Monday, 12 December 2011

Quote mining

‘‘Ethnic minorities are continually misrepresented by racial (and racist) stereotypes.”-Laughey, D. (2009). p. 78.
“Media stereotyping occurs when the roles and behaviour on personal characteristics of a particular group are portrayed in a limited fashion” - Williams, K. (2003). p. 131.
Ethnic minority viewers accused all broadcasters of tokenism and stereotyping, screening exaggerated and extreme representations of minorities and failing to reflect modern ethnic minority cultures.”-http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/passtheremote/2008/07/top-soaps-accused-of-stereotyp.html
“Stereotypes are thus neither neutral nor fair, preventing the examination of differences within groups”- Williams, K. (2003). p. 130
“broadcasters of perpetuating racial stereotypes with token characters-http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/ethnic-minorities-accuse-tv-programmers-of-tokenism-869817.html
stereotypes have a complex relationship to ‘reality’. While stereotypes may be partial, they are not necessarily false: they generally control a grain of the truth- Calvert, B. Casey, B. Casey, N. French, L. Lewis, J. (2002). p. 168.



disproportionately targeted by police in a stop and search surge under counterterrorism laws in the wake of the failed 2007 London bomb attack.”- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/30/black-asian-stop-search-police-terrorism


“when it comes to imagery surrounding black people; I’m used to relentlessly negative - knife crime, underachievement representations”-http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/london-black-children-awards


the media fills the audience with information which is resistant to social change but on the other hand it can be said that representations of ethnic minorities are open to different interpretations and that their meanings are not fixed”-Creeber, G. (2003). p. 109.
“Lower among minority ethnic groups than among the White population”
“Mixed ethnic background in a number of studies, largely as a result of high levels of cannabis use”
"Men are more likely than women to use any illicit drugs in many ethnic groups, particularly among Asian, White and Chinese/other groups. Black and mixed race men and women have similar levels of use”

“Asian drug users also appear to be more likely to use smoking or chasing as their method of administration; those in White communities are more likely to inject

“The stereotype as the "criminal black man", because people associate young black men with crime in American culture. She writes that the black male is portrayed as a "symbolic pillager of all that is good” Russell-Brown, p. 84.
The criminal black man appears often in the context of athletics and sports.” Arthur A. Raney and Jennings Bryant discuss this in Handbook of Sports and Media (2006).
The stereotype of young black males and crime also exists in the United Kingdom. Robbery, drug use, and gang violence, for example, have been associated with black people since the 1960s” Marsh and Melville, p. 84

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Critical investigation

New title for critical investigation:

What does a TV drama like Topboy do to adress the stereotypical representation of ethnic minorites as criminals

(refer to The Wire)
http://www.enotes.com/topic/Criminal_black_man_stereotype
"black men have always been portrayed as physical threats, but until recently that threat was sexual and now the black male is portrayed as a "symbolic pillager of all that is good"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethnic-Minorities-Media-Changing-Boundaries/dp/0335202705/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323341857&sr=1-1
"changing representations"
the new racism:
the new racism’ (BARKER 1981): real racism in framework of thought exists only among the extreme right. In the new racism, minorities are not biologically inferior, but different. They have a different culture, although in many respects there are ‘deficiencies’, such as single-parent families, drug abuse, lacking achievement value…”

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Media-Ethnic-Minorities-Topics/dp/0748620699/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323343081&sr=1-2

"The link between ‘filth’ and ethnic minorities was already well established. Over time various ethnic groups have been portrayed as filthy via the label of deviance"

Monday, 5 December 2011

1O Guardian Quotes

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/28/hate-crimes-muslims-media-politicians

Media and politicians 'fuel rise in hate crimes against Muslims'

"Islamophobic, negative and unwarranted portrayals of Muslim London as Londonistan and Muslim Londoners as terrorists, sympathisers and subversives in sections of the media appear to provide the motivation for a significant number of anti-Muslim hate crimes,"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/11/black-prison-population-increase-england

More black people jailed in England and Wales proportionally than in US
Excess" of 145,000 stop and searches in 2008. It notes that black people constitute less than 3% of the population, yet made up 15% of people stopped by police.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/22/police-record-race-stop

Police forces cease recording race of people they stop
“Police forces with some of the worst records of targeting black people have decided to stop recording the ethnicity of the people their officers stop and ask to account for their movements”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/23/counter-terror-stop-search-minorities

Asian people 42 times more likely to be held under terror law
People from ethnic minorities more likely than white people to be stopped under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act
British Muslims have given written statements to the Guardian alleging that the police and the security service MI5 are abusing the power by holding people and pressing them into becoming spies.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/08/teenager-stabbed-conker-steven-grisales

Teenager stabbed in same spot as conker-death student
North London : Steven Grisales was allegedly stabbed to death on Wednesday 31 August as he made his way to Silver Street railway station in Edmonton after running a shopping errand for his grandmother.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/26/northern-ireland-deaths-turkey-gatecrashed

Northern Ireland deaths in Turkey have 'gatecrashed' families' lives
Marion Graham and Kathy Dinsmore will be buried after requiem masses. They were stabbed to death near Izmir while on holiday last week.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/21/leroy-james-murder-boy-charged

Schoolboy, 14, charged with murder of Leroy James (black boy)
The accused teenager was also charged with the possession of an offensive weapon and will appear at Enfield magistrates court on Monday.



Addition links to other sources:

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Critical Investigation

Title:
How abuse and criminality is stereotypically represented in West is West and Topboy over a range of cultures

Linked production:
An opening to a programme series or a movie of how western society see Muslim teenagers, however willing to represent her in an alternative view. The first view of her to the audience is seeing her hungover and walking up next to a boy; going home to reality. Her and a group of friends are outrageously active trying to have fun as a teenager decorating the street and doing fireworks on the road for no apparent reason.

Working with:
Ramita

Keywords:
Crime
Religion
Riots
9/11
fundamentalism

MIGRAIN:
M(media language)
mise-en-scene- in a society with asians, alternative view of her clothing make-up
dominant: dont much make-up. less skin showing
- Sound: diegetic and some non-diegetic

I(institution):
showing on channel four, after the water-shed being it would not be a family programme
produced by British producers

G(genre):
A mini series or film- shown in art house cinemas
set in London

R(representations)
Challenging the stereotypes of all religions but mainly Muslims
some dominant views will be protrayed however, this would help allow the audience to compare and contrast

A(audience)
Primary: Teenagers 14-19 C1DE. A range of ethic minorities
Secondary: Adults  20-35

I(ideologies and values)
alternative views mainly, trying to indicate as generations come, the less religious society is becoming

N(narrative):
First view from the protagonist
Mainly Cliff-hangers

SHEP
Social:
Show the difference in how stereotypes are not always labelled on each individual
How colour and recent events stop children from being true to their identity i.e. 9/11

Historic:
Fundamentalism
How powerful people such as Bin Laden has effected the worlds view on Muslims

Economic:
Wealthy people as there are many people that are muslim that are in the Bollywood industry

Political:
The media has protrayed Muslims in a more serious matter than usual
BNP/EDL: banning muslims against crusaders and being prejudice

Issues and Debates:
Fundamentalism-Giddens
Muslims do not apparently question their scripture. However there are Christian fundatmentalism but there is no criticisms on them.
Secularistaion is happening however, monotheistic religions do not question, also Islam is one of the largest growing religions.
Criminality is brought up from domestic violence, childhood- making every culture to be brought up in violence and keep it is necessary to get 'their own back'

This study fits into the contemporary media landscape because in the last three years the media has reported many articles on religion- especially durin August 2011 the London Riots blaming black Africans.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1830379/
TopBoy which shows the stereotypes of Black people

http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/national-survey-problem-behaviour-and-associated-risk-and-protective-factors-among-youn
A survey on teenagers behaviour and violence.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110220105210/rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/r245.pdf

http://uk.altermedia.info/immigration/black-crime-in-britain-a-%E2%80%9Cserious-crisis%E2%80%9D_1636.html
Crime associated with black people

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066795/Muslim-students-walking-lectures-Darwinism-clashes-Koran.html
about muslims

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066796/Christian-mother-forced-Heathrow-job-hate-campaign-Muslim-fundamentalists.html
People protesting against Muslims Fundamentalist

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-403010/Stereotyping-leading-terror-says-Muslim-Miss-England.html
A muslim 'Miss-England' explains why stereotyping muslims will cause a bigger terror

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/29/muslim-women-fighting-islamic-extremism
about women fighting their rights

http://thedailynewsegypt.com/global-views/getting-it-right-about-islam-and-muslim-americans.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15678275
Muslims against Crusades

Wednesday, 9 November 2011

Critical on Critical Investigations =)

Level 4 (37-48 marks)
 A fluent and analytical investigation which explores the chosen topic from a clear, autonomous and critical perspective, making use of extensive and wide-ranging research which has clearly been employed in the investigation and detailed in the bibliography, making use of a wide range of academic, media and contextual sources. The investigation demonstrates sophisticated research and engagement with the primary text(s) and a range of secondary texts. It is well presented with a very detailed bibliography/source list (AO4).The investigation demonstrates sophisticated knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates relevant to the chosen area of investigation. The work contextualises the study and the linked production piece effectively within the contemporary media landscape (AO1).

At the top of this level candidates demonstrate very good understanding of the chosen area of investigation, very good, independent research skills and very good application of media concepts, contexts and critical debates. The link between the investigation and the production is cogent, clear and evident.

How does the R&B genre construct vertain gender ideologies around artists such as Ne-Yo and Rihanna? Why might these ideologies be considered post -fem
A fluent and analytical investigation which explores the chosen topic from a clear is shown through Statistics show that ‘a man is still likely to earn more money than a woman...’ This quote clearly states fluent investigation as they have researched and found a quote that directly relates back to the question and the topic they are doing; also finding statistics shows they are able to analyse in-depth. This also relates back to ‘extensive and wide-ranging research’ as you can see statistics means they have gone out of the usual research and gone into depth also the bibliography shows the resources that was required for the content was from a range of platforms, showing they diverse and outside reading of the topic and sophisticated research and engagement with the primary text(s) and a range of secondary texts.. Using specific songs and artists connotes the fluency and accuracy in the writing, ‘Rhianna ‘hard’ and Ne-yo ‘miss independent’ ‘.

Having a summary of ‘soul music’ is showing the background dominant ideology of soul music and what is there codes and conventions of that specific music. Having background information shows sophisticated knowledge and understanding and also relating it back to a theory ‘the female gaze by laura Mulvey’ was applied which shows sophisticated knowledge and understanding of media concepts as they are able to apply theories to the question and justifying it, not only randomly sticking the theory in there.
Showing a view of todays society , ‘in todays media...’ shows that she has related the topic back to contemporary media, linked production piece effectively within the contemporary media landscape, and how representations of women have changed connotes the consideration of todays society.


Monday, 3 October 2011

Facebook

FACEBOOK
1) Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Mark Zuckerberg owns 24% of the company, Accel Partners owns 10%, Digital Sky Technologies owns 10%. Dustin Moskovitz owns 6%, Eduardo Saverin owns 5%, Sean Parker owns 4%, Peter Thiel owns 3%, Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital Partners own between 1 to 2% each, Microsoft owns 1.3%, Li Ka-shing owns 0.75%, the Interpublic Group owns less than 0.5%, a small group of current and former employees and celebrities own less than 1% each, including Matt Cohler, Jeff Rothschild, Adam D'Angelo, Chris Hughes, and Owen Van Natta, while Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus have sizable holdings of the company, and the remaining 30% or so are owned by employees, an undisclosed number of celebrities, and outside investors

2) N.A

3) N.a
4) Facebooks revenue is $4.27 billion, since 2011

5) US$17.5 billion (2011)

6) Five key facts on Facebook:
- About 70 percent of Facebook users are outside the United States
-More than 30 billion pieces of content including links, photos, news stories, are shared each month.
-More than 150 million active users use Facebook on their mobile devices -- using 200 service providers in 60 countries.
-Facebook employs more than 1,700 people.
- Facebook, made in 2003 , In September 2009, Facebook said that it had turned cash-flow positive for the first time












7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
Summaries: facebook started very basic, including pictures and just personal information about individuals. Over the years different aspects was included eg 2007, posting attachments on each other walls, 2006 news feed because it was to track people down, Zuckerberg apologised and created privacy accounts.







8) Key info from the homepage,
The title
Login
page rage- connected with facebook

Monday, 12 September 2011

London Riots 2O11

The weekend long riots which have been taking place in Tottenham, London, have been made worse by the use of social media by the locals, reports, police and even Members of Parliament have said. A very brief back story for those of you who may be less aware, Thursday 4th August, a man, Mark Duggan, was shot dead by police in a raid. What started off as a peaceful and law abiding vigil for him turned into mass hysteria, riots and looting with hundreds of arrests and mass amounts of damage inflicted over London.

The argument is, that social media was used intentionally, and unintentionally, to spread inaccurate or completely fabricated tales to the online community. People were Tweeting and Facebooking stories and events "as they happened" whether they were known to be true or not. They were even Tweeting just to cause a stir and make things seem worse than they were. Or to make others believe that the riots were a good thing. They were even looking to recruit new rioters and chaos.

The problem with social media, is that it is freely and easily available to the public, and people reading these updates may have been taking them at face value and being inspired to join the riots. Whether they agreed with the cause or not. Or, at the very least, these networks offered a portal for gossip, lies and rumours to be spread and cause problems.

What's worse, is that people were using these social networks not only to encourage riots, but even to belittle and laugh at the events. A quick look over the profiles and hashtag searches revelaled some worrying tweets of people using Twitter and social media to add fuel to the already raging flames. For example, one tweet read:

"Heading to Tottenham to join the riot! who's with me? #ANARCHY".

This tweet was then followed by:

Hang on, that last tweet should've read 'Curling up on the sofa with an Avengers DVD and my missus, who's with me?' What a klutz I am!"

This sort of tweeting is arguably harmless, but it can be seen as a childish, rude and inappropriate use of social media when it's seen to be playing a prominent role in a volatile situation. Belittling a situation where thousands of people have taken to the streets, burnt down public buildings and even family homes, is completely unhelpful and disgusting behavior. Don't forget, this whole event started because of a death by shooting. A little respect for the people who have been innocent victims and families of those involved in these events would not go a miss.



QUOTES:
'People were Tweeting and Facebooking stories and events "as they happened" whether they were known to be true or not '
> This quote shows the media knew that social networking was not always encouraging people to go out and perform these actions, it shows the audience using social networking has been helpful to those not apart of the riots, allowing them to get easy information to what has happened. However as it says "whether they were known to be true or not" connotes the audience is also producing inaccurate information. Understandably, the social networking sites where being monitored- the audience using the social networking sites was either perceived as either being involved, passing on information or allowing the police to know what was going to be targeted next.

' Belittling a situation where thousands of people have taken to the streets, burnt down public buildings and even family homes, is completely unhelpful and disgusting behavior'

> The police, who monitored social networking is shown as being frustrated by the description of the people mocking the riots by saying "unhelpful and disgusting behavior". By the police advertising the fact of mocking the riots is "unhelpful" encouraged the audience to increase the mockery to wind the police up in a discrete way. I believe the police wanted the situation to be seen as very serious but not understanding that people who 'belittled' the situation could have been giving a message to those participating to notice how pathetic and useless there doings are to the community.

The argument is, that social media was used intentionally, and unintentionally, to spread inaccurate or completely fabricated tales to the online community
> The police seem to want to be believe that social networking helped spread 'fabricated tales' but do not wish to believe it could be the truth, they wish to hide from. However, they
recognise both sides by mentioning 'argument' and 'unintentionally'. which connotes the social networking is not fully to blame for the riots. They believe that it also informed people and keeping them safe. On the other hand, they do not show fully they believe the benefits because by saying 'unintentionally' it showed that people who was advertising the riots as a good thing where also asserting people to stay away from those areas, yet without realising.

Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Summer - A movie "The Rebound"


The Rebound

 A suburban mother who seems to have it all - a sprawling suburban home, cheery kids, fast broadband connection- until she discovers that her husband has been cheating on her. She decamps to New York, where she does things she's never thought of doing before: namiley working. She also goes on dates with hygienically challenged men who insert dirty fingers in her mouth.

The women, the protagonist, stars of being shown as domestic and organised in life, once her relationship with her husband falls apart she begins to be represented as a vulnerable middle aged women who is in desperate for another man in her life.  With her ex-husband, she was the domestic one and represented as a dominant character, and her husband is shown as the weak one who cheats on her by having sex with about women. Once they divorce the ex-husband becomes weak and in need of a women in his life, begging for her to re-enter his life again.

The women is seen desperate by her best friend, as her best friend would persistently talk about having another man in her life, which connotes the protagonist as being gullible and believes her friend is correct. To an extent the representation of the protagonist is correct as once a woman is divorced they seek a man’s presences in their life, and it can be seen as fair because people want to be loved. However to an extent the representation is incorrect because the protagonist seems confident and stable by herself.


As the film goes on, she meets another man and realises she has fallen for him, however as hears she is not pregnant with his baby, she realises that he is not for her, and wants to break-up with him. This is self-representation as she shows that she no longer needs a man in her life. As they go their separate ways, the woman gets promoted in her job and the male character goes travelling around the world, which connotes that they did not need each other.


The significance of having text connotations is that it allows the audience to feel a specific way, as...


The mise-en-scene of this movie is basic setting in New York, at their apartment and a coffee shop. This connotes that the movie has a realistic feel to and allows the audience to identify themselves with the characters, as there is no green screens used. The audience would feel as if they could identify with them because it is not an unrealistic storyline. The coffee shop is a casual place where people tend to be laid back, therefore also making the plot realistic.  The clothing represents the high budgeted Hollywood movie but it also shows the simplicity of the characters and the make-up is low key to connote the facial expressions more as the audience are not being distracted by the make-up.


The camera positions shown is point-of-view shot, to allow the audience to feel connected and draws the audience in; there is also medium long shot views to allow the audience to get a feel of the surroundings and feel comfortable in that setting. Some edits used is dip to black but mainly jump to leave the audience at the edge of their seats. The sounds used is parallel, manly romantic.


The narrative throughout the movie is mainly third persons view, but we get to see some views from the protagonist point of view for the first half of the movie, but as the second man gets involved the narrative gets a feel of both the prospectuses. When they show both of their views after the break up, they use jump shots to allow the audience to feel as if they are with both of the characters at once and the audience feels as if they are up to date with the current affairs in both their lives.


The male character is delineated by being very mature for a 24year old, and he is shown to be a family person, as he gave up career to babysit for the women he fell in love with. But as they split, he became more independent and travelled the world by himself.  The woman is also shown to be independent, but still seeks male’s presence in her life. Using propps theory, the protagonist is the princess and her ex-husband is the villain and the new male character is the hero/helper, as they argue that he was the rebound and he also started off with helping her out by babysitting her children. She is seen as the princess as she needs help from her past experience, and her ex-husband is the villain and he hurt and destroyed the women, and is impolite towards the women and the new male character.  After this scene, the husband is alienated from the children and the women. Alienation is also shown when the break-up occurred, the male character disappeared from the women.


The themes shown from the narrative is love and betrayal and this is shown by the protagonist watching a birthday movie which had two parts two, the second part of which had the husband making love to another women, from then she realised she no longer wanted to be with him. After a while, she falls in love and is broken hearted to realise that he is younger than her, and she feels as if it wasn’t meant to be.


The main reason for why this movie falls under that category of love is because of the music, the type of camera angles used: which are medium long shot, long shots, occasionally, which connoted alienation, and also over the shoulder shot to connote identification.

To an extent the audiences expectation was not fulfilled, because we do not know if they get back together at the end, and you wouldn’t expect them to fall out over nothing, the audience would have thought the ex-husband would have got in the way, but didn’t; the plot of them not having another partner does fulfil the audiences expectation.


The targeted audience is aged 18-27 middle classed, BC2C1. I have chosen this gratification because of the maturity of the movie and the situations involved are not very common for ages younger than 18, and because it is a Hollywood movie class D and E would feel as if that is the ‘ideal lifestyle’ as in the setting, therefore they could be there secondary audience, and the reason for BC2C1 is because the characters are based in that socio-economic group.

From watching the movie, i read and evaluate the movie as a typical love/romantic movie because of the other movies, due to my age i couldn’t really identify with them, however you can understand how the woman felt as she saw her husband cheat on her, is like a relationship in high school, and it teaches us about the realities of life that something/ people don’t grow up and some mature faster, don’t judge them on their appearance nor their past.

Rotten tomatoes shows views of us the audience, and they express their views by saying ‘ its the reality of life shown with two wealthy people’


IMDb shows also the audiences views of the film. The reviews are a good view for the director and also the actors because feedback for them is vital for the next movies they will produce or star in and everything always needs improving.


The guardian has said: 'getting a tooth wrenched out without anesthetics. On entering the cinema and seeing this movie on offer, my advice is to rebound in the opposite direction' 


The rating from the telegraph is only, a shocking, two star saying 'rom-coms have always been about massaging women's fantasy nodes, but this one presses a little to hard. In case we worry that sandy might be robbing Aram of his carefree youth, she tearfully renounces him as too young' an they believe it is a rom-com and a heart-tugging drama, and is too short on laugh or honesty to fit either bill.