Section A Question B

Theoretical Evaluation of Production

- You will chose ONE of your pieces of coursework in relation to a media concept.
- In the exam one of the following areas will be selected for you to write about:
-Genre
-Narrative
-Representation
-Audience
-Media Language

Macro
-Narrative
-Genre
-Audience
-Representation
-Media Language

Mirco
-Mise en Scene (costume, props, location etc)
-Lighting
-Camera angles, movement, position
-Editing
-Sound

Genre
Genres are categories or types of media text. Genres are recognisable through the repeated use of generic codes and conventions:
- Iconographies
- Narrative
- Representations
- Ideologies
Which of the above codes/conventions does your c/w use and how?

Genre and Audience
- Genre offers audiences a structure or framework
- Audiences gain enjoyment from 'spotting conventions' (repetition) and making comparisons with other films of the same genre
- If a text deviates from the conventions it can confuse us but at the same time we enjoy seeing the rules broken
- Audiences like the anticipation of waiting for predictable features
How did you use genre to offer your audience a framework? Do you think your target audience enjoyed spotting the conventions or seeing the rules broken?

Narrative Theories
You should aim to apply the narrative theorists which can be applied to your c/w
- Propp - 8 charater roles
* - Todorov - Equilibrium - Disequilibrium - New equilibirum * USE THIS
- Barthes - 5 codes (action, enigma, cultural, symbolic, Semic)
* - Levi-Strauss - Binary opposites = villain and hero * USE THIS

Narrative - Use A2 cw.
- A story must have verisimilitude (appear to be real) in order to engage us - how does your c/w verisimilitude/how have you created reality: Stereotype, conventions, codes (location, lighting, characters etc, within the diegesis (the world in which our characters live))

Representation
When analysing representations we should ask:
- WHO or WHAT is being represented?
- HOW is the representation created?
- WHO has created the representation?
- WHY is the representation created that way? What is the intention?
- WHAT is the effect of the representation?
examples: representation of gender, genre, stereotypical genre specific elements
- verisimilitude, mode of address, costume etc
- Intertextual refrences - comparing text to other media eg 'i'll be back' - terminator

Audience
- Who your audience is and how you targeted them
- Consider: age, gender, demographic profile, socio-economic group, existing/new, lifestyle, values, attitude
- Categories A,B,C1,C2,D,E
- Is your audience ,ass or niche
- What would the 3 reactions be to your c/w?
1. A preferred reading (your intended interpretation)
2. An oppositional reading (someone who didnt like it)
3. A negotiated reading (someone who isnt the target audience but might appreciate it for whatever reason) Stuart Hall

-Every media text is made with a view to pleasing an audience in some way - how did you try to pleaase your audience?
- Success is measured by the audience's response to a media text and those that do not attract and maintain an audience do not survive

Media Language
Media Language is all of the micro elements
You will need to write about:
- Denotations - what it acually is (a knife is a weapon)
- Connotations - what it creates (knife connotates danger violence)
- Anchorage
The way the film communicates with you
- Camera
- Editing
- Lighting
- Sound
- Mise en Scene
- Special effects: visual, sound and lighting

Breakdown of section A question 1a

- Section A, question 1a of the A2 exam is worth 25 marks
- You will be evaluating your AS and A2 coursework in terms of the skills you have developed over the 2 years
- You will have 30 minutes to answer this question

Question 1a:
'Describe abd evaluate your skilles development over the course of your production work - this can include the preliminary task, your actual c/w, ancillary tasks and any other pieces you have created in the past year'

In the exam 1 or more of the following areas will be selected for you to write about:
- digital technology
- creativity
- research and planning
- post-production
- using conventions of real media texts

What is it about?
- what did you do?
- how did you do it?
- how did your skills develop?
- all supported with specific examples
- in relation to the area(s) in the question

Exam help

Media Essay: Guided questions

How do contemporary media represent different collective groups in different ways?

-          This must be the main focus of your essay!

-          Diverse representations including fiction, non-fiction and self-representation

-          Harry Brown, Fish Tank, The Inbetweeners, Attack the block, The London Riots news coverage, The Internet and Self mediation

How does contemporary representation compare with that of the past?

-          Examples needed for similarity and difference

-          Examples from the past – Quadrophenia Mods and Rockers

-          Have they changed? – Plato quote

What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?

-          Stereotyping: what is its impact?

-          What power does the audience have to ‘resist’

-          Propaganda, moral panic, youths as empty categories, cultural hegemony,  Stuart Hall and reading the texts and their messages

-          Statistics on result of these representations on attitudes and beliefs Vs the reality of the issues

To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated?’

-          Increasing media=increasing mediation?

-          Re-presentation by others/by selves (Facebook, YouTube)

-          Be critical of who is offering the representations and for what purpose

-          Mediated: How the media shapes your world and the way you live in it

Guidance:

-          Add your own personal opinion

-          What in your opinion is the future of representation and what are you basing this on?

-          Connections must be made between the examples/contrasts are discussed

-          You must embed the theory into what you are saying

-          Refer to MORE than one media – (film, newspaper, TV)

Essay Structure:

1-      Introduction – Start with a quote, paraphrase it and link it to issues of identity, representation, and the media. State your focus (YOUTHS AND YOUTH CULTURE)

2-      Historical example (Quadrophenia/Plato) – talk about wider context

3-      Contemporary examples – (Harry Brown, The Inbetweeners, Facebook, YouTube)

4-      Connect examples together

5-      Conclusion – return to start. Prediction for the future

6-      Sentence structure: Example – Significance – Theory – Critique

Advice

-          Use referencing (name and year of publication Eg, Giroux 1997)

-          use one text older than 5 years – Quadrophenia

-          Other texts from within the last 5 years

Conclusion

-          Return to the start

-          Summarise key idea

-          Prediction for the future

Mass media construct representations of youth from a middle class, adult perspective, for the ideological purpose of maintaining hegemony.

Impact of new media technologies/internet – more potential for self – representation; limited impact compared to mass media

London Riots essay research

How have British youths been represented through different media in the London riots?

Research:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17232636 - ‘looting at its lowest point’ was mediated and shown all footage from a phone was shown all over the country

“Amateur footage appears to show a gang of youths charging at police in south-east London” BBC news

“Following the riots, the vast majority of defendants that came before magistrates' courts were young people under 25.” The guardian

Press Representations

Teen Trouble - 2007

-The adult public believe teenagers are a high cause of  the percentage of crime, due to the media. Teenagers themselves know that it is much lower - 12%
-News of the World uses bad stories about teenagers rather than good ones as they are there to entertain and they want to sell copies and sell more exciting stories
-Harsh laws make the vast majority of teenagers feel alienated, even though its only the minority that break laws
-Teenage criminals with asbo's are publicised a lot more than other criminals (murderers/rapists) "Generation ASBO."
-The murder of Jamie Bulger lead to a lower criminal conviction age and a more frightened outlook on youths
-Press would pay mods and rockers in the 60s to fight in order to write more exciting articles in papers
over 4 million cctv's placed
- Cultivation theory: proliferation desensitisation- teenagers are viewed as as bad therefore that's how they begin to behave like and cause moral panic
- hypadermic syringe theory- we believe everything that we read and see in the media
- The source of reports come from police reports, and will therefore have a negative outlook on the youths
- Less younger people and more older people therefore they will have a louder voice

Online Media

What are the connotations of the logo for facebook?


Talking to friends
Photos
Events
Advertising
Social network film
Games
Fb stalk
Relationships
Networking
Status's
Conversations
Gossip
Noseyness
Lack of privacy


Positives:
Accessable to everyone no matter what their social class/background
Can inform your friends of big events going on in your life quickly and easily
Helps young people getting into a potential business they want to eg music, posting videos
Helps youths promote yourself in a positive light
Communicate with a lot of people at one time


Negatives:
Private photos can be put up and everyone can access them
Allows people to manipulate other people with a fake identity
Bullying


What new forums of social interaction have media technologies enabled?


- Globalisation
- Sharing of information
- Development of self-identity
- Self-realistation
- Collective intelligence
- reshaping media messages and their flow; reshape and recirculate messages
- Increased voice
- Consumer communication with business (greater influence) - mass collaboration
- Awareness - bands/skills
- communication has become and interactive dialogue
- User generated content (UGC)
- Self-presentation and self-disclosure
- Increasing diversity within cultures
- Online media focus on some or all of the 7 functional building blocks - identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation and groups (Kietzmann et al.)


"Online media are especially suitable to construct and develop several identities of the self" (Turkle, 1998)


"The mobile phone has become a central device in the construction of young peoples individual identity"


Digital Identity
"A person has not just one a stable and homogeneous"
"Identity consists of several fragments that permanently change"
"It's multiple, but coharent"
"It's a live-long developing and new conceptualized patchwork"

Media Use in Identity Construction

Katherine Hamley

Highlight ke points/quotes that you think are important and then answer these questions when reading this text:

•      Young people are surrounded by influential imagery – popular media (Examples?)

•      It is no longer possible for an identity to just be constructed in a small community and influenced by a family (Discuss)

•      Everything concerning our lives is ‘media saturated’ (What does this mean?)

In society today the construction of a personal identity can be seen to be somewhat problematic and difficult. Young people are surrounded by influential imagery, especially that of popular media. It is no longer possible for an identity to be constructed merely in a small community and only be influenced by family. Nowadays, arguably everything concerning our lives is seen to be ‘media-saturated’. Therefore, it is obvious that in constructing an identity young people would make use of imagery derived from the popular media.
However, it is fair to say that in some instances the freedom of exploring the web could be limited depending on the choice of the parents or teachers. So, if young people have such frequent access and an interest in the media, it is fair to say that their behaviour and their sense of ‘self’ will be influenced to some degree by what they see, read, hear or discover for themselves. Such an influence may include a particular way of behaving or dressing to the kind of music a person chooses to listen to. These are all aspects which go towards constructing a person’s own personal identity.
Firstly, it is important to establish what constitutes an identity, especially in young people. The dictionary definition states the following:

“State of being a specified person or thing: individuality or personality…” (Collins Gem English Dictionary. 1991).

The mass media provide a wide-ranging source of cultural opinions and standards to young people as well as differing examples of identity. Young people would be able to look at these and decide which they found most favourable and also to what they would like to aspire to be. The meanings that are gathered from the media do not have to be final but are open to reshaping and refashioning to suit an individual’s personal needs and consequently, identity. It is said that young people:

“…use media and the cultural insights provided by them to see both who they might be and how others have constructed or reconstructed themselves… individual adolescents…struggle with the dilemma of living out all the "possible selves" (Markus & Nurius, 1986), they can imagine.” (Brown et al. 1994, 814).

When considering how much time adolescents are in contact with the popular media, be it television, magazines, advertising, music or the Internet, it is clear to see that it is bound to have a marked effect on an individual’s construction of their identity. This is especially the case when the medium itself is concerned with the idea of identity and the self; self-preservation, self-understanding and self-celebration.

 “With a simple flip of the television channel or radio station, or a turn of the newspaper or magazine page, we have at our disposal an enormous array of possible identity models.” (Grodin & Lindlof 1996)

I believe the Internet is an especially interesting medium for young people to use in order to construct their identities. Not only can they make use of the imagery derived from the Internet, but also it provides a perfect backdrop for the presentation of the self, notably with personal home pages. By surfing the World Wide Web adolescents are able to gain information from the limitless sites which may interest them but they can also create sites for themselves, specifically home pages. Constructing a home page can enable someone to put all the imagery they have derived from the popular media into practice. For example:

“…constructing a personal home page can be seen as shaping not only the materials but also (in part through manipulating the various materials) one’s identity.” (Chandler 1998)

This is particularly important as not only are young people able to access such an interesting and wide ranging medium, but they are also able to utilise it to construct their own identity. In doing this, people are able to interact with others on the Internet just as they could present their identities in real life and interact with others on a day to day basis.
In conclusion it can be seen that the popular media permeates everything that we do. Consequently, the imagery in the media is bound to infiltrate into young people’s lives. This is especially the case when young people are in the process of constructing their identities. Through television, magazines, advertising, music and the Internet adolescents have a great deal of resources available to them in order for them to choose how they would like to present their ‘selves’. However, just as web pages are constantly seen to be 'under construction’, so can the identities of young people. These will change as their tastes in media change and develop. There is no such thing as one fixed identity; it is negotiable and is sometimes possible to have multiple identities. The self we present to our friends and family could be somewhat different from the self we would present on the Internet, for example. By using certain imagery portrayed in the media, be it slim fashion models, a character in a television drama or a lyric from a popular song, young people and even adults are able to construct an identity for themselves. This identity will allow them to fit in with the pressures placed on us by society, yet allow them to still be fundamentally different from the next person.

-          The Internet, magazines, TV, music, advertising and films are all types of influential media for young people

-          Many factors influence younger people, for example the media examples, therefore many factors other than family will influence their identity and up-bringing. Families will shape a person to an extent; however the media, environment, friends and hobbies/interests will influence the person further.

-          “Media saturation is the constant bombardment of media whether it be tv, magazines, radio, ads etc.” This means that everything influencing us in life is through the media as it is constantly surrounding us. Media influences everyone, even subconsciously as the media is everywhere.

Media and Collective Identity

"Identity is complicated - everybody thinks they've got one" David Gauntlett

"A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups" David Buckingham


BUCKINGHAM


He classifies identity as an 'ambiguous and slippery' term:
- Identity is something unique to each of us, but also implies a relationship with a broader group
- Identity can change according to our circumstances
- Identity is fluid and is affected by broader changes - cultural imperialism: globalisation
- Identity becomes more important to us if we feel it is threatened


GAUNTLETT


- Religious and national identities are at the heart of major international conflicts
- The average teenager can create numerous identities in a short space of time (especially using the internet, social networking sites)
- We like to think we're unique, but Gauntlett questions whether this is al illusion and we are all much more simillar than we think


5 key themes
1. Creativity as a process - about emotions and experiences
2. Making and sharing - to feel alive, to participate in community
3. Happiness - through creativity and community
4. Creativity as social glue - a middle layer between individuals and society
5. Making your mark - and making the world your own


Collective Identity


"Representation: The way reality is 'mediated' or 're-presented' to us.
"Collective identity: The individual's sense of belonging to a group (part of personal identity.)

1.       When was Youtube first released?

April 23rd 2005

2.       According to Michael Wesch what does Web 2.0 allow people to do?

Helps linking people together

3.       When media changes what else changes?

Human relationships change

4.       What influenced the loss of community? And what has now filled this void?

Women joining the workforce, massive communities in suburbia, tv's

5.       How are communities connected?

Cell phones, cultural inversion

6.       Explain what he means by voyeuristic capabilities?

Watching people without staring at them or making them uncomfortable, and without being with them. Experiencing another person by watching them through youtube.

7.       Write 3 points about what he refers when he discusses playing with identity

People having a very diverse face

Not knowing who is real and who is fake

Videos not being what we think they are

8.       What does the ‘Free hugs phenomenon’ suggest about people?

Trying to reconnect with humanity. Copying one man's video of 'free hugs'

Representation in The Inbetweeners

The Inbetweeners (Ben Palmer, 2011)

Consider and write notes on the following:

The representation of -

Age
The four main characters in the film are about 18 and just finishing school
They are represented in a realistic way for teenagers and do not give youths a violent name. They are shown as quite harmless and funny teenagers.
None of the characters are represented in a negative way, they all seem very normal and sterotypical for a group of 4, 18 year old boys at school together.

Ethnicity
The characters shown so far in the film are all white and throughout the rest of the film is it predominatley white. They meet a few Greek people on holiday that are in the film briefly, however all of the friends and characters who are featured more are all of the same ethnicity. However the representation of ethnicity is not very realistic as they are in the subburbs of London and there are no other ethnic backgrounds shown.

Gender
The 4 main characters are all male and are represented as sterotypically 'normal' teenage boys. They are not shown to seem violent, or aggressive. They seem to all get on with eachother very well and have formed their group out of friendship, not for the feeling of needing to be in a gang for any other reasons.
One of the boys, Will, is represented as the clever/geeky one. He is dressed smartly and is well presented.
Another boy, Jay, is represented as only being interested in girls and sex and having fun
The third, Neil, is represented as a bit dopey and unaware of what's going on around him
The last boy, Simon, is represented as quite emoitonal as he has just been dumped by his girlfriend.
The women have an important role in this film. On the surface of the male's feelings they see women sexually and talk about having sex a lot. However their underlying feelings are more realistic towards the women, shown when Carly breaks up with Simon and he keeps crying.

Social class and status
The beginning is set in a school, showing that they are all in education. This represents them in a positive way as it shows they are all still in school at 6th form, showing their intelligence, and that they are not getting up to no good on the streets or causing trouble. The social class is much more sophisticated. They live in quite a posh area with nice houses, showing they are middle class. Neil is also shown working in a supermarket. The parents are very much involved in their children's lives, also showing the middle class/traditional theme.

Social Class: Reinforcing Cultural Hegemony/Dominant Ideologies

- Working class British youths are generally represented as being violent, brutal, unapologetic, criminals, addictive personalities - Harry Brown, Eden Lake, Kidulthood, Quadrophenia

                                                                    Vs

- Middle class British youths are generally represented as being more law abiding, consious citizens - The Inbetweeners
- On top of this the antagonists (conflicting/fighting against) are always the working class youths and middle class adults are positioned to be the protagonists (hero)


Fish Tank

What ideas are used to introduce the main character?

Automatically we can see that location is in a council estate, the way the girl is dressed would be seen as chavvy. Alcohol and violence is shown in the trailer. However the main character is a female, and the way the trailer is set out the audience is put in a position to feel sorry for the girl and sympathise with her due to her voilent abusive alcoholic mother, she is seen more as a victim. As opposed to Harry Brown where the audience is made to dislike the youths. (Cultivation theory - environment has impacted on her life)
Less extreme than films like Eden Lake and Harry Brown. Comes across as a more realistic portrayal of life in council areas.

Research

Applying Theory

Theorist	Year	Concepts	Your explanation	Application to film
Giroux	1997	Youth as empty category	This theory is where adults create their own impressions of youths which is why most impressions are not realistic. Youths are given an immediate impression and are widely stereotyped.	This theory applies to the film Harry Brown, as this film portrays all youths as violent, abusive, drug-taking thugs. This is a view of other people (the director/the media) and is an un-realistic portrayal of youths as a whole. This applies to the trailer we saw for Eden Lake in a similar way. The trailer groups all youths together as violent gang members being aggressive towards adults which show that this is how adults perceive all youths. This applies to Attack the Block differently, as this film shows the youths ending up to be the hero’s. This film puts the message across that not all youths are violent and if people didn’t stereotype them all the time then they could see how normal most youths are.
Acland	1995	Ideology of protection; deviant youth and reproduction of social order	Order has a key function: to reproduce itself.  Youth in crisis, youth gone wild, is a central site in which this activity of reproducing order takes place.  It involves the constitution of the normal, adult, the normal youth, and the relation between the two.  The deviant youth is thus a crucial trope of this relationship; it helps patrol the boundaries
Gramsci	1971 (1929-1935)	Cultural hegemony	Cultural hegemony is that a culturally diverse society can be dominated (ruled) by one social class, by manipulating the societal culture (beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values) so that its ruling-class worldview is imposed as the societal norm, which then is perceived as a universally valid ideology and status quo beneficial to all of society, whilst benefiting only the ruling class.	This theory is shown in Harry Brown, as in this film the lower class dominates in the specific location. The lower, non-working class rules the area of the council estate and if you are not a part of this class then your life becomes very difficult, if not impossible to live. The higher class characters in the film (the police) are shown as threatened by the lower class and are beaten and murdered by them, showing the power the lower class possess here.
Cohen	1972	Moral panic	Society is subjected to periods of moral panic every now and again. This is when an episode, person or group of people seems to become a ‘threat to normal society.’ (E.g. the London riots) This is then presented in a stereotypical and stylised fashion by the mass media. This groups whoever caused the disruption as a whole and gives a bad name to those people in general. (introduction of ASBOs)	This theory applies to Harry Brown, as the group of youths in this film are seen taking drugs, abusing women and others, using weapons, fighting and rioting in London. They are shown as a big threat to the rest of the ‘normal society’ as they are not acting how a ‘normal’ person would be expected to behave. This groups all youths together in these situations and is picked up by the media and stereotypes all youths as thinking this behaviour is acceptable which is not the case.
McRobbie	2004	Symbolic Violence	Creating a symbolic link between the lower classes and violence. Violence against the working class is a form of social reproduction
Gerbner	1986	Cultivation Theory	Influencing society through mass media. Cultivating an attitude about youths and how they behave. If youths are shown as aggressive and violent enough in the media then this is how the majority of youths will believe this is how they should act in reality.

Section B Exemplar Response 48/50

Section B Question 6 Media and Collective Identity

For A2 I have studies the representation of women in both contemporary and historical media. As David Buckingham noted in 2008, “identity is fluid and changeable” – and arguably the identity of women in recent times has changed, some may argue it has become more mediated.

Identity itself refers to who we actually are, the construction of ourselves – perhaps even the representation of ourselves and our social groups that we as media consumers wish to have. While many such as Buckingham and Gauntlett champion the fact the create and construct our own identities; others such aa Theordore Adorno see identity as something pushed upon us by the mass media, that we have no alternative but to take the dominant identities we are exposed to “something is offered for all so that none may escape,” he writes in explanation of this fact. Adorno therefore argues that our identities are becoming increasingly mediated – that is, that they influenced by the mass media, inherent identifies are weak and influenced by the media around us. ‘Nuts’ magazine is a stereotypical ‘lad’s mag’, aimed at 18-24 year old males. In ana analysis of the 19-25th March 2010 issue I performed the content proves interesting with regards to representation of women. Images of semi-naked females in suggestive poses represent women as victims of symbiotic annihilation. They are portrayed as merely objects of sexual pleasure for men – the images have been constructed, Laure Mulvey would argue with her theory of the Male Gaze, solely with the male consumers in mind, who using the Uses and Gratifications Model are consuming the text for sexual pleasure. Most significant here, however, is the so-called Mirror Effect of Mulvey’s Male Gaze. This states that women themselves consuming the images will apply the Male Gaze, and see the female in the image in a sense of what Baudrillard would call hyperreality, assuming the idea that this representation is ‘how women should be’ and in turn they should construct their identities similarly in order to appeal to males – aftr all women are the subdominant group in an apparent patriarchal society. Identity therefore has become mediated in this situation as Adorno says. The “culture industry” that is the mass media has imposed a dominant representation onto a collective group; who have felt pressured to adapt it as part of their collective identity. In the 2001 film “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”, Lara Croft, the main female character is represented as fairly masculine (stereotypically masculine) in terms of her choice of clothing, body language and manner. All of these micro-elements construct her identity. However, throughout the film, we also see Croft use what can be considered the concept of femininity to her advantage, flirting with male characters and wearing stereotypically feminine clothes towards the final scenes.
In terms of her character’s identity this supports Buckingham’s aforementioned assumption that “identity is fluid and changeable” but also conforms to Queer Theory. Queer Theory is widely recognized in Judith Butler’s 1990 book ‘Gender Trouble’ and states that the genders male and female are just as much the product of representation as the concepts of masculinity and femininity. She calls for a blurring of boundaries between genders and their stereotypical identities and calls for the media to celebrate such diversity. As a character, Croft arguably has blurred the boundaries displaying traits of both male and female behaviour.

If Adorno’s assertions are applied here it can be argued that again the dominant identity of women as sly, untrustworthy and in need of patriarchal dominance is being applied through Croft’s deviant use of fronting identity to her advantage. However some could argue that the prominence of Queer Theory does not encourage the mediation of female identity instead it encourages dominant representations to be characterized and boundaries to be blurred – implying greater personal control over identity as advocated by John Fiske and David Buckingham rather than mediated identities. Cosmopolitan is a magazine aimed at females around 30+. In all ways it can be said that pragmatically the magazine pushes femininity as an identity for itself, with stereotypically female colours and text styles. In turn, the feminine identity of the magazine is applied as a representation of the readers, further suggesting a mediation of women’s identity. The magazine focuses heavily on beauty and fitness, reinforcing the dominant ideology of the “ideal” women that women should aspire to a fixed concept of beauty.

As an example in the April 2010 issue a large image of Holly Willoughby (celebrity) features on the cover. Although unlike Nuts magazine, she is wearing fairly covering clothing and lacks cosmetic make-up, it is interesting to note that her clothing is white in colour – Ferdinand de Saussure would note that this has semiotic significance using his semiotic theory and Roland Barthe’s levels of signification, we can identify that white has connotations of innocence and weakness. Therefore this represents her as innocent and weak – reinforcing dominant patriarchal representations of women. Due to her status as a celebrity, her level of influence is great. In herself she is a semiotic symbol of success and affluence, so those who take inspiration from her will take this constructed innocence and weakness and apply it to their own identities. This is a clear example of the mediation of identity. It suggests a passive audience, influenced by the mass media as Adorno and other quasi-Marxists would suggest.
It can be seen therefore, that as post modernists say, we live in a media saturated society. We are surrounded by signs which cannot be ignored. Women in the media are often represented as varying, whether it be as sexual objects for the pleasure of males; or as innocent, as ‘stay at home’ housewives as suggested in 2008’s film Hancock. Here, despite possessing stereotypically male strength and ‘superpowers’, the lead female aspires to be a housewife – reinforcing the sub-dominant representation of women. Either way however women are often the victims of mediation. The theories of consumption and construction of identity from theorists such as Adorno and Mulvey clearly show that despite the specific representations, one common identity is ‘forced’ upon women in the media – a subdominant social group living in a patriarchal society. Identity is constructed using this as a basis; and even media texts which challenge this representation and encourage Queer Theory diversity are still arguably mediating identity with their influence. Identity is fluid and changeable and can be individually constructed as Gauntlett and Buckingham state. But arguable, the mass media are, and have, mediated the identity of women in contemporary society.
 EAA (explanation and analysis) 20/20
EG (example) 18/20
T (termanology) 10/10
(48)

 ‘How are British youths represented in Quadrophenia and Harry Brown?’

Main themes

In both films Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam, 1979) and Harry Brown, (Daniel Barber, 2009) the main themes are very similar. Both films are portraying British youths in a very negative way. Drugs, sex and violence are very common in both Quadrophenia and Harry Brown. Quadrophenia shows how British youths were viewed 30 years ago. They are shown as disruptive, rude teens that abuse the use of drugs and work in gangs. However the extent of the violence and drug taking is not as extreme as in Harry Brown. The youths in Quadrophenia are seen at times to get into fights and beat up members of their rival gang ‘rockers,’ whereas the youths Harry Brown are seen to murder numerous members of their society, sometimes unprovoked. The youths in Harry Brown don’t feel safe unless walking around their community with a knife or gun at hand. Territory and revenge are also key themes running through both films. The Mods and the Rockers in Quadrophenia both feel that they need to protect their territory from the opposition, and this feeling of protection is what leads to violence. However this territory feeling is much more extreme in Harry Brown. The youths see the underground walkway as their territory, and any intruders are usually murdered. Harry Brown himself sees revenge as the main theme of the whole plot, as he is constantly seeking revenge on the youths that murdered his friend.

Gang ideologies

The youths in both of these films are strongly led by gangs. The Mods and the Rockers in Quadrophenia stick together in trying to overcome the rival gang. Both gangs pride themselves on their dress code and their scooters. In Quadrophenia, the gangs are less of a threat than the gangs in Harry Brown. The gangs in Harry Brown are formed more for survival. This fits in to Gramsci’s theory of Cultural hegemony as the gangs are constantly fighting against the different social classes. The Mods and the Rockers are more like friendship groups that can get carried away at times; however the gangs in Harry Brown all become blurred towards the end as they all begin to fight between themselves. The Mods and Rockers are two clear cut different groups, whereas the youths in Harry Brown are much more out for themselves, but sometimes go around in groups to seem more intimidating. Throughout Harry Brown, the members of the gangs are all individually fighting for survival and will at any point turn on a member of their own gang if necessary. The gangs in Quadrophenia are also fighting against their parents as well as each other, whereas the parents are hardly ever featured in Harry Brown.

Identity

Identity is a key feature in both of these films. In both Harry Brown and Quadrophenia each character is fighting to be at the top, and the most indestructible. The identity of the Mods and the rockers in Quadrophenia are important as the clash between the two groups is what causes most of the conflict in the film. The Mods are all dressed in green parkers and ride scooters to show that they are a member of the Mods gang, and the Rockers dress in leather jackets with their hair combed backwards to show they are members of the Rockers. The characters in Harry Brown all dress very threateningly, in hooded jumpers and baggy, dark clothing. This hides their individual identities, causing them to come across as much more threatening. The youths in Harry Brown don’t seem to possess an identity as they are constantly hiding behind clothing, hoods or in the dark alley ways. The youths in Quadrophenia however, never hide away and are always out in the day light, which takes away that aspect of fear for them.

Roles of the parents

The parents of the youths in Quadrophenia are featured for a little part of the film. At first the parents of the ‘Mod’ Jimmy, seem that they have little control over him, as he is always out late at night and let him get away with things without harsh consequences. However towards the end of the film Jimmy’s parents punish him and throw him out the house. The parents of the youths in Harry Brown are hardly featured in the film and are insignificant to the film. The youths have little guidance from their parents, causing them to think that they can get away with anything they want to do as they will not be punished. However the youths in Harry Brown seem so out of control now that any guidance or punishment from parents or a family member would be ignored and irrelevant.