Post-colonialism: final blog tasks

1) Summarise the three theorists we have looked at: Alvarado, Fanon and Said.

Said= Orientalism is to do with "Them and us" and "civilised vs uncivilised"

Fanon= 'Putting on the white mask' and typical black stereotypes 

Alvarado= key themes on racial representation 

2) Watch the opening of Yasmin (2004) again. Does it offer a positive or negative view of British Muslims? To what extent does it reinforce or challenge Edward Said's theory of Orientalism - that the west is superior to the exotic or uncivilised east?

It offers both positive and negative representations of the British Muslim community. It is mainly positive as it shows them to be quite resilient and subverts some of Said's stereotypes about being uncivilised but it does reinforce some about being lower class and having different values towards white British people, for example in the scene in the pub we see the older white people drinking beer and alcohol and Yasmin had an orange juice. There are positive representations of British Muslims, for example them being dignified in cleaning up hateful graffiti and respectfully answering the police in a stop and search. It does show that the west is superior as the character gives  in for whatever reason to western values as she changes her traditional appearance to fit in with a typical western woman.

3) Finally, choose THREE clips for EACH of the theorists and explain how you could apply that theory to the clip. Pick a selection of clips on YouTube from TV, film, music video or advertising and embed them in your blog before writing your analysis under each clip. Note: this means you need NINE clips in total on this blogpost.

Alvarado 

Tv:


This is a Tv trailer for the show Power which aired on Starz Network. It links with many aspects of Alvarado's racial representations for black people, for example it shows the exotic side as it includes some authentic cooking and it includes celebrities. It also shows the dangerous representations as guns and drugs are shown in the possession of some people. The show is good at giving different representations of the same race and this doesn't just apply to black people.
Film:



The film Ride Along also was good at showing various racial representations that Alvarado said could be applied to black people. It does represent them to be in gangs and involved in violent activities but it also showed a humorous side. Alvarado's theory doesn't mention any good positive stereotypes about them part of the law enforcement for example, so in a way this clip also subverts the theory as it challenges the original stereotypes given to them.

Music:


This music video from J. Cole does reinforce some of Alvarado's racial representations as in the music video we see an artist and this links to black people being represented as exotic and we also see them being represented as if they were in poverty this links to the pity representation. The setting does show it to be a poorer area of America as they filmed on public buses and in a local convenience store.

Fanon:

Film


This film which was first shown on Netflix includes Golden globe winner Idris Elba. This film reinforces the idea that Fanon had about black stereotypes being primitive as it shows people in their own culture. It does however, subvert his whole idea about putting on the white mask as this is the complete opposite and no one in the film is trying to be someone that they're not.



TV


This TV show by Netflix and Marvel features one of the first Black superheroes and this does reinforce when Fanon said "putting on the white mask" as we tend to associate superheroes with white people such as Superman and Batman and we don't tend to associate black people being superheroes because they are never represented as such.


Advert




This is a UNICEF poster that was first put out in the US. It shows the continent of Africa to be solely represented by one black child. The photo is made to show Africa in color peaking out of the cracks of the land around it. This links to what Fanon was saying about the 'cute' children of the charity poster which stated that black stereotypes can "infantilize" peoples representations.

Said

Film


This is a clip from the Dictator and this both reinforces and subverts stereotypes the west has from the east. It shows the poor part and how the government is volatile but it also showed its wealth but then again this was quickly subverted when it showed how oil rich these nations were.

Film





This is the trailer for You don't mess with the Zohan, it is based on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. This links to Said's theory as it shows a clear distinction between them and us because in the film the Israel's and Palestinian's are separated from the rest of America and have there own area of a street.

TV

The Simpson episode where Homer and Marge mistake an Asian family for being terrorists because the person had a job as a destruction worker, Homer put two and two together and though the worst immediately. Could not find clip.

Identities: Post-colonial theory & blog tasks

5 films

• Kidulthood
• Adulthood
• Anuvahood
• Attack the block
• Ill Manors

5 tv programmes

• Luther
• Line of duty
• Top Boy
• Citizen Khan
• Fresh prince of Bel Air

5 online only productions 

• Brothers with no game
• The crouches
• All about the McKenzie's 
• Venus vs Mars
• The Ryan sisters 

Tight jeans starts with a couple of shots showing off a market street in a district of London. This can straight away be linked with the Alvarado's theory as one of the key themes of racial representation has been identified. The shots showing the shoes and the busy street links to the pity factor as it shows them to be in poverty and below other classes. This is also apparent when the shot of the high rise estate is shown, there are typical stereotypes surrounding people who live on estates and this includes people on low income and people that have young families, gang culture is also associated with estates. Fanon is another theorist that can be used to look at the representation of black people in tight jeans. One concept he looked at was typically black stereotypes can essentialize, this mean that they are an undifferentiated mass. This is evident with the repeated shots of the boys shoes and clothes when sitting on the wall, another shot which shoes this quite well is the first bit where we see the three males, the shot zooms in on them and we see how they all dressed similarly in jumpers and loose fitting jeans, they all also had on sporty trainers. Part of Alvarados theory about dangerous racial representations (crime,drugs) links with Fanon's Decivilized stereotype, categorising black people as gangsters/pimps, this is evident in tight jeans where the fourth friend comes out of his flat wearing a vest and the 3 hooded youths sitting on a wall. Medhurst spoke about stereotype being given off on the short hand and this is the case here because it is unknown who these people are and maybe totally unaffiliated with crime, however with the costumes and settings it gives off powerful and reinforced stereotypes that the media like to give off about young people.

January assessment: Learner response

January assessment: Learner response

Mark- 31 

www: There's lots to credit here. very good focus on the question and both sides of the argument addressed, some use of examples and theory too. 

EBI: You loose it a little towards the end: Timing?, Several of the things in your conclusion need their own detailed paragraph, Marxism, Pluralism, hegemony, globalisation and cultural imperialism.

You've misses out some major recent examples, Brexit? Trump? so much potential here, could offer more in terms of theory too.

1. "A good essay showing good critical autonomy" The first point for my essay would be a level 3, this is because there were relevant points that could have been made and not enough wider context was included to get the level 4.
2. "Proficient understanding of NDM", This also gets a level 3 in my opinion as good examples were used in the essay that related specifically to new and digital media
3. "A sharp/clear focus on the question", This would get a level 3/4 as there is good focus on the question throughout and my points consistently linked back to the words in the question.
4.  "Adequate application of media debates, issues and theories and/or wider contexts", this got a level 2 as there was many things missed out and not much focus on recent events 
5. "Well structured and clearly expressed", this just got a level 3 i think as the essay was not finished and some of the paragraphs lacked depth.

 Look at the Examiners' Report for this particular paper. Read page 10 - Section B New/digital media. How many of the good points or higher level answer examples did you include in your essay? What were they? What could you have added to improve your mark?

• "The impact NDM has had on enabling audiences to participate" i could have added more real life examples relating to the news industry 
• Could have mentioned wider issues and debates and not just focused on the impact of news, relate close to the case study 
• Could of included more about the changing role of producers and consumers, only mentioned it briefley and didn't give examples
• mentioned one good example of how media organisations hold power and related it to the news case study, could have included more of the bigger debates 
• did look at both sides, could have been more balanced

A grade answers:

• I could include more than one example per paragraph 
• Show a variety of examples including statistics and others

LR paragraph:

New and digital media has meant that anyone can produce news if they have the right equipment. This has led to the rise of the citizen journalist. The impact NDM has had here couldn't be more democratic and empowering as it is a freedom pass for people. The whole idea surrounding citizen journalist first came to light with the Rodney King case in America (1991) where man filmed an illegal police beating, such action caused the LA riots. This all took place because a man with a simple video camera decided to share his footage with the world and since then and with other scenarios like the filming of the murder of Ian Tomlinson in the G20 protests in London reforms have been made and that is all because people were made free by NDM to share and create news. In the 21st century the most popular way that a citizen journalist can share their content is through smartphones, this development in technology has empowered audiences to not accept filtered news selected by Gatekeepers of large media organisations like CNN and ITN news.

week 17:story 34

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/19/channel-4-run-week-programmes-fake-news-lee-nelson

Channel 4 to run week of programmes on fake news

This article from the guardian tells us how Channel 4 will be running shows all week in the next month about the rise of fake news. They plan to look at examples of it and debunk some of the stories that have risen from it. The show will consist of a team of panellists and follow certain stories about fake news.

week 17: story 33

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2017/jan/19/popular-newspapers-suffer-greater-circulation-falls-than-qualities

Popular newspapers suffer greater circulation falls than qualities

• The Daily Express, for example, sold an average of 391,626 copies a day in December 2016, down by 2.3% on the same month the year before.

• ts stablemate, the cut-price Daily Star (which boasts every day of being 20p cheaper than the 50p Sun), was down by 2.5% to 440,471.

• Daily Mirror was the largest year-on-year faller, down by 11.7% to an average daily sale of just 716,923 copies

• Not that the market-leading Sun did much better: down by 10.5% to 1,611,464.

• The Daily Mail will hardly celebrate the fact that its own year-on-year decrease, at 6.7%, is running ahead of the Express’s decline. Its headline total, 1,491,264, relied on 66,000 bulks

• e Guardian fell by 3% on the year (to 161,191)

•  Daily Telegraph was down by 3.4% (to 460,054)

• i, which has been doing rather well for several months, slipped backwards to 264,067.

Identities and the Media: Reading the riots

1. How did the language and selection of images in the coverage create a particular representation of young people? 

Young people came under scrutiny the most out of all of the groups rioting. They were described as the yobs and hoodies which only added more bad press when they were caught looting in their tracksuit bottoms. The minority of young people in the riots were captured in such a negative way that the shorthand stereotypes have caught on and now the youth are a group to fear.

1. Why does David Buckingham mention Owen Jones and his work Chavs: the demonisation of the working class?

It looks at who is portraying the working class to be the centre of fear and ridicule as they are not calling themselves it. It looks at the difference in class and how the middle class, the ones who write the newspapers are the ones laying down these stereotypes about the people who are "below them".

1. What is the typical representation of young people – and teenage boys in particular? What did the 2005 IPSOS/MORI survey find?

Looking at the survey results it shows that young people in the news and teenage boys in particular are spoken about very negatively. In particular it focused on violence and it found that 40% of newspapers featuring young people were about violence and 71% of these articles were negative. Other studies had found that with over 7000+ articles published about teenage boys in particular over 72% were negative. All this reinforcement of the youth being a bad and failed group sticks in peoples minds and gives them stereotypes to go on from.

1. How can Stanley Cohen’s work on Moral Panic be linked to the coverage of the riots?

Cohen suggested that the media play a role in "deviance amplification", they report on the coverage in such a way that is reaches people who might not have thought of becoming involved in the situation before.

1. What elements of the media and popular culture were blamed for the riots?

Mainly rap music was blamed for young peoples actions. The rap genre was said to influence the youth about views of the police and that violence was "good". Music and pop culture wasn't the only thing to blame, Newspapers themselves could be at blame for glamorising the looting by posting pictures of teens with hoards of loot and not many stories with them getting caught, it may have been a motivating factor to spur on riots around the capital.

1. How was social media blamed for the riots? What was interesting about the discussion of social media when compared to the Arab Spring in 2011?

Social media platforms that were used during the riots included Twitter and Facebook and also Blackberries messaging service. All were used similarly by the rioters to communicate about where to meet up. The protests that occurred during the Arab Spring event were also helped by the use of social media but it was seen as positive in its use unlike the London riots. Already we can see a difference, The Arab Springs were largely reported on to be about protests, what happened in London was largely called riots. The use of social media to organise political protests is good but to organise rioting against a cause is bad.

1. The riots generated a huge amount of comment and opinion - both in mainstream and social media. How can the two-step flow theory be linked to the coverage of the riots? 

 The two step flow model is a model used in the media to look at how news/opinions reach the mass media. It starts from the news producers goes to opinion leaders and is then taken on by followers. A lot of people, especially different class groups saw the riots differently, for example the upper class who fit into the socio-economic group of ABC1 may have had different opinions on the riots and some of these people who may have been involved in journalism for newspapers would have shared this. People in the lower classified socio-economic groups like he C2DE's may have had different opinions on the riots and they may have shared this on sites like YouTube or would have been interviewed by news companies.

1. Alternatively, how might media scholars like Henry Jenkins view the 'tsunami' of blogs, forums and social media comments? Do you agree that this shows the democratisation of the media? 

Henry Jenkins was one who "tends to celebrate this kind of participatory media". I do think that this is a good example of the democratisation of the media because people are free to post where and whatever they like, there is no institution producing the content on peoples personal blogs, however with any service on the internet there is always someone in control so i wouldn't say the people are totally free in there activities on the internet but they do have a certain degree of control which is a fundamental idea about democracy.

1. What were the right-wing & left wing responses to the causes of the riots?

The right wing responses mainly blamed youngsters and there lack of motivation and commitment to learning. an author for the daily mail gives his strong opinions on what he thinks about young people and in particular how they are amoral. The left wing response also looks at how young people were involved in the riots but it doesn't blame the youth directly, it blames the government for its cut backs and depriving the youth of community centres and the motivation for a full education.

1. What are your OWN views on the main causes of the riots?

 The main cause of the riots isn't the most obvious thing in my opinion. The shooting started a chain reaction of all the anger and hatred that was building up to the government and police. The cuts by the the Tories and the police violence here and in America influenced people. They just needed a cause to revolt. 

1. How can capitalism be blamed for the riots? What media theory (from our new/digital media unit) can this be linked to?

1. Were people involved in the riots given a voice in the media to explain their participation?

Yes but were represented in such a negative way that people only saw the rioters as uncontrollable, amoral youths who had no respect for the community.

1. In the Guardian website's investigation into the causes of the riots, they did interview rioters themselves. Read this Guardian article from their Reading the Riots academic research project - what causes are outlined by those involved in the disturbances?

1. What is your own opinion on the riots? Do you have sympathy with those involved or do you believe strong prison sentences are the right approach to prevent such events happening in future?

week 16: story 32

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/12/bbc-sets-up-team-to-debunk-fake-news

BBC sets up team to debunk fake news

The BBC plans to work with Facebook who have also pledged to tackle fake news to help users identify fake news and report/flag it. The team plans to create a fact checking service, they also plan to invest close to £300 million in researching into new languages to expand its data journalism to make news of better quality.

week 16: story 31

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2017/jan/13/enterprise-revenues-offer-newspapers-a-lifeline-for-the-future

'Enterprise revenues' offer newspapers a lifeline for the future

This article looks at many options newspapers have of developing in the future. This includes looking at Enterprise revenues and paywalls as well. The author talks about how local newspaper organisations are in decline and have been for years so if they were to make the transition online they would have to do it with a proper business model as because its a local paper its not going to target the mass media like the Guardian does it needs to segment the market and looks at its describable audience.

I am still against news being made chargeable online however, if everyone was doing it and all the local papers then people will pay for the content they value and that would really separate the quality news from the rest. 

week 15: story 30

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/13/the-bbc-will-struggle-to-make-iplayer-as-good-as-netflix

Why the BBC will struggle to make iPlayer as good as Netflix

This article from the guardian looks at how BBC's' I player will struggle to keep up with its competition. The boss of BBC, Tony Hall says some serious innovation needs to be done to stay competitive, this includes adding voice recognition and artificial intelligence to provide a better service for us to watch TV shows on demand. The BBC plan to increase their R&D in this sector as they are 5 times the amount Netflix spends on it behind them.

I don't think this is a good strategy for the BBC as they are so far behind the likes of Netflix and Amazon it would be foolish to go against two well established streaming services who dominate the market. 

week 15: story 29

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/11/facebook-journalism-project-news-industry

Facebook unveils measures to promote stronger ties with news industry

Facebook are one of the first companies to hold face to face meetings with the large companies about working collaboratively on providing news. They intend to share their technology with the news industry in the hope of creating closer ties.

I think this is a smart move by Facebook as with the whole issue with fake news is still ongoing the news industry needs to feel like they can trust social media networks again and Facebook is taking the right step forward in creating those ties.

week 14 story 28

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/12127164/Daily-Mail-publisher-turns-to-price-rise-to-counter-advertising-slump.html

Daily Mail publisher turns to price rise to counter advertising slump

This article from the telegraph tells us that early last year the Daily Mail were set to increase the price of their newspaper by 5p. Since then Newspaper sales have gone into further decline and the Daily Mail has decreased it's circulation of newspapers meaning the price increase wasn't necessary because a fall in newspaper sales was inevitable the price increase just sped things up. A reason why prices were increased was because of a 12% fall in advertising revenues, therefore they needed to make up the lost revenue somewhere.

I don't think increasing the price of a newspaper will do much to cover any costs or lost revenues, however newspapers are a necessity so in business terms it makes the product price insensitive so people may buy newspapers regardless of the price and a price increase of only 5p may not even be noticeable to some people. A Paywall may have been a better option for the daily mail as it has millions of daily viewings and people for the right price would pay to see their news.

week 14: Story 27

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/05/film-and-tv-streaming-and-downloads-overtake-dvd-sales-for-first-time-netflix-amazon-uk

Film and TV ​streaming and downloads overtake DVD sales for first time

This article looks at how in the UK Film and TV streaming & downloads have overtaken DVD sales. DVD sales have been in decline ever since the introduction of on demand movies and streaming. The companies that have benefited the most from this include the likes of Amazon and Netflix who both offer popular streaming services.

Like most things that aren't digital now, these older mediums are going into decline. This is going to be an ongoing thing and more traditional things are going to be replaced with something that can be offered online. 

Consumer spend in £ billion

Physical Retail

Physical Rental

Digital

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Guardian graphic | Source: Entertainment Retailers Association