Saturday 19 October 2013

stereotype research

Stereotype-Is a way in which a group of people or individuals are labeled due to there characteristics.
For example: working class people are shown to be trampy, dirty, messy, would take drugs, smoke and drink.

Gender:
Gender as a stereotype can be shown in two ways. This could either be masculine or feminine.

The typical masculine man would be strong, powerful, controlling, earning a lot of money, providing for his family, wears blue, muscles, aggressive and good looking. This is only within our society, stereotypes can differ from other societies. What we could see as masculine could be seen as feminine in a different society.


Showing a typical feminine women she would be all about her appearance, wear lots of make up, shinny hair, fashionable, skinny, healthy, spend lots of money on clothes/shoes, always want to impress people and wears pink. Again this is only within our society.






However there are also masculine women and feminine men.

Stereotypes of masculine women would be to have muscles, strong, aggressive, toned body, manly features, no makeup and mainly short hair.


Feminine men are normally stereotypically camp, girly, wear a lot of make up, squeaky voice, wears pink, care a lot about their appearance and fashionable.


Both feminine men and masculine women stereotypes can change in different societies and theses stereotypes are just in our society.

Class & Status:
Class and Status is shown through upper class people, middle class people and working class people.

Class-is within society and is decided by your upbringing and the area you live in.
Status-is within groups of people and can change when in different groups. For example: A teacher would have a higher status than his students in the class but if the head teacher was to walk in he wouldn't have as high status.

Stereotypically upper class people are the ones that own businesses themselves and don't actually work or have to lift a finger. They earn lots of money, live in very big houses with swimming pool in their back garden, have expensive cars, wear designer clothes and be very highly educated.


Middle class would be doctors and teachers, people that work for their money. They would earn normal amount of money, live in average houses, have children/family, have a stable lifestyle and good education and qualifications.


Working class are people that have to work hard to earn their money, they may not be educated or have very limited education and skills. Stereotypically they would live in cancel houses or estates, be very messy, unclean, scruffy hair, not very well manured when speaking to people and unhygienic lifestyle.


Age:
Age is shown through old age, middle age, young adults, teenagers, infants and babies.

Elderly people are stereotypically weak, frail, have grey hair, very grumpy and sometimes rude, they have wrinkles, normally wear glasses, very lonely and slow either mentally or physically. They are also hard of hearing. Old aged people are normally parents, grandparents and even grandparents and they have a certain old person smell.







Middle aged people are very mature and normally parents but could be grandparents. They are associated with being depressed because they go through a mid-life crises. They are used to a day to day routine and are starting to get weaker because they are getting older.


Young adults are stereotypically rebellious people they are starting to being independent, going university, working and going to parties. Normally in relationships, employed and have lots of qualifications, could smoke, take drugs and drink and could be starting a family or have a family.







Typical teenagers are stroppy, spotty, lazy and very moody. They are normally very attention seeking. They can be very stuck up, hormonal. Many stereotypes of teenagers are associated with drinking and drugs, they are normally hooligans. They are also very up to date with the use of technology.




Infants are very playful, can be very messy and quite immature. They are very needy of their parents and can become quite clingy. They are normally moody because they are teething. They start to get very clumsy because they are learning new things, such as walking. Also they are very loud.





Babies are always either crying or sleeping. they are very small and frail. They are normally very loud and always the centre of attention. Babies have a certain smell and are very cute. All babies wear baby grows and get very messy. A lot of babies start of to be very chubby.

Tuesday 15 October 2013

eastenders



Age

Representation of age is shown through how the character in a clip is portrayed. This could either be elderly, middle age, young adults, teenagers, children and babies ect.

Initial thoughts.

Representation of age is shown through the elderly character in this clip because he has the knowledge of past events as he actually witnessed it. Therefore this shows that the older character has more background knowledge of what happened during the racist periods. However both of the younger girls in the clip know some aspects of what he is talking about through their education. This shows that all ages around the table are interested in the same topic of history because it is to do with their culture background. I can straight away tell that they eldest man is respected by his family because of they way they all seem so interested in what he has to say.

Camera shots

The first shot used is a pan shot. This shows the eldest character to be seen as the main attention in this shot. We can see that his family look up to him and enjoy listening to his stories because the pan shot follows around the table, showing the other characters leaning over the table, looking very excited. This shot also makes the elderly character seem as if he is at the top of the table even when they are sitting on a round table. Therefore this shot helps to show us as viewer that he is largely respected by his family due to him being centre of attention.


After this a high angle shot is used to show further interest in the elderly character. You can see from this shot that all of the characters eyes are on him. This supports my initial thoughts of all ages being interested in the same topic of history. This shows that older people have strong knowledge because they have lived longer and experienced what we learn about today.


A medium close up is used on the older daughter. She is a young adult as we can see from the way she is dressed. During the conversation she says "fattening tuesday". From this it shows that younger people are more interested in their appearance and their weight then learning about history. However she does start to ask question about the elderly characters experience of moving to England and it is taken as a shot for her to be interested.


Throughout the conversation there is a shot reverse shot used. This shot helps the conversation to keep flowing and you can see each characters reaction. However in this shot after each character speak it goes straight back to the older character. This shows that he is the main focus of this whole conversation due to the amount of knowledge he has about their racial experiences.


There is a medium shot used on the eldest character to show his reaction of the conversation. From this shot we can tell that he feels as an older person it is his job to protect his family from the horrific side to his experiences because he doesn't seem to want to talk about it. Before this show we hear the teenage girl ask about the riots he replies "we're not going to go into that". Therefore this shows that older people want to protect the younger generation from racial events in the past because they feel that they do not need to know.

Editing

During the whole conversation there is a eye-line match between the elderly character and all the other characters. This shows the older character looking slightly down on the others and them having to look up. From this we can infer as a viewer that he has a higher status because of the amount of knowledge he knows. Therefore this shows that elderly people are respected by younger people.

Also through out the conversation there are shot cuts from one character to another. This shows limited amounts of the conversation in order for the viewers to just see what is important in the conversation. This is also a way of learning the reaction of the characters. Therefore the cut shots keep going back to the eldest character shows he is looked up to by his family.

Sounds

The sound used in this clip was the music in the background. This music was old fashion, slow, clam music. From this we can infer that it is the eldest characters type of music because it helps us as a viewer to see that he is portrayed as an elderly man.

Following this there is also the sounds of each characters voice. From the older characters voice it is deep and quit slow witch shows he is a elderly person. Whereas the other characters voices are very up beat showing that they are younger and have a lot more energy that an older person. The elderly characters laugh is also very crackly. This could show because he is an old man he is out of breath or short of breath when laughing.

The last sound used is the mobile phone ringing. This phone is the older daughters phone. from this it shows that younger adults/children are far more interested in technology than older people because they can not be without their phone as you can see when the daughter does to answer it while at the table eating with her family.

Mise-en scene

The first thing I noticed about the elderly character was that he is dressed very smartly. This helps to portray him as an older man because the younger generation would not be seen to dress smart unless it was for a certain event where you have to. His waistcoat that he is wearing is also very old fashion which shows that he is an older man in order to have a waistcoat like that.

There are empty bottles on the table which shows that the characters are most probably drinking and the parents might be drunk during this conversation. This represents age because you can only drink over a certain age.

Also from the older daughter wearing a lot of makeup and having her hair all neatly shows that she is of an older age than the other daughter because she is old enough to be able to wear makeup and also because she cares about her appearance a lot. Whereas the other daughter is wearing glasses and she speaks about learning about history in school it shows she is younger.

From the family being very shocked about the older daughter being interested in learning about the past experiences of the elderly character, it shows that they didn't expect a young adult to be interested in history. however we learn that she wants to listen because it is about her own history.

From the mum saying she remembers 'some' of the blues clubs shows that she is old enough to have aspects of knowledge from the past but not old enough to have experienced as much as the elderly character because she has one witnessed 'some'.

Conclusion

Overall from this clip it shows that the older generation are well respected by the other generations of people because they have experienced parts of history and have a huge amount of knowledge about events that all aged people are very interested in.

Sunday 13 October 2013

notes

Media Theory 

The media works through two types of people.
Producer: The producer makes the film/story/clip/video/tv program
Consumers: The reader/watch the media

The media is known to be called a media text. This could be Tv programmes, videos and posters ect. However the do not have to contain any text within them.

How does the producer get the message across to the consumer?
The producer has to think about what they want to say, they then encode the message. For example: speaking in English and then they finally say the message out loud.
The reserver hears the message that they producer has said, they decode the message to what they believe he or she is trying to put across.

Transmitter: Transmits the message and then encodes the message.

Reserver: Reserves the message and then decodes the message.

Following this theory on how the producer gets across their message. The transmitter could encode a message of something that you do not understand. For example: speaking in a different language. therefore the reserver will not be able to decode the message. People decode information differently.

Audience Theory

There are three methods of how the media gains the attentions of the audience. These are:
Hypodermic needle, 2 step flow, use and gratifications.

Hypodermic needle
This method can be explained by the consumer being injected with a needle that contains the messages from the media and makes them believe what they hear from the media. This is a way of brainwashing the audience in making them think and believe that everything they see from the media is true. The consumer/audience is seen to be passively receiving the information from the media.

2 step flow
The 2 step flow method is based on the fact of a group of people called opinion leaders. For example a consumer or reviewer watching a soap has their favourite character which becomes the opinion leaders. This makes the consumer/reviewer trust the leader they have chosen and makes the consumer more likely to believe and listen to what they are saying and also follow their views. However as a consumer you have no active role apart from choosing your opinion leader.

Use & gratification 
During this method the audience are given more respect and more of an active role in making their own decisions about the media. The consumers absorb the information or message from the media and make a selection of what they choose to believe and what they do not.
Diversion-Escape or emotional release. Some consumers believe that watching the Tv is a way to relax.
Personal Relationships-Virtual companionship and sociability. This could be used to make a conversation using what you have seen from the media.
Personal identity-Comparing your existence with others in the media. For example a teenager might watch a Tv programme that will influence them on how they think they should look, behave and live.
Surveillance-What is actually going on in the world. For example: The news is where we find out about what is happening in the world.
who decides what is included in the media? The gatekeeper makes the decision of what should be shown and what shouldn't. This depends on where and when the message will be shown. For example: different newspapers will include different news.Therefore you do not get the complete picture from the media.

Audience

Mode of address-How text is spoken through the media. For example this could either be formally or informally depending on what the producers message is that he/she is trying to get across. For example in big brother when the presenter Emma has to read out the voting numbers she switches from being informal to formal because she doesn't want to come across bias. She does this with no expression in order for the audience to not be influenced by who her favourite might be.
- The news reporter = formal.
- reading out voting numbers = formal.
- nature programmes = formal but the producer does want you to lear from their messages.
- soaps = informal.

Preferred reading-This is how the producer wants you to understand the message.
The producer also known as the transmitter will transmit the message and encode it. Then the consumer referred to as a reserver reserves the message and decodes it.
Oppositional reading- Rejection or subversion of the referred meaning. The different camera angles show different meanings to the message in the scene.
Negotiated reading-Someone who understands the message but doesn't relate to what they are saying.
Aberrant reading-Someone who misreads or misunderstands the message.


Semiology-Study and sign of symbols (denotation & connotation) semiology was established by Roland Barthes. 
Denotation-Objects that have been used in a scene for a reason. To make you as a consumer believe what is happening. For example: in Emmerdale empty bottles are left out on the table to show that they characters must be drunk.
Connotation-What a consumer will assume from the denotation. for example: we would believe that the characters from Emmerdale have drunk the empty bottles on the table. However we do not know this because we don't get to see.



Wednesday 9 October 2013

class and status



Class & status shown through shameless clip.

Class and status is either, upper class, middle class or working class. This is shown through how a person lives. For example: their job, house and how much money they have. The life styles of the different class categories vary when portrayed through the media. Working class is normally shown to be quite poor, dirty small houses, lots of children and could be on benefits. Middle class people are shown to have an average life style, few children, enough money to be well looked after, polite, good education and a nice family home. Upper class is shown to be well dressed, smart, clean, polite, big house, very good income, well educated and posh.

Initial thoughts.

My initial thought on the clip from shameless was that they are not really an organized family and argue about a lot of situations. I can tell that their class would be working class because of the way the house is so untidy and the children are so rude towards their dad by swearing at him. Also there is a baby in the room while they are swearing. From a first time viewpoint of watching this clip I can infer that the dad isn't the normal type of dad.

Shot types.

 A master shot is used on the children around the small table. This is used 0.06 seconds in to limit the amount of action you can see. The shot shows that they are working class people because they are all crammed into one small room around a very tinny table. Also the empty bottles and rubbish you can see in the background supports my initial thoughts of them being untidy.






1 minute and 27 seconds into the clip a close up is used on the dad to show his reaction to what his daughter said. She was explaining that the other children wanted to be with him.

His reaction shows that this was unexpected. This shows status because he is meant to be the parent, the leader of the family but he is shocked to hear that the children need him. Therefore this shows that he has a low status of being a rubbish parent.

During the conversation a shot reverse shot is used to keep the conversation flowing. 

This is shown 0.21 seconds in and then 0.25 seconds in. From this shot you can see that they are working class people because of the way they are sitting and they are dressed very untidy and the boy with the shoulder length brown hair looks scruffy and his shirt seems to be dirty. Also in the first shot the teenage child has a baby. This also
Shows working class because it is normally shown through the media that working class people who cannot afford much are the ones that have children at a younger age. The shot reverse shot goes to a second image of an older boy sitting in his boxers while they seem to be eating breakfast. 
This would not be seen if it was a middle or upper class family because it would be seen as disrespectful and un-polite to sit at the table while you were half dressed.
At 2 minutes and 7 seconds an extreme long shot is used of the caravan. This shows working class and having a caravan is normally associated with travelers/gypsies as the dad said during this shot.

Following this shot a long shot is used on the children and the dad while they are watching the caravan arrive. From this shot you can see that the house looks like an estate house. Therefore this shows working class because middle class people and upper class would live in a bigger and more expensive house.
An over the shoulder shot is used during the conversation of the dad and the man selling/buying the caravan. This shows his shocked reaction to how much money he is willing to pay for it. His reaction shows that he might have needed the money and thought he'd get  a lot more from selling it. This shows class and status between the two men because of the dad thought it would be a great gift and was expecting lots of money offered. Whereas the upper class man dressed in a suit was willing to pay ext to nothing for it. Therefore this shows the difference between what the working class people and upper class people believe to be a good selling product.

Another shot used is a high angle shot 3 minutes and 19 seconds into the clip. The high angle is taken from above showing what is below. This shot shows class because you can see that they are old and broken kitchen and living room furniture in the back garden. This shows they have a trampy life style and are very messy.



Sound.

The sounds used in this clip was the music at the start of the clip. This music was a hippy style of music. Therefore this shows that they are of a low status and are working class people because hippies also are shown to be working class people. The second use of music is calm and gentle which sets a certain mood to fit in with the dads reaction at the time. Towards the end of the clip up beat music is used when the caravan is introduced into the scene. 

Also other sound was speaking. The children swore in front of their dad and a new born baby and also actually swearing at their dad when in conversation. This shows they are working class people because this would not be acceptable in a higher class home. 

Following this the dad also speaks very inappropriately towards the children. This was either him speaking rudely towards them or swearing too.

Another sound used was the caravan moving. You could hear it screeching, this shows that the caravan was in a poor conditions and that it would belong to a working class person because it's a caravan and higher class people don't own caravans and also if they did it would be a posher one they this one.  


Mise-en scene


Straight away from the way the dad is dressed 0.10 seconds into the clip you can tell he is of a lower class because of the way he is dressed so untidy and messy with scruffy long nots in his hair.

From his body language you can also tell he is a working class person because of the way he is slouched instead of standing up straight.



The house is not decorated and doesn't seem like a very inviting home. It's very unclear and messy with rubbish and empty bottles on the table. This suggests they are working class because they seem to live like animals and don't really seem bothered by the way they live.

The attitudes of the children shows that they are very laid back. From this we can suggest that the kids do not go to school because they don't seem to be very rushed in the morning. And also because the older children are not dressed they are in their pajamas we can infer that they do not go to work either.

Due to the way that the children swear through out this clip we can suggest that they do not have any manors and are not a very polite bunch of children. Therefore we can suggest further they they have been brought up into a working class family.

Editing.

During watching this clip the editing was shown through eye-line matches.

One of the eye line matches was at the start of the clip when the dad ad children are having a conversation. The dad is looking down of the kids and they are looking up to him. This shows the dad to have a higher status at this point because it shows him at a higher level. He is seen to be in power at this time.

Another eye-line match was between the dad and the man he was selling the caravan to. This was shown by the dad looking up at the man in the suit and then the man in the suit looking down on the dad. This shows that the dad is of a lower status than the man buying the caravan because he has to look up to him while he is looking down on him, proving he is of a lower status and class.

Stereotypes.

In class and status stereotypes can be shown through upper class people, middle class people and working class people.

class:
During this clip the family are seen to be working class. This is shown through the use of stereotypes.
For example: messy hair, untidy, unclean house, rubbish all around the house, living in an estate house, having a teenage girl will a baby. Also they do not have a lot of money and the children are very un polite. They are also all living in a tidy house its very cramped.

status:
The status in this clip varies depending on the groups within each scene. For example when the dad is speaking down to the children he is showing a higher status than the kids because generally parents have a higher status than their children because they are an example of a leader. Another example of status is when the man in the suit is talking to the dad. You can tell he has a higher status because he looks professional and he looks down on the dad when speaking to him.

Conclusion.

Overall from now watching the clip many times I can see that the family are lower class due to the way they live. The dad does seem to have a higher status at some points in the clip because he is the parent but then this changes when the children swear at him and he swears back at the children. This is not how I would image a middle class or upper class family to live because of the way they seem to struggle. Therefore this must be working class and status family.



Thursday 3 October 2013

Gender




Representations of  Gender shown through a clip

As a fact gender is male or female. However there is other ways men and women are portrayed in the media. This could be masculine, male or female. Meaning that they would be shown as tough, overpowering and in control. Another way is feminine, male or female. This means they would be shown as sensitive, fashionable, caring and sometimes vulnerable.

The media creates certain characters as a stereo type, not all men and women are like this in the real world but the media wants you to believe they are, they make you think the media life is real.

Mise-en scene 

Through out this clip gender is shown through being masculine and feminine(male or female characters). 

The lady's cloth shop being owned by a man shows that he must be a feminine man because men as a stereotype do not like shopping, only girls do. Therefore he must have a feminine side to his character. The way he walks over to the older lady at the start of the clip shows him to be very feminine because he walks very floppy and calmly, not up straight, standing tall and strong as if he would if he was a masculine man. Also the voice of the shop owner isn't very deep as you would think a man's voice should be, his voice is rather high. This shows him as a feminine man and also could highlight his type of sexuality to be slightly camp.


Both women in this video are shown that they want to look good. The younger women wants to impress her husband and the older lady want to impress her daughter. This shows the feminine side to both women as they want to be impressing by showing their fashionable side. You see that the blonde haired character in the shop is whiling to pay £3000 for her dress just to look good. This makes us as a viewer believe that she is extremely feminine to pay that much for one dress. Whereas a man would never spend that amount of money on clothes just for one dress.



Further on in the next scene you see the masculine men being introduce in their exclusive mens pub, drinking their whisky, smoking and smartly dressed in suits. There voices are very deep which shows they are masculine men. They are talking business which shows they could be playing the traditional masculine role of the men by being a work while the women stay at home. The fact that one character is standing up tall over the bar shows he thinks he has a lot of power and control being he is a man, this must mean he is presented as a tough masculine character. Toward the end of the clip the men are shown again for only about a minute but they are shown to be laughing and joking, still drinking their whiskey without a care in the wold because they are strong masculine men.



When the lady from the shop looses her ring she becomes very vulnerable and panics that her husband will kill her because she lost her very expensive ring. This shows her feminine side again as she is worried about what her husband will think. This clearly shows that her husband has more power and control then she does. The shop owner is portrayed to be very feminine at the start however during this situation of the lady loosing her ring he stays very calm and he suggests a solution to what to do. This shows him to have a masculine side to his character because he become the strong one out of the two characters.

There is a new character introduced when he comes into the shop. Straight away from the way he speaks you can tell he is a masculine man because he addresses his new girl friend as "his new bird" this shows that he is showing off and from the he doesn't even create eye contact with the shop owner while in conversation it shows he thinks he is better than him, he doesn't even pick up the clothes he dropped on the floor. Therefore this shows he is a masculine man because he feels he can walk all over the shop owner because he has more power than the feminine owner of the shop.
Further more when the man finds the ring he come to the conclusion that he should keep the ring because as they say 'finders keepers'. The masculine man knows that there would be a reward for finding this ring. Therefore he keeps the ring and over powers the shop owner, walks out of the shop  and doesn't even think about his opinion or what he wanted to do with the ring.



Camera shots

Firstly a master shot is used on the shop owner while he is in the shop to show where the action will happen. At the start there was a very good angle shot used on the shop owner and the older women when in the shop. The shop owner was seen to be at a higher level to the women as he was looking down to her when speaking and she had to look up at him. This shows that the shop owner may have a masculine side to him because he feels that he is higher class than the women because she cannot afford the dress she wanted. There was a medium long shot closely after showing the older women walking away that showed the shop owner looking her up and down. This also shows that he feels he is more masculine then her because he is higher class. A close up is then used on the other women's ring mainly but does include her watch. This shows both masculine and feminine side to the shop owner because he could just  be interested in the people that have the money to afford the clothes so he can get more money or he could be interested in jewelry like he is shown to be with clothing. 





The medium close up used on the masculine men shows very few objects in the background so you can focus on them and not the area they are in. However there is enough background shown in order for you to identify where they might be. An over the shoulder shot is used during their conversation showing the importance of their conversation which keeps the conversation flowing and you can see both of their reactions.





Further more in the shop when the women is looking for her ring a medium close up leads to a close up of them both looking for the ring and then when the shop owner makes a suggestion on what to do. This helps show his masculine side because he is at a slightly higher level then her when speaking and she is looking to him for an answer on what to do about her ring. 



When the lady is leaving the shop there is a close up on the owners face to show the reaction he has to the reward she would give him if he found the ring.





A medium close up is then used of the shop owner searching for the ring on the fool. This medium close up shot allows you to see the new characters feet before you are actually introduced to him. This straight away shows the new character to be more masculine because the shop owner is on the floor looking very sensitive. A long shot is then used showing both characters in the shop, you see the man drop something on the floor and because he feels he is the masculine one out of the two he feels no need to pick up what he dropped on the floor and leaves it to the shop owner.



A close up is used on the ring when the man takes it out of him pocket and pretends that he found it on the floor. This shot was used because it's an important moment and helps us as a viewer learn about the masculine role this character has because he had the ring all the time, this makes him seem very sneaky and clever. Therefore he must be masculine because a women could never be in a conning situation. 

However at the end of the clip it reveals the blonde, fashionable women shown at the start was involved in the situation and didn't really loose the ring at all. Both characters played a part together to con money out of the shop owner. The women does not seem to be as feminine as you was at the start, she was in control of both the men, the shop owner and her partner in crime. Therefore she is a very masculine women to be able to be tough enough to complete the her plan.

Editing

When the owner of the shop goes to get the lady the dress she wants to see there is black out movement that goes across the screen. This then changes the scene and we go straight to the women in the dress. This is used so when watching the clip you don't see the scene changes you just recognize it is a different location. 

Before you are introduced to the men drinking their whiskey you hear his voice first and then he is shown in his scene. This show the man to be masculine as his voice is very rough and deep, just how you would imagine a masculine mans voice to be.

There is an eye line match between the costumer and the owner when he is talking to the older lady he is made to look down on her and then the women is forced to look up. This is to show the levels of status between them. Therefore because the owner of the shop is higher up it gives him more importance and he becomes the masculine one and the women shows no control and is the feminine one out of the two.

Furthermore when the lady in the shop looses her ring you hear her unzip her bag before the scene appears on the screen, this shows the change of scene to be seem less because you don's see the changes happen. This makes the women seem feminine as she is introduced by the sound of a bag.

Sounds

The synchronous sounds used in this clip were the bag being opened by the noise of the zip that was over exaggerated and the man putting the coat hanger back. This noise of the coat hanger makes us think that the older women is not capable of holding the expensive dress. Therefore this makes the shop owner seem more masculine because he has the control of taking the dress away and not allowing her to buy it.

The non diegetic sound was the background music through out the whole clip. This helps to show masculine and feminine because when the men in the bar are shown drinking the whisky the music get more up beat and faster. whereas when the blonde women walks into the shop the music is calm.

The diegetic sound was the alarm going off when that man is trying to fix it. This sound shows the man to not be masculine because he can not fix the alarm and a strong masculine man should be able to fix everything. However he is on the phone and when the alarm goes off and he covers the alarm with a pillow so that the character on the phone could not hear him because he wanted to be seem as masculine.