we did pick, generally down to us to being slightly unorganised, but overall i think we achieved a good media object.

Our piece can be seen below:

Audience – Week 5

We were asked to look at one part of our cabinet of curiosities and discuss whether or not we thought the media object would ‘influence’ the vulnerable audience e.g. children and teenagers.

The media object i decided to study was  the TV programme,‘ Gok’s Fashion Fix’. I don’t think this would have a negative effect on the vulnerable audience because it is a programme about fashion and is of a very light-hearted nature. In comparison to other programmes that Gok Wan has made, such as ‘How To Look Good Naked’ which features several images of the naked body and could therefore not be suitable for children, ‘Gok’s Fashion Fix’ is a programme about clothes and how to make the best of your body shape, whatever it is. It doesn’t promote one body shape as being better than another but instead celebrates the human form in whatever shape it comes in, therefore making it have a positive effect rather than a negative one.

Audience – Week 4

We were asked to look at items in our Cabinet of Curiosities and decide which target audience they were aimed at (this being established from the categories A, B, C1, C2, D, E and F).

I think the target audience of the flyer is D or E as most of the people it is targeting are students. It is also aimed at people who listen to Three Counties Radio which are people between the ages of 35 – 60. However, the main aim is to get the younger audience aware of the show.

Gok Wan’s TV programmes are probably aimed at C1 and below as it is a form of light entertainment which people of the higher classes may not find entertaining.

The magazine articles were taken from a range of womens mags which were aimed, i think, at anyone from any social class as they provide a relief from work whatever the profession they are in.

Evaluation Of Media Diary Entry – Week 2

After completing a media diary for lasts weeks task, we were then asked to evaluate and research one of the entries we posted. I decided to research into one of the television programmes i watched which was Eastenders. We were asked the following questions.

Which company produced it?
BBC

Are they a major or independant company?
Major

Who owns the company?
It could be said that the public own the BBC as it is the public who pay the license fee. The Government also injects some money into the company but it is not a Government owned business.

What other companies do they own?
None

What other objects do they make?
The BBC make other television programmes which come under all categories – entertainment, drama, documentaries, novel adaptations, news broadcasts etc. They also have several radio station which produce successful programmes throughout the day for different audiences. The BBC has one of the most informative websites which contains everything from news to weather, information on programmes and radio shows they are broadcasting. They also have 2 childrens channels – one for small children (Cebeebies) and one for older children (CBBC).

What is the turnover of this company?
The turnover for the BBC is in excess of £150 million.

How do they make their money?
Anyone who owns a television has to pay the TV license fee which goes to the British Broadcast Corporation. They also make money from merchandise which they sell – for example toys from the childrens programmes.

Why was this object made?
Eastenders was made for entertainment and to raise awareness of real issues which occur to people everyday in the UK.

When my group met up and dicussed our research we found that nobody had researched an independant company. It was suggested that this was maybe because the big, major companies were overshadowing the smaller companies and therefore not allowing them to progress as much as necessary. The objects we had chosen to look into detail at were made either for entertainment value e.g. Eastender, Family Guy, Shaun Of The Dead or to inform the consumer e.g. Sky Sports News and Loose Women (which also provides opinion). Most of the companies also had very large turnovers although some did find it difficult to find the information.

Media Diary – Week 1

Monday 5th October

• looked at BBC news website (30 minutes)
• went on Facebook (throughout day)
• listened to ipod when waiting for friends (20 minutes)
• watched video clips from youtube in media lecture (10 minutes)
• listened to ipod  when eating my lunch (15 minutes)
• saw adverts in shop windows (throughout my 20 minute walk)
• went on itunes to download any new music (10 minutes)
• checked my email (5 minutes)
• talked to mum on skype (1 hour)
• watched programmes on bbc iplayer (30 minutes)
• listened to ipod before going to sleep (10 minutes)

Tuesday 6th October

• went on facebook (throught the day)
• checked my emails (5 minutes)
• watched videos on youtube (15 minutes)
• talked to family on Skype (throughout day, in total around 1 1/2 hours)
• subsribed to podcasts on itunesu (10 minutes)
• saw advertisements on my way to media meeting (throught 20 minute walk)
• discussed views on bbc with Shaun (5 minutes)
• watched bbc news (30 minutes)
• checked emails (5 minutes)
• spoke to boyfriend on Skype (45 minutes)
• watched TV (1hr)
• listened to ipod before going to sleep (10 minutes)

Wednesday 7th October

• checked emails (5 minutes)
• went on facebook (throughout day)
• looked at bbc news website (15 minutes)
• spoke to boyfriend on Skype (45 minutes)
• saw advertisements on my way to Iceland  (throught 10 minute walk)
• listened to ipod before going to sleep (10 mins)

Cabinet Of Curiosities

My cabinet of curiosities is centred around the world of journalism as this is what interests me most. I have included items which give me different emotions, be it anger, joy or just curiosity.

The image above is of a flyer for a radio show which aired on BBC Three Counties Radio. I’ve put this in my cabinet of curiosities because i used to help on the show and i gained some knowledge of how radio programmes works, some of the programmes used to edit web content at the BBC and also built on my people skills. I also feel that the Introducing programme is a very good idea which is set up to help unsigned bands to get started in the music industry and runs across the whole of England.

(image courstesy of Channel Four promotion)

I put a picture of Gok Wan and Alexa Chung from the programme ‘Gok’s Fashion Fix’ because it is sommething i enjoy to watch and a programme which i get to watch with my mum. I like the way the producers of the show fill the time with a mix of a main story and little sub-stories throughout the hour.

‘Do We Shop To Make Ourselves Look Better Or Feel Better?’
‘Ethical Shopping Is The Ultimate In Guilt-Free Retail Therapy.’
‘Got Breasts? You’re Hired!’

These statements are taken from various magazines. I like this type of article because it is based on other people’s opinion and i enjoy finding out what people feel about different views before making my own mind up on the issue.

‘If You Lose Weight You’re Anorexic. If You Haven’t Lost Weight You’re Lazy. The Best Advice Is Just Don’t Pay Any Attention To It.’

Quotation from Nicole Richie in an interview with Glamour Magazine

Something which annoys me is the obsession with weight and sizing that the media seems to have. I get fed up with magazines, newspapers etc commenting on how thin someone is or how much weight they have lost. I think people should just accept the way they are, makes changes if they feel necessary to do so and that they should be left to do it if that is what they want.

‘Where Are Our Jobs?’ The Career Plight Of New Graduates.

This is an article concerned me as it was published just before i set of for University. It did make me wonder if i was making the right desicion by going to University and getting into a lot of debt without the guaruntee of a job at the end of the three years. However, it did put across a lot of good points for and against University which made me believe i was making the right decision.

This article gave me a lot of information in an informal way because it was about this individuals joba nd how she managed to get into the industry which will be useful to me in the future. It’s only a short article of about 200-300 words but it is very informative and interesting from my point of view.