TASK 5- simpsons

The Simpsons Season 21 Episode 5 – The Devil Wears Nada

synopsis- Marge poses for a calendar for charity, but she is soon the talk of the town after she reveals a little too much during her photo shoot. Meanwhile, Carl receives a promotion at the plant. He then promotes Homer to be his executive assistant and runs him ragged.

dominant- was a good episode where Marge is responsible for her own actions.

negotiatiated- Marge shouldnt of been the talk of the town as we disregard other people who may do it too.

oppositional- marge deserved to put in her place as she has a husband and homer deserved to be bossed around because hes lazy.

TASK 4-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdv_7NJ0jjA
Resvoir dogs


effects on an audience by watching this scene where a man tortures another would be voyeurism, sadistic pleasure, desensitization.


The diegetic sound of the song is parallel to the scene as the guy is tied up and bleeding. The parallel song makes it seem more perverse as the makes the torturing seem normal.

The scene contains a lot of blood and could be regarded as disturbing to an audience of the past as they would not have been desensitized unlike today's generation who are also voyeurs and have sadistic pleasures. It could also have a copycat effect as another guy plays the hero by shooting the villain who is about to set fire to his victim which is really extreme and heartless.

Lastly the cultivation theory could also be applied as the characters use violence to overcome their situation and could certainly influence impressionable teenagers.

TASK 3-

Media representations rarely challenge the dominant values of society nor do they give a voice to those with little power. To what extent is this true for the group or place you have studied? Why?

There are many representations in today's society which still cause concern such as youths as devious due to the influence of street culture as seen in music videos and games. Due to the fact this group is seen as deviant and irresponsible they are not given a fair chance so whenever the media prints something negative about them, their voice is not heard.

As the media is hegemonic their news values are usually about bad things happening and they like to sensationalise this to create a moral panic. This is the case when there are cases of knife crime, burglary etc which associate youths with anti social behaviour. With music videos women often tend to more sexually objectified than men as those representations commonly in a mans song whereas in a women's video she would stereotypically sing about love and be portrayed as the neglected partner and men would be promiscuous etc. These representations are based on stereotypes and if they are conformed again and again then it can dumb society down as they may start to have certain expectations as well as cultivating certain gender behaviour, although Judith Butler said 'gender is not fixed'

Furthermore since the 9/11 bombings in America the common stereotype of all Muslims is now as extremist suicide bombers and whenever anyone notices a bearded religious man they assume he is a terrorist. Therefore Muslims don't have a say in how they are portrayed as people hate them. Furthermore with gay people they are portrayed as promiscuous, party loving, and rowdy. The general stereotype ignores people who don't fit into this label as in Eastenders Syed is not the typical gay and is quiet humble and religious partly because he rejected Islam to be with rowdy boyfriend Christian.

Overall media representations favour those with power as it injects their hegemonic ideologies into the rest of society but these are not accurate and are unfair as it neglects people of a fair chance and judgement as the media is always sensationalising bad things.

TASK 2-

The development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss for & against.

Digital media has revolutionised the way audiences consume news through various ways such as citizen journalism and crowdsourcing which provides a pluralistic model for audiences as the audience play an active role in providing information for producers this could suggest audiences and producers play just an important part as each other.

The sharing between audiences and producers has allowed UGC to take place which can be done on social networking sites like YouTube, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. Facebook created by Mark Zuckerburg in 2004 is the fastest growing social networking site which is closely followed by Twitter is mainly used by celebrities so their fans can follow them. Facebook was the new craze as there was more opportunity to be interactive with things like applications to suit your interests, games, and fanpages. Due to the lack of content with MySpace they changed their audience to young aspiring artists wanting to promote themselves on the site as they receive hits. An alternative method of rising to fame was Justin Bieber who rose to fame through his YouTube hits which later lead him onto being signed by a record label. Therefore social networking sites can be important for audiences as they have an active role in uploading content on the internet to promote themselves. The number of viewings is useful for producers to identify what the audience like.

According to Sherry Turkle social networking sites have isolated us from ‘real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is poor imitation of the real world.’ As you can do a lot with a click of the button on social network sites ‘technology is threatening to dominate our lives and make us less human’ A real life FB suicide Simone Back posted a status saying ‘took all my pills be dead soon so bye bye everyone’ and none of her 1082 Facebook friends helped her. This hints at the problems with social networking sites like being hacked and having fake friends. Therefore this would affect the producers as they’ll have a negative publicity and emphasise the problem of FB.

Facebook makes money by targeted advertising s they store information about what a certain user likes and has adverts of similar styles increasing their likelihood of gaining profit. Therefore this would affect the producers as they’ll have a negative image. Furthermore you can never be sure if a person is really who they say they are as the internet is full of paedophiles that use social networking sites to create fake accounts to groom children. This again disadvantages the sites reputation as they are seen as unsafe therefore this lessen the power producers have although audiences can play an active role as the privacy settings allow you to limit who and what people can see.

TASK 1-

q1-compare and contrasts the representation of teenagers in the two texts. (8 marks)

In the bully opening the non-diegetic music portrays a happy kind of atmosphere until the teacher speaks to Hopkins and lectures him. We then see him being portrayed as a rebellious teenager who creates an anti-school subculture as he is one shot shooting another person; in another he is slapping them and another causing an explosion in the lab. He is portrayed as a teen who is concerned with status and being deviant to get attention. Similarly the girl is presented as regretful and sarcastic when she mentions her being in the pictures. He is constructed as someone to fear as he is a bully who’s always on the move getting up to no good with his slingshot and people are running away from him. In addition even the dinner is lady is stereotypically blunt and unhygienic.

Similarly in the opening of skins teens are constructed as rebellious and carefree as they are promiscuous, confrontational and happy go lucky people. The montage introduces the different characters who we gain an insight to their life of smoking, bisexual encounters as they are at an experimental age. Although we are desensitised to this it could cause copycat behaviour as well as creating moral panics.

Overall the two representations are similar in the way they highlight negative aspects of teenage years but these constructions are mediated and are unfair as this could cause people to stereotype all teenagers as even though it’s not a wide representation.


Q2- consider the view that the current represenstation of teenagers is simply another 'moral panic'

Stanley Cohen coined the term moral panic and was used to describe the folk devil group that caused concern to the rest of society. The bully and characters in skins do this as they are presented negatively and rebellious and could impose their ways of thinking and lifestyle to everyone. Old fashioned people could be concerned about these groups as they behave in immoral ways and are promiscious, smoke and dont take anything seriously therefore they not thinking of the consequences can affect other people.

However audiences can choosoe to interpret the text differently as these portrayls which may cause a moral panic may in fact educate an audience no to do these things cause it causes conflict. Furthermore not all characters are presented as rebellious and cause a moral panic for instance in Lisa Simpson is hardworking witty and quirky therefore the assumption that all teenagers are deviant and cause moral panics isnt accurate.

Q3- To what extent has new and digital media given younger audiences the opportunities to shape their own media representations? (12 marks)

new and digital media is becoming more widespread and convienient for evryone to use. The introduction of social netowkring sites has allowed people to share their own identity with the public as people take picstures and videos of them doing stuff we gain a better undertsnding of what they are like and their interests. Futhermore forums and fanpages have allowed teenagers to vioce their opionions on matters and by doing so they can change others peoples outlook on things as not everyone is into streetculture and knife crime and some loose their friends etc. This can portray them as considerate and intelligent unlike how they are usually porteayed by newspapers as irressponsible.

Media representations favour those with power at the expense of those without.

In today’s generation, the representation behind some groups can make or break you. For instance the late Jade Goody found stardom through reality TV competition ‘Big brother’ and ironically the same show had a negative effect on her when entering the house for the second time with her mother and boyfriend as she was constructed as a bully towards Shilpa Shetty which the British public stood up for.

Many different representations of groups exist in the media and the media exaggerates certain ideologies behind certain people. For instance woman’s representation are commonly constructed by the media and men who objectify women as they are believed to serve the purpose of the male gaze as Laura Mulvey highlighted. An example of this is lads magazine which feature women half naked on the front cover, yet interestingly there are no magazines with exhibited the same way. This suggests men have the power to shape what their ideal women is and inject it into the rest of society as well as influencing women to conform to that ideal image. Therefore the glamorization of the ideal women is the main ideology put forward by the media and men.

The Daily Mail owned by ‘Associated News’ is a right wing newspaper that tends to have old fashioned beliefs. So when teenagers are portrayed as violent it creates moral panics as issues like knife/un crime are on the rise. The negative portrayal of teenagers injects into the audiences mind that we should fear them and they’re outta control. This leads to more stereotypes so that the moral entrepreneurs (the media) make it worse. The whole issue of teen knife crime and fitting into a subculture can be a result of watching, playing violent video games and music videos. This can lead to a copycat effect on teenagers where the influence rubs off on them. Due to the fact most teenagers are portrayed negatively in the media they’re opinion isn’t voiced or considered as they are at an influential age therefore this puts them in a powerless position.

Representations surrounding gay people are negative as they are seen as promiscuous so it causes concern to the rest of society especially old fashioned people who believe being gay is dirty and forbidden as they are more likely to contract sexually transmitted viruses like AIDS and HIV. This was the case in Eastenders when Christian Clarke was beaten up by a homophobic man. Due to the acceptance in society about gays events like GAYPRIDE celebrate the differences whereas in the past people were more conservative and religious. Therefore other peoples acceptance has gave gay people more power.

Overall there are many representations embraced in society today as there are laws like the civil partnership act to unite gay people as well as negative representations like youths as gangsters but the common factor is that those considered as a moral panic are powerless.

It has been said that media representations often reflect the social and political concerns of the age in which they are created. Discuss.

There are many constructions towards gay people in soaps due to society becoming more fragmented and diverse. In todays generation people are becoming more accepting towards people gay people due to there being less social disapproval.

Furthermore the rise of secularization lead people to becoming more accepting and open to other attitudes towards sexuality : homosexual and bisexual (before being closeted). Although there are still concerns towards gay men as they are seen as promiscuous. The include sexual problems like AIDS, HIV and so on. This can lead to moral panics as those who hate gays can be vicimtimised which is the seen in Eastenders when Christian gets beaten up by a man posing as a potential boyfriend. When this episode was featured, the BBC had their helpline number displayed at the end of the programme to show sympathy towards those this sensitive issue of homophobic attacks.

In addition the Christian & Syed storyline might have caused different reactions amongst different cultures, as Syed's character is from a Muslim background. This leads to difference in audience reception which cultural theorist Stuart Hall talks about. The culture clash is seen as a problem for Syed as hes drawn to Christian but wants to follow his religion which would cause conflicts and some people may find it restricting whereas other religious ethnic groups may see it as sinful.

Stereotypical male homosexuals are portrayed in touch with their feminine side, happy go lucky people. One possible reason why men are gay could be down to misogyny. Although a similar reaction can be provoked by radical feminists wanting to separate themselves from men so actively choose to become lesbians. Both factors can suggest that the male & female species cannot be content with each other therefore resort to lesbianism & being gay, or if they're bisexual then its more curiosity especially whilst feeling vulnerable.

The vulnerability is portrayed through Desperate housewives character Katherine Mayfair who went psychotic over getting her ex lover Mike. Freshly out of the mental institute she began to experiment with her sexuality. This is also seen in Home & away where Charlie splits up from her boyfriend and is drawn to Joey. As a response from feminism Judith Butler says that 'perhaps the phallus is always dissatisfying in the same way' which she states in her book. (The lesbian phallus and morphological imaginary).

Political laws that have benefited gays is the civil partnership act in 2004 which allows gay people to be married. Celebrities who embraced this were Elton John and partner David Furnish. In addition gay couples can now adopt children too which was also followed through be Elton John.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1342092/Elton-John-David-Furnish-welcome-son-Zachary-help-surrogate-mother.html-welcome-son-Zachary-help-surrogate-mother.html

Another example of people becoming less coveted towards their sexuality is Megan fox who in 2008 admitted to being bisexual to 'GQ' magazine.

Also Gaypride celebrates all the differences ( lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender). The movement has three main focuses: that people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity, that diversity is a gift, and that sexual orientation and gender identity are inherent and cannot be intentionally altered.

Overall, although we are in a changing society where there is more consensus, media representations can be interpreted differently by different people as they are some people in society that still might be old fashioned whereas others accepting views will cause conflict.