Attack the Block-Questions

-Identify at least 3 key theories that can be used in the representations of Youth and ethnicity within the film.

• “ 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

• Identity is now consciously constructed, and the media provides some of the tools to help us construct our identities. The media contains a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable lifestyles. 

•  Youth becomes an empty category in representation – reflects adult concerns. Giroux

-Do you agree with Buckingham's statement in relation to this film?

• Yes, since the film is taking all stereotypes and reflecting them within each character. The film does not accurately depict the reality of the situation as not everyone associated with this lifestyle takes part within crimes.

Do you agree with Gauntelett's statement in relation to this film?

• It can be argued that the media has shaped the identity for this Youth Culture by putting emphasis on the bad stereotypes. This has caused the representation of youth culture to be tainted by negative views.

Exam Prep

Section A
Identify digital technologies that you have used to construct media text (Year 1+Year 2)

What new techniques have you learnt (year 2)

Year 1:

• Photoshop
• Premiere Pro
• imovie

Year 2:

• Better at Photoshop
• Camera knowledge improved. Understand ISO, Lens types, Aperture
• Colour Grade, Film Grain, new assists such as aspect ratio and warp stabiliser, experimented with black and white film uses.

Technology hindering production:

• DSLR is not great in low light situations, had to compensate.

Explain what is meant by 'collective identity' and the role of media in its construction

Collective identity is a concept that refers to a set of individuals' sense of belonging to a social group or collection. Over the years the media has had a massive role to play in the tarnishing of certain individuals through their representation within media. This can have massive implications for those who are being represented and can often result in bad attitudes, stereotypes and a pollution of ideas about reality.

 Films such as Ill Manors (2012) reflect a gritty interpretation of a broken Britain. Within the film we are introduced to a number of characters who are all criminals in one form or another. The audience can see drug taking, sexual activity, harassment and violence stem from the same social group. Since it is a common stereotype to associate underclass people living within London to be taking part in these activities, they are often subjected to a constant criticism and hate from the public. Other films such as Fish Tank (2009) and Attack the Block emphasise ideas about this collective identity, reflecting them as poorly spoken, uneducated criminals. This representation culminates to cause anyone involved with these social classes to be subjected to the same stereotypes despite them not being true. This coincides with Grebner's cultivation theory which states that "the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television'. An earlier example of a collective identity being affected by media representation can be seen within films such as Quadrophenia (1979) in which they portray gang culture of the Rockers and the Mods. All of the youths within the film are seen taking drugs, committing crimes and having mental disorders. This film represented anyone associated with this culture as dangerous individuals. This had bad implications as it singled them out from the rest of society because of their representation. Gidden's structuration theory can be used in this instance as it claims that social structure is established through traditions and established ways of doing things which requires the individual to follow these structures. In examples such as Ill Manors, the social structure is shaped by the representation of youth within the film, causing stereotypes to become apart of the social structure by causing the audience to assume this is the "established way of doing things" resulting in a poor representation of youth overall.

Another collective identity that has fallen victim to poor representation within the media is women. Within the 1950s, companies such as Fairy Liquid would only show a sexist representation of women as they were often depicted as stay at home mothers who's husband would be out working. The adverts would always feature a woman within a kitchen environment or with a child in order to further enhance these stereotypes. Other adverts would use women and their body image in order to sell products to a male audience. This coincides with Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory which actually reflects the sexism of the time as advertisement would only focus on the male audience instead of the female audience. The stereotypical representation of women during this time made it impossible for them to rise above anything other than an accessory of a man. As media has progressed, some issues within the female representation has eased down. Women are still shown within sexist environments but as advertisements such as the Persil campaign depicting two men arguing over the washing up shows, the issue has reduced considerably. The issue with body image has developed into something more now as assets such as Photoshop are now being used in order to airbrush women in order to create a model that is deemed perfect by the media. There have been many examples of this within brands such as Calvin Klein and Cosmopolitan and have changed appearances drastically. As a result, the media is held responsible for the further objectification of women as they are being digitally manipulated in order to appeal to the male audience and what they deem 'attractive'. The construction of this collective identity can also have drastic effects on those who are being represented as they feel they are not apart of a group causing them to adopt bad eating habits and risk their lives in order to achieve a media body type. This links to Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality which causes audience to not properly distinguish between the world that the media sets up and its consequences, and the one in which we live in.

Islam is also a culture which suffers greatly with its representation within the media post 9/11. Islam is a word which wrongly conjures connotations to terrorism. Existing ideas about Islam was enhanced by the bombing of the world trade centre. This stemmed an idea that our enemy was hidden among us and as a result caused the world to often segregate people within this religion. This mass hysteria has been a wide source of influence for the media as they attempt to direct their messages towards those who fear this, targeting Islam as the enemy. Examples of this ruthless targeting by the media include newspapers such as the Sun who released an outlandish statement, claiming '1 in 5 Brit Muslims' sympathy for Jihadis'. This statement was after the recent Paris shootings in 2015 and was an attempt to target a large percentage of the public who were experiencing hysteria, similar to how they were feeling during 9/11. This targeted representaion would allow for more people who feel affected to purchase a copy of the newspaper. The term Jihad immediately draws connotations to terrorism, mainly because the media such as the Sun and The Daily Telegraph have used this term at every opportunity. The literal meaning of Jihad is struggle and effort, which is often misunderstood as solely a holy war however, there are three kinds of struggle, the first being an internal struggle to live out the Muslim as well as possible. The second struggle is to build a good Muslim society, the third is a holy war to defend Islam with force if necessary. This third idea is a concept that causes mass confusion as the media constantly label all Jihads under this idea. It can have drastic effects for those who are peaceful as they are singled out as if they have committed the crime.

To conclude, collective identity is massively dictated and victimised by the media, causing those concerned with the group to be singled out from the public. It becomes clear that the media creates all of these negative stereotypes about different social groups purely for the benefit of whatever media that is being sold. The public promote the media's depictions of these collective identities as they love to watch gritty British films depicting street life, they buy magazines with models that are being objectified, and they give in to hysteria by purchasing newspapers and promote hateful ideology.

Exam Post Mark

I have been researching teenagers and their identity. I’ve been looking into how the media shown teenagers.

I will relate this to Misfits and Fishtank, and explain their collective identity.

Misfits is a british tv series based on a group of teens who are all facing community service.

We learn all there individual identity’s and are made to believe they have no hope. We meet 5 teenagers who are all stereotypically shown with anti-social behavior. In the group there is a party girl, sports runner, cocky one etc.

Tajfel and turner quote that ‘people tend to categorise themselves into groups which they then build their identity’s’. I disagree with this as these have been emerged together as they have all been in crime. These include drugs, drink driving, fighting etc.

Historically this can relate to Skins and grange hill, these are all school based although skins covered more controversial issues. We see petty crimes which aren’t as serious as the ones in misfits. Tajfel and turner quite is related to skins as they are all a group of friends and they build there identity together.

Fishtank a 2009 film, teenagers are portrayed differently. We get to see Mia a 15 year old girl who has no hope. She has a dream of dancing but with young single mothered mum who shouts and swears at children she has a poor family structure to help her. David Buckingham quotes that the media don’t just offer a transparent window of the world but a mediated one.

Mia smokes, binge drink and has underage sex. The audience are made to believe that all teenagers are like this. He young mother who gets a boyfriend, he wants to help Mia and find her identity. He often asks her to dance to his favourite song although when she does we see them having sex. David Buckingham quote can be related to misfits, we are made to believe that all teenagers have convicted crimes. In Bullett Boy we see a gang of boys who are all involved in drugs and crime. The media show teen culture in a very bad way. Misfits is released on TV past the water shed times as they all swear etc. It is shown on both E4 and channel 4, their website contains games, podcasts, blogs etc. On the blogs you can communicate with other fans. They have a facebook and twitter page with all individual accounts. David Gauntlett explains that identity’s are complicated however everyone thinks they have one.

In Fishtank her mothers boyfriends finds a dance event she can attend Mia then believes she made have found her identity when she gets there she is called up on stage for which she didn’t know it was pole/lap dancing.

The media then show how teenagers have no hope or luck.

Historically this could be related to Dawson’s creek as we are made to look down on the anti-social behaviour teens. It could also relate to Waterloo road which is a tv series on a school who the youngens follow the action of the olders.

We then get to see the mother having a party in her council estate flats with family and friends. Her two children aren’t invited an stay upstairs. This shows the lack of family structure at home. We meet Mia’s little sister tyler with a friend both who are swearing and smoking.

The audience are left to believe all young mums live in broken britain and teenagers have no hope at all.

Mia was kicked out of school and they receive a letter which is accepting her to a place in an anti-social behaviour school.

In both misfits and fishtank the media have stereotypically shown teenagers and portrayed them very negatively. We are made to believe that all teenagers are into anti-social behaviour, drinking, drugs, smoking etc. The media will only shown the negative sides of teen culture so everyone will believe teens do this in everyday life not the positives that they do.

Exam Preparation

Media and Collective identity:
- How do the contemporary media represent: nations, regions and ethnic/social/collective groups of people in different ways?
-How does contemporary representations compare to previous time periods?
-What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?
- To what extent is human identity increasingly 'mediated'?

Critical Perspectives in Media

Candidates may analyse the representation of and/or the collective identity of one or more group(s) of people.
-National cinema, television representations, magazines and…gender, representations of youth and youth culture, post 9/11 representations of Islam, absence/presence of people with disability in two media.

Theoretical Approaches to Media Representations of Youth

Essay guidelines:

Utilise: Explanation/analysis/argument (16-20)
Show examples of collective identity, analyse the example and show how it relates to media theory relating to representations and Collective Identity.

Explain the effects of media representation on individuals/or society as a whole

Use historical (older than 5 years) and contemporary (less than 5 years old).

Use of Examples (16-20 marks)
Be very clear in the examples

'CK-One' verses Calvin Klein 1994 advertisement of CK-One shows gender ambiguity.

Examples of theories, texts and industry knowledge are clearly connected together in the answer. History and the future are integrated into the discussion with conviction.

Use of terminology-(8-10 marks)

You should