Ian Tomlinson
When Ian Tomlinson died, it was a video filmed by a member of the public that showed that he was hurt by a police officer. The video is different from professional journalism as it was filmed on a video phone so it is of poor quality. Without citizen journalism, the reason for the heart attack which caused his death would have never been known.
Arab Spring
Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter helped citizens of Arab countries to organise protests as they could spread information quickly and to large groups of people at one time. Social networking offers freedom of speech, whereas it is less likely for a professional journalist to publicise things that would go against their government, such as the protests. The Arab Spring has meant that many countries that have been under dictatorship have been able to start a revolution as social networking has given them the power to overthrow these dictators.
Friday, 21 October 2011
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
The Rise and Rise of UGC
1. Citizen journalists are members of the public who create their own news. This could be by posting articles online through UGC such as blogs, but it also involves any footage that has been created. Citizen journalists often film big events and send the footage into news institutions.
2. One of the first examples of citizen journalism was in 1991 when Rodney King was beaten by the police, and a member of the public filmed it. The footage was shown on news channels around the world.
3. News organisations now allow audience participation through voting (phone and online), surveys, questioning people in the street, online forums.
4. The main difference between professionally shot footage and UGC is that professionally shot footage is of a better quality as the professionals were prepared as they were expecting to be filming, but UGC is filmed on the spot and would be of a poorer quality as people are trying to get in on the action and whatever is happening may have been unexpected. Also, professionally shot footage is filmed on expensive camera equipment, where UGC is usually filmed on video phones.
5. A gatekeeper is someone who controls what is and isn’t going to be published depending on the popularity of the story.
6. Gatekeeping roles have changed because it is harder to control the news that people hear about due to citizen journalism. Gatekeepers now have to try to regulate the internet.
7. The primary concern of journalists over UGC is that citizen journalists are taking their jobs so there is no longer as much need for professional journalists. Audiences often trust citizen journalism more than media institutions as citizen journalism has no bias or gatekeeping.
2. One of the first examples of citizen journalism was in 1991 when Rodney King was beaten by the police, and a member of the public filmed it. The footage was shown on news channels around the world.
3. News organisations now allow audience participation through voting (phone and online), surveys, questioning people in the street, online forums.
4. The main difference between professionally shot footage and UGC is that professionally shot footage is of a better quality as the professionals were prepared as they were expecting to be filming, but UGC is filmed on the spot and would be of a poorer quality as people are trying to get in on the action and whatever is happening may have been unexpected. Also, professionally shot footage is filmed on expensive camera equipment, where UGC is usually filmed on video phones.
5. A gatekeeper is someone who controls what is and isn’t going to be published depending on the popularity of the story.
6. Gatekeeping roles have changed because it is harder to control the news that people hear about due to citizen journalism. Gatekeepers now have to try to regulate the internet.
7. The primary concern of journalists over UGC is that citizen journalists are taking their jobs so there is no longer as much need for professional journalists. Audiences often trust citizen journalism more than media institutions as citizen journalism has no bias or gatekeeping.
Friday, 30 September 2011
Wikipedia
Wikipedia was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger
The owners of Wikipedia don't own any traditional media businesses
I don't think the owners of Wikipedia own any other internet companies
Wikipedia is a non-profit organisation, so they make no revenue
Three key facts about Wikipedia:
The owners of Wikipedia don't own any traditional media businesses
I don't think the owners of Wikipedia own any other internet companies
Wikipedia is a non-profit organisation, so they make no revenue
Three key facts about Wikipedia:
- Registered users can write articles
- Over 270 languages
- Articles about recent events appear quickly on Wikipedia, so some people consider it to be like a news resource
Linked articles - Democratisation of knowledge and User-generated content
Democratisation of knowledge:
- Spread of knowledge among everyone, not just the elite
- The printing press and industrial revolution
- 400 million viewers worldwide
- Google Book Search
User-generated content:
- 'Conversational media' encourages people to publish their own content
- Citizen journalism is now a significant part of broadcast news
Quote from Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia - "Professionals are no longer needed for the bare purpose of mass distribution of information and the shaping of opinion"
Monday, 26 September 2011
Critics have accused the mainstream media of tokenism and stereotyping by creating extreme and exaggerated representations.
To what extent is this true for the group or place you have studied?
When audiences gain certain generalised views about certain groups of people, the media play on these stereotypes to create recognisable and identifiable characters for mainstream audiences. Although the stereotypes can be beneficial in soaps and sitcoms, where the exaggerations of these stereotypes are used for comedic effect, stereotyping also raises issues as it may cultivate audience to develop beliefs about certain groups of people, some of which are negative. Tokenism in the media also sparks debate as although different groups of people want to be represented in the media, they should add to the narrative rather than being included just as token characters. Tokenism and stereotyping have been seen across the media over the years, but some groups of people are now starting to take control over the way that they are represented, while some producers are breaking stereotypes to show alternative representations.
In the 1950’s to 70’s, only 20-35% of all TV characters were women. Gaye Tuchman described this underrepresentation as “the symbolic annihilation of women”. However, most texts had the token female. When they were shown, they were given the stereotypical housewife role and were represented as happy to stay at home cooking and cleaning. This stereotype helped to reinforce the patriarchal ideologies of the time because, as the cultivation theory suggests, the audience would be made to believe that the women represented in the media were examples of the ideal woman that everyone should strive to be like. Not only was the happiness of women exaggerated, but as this was the only representation of women that was ever seen, the exaggerated stereotype seemed normal. As the media was run by men, they created women how they wanted them to be by the way that they represented them.
During the Second World War, women posed a threat to men as they were given the jobs that belonged to men who were fighting in the war. The power and rights that women were now starting to gain threatened patriarchy, so the film noir era saw a backlash to these threats. The femme fatale of film noir represented the stereotypical view at the time that women with too much power are dangerous and shouldn’t be given the power that men should have. An example of this is Double Indemnity, a film that shows a woman using her femininity to manipulate men, which could be seen as a warning to male audiences that women with power are dangerous. Like most film noirs, the film ends with a man murdering the femme fatale, emphasising the stereotypical view that a man is needed to restore harmony. This cultivated audiences to trust the patriarchy of the time, restoring the hegemonic hierarchy.
The feminist era led to media texts representing women in a wider range of roles. Women were liberated and given more authoritative roles, showing the power that women now have. However, post-feminism caused women to revert to previous roles where they were objectified for the voyeuristic pleasure of men, as well as narcissistic pleasures as seeing men in films with beautiful women made male audiences members believe that they too could get these women. Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze believes that women in cinema have the role of pleasing an assumed male audience. However, post-feminism saw not only a rise in the amount of objectification of women in cinema, but across all platforms, especially with the new lads mags. The difference between post-feminism and the previous objectification of women is that the objectification had turned into self-objectification, with women now being happy to adhere to the male gaze. This brought back the ideology that the stereotypical woman is promiscuous and is happy to be, a stereotype that the media still maintains today. Although this seems negative as it is the male owners of the media that create these texts, post-feminists would argue that it empowers women as they have the choice of showing themselves and giving the men what they want.
Another way that women have tried to break their stereotypical subordinate roles is by being androgynous. As Judith Butler suggests, gender is only determined by how people behave, so by taking on stereotypically masculine characteristics, women appear to be more powerful and dominant as they are now the male gender. This is widely seen in the music industry, with artists such as Pink and Lady Gaga seeming more assertive by the way that they act and dress. By getting rid of the characteristics that are associated with the female gender, they also lose the stereotypes.
Soap operas use a lot of stereotyping to make their characters instantly identifiable. Also, every soap uses tokenism to include what they believe is all types of people in their soap. Eastenders included a character who was the token disabled character. However, he did not have a stereotypical role as rather than being a character for the audience to sympathise with, he was a Proppian villain, which highlighted issues about people with disabilities being represented as people to pity. There is also the token gay character in Eastenders but, like the disabled character, the two gay characters are not stereotypical. One of them is a strong fitness instructor, which does not follow the stereotype of gay men being androgynous, and the other is a Muslim, which raises debates about how homosexuality is viewed by different groups of people. While Eastenders uses many stereotypical roles, such as young people and chavs, they also include other characters who lead audiences to rethink stereotypical roles.
Young people are often demonised in the contemporary media landscape. This was recently seen during the London riots, when the news represented young people as violent and with no morals. As the news is mainly owned by the hegemonic elite, white, middle aged men, a Marxist would argue that young people were all stereotyped as destructive when it was only a small group of people to keep themselves in power. This same stereotype of young people being antisocial is seen in The World’s Strictest Parents as the young people are so bad that even their parents cannot cope with them anymore. When they are sent to other parents, the children of these parents have an alternative representation of young people as they are always respectful and well behaved. This influences the British youths to change when they get back home. This offers different receptions for the audience as while the dominant reading of the text is that young people are disruptive and need strict parenting to change, an oppositional reading is that it is not the young people that the fault lies with, but the way that they are brought up. This is because of the young people from other countries who do not have the stereotypical characteristics of young people in Britain.
When audiences gain certain generalised views about certain groups of people, the media play on these stereotypes to create recognisable and identifiable characters for mainstream audiences. Although the stereotypes can be beneficial in soaps and sitcoms, where the exaggerations of these stereotypes are used for comedic effect, stereotyping also raises issues as it may cultivate audience to develop beliefs about certain groups of people, some of which are negative. Tokenism in the media also sparks debate as although different groups of people want to be represented in the media, they should add to the narrative rather than being included just as token characters. Tokenism and stereotyping have been seen across the media over the years, but some groups of people are now starting to take control over the way that they are represented, while some producers are breaking stereotypes to show alternative representations.
In the 1950’s to 70’s, only 20-35% of all TV characters were women. Gaye Tuchman described this underrepresentation as “the symbolic annihilation of women”. However, most texts had the token female. When they were shown, they were given the stereotypical housewife role and were represented as happy to stay at home cooking and cleaning. This stereotype helped to reinforce the patriarchal ideologies of the time because, as the cultivation theory suggests, the audience would be made to believe that the women represented in the media were examples of the ideal woman that everyone should strive to be like. Not only was the happiness of women exaggerated, but as this was the only representation of women that was ever seen, the exaggerated stereotype seemed normal. As the media was run by men, they created women how they wanted them to be by the way that they represented them.
During the Second World War, women posed a threat to men as they were given the jobs that belonged to men who were fighting in the war. The power and rights that women were now starting to gain threatened patriarchy, so the film noir era saw a backlash to these threats. The femme fatale of film noir represented the stereotypical view at the time that women with too much power are dangerous and shouldn’t be given the power that men should have. An example of this is Double Indemnity, a film that shows a woman using her femininity to manipulate men, which could be seen as a warning to male audiences that women with power are dangerous. Like most film noirs, the film ends with a man murdering the femme fatale, emphasising the stereotypical view that a man is needed to restore harmony. This cultivated audiences to trust the patriarchy of the time, restoring the hegemonic hierarchy.
The feminist era led to media texts representing women in a wider range of roles. Women were liberated and given more authoritative roles, showing the power that women now have. However, post-feminism caused women to revert to previous roles where they were objectified for the voyeuristic pleasure of men, as well as narcissistic pleasures as seeing men in films with beautiful women made male audiences members believe that they too could get these women. Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze believes that women in cinema have the role of pleasing an assumed male audience. However, post-feminism saw not only a rise in the amount of objectification of women in cinema, but across all platforms, especially with the new lads mags. The difference between post-feminism and the previous objectification of women is that the objectification had turned into self-objectification, with women now being happy to adhere to the male gaze. This brought back the ideology that the stereotypical woman is promiscuous and is happy to be, a stereotype that the media still maintains today. Although this seems negative as it is the male owners of the media that create these texts, post-feminists would argue that it empowers women as they have the choice of showing themselves and giving the men what they want.
Another way that women have tried to break their stereotypical subordinate roles is by being androgynous. As Judith Butler suggests, gender is only determined by how people behave, so by taking on stereotypically masculine characteristics, women appear to be more powerful and dominant as they are now the male gender. This is widely seen in the music industry, with artists such as Pink and Lady Gaga seeming more assertive by the way that they act and dress. By getting rid of the characteristics that are associated with the female gender, they also lose the stereotypes.
Soap operas use a lot of stereotyping to make their characters instantly identifiable. Also, every soap uses tokenism to include what they believe is all types of people in their soap. Eastenders included a character who was the token disabled character. However, he did not have a stereotypical role as rather than being a character for the audience to sympathise with, he was a Proppian villain, which highlighted issues about people with disabilities being represented as people to pity. There is also the token gay character in Eastenders but, like the disabled character, the two gay characters are not stereotypical. One of them is a strong fitness instructor, which does not follow the stereotype of gay men being androgynous, and the other is a Muslim, which raises debates about how homosexuality is viewed by different groups of people. While Eastenders uses many stereotypical roles, such as young people and chavs, they also include other characters who lead audiences to rethink stereotypical roles.
Young people are often demonised in the contemporary media landscape. This was recently seen during the London riots, when the news represented young people as violent and with no morals. As the news is mainly owned by the hegemonic elite, white, middle aged men, a Marxist would argue that young people were all stereotyped as destructive when it was only a small group of people to keep themselves in power. This same stereotype of young people being antisocial is seen in The World’s Strictest Parents as the young people are so bad that even their parents cannot cope with them anymore. When they are sent to other parents, the children of these parents have an alternative representation of young people as they are always respectful and well behaved. This influences the British youths to change when they get back home. This offers different receptions for the audience as while the dominant reading of the text is that young people are disruptive and need strict parenting to change, an oppositional reading is that it is not the young people that the fault lies with, but the way that they are brought up. This is because of the young people from other countries who do not have the stereotypical characteristics of young people in Britain.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Social Media and the London Riots
David Cameron considers banning suspected rioters from social media
"Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger are thought to have played a role in organising riots across the UK"
"The government is looking at banning people from using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook if they are thought to be plotting criminal activity"
"'Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organised via social media. Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill,' said Cameron"
"A move to disconnect potential rioters would mark a huge shift in Britain's internet policy, with free speech advocates likely to accuse the government of ushering in a new wave of online censorship"
London riots: hundreds answer appeal to clean up streets
"Facebook and Twitter mobilises hunderds of people to clear debris from streets on London's worst-hit communities"
"Many of those at Clapham Junction had been directed to the area from other parts of London by the online clean-up campaign, tagged on Twitter as #riotcleanup"
"Many saw the clean-up as a fitting riposte to the vilification of social media, which played a key role in the organisation of the riots"
"By 10am the tag was the top trending topic in the UK and the second worldwide"
"Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger are thought to have played a role in organising riots across the UK"
"The government is looking at banning people from using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook if they are thought to be plotting criminal activity"
"'Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organised via social media. Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill,' said Cameron"
"A move to disconnect potential rioters would mark a huge shift in Britain's internet policy, with free speech advocates likely to accuse the government of ushering in a new wave of online censorship"
London riots: hundreds answer appeal to clean up streets
"Facebook and Twitter mobilises hunderds of people to clear debris from streets on London's worst-hit communities"
"Many of those at Clapham Junction had been directed to the area from other parts of London by the online clean-up campaign, tagged on Twitter as #riotcleanup"
"Many saw the clean-up as a fitting riposte to the vilification of social media, which played a key role in the organisation of the riots"
"By 10am the tag was the top trending topic in the UK and the second worldwide"
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Task 5
The Simpsons
Dominant: A dominant reading of The Simpsons is that it is a light-hearted programme that uses stereotypical families and situations for comedy.
Negotiated: A negotiated reading of The Simpsons is that it plays on stereotypes for comedy, which some people may find offensive, but the offence is not intended and it is merely for satire.
Oppositional: An oppositional reading of The Simpsons is that it is a racist and sexist programme that is ruining society as the representation of a typical nuclear family is very negative and our families will end up like that if people keep watching this rubbish.
My view is sort of negotiated, but oppositional to an extent.
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?
The media industry is dominated by white, middle class males. Media representations often favour this group of people and marginalise others. This is seen with the representations of both women and the working class. Both of these groups of people are represented how the dominant groups in society would view them, which shows the hegemonic class structures of our society.
Before the Second World War, women were under represented in the media. When they were shown, they were represented in the roles that men thought that they should have, mainly as housewives. However, during the war, after women started to gain more power, posing a threat to men, they were represented as femme fatales, dangerous and evil women. This restored hegemony as people gained a fear of women and men were needed to restore natural order.
After the feminist movement, women had more equality as they were represented more. However, the audience were given the male gaze as women were objectified, so although they are given a voice, it is only allowed when they are providing pleasure for males. A post-feminist view is that women have the right to be objectified if they agree with it as they still feel a sense of power by being able to decide whether or not to give men what they want. Therefore, although some would think that women are not given a voice, post-feminists would argue that they are given a voice and they have power as well.
Another group of people who are rarely given a voice are the working class. In the news, the working class are represented as anti social and always getting into trouble. However, after the rise of reality TV, the working class now have more opportunity to represent themselves, and since the increase in the popularity of reality shows, the representations of the working class have changed. Programmes like Big Brother give the working class opportunity to represent themselves, therefore giving them a voice. It is clear that the working class are accepted as they always outlast the higher classes on Big Brother, and every successful contestant is from a working class background. This challenges hegemonic values as the elite no longer have as much power because now that the lower classes have been given a voice, they are more accepted by society.
The media industry is dominated by white, middle class males. Media representations often favour this group of people and marginalise others. This is seen with the representations of both women and the working class. Both of these groups of people are represented how the dominant groups in society would view them, which shows the hegemonic class structures of our society.
Before the Second World War, women were under represented in the media. When they were shown, they were represented in the roles that men thought that they should have, mainly as housewives. However, during the war, after women started to gain more power, posing a threat to men, they were represented as femme fatales, dangerous and evil women. This restored hegemony as people gained a fear of women and men were needed to restore natural order.
After the feminist movement, women had more equality as they were represented more. However, the audience were given the male gaze as women were objectified, so although they are given a voice, it is only allowed when they are providing pleasure for males. A post-feminist view is that women have the right to be objectified if they agree with it as they still feel a sense of power by being able to decide whether or not to give men what they want. Therefore, although some would think that women are not given a voice, post-feminists would argue that they are given a voice and they have power as well.
Another group of people who are rarely given a voice are the working class. In the news, the working class are represented as anti social and always getting into trouble. However, after the rise of reality TV, the working class now have more opportunity to represent themselves, and since the increase in the popularity of reality shows, the representations of the working class have changed. Programmes like Big Brother give the working class opportunity to represent themselves, therefore giving them a voice. It is clear that the working class are accepted as they always outlast the higher classes on Big Brother, and every successful contestant is from a working class background. This challenges hegemonic values as the elite no longer have as much power because now that the lower classes have been given a voice, they are more accepted by society.
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