Representation of body image in the media

Masterchef 

analyse how they represent body image in contrasting ways
why do they do this? (audio/visual/technical codes)
what audience are they trying to appeal?

On the show Masterchef body image is not a big deal like some TV shows that are used. Masterchef is a cooking programme so you would not expect size 0 models presenting the show. Instead you are shown two men which have been presenting the show for 10 years. They are there not to look good but information the audience about cooking which is what people watch the show want to be hearing and seeing. Even body image with the contestants that are used aren't models. There is a range of gender, ethnicity and age. The clothing that the contestants wear doesn't portray them as a revealing people who want to show there body they basically are there to cook which the show is about. The make that the women contestants are wearing are simply what they have applied not what they have been told to put on. Even the way they are entering the kitchen shows them not wanting to be recognised for there body but for there talent of cooking.
At the start of the programme it shows what to expect and highlights of the weeks to come. None of the scene that are shown only focuses on the candidates and cooking what the show is about no body image.
The preferred reading for Masterchef is middle ages men or women who enjoy cooking and can cook, also they want to learn more to become the best they can. The audience would use the gratification person identity and entertainment as they would be learning but also relating to the contestants as they could be going or cooking what the audience may want to cook. The oppositional reading would be who people have no intention or hate cooking also the audience for this reading may dislike the presenters. The negotiated reading would be teenager who enjoy the programme because they want to learn more and they might want to pursue a career in cooking. 
Within MasterChef there is a dominant ideology of not just women cooking but also men. Also the presenters to the TV show are both male chef or a food critic which doesn't imply the normal ideology of women being the cooks and men not to be.
The genre is cooking which is the strongest genre as it is a cookery competition rather than a documentary or just a normal TV soap/drama.
The mode of address for MasterChef is authoritative considering they are trying to impress two people who would take the authoritative role. You notice this in the first few minutes of the TV show on what their language is towards the contestants. ' cooking doesn't get tougher than this' This shows that they are talking from experience. For them to say that it shows the authority that the contestants are under a lot of pressure therefore need them both to state what there opinions are, while the contestant opinions doesn't matter as much as these two.
Within MasterChef the hypodermic model that is used is an immediate effect because it might influence the audience to go and cook something they have seen done or be inspired it to add a certain ingredient into their cooking.
The two gratifications that used within MasterChef are the information because the audience will be picking up on different recipes or different ways to cook something. Either way this informs the audience to be more educated in a department they might not of known before. Another gratification is the entertainment/escapism as it is a competition the audience will be intrigued to who carries on and who doesn't.

Life and death row.

The first three minutes of Life and death row show many facts and different body types which are different ages, gender and religious beliefs.
Thought out the intro non-diegetic sound is played to set the mood of what the audience is about to encounter. The show is about death sentence in certain states of America and what they trails are that built up to the sentence. The intro shows facts such as 'many states in America use the death sentence to punish the worst crimes' By doing this is tell the audience a bit of the background to the show and what it is going to be about. As the intro goes on it shows you some of what is going to be shown in the show such as the scene of the crime with the bodies still inside the house. Also it gives a look into the trail that is about to be shown.
The target audience for this show is men and women aged 25-50. This is because of the detail and images used. Also I think they would understand why the death penalty is used aswell. The target audience could give there opinion of what should or should of happened. Where as the younger people might of just jumped to conclusions and just be disturbed by what the show content is.
Within the first three minutes various body types and representations are used. The first person you see is a jury member who gets interviewed and that when you can really state what kind of a person she is. She is 22 and one of the youngest jurors on this case. She looks average build and not a type of person you could associate with being someone who is self conscious. She is dress in comfortable clothing which looks like she has dressed herself and not been told what to wear. The next juror you get to meet is an older man about 60 who talks about his past of being in the military. The representation of a man that been in the military is that he would be stubborn in the sense he fought for his country and there is a man killing is family. The impression I got was just he wouldn't be as reasonable like the others and go in with an close mind. The final juror you get to meet is a religious middle aged man. He constantly refers back to his religion which shows that his opinion would be influenced on his religion. I think by having three completely different people as the first few interviews shows that women do get a say as they are putting someone to death which contradicts the government 15/20 years ago.
The mode of address would be objective considering its a documentary. It is formal but equal in the sense it is informing the audience and wants them to take an interest.
The name of show contradicts it self as life and death are two juxtaposition things. Therefore it shows the TV show is going to be spilt in to two arguments.
The preferred reading like I said would be men and women aged 25-50. The oppositional would be children as it is to graphic and the information will confuse them considering it is a sensitive subject to the target audience. The negotiated reading is teenagers aged 16-20 and the older generation aged 60+. The older generation might be able to relate to the time it was legal in Britain also it might remind them of a time it was so looked down upon.
The gratification that would be used for the TV show is information as it is a documentary and people would learn a series of information from this.
The genre of the TV show is crime and justice and factual.

Age Representation

Age Representation 

You need to collect examples of Representation of Age in the media.

1) Young people

2) Old people

3) Stereotypes of age in media

Points to remember

• The representation has to come from a specific media text. ie (Old age is represented negatively in a recent article in the Daily Mail, the article is about ............)

• The representation should be contemporary (within the last 2/3 years)

• How is the representation created ? Visual Image, Language, Mode of Address etc

Try to get Rich texts that you can use for Representation of Age/Gender etc.

This is a good example as you can use it for both Age and Gender.




Young people- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2570088/Carer-thought-lose-sight-EGGED-gang-laughing-thugs.html

Young people is represented negatively in this recent article in the Daily Mail, the article is about a middle aged women who nearly loses her sight because a group of thugs throw eggs at her. This representation is created from the women who was a victim in the attack and her side of the story. The representation cannot be justified as a positive representation because it is an attack. The mode of address is formal as it is in a news paper and addressing the readers in a formal and urgent way. Because the newspaper wants the reader to be engaged it uses imagery to paint the picture. The language that is used is standard English because it is coming from the victims point of view. The story  uses direct text from the victim  like I have said who tells the story as she was the only one there who came forward to explain and wanted people to make aware of this incident. Overall a story like this not only reflects bad on the people who was apart of it but the youth of today as well. Because the media does give the people doing this a identity but a age range so by doing this it is reflected bad on everyone who is in that age range.


Old- http://news.sky.com/story/1205517/breast-cancer-third-of-new-cases-in-over-70s

This news story shows that old people are more venerable to the disease which shows the stereotype of being fragile.

The stereotype of old people has been created by there roles in film and other media texts. The mise-en-scene of a stereotypical old person is that they have a walking stick and they wear knitted cardigans. They generally have a hunch back and slowly get around. This story shows that old people are more venerable and more fragile when it comes to diseases. Within the story it shows the old women playing a piano with a typically old women's blanket in the background. Also there is a single chair which most old people have to show that they are alone or they have His and Hers chairs. As the story goes on it shows the old women with there grandchildren doing activities what children do. Which shows the divide in age.
Overall the story shows that old people are more prone to the disease than younger women.
The text is written in a formal manor as it addressing the older generation because that is who the story is aimed at. The language that is used isn't fluent but instead it uses facts after facts so the reader knows that it is true. Also by using facts it makes the story more real which might scare the reader into going to get themselves checked out.

1) Preferred reading 2) Oppositional reading 3) Negotiated reading

1) Preferred reading
2) Oppositional reading
3) Negotiated reading

Visit Canada - http://uk-keepexploring.canada.travel

The preferred reading is people who want to visit Canada. The oppositional reading is people who don't have any interest in travelling or visiting Canada at all or people that cannot afford it so it would be in the social class of D and E.  The negotiated reading is Canadians themselves. Canadians themselves might want to visit more of the country they live in.

OneRepublic -http://onerepublic.com

The preferred reading to the OneRepublic website is people that are fans of them and want to find out there tour dates or buy clothing. The oppositional is people who do not like OneRepublic and are not bothered about there tour dates and have no interest in knowing anything about OneRepublic. The negotiated reading is people that know of the band and are intrigued to know a bit more about them.

cultivation theory

What are the main points of the cultivation theory? Use examples and diagrams to illustrate your points.

Find examples of how the cultivation theory can be applied to the representation of age.

The cultivation theory is when the TV changes the audiences attitudes and behaviour of the world its self. It insist that the media is responsible of what we think of realty itself. 

There are two categories that are made from the cultivation theory. 

1) Heavy viewers who watch TV for four or more hours daily  
2) Light viewers who watch TV for two hours or less daily

The amount of violence that is being portrayed in the media during prime time TV contained 80% of violent material. 

The heavy viewers would see the world as more a dangerous place because of the media taking a big part in their life. 

By watching more TV it is more of a chance that the heavy views will become more racist, more materialistic, more violent and unaware on what reality and television

Exam- how to improve

Audience question-

• Use theories and be specific with what i written down on what audience. 
• use age groups to be more detailed.

Representation-

Within my representation question i didn't use enough detail within my answer. I didn't point out things like the lightening the camera angle and then back up my interpretations. Instead of trying to include many different videos i should of just focused on two completely different one's. Also i was to descriptive which then didn't engage with representation which i needed to do.

Revision and study-

• Write down what my example is and what they do to show representation, gender ect
• Plan what to revise and stick to it
• Understand terminology 

Coursework-

Come and collect report and improve from it

My CD covers

Exam Revision

Question 1

(40 marks)

This question will be a Textual Analysis oB f Print based material.

You should revise how to analyse Film Posters and Magazine Covers.

Be Familiar with the words and meanings of VISUAL CODES, LAYOUT AND DESIGN, LANGUAGE AND MODE OF ADDRESS.

Visual Codes-

•  Clothing and physical appearance 
• gesture and body language
• facial expressions 
• settings
• use of colour 
• any use of graphics
• denotation/connotation (what its associated represented) 
• intertextuality ( taking one text and referencing it in another) 

Layout and design

• masthead
• cover lines (puffs)
• dateline
• main image
• main coverline 
• barcode

mode of address-

whether something is formal or informal. For example, a kids TV show will be presented informally, whereas the six o'clock news will be presented formally  

Language-

this term refers to the style of language used when addressing a particular audience largely depending on its age and educational level: for example the language used in THE SUN is more simple and colloquial than used in THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.

Question 2

(one 10 mark question and one 20 mark question)

This question will deal with Audience.

You should revise the different types of Audience based on AGE, GENDER, RACE, REGION, SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS.

You should also revise USES AND GRATIFICATIONS theory.

Audience there are two types. Mass and Niche. A mass audience are large audience which are usually for tv shows like eastenders or premiership football match. Niche  are much smaller audiences they are usually dedicated and very loyal. Example BBC four. 

Question 3

(30 marks)

This question will deal with representation of GENDER. 

You should revise and find strong case studies of GENDER representation in the media today. Chooses a variety of examples from PRINT (newspapers, magazines etc) VISUAL (Television programs, Films, Music Videos and Advertisements)

You should use THREE good examples and be as detailed as possible.

KATY PERRY- Music videos

             Sexualised throughout all of her videos, her first video was I kissed a girl and the name is very explicit itself. The video involves half naked girls dancing around Katy. To me this shows desperation of becoming famous. Katy’s family is very religious so by saying she kissed a girl doesn’t show any respect to herself or her family.

             California Gurls- another hit by Katy Perry but the video to go with the song is just pathetic. The representation she gives to her fans and a younger audience is diabolical. Her video is being played like a game. Also she gets naked and lies on a candy floss cloud. To me this shows desperation. Not only does she get naked she wears inappropriate outfits which squirts cream out of her bra. It gives the representation of women a bad and desperate vibe. Even though Katy Perry isn’t the only one doing this it’s not like she has ever changed. Artists like Rhianna and Miley Cyrus in my opinion have been inspired to be this to become a bigger and more well know artist.

             Part of me- She isn’t getting naked in this video but what she does is influence by a man. Which gives not only the representation of a pushover but weak by how she only did what she did because she got cheated on. It shows she can’t make that decision by herself. Even in this video it like Katy jumps at any chance for the world to see her body. In part of me it shows when she’s getting changed which in my opinion you could do without. In my opinion it shows the army like a joke because she only did it because of a man and she keeps referring to him. The representation here is like I have said weakness and that a women can’t function without a man.

 These two videos are totally different but still have the same in sight by how women are treated in the music industry. Katy perry is portrayed as a sex object throughout any video or song. Women these days are the complete opposite of a domestic housewife. The representation of women are sexualise objects only to entertain and please the male audience. 

Lead character from the top 67 films of 2012

55 of the lead characters were male only twelve were female

• Men are seen as the protectors, the saviors, the breadwinners, and the know-alls.
• In the few movies where we see strong lead female characters, we also see them having the support of at least one male who is involved in their situation in some way where the female ends up needing their help
• We very rarely see any breaks in stereotypical gender roles. Even in action films where the lead is a female, there is always some sort of emotional baggage tied into the movie that makes her seem more “soft.” 
• There were plenty of films where women were presented in stereotypical roles, which we would define as stereotypes that perpetuate gender roles within a male-dominated system. In these roles women are overtly feminine, have weak character, lack confidence, have an identity that is tied to a man or need to be saved by a man.

Project X- 

One example is how women are portrayed in the film Project X. Project X is a “high school” film about three guys who throw a party at one of their houses, a party that is over the top in terms of size, but fits into the typical high school film genre. One of the lead male characters has a friend who is female. They flirt on and off before the party, but want to hook up at the party. Instead, the male character, played by Thomas Mann, ends up with another woman at one point. The girlfriend walks in on them, runs away, only to forgive him later and be by his side after the fallout from the party devastation.

In addition, there are scenes all throughout the film during the party, where some of the high school girls in attendance are topless around and in the pool. This kind of casual hypersexual depiction does not take place with male characters, thus normalizing the objectification of female bodies.