Attitude Online - Theories (Hall & Gilroy)

Misogyny - The hatred of women.

Stereotypes and Inequality in Attitude - Stuart Hall

• Stuart Hall suggests that the media and the power of media representations play an important role in defining the ideological thinking of audiences regarding specific groups.

• Hall's argument that stereotyping, as a form of representation, reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits Hall's argument that stereotyping tends to occur where there are inequalities of power as subordinate or excluded groups are constructed as different or 'other'.

• Hall's work focuses on the use of stereotypes by the media - arguing that stereotypes work by reducing characters to simplistic physical characteristics and behaviour traits. Hall argues that stereotypes reflect the amount of power that social groups have within society, and that negative stereotypes reflect, in Hall's view, social inequalities or the wider views of society. In other words, the construction of specific groups as 'outsiders' or 'others' by media products mirror their social exclusion from wider society.

Theories around ethnicity and post-colonial theory - Paul Gilroy

• Post-colonialism is the study of the impact that being under direct rule has had on former colonies. For example, despite being a tiny island, Britain colonised and declared ownership of many countries, including India and Australia.

• These ideas and attitudes continue to shape contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era.

• These postcolonial attitudes have constructed racial hierarchies in our society, where, for example, white people are by and large given more positive and important roles than BME people.

• Media producers are also guilty of using binary oppositions to reinforce BME people and characters as 'others'.

Attitude provides a very stereotypical representation of gay men - six packs, stereotypically attractive males.

There are different gay communities other than attitude - the other stereotype of gay guys are referred to as looking young and being 'twigs'. Also another representation of gay males is 'bears' where they are fat hairy men etc.

Regulation

Regulation

• Regulation
• Rules and Restrictions.

• Why?
• To make sure children don't see inappropriate shows as it may be traumatising.

• How is television regulated
• The watershed is a voluntary time that they agree to put some more inappropriate shows so they do not get complaints.

• The mass media
• considered that audiences are stupid and easily influenced and the mass media is used to explain this - cultivation theory - passive audience.

• Ofcom
• Regulation comes down to harm and offence of the under 18's.

• Harm and Offence
• 'Ofcom is required to assess the likelihood of material encouraging or inciting the commission of crime or of leading to disorder.'

• Regulation is ineffective - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt
• Media in general is getting harder to regulate due to digital technologies, for example, if a child wants to watch something on Netflix they can watch whatever they like and it isn't regulated.

• Self Regulation
• Parents being able to put pins on certain shows so there child cannot watch it.

Imitable behaviour - bullying - rebellion against social norms - teenager using a gun - sadism - potentially racist from an allegorical perspective

Leo attacks Sadiq - Violent, intimidating scene - may be particularly offensive to those involved in violence - possible racial violent undertones.

Kidnapping - may trigger memories - depicts unconscious woman being dragged away - connotations of murder and sexual assault

• Niska in brothel
• Were supposed to feel sorry for Miska, so potentially this will traumatise the audience. 
• The scene is depicting prostitution
• Objectification of women
• Taboo theme: man having sex with a robot
• Depiction of sexual assault

• Fred in Picking Scene
• Fred has been branded connotations of slavery
• Also alludes to the holocaust
• Audience may have family members affected by these events

• Odi collapsed in supermarket
• Depiction of lifeless/dead Odi - may be potentially upsetting to parents. Odi is a son figure to George - emotionally distressing

Key Theory - Stuart Hall - Reception Theory

• How we receive a media products (3 ways)
• Dominant / Preferred
• Negotiated
• Oppositional

• All about the ideology of the producer
• We are too dependant on technology

Key Theory - Henry Jenkins - Fandom

• Textual Poaching

• Fandom refers to a particularly organised and motivated audience of a certain media producer franchise.

• Unlike the generic audience or the classic spectator, fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings.

• Fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully intended by the media producers ('textual poaching'). Examples of this may manifest in conventions, fan fiction and so on.

• Rather than just okay a video game or watch a TV show, fans construct their social and cultural identifies through borrowing and utilising mass culture images, and may use this 'subcultural capital' to form social bonds. For example, through online forums like Reddit or 4chan.

• A fan is a more enthusiastic audience member

• Fansub
• Subtitle file made by a fan. 

Newspaper Unit: Audience Responses

Audience Responses

• Ideologies of Christmas
• Family
• Christmas Dinner
• Birth of Jesus

• Stuart Hall - Reception Theory
• The ways in which the audience process the ideologies of the producer.

• 'P.N.O'
• Preferred
• Negotiated
• Oppositional

• Preferred Reading
• Birth of Jesus and be involved in going to church Christmas Eve.
• Everyone loves Christmas.
• Joy of giving gifts.

Cambridge News Facts

• Local Tabloid
• Genre

• 'TOO CLEVER FOR PRISON'
• Were not supposed to like her and have passion towards her.
• We feel distrust towards the court system as they are giving someone freedom for a crime which shouldn't be dismissed due to her career choice and qualifications.
• The picture used makes us dislike her even more as she looks smug in the photo used so we dislike her even more.
• The representations of people with mental health issues is that they may be dangerous, out of control, another stigma with mental health issues is that they don't exist, and they're just an excuse to get away with things because they cannot control their 'mental health issues'.
• Women are hysterical
• They mentioned that they met on tinder.
• Oppositional - She is the victim as nobody has helped her with her mental health issues.

Representation Paragraph

Scantily-clad women's sizzling selfies are overshadowed by their very messy backdrops.

(P) The media product is focusing on the representation of teenage girls, these teenage girls are posting 'racy' selfies online but there is more focus onto their messy bedrooms rather than the actual photo's they have posted. (E) The technical devices that the producer uses in order to present this group is the large amount of images and captions. The article uses 22 pictures all of which are captioned which is conventional for a media product however, there is less dialogue in the article than expected, perhaps aiming this to a more working class demographic through the fact that they have a shorter attention span. The mode of address used in the article is more of a patronising tone to the audience, saying 'These pictures are guaranteed to make you think twice before sharing a selfie online.' (A) The message this brings across to the audience is that this is an extremely embarrassing thing to do, and that these girls are perhaps seen as a 'disappointment' to society meaning the impact this has on the audience is that they do not want to feel embarrassed, maybe telling them to get their life's together.  This constructs a representation that the girls presented are messy and more worried about being sexualised than sorting themselves out.

Extra Notes

• 'Scantily-Clad Stunners' this chosen lexis is something that someone in their 50's/60's will use, perhaps suggesting that the audience is more older males.

• These images were supposed to go to their other half perhaps (boyfriends) which unfortunately got out, but it shows that the teenage girls are messy and they're more worried about being sexualised than sorting there messy selfs out.

• There are issues with this article that Stuart Hall's Reception theory backs up as we are not sure what reading we prefer, we don't understand how to feel about this article. It also encourages a discussion between it as we are supposed to either find these girls sexually attractive and enjoy seeing these photos of them or we are completely against it and we dislike seeing this and think that they're scummy for doing something like this. 

• Cultivation Theory - If we carry on to look at this article and think what we think about it again and again we begin to grow our understanding of it until it turns into something completely different. 

Improvements

• Things to include;
• This constructs a representation that...
• This stereotypes...
• The audience is being manipulated by the ideology...

Media Hegemonic Ideologies

Media Hegemonic Ideologies

• Money Supermarket Advert; 
• Male wearing tight shorts is not something we normally see, it is a hegemonic idea of gender in the fact that a male wears jeans and shirt but he is breaking these hegemonic ideologies by wearing this.
• People were disgusted and outraged by this advert (homophobia)
• There is an example of binary opposition, his top half of clothing is a stereotypical man as he is wearing a suit whereas his bottom half is a stereotypical women with a big bum. 

• Adidas Advert - Arvida Bystrom;
• It is an expectation for women to not have hairy legs and if they do they cover it up but that woman had it out on show. 
• Men threatened to rape her, which could be that they are trying to reinforce the idea of a patriarchal society, as she is challenging their masculinity as she is doing something which is considered a norm for the male gender whereas not normal for the female.  

• Hegemony is important if we break them hegemonic ideologies then it will indeed be noticed. 

Key Theory - Stuart Hall - Reception Theory

• Audience Responses to WaterAid Advert;
• Uplifting
• Don't really care
• Positivity
• Happiness for the Zambian villages
• Annoyed (shows one place lot more places than one)
• Cynical (judgemental)
• Better than the average charity advert
• Cute
• Rewarding
• Frustration (wouldn't be singing in english / its all staged) 

• Audiences can respond in lots of different ways, this contradicts the ideas of Hypodermic Needle Theory that the audience believes the ideology by the producer, as we have proven that we all have different concepts of this advert from happiness to frustration. 
• 'By donating money you can help a vulnerable african child' - the producer's ideology, but we didn't all see that side of things. 

• Dominant Reading
• The audience agrees with the dominant values in the text, and agrees with the values and ideology it shows.
• Eg. Donating money to WaterAid as we feel sorry.

• Oppositional Reading
• The audience completely disagrees with what they see, and rejects the dominant reading.
• Eg. They dont trust WaterAid with their money
• Extreme Oppositional Reading Eg. They hate Africa and don't care, I'm British.

• Negotiated Reading
• The audience generally agrees with what they see, but they may disagree with certain aspects.
• Eg. I admire what WaterAid does but I can't stand children singing. 

• Factors which affect audiences responses;
• Moral Beliefs
• Personal Issues
• Financial Situations
• Class Structure
• Religion
• Ethnicity
• Age
• Sexuality
• Location
• Gender (identity)

Key Theory - Stuart Hall - Theories of Representation

Key Theory - Stuart Hall - Theories of Representation

Representation - The way in which a media product (eg. the producer of the media product) constructs the world and aspects in it, including social groups, individuals, issues and events.

Lindt Lindor - 'Do you dream in chocolate?' 

• Sound - Women's Voice - Well spoken middle class women, connotations of luxurious and classy, so makes us think that the chocolate is high end and classy and will taste like luxury as this middle class women is talking about it in a very calmly way. The chocolate is represented as a luxury. 

•  Shot Types - close up of melted chocolate, the connotations of this is that it makes the audience want it and emphasises the smooth texture which makes us think its pure, clean and luxurious. 

• Shot Types - close up of women's face represents the sexualised nature of the video, and she is also in bed, which makes it more sexualised so then the representation of this is that its a luxurious item and replacing this man figure with chocolate, as chocolate can fill their needs. 

• Shot Types - Transitions in editing, rather than a hard cut, there is some kind of movement, this represents the chocolate as soft flowing and reflects the smoothness of the chocolate compared to the editing, it also adds to the sexual nature aswell and also adds to the calming vibes of the chocolate. 

• We've got a representation of chocolate, as its saying if we have this chocolate then we can lounge around on these cream chairs and lay in bed and be in this luxurious state that everyone else is in. 

Superbowl Commercial Break 2015 

• Disabled people are being represented, they are being represented in a positive way saying how you cannot stop them and that they are trying their best to do what they could normally do. 

• In the first advert we had a very clear representation of America, through the hard and empowering music and the big american truck, portraying america as empowering and hard. 

• The american revolution was portrayed and its a cultural code so us as British people do not understand it, the assumption in this is that you should know the American history, and the American viewers would be expected to know so it shows that they know their history.

• A women reckless driver is funny as it goes against a stereotype of women being caring mothers and worrying about their children with strangers, while this women is telling a little boy to get in her car. 

Stereotypes

Definition - A commonly held belief about a certain group of people. 

Richard Dyer - The Role of Stereotypes

• An ordering process
• A short cut (for producers)
• A reference point (for audiences)
• An expression of dominant societal values.