Lady Gaga is a global iconic artist successful due to the use of the Internet where marketing experts believe Lady Gaga earns 3rd of her money through social media where she earns $30 million on twitter. Her global appeal is successful through the parasocial interaction from social media networks such as twitter where she is known to have the most followers of 18 million fans where she has “cultivated a large, lively, and loyal following”. This convinces the fans to feels closer to the artist, believing to share a relationship with Lady Gaga. Whereas Nirvana were less global in their time due to the lack of advanced digital technology where they would depend on TV programmes such as MTV or Jonathan Ross Show, music videos and word of mouth. On the Jonathan Ross, they performed a memorable live show with an unexpected choice of song ending it by trashing the instruments presenting their rebellious manner to enable the word of mouth marketing strategy. However their post-modern hybrid genre ‘Grunge’ changed the ideology of mainstream music, which appealed to a wide audience. The album ‘Nevermind’ released by DGC Records sold 30 million copies conforming the use of the ‘Grunge’ genre changed the appeal of the industry in the 90’s.
Friday 16 May 2014
How global is the appeal of your 3 main texts?
Lady Gaga is a global iconic artist successful due to the use of the Internet where marketing experts believe Lady Gaga earns 3rd of her money through social media where she earns $30 million on twitter. Her global appeal is successful through the parasocial interaction from social media networks such as twitter where she is known to have the most followers of 18 million fans where she has “cultivated a large, lively, and loyal following”. This convinces the fans to feels closer to the artist, believing to share a relationship with Lady Gaga. Whereas Nirvana were less global in their time due to the lack of advanced digital technology where they would depend on TV programmes such as MTV or Jonathan Ross Show, music videos and word of mouth. On the Jonathan Ross, they performed a memorable live show with an unexpected choice of song ending it by trashing the instruments presenting their rebellious manner to enable the word of mouth marketing strategy. However their post-modern hybrid genre ‘Grunge’ changed the ideology of mainstream music, which appealed to a wide audience. The album ‘Nevermind’ released by DGC Records sold 30 million copies conforming the use of the ‘Grunge’ genre changed the appeal of the industry in the 90’s.
Thursday 27 February 2014
Discuss the audience appeal of your three main texts.
The 3 various texts form to appeal towards different audiences through the use of multiple conventions aiming to target and relate to the audience with the uses and gratifications. The responses from the audience varies dependent on the different readings they perceive as the theory of the encoding/ decoding model developed by Stewart hall states that all texts obtain polysemic meanings where it is read differently from the influences of the viewer's personal identity, cultural identity, and opinions.
The American television series 'Lost' produced by the world wide American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and directed by J.J Abrams is a mainstream text intending to appeal to a wide, mass audience through constructed conventions such as an ensemble cast. An ensemble cast involves characters of diverse identities varied through the representations of age, race, gender and ethnicity for the audience to gain the gratification of finding reinforcement for personal values to identify and relate to one of the characters or narrative plot in the text. Also the genre of the text is of the hybrid of Sci-fi and adventure composing a post-modern text to intrigue and broaden the mass of audiences. The sense of adventure is presented during the ending of the Pilot Part 2 episode where the characters venture off on a quest to supported by a exciting, upbeat, Indiana Jones styled score when searching for a signal for the radio. Characteristic of Sci-fi is portrayed towards the very end where the characters discovers the repeated recording of past survivors who were stranded in the very same island, when reaching the climax, Charlie interrogates "Where are we?" as the episode ends with a bang creating a enigma. These conventions performs as a preferred reading to the majority of the viewers as the producers know what attracts the audience based on the certain genre and hybridity to target a large, mainstream audience. However, the use of the high amount of enigma codes frequently appearing on the scenes on Pilot Part 2, from the very beginning where the character 'Charlie' is portrayed through a paranoid, suspicious vibe with close up shots of his face to present his emotional state as he fidgets and nervously taps on the seat creating the enigma of why he is acting in this behaviour. The enigma is quickly answered right away as the camera delivers a tracking shot following Charlie with cuts shifting from the air hostess to Charlie to create tension as he rushes into the toilet revealing to lure in drugs and attempting to flush it away. This creates the negotiated reading for some partially active readers as it disrupts the suspense and loses the excitement due to the enigmas being answered giving less thrill to the purpose, however they still decide to accept the text to decode further enigmas.
Mad Men is a period drama series produced by the subscription AMC American company which received critical acclaim through its impressive character driven and sophisticated narrative capturing the Office Life set in the 1960's following complex individuals. Mad Men specifically targets to the preferred audience of the niche category as the text is inclined to appeal to an active audience who can actively decode the reasoning of the narrative feature or an enigma code. The stylised mise-en-scene of the episode 11 'The other woman' of Season 5 captures the authentic, attention to detail of the 60's era through the use of iconography imitating how people from this period use to dress contributing to the pop culture of 'retrophilia' producing a nostalgic environment of the past presenting an aspect of post-modernism which attracts to a niche yet cult audience. The use of complex characters breaks to follow the mainstream conventions that conforms to the cliché Propp theory which emphasises the niche convention of the text for audience to approach a preferred reading. In this particular episode, it focuses upon the complex representations of woman whom contrasts to one another creating a sense of an ensemble cast. Megan, the wife of the protagonist, Don Draper, is an aspiring actress which captures the abstract American Dream of many young woman of the 60's. However, slowly Megan realises and accepts that men are the dominant figure of her surroundings whether it is her husband Don or the males in the agency who holds the audition where they as soon as she enters, they ask her to "Turn around" presenting her as a sexual object through scopophilia of the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey. In contrast, another female character known as Peggy is presented as a woman breaking into a man's world where she will not be claim to play the role of the shadows of the males. Sense of breaking of sexism appears as Peggy pitches for the advertising with praises for her idea however is not given full credential as Don throws money in her face conveying how woman in the 1960's were treated, how men got away with it presenting sexism still to have been an issue in the time. As she resorts to her office, she states "I'm not crying" presenting her overpowering attribute establishing that she is not prone to weakness. A cult fan base of Mad Men can respond to the complex characters through visiting their website and taking the quiz to view which character they are and share the same characteristic traits to.
Peaky Blinders is a prestigious, high brow crime drama interpreting to be culturally and intellectually rich. The text is aired on the BBC2 where they do not broadcast advertisements as it is paid taxes and is a public owned body. The text is set in Birmingham in 1919 following the former WW1 soldiers who have returned home and formed a gang known as Peaky Blinders. The text can appeal to both mainstream and niche audiences as it conforms to the uses of both mainstream and niche conventions settling between the Lost and Madmen. The use of the high production and cinematography capturing the refinement of a movie theatre experience to appeal to the mainstream audience. In the scene where Ada visits the nurse to check for her pregnancy with Aunt Polly, the cinematography is presented through the low key lighting to convey dramatic fallacy with the use of shallow depth of field against the gloomy, foggy street to portray the sense of surreal reality Ada has to face. The use of known actors in the text in contrast to the artist integrity in Mad Men where fairly unknown actors moved towards more opportunities, appeals to the mainstream audience as they can recognize the protagonist Cillain Murphy (Tommy Shelby) from past movies such as Inception or Batman, Sam Neil (Chester Campbell) from the classic Jurassic Park and Helen McCroy (Aunt Polly) from Harry Potter. This broadens to attract a wider range of audience who are fans of the actors to view Peaky Blinders.
The text however received a negotiated readings from some of the audience whom believe that it lacked originality as its constructed narrative seemed to display similarities between 'Broadwalk Empire' such as the period of the after-war effect, set around the same era and the use of highly produced cinematography with he drained tones of blue effect.
The American television series 'Lost' produced by the world wide American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and directed by J.J Abrams is a mainstream text intending to appeal to a wide, mass audience through constructed conventions such as an ensemble cast. An ensemble cast involves characters of diverse identities varied through the representations of age, race, gender and ethnicity for the audience to gain the gratification of finding reinforcement for personal values to identify and relate to one of the characters or narrative plot in the text. Also the genre of the text is of the hybrid of Sci-fi and adventure composing a post-modern text to intrigue and broaden the mass of audiences. The sense of adventure is presented during the ending of the Pilot Part 2 episode where the characters venture off on a quest to supported by a exciting, upbeat, Indiana Jones styled score when searching for a signal for the radio. Characteristic of Sci-fi is portrayed towards the very end where the characters discovers the repeated recording of past survivors who were stranded in the very same island, when reaching the climax, Charlie interrogates "Where are we?" as the episode ends with a bang creating a enigma. These conventions performs as a preferred reading to the majority of the viewers as the producers know what attracts the audience based on the certain genre and hybridity to target a large, mainstream audience. However, the use of the high amount of enigma codes frequently appearing on the scenes on Pilot Part 2, from the very beginning where the character 'Charlie' is portrayed through a paranoid, suspicious vibe with close up shots of his face to present his emotional state as he fidgets and nervously taps on the seat creating the enigma of why he is acting in this behaviour. The enigma is quickly answered right away as the camera delivers a tracking shot following Charlie with cuts shifting from the air hostess to Charlie to create tension as he rushes into the toilet revealing to lure in drugs and attempting to flush it away. This creates the negotiated reading for some partially active readers as it disrupts the suspense and loses the excitement due to the enigmas being answered giving less thrill to the purpose, however they still decide to accept the text to decode further enigmas.
Mad Men is a period drama series produced by the subscription AMC American company which received critical acclaim through its impressive character driven and sophisticated narrative capturing the Office Life set in the 1960's following complex individuals. Mad Men specifically targets to the preferred audience of the niche category as the text is inclined to appeal to an active audience who can actively decode the reasoning of the narrative feature or an enigma code. The stylised mise-en-scene of the episode 11 'The other woman' of Season 5 captures the authentic, attention to detail of the 60's era through the use of iconography imitating how people from this period use to dress contributing to the pop culture of 'retrophilia' producing a nostalgic environment of the past presenting an aspect of post-modernism which attracts to a niche yet cult audience. The use of complex characters breaks to follow the mainstream conventions that conforms to the cliché Propp theory which emphasises the niche convention of the text for audience to approach a preferred reading. In this particular episode, it focuses upon the complex representations of woman whom contrasts to one another creating a sense of an ensemble cast. Megan, the wife of the protagonist, Don Draper, is an aspiring actress which captures the abstract American Dream of many young woman of the 60's. However, slowly Megan realises and accepts that men are the dominant figure of her surroundings whether it is her husband Don or the males in the agency who holds the audition where they as soon as she enters, they ask her to "Turn around" presenting her as a sexual object through scopophilia of the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey. In contrast, another female character known as Peggy is presented as a woman breaking into a man's world where she will not be claim to play the role of the shadows of the males. Sense of breaking of sexism appears as Peggy pitches for the advertising with praises for her idea however is not given full credential as Don throws money in her face conveying how woman in the 1960's were treated, how men got away with it presenting sexism still to have been an issue in the time. As she resorts to her office, she states "I'm not crying" presenting her overpowering attribute establishing that she is not prone to weakness. A cult fan base of Mad Men can respond to the complex characters through visiting their website and taking the quiz to view which character they are and share the same characteristic traits to.
Peaky Blinders is a prestigious, high brow crime drama interpreting to be culturally and intellectually rich. The text is aired on the BBC2 where they do not broadcast advertisements as it is paid taxes and is a public owned body. The text is set in Birmingham in 1919 following the former WW1 soldiers who have returned home and formed a gang known as Peaky Blinders. The text can appeal to both mainstream and niche audiences as it conforms to the uses of both mainstream and niche conventions settling between the Lost and Madmen. The use of the high production and cinematography capturing the refinement of a movie theatre experience to appeal to the mainstream audience. In the scene where Ada visits the nurse to check for her pregnancy with Aunt Polly, the cinematography is presented through the low key lighting to convey dramatic fallacy with the use of shallow depth of field against the gloomy, foggy street to portray the sense of surreal reality Ada has to face. The use of known actors in the text in contrast to the artist integrity in Mad Men where fairly unknown actors moved towards more opportunities, appeals to the mainstream audience as they can recognize the protagonist Cillain Murphy (Tommy Shelby) from past movies such as Inception or Batman, Sam Neil (Chester Campbell) from the classic Jurassic Park and Helen McCroy (Aunt Polly) from Harry Potter. This broadens to attract a wider range of audience who are fans of the actors to view Peaky Blinders.
The text however received a negotiated readings from some of the audience whom believe that it lacked originality as its constructed narrative seemed to display similarities between 'Broadwalk Empire' such as the period of the after-war effect, set around the same era and the use of highly produced cinematography with he drained tones of blue effect.
Wednesday 22 January 2014
'Most media texts target a range of different audiences.' How true is this to your chosen texts?
Lost is directed by J.J Abrams, a director that produces mainstream texts and is also produced by a major American company ABC with a mode of address which will appeal to a wide range of audiences. Both passive and active audiences are gratified by the carefully constructed conventions.
The first convention to conform to the statement from the question is the use of an ensemble cast. The ensemble cast is presented in Lost from the very first season, part 2 of the pilot episode where the audience is introduced to a wide diversity of characters differing from age, race, nationality and gender for the audience to identify with and gain the gratification of finding reinforcement for personal values. The audience can possibly identify with the characters throughout the background or issues they share such as the diverse characters, Sun and Jin presenting cultural values of the cast gratifying the minority of the audience to relate to the characters and gain insight into one's self.
The use of the mainstream narrative devices reaches out to a wide mainstream audience where they can familiarise with the narrative structure such as the use of the non-linear narrative with scenes of flashbacks to reveal vital information about the characters and answer enigma codes. For example, when Walt discovers the cuffs in the forest creating an enigma for the audience to contemplate to whom it may belong to and what were they arrested for. This is later answered through the use of a flashback in the end of the episode where Kate is cuffed on the plane, however, the question of why is left unanswered for the audience to be enticed with curiosity causing them to watch further episodes.
Lost combines the sense of escapism and relatable plots together to appeal to a wider audience to escape and divert away from problems and also gain advice and guidance through the narrative plot.
The first convention to conform to the statement from the question is the use of an ensemble cast. The ensemble cast is presented in Lost from the very first season, part 2 of the pilot episode where the audience is introduced to a wide diversity of characters differing from age, race, nationality and gender for the audience to identify with and gain the gratification of finding reinforcement for personal values. The audience can possibly identify with the characters throughout the background or issues they share such as the diverse characters, Sun and Jin presenting cultural values of the cast gratifying the minority of the audience to relate to the characters and gain insight into one's self.
The use of the mainstream narrative devices reaches out to a wide mainstream audience where they can familiarise with the narrative structure such as the use of the non-linear narrative with scenes of flashbacks to reveal vital information about the characters and answer enigma codes. For example, when Walt discovers the cuffs in the forest creating an enigma for the audience to contemplate to whom it may belong to and what were they arrested for. This is later answered through the use of a flashback in the end of the episode where Kate is cuffed on the plane, however, the question of why is left unanswered for the audience to be enticed with curiosity causing them to watch further episodes.
Lost combines the sense of escapism and relatable plots together to appeal to a wider audience to escape and divert away from problems and also gain advice and guidance through the narrative plot.
Wednesday 11 December 2013
Fish Tank: How typical is your chosen text of its genre?
The clip begins with the technical conventions of a tracking shot with a hand held camera movement to present the realistic POV to gain empathy from the audience of Mia's perspective which is a typical convention of the genre theme. The diegetic sound of the reggae music grows louder as Mia walks through the hallway of the council building approaching her house to create realism of the surroundings so the audience can feel within the text conforming to the typical genre of social realism.
As soon as Mia enters the house, her mother pushes her/ abuses her aggressively through gripping hold of her and smacking her head while verbally abusing her through foul language "No I won't fu*king let go" to which Mia responds parallel through aggression and cursing. When the other asks "What's wrong with you?", Mia responds with "You're what's wrong with me." presenting the conflict and tension in the relationship connotating that because of how the mother presents herself, unconciously teaching her daugther of her behaviour, this has influenced Mia resulting to her blaming her mother for what is wrong with her. This subverts from the representation of a the motherly figure which presents the convention of a broken home with a non-nuclear, dysfunctional family portraying the typical issue and difficulty the genre dwells within.
As soon as Mia enters the house, her mother pushes her/ abuses her aggressively through gripping hold of her and smacking her head while verbally abusing her through foul language "No I won't fu*king let go" to which Mia responds parallel through aggression and cursing. When the other asks "What's wrong with you?", Mia responds with "You're what's wrong with me." presenting the conflict and tension in the relationship connotating that because of how the mother presents herself, unconciously teaching her daugther of her behaviour, this has influenced Mia resulting to her blaming her mother for what is wrong with her. This subverts from the representation of a the motherly figure which presents the convention of a broken home with a non-nuclear, dysfunctional family portraying the typical issue and difficulty the genre dwells within.
Monday 2 December 2013
“Most texts today mix genres” How true is this of your media text ‘District 9’?
The sci-fi genre is heavily presented in District 9 as it
involves the typical conventions of aliens and humans co-existing, going
against one another however, instead of the aliens dominating the humans and
taking over their planet, the humans segregates the aliens apart posing to
evict them. This creates the dystopia existing in their world with the
polysemic narrative of the parallel historical event of Apartheid where the
government kept the black people apart from the white people causing a scar in
the heart of history till today.
The convention of the documentary genre is presented in the
opening scene of the text with the diegetic sound of the chattering and phone
ringing in the background creating an office atmosphere with the display of the
busy environment with a high key lighting conveying the peace and lively vibe
before the disruption in the equilibrium in the narrative. The camera mid shot
with the camera movement of zooming in into Wikus the protagonist showing his
actions of adjusting the microphone with the diegetic of the feedback from the
microphone and the increase of volume of his voice as he talks into it and his
acknowledgement of the camera portrays the convention of the documentary genre
as he talks to the camera making direct eye contact. The text appearing on the
bottom left side of the screen displaying his full name and location and the
MNU logo on the bottom right is another convention of a documentary genre.
Another typical convention of the genre is when it cuts to an establishment
shot of district 9 and the spaceship floating above with the non-diegetic sound
of the voice over and the Arabian music connotating religious elements of the
text.
Wednesday 27 November 2013
Text's Characters
District 9 Characters
The science-fiction genre convention of body horror/ transformation where Wikus intake mutation genetics slowly transforming into an alien, presenting the way people now treat him differently metaphorically representing the way people treated black people.
Christopher Johnson
Plays the role of a protagonist and the victim where Christopher represents the black and their struggles in life as they are pressured to segregate from the other division of the humans which are the representation of white. This displays the apartheid of the past of black and white paying homage towards racism from the past.
Tania Van De Merwe
Tania plays the role of Wikus' wife and is portrayed as the princess based upon Propp's narrative theory. She has a minor role adhering to the stereotypical representations of woman in movies presenting her as the male's support, to be emotional and
Sin City Characters
Nancy Callahan
Marv
Senator RoarkMonday 14 October 2013
How typical is 'Sin City' to its genre?
The use of Propp's theory is displayed when identifying the characters throughout the film presenting the cliché convention of the comic book genre. The hero is presented through the iconography of scars and bruises and is identified as a Hero with the goal of rescuing the princess from the villain/ arch nemesis which is a typical convention of both comic book and film noir. The role of the 'Hero' is displayed as a tragic superhero with a weakness slowly revealed towards the climax such as when the protagonist 'John Hartigan' is discovered to have a heart problem "Doctor's orders. Heart condition, Angina, he calls it." which he chooses to ignore foreshadowing the barriers it could cause in the near future. The portrayal of the role of the princess in the film is in need of a saviour depicting the matter of the gender stereotype presented as the female needs a male to be rescued from in order to survive, this is shown when 'Goldie' and 'Nancy', two contrasting characters where Nancy is presented as a naive, vulnerable child in juxtaposition with Goldie who is sexually objectified, are in need of a hero from the villain.
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