Yasmina's Media Studies Blog

Popular Press -Forms, Audience, Institution and Representation0

POPULAR PRESS

Forms

Headlines, media language, terminology, image, caption, By-line, WOB, masthead, lead story, banners, blurbs.

There are different genres within the newspapers.

Genres – subgenres quality and popular/red tops. The codes and conventions. The sun is more masculine- picture heavy, uses bright colours to attract its audience. The daily mail is a little more word heavy and has fewer colours. The font is more of a calligraphy font and seems sophisticated. It looks older, more traditional.

Form is about the type of text. Eye journey, where does your eye go first when you see the page? An advert on the right hand page is more expensive because people see it first. After the front page, the next most important page are pages 3, 5 and 7 as they’ll be the next pages that you see.

Audience

Audience segmentation

–Class –Race –Gender

They do market research to find out who will be the biggest consumers for their paper. Once they have done this, they target a particular audience. Is it for a mass or niche audience? 

Audience response- Gratification. e.g the sun telling ‘tasteless’ jokes that will make their readers laugh. Identification, Aspriation, Participation.

Newspaper circulation figures are dropping because less people are buying newpapers as they can just go online. e.g The sun can send headlines to your phone. Newspapers are trying to find a way to make people pay online so that their profits don’t drop.

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Popular Press0

Popular press is written for the masses. Audiences are segmented into:

• Gender
• Age
• Class
• White collar
• Blue collar
• Education levels
• Income/ownership
• Family Background

Mast head- You instantly know that they are going for the educated market.

The Daily Express, Daily Mail and Evening Standard are slightly more feminine, with higher reading age.

Red tops- Popular press e.g

• The Sun and The Mirror have similar fonts
• They have white on black (WOB) and capital letters are used to sensationalise the writing, so that it jumps out at you.
• The Sun etc write in colloquialism. A big headline gratifies the audience and stands out so that they read it.

To read the Quality Press you must:

• Have more money
• Have more time
• Be educated
• Interested in politics, finance, culture

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news values0

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How has the Television Sitcom changed over time?1

How has the Television Sitcom changed over time essay.

The genre of sitcom has changed massively over time. As a form sitcom first existed on radio, and then made the move to television in the 50’s. Early sitcom used a lot of slapstick comedy. For years this type of comedy thrived and was seen as being clever and innovative, this was also because TV was new at that point so people loved to be able to embrace the opportunity to use the moving image nature of TV, for example people falling over. It was known as situation comedy, this means that the comedy was all around a certain situation that the character had been put into. For example, Faulty towers. The owner of the hotel has a series of comedic incidents that happen to his hotel. Having crazy guests, an annoying wife and a chef that can’t cook, made it the typical slapstick comedy. Two decades later, they decided to change the stereotype of sitcom from the 50’s and we moved onto sitcoms like Friends, however this has now turned into a stereotypical sitcom with the canned laughter, the recurring theme tune, the set up of a group of friends with typical character types living together like a dysfunctional family, and the problems they encounter whilst living together in New York.

Over time audience’s change and sitcom has had to change with them. A Britain that is just white is no longer Britain; therefore they need to show the diversity of Britain as it is now to represent everyone. When sitcom was first broadcasted on television they did include some ethnic minorities but they were always in role as a stereotypical character for that race. An example of this is ‘It aint half hot mum’ which was set in British India. The main character is a white man, who is dressed up to look like a traditional Indian man, who quotes old Hindu proverbs for comedic value and attempts to be British. This is negative as it makes ethnic minorities seem clown like as we are making a joke out of them, not with them.

However, as the world has become more diverse it has meant that sitcoms have had to change so that they appeal to everyone, ethnic minority or not.
We then saw sitcoms such as the Cosby show which broke the race barriers by representing black people in counter type roles, they were a well off middle class family, the parents had highly respected jobs as a doctor and a lawyer and there was no trace of them being a ‘ghetto’ family.

The representation of gender has also had to change. In the 1950’s sitcoms showed women to be the typical housewife that you expected such as ‘I love Lucy’ and despite the changes that have been made since then to empower women some programmes such as the Simpson’s still show female characters like Marge to just be housewife’s. Although friends is stereotypical sitcoms in other ways, it breaks the stereotype of women being housewives, as all the females in friends have their own jobs are in good professions and share a flat. This empowers women as it shows that they can be equals with men, which is a positive change from the 50’s.

Typically, white nuclear families were the only type of families show when sitcom originated, like ‘Rosanne’ and generally had a mother, father, and two or three children. My family is one of the sitcoms that has stayed formulaic and is a nuclear family. One of the children would be a nerd and the other a rebellious teen. Since then, sitcoms like ‘Everybody hates Chris’ have changed the nuclear family stereotype, and at the same time the race too; as everybody hates Chris is about a black family in America, which features a primarily black cast. Sitcom has represented a dominant idea of what a perfect, nuclear family should be. This was generally a white middle class family, heterosexual, nuclear and generally part of a patriarchal system, where the father was the authority figure, and the bread winner.

However, this has started to change as times have moved on and the traditional representations are being challenged. An example of this is Will and Grace, as it is a professional woman living with her gay best friend, as opposed to a nuclear family. In some ways, this has even more comedic value. Another example of this is 2 and a half men, as that is the story of two brothers and one of the brother’s children.

Over time, audiences have become more fragmented by the television industry; especially in sitcom. Programmes used to target families, as it would be common for families to sit together and watch television or soap operas for housewives. Other sitcoms have been specifically made for children, such as ‘That’s so raven’ on Disney channel.

The establishment of cable and satellite TV means that the institution has been able to segment audiences further and ensure they are all catered for. For example BBC3 sitcom Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps is meant to target the skins type audience of young adults. Other television stations such as Trouble TV targeted a black audience, playing re runs of programmes such as ‘My wife and Kids’. More channels such as this have been dedicated to programmes made specifically for ethnic minorities.

Sitcoms such as Gavin and Stacey have used and social realism, by using hand held cameras to make it more edgy and have done on location shooting instead of having sets made in studios, this makes it seem more realistic than a sitcom filmed in a studio. The office was the originator of the mocumentary style who begun the hybridisation by fusing documentary with sitcom. As this has been an engaging new style of sitcom others have begun to follow.

For many years this was a successful type of comedy; however it became tired, contrived and formulaic. Because many sitcoms were made based on the typical sitcom, like my family, it meant that everyone knew what to expect and it was no longer inventive. Critics such as Iannucci asked if this was the ‘Death of sitcom?’ Iannucci has also researched the statistics and shown that “Twenty years ago, 14.7 million people watched the top five sitcoms. Five years ago, that slumped to 6.9 million. And the number of hours dedicated to original comedy on the four main channels has slumped from 264 in 1984 in 172 in 2004.” He said that he believes the problem is that audiences are more alert and daring than we give them credit for. We’ve now seen hybrids enter the sitcom genre, but breaking the stereotypes. For example, Scrubs has combined the genre’s making it a dramedy with surreal moments. Although at times it can be stereotypical I find that it is much funnier than the formulaic sitcoms such as my family. Flight of the conchords is another type of sitcom that uses social realism and parody, which leads them to do the opposite of what viewers will expect. This is a positive change because audiences get bored of being able to predict the end of a TV show. Other sitcoms such as the Peep Show and The Office have been experimenting with the mocumentary style, which has been successful because as Iannucci said, people are more daring to watch a new style of sitcom.

Yasmina Kone
11I

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My music video0

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Sitcom0

We’ve just started studying Sitcom.  I’ve looked up a definition of a stereotypical sitcom.

“A situation comedy, usually referred to as a sitcom, is a genre of comedy programs which originated in radio. Today, sitcoms are found almost exclusively on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. Sitcoms usually consist of recurring characters in a common environment such as a home or workplace and can include laugh tracks or studio audiences”

It’s interesting to read it and try to apply it to some of my favorite sitcoms and see how they compare. For example to a programme like My family, which is a stereotypical sitcom with the canned laughter and the “dysfunctional family” but then I think of some of the sictoms that I like, such as the Mighty Boosh. However, the reasons that I like the Mighty boosh is because it breaks the stereotype of sitcom. The abnormal characters and the amazing outfits often make it much more entertaining to watch. Also, in a way it’s like a documentary of their characters lives. This leads me to question whether I like sitcom, or the few programmes that try to break it whilst still being classed as sitcoms.

I’ve done some research and found the top 50 British Sitcoms. Many of them are from the 80′s or 90′s but a few like my family and the office are also on there. This is the link:

http://www.comedy.org.uk/guide/top/

Here are the top 10.

Only Fools and Horses

 Blackadder

The vicar of dibley

Dads army

Fawlty towers

Yes minister

Porridge

Open all hours

The good life

One foot in the grave

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My Music Video Evaluation0

Our music video follows the codes and conventions of a music video. This is shown by things such as the edit pace, as it cuts from shot and is in time with the beat of the song. We have used syncing by cutting the music video so that the banners are in time with the lyrics. This is all called Rhythmic editing. Also, video montage has been used although not all of the pictures are coherent; however this makes it more interesting to watch.

 It also follows the codes and conventions of the indie genre. Firstly, we have set and filmed it in Camden, which is commonly known to be part of the indie scene. It is associated with fashion and alternative culture. We have not filmed in a studio, which is what the majors would do. This gives a feeling of freedom and sincerity as it shows that they are just like the audience, just normal human beings. The couple walking along the canal also shows that they are in a stable relationship as they are happy spending time together and going for romantic walks.

The couple that we used are purposely dress in an indie way, for example the skinny jeans, skate shoes and high waisted skirts. We also have an acoustic guitar being played ‘live’. This will enhance the indie feel to it and will appeal to festival goers as they are into live music. We have intentionally made the video appear to be homemade as indie music videos often use this technique. Shots of trees, skies, and plants have been included to give a sense of freedom, which is quite similar to what rock videos do as it shows that the band are ‘untameable’. We included various props in our video to tell the story. For example, Joe giving her the cake with 5 years time written on it signifies their love and innocence; also it asks the question of whether it will still be as sweet as it is now in 5 years time. We have also used a lady bird umbrella to show the alternative look and the spontaneity of the indie genre. The colours represent feelings, the red is for passion and the black is for the uncertainty of falling in love.

Our target audience is 13-23 year olds, who are part of the indie or pop scene, and also festival goers as there is a feeling of ‘live’ music for parts of our music video. The band we have chosen who play the music are also common amongst the festival crowds, so this will attract them. This may mean that people outside of our target audience will also enjoy the music video as some of the festival goers may be older. I carefully though about my mode of address which is shown by the location we have used, as this will be popular with the target audience.

We have made sure that our music video is targeted at them by the characters we have used. They are both within our target audience. This will also mean that the target audience will be able to relate to the story. During certain parts we have segmented the target audience by having things that will entertain all of the audience, but only some of them will realise the reasons behind why we have done it. For example, we have shown the irony in some sections of our music video when the banner that says Sun is shown, we realised that it wasn’t going to be sunny at all, so we took advantage of that and used an umbrella to humour it. The shot we used also showed me walking with the banner and then the wind blowing part of it away. This would be entertaining to younger audiences but they may not stand the irony behind it.

The narrative of our music video is not always shown but it is clear that it revolves around a couple. It is a non linear storyline that resembles a montage of their relationship. They are in love and wondering what the future will bring, we show this by showing them play fighting. One of the themes is of existentialism, because there is a feeling recklessness abandonment of the world, they are just having fun and are happily in love. It reminds you of a hippy lifestyle, the way that everything is relaxed, happy and about love. The linear sequence is broken with cuts to the lyrics written on banners, and this stays with the storyline. 

 We used a range of shots to demonstrate the experience of the audience. For example, some members of the audience will be in the lower brackets of the target audience, so would not have experienced the feelings portrayed in the video, this is shown by the distant shots. However, we realise that the upper bracket of the target audience would have more experience therefore they are also catered for as there are close ups of the couple to show their relationship.

 We also used many different levels to represent the levels of love, and how they change.  Our main example is the use of the cut away from the tree; it returns a series of times and progresses up the tree, showing the development of the relationship. We used a tree for this because it is significant as tree’s grow and their flowers blossom. They also live on for many years. We have used bright colours in the video to portray a feeling of youth and attract attention. This will draw in the audience to specific characters, and lyrics that are essential to the narrative of the song.

Our music video will have an Indi record label. This means that it will not be able to saturate the market like Lily Allen’s music videos would as she is signed to London Records. Although London Records is an Indi record label it is backed by AOL/TIMES/WARNER. They are a conglomerate, meaning that they will use vertical and horizontal integration to ensure that she saturates the market. It also means that our music video won’t have to conform to the messages that the conglomerates would want it to, this will give us freedom. Too often the conglomerates pump their views into all the media, this is called cultural imperialism. We have made sure that we are not a part of this. However, because of the barriers put in place it does mean that our music video will most likely be for a niche audience, but we have catered for that audience well, so I do not believe it’s a problem.

Yasmina kone

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My Response to Flight of the Conchords0

Firstly, By combinining the sitcom with a ‘musical’ it gives a fresh view of what a sit com is. In fact, I think it’s in a genre of it’s own. For example, they call themselves “Formerly New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo”. Which means they recognise that they break stereotypes and embrace it. It’s also comdeic. The episode we watched was satirical as it uses issues such as racism and makes it funny, they almost take the mickey out of people who are racists. I love the way that they break out into song as when you listen to the lyrics they are always witty and make people laugh. I also enjoy the way it is filmed as its like spending a day with them and seeing what happens in their abnormal, musical lives. I think its a breath of fresh air compared to the stereotypical sitcom

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Hello world!8

Hiya everyone,

Welcome to my blog

Yaz x

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