Baudrillard

Lia Marie Johnson - simulacra or hyperreality as she is currently going through a drug problem yet her instagram appears normal and doesn't reflect this

Miley Cyrus - hyperreality as her posts are posters and modelling photos which do not reflect ordinary real life, or even her real life, as they just reflect her photoshoot and job

Kim Kardashian - heightened reality or simulacra as she has an unrealistic life and posts the best moments. Part of a brand.

Newspaper Theory Revision

Ownership

-ownership has slight influence on news politically. owners never interfere with the content of the newspaper. though murdoch (who owns much of News International) has expressed strong views about the EU, his newspapers (The Times, Sunday Times and Sun) took different views in the referendum.
-the Leveson inquiry into the press found that politicans of all parties had 'developed too close a relationship with the press in a way that has not been in the public interest', and that politicans' relationships with newspaper owners, managers and editors were not clear and open.
-For example Tony Blair visited Murdoch before he was elected in 1997 and received far more favourable coverage than his Conservative predecessor John Major who reportedly did not 'do a deal' with Murdoch.
-The owner appointing an editor is one form of indirect power that they wield, even if they never interefere with the editorial content.

Task discuss the reasons why the Daily mail reported the Leadership challenge and their (possible) interests in TM’s PM resignation.

(read page 39) on the influence of ownership on newspapers linked to “The harmsworth’s who own the Daily Mail” How might the Harmsworth’s benefit?

-They may be interested in TM's resignation because of the fact that it presents the standstill of our country and her struggle. Daily Mail called tories traitors when they voted against her, therefore backing her plan, so it can be suggested that they are covering her resignation because they support her efforts and want to generate sympathy.

Levenson enquiry https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20543133

The Leveson inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011. A series of public hearings were held throughout 2011 and 2012.

News regulation - IMPRESS or IPSO (or refuse to join either like the Guardian)

IMPRESS

In 2016, an external review by former civil servant, Sir Joseph Pilling, found IPSO "largely compliant" with the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry.^[10]

In 2013,^[11] a new group was formed by free speech advocate Jonathan Heawood^[12] called IMPRESS, intended to be a body fully compliant with the recommendations of Leveson.^{[citation needed]} IMPRESS was initially supported by individuals and groups including J.K. Rowling, the campaign group Hacked Off and the controversial Max Mosley.^{[citation needed]} In 2015, a charity, the Independent Press Regulation Trust (IPRT), agreed to provide £3.8 million in funding to IMPRESS over the next four years, with the IPRT's funding guaranteed by Max Mosley's Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust.^[5] By October 2016, it regulated around 40 specialist and local publishers.^[5]

IPSO

The Press Recognition Panel was created on 3 November 2014 as a fully independent body with the purpose of carrying out activities in relation to the recognition of press regulators. IPSO has said that it will not seek approval from the Press Recognition Panel (PRP)^[10], which has officially recognised the regulator IMPRESS.^[11]. The "Hacked Off" campaign has described IPSO as a "sham" and "the illusion of reform"

Livingstone and Lunt

 the idea that there is an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need to further the interests of citizens (by offering protection from harmful or offensive material), and the need to further the interests of consumers (by ensuring choice, value for money, and market competition) 

 the idea that the increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47255380

-Cambridge Analytica was a political advertising firm that had access to the data of millions of users, some of which was allegedly used to psychologically profile US voters. The data was acquired via a personality quiz. How such data, particularly in terms of political campaigning, was shared by Facebook was at the heart of the inquiry, alongside the effects of fake news. "Democracy is at risk from the malicious and relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised 'dark adverts' from unidentifiable sources, delivered through the major social media platforms we use every day," concluded the report. "The big tech companies are failing in the duty of care they owe to their users to act against harmful content, and to respect their data privacy rights."

-In order to better regulate social media firms, the MPs suggested creating a new category of tech firm - one that was neither a platform nor a publisher but something in-between, which would tighten the legal liability for content identified as harmful.

-Facebook has repeatedly said it is committed to fighting fake news and works with more than 30 fact-checking organisation around the world. Two of those agencies - Associated Press and Snopes - recently quit working with the social network.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/01/government-regulate-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-social-media

The Facebook chief executive has called for more government regulation of the internet. And what he has said is pretty sensible, if a little light on detail. The four areas Zuckerberg wants governments to regulate more are harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability. 

Media Language and Representation: The Big Issue

Dark background, serious topic. 

Direct address.
Celebrity endorsement.
Organ donation endorsement.
Individualism.

Martin Luther King's famous speech is referenced.
Can be sad as it makes it seem we have not followed MLK's ideals
Questioning if his legacy has been honoured
(50th anniversary of his death)
Religious imagery almost as he seems like a secular saint
Look of confidence juxtaposed with symbols of America
Anti racism and individualism

Serious interview (in-depth)
Harry and Meghan endorsement, royals find it important so public should too, role models - also treats them as a casual acquaintance which connotes recognition and approval
Serious direct address
Tagline is a quote from David Tennant himself
Celebrity culture
Exclusive story about Tennant
Ideology of helping others as the royals are supporting the magazine so others should too

INTERTEXTUALITY 

The MLK cover does not make a direct reference to other media products, but the image used suggests a media representation of the man - King as a cultural product as much as a real person, a product whose positive connotations of highly moral political activism the magazine might appropriate.

DT cover references 'the shape of water', a newly released film, and 'The Doctor' a reference to David Tennant's role as Doctor Who in the past. Suggesting shared knowledge as none are explained, assumed famous enough for audience to understand.

REPRESENTATION

MLK cover. chooses to combine icons of america - stars and stripes and outline of mainland usa with a stylised image of MLK and a reference to his most famous inspirational speech from 60s. It positions the issue of civil rights in contemporary America within the context of a long political struggle. This suggests solidarity with civil rights protestors, an affiliation with the less powerful in society and a thoughtful, historically informed view of current events. 'what happened to the dream'. Red represents danger and may show that America is no longer following his legacy.

DT cover chooses to combine an apparently unstaged photograph of a famous actor with language suggesting vulnerability. Both conventional interest in the culture and entertainment industries and a concern with the authentic person behind the glossy appearances 'love' and 'loss'
The magazine boasts of its association with royalty but does so in a down-to-earth way 'Meghan and Harry: coffee with the Big Issue' avoids fawning over the monarchy.

SOCIAL CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXTS

Consumerism, lifestyle magazines reflect consumer society's ideals of a 'good life'. Big Issue attempts to highlight and alleviate homelessness and poverty (political context). neither are adequately addressed - little power and status, but magazine deliberately celebrates their individuality and achievements.

Celebrity culture is a major influence on DT and ML. They expect audience to recognise and understand their cultural role without explanation

Multiculturalism has influenced the representation of MLK as the cover expects its audience to adopt the perspective of people of colour without difficulty. Liberal news sources in the 60s would have covered the events sympathetically but from a whiter perspective.

IDEOLOGIES AND POSITIONING

MLK position the audience as concerned about political issues and current affairs, knowledgeable about King and the civil rights movement and sympathetic to their arms. Internationalists.

DT positions audience as cinephiles interested in the entertainment news and inner life of actors, especially David Tennant and royal family. Doggerland reference is deliberately enigmatic to entice readers.

Both covers embody individualism as a core ideology as both focus on individuals. DT is more ethnocentric, but the MLK is clearly internationalist therefore it suggests there isnt a systematic bias

Underrepresentation of women shows there may be a systematic bias which reflect the influence of sexism, and underepresentation of POC may be influence of racism. This is not necessarily conscious racism and sexism by publishers and may be a reflection of inequality in the world 

Revision Theory

Shirky's end of audience theory

~No longer such thing as a passive audience
~active audiences and interaction
~technology has changed our expectations and behaviour (expect interaction with products)
~Audiences like to 'speak back' to producers
~More equality of power

• Old models of producer-audience have broken down. 
• New audience- groupings have grown up: 
• collaborative projects, 
• Crowd funding, 
• crowdsourcing,
• publicity campaigns
• run by volunteers. 
• ‘End of Audience’ Model 
• "Every consumer is also a producer, and everyone can talk back.”
• Media had been a hierarchical industry—in that one filtered first, and then published. 
• "All of that now breaks down….....
• People are producing who are not employees or media professionals. So we now publish first, and then filter. ” It’s all about connections, participatory networks

Jenkin's Fandom Theory

 ~textual poaching

~fan fiction

Gerbner's Cultivation theory

The Cultivation Theory, also known as the Cultivation Analysis or the Cultivation Hypothesis, is a social theory that studies long-term effects of media on viewers’ ideas and perceptions, especially through the television medium

Its main causal argument is that “Mass communication, especially the TV, cultivates concepts of social reality of its viewers,” giving the theory its name. 

Gerbner observed on the basis of the “people religiously watching TV” that we know some things not because we have experienced them but because we see them on media. Therefore, according to this theory, there is a direct relationship between TV time, the frequency that a person watches TV, and reality perception, how realistic a person thinks something is. The more frequently viewers watch TV, the more they are likely to believe what they see on TV. Furthermore, in his 1982 Violence Index, the results showed that violence is at least ten times (10x) more on TV than in real life. In other words, violence and other “realities” shown on TV are exaggerated. So if this was what the people were seeing on TV, these people were likely to have believed a distorted perception of reality.

The Cultivation Theory is considered a stalagmite theory. A stalagmite is a mass of accumulated deposits that grows on cave ceilings, and so, it is a metaphor for the long-term effects of media. 

•How does Gerbner’s Theory and Shirkey’s Theory, impact the way consumers respond to news content  within modern day media?

•Use examples from the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph to back up your answers.

•Use previous case studies and your own examples in support of your arguments.

Many consumers reject the news that they don't agree with and criticise newspapers instead of being passive, supporting Shirkey: 

Making fun and jokes on social media about the telegraph - 

Able to interact with others about the story. Comments on Daily Mail website. Relates to Shirkey -

Opinions from verified accounts (often celebrities or well known figures) get more publicity. Spreading opinions on news on social media can work to cultivate audiences

Criticisms of the telegraph. 

Gerbner's cultivation theory, examples of pessimistic outlooks and other effects.

Baudrillard 20.5.19

postmodernism

reality vs artificial

used to see reality in the media (real people, real locations).
now in a world of artificial realities.
heightened reality (intense)
artificial copies = simulacra. a copy of reality that is so artificial its not really linked to reality at all. we are surrounded by simulacra of media products
hyperreality = glossy, copy of reality. simulacra.
audiences often prefer simulacra to real life



examples of heightened reality, simulacra and hyperreality

Gauntlett

find examples.
bbc documentary - prince william depression and talking to other vulnerable men. provides a varied representation


Butler


gender is a social construct based on what we do
woman (makeup, high heels, dresses)
behaviours - performing these tasks everyday constructs what it means to be female
these are like 'rituals'
e.g. zoella

Revision 1A

MEDIA LANGUAGE

-analyse and explain the combination of elements to create meaning using semiotics

-study a range of newspapers to become familiar with the generic conventions of print and online newspapers, looking at variations, change over time, hybridity, and challenging/subverting conventions

-compare a range of print and online newspapers in order to understand the relationship between media language and technology

-analyse and explain examples of intertextuality

-analyse and explain the way media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies

-practice applying the idea of Barthes, Todorov, Levi-Strauss, Neale and Baudrillard for analysing newspapers

-analyse and explain media language in newspapers in terms of media contexts

MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS

-analyse and explain how selection and combination create representation of events, issues, individuals and social groups

-analyse and explain how news makes claims about realism and constructs versions of reality

-analyse and explain the impact of the media industry and social, cultural and historical contexts on how producers choose to represent events, issues, individuals and social groups

-analyse and explain positive and negative uses of stereotyping

-analyse and explain how social groups may be under-represented or misrepresented

-analyse and explain how representations, particularly those that systematically reinforce values, attitudes and beliefs about the world across many representations, invoke discourses and ideologies, and position audiences

-suggest how audience response and interpretation reflects social, cultural and historical circumstances

-apply the ideas of Hall, Gauntlett, Butler, Van Zoonen, hook sand Gilroy in analysing newspapers

MEDIA LANGUAGE AND REPRESENTATION GENERAL GLOSSARY

Realism	The set of conventions by which audiences accept a representation as real or realistic. There are different sets of rules for different genres and for different media forms, and there are many different forms of realism.
Stereotyping	A commonly repeated generalisation about a group, event or institution that carries judgements, either positive or negative, and assumes any example of this group, event or institution will fit the stereotype. This generalisation is inaccurate because it is an over-simplification, even if it is based in reality. It can refer to a representation that comprises a simple stereotyped characteristic rather than a complex and individualised set of characteristics.
Discourses	A system of shared knowledge embedded in social institutions, such as medicine, that exercise power over people.
Positioning audiences	How products try to put their audiences in particular positions. This might be emotional positioning (e.g. making them feel fear of sympathy), cognitive positioning (how they think about representations in the products), social positioning (e.g. as males or females) or cultural positioning (e.g. being positioned as British or American)
Semiotics	The study of signs.
Generic conventions	The shared understandings of what elements fit in which genres.
Genre hybridity	The stable mixing of different genres in one product.
Intertextuality	Media products that refer to other media products.
Ideologies	Sets of beliefs, values and assumptions shared by a social group and embedded in social, cultural, political and economic institutions. Usually thought to reflect the interests of powerful groups. Consumerism, freedom, equality and individualism are often considered dominant ideologies in free market capitalist societies as they reflect the economic basis of these societies.
Sign	Any unit of language that designates an object or phenomenon. It consists of a signifier and its meaning – the signified.
Denotation	The literal meaning of a sign.
Connotation	The associations of the denotation. Often expressed as nouns.
Shared code	The idea that genres are defined by codes and conventions that come into existence in the interrelationship between media products, their producers and their audiences.
Generic corpus	The body of media products in a genre. Each subtly adds to, and thus changes, the genre.
Patriarchy	The system and ideology of male power described by feminism. ‘Rule of the father’
Ethnocentrism	Belief that your own culture is natural and normal, and that other cultures are inferior and strange.
Consumerism	The ideology that we should judge ourselves and others on our material possessions, that our lifestyles should define our individual identities.
Individualism	The ideology that assumes people are essentially individuals. Taking exams is an example of competitive individualism.
Narrative disruption	The event(s) that disrupt an initial equilibrium and drive a narrative towards a resolution.
Binary opposition	This consists of two concepts that mean the opposite of each other.
Implosion	The collapse of traditional social distinctions in postmodern society.
Hyperrreality	A sense of reality constructed by media products that refer to other media products in a never-ending chain.
Narrative equilibrium	The state of stasis before the narrative disruption occurs.

NEWSPAPERS GLOSSARY

Mode of address	How a media product addresses its audience. This might be warm and inclusive, or formal and objective, for example, as in tabloid and broadsheet newspapers.
Serif and sans-serif fonts/typefaces	Serifs are small ornaments on fonts, sans-serif fonts do not have these so look cleaner and more modern. A typeface is a family of fonts. Arial is a common sans-serif typeface. Times New Roman is a common serif typeface.
Masthead	Often used to describe the title of a printed publication (though technically it is the title above the editorial)
Skyline	A line of text or boxes [sometimes called skyboxes] above the masthead promoting a newspaper.
Formal and informal language registers	A formal language register is used in formal situations to communicate information and may include complex sentences and an elaborate vocabulary. An informal language register is used to communicate the relationship between the participants and uses simple language including slang.
Myth	The organisation of meanings into commonly repeated forms that express ideology.
Anchorage	Use of language to ‘anchor’ the meaning of an image to suit the purposes of the producer.
Banner headlines	Large headlines that fit the width of the printed page
Copy/body copy	The written element of a newspaper or advertisement. Body copy is the main body of a newspaper article.
Middle-market tabloids	Generic hybrid newspapers that share conventions of both tabloid and broadsheet newspapers to target a middle-market audience.
Standfirst	A block of text that introduces a newspaper story under the headline, normally in a different style (often bold) to the body copy and headline.
News values	The values that govern which events are selected as news and which events are rejected.
Production, distribution and circulation	Production is the making of the product, distribution is getting the product to the retailer, and circulation is how the product is consumed.
Demographics	Measuring audiences in terms of social characteristics, such as age, gender, class, region, nation, race and ethnicity.
Cultural capital	Capital is wealth you can invest to make more money. Refers to aspects of culture such as education that help a person progress in society. Media literacy is a part of cultural capital in modern society.
Data mine	The use of audience data gathered by online media platforms in order to attract advertisers. A free service is provided to the audience in exchange for this data being offered to advertisers to micro-target audiences based on their demographics, their tastes, their likes or their searches.

MEDIA LANGUAGE

Barthe’s semiotics

-The sun’s ‘gotcha’ headline. Positions audience on the side of the attackers. Slang term connotes a heightened emotional involvement in the attack and triumphant identification with the British armed forces personnel. Activates ideologies of nationalism and militarism – patriotic pride.

-The Mail online logo. Heavy gothic font in masthead. Connotes tradition, craft, solidity, reliability, and other such virtues from its association with medieval calligraphy. The word ‘online’ uses a contrasting font. Elegant, sans-serif and stands tall. Connotes modernity, lightness and youth.

Print Conventions

Tabloid	Broadsheet
Softer news agenda	Harder news agenda
Less formal language register	More formal language register
Bold mastheads in sans-serif, often white on red	Traditional mastheads in serif fonts, often black on white
Headlines [often banner] in bold, capitalised sans-serif fonts	Headlines in serif fonts capitalised as in a sentence
Pages dominated by headlines and images	Pages dominated by copy
Addresses a more downmarket audience	Addresses a more upmarket audience
Offers news as entertainment	Offers news as information
e.g. the Sun, the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, the Daily Star, Daily Star Sunday	e.g. The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the Independent.

The Daily Mail and the Daily Express position themselves as mid-market. (Middle-market tabloids)

The i is an unusual hybrid as it was launched as the compact sister of the Independent, though now changed ownership. Offers a short, cheaper version of a quality newspaper.

Daily Mail: mix of hard and soft news, formal but opinionated, traditional serif masthead, capitalised banner headlines, front page dominated by headlines and images but some copy,  middle-market audience, both news and entertainment.

Online Conventions

Broadsheet	Hybrid features of broadsheet online	Tabloid	Hybrid features of tabloid online
Homepage filled with headlines	More extensive use of colour	Lifestyle, showbiz, and human interest stories at top of page	Little use of banner headlines
Hard news stories at top of page	Opinion, lifestyle and sports pieces appear on the home page	Fonts are sans-serif	Most are not capitalised except in the Sun
Four-column layout	Some sans-serif fonts	Saturated colour, especially red	Generally less photograph/image and headline dominated than print front page
Typography is serif		Photography dominates home pages	Some hard news stories are covered on the home page
Quantity of photographs roughly matches writing		Language register more informal

Intertexuality

·         To create humour

·         To parody or criticise

·         To honour the referred text

·         To create a flattering mode of address for the audience

·         To attempt to transfer the value of the referred media product to the referring one

·         To create a sense of shared experience with the audience

Viewpoints and Ideologies

Ideology	How it might influence the media language
Sexism/patriarchy	Emphasises sexual objectification, or stress on a woman’s appearance. Sexist stereotypes.
Feminism	Supports women’s rights and gender equality
Racism	Connotes racial stereotypes of Whiteness as normal and race as a problem
Multiculturalism	Promotes inclusivity and multicultural viewpoints
Ethnocentrism	Connotes distrust or hatred of foreigners
Internationalism	Connotes care for and responsibilities towards other countries and people
Consumerism	Markets consumerist views to its audience
Individualism	Emphasises the individual over the group or society
Democracy	Emphasises the important of politicians and political issues

Newspaper	Political position
The Times	Right of centre, Conservative and Tony Blair Labour
Daily Telegraph	Right Wing – conservative
Guardian	Left of centre – usually Labour, has supported Liberal Democrats
Financial Times	Pro-business -  usually supports conservative
Independent	Centrist – has endorsed Liberal Democrats
i	Centrist – not politically affiliated
Daily Mail	Right Wing – conservative
Daily Express	Right Wing – usually supports Conservative but also once supported Tony Blair Labour and more recently UKIP
Sun	Right of centre, mostly Conservative and Tony Blair Labour
Daily Mirror	Left of centre – Labour party
Daily Star	No clear political affiliation

`              

Media Language Theories	Application and Explanation
Barthes	Connotations and the ways these embed ideologies
Todorov	Any bad news story acts as a narrative disruption.
Levi-Strauss	Binary oppositions – Guardian: family vs individual, whole vs separated. Daily Mail: Brexiteers vs Remainers, people vs elites, truthful vs lying
Neale	Genre/conventions. Dynamic nature of genre as a shared code that changes over time with every addition to the generic corpus rather than being fixed, and that is often hybridised.
Baudrillard	Implosion could be applied to a news story about a person constructing an identity ignoring traditional social differences e.g. celebrities that transcend their backgrounds. Hyperreality can be applied to where audiences will know nothing of events except for media representations of them and also to events about other media events

Media Language Contexts	Application and Explanation
Consumerism	Influential particularly though the dominance of marketing in contemporary media. Audiences are now used to colour, extensive use of photography and self-promotion. Cornucopia of content in online editions and the targeting of audiences through bite sized social media feeds suggests that consumer needs are paramount in the current media age as compared to the austere authority.
Celebrity culture	Infuses the media language of many newspapers with large images of celebrities, dominating the layout of front pages, home pages and social media feeds.
Multiculturalism	Affects the use of language in newspapers, where editors aim to use inclusive language and avoid racist terms.
Feminism	Avoiding sexist terms and stereotyping – and photographic practices. The persistence of patriarchy may express itself in sexist language and sexually objectifying photographic practices.
Postmodernism	May have led to increasing intertextuality in newspapers.