Beyonce - Formation (Music Video)

In what ways are themes of conflict encoded in this video?

• MES of police car with Beyonce sitting on top of it symbolises rebellion, which is further anchored by her carefree and powerful facial expressions.

• Intertextual conflict - police persecution of black people.

• Hanging out of a car, conflicts with Beyonce's calm facial expression.

• Contrast between poor, dilapidated neighbourhood and rich antebellum house, also creates conflict through the mise-en-scene of Beyonce's dress as she is wearing a slave's owners wives dress.

• Black woman wearing antebellum signifies cultural appropriation, but also demonstrates Beyonce's power over the past.

• High key spotlight in empty swimming pool, shorts, crop tops and 70's loose afros and librarian glasses.

Context on Formation

• Formation was the lead single in Beyonce's album Lemonade. Was released the day after Beyonce played at the Super-Bowl 2016.

• The music video has won numerous awards.

• Set against the backdrop of the flooding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the associated racial tension in America.

• The use of a canon in her movement where you see the BME women get 'shot' down could connote the aggression that BME women have to go through and maybe the idea that they're all just getting taken down one by one. (2.54)

• The movement of not only Beyonce but the camera aswell, seems as if we are going into a coffin, and the ideologies and perspectives of society on BME women are going into the coffin and are going to be buried away, this happens near the end of the video so it shows how after all of these events in the video's these stereotypes of BME women are finally being put to rest.

Vance Joy - Riptide (Music Video Analysis) 1

Vance Joy - Riptide (Music Video Analysis)

• Music Videos as a postmodern medium 
• By combining two previously separate industries, using an often excessive variety of textual elements just for the hell of it, and by deemphasising the importance of traditional narrative.

• Postmodernism
• Impossible to define.

• Aspects of Postmodernism
• Distrust of form, convention and established conventions
• Style over Substance
• Emphasises surface readings over deeper analysis.

• Example of Postmodernism
• Breaking the Fourth Wall

Vance Joy - Riptide - Indie Pop Genre

• Directly connected with the lyrics

• Non-Continuity Editing

• Beat Matched

• General theme and narrative - montage of shots suggests themes of drowning, dying and death.

• Alternative theme and narrative - an unpredictable and deliberately misleading montage of shots.

• Deliberately invites polysemic interpretations.

• Montage consistently matches the themes of the lyrics, eg 'cowboy running' is matched with the long shot, symbolic of dual personalities, afraid of what he has become.

• Intertextuality - the mise-en-scene suggests the conventions of a Western film, and therefore functions as a referential code.

• Referential codes create audience appeal, as only certain audiences will understand the reference.

• Additionally, the mid shot of the seance and the mise-en-scene in the ouija board is referential of horror cinema, in particular 70's horror films. 

• We see reference to the 70's in the mid shot of the letter dated 'August 1974' anchors the audience into a particular time period, because it is seen as 'cool'.

• By seeing the mid/ls of feet being dragged under a bed, slightly low angled shot, low key lighting and blue/purple lighting which connotes darkness, misery and threat.

• It denies the audience a definite response and definite conclusion.

• Voyeuristic M/S high angled POV shot of young blonde woman removing the one piece yellow swimsuit, the mustard yellow is very 70's along with the slow zoom. Intertextual reference to early Bond films.

• Heavily manicured female hand pushes red leather bound book into frame in a manor which seems rehearsed, robotic and non-consensual.

• Positions the audience in a voyeuristic, even perverted perspective, forcing the audience to consider Van Zoonen's notion of a predatory male gaze.

Context

• Vance Joy was born in Australia.
• He is signed to Atlantic Records (a subsidiary of major-label warner).
• Its an indie-folk-pop genre.
• Riptide was Vance Joy's first single to be released in the UK.
• It went platinum as over 1 million copies got sold.

Key Terms

• Objectification
• The process in which the producer dehumanises a person, and make them appear on the same level as an object, this is done through the use of mise-en-scene, media language and shot types etc.

• Male Gaze
• The assumption that every media product is made for heterosexual male audience, which means that the function of every women we see, is there for the pleasure of the male. - Lisbet Van Zoonen.

• Sexualisation
• The process of valuing someone only for their sexual appeal.

• Voyeurism
• 'Peeping Tom' - taking pleasure from watching someone whilst you're undetected.

• Scopophillia
• The love of watching, another word for Voyeurism.

Textual Analysis of Shot in Riptide

• High Angle/Mid Shot - voyeuristic connotations, and we are positioned as the voyeur.

• Mise-en-scene of the ty-dye looking top looks almost like she is bleeding, so it has the intentions that theres something bad in the 'riptide'.

• Looking out into the ocean which is symbolic of adventure, and exploring the world.

• Costume is quite exotic and exciting.

• Framed in the centre of the shot so she is centre of attention and emphasising her importance to her heterosexual male audience according to Lisbet van zoonen.

• Shallow depth of field, she is the only thing in focus so a zoom lense would be used, it positions the audience in a scopophilliac way.

• By her having her back turn't it connotes that she is unaware that someone is watching her again positioning the audience as a voyeurist.

• The setting of the beach makes it seem luxurious.

• Seems like natural lighting.

Magazine 2 - Lesson 2 - Exam Structure

Exam Question Practice

1. 'Genre conventions in magazines are completely informed by the social and historical context to which they are made' - Michael Collins

Evaluate this statement with reference to Adbusters**. Make reference to genre hybridity.

Notes

• Genre Conventions are the things that make magazines, magazines.

• Adbusters doesn't fit into a genre.

• The two magazines we are comparing (Woman and Adbusters) were made in two completely different times (1964 & 2016).

• In 1964 - Woman magazine the norm was that woman just started getting more opportunities as in going to university and going on the train 'like the men do'.

• In 2016 - Its normal for Women to go to work, and its normal to see them on the train we don't question it like they done in 1964.

• In 2016 - we have a threat of global terrorism, Donald Trump being elected president in the US as he was a former reality star and is known for having 'silly beliefs', UK leaving the EU.

• 'Evaluate' - look into detail, assess, give an opposing argument, conclude.

• The quote is given as an opinion so you need your own opinion in the question to either agree or oppose, or even both to give a good analysis and evaluation of the quote (opinion) given.

• If you disagree with the opinion given, explain and give examples of how you agree (as the opinion will be accurate), and then explain and give examples of how you disagree as there may be things that are missed out. 

• Plan ideas - What will effect the ideologies that the producer has and puts in a magazine - Social, Historical, Political Ideologies, Genre Hybridity, Financial reasons. (3 - 6 paragraphs)

• Structuring an Essay
• 1) Read the question. Underline the key terms.
• 2) Gut reaction - What's your opinion? What argument will you make?
• 3) Plan - on the answer paper, let the examiner see your thought process.

• First paragraph of the response is the introduction. - CDA
• Context - what is going on in society, magazine facts (Adbusters is first published in 1989, by Adbusters Media Foundation.) (Woman is first published in the 1930's by IPC).
• Definition - Defining the words we have underlined in the question and why they are important (Genre - important because it will give the magazine clear conventions and makes it understandable and identifiable to the consumers and the target market)
• Argument - 'In general, Collins is right to list social and historical factors as essential to informing genre, However, political ideologies and genre hybridity also play a massive role.'

• Paragraph Structuring - PEA - (3 - 6 paragraphs)
• Point - 'The social context which the magazine is made in is essential to constructing genre'. - We need to point out to the examiner and to ourselves what we are talking about as bluntly as possible so we can prove we know what we are talking about.
• Evidence - 'The central image includes a stereotypical looking terrorist, this gives off confusion as also the magazine also lacks basic conventions, the masthead is spray painted over almost as if it is vandalised.
• Argument - A theorist that we can use is Steve Neal, he states that genre's are repetitive, and that they all differentiate only slightly, and Adbusters subvert genre conventions to attract attention to the other repetitive and slightly differentiated magazine genre's.

• Conclusion
• Do not add anything new, just repeat what you have said in the prior paragraphs of the essay, and sum up your final argument and make sure that your point is clear.

Magazine 2 - Lesson 1

Adbusters Magazine

• Detournement - 'Culture Jamming'
• Hijacking or re-routing something.

• Culture Jamming - in-depth definition
• the practice of criticising and subverting advertising and consumerism in the mass media, by methods such as producing advertisements parodying those of global brands.

Genre of Adbusters from looking at 3 front covers

• The genre is not automatically clear on first glance due to all covers being completely different and no inside into what stories are featured so we have no clue.

• Parody
• something that makes fun of something else.
• example: scary movie - parody of scream.

• Political
• from the Donald Trump magazine cover.

• Brand Identity
• Informal.
• Main image.
• All different mastheads so that is a big deal as its not consistent with their brand.
• Barcode is in a different place every time, on the 3rd image its directly on his moustache so he looks like hitler and it shows he may be in power only due to his wealth.
• Adbusters does not feature paid adverts if it does include adverts its because they're hijacking it and detournement.

• Adbusters Context
• Published six times a year by Adbusters Media Foundation, 1989 to present.
• Set Edition: May/June 2016
• Price: £10.99 (expensive because they dont include paid adverts)
• Circulation: 120,000 readership (April 2017)
• Genre: Independent/ campaigning/ culture jamming.
• Subtitle: 'Journal of the mental environment'

Analysis of Adbusters Front Cover

• The sans serif so it seems quite modern and is directed to a more high class audience maybe due to its high price point.

• Dark images, not colourful shows a deep meaning and perhaps no happiness in the meaning behind the image.

• 'Post - West' - Going against ideas of western society and is very much anti western.

• Critical of our culture in the idea that we are obsessed with war, as the model seems to be happy and cheering for war.

• The masthead with dirt over the top it looks as if they have ruined there own front cover, the spray paint tool has been used in order to achieve it, shows it is self vandalism, they dont care what we think about them, its more about what they've got to offer inside the magazine.

• We do not know what we would be getting for our money if we spent £10.99 on this, its not clear on what were paying for so we are unable to justify due to the unconventional magazine layout of the front cover.

• Subverts many conventions.

• Masthead is plain white sans serif font clearly visible top of cover, although partially covered over by the 'spray paint' effect, it looks vandalised. The reason why this is unconventional as usually we need to know what the magazine is. Adbusters are also known for deliberately changing the masthead into something different which isn't easy recognisable as an adbusters magazine so we as the audience and consumer are unsure on what were buying as mastheads are conventionally in your face and they stand out whereas this masthead does not and in fact changes to make them less recognisable and identified.

• Black background, main image of male in camouflage jacket, angry expression, clenched fist, image partially spray painted over - subverts codes of consumer/lifestyle magazines, the meaning behind the man screaming is unknown which is an example of a hermeneutic code as we are in the unknown so we are off put by the subversive magazine due to the conventions it is breaking in just the front cover.

• Title of front cover 'POST-WEST' in same white font as the masthead, dominantly positioned in the lower third of the cover, 'POST-WEST' could be considered as the magazine's name as it is unclear what the masthead is so it is easily confused with being the magazine rather than just a story title due to it shouting out and being so in your face.

• Social/Political message - image linked to article 'Time for a radical rethink of what is considered a normal life in the decadent west'. Also suggesting a link to 'post-truth'.

• Intertextuality is the use of taking references or knowledge from other forms of media or occasions and using it in their own form of media, as we need a not of knowledge to understand the title of 'POST-WEST'.

• Front cover image not fully anchored - assumes a level of understanding in the audience.

• Anchorage - how a media product fixes its meaning. We see poor anchorage in this media product as we have no idea there is no meaning behind anything and we have to make assumptions about the magazine rather than knowing for sure due to what the producer is giving us, but the producer gives us nothing and leaves us questioning.

Magazine 1 - Lesson 4

Lesson Starter - Questions on Woman Magazine

• What messages about female identity are encoded in woman magazine?
• Women need to wear make-up otherwise they will not be considered beautiful.
• Women must rely on men for certain things in their life.
• They belong in the kitchen, need to bring up children - article on kitchens.
• What impact could this have on the target audience?
• Target audience is female, heterosexual and 25-45 years old
• It cultivates the idea of women having to wear makeup.
• It cultivates the idea that women are supposed to be housewives.
• What functions might woman's magazine serve?
• Brings together the female community to construct a target audience.
• What potential advantages are there for reinforcing hegemonic notions of gender in a primarily reader base?
• Reflects the society of which this magazine was released into.
• Its a lot better to keep telling women that they are crap.

Key Theory - Feminist Theory - bell hooks

• Feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women.
• Feminism is not a lifestyle choice: it is a political commitment.
• Race, class and gender all determine the extent to which individuals are exploited and oppressed.
• Her latest book is called 'Feminism is for everyone' this quote sums up her and her theory.

Advertising from the 1960's

• Female Stereotypes
• Women are useless as she ruined the dinner.
• Women are emotional as she's holding the male's tissue and crying.
• She's failed as being a women as she burnt the dinner and she needs the male to make it better and to consolidate her.
• The male prefers the beer to the women, objectifying the women.
• Men are the beer drinkers and women are not.
• Women are in the kitchen - cultivation theory (Gerbner)
• Nurturing/maternal
• Dependant on man
• Filling a housewife and domestic role
• Romantic element

Advertising in Magazines

• Magazines generate revenue primarily through sales of copies (print and digital) and through advertising.
• Advertising accounts for approximately one third of total revenues across the industry. It is, therefore, vitally important that the magazine and advertising content target the same audience in order that the advertising brands benefit from increased sales as a result of advertising in the magazine.
• Andrew Green identifies the ways in which magazine advertising can benefit the advertisers in an article entitled 'ESSENTIALS: The Power of Magazine Advertising':
• High audience engagement.
• Less distraction likely from other activities.
• The ability to target niche audiences.
• High production values.
• Potential for placement in highly relevant editorial environment.
• Non-Intrusive - readers can turn the page.
• Long shelf life.

Representation - Advertising in Woman

• Main attraction is to the naked women, the font is extremely small so the first thing the audience will see is the naked woman, and they will then go on to read the advert to see what it is about.

• Because the women is heavily sexualised in this advert men will find her attractive and also women will want to be like her to be appealing to men so they're stuck with the ideologies that this soap will make the women look sexualised and appealing to males so they will buy it.

• Stereotypes is that women are thought to be sexy and that this soap will make them look even sexier.

• She looks like she's supposed to be sat in the bath but she's not actually in the bath as if she was then we wouldn't see her legs and her hair is all done up and her makeup is all done.

• The logo is also bigger than the text but smaller than the image so if either the primary or secondary audience decide to flip the page after seeing the naked women their attention will also go on the logo so when they see this soap they will always see the advert of the naked women and it will become memorable.

• The soap states to make you more attractive, more femininity and to be fresh, so it also has connotations of freshening your life so you dont have to worry about anything as this soap will make all your worries go away and will make your life sweet, kind and fresh again.

• The woman is being sexualised in this position as we can still see her cleavage and her legs, so it is an exceptionally racy advert for 1960's.

• Her body language is also extremely shy as her body is closed and makes her seem quite gentle although she is completely sexualised, and her body is saying that she's sexually unattainable, and makes her look as if she's empowering women as she's closing her body off away from men, which adds to the context as this happened when women started going to uni, so its a step in the right direction showing that they've changed how they used to be as this advert came out in mid 1960's.

• A preferred reading could be that women can smell, as she is now working and getting independence so it shows that women can get dirty and smelly too, so it breaks the conventions that women dont work and women are always clean and tidy, it shows that they need to maintain themselves no differently to how males need to.

• There is a binary opposition between clean and destruction.

• An oppositional response could be that through the choice of lexis and the use of 'darling' makes us feel quite flattered, whereas recently if someone said it there are assumptions that its creepy and condescending.

• The word 'freshness' comes back to the ideas of kitchens and women having to belong in the kitchen so if the women is fresh then so is her kitchen.

Magazine 1 - Lesson 1

Difference between Component 1 & 2 

• Component 1 has unseen media in it whereas Component 2 doesn't
• In Component 1 only a few things we've revised will come up whereas in Component 2 everything we've revised will come up.

4 'pillars' of media studies

• Media Language
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Industries

Component 2 - Introduction to the Exam

• Your POV and OPINION need to come through.
• There is HISTORICAL CONTEXT/PERSPECTIVE
• Not looking for a DEFINITIVE answer, you need to 'MAKE UP' the QUESTION yourself.
• You DO NOT need to do a BALANCED ARGUMENT.
• 10 minutes PLANNING
• 40 minutes WRITING

Barthes Semiotic Codes

• Symbolic
• Hermeneutic
• Proairetic

Claude Levi-Strauss

• Binary Oppositions

Magazine Generic Conventions

• Overview of Magazine Conventions
• Glossy Cover - Connotations of being at a better quality.
• Expectation that you are going to keep the magazine.
• More adverts than a newspaper.
• Bigger expectation on full page photographs.
• More about the look and design compared to a newspaper.
• May come with a free gift or free samples.
• Editorials.
• Magazines often opt to more gossipy modes of address.
• They can take an exclusionary mode of address.
• Allows you to be a market leader by being the only magazine with that certain genre.
• 
  

Name of Magazine: 

• WHAT HI-FI

Layout and Design: 

• Glossy Cover - Connotations of being at a better quality.

Font Size, Type, Colour and Connotations:

• Working class audience as the font is in Sans-serif, so it is more informal.

Language and Lexis:

• The language is aimed at more working class by using words like, 'affordable' and 'bargain' to give them hope that they will find the best deals and better deals than they would if they done the research themselves.

Women's Magazine - Week Ending, August 29th 1964

CONTEXT

Published weekly by IPC, 1937 to present.

Set Edition: 23-29th August 1964

Price: 7 old pennies, (approx 80p in 2018 money)

Women's magazines became very popular in the post-war period and, in the 1960's sales of women's magazine reached 12 million copies per week, Woman's sales alone were around 3 million copies per week in 1960.

• She looks around 34, inferring that it is aimed at a middle aged female audience.

• Very feminine colours so it will appeal to a more feminine audience.

• Very stereotypical view upon woman's leisure, as it is expecting that women like to cook, from the lexis of 'Kitchen'.

• The woman has an elegant bob, so it makes her look quite high end and she acts as an idol to young women, so they may think inside the magazine there are tips on how to look like this elegant, classy woman.

• The pink/purple background suggests the wall of a kitchen and by using the heading 'seven star improvements for your kitchen' this gives an audience response of her being a stay at home wife and in the kitchen.

• The model is quite plain and uninteresting so it lets the audience identify themselves with the woman.

• The lighting is quite bright on her face so an audience response to this is that women are quite bright.

• Another audience response makes the magazine more personal and friendly through the handwritten font.

• Affordable and approachable for 80p (inflation) for a weekly magazine.

• Stereotypes of women wearing makeup, as if they want to be an 'a level beauty' they have to look inside the magazine to see how to be this beautician, this is a hermeneutic code as you dont know the answer to the 'are you an a-level beauty?'.

• One response is that you need to believe you have certain rules, as there is a direct mode of address in this magazine.

• Heterosexual men will see this magazine and know that it is not targeted to them so they would not buy it.

• Heterosexual men will maybe see the magazine and find the woman on the front cover and find her sexually appealing and this may make the women want to aspire to be like this woman as men find her attractive and they want to be like her.

• The magazine could be saying that you are inadequate and not good enough by this life that these people in the magazine are asking if you have, as a 5 star kitchen isn't enough and you may not be an A-Level beauty and you could feel not good enough.

• Younger girls may read this magazine and want to be like this woman on the front cover so they're putting ideologies into younger girls heads which are easily manipulated. 

• Pride of being British, she is the British woman and we are proud to have her as the 'british woman with special magic'.

• Not every woman who picks this up will buy this, some women will find this boring as the women is plain and boring with stories about kitchens so middle and upper class women may not find this magazine appealing at all and prefer something with celebrities and gossip.

• The model's teeth are airbrushed, which adds to the 'perfect' woman idea, which is aspirational by the audience, and they wish they were like that but not in a completely out of this world way but in a more achievable way compared to the celebrities seen on vogue.

• She is wearing traditional women's clothes, reinforcing hegemonic views on how woman should dress, and the flowers on her dress could symbolise her as delicate.

• One response could be a feeling of empowerment as there is a magazine that is dedicated solely to the gender of Woman, woman is the most normal term and the most non delicate approach and seems more modern and more classy compared to girl which is more delicate.

• Audience response will feel more personal and more connected and affectionate response as she is staring straight at us, its a friendship look and is a more connecting look so we feel as if we have built a friendship with her and we owe it to her to read this article.

The Straight 'Outta Compton Marketing Campaign

The Straight 'Outta Compton Marketing Campaign

N.W.A - Fuck The Police

• Genre
• Rap / Hip Hop
• Subgenre - Gangster Rap

• Representation
• Different ethnic groups shown - white and black

• Debates
• Police stereotyping black people also stereotyping white people themselves. 
• Controversial - Extremely strong language
• Not all white people stereotype black people
• They are mocking the police extremely harshly
• They are mocking the US court system as they are 'unfairly' treated.
• The 'N' word is used quite a lot, this is re-appropriation, as they've taken the word and put it in a different context giving it a new power and made it seem less offence than what it would be coming from somebody else.

• Politics
• How young black men are being treated by the police in Compton
• Large political message - almost a campaign for rights.

Straight 'Outta Compton - Theatrical Trailer

• Got the actual music from NWA, but added a piano aswell which is conventional as they made the trailer seem more dramatic to target and to maintain an audience.
• Targeted towards older teenagers as they enjoy music and could be interested in this genre of rap and hip hop.
• The film is biopic film, as it is a true story just with different actors in it. 
• Fast paced editing, increases drama makes it more intense, but the film is not going to be like this for 2 hours but by doing it in the trailer it looks really exciting and it builds up our excitement. 
• It could be of interest to an audience which fight for racial equality. 
• The trailer is a criticism of society.
• By bleeping out the swear words it widens their range of audience.
• The film has a much better message than 'Fuck the Police'