Issues : Body Image

My Mad Fat Diary season 2 episode 7

The scene in which Rae is speaking to her councillor, Kester about her body image we see the common viewpoint amongst the majority of teenage girls being highlighted. This is apparent through the dialogue in that Rae states that she sees herself as "fat and ugly". She conforms to the archetype of a teenage girl however with a more serious element to it in that she has suffered mental illnesses from her negative views on herself. The use of the close up shots of both Rae and Kester allow us to see that this is an intimate and important situation. The title of the show also indicates to us that it features heavily upon body image and the serious effects it has upon people.

This edition of heat shows multiple pictures of women in bikinis taken from unflattering angles to mock these women on their bodies. The cover line is titled 'body mayhem' which instantly gives a negative view on these women and their bodies as it presents them as imperfect and are shaming them. It makes a priority of objectification and emphasis on looks over natural occurrences as it features 'Jordan' with a cover line of 'pregnancy could wreck her boobs'. This can present an ideology of that positive body image is everything and should take precedence over anything that could jeopardise it. However it doesn't necessarily feed on the idea of skinniest = the most beautiful as is features Rihanna saying that "I'm too skinny, I miss my curves". This hints on the idea that real women's body shapes are preferable and somewhat fights the dominant ideology. 

We can see the total objectification of a particular celebrity, as well as it creating enigma codes, it blocks the female's face and shows only her body allowing the audience to focus upon only her body. 

Gender in the media

Blurred Lines: The New Battle OF the Sexes
This programme was aired in good time to coincide the rise of the new feminist movements which have been occurring amongst the social media. It's presented from a very biased point of view with a certain hint of men shunning. It doesn't particularly work in a feminst's favour to beat the idea that they're striving for females to be the superior gender as this journalist generalises men and presents them all as acting derogatory towards women. However it does feature the point of view from a male's perspective who didn't condone the rape jokes made to women. It was a stronger representation as the man interviewed was the creator of a 'lads' mag'.

Game Cover: GTA V

This cover features a collage of different pictures showing the violence of the game. GTA is renowned for its violence against women and sexualised manner. We can see this through the use of only one female and her sexualised stance. The use of the violent fighter dog being restrained by a macho looking man holding a bat indicates more violence will occur within the game play. We can see in the bottom left corner a suited man with tights over his face and holding a gun. This shows his character will perform robberies throughout the game play, therefore crime is the main aspect of this game. The use of colours hints at a pop art theme which connotes the idea of an outrageous lifestyle. We can see a character look to a skyline so this gives us setting that it's in an urban area and through the use of the American muscle car it's logical to assume this urbanised place is in America.

Road Safety Awareness Advert: Print Advertisement

This is created in such a way to scare teenagers into safety whilst near roads. Being that there's little text on this advert it allows teenagers to see it and get the message quickly as it is common that their attention span is short. The use of 'My friend' allows the reader to personally identify and imagine it as their friend talking about them. 'My friend saw her bus. She didn't see the car' allows the readers to gain more personal identify as being young their main way of independent transport is via bus so having the injured/dead girl being found in the situation she is in, is due to the fact she was waiting for her bus and had only seen the bus.
It uses low key lighting to give a sinister feel to the situation and will shock the readers into how serious it is. The use of the camera angle being above her and only showing her face shows her innocence and identifies with her as a person. Her facial expression is blank as, presumably, she is dead and she is staring past the camera which reinforces the blank expression and shows that his person is no longer able to communicate with the general public.

Alex Turner NME magazine cover

On this magazine cover we see Arctic Monkey's Alex Turner as the focal. He is standing casually with a sexualised look on his face; the sexualised look is also supported with the way in which he is dressed. His sleeves are rolled up and top buttons undone which tells the audience it's a casual approach to the interview and will support his personality.
Red and black colours are used frequently on this cover as a connotation of love and passion. We see it in the text, Alex's clothes and the record.
On the left side of the cover there are a list of bands which would relate to the readers of the magazine as it's a music magazine of the alternative rock genre. The largest is 'Arctic Monkeys' obviously to do with that the person featured on the cover is the singer from the band so it ultimately draws more readers in. The fact it says 'reveals all' after the list of these bands creates an enigma code amongst all of the bands featured.
The cover line tells us the interview with Alex Turner is about 'the record that changed my life' and then goes on to ask 'what's yours?' this creates a personal approach to the readers and allows them to personally identify with the story and ultimately Alex Turner. The fact it says 'they've picked theirs...what's yours' creates a willingness amongst the audience that is seems like an obvious thing to do to pick a record that changed your life and reading this magazine may help you find it/is the only way to find it.

Age in the Media

This article highlights the issues raised in the social media regarding the negative stereotype of teenagers created. It talks about how teenagers are rarely portrayed positively in the media today and this jeoprodises their career opportunities. Not only does the negative portrayal have a negative effect on their career opportunities but it has an effect on their self confidence.
In order for this article to not submit to the exact issue in which they are raising, they have added a positive view of teenagers in the media by including a piece on olympic diver Tom Daley.

This programme highlights the issues of teenage brides and grooms mainly focusing upon the brides as they tend to be the focal point of any wedding. Pink is used commonly as a connotation of that they are young and immature to stress the idea of 'baby faced'. Two shots are commonly used to reinforce the idea that the bride and groom are in love.  There is a negative, judgmental and slight mockery of the young couples presented in this programme.

A positive representation of age is highlighted in this magazine as we see a confidently stanced Dolly Parton with the cover line of '50 years of hard glamour' indicates there is still a glamourous element to old age. Cover lines such as 'nifty and thrifty' indicate elements of youngness and make being old not something which is to be ashamed or embarrassed about. As this magazine is aimed at older people, there is a cover line advertising 9 pages of spring health which will ultimately relate to older people as they will want to be healthy in order for a longer life.

Gender in the media

This article features a negative representation of men, particularly those from the ages of 18-22 (average university age), suggesting they're perverted and are unable to control themselves from performing derogatory acts towards women. The title features an enigma code to encourage the readers to read on in order to take more information from it. The article goes onto say that over 99% of women in Egypt have been subject to sexual harassment of some form regardless of what they're wearing or how they act.

This article features a positive representation of women in that they are doing a seemingly selfless act in order to raise awareness for Cancer Research UK. It beats the stereotype that teen mothers are somewhat 'bad news' and shows a positive approach and reinforces that they are capable of doing good. It later goes on to say she lives with her fiancé and is studying for a degree in criminal psychology. The stereotypes of most teen mothers is that they're single and doing low paid labour or are on benefits, however having this girl featured challenged the stereotype.  

This article creates a negative representation of this woman as it sexualises her by using images in which she is wearing revealing clothing. It says that she has had breast implants at the taxpayers expense. This is to create an ever stronger negative representation as people who work have to pay taxes and they will most likely feel angry to this woman, as well as the government, that this is what their money is being spent on. She vowed to reimburse £4,800 due to the negative responses which came from when she was first featured in the news. To raise the money she fell into prostitution and became pregnant and is unaware as to who the father is. There is very little positivity about this article other than that she tried to reimburse the money wasted on her implants as she now wants them removed, however this will cost more of the tax payers' money. There is an enigma code in the title as most people would find it unusual to have plastic surgery on the NHS so they would want to read more in order to find out why such a thing happened. 

Further on in the article, the journalist writes about how a young girl with cerebral palsy was refused  surgery in order for her to be able to walk. There is a high contrast between the girl and this woman, the readers feel sympathy for the girl and anger for the woman as the NHS have favoured body image over something which is fundamental basis of humanity. 

Audience: Baby Faced Brides

This is a program about young people committing to marriage at a seemingly young age. The audience has the potential to be aimed at a large group of people. It could be girls their age watching it and comparing their not committed relationships to theirs and it could also be to young girls in a long term relationship or who are planning on getting married at a young age who are able to relate to these young brides. Some people, of any age, may watch this for information purposes and hope to gain in depth knowledge on what goes through these young brides' minds.
The producers would like people to take away a non judgemental image of people who get married young. Many people believe it's because they have had a child out of wedlock, which in the majority of these instances is true, however there is a couple who have not had a child nor is she pregnant. If the viewers get a better insight into their life they may not judge them on the fact they are young parents and possible respect them for making a proper nuclear family basis for the child. The oppositional reading would be that people would not relate to it and not find any personal identity or gain any, what they see as, useful information and disregard any of the information presented to the audience. The negotiated reading is that the audience would not gain much from it but understand how people may gain a lot of knowledge and personal identity from it and enjoy the program.

Ethnicity in the media

Exotic-
American TV Sitcom, 'The Big Bang Theory' features a character who has immigrated from India to California in order to pursue better career opportunities. On numerous occasions the women featured in the show have referred to him as being 'exotic' and they prefer him to the other white American males on the show. The creators of the show have portrayed this in a comedic as well as a realistic way.

Dangerous-

This article shows that these two Asian muslims are dangerous in that they killed a British soldier. This may spark a negative view amongst many other Asian muslims, saying that they're all dangerous or have the capacity to be dangerous. Being that these two murderers announced aspects of their religion when committing the crime it created a negative view on the entirety of the muslim religion which is unfair to the majority as it has been created by the minority. Many Muslims have spoken out about this and are reported to have said it's outrageous what they've done. Muslim extremists are very different and viewed as very negative amongst non extremist muslims.

Pitied-

Having that the female genital mutilation is most popular against a religion bound to a particular number of countries in Africa and Asia, this is relevant to ethnicity. A member of the Royal Family approved and took pity on these girls who have had the mutilation performed on them; this would raise nationwide pity because the Royal Family are obviously the pinnacle of Britishness.


Humourous-
Citizen Khan is a British comedy which features an Pakistani Muslim family. The way in which the humour is created is in a facetious manner to avoid being too harsh and controversial and making it seem racist. The issues of the family life being a Muslim are raised within this but portrayed with humour to keep it light-hearted.

Sexualised-
Rihanna's 'S&M' music video sparked controversy worldwide leading it to be banned in 11 countries and an age restriction for 18+ on YouTube. The song itself has also been banned due to its sexualised lyrics and the BBC have said they would only play that song after the watershed.

Reception Theory

The Great British Sewing Bee
The preferred reading of this is to be engaged and to root for a specific contestant be it through identifying with them or preferring their work to other contestants. The narrator picks upon the contestant lifestyles and lets the audience know certain things about the contestants lives in order for the audience to have a larger bracket in which to identify with. The producers would like the viewers to take away an enlightened view of haberdashery and become interested in it; this has been successful before with this styled program with 'The Great British Bake Off', the response was massive in that many people got more interested in baking.
The oppositional reading of this is through people who may be interested in competition shows, however are not as engaged and interested with the aspect of it. They may be used to the talent competitions that are largely successful but having the theme of this particular one different and slightly controversial may deter frequent competition show viewers.
The negotiated reading is that people will not be interested in competition shows nor haberdashery. They may be watching this because they may be interested as to what it entails but engage in no identification to the contestants and take little to no information or inspiration away from it.

Reception Theory

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b03v4jsv/

The preferred reading of this is that it is appealing to fans of the 90s rock era and they will gain more knowledge or enjoyment from watching this program. In the beginning, the presenter speaks about the boy band One Direction and how the mainstream music has changed and rock music is no longer. He directs his speech at the members of One Direction and tells them to 'learn something' from this show. Having said that, it will appeal to people of a similar age to the members of One Direction.
The oppositional reading is people not particularly interested in 90s music, however have heard of some of the bands. They may be interested to watch it but don't have that music taste and will remain in the same mind set afterwards.
The negotiated reading is that people will watch this and have no interest in 90s music, they are not aware of the bands but are aware about how this program may interest people.

Mode of Address

Producers will construct a particular mode of address in order to aim their media text at a specific audience group.
The way in which the text 'speaks' to the audience using a number of codes from all elements of the text for example technical codes (camera, lighting, sound etc) and symbolic codes (language, colour etc)

Representation In Different Groups

As a preferred reading, the journalist would like the audience to take away a fear of legal highs and this article will act as a deterrant to people who are currently using, or interested in submitting to legal highs. It will scare people away from using certain drugs to achieve a legal high.
The oppositional reading of this is people who submit to legal highs but are not worried about the consequences and think something of this nature will not happen to them as they may be taking a different drug.
The negotiated reading of this are people who are not interested or have never had a legal high. Also legal highs do not affect them as their family and friends do not submit to legal highs. They may agree with the negative opinion of the issue raised, however will not have an effect on them it as this issue does not affect them.

The preferred reading of this is for fans of the Arctic Monkeys or frequent festival go-ers. The journalist would like the audience to be interested in seeing the Arctic Monkeys play at Reading + Leeds whether it's actually going to the festival, or watching them live on TV. Matt Helders (drummer of AM) speaks about how 'something big is happening' meaning that they're becoming a popular band and more people are interested in them. This article may get more people listening to the Arctic Monkeys.
The oppositional reading of this is that people who are not overly interested in the Arctic Monkeys, but may have heard of them, however may be interested in attending or watching the Reading + Leeds festival. They may view the Arctic Monkeys as nothing special and will not take much away from this article.
The negotiated reading is that people who are not interested in that genre of music so are not interested in attending the Reading + Leeds festival and will take nothing away from this, however will understand how some people will be interested in this article and will act upon it in that they will attend or watch the festival.

The preferred reading is that people will be highly interested in apple products and are interested in learning about the history of the Mac. People may be interested in purchasing a Mac or other apple products after reading this and they may even become an Apple enthusiast.
The oppositional reading of this is that people will intake some of the information and be informed of that it is the Mac's 30th anniversary, however they may not be interested as others and not be phased by what Apple are writing about.
The negotiated reading is that people who are not interested in Apple products nor want to be are reading this, they won't be overly interest in it or want to buy any of the products available. They will understand how people would be interested in such information, however will not be interested themselves.

How age stereotypes are presented in the media

Elderly driver backs over 7, killing 3, after church in Florida
Landstra began backing out of a handicapped parking space but then pulled forward to negotiate another parked vehicle, the Highway Patrol said in a statement. As she tried to pull back out, the rear of the SUV struck seven pedestrians standing in the parking lot, it said.
Margaret Vanderlaan, 72, Wilhemina Paul, 70, Johanna Dijkhoff, 80, were killed. Four other people were treated at hospitals.
Watson said the incident raised the question of when someone is too old to drive.
"I understand this is a quality-of-life issue," he said. "However, we do not want to endanger our friends or our neighbors by allowing them to continue to drive."

This article submits to the stereotype of that elderly people are bad drivers; it quotes a policeman saying that she was too old to drive and that they're in danger of injuring and killing others. He talks about how if dismissing one person from doing something (in this case driving) it's actually helping and ultimately saving more people.

This article presents this specific teen star in a very negative way, listing all of the offences he has undertaken. This is a stereotype amongst young people in that they commit crimes and cause general havoc generally involving other people. This particular teen star has caused a lot of controversy lately which has been very much highlighted in the media in a very negative way.

How to achieve a good grade in the exam:

Audience question-
Ensure to write about why the audience are attracted to the particular thing in stead of just stating what type of audience are attracted to it. Write about what the thing does to draw in its target audience and how successful it is in doing so.

Representation question-
Write about how that person is represented in a different way due to the different things they do e.g. David Beckham in h+m adverts is represented in an objectified way, however when he is doing football related things, he is represented in a football sense.

Revision and study-
I need to be clear on all of the different media language and apply it efficiently.  I should look at and revise lots of case studies to be able to apply them in a question which requires own examples. I will ensure I revise efficiently and space out my time to be able to achieve premium revision results.

Coursework-

Coursework Finalisation

I have now completed my pre-production, my production and my report and am now looking for areas in which to improve my work and potentially boost my grade.