Music Video: Introduction

Our next topic is Music Video - with two brilliant Close-Study Products.

Music video is a targeted CSP which means we need to focus on media language and representation. The CSPs are Common's Letter to the Free and a new product for this year - Ghost Town by The Specials. We'll be looking at a range of representations across the videos including race, ethnicity, social class and also incorporating post-colonial theory.

Here's a brief video introduction to the Music Video topic:



An introduction to Music Video: notes

Music videos typically feature movement – often fast paced either in terms of actors, camerawork or editing. Many contain a performance element or narrative. Music videos can also feature visual effects and intertextuality.

Music videos were originally designed as a promotional device to sell the band or artist’s music but have developed over time to become a recognised artform or product in their own right. Modern music videos no longer have the huge budgets of the 1980s and 1990s but digital media means they are now more accessible than ever. Videos such as Psy’s Gangnam Style have received over 3 billion views on YouTube.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is when one media text references another media text – through genre, conventions, mise-en-scene or specific cultural references.

Music videos often use intertextual references – often to classic films but also to television, popular culture, news, videogames or even other music videos.

Notable examples of intertextual music videos:

Music Video introduction blog task

This week's work requires Media Factsheet #69: Music Video. You'll need to log in to Google using your Greenford Google account to access this. Read the factsheet and answer the following 10 questions:

1) What is the purpose of a music video?

2) How has the digital age changed the production and distribution of music videos?

3) Which three major record labels are behind VEVO? What is VEVO and why was it created?

4) What are the key conventions of a music video?

5) How can narrative be used in music video? Give an example of a music video that uses a narrative.

6) What examples are provided in the factsheet for intertextuality in music videos?

7) Why do audiences enjoy intertextual references in media products?

8) Read the music video example analysis on page 3 of the factsheet. Select a music video of your own choice and write your own analysis using the following headings:

• Conventions (movement/narrative/artist)
• Intertextuality
• Representation
• Audience
• Institution

9) Watch the video for Ice Cube's It Was A Good Day (1993). How did this video set the conventions for later hip-hop music videos?



Final question - your own opinion

10) How important do you think music videos are in the marketing and promotion of music artists in 2018? Are music videos essential to a band or artist's success?


Due: next Monday

Magazines: Men's Health - Language & Representation

Men's Health offers a compelling representation of modern masculinity that will allow us to apply a range of media theories.

However, it is also important that you are able to make specific reference to aspects of the CSP edition of Men's Health when applying these ideas and theories. Normally, we would give you a colour copy of the CSP pages to annotate in class but we will need to do this electronically due to the lockdown: 

Fortunately, you can currently read the whole of Men's Health Jan/Feb 2017 (the CSP issue) on this website. The pages we need are: front cover, contents page (p17) and the True Grit Marathon Man feature (p101). It's definitely worth also reading more of the CSP issue to get a feel for the Men's Health audience, brand and representations contained within it.


Men's Health: close-textual analysis

Here's a mini-lesson video analysing the Men's Health CSP for language and representation:



Representation: notes

These are the notes we would have learned and applied in the lesson if we were in school:

Applying media theories: Gauntlett, van Zoonen and bell hooks

Gauntlett: “Views of gender and sexuality, masculinity and femininity, identity and selfhood, are all in slow but steady processes of change and transformation.”

Raewyn Connell: hegemonic masculinity

Hegemonic masculinity is a concept of proposed practices that promote the dominant social position of men, and the subordinate social position of women. According to Connell, hegemonic masculinity is:

“The configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees (or is taken to guarantee) the dominant position of men and the subordination of women.”

Question to consider: Does Men’s Health magazine contribute to maintaining the dominant position of men in society?

bell hooks: “normalised traumatisation”

Feminist writer bell hooks has highlighted the corrosive, damaging effect of toxic masculinity on both men and women.

She builds on Judith Butler’s work, agreeing that gender roles are constructed, not ‘natural’. In fact, she suggests that patriarchy (a male dominated society) indoctrinates people from an early age so “gender becomes a set of connotations that have become naturalised”.

This then results in “normalised traumatisation” – meaning the damage caused by these representations is simply accepted as part of society.



Van Zoonen: “sex role stereotypes”

Liesbet van Zoonen suggests that the media reinforces sex role stereotypes, helping to construct gender roles. She gives examples of reinforcing sex-appropriate behaviours and the use of airbrushing to change appearances.


She accepts that the media sexualises both men’s and women’s bodies but highlights key differences. The representation of women’s sexuality is generally submissive and disempowering. In contrast, representations of male sexuality are based on strength and power. This is particularly evident in Men’s Health magazine.

Representation in Men's Health: an academic analysis

‘The Representations Of Men Depicted In Men’s Health Magazine’ is an academic journal article by María del Mar Rubio-Hernández of the University of Sevilla. 

It focuses on the American edition of the magazine but its findings also apply to the UK and other international editions. 

Rubio-Hernández makes several key points in her analysis:

• Advertising and consumerism is critical to masculine identity. The products advertised in Men’s Health say a huge amount about the representation of men – “men as consumers”.
• Masculinity is not fixed or natural but socially constructed and “subject to constant change”. It discusses the idea of the “metrosexual” male comfortable with grooming products, fashion and appearance.
• The magazine focuses on the male body and suggests it is one of the few aspects of masculinity still under men’s control. However, it does say that the representation of the male bodies featured in the magazine is largely fixed: “…young, muscular, healthy, sporty, successful, virile…”

Men's Health Language & Representation: blog tasks

Language

Create a blogpost called 'Men's Health: Language and Representation' and complete the following tasks:

1) Write an analysis of the media language choices on the cover of Men's Health - e.g. colour scheme, typography, language, photographic codes etc.

2) Identify three specific aspects/conventions/important points (e.g. cover lines, colour scheme, use of text, image etc.) from each page of the CSP that you could refer to in a future exam. Explain why that particular aspect of the CSP is important - think about connotations, representations, audience pleasures, reception theory etc.

Front cover: 

Editor's Letter and contents page:

Feature - True Grit - 'The Marathon Man': 

3) Apply narrative theories to Men's Health - Todorov's equilibrium, Propp's character types, Barthes' action or enigma codes.

4) Read the cover lines and the Editor's Letter. Does Men's Health offer a cure for male insecurities or does it create male insecurity?

5) How does the 'Marathon Man' feature page offer an example of Steve Neale's genre theory concerning 'repetition and difference'?


Representations

We have already covered many relevant theories in our work on Advertising and Marketing (for example, David Gauntlett's writing on Media, Gender and Identity). We now need to apply these theories and ideas to Men's Health and specifically the three pages from the Jan/Feb 2017 issue identified as our Close-Study Product.

Representations: applying theory

1) How can Gauntlett's ideas on masculinity, gender and identity be applied to the Men's Health CSP we have analysed?

2) How could van Zoonen's work on feminist and gender theory be applied to Men's Health?

3) How could bell hooks's work on 'corrosive masculinity' apply to Men's Health?


Representations: academic analysis

Read these extracts from the journal article exploring the representation of masculinity in Men's Health magazine and answer the following questions:

1) Why is Men's Health defined as a 'lifestyle magazine'?

2) Why is advertising significant in helping to shape masculine identity?

3) The article suggests that the representation of masculinity in Men's Health is not fixed or natural and is subject to constant change. What media theorists that we have studied previously can be linked to these ideas?

4) What does the article suggest Men's Health encourages its readers to be? What examples and statistics are provided to develop the idea of men as consumers?

5) What representations of the male body can be found in Men's Health?

6) What does the article suggest regarding the objectification of men?

7) What is 'metrosexuality' and how can it be applied to Men's Health?

8) What representation of men in Men's Health is discussed in the section 'Homogenous bodies'?

9) What are the conclusions drawn by the article with regards to the representation of masculinity in Men's Health?

10) What is your own view of the representation of masculinity in Men's Health? Is it a positive representation that encourages men to the best they can be or is it a hypermasculine, consumer-driven representation designed to undermine men's confidence and objectify their bodies?


Due: next Monday

Summer Term: Welcome back

We hope you had a good Easter break despite the lockdown and welcome you back to (online) school for the new term.

We don't know when we'll be back to school - rumours range from three weeks to September and I imagine it will end up somewhere in between. We'll keep posting the work on the blog as usual and ask you to continue checking your school email every day and as ever just let us know if you have any issues or questions.

I've also done a video update/lesson to get us started for the Summer term. It's not something I've done before (as I'm afraid you'll be able to tell!) but hopefully it's helpful to talk you through what we're planning to cover over the next half-term:



As ever, keep in touch with us over email and make sure you're getting the blogwork done each week. Other than that, stay safe, stay at home and best wishes to you and and your family.

Magazines: Men's Health - Audience

Our first Magazine Close-Study Product is Men's Health.

We need to study both the target audience for Men's Health and the audience pleasures that readers get from the magazine.

Notes from the lesson

Men’s Health (UK edition) has a circulation of around 120,000 (down 16% year-on-year and including 40k free copies) and a readership of closer to 1 million. It began as a health magazine in the USA in 1986 and has gradually evolved into a men’s lifestyle magazine. The UK edition launched in 1995.

Definitions
Circulation is the actual number of copies printed and distributed. Readership is an estimate of how many people read the magazine in total (also known as readers-per-copy). For Men’s Health, copies in a gym or waiting room will be read by many different  people.

Circulation figures are provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and readership estimates by the National Readership Survey (NRS).

Demographics: Social class

Men’s Health has a largely middle class readership but also attracts readers in the C2DE bracket:

ABC1 men: 64%
AB men: 32% 
C2DE: 36%

It is significantly higher than rivals GQ and Esquire in terms of circulation and readership but GQ and Esquire have a more upmarket demographics (higher % of ABC1 and AB readers).

Psychographics

Men’s Health Media Pack focuses on products that reflect a certain lifestyle such as fashion, watches, grooming, fitness and cars. This would suggest targeting the Aspirer and Succeeder psychographic groups with perhaps elements of Mainstreamers and Explorers.

Audience pleasures

There are many potential audience pleasures for Men’s Health readers. Applying Blumler & Katz’s Uses & Gratifications theory, two in particular would be:

Personal identity: Readers enjoy having their lifestyle reflected and endorsed through reading the magazine

Surveillance: Men’s Health is heavily focused on self-improvement and learning how to live a healthier, more successful life: “When it comes to life goals, claim the hat trick”.

Men's Health - Audience blog tasks

Read the Men's Health Media Pack in full to get a good idea of the demographics and psychographics for the Men's Health target audience then answer the following questions:

1) How does the magazine introduce itself?

2) What does the introduction suggest about the representation of masculinity in Men's Health's?

3) How do the print statistics for Men's Health compare to GQ and Esquire?

4) What is the difference between circulation and readership?

5) What was the circulation of Men's Health in thousands at the time this Media Pack was published? What about the readership for ABC1 men? AB men? [Note: this Media Pack was published in 2016 and some of the figures have fallen since then. Up to date circulation figures can be found at the top of this blog post].

6) How do readers generally interact with the digital version of the magazine?

7) How many people do Men's Health reach across social media platforms?

8) What is the audience profile for Men's Health readers? 

9) What is the Men's Health fashion philosophy? How much do Men's Health readers collectively spend on fashion?

10) What is the average watch collection value for the Men's Health audience? What do the statistics about watches suggest about the Men's Health audience demographics and psychographics?  

11) What percentage of Men's Health readers use moisturiser daily? What does this suggest about Men's Health readers' view of masculinity?

12) What does the media pack suggest regarding the Men's Health audience for fitness and technology?

13) Men's Health luxe is a series of magazines distributed with Men's Health targeting a specific aspect of the Men's Health audience. What are these three brand extension magazines called and what do they cover?

14) What do the Men's Health luxe magazines suggest about the demographics and psychographics of the Men's Health audience?

15) What additional brand extensions do Men's Health offer?

16) What are the global statistics for Men's Health?

17) What does the 2017 calendar editorial specials suggest about the Men's Health audience?

18) What audience pleasures are offered by the magazine?

19) What lifestyle and job would you expect the average Men's Health reader to have?

20) Why do you think Men's Health has managed to (just) remain profitable when many other magazines have struggled due to the rise of digital media?

Due: next Monday

Magazines: Introduction

Our next topic on the Exam side of the course is Magazines.

The two Magazines CSPs are Men's Health and niche women's magazine Oh (formerly known as Oh Comely).

This is an in-depth topic so we need to study these CSPs with reference to all four elements of the Theoretical Framework (Language, Representation, Industries, Audience) and all relevant contexts. Specific pages must be studied in detail for each magazine (specified and provided by AQA).

Normally, we would start this unit with a practical task introducing Adobe Photoshop but we'll have to postpone this for later in the course when things are back to normal. Instead, we'll spend the first part of this half-term studying Men's Health before moving on to Oh.

TV: Assessment

Now we have finished the content for the TV unit, we would normally be doing an assessment in-class in exam conditions.

Instead, we're going to set the assessment as 'open book' - which means there is no time restriction and you can use any resources you wish. The only thing you cannot do is plagiarise work from another student or online source. Any quotes copied and pasted must be in speech marks with the source in brackets afterwards (e.g. The Guardian).

Before lockdown, we did some brilliant work exploring representations, the technical construction of the episodes, political contexts, Marxism and Hegemony and postmodern ideas such as bricolage, hyperreality and historical deafness. Now we need to make sure we can apply these ideas to a 25-mark exam question:

Question 1
“Realism is a vital component of television drama”. To what extent does an analysis of your television close-study products support this view? [25 marks]

Question 2
To what extent do your television close-study products reflect the responsibilities and remit of public-service broadcasting? [25 marks]

Question 3
Steve Neale suggests media products need to show “repetition and difference” in their use of genre. To what extent do your television close-study products support this view? [25 marks]

For your final assessment for TV, choose one of the above questions and write a full essay answering it. For the actual exam, you will have 35 minutes to write a 5-paragraph answer plus introduction and conclusion. Here, you can use all of your notes and blogposts to write an exceptional response to work from in future assessments and exams. Write this answer on your blog.

TV unit: final assessment

1) Write a minimum 750 word answer to one of the exam questions above. Make sure the question that you choose is included in your assessment so it is clear which one you have chosen.

Due: next Monday

TV: End of unit index

We have completed excellent in-depth studies of Capital and Deutschland 83. We now need to create an index to ensure we haven't missed any vital notes or tasks.  

As you know, keeping an index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. This keeps the vital CSP information fresh in your mind and also highlights if you've missed anything through absence or trips. 

TV index: Capital & Deutschland 83

Your TV index should include the following:

1) Introduction to TV Drama
2) Capital: Case study and analysis
3) Capital: Marxism and Hegemony
4) Deutschland 83: Case study and analysis
5) Deutschland 83: Postmodernism
6) Industries: The rise of foreign-language TV dramas
7) Industries: The impact of new/digital media on television
8) Assessment: 750-word exam question

For your index, it needs to link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work and revision notes quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can now catch up with the work/notes and won't underperform in future assessments/exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

Due: next Monday along with your assessment