Representation of Events

Representation of Events

Euro 2012

During the build up of euro 2012 the competition was hit with a lot of controversy with regards to racism and violence. The competition was due to take place in Poland and Ukraine two very racist countries. Poland and Ukraine are two countries known for their gang violence and racist groups within their football society. The media created a minor moral panic in the build up of the European championships as the media focused very strongly on the violent groups of football fans based in Poland and Ukraine who boasted about their notorious violence and warned foreign fans to ‘stay away’. This portrayed all of the polish football fans as thugs and hooligans who should be feared during the tournament. This put a very negative image in the minds of football fans and created a sense of fear and not only for the fans but for the people at home. The violence shown within the media was harrowing.

The Media portrayed the Polish as racist thugs who cared only about violence. The threatening behaviour from the thugs aimed to put fear in the eyes of travelling fans in order to take the light away from the glorious tournament. However this may have been down to the media creating a moral panic. Not all Polish and Ukrainian fans could have been thugs. However a video made by sky news shows how the reporters used a secret camera to film footage of a group of racist hooligans aiming to vent fear into the travelling supporters.

During the tournament a number of racial incidents occurred which caused outrage as Spanish fans allegedly changed racist chants to black Italian international Mario Balotelli. The fans club was punished but the punishment was light, which made the headlines as a larger fine was handed to another player within the tournament because he advertised a betting company.

If we put this event into context of Stuart Hall’s audience theory we could look at the preferred, oppositional and negotiated readers. The preferred reader for these stories would be the football fans or any other reader who agrees with the medias views that racism is wrong. The negotiated reader would be a reader who agrees that racism is wrong however believes that it is understandable due to that specific countries beliefs for example some countries are very racist countries and racism is accepted. Finally the oppositional reader is a reader who disagrees totally with the medias views on racism and believes racism isn’t a bad thing.

London Riots 2011

The London riots took place in August 2011. This was another moral panic created by the media. The riots took place due to a police incident that occurred in Tottenham London. The peaceful protests suddenly turned into chaos as young opportunists seen this as an excuse to riot and cause mass destruction because mass amounts of people believed it was acceptable. The media provided the world with coverage of these events, which portrayed British youths as thugs and animals. Which is morally wrong because the majority of youths within Britain attend higher education in an attempt to visit university in order to get a good job. The represented all youths as disgraceful thugs who only had eyes for destruction and theft because it was an open opportunity.

We could argue the media is to blame for the widespread riots as the coverage increased which showed people stealing products from shops and not being stopped. This was seen as an opportunity for other people as they thought it was acceptable due top the mass amounts of people participating. As the news spread around the world people began to see all British youths as thugs who laze around accepting benefits and disrespecting the government because a minority of mindless and idiotic opportunists took advantage of a peaceful protest.

Mode of address

Mode of Address

Diesel - Only the Brave 1

This advert makes the audience feel they should be independent. The advert is aimed at a male audience as the advert is for a male aftershave. the advert shows a male who is independent as he claims he can do a number of things due to his independence. This appeals to the audience as the advert is claiming that only those who wear the aftershave are 'brave'. The advert is appealing to men claiming that they should be independent and they can be independent if they want to be.

Diesel - 2

The advert is aimed at the male audience once again as this advert is advertised at the male audience due tot he male product. Once again the advert claims bravery will help a man gain independence along with the fragrance. The second audience are females as the male is objectified as masculine, strong and muscly. This will appeal to the male audience as all men want to be seen as masculine and strong in order to attract women so they will buy the product.

WKD

The advert is appealing to a male audience once again telling us that if a male drinks a WKD drink then his devious and rebellious side will be released. the drink appeals to make a man have a 'WKD side'. The advert is also suggesting that males want to get away form the women and socialise with friends. The advert shows a devious side to the male character which suggests that if the public consume this drink then they will also gain a devious side.

 JLO - True Match

This advert is aimed at women as the advert is a makeup commercial. we see how JLO gives us a description which we assume is a male in her life who is her match. however we find out that her match is makeup. We can see this as JLO believes that if she wears the makeup then she will be able to find her true match and someone to love. the advert is a very slow and soft advert which has links with love and romance.

Mediation

Mediation 

This clip has been mediated in order to portray the way british people act when abroad on holiday.

Selection

This clip is a clip made by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office as part as the 'know before you go' campaign in order to warn British holiday makers of the dangers of not being legally prepared before they go on holiday. The clip includes a series of unfortunate events a young male faced when on holiday abroad. The young brit is unprepared isn't aware of the services in place in order to help him while abroad. the campaign is used in order to inform other british holiday makers to be prepared before travelling abroad.

Construction/organisation

The construction of this clip is very thought out and clever as the creators have used british stereotypes in order to portray their information. For example the start of the clip portrays brits as a nation of drinkers as the young male heads straight for the bar in order to consume alcohol. this then leads to a fight. The way the clip is worded indicates that all Brits end up fighting after consuming alcohol. This links back to ideology as british ideology indicates that all Brits go on holiday to consume alcohol and enjoy themselves.
Within the clip we also see how the young man ends up in a prison and seeks legal help in order to get him out. The clip then shows us how his friend is injured in a biking accident and hasn't got insurance to help him. this portrays brits as careless as they are unprepared before flying abroad.
the actor has a working class accent and we can tell that the actor is from Britain from his London accent.

Focus

The clear focus of the clip is to warm british holiday makers to be prepared and insured before heading abroad. the clip is based around british stereotypes.

Representation of Mental Health

The Dark Knight





We see in this clip how mental health is stereotyped from appearance and actions. for example the joker from The Dark Knight Rises represents people with schizophrenia in a negative way. For example we see how he appears to play dead and immediately jumps up and startles the other people within the scene. he has a weapon on him which creates fear and tension. He also has face paint on which shows us how the Joker is not mentally stable. He tells us the tale of his father attacking him with a knife which has clearly impacted on his life and has left him mentally and physically scared.

Pi



within this clip we see how the man is very obsessive over numbers. we see how he is very intrigued by the way numbers work and the actual coding of numbers. we see how he thinks that there is a pattern in everything and attempts to work it out. we see how he keeps everything to a timed schedule which he must stick to. he must restate his assumptions and 12:45 and then press return at 12:50. he also rejects the offer of lunch as it is not part of his schedule. making schedules is a common feature of mental illness.

Little Britain



We see from this clip the woman has a disability which is apparent from the start. the clip is not mocking people with disabilities but they are mocking the way the public react to people with disabilities. The situation is very awkward as the woman is mentally unstable and the man does not know how to act in the situation. He is very uncomfortable within the situation. People need to learn how to act around people with disabilities.

Moral Panic

Moral panic examples

60’s

The 1960’s saw a new revolution taking over the people. As society began to change and trends began to evolve people generally changed. For example the 60’s saw the ‘sexual revolution’. People in the 60’s were very big on taking drugs, having sex and listening to music. Groups of people within the 60’s were dressing radically and attracting media attention, these people picked up the name of hippies. Dressing in bright colours and lived the wild party lifestyle.

James Bulger

The murder of James Bulger rocked the UK in February 1993. The murder of the two-year-old boy from Liverpool shocked the UK as it emerged his killers was aged 10. This crime sickened society, poor James Bulger was lured out of a shopping centre and led to a near by railway line only to be tortured and killed. This crime shocked the UK, as it was abnormal for children at such a young age to commit such a horrendous crime.

E.coli

The E.coli outbreak in 1996 saw a huge food scare as the disease hit the shelves in supermarkets causing the public to be at risk. The media coverage surrounding the outbreak lead the public to believe the situation was a lot worse than it actually was. The media portrayed the outbreak as a very dangerous disease in which it was, however what the media failed to tell the public was that the situation wasn’t as bad as they were making it out to be. The media stated how the elderly and young people were in extreme danger causing panic and a huge concern over the food within the country.

Dunblane

 The Dunblane massacre that occurred in Scotland caused a huge public outcry for the restrictions regarding guns to be tightened in order to protect the people of Britain as well as the children within schools. The laws enforced regarding guns is known for the strictest law in place with regards to purchasing handguns. This law lead the innocent people who use guns responsibly to fall victim to the harsh legislations.

AIDS

Within the 1980’s a national scare evolved involving the disease AIDS this disease lead to a national scare portrayed in the media in a very poor way. For example the media reports published were based on assumptions and insubstantial evidence, however the public did not know this so began to take great caution with regards to sex. The gay community come under attack due to this scare as the media publicised the virus was prominent among the gay community. The gay community began to receive a lot of hate and took a lot of the blame for the outbreak of the virus.

British Ideology

People who visit britain will notice a number of things that fit in within the British ideology and the image Britain has. A range of things such as landmarks, icons and even food play a part. For example the items in the list below consists of icons noticeable within Britain.

• Black Cabs
• Red telephone Boxes
• The Royal Family
• The British Red, White and Blue flag
• Afternoon tea & Biscuits
• Marmite
• Toast
• Large Queues - Extreme Shoppers
• Fast Food

Ideology in Magazines

Ideology in Magazines

Why do magazines reflect the values and ideologies of their readers?

They want their readers to feel that they can identify with the magazine.

Here are the descriptions of the target readers of two lifestyle magazines:

The ELLE reader is spirited, stylish and intelligent; she expects to be successful at everything she does. She takes the lead and breaks the rules.

The SIGHT and SOUND reader is a true film buff who expects to be given intelligent information on all film releases, not just Hollywood, mainstream movies.

Task 2: Take a look at the two websites and note down how you think they reflect the values, interests and ideologies of their readers. 

Consider; 

typography (font choice, colour, placement)

How the pages are laid out, does the composition lead the eye and retain viewers?

Promises connected to ideology, values, interests.

Language use; words that the reader will understand, do they use informal form of address 'you'?

ELLE Magazine

The typography within the magazine reveals a lot about the type of reader the magazine is aimed at. The title of the webpage is in a serif font however is in a very elegant and sophisticated style reflecting the slim models who model for ELLE. The colour of the font is black which shows a sophisticated side to the web page.

The page layout is very well thought out as the webpage leads the eye around the page from the sub title to the pictures which slide across to reveal more articles and new web pages. The font of the the writing is in a black font which is very basic but effective as the colours are not to bright and in the readers face.

The webpage can mirror the fashion that ELLE tries to portray as the text has a specific layout in order for it to look good. similar to fashion. we see how the models clothing is very basic and not too drastic similar to the layout of the webpage.

The webpage is easy to navigate as the headings are clear and very noticeable.

The webpage also offers fashion tips in order for the reader to search for information they could use in order to find themselves. Topics such as fashion and latest trends appear at a glance.

Sight & Sound Magazine

The webpage for Sight & Sound is very basic and appears to be aimed at an older audience looking for an in depth knowledge about the the latest film releases hitting the cinemas. for example we see how the webpage offers sub genres that offer sections film of the week and a number of other articles.

The font of the magazine is very basic in a sans serif font.