MIGRAIN Index

1) Media consumption audit
2) Language and Genre: Reading an image - advert analyses
3) Institution: major media institution research and presentation
4) Institution: brand values
5) Institution: CoolBrands research
6) Narrative: narrative theory YouTube clip analysis
7) Audience: psychographics
8) Audience: audience theory blog tasks/questions
9) Audience: audience theory - dependency theory
10) Representation: clip analysis - dominant and alternative representations
11) Representation theory: 500 word analysis on blog
12) Representation: Media Magazine articles and questions
13) Ideology: BBQ QT analysis and binary opposition
14) Ideology: Media Magazine reading 

Ideology: further reading and tasks

Page 34: The World Of Mockingjay: Ideology, Dystopia And Propaganda

1) Mockingjay presents a capitalist society as they have a force that would control riots from occurring that would be called "Peacekeepers". This is quite similar to a police force as they present that power can be used to promote their ideals to the 12 districts that are within "The Capitol". There is an obvious element of power as the article states that "the districts serve The Capitol" to show that President Snow is quite tyrannical as he uses repeats of previous Hunger Games which would distract those plotting a revolution and therefore have continued control over The Capitol. Propaganda is also there as it is represented as Katniss and Peeta's wedding which had also acted as a distraction for rebellion. This would also present Katniss and Peeta as loyal citizens to The Capitol as they show no sign of disagreement. This acts as propaganda as Katniss is seen as an inspirational character after the first Hunger Games which would present her as an image of hope that districts would have faith in to cause a revolution against President Snow. Other elements of propaganda presents its self as Peeta. Peeta is also seen as an inspirational character and since The Capitol have kidnapped him and are using him as a weapon to weaken or prevent the rebellion from causing more damage. Propaganda is widely used in The Hunger Games trilogy and it has been proven once again as the rebels have hacked footage from the Capitol Systems which show The Capitol's dark intentions as they are presented as bombing a hospital. This could encourage people to rebel as they now see The Capitol in a different perspective. There are also other moments of propaganda as the rebellion uses Katniss as a "poster girl" as they dress her up in an appropriate manner for the revolution as they use her to try and promote the power that district members have to go against The Capitol. The main media format that has been used for this is broadcast in TV which would show that the media is a powerful weapon that can manipulate the minds of others as it would depend on the representation and how it can help promote different opinions to the people so that they can make the decision as to whether they should attack or stand down. All this support a capitalist society as they show that they can control what they can do to try and make sure that there is power presented throughout the story of The Hunger Games as The Capitol as they are presented as being greedy since they take the resources from the 12 districts. So overall there is a capitalist society in The Hunger Games. 

2) As previously mentioned, The Hunger Games use the media to their advantage since they choose to use the media to present themselves as a different in comparison to what they actually are. This is evident with the hospital bombing. The rebellion has used this to their advantage to try reinforce their ideologies of President Snow as a tyrannical leader. This would persuade an audience to try and join or support the rebellion. As well as that, I have also previously mentioned the appearance of Katniss being an important part of propaganda. This could mean that appearance is what would give an audience the impression that this "poster girl" presents the rebellion and make them a known threat of The Capitol. The Capitol also uses an element of propaganda with Peeta as previously mentioned. They would present Peeta as weak and use him to portray The Capitol as a powerful force that shouldn't be reckoned with. Since Peeta was also an inspirational character, The Capitol would use this as their image of a rebellion as they force Peeta to tell the rebellion to stand down or else they would attempt a revolution. There are also other means of propaganda with the promotional material for the film presenting The Capitol as a kind and generous community as they salute every district. This can give a false representation of The Capitol and so this would force their ideologies onto their citizens of each district to prevent a rebellion (assuming that The Capitol uses this promotional material in the film). Other forms of propaganda could be the re-runs of The Hunger Games which would enforce their ideals of power towards the viewers as they are presented with fear to The Capitol as they are presented as a dominant force.

Page 48: They Live - Understanding Ideology

1) People should put their families first

• People should work hard for their money
• Women should behave in feminine ways and look after their appearance
• Lead a satisfying life - (Extract from Althusser about dominant ideologies)

2) Those who have lots of power could be seen as the way they want them to be seen. This would then make viewers think that this is normal. This could be the reason that we would see the dominant ideologies and how this would feel normal for an audience as they would normally see money as a source of happiness. And so people would believe this as they would want successful lives because of what money can give to people. This could therefore enforce that money is an essential currency that could help people as the promotional material suggests. However, when the protagonist puts on the sun glasses, he sees through the promotional material and sees the truth within the promotional material that would suggest that the hypodermic syringe model is a truthful representation of an audience. This is enforced as the promotional material isn't forced onto the audiences as the adverts would rather prompt an audience into purchasing the product or services.

3) This suggests that an audience would watch programmes that are regulated by bigger corporations to present their ideologies to an audience so that they can see it from their perspective and assume that this is normal. This would be the Repressive State Apparatuses as they use fear to control an audience. This could be evidenced with going to prison as they would fear going to prison since it is seen as quite brutal and so this would then make an audience obey the law. Another factor of this is the Ideological State Apparatuses which use common sense to their audience as they would use social norms to communicate to an audience rather than using fear. 

4) I agree with this since corporations would use propaganda to their advantage to try and make an audience to do what the product or service is telling you to do. This can be evidenced with the Army adverts that make the Army look like a "cool" place to work in as they don't show the other side of war such as the loss and damage it could do to a person. Another instance could also include perfumes that are objectifying women and presenting men that they could obtain a sexual prowess by using this product that may intrigue an audience. This would further enforce the fact that they would want to try and make sure that the products could do that. This would enforce the Hypodermic syringe model further by making audience appear passive when they consume entertainment.

However I also disagree with this statement as an audiences wouldn't always purchase a product because of the adverts. There are reviewers who act as a two-step flow model as they would want feedback about the product or an overview as to whether this is value for money or not. This could be exploited as sometimes big corporations may offer some money to give the review a good side to it which would then make sure that they are well received. 

Overall I think that the audience of the modern society aren't as passive as it was in the past as there would be adverts that would want to promote this sort of behaviour to an audience but more recently an audience would want an overview first before they purchase the product. In conclusion I disagree that an audience is passive when they consume the media even if the economic elite would have control over it as previously mentioned with the exploitation of the product.

Cover Work: Ideology

The World of Mockingjay

This article talks about how ideologies would link with the narrative of the Mockingjay and how it could relate to theories such as Marxist theories. This article talks about how Mockingjay would use the media to their advantage to try and ensure that their message is being spread. There is also some ideologies about Marxism and how this could relate with the poor lives that Districts 1-12 have to live through in a society where the rich would abuse the poor by not assisting them with the right means. This also has some element of representation as it is briefly mentioned that characters would be presented in an appealing manor that would influence their audience to attempt to strike a rebellion against "The Capitol". This article does demonstrate how the media can be used as an influential weapon to make their audience assume that they are making the right choice. 

They Live: Ideology

This article mainly talks about how ideologies have been present in films. This would talk about the dominant ideologies that are present as well as how this could be challenged. This article compares that use of the sunglasses in "They Live" and applies it onto actual advertisements. As well as that this would put on ideologies such as Marxist views and how this can affect people for advertisements in today's media. The film puts a different perspective in the media which would present alternate perception in adverts which support the alternate ideologies.

Binary Oppositions

1) Binary Opossitions

• UKIP vs Russell Brand
• Immigrants vs UKIP
• Upper Class vs Lower Class

The ideologies present in this clip are that immigrants are overpopulating. They also have a belief that they are taking the occupation of those who were originally in Britain. Also since Russell Brand is a campaigner so they would have a good perception on Russell so we would accept his views on the topic. However there are some alternate ideologies that Russell Brand supports as he mentions that immigrants aren't causing any economic problems and aren't causing much damage as the upper class are to blame. (Although this doesn't answer the question on over population).

2) Binary Oppositions

• Good vs Bad
• MI6 vs Terrorism
• British vs Foreign

The ideologies present in this clip present a damsel in distress with the female character currently in the grasp of the antagonist. Other ideologies also include the foreign villain as a majority of Hollywood action films include foreign antagonists. The antagonist is also male with violent intentions as the audience can see that he completes the challenge by shooting down the female character. This could also support the idea of men being violent characters as a majority of the henchmen that Silva (Antagonist) have around him. These can be seen as dominant ideologies as the audience would tend to question these factors within the film but rather accept it.

Cover Work: Representation

MM50

1) This article is about the female gaze and some factual information about the female audience. This article also talks about how the media portray women in adverts and what is considered acceptable. This covers topics such as size-ism, The Plus Size Model, and advertising and how they are presented as previously mentioned.

2) The film that has sparked this recent debate on body image and female representation is "A Perfect 14"

3) The male gaze is mentioned as limited as it is only affected by heterosexual men as they look at objectified women. However, the female gaze is similar as it objectifies men but isn't as strong.

4) I think there should be a change in the representation on both men and women. This is especially significant with perfume adverts as they present these products as "sex magnets" even though the only affect that it has is improve someone's scent. They probably don't feature size 14 women as they may want to try and attract a male audience in particular ways such as objectifying women to pleasure a male audience which would support Mulvey's Theory of the Male Gaze.

5) The film is about women wanting to become models and how being a "Plus Size" isn't appealing. So therefore they are trying to change that by trying to make sure that potential models aren't demotivated because of their appearance. This also talks about how beauty should be defined.

MM51

1) The Introduction talks about a definition of representation and how it is a retelling of text or images but from the perspective of the content creator.

Representations and the mass media: This talks about the process that takes place when the mass media are trying to represent the topic. There is also the mention of the "gatekeeper" who wants to keep this general image of the topic throughout.  

The how, who and why of representation: This talks about the questions that producers consider before constructing their version of the topic. As well as the values that are being represented for when they create the content for their audience.

Another approach to ideology - the work of Stuart Hall: This talks about Stuart hall's ideas and how the audience would judge the characters on a cover or piece of print from their own experiences.

Representations and new media: This talks about how modern technology has been used to represent people. This could include social media such as Facebook. The comments that internet personalities make would be based on their interests and their audience so that they could construct an image of themselves to their audience. 

An example - representing national identity in old and new media: Old media platforms such as Newspapers have a fixated representation on the topic that they are talking about. However, new media are more liberated with what they talk about as they can spread their opinions on topics online.

2) I'm aware of how I represent myself in the media as I don't want bad interpretations of me in the view of the public. I also make concious choices of what i like as I don't want to look like a troubled teenager but rather have a representation that defines me as a civilized person.

3) Some could argue that institutions are powerful as they would represent a topic in their view for their audiences to look at and agree upon. However there can be some influence of audience with their choice of text for their media. This is evidenced with the paper below as a majority of elderly men would read tabloid news papers.

However the audience can be powerful as they could express their opinions on topics that they may find important. This would be evidenced with twitter and how people can express their opinions to their followers with hash-tags that they may use which correlate to the topic. 

 

Representation Theory Analysis

The Expendables 3

Medhurst's theory is proven with men doing dangerous tasks as they are shown as doing dangerous tasks. The dangerous tasks could involve stunts that may seem life threatening such as the bike scene where one of the characters was riding a bike up a ramp and onto his destination. As well as that, they are also shown at being good at sport with that small dart scene as both characters have good accuracy. Also there are scenes with men drinking at the end as the men are shown in a pub which is stereotypically populated by men. They are also represented as good fighters as a majority of the scenes involves fight scenes. Perkins also has some element in this as a majority of the team are men. This is partly true in the sense that a majority of military forces would have men in them in comparison to having more females then males. Also men are more likely to do crazy stunts and be more violent than women so therefore they would mainly be men in the cast. Since this film is mainly about an all action cast, the majority of the cast are men which could also suggest that men are mainly in action films. As well as that, men make up a majority of the duration time in the trailer which could suggest that their audience would mainly be men since men are stereotypically known for watching action movies. The cast are also strong which could also factor towards masculinity as men are stereotypically seen as strong. There is also a strong dominant view of America as a majority of the cast are American which could suggest that they are a strong fighting force in comparison to other countries. Mulvey's theory is also represented as there is a small segment in the trailer with a "male gaze" as Sylvester Stallone's character is admiring the female character as she fights of against a few men. This scene also includes a subvert in the stereotype of women as we don't generally see them fighting people in clubs but would rather be seen with friends. Berger's theory is also linked with Mulvey's as they both mention how men would look at women. However, women are seen as weak or vulnerable. But as previously mentioned, this character in an alternate view on women as she fights off against them in comparison to the others. Levi-Strauss's theory is also presented as there is an element of power with a majority of the cast being white men. This could show that as The Expendables are shown as a strong fighting force and are American since it is created by an American company, they would want America to look good. Dyer's theory is also represented with a link with Levi-Strauss's theory as they both talk about power and those with power can dictate the beliefs that are represented in the film.

Cover Work

Graham Norton, BBC1 – Schwarzenegger

Men are stereotyped as wanting to be muscular. Arnold demonstrates this with his life style as he talks about his past to the audience. He also has books which talk about body building and one specifically targeted towards men as this would also enforce that men would want strong and muscular bodies. This is a dominant view on men as they are presented as strong. A theory that supports this would be Perkins theory which could suggest that stereotypes are partly true as some men may want to obtain a strong body.

London 2012 – Bond/Queen

in the clip, James Bond is represented as a strong male which is suggested since he is escorting The Queen to the Olympics Stadium. Britain is also represented as a peaceful and patriotic place as we see flags waved in various shots. It is also represented as a good looking place as there are many wide shots that may interest tourists or those outside of Britain to visit. This is a dominant representation of Britan as we see a majority of the shots in a peaceful setting. This can also be a part of Perkins theory but can also be seen as Medhursts theory.

Some Girls Launch Trailer

This trailer presents the teenage females as more agressive which can be seen as an alternate view in comparison to what we are usually used to with women being more careful and respectful. Also, they behave differently in school in comparison to how girls would behave in school which is another subvert in the stereotype. However, it does enforce the stereotype of teenagers being aggressive and disrespectful. Perkins Theory can be linked into this as it talks about being partly true with teenagers behaviour in school.