Media Studies Induction

A vast majority of Tide adverts are controversial as they connote many stereotypical ideologies. Tide adverts conform to the notion that women should be domestic servants and undertake any chores in order to gratify their husbands. In this advert, the dominant reading suggests the wife finds pleasure being subjugated to her husband. The washing powder clearly brings  a sense of happiness as the wife can bring joy to her husband by cleaning his clothes contentiously. The phrases that join the advert are also stereotypical. While 'He wears the cleanest shirts in town' is in a larger and brighter font, '...his 'Misses' swears by tide' is smaller and harder to read. The red font dominating over the black font could connote the husband taking credit for his wife's work therefore highlighting his dominance and superiority over her. The fact that she is referred to as 'Misses' also connotes this idea as she doesn't have an identity without other tha...

Paul Gilroy:  - Student of Stuart Hall  - Colony: The countries that we control  - The British took over many countries in the world  - Decolonisation after WW2 Post- colonialism:  Political or cultural condition of a former colony "Colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the post-colonial era." - Gilory  Colonial discourse:  behaving as if we are superior to other races. This is similar to when the British white people used to treat those who were black or brown as inferiors.  Civilisationism constructs racial hierarchies and binary opposition.  Edward Said  Focused on the discrimination of those in the East. He argued that people in the west have little knowledge of what occurs in the east.  Orielantalism: How we look at those who are different to us Otherness: Those who are different from us    Said argued that th...

Hegemony  The word is associated with domination and control by which one group dominates and controls the other. Gramsci  -  Developed his ideas in prison. - Was an Italian communist    - Suggested that ideas control people rather than people control ideas  - Wanted individuals to reflect upon how certain ideas initially get put into our head e.g. why most people have one type of tree at Christmas in their homes or why most people have grass growing their garden and not any other type of material.  - He stated that these ideas were given to individuals and control every action.  Example:  Harry Potter - Initially, to say Voldermort's name was a taboo. This was Voldermort's power. Characters not saying his name meant they were indirectly consenting to the belief in his authority and expressing that belief in their actions. The exception was Harry Potter, the hero,  who didn't exceed to Voldermort's ...

Ideologies Karl Marx:  - Despised capitalism  - Moved from Germany to London - Loved communism  His critiques of capitalism:    Modern work is alienated:  Jobs in today's society lack individualism.  They don't allow individuals to contribute a lot to existence Modern work is insecure: Capitalism makes individuals expendable (little significance) especially in mass production  Workers get little while capitalists get rich  Marx believed capitalists decrease the wages of the labourers  Capitalists see profit as a reward, Marx saw profit as theft of talent and hard work of labourers  Capitalism is very unstable Crises that occur are 'covered up' by capitalists as they state the tragic event will be the last one and is freakish Crises are ENDEMIC to capitalists  Capital crises are of abundance  Capitalism is bad for capitalists Marx believes that the capita...

NOTES  01.11.17 Hegemony : The dominant set of ideologies/ A set of ideas that are presumed to be the 'norm' Power structures (government, media) feed us these ideologies All dominant narratives become normative in our lives and society ostracises those who don't conform to these narratives  Todorov's theory of narrative structure:   1) Equilibrium 2) Disruption of equilibrium  3) recognition of equilibrium - enigmas (enigma code- Barthes) 4) repair of the disequilibrium  5) new equilibrium Audience response?  Linear : Events occurring in chronological order  Non- Linear : Events that don't occur in chronological order  Modular narratives: Anachronic: Flash-backs/ flash-forwards or the repetition of specific scenes  Forking- paths: Showing events that may occur as a result of specific actions  Split screen: Splitting screens into multiple frames and juxtapose events. Episodic:...

The Amazing Spider-man and the Harry Potter franchise In both Harry Potter and The Amazing Spiderman franchises, the binary opposites, the protagonists and antagonists, hold specific values that reinforce their role. Firstly, Voldemort’s role as an antagonist is exceedingly stereotypical in regard to the mise-en-scene, soundtrack, editing and camera work. The black clothing and evil actions empower darkness upon the world. His followers also wear similar clothing. This, among other factors, present Voldemort as the epitome of evil. It is ironic however, that most tyrannical characters don’t kill other people but rather, their disciples commit the crime for them. Thus, most characters in the movie refer to Voldemort as ‘the dark lord’ or ‘he who shall not be named’. Harry goes against this rule by addressing Voldemort by his real name emphasising his heroic traits of bravery. He is not afraid to confront this demonic being. Furthermore, it can be argued that Harry is an a...