Mediation processes

Learning objective: To adjust the headline of a newspaper using anchorage to give alternative meanings and representations.

Key terms: 

Representation:
 The role of selection, construction and anchorage in creating representations.

You will provide anchorage for given newspaper images within different texts.

Polysemic: 

The idea that a text can have many meanings to different people 

Selection: 

The idea that producers and audiences are both selective, eg: editors select the news from that day's events and audiences select what to watch and remember.

Construction: 

The idea that a media text is not a window on the world but is  a product of individuals in organisations making decisions over the selection of content. In other words; we see what they want us to see.

Anchorage: 

A way of ‘tying down meaning’, without anchorage meaning could be polysemic – open to various interpretations, eg a caption anchors meaning to a photo, music anchors mood in a media text.

The Construction and Mediation of Representations

A news photograph for example may appear to be presenting us with a factual image but before it goes to print it has been through a process of construction:

• The photographer has selected his/her position, lens, angle, exposure and framing before taking the picture.

• The picture editor will decide if the image needs to be cropped, enhanced or in any way altered before inclusion into the paper.

• An editor will choose which, of the many available photographs of the image, will be the one chosen for inclusion in the newspaper and, importantly at this stage, the images which do not meet the needs of the text will be rejected.

Even then, further mediation takes place:

• Will the photograph be large or small?  
• Will the photograph be on the front page or, less visible, on page 8?

Placement choices like this, along with cropping and framing, act to focus the attention of the reader in a certain way.

• What headline and text will be used to accompany the photograph?

• Will the photograph have a caption?

• Will it be positioned close to another photograph?

Anchorage is basically used in media to attach meaning to something through either the matching of words to images or the juxtaposition of two images which construct a meaning.

For example in advertising, an image alone is polysemic open to a range of interpretations. To clarify what the image means and so to make the image relevant to the purpose of the advert, text can be added. Thus the image serves as the 'hook' while the text anchors meaning. This can be said also for photographs attached to newspaper articles. The same photograph takes on different connotations with different accompanying texts.

Media Bias

Omitting information

  700 women said this product made their skin softer!

-but didn’t tell you 20,000 tried it!

___________________________________________________________

                                        Media Bias

Word Choice

Idiot pulls traffic stunt. 

______________________________________________________

Daredevil halts traffic

Both headlines are about the story of a man abseiling down the Forth Road Bridge

___________________________________________

Task 1: 
Open this image in Photoshop and using anchorage, give two captions that would represent the picture in different ways. Consider two different audiences the editor might target.
You will need to create a new layer and use the text tool to type with.

Selection

Whatever ends up on the screen or in the newspaper, much more will have been left out. Any news story has been selected from hundreds of others which the producers have decided were less interesting for you, any picture has been chosen from an enormous number of alternatives.

Omission is knowing about something but just refusing to focus on it or bring light to the facts.

In 2005, the New York Times knew about the Bush Administration using Telecom companies (Verizon, AT&T, etc.) to spy on Americans. The story was held back for over a year as the Times received pressure from Bush White House to kill the story. The Times didn't kill the story completely but they did wait until after the November 2006 elections before they actually reported on Bush Administration breaking the law

Mediation

Every time we encounter a media text, we are not seeing reality, but someone’s version of it. This may seem like an obvious point, but it is something that is easily forgotten when we get caught up in consuming a text. 
If you see a picture of a celebrity kissing her boyfriend, you may find it unsurprising that the picture has been altered and does not show the reality of the situation, but in fact we should bear this in mind whatever we encounter in the media. 
Media producers place us at one remove from reality: they take something that is real, a person or an event and they change its form to produce whatever text we end up with. 
This is called mediation. You should be looking for this with any media text.

What the BBC classified as ‘riots’ in London become ‘protests’ in Beitounya

____________________________________________________________

The persistence of class and its visibility or invisibility

It used to be easy to signify through physical appearance that a figure stood for wealth or poverty. C19th charity pioneers like Dr Barnado used images of thin, ragged street urchins to appeal to the conscience of the wealthier.

One of the images Dr Barnado used in his ads

Third world charities still do this and until recently, cartoonists have often used large body size and decorative dress as an indicator of wealth. The fat capitalist or the greedy lord.

It is a kind of code.

Changes to this code help us glimpse the complex ways in which class divisions are now shown - or not shown.

It is more likely now that a well toned, slim or even thin body is the result of a careful diet and affluence (enough disposable income to shop for healthy food and a gym membership) rather than food shortage.  

However, aspirations to this appearance can lead to anorexia or bulimia. Of course poverty can still lead to rickets and thin bodies.

It is also possible that expensive looking clothes, jewelry, even cars may conceal people with huge levels of debt. Sometimes people want to conceal their economic position. This makes things complicated for the media studies student who is looking for clues to social class. Unlike researching for clues to gender or ethnicity.

Obesity in some cultures is prized as evidence of having plenty to eat. In the developed world it can have connotations of cultural and material deprivation or addictions. 

Genetics or a refusal to be a slave to fashion can be the reason.

The attitude to bodies is complicated and greed is often said to be the cause of being overweight.

Ideology shifts the blame away from the very addictions which which often result from the marketing practices of many junk food brands.

The 1980's saw celebrations of extreme wealth and justifications of corporate greed - at the time it was called growth and seen as virtuous. The word Yuppie was used to describe these young urban professionals.

This kind of wealth is hardly ever represented as directly related to the labour of those who mostly produce the wealth on display - working people.

In 2005 two moral panics surfaced which clearly involved class differences. Young people known as Chavs and Hoodies were accused in the media of anti social behaviour. Much of the media attack was conducted through a fascination with dress and other codes of appearance.

The website Popbitch.com circulates many of these abusive terms.

Task 2: 

Look at media images of stars, royalty and other outwardly wealthy people. Describe how huge wealth is signified visually in terms of body size and dress. Compare the representations to the large stomached, top hatted characters of the C19th.

200 words - orange books.

Task 3 Homework:

Moving on to ideological points, how often is extreme wealth discussed in relation to inequalty? View this article and then identify and discuss three media texts which can be said to illustrate the growing class divide.

200 words - orange books or blogs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29641109

Marxism understands class as the antagonistic social formations created and perpetuated in the process of production, between owners of and workers within industry.

Marx and media - Assessment task

Learning objective:

To be introduced to Marx’ theories on Media.
Explore the role of the media from a Marxist perspective. 

To watch a clip (London Olympics) and analyse it with consideration given to the representation of Britain (National identity). Write 200 words on the representation of Britain as an assessment task.
Research and describe the key Media concepts of False consciousness. Cultural hegemony and false needs. 

Key words: False consciousness. Cultural hegemony. Intertextuality.

The role of media-a Marxist perspective

Capitalism. A definition:
An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by a state run by the people.

Discuss this poster:

Marxism

The political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in which the concept of class struggle plays a central role in understanding society's allegedly inevitable development from bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society.

While Karl Marx only knew the press before it was a mass medium, it is still possible to analyse modern media according to his ideas  even though Marxism is widely thought to have failed as a guide to social change.
The media as an industry conforms to a general capitalist type through its factors of production. 

These are likely to be in the monopolistic ownership of the capital owning class and be organised to serve the interest of that class. This is done through the exploitation of workers (ignoring the true value of labour) and consumers (making excess profits).

Media works ideologically by disseminating (spreading widely) the ideas and world views of the ruling class, denying access to alternative ideas that might lead to change or to a growing consciousness of the working classes with regards to its interests.

The main contribution of the media is to stimulate and then satisfy false needs. This leads to the assimilation of groups who have no real material interest in common into a 'one dimensional' society.

False consciousness

1.

A Marxist theory that people are unable to see things clearly, especially exploitation, oppression, and social relations, as they really are; the inability of the human mind to develop a sophisticated awareness of how it is developed and shaped by circumstances.

2.

Any belief or view that prevents a person from being able to understand 

the true nature of a situation.

Discuss: What part does the media play in preventing consumers from understanding the true nature of current political situations?
Look at today's news events considering the attack on Syria and the global warming conference taking place in Paris.

Marxist theory of media:

• Mass media is owned by the bourgeois class
• Media is operated in their interest
• Media promotes working class false consciousness
• Media access denied to political opposition.

Cultural hegemony

In Marxist philosophy, the term Cultural hegemony describes the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of that society — the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores— so that their ruling-class worldview becomes the worldview that is imposed and accepted as the cultural norm; as the universally valid dominant ideology that justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.

Task 1:

Bearing in mind the Marxist theory of media;

Watch the video clip below and analyse with consideration given to the representation of Britain (National Identity).
List the visual codes, Audio codes and geographical markers.
How are these codes used to construct a representation of Britain and what message do you think is being conveyed by the footage of the ceremony?
What would other nationalities think about this? See the videos of news reports below.
Remember: Denotation - Connotation - Signification.
Write at least 200 words-Orange books.

BBC 1 News report on the opening ceremony

Fox News, American report on the opening ceremony

Year 12 written tasks success criteria:

Knowledge of the concept of audience/representation/narrative

Awareness of relevant theories

Uses examples to draw on relevant issues

Use of media terminology/key words

Quality of written communication

Audience - Two Step Flow theory

Learning objective:

To compare the hypodermic needle model with two step flow theory and identify the influence of opinion leaders within the media

Key words: Opinion leaders, hegemony, passive, active audiences

Recap:
Hypodermic Needle Theory – the idea that the media can ‘inject’ ideas and messages straight into the passive audience. This passive audience is immediately affected by these messages. Used in advertising and propoganda, led to moral panics about effect of violent video and computer games.

It is largely flawed in today’s age because it suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text, without little or no attempt to challenge the method of communication or data. This highlights how audiences change.

So why study it?  Because you must have an historical understanding of how the media has changed and sadly some countries, not democracies, still believe that this approach works best for them on state controlled media (Zimbabwe, Burma, China).  

Examine propagandafilms of Nazi Germany and morale boosting movies by the Brits for example. 

Robert Mugabe has been the leader of Zimbabwe for the three decades of its independence.

In a nutshell, the Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that information is absorbed into the human brain without thought.  We are therefore vulnerable from consuming media texts and easily manipulated by producers.  We accept dominant ideologies without questioning them.

Two Step Flow theory 
The idea that ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population.

Background

Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. 

Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. 
The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. 
This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts. This is sometimes referred to as the limited effects paradigm.

Fox News:

The theory has helped with our understanding of how the media influences our decisions as well as refining our ability to predict the effects of the media’s messages on audience behaviour.

The Two-Step flow theory destroys the idea that audiences absorb the content of a media text directly, but suggest that a social class or demographic get their interpretation of the media through a representative of that class, known as an opinion leader. 

Modern day opinion leaders can be bloggers and also independent media companies that are not state controlled.  

This is true with the news in today’s media –  you have journalists and commentators responding to news stories that emerge from hegemonic sources, each source will either challenge or interpret the dominant ideology differently.  This is most prevalent in the British press and their political stance, as this can impact on news stories. 

Which can bring you on to mediation and how the text tries to involve an audience through Mode of Address, persuasive, emotive language.

Don’t forget dominant ideology

Marxists are likely to find evidence in the modes of address of almost every text that confirms evidence of a class divided society in which workers are exploited by capitalists.

Feminists are likely to find evidence in the modes of address of almost every media text that there are assumptions about gender.

Task 1:

Two-step flow model

1) Summarise the two-step flow model. 

2) In your opinion, is the two-step flow theory still relevant today?

3) How does this YouTube blogger fit into the two-step flow model?

4) How dos this Telegraph article on influential tweeters fit the two-step flow model?

5) Conclude; how are audience' views about issues impacted (or not) by opinion leaders.

Representation - gender

Learning objective:
Explore the representation of gender in the Media.
To further research texts dealing with the issue of gender and describe the different ways that men and women in the media challenge gender conventions.

Key terms:
Subversion of stereotypes - This is where a media text presents an alternative and different representation that 'plays with' or challenges audience expectations.

When analysing a text, state if the characters are Challenging stereotypes?

Beth Ditto

Lindsay Lohan

...Or re-enforcing stereotypes. As in these examples of representation of gender.

What are the impact of the representations on the audiences – are they likely to be negative or positive?

Again, the effects of gender representation is shown here.

Task 1: 

List 5 female actors or music artists that conform to traditional stereotypes and 5 females that challenge the stereotype. Say where and when they can be found.

Key Figure: 
Laura Mulvey - is a feminist film theorist whose work on the sexual objectification of women through 'male gaze' can be used to analyse a range of media texts, films, ads, magazines etc.

When it comes to representation, you need to show that you have explored these areas:

• The role of selection, construction and anchorage in creating representations.
• How media texts use representations and the effect those representations have upon audiences.
• The points of view, messages, and values underlying those representations.
• You will be expected to have studied a range of examples of representations in media texts and you must be able to write about them using key media terminology.

Women:

The representation of women in the media has developed and adapted to reflect cultural and socialogical changes. As women's roles in society have undergone a transformation, this has been reflected in some areas of the media.

However, there are still some stereotypical representations of women where they are defined by how men see them and how society expects them to look and behave. 

Women still tend to be judged on their looks and appearance foremost.

Representations tend to concentrate also on their sexuality; emotions and narratives tend to be based around relationships.

The way in which the representation of women is constructed in texts like glamour magazines is unrealistic and instills unattainable aspiration in the audience.

In an examination response it is important that you explore the representation of gender at a sophisticated level and go beyond basic discussion of positive and negative, it is much more complex than that.

_______________________________________________________________________

The representation of Fearn Cotton as the cover image on Cosmopolitan (October 2011) magazine would appeal to both men and women.

In simple terms, women want to BE her and men want to BE WITH her.

The cover line related to her defines her very much in terms of a relationship and of emotions; 

'Being in Love'.

The image is constructed through visual codes, costume and mode of address. 

The image is ambiguous; her posture and body language are strong but she is also very sexualised.

She is defined in terms of her body image and her size.

By highlighting her 'firm thighs' the magazine presents this representation as that which every women should aspire to.

The other cover lines suggest the discourse of the magazine and represent women in terms of beauty, sex and consumerism.

The sell lines of 'miracle beauty buys' gives hope to those readers who do not look like the female construction of the magazine. The representation is obviously unrealistic and the construction includes image manipulation such as airbrushing to give a representation of perfection. Unattainable for most ordinary women.

When you are discussing areas of representation such as stereotyping, you must be sure to analyse the representation according to the context in which it appears and the purpose.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Subversion of stereotypes

Whilst there remain many stereotypical representations of women in the media, there are also texts that are constructed to challenge these representations. These texts hold messages that offer a more realistic or refreshing representation of women in the media today. In film and television we see more and more women who have key roles and that are active rather than passive. They are defined by what they do, rather tan what is done to them. They are less the victim and more the hero.

Some texts cleverly play with accepted stereotypes in order to challenge them. This is true of the GHD hair straighteners Twisted Fairytales campaign.

Here the stereotypical representations of women are subverted to create strong women who do not have to rely on men to rescue them. The campaign uses Rapunzel, Cinderella and Little Red Riding hood, in each case they leave the stereotypical male hero behind in a twist at the end. 

In the print advert above, RRH is shown to be both sexually attractive and purposeful. She engages in a direct mode of address with the audience. The iconography and graphics remain that of a fairytale but the representation is very different (as the rhyme indicates)..

However, it is also true that, although the women are strong and independent and over come the men in the GHD campaign, they are also stereotypically beautiful and it is their beauty aid, hair straighteners that are deemed responsible for their success.

In this respect, the representation of women in the campaign is ambiguous.

Task 1:

Write 200 words about the representation of women in the Persil ad below

___________________________________________________________________

Men:

Key terms:

New man - this was a term introduced to describe a new breed of men. These men rejected sexist attitudes; were in touch with their feminine side and were therefore not afraid to be sensitive, caring and could sometimes be seen in a domestic role.

A good example of a media text that reflects this changing role is James Bond, here the representation of men has become more acceptable.

Key Figure: 

David Gauntlett - in his book 'Media, gender and identity considers the changing representations of men and women in the media. He also discusses the Pick and Mix theory. This suggests that audiences are active rather than passive and will choose what to do with the media rather than having the media manipulate them.

Stereotypically, men in media texts are represented differently from women but their representation, like that of women, has changed in order to address changes in society.

There have been many cries that masculinity is in crisis and that men no longer have a traditional role to play in society as they once did.

However it is the case that men, just like women have had to change their roles and this has been reflected in their representation across a range of media texts. With the advent of the 'new man' there appeared different representations of masculinity. 

However, even when disguised as a new man, representations of men in the media still tend to focus on the following:

• Body image and physique
• Physical strength
• Sexual attractiveness and relationships with women
• Power and independence

One media area that has developed dramatically is the men's magazine market. Now men as well as women are given aspirational and unrealistic role models to emulate.

Men too have to be concerned about their weight and body imageand buy into an unattainable lifestyle through the representations presented to them.

Men's Health magazine is now the best selling men's magazine, overtaking FHM in 2010.

Below is a constructed image that defines men very clearly.

The central image is one of perfection and has clearly been manipulated to present the 'perfect body' image.

The mode of address is direct and the use of imperatives is commanding and powerful.

However, as this is a new man, he is also concerned about his health and his diet, but reverts to a more traditional type, refering to sex rather than relationships.

The cover lines include quick fix problem solving to suggest a healthy lifestyle and acquiring this body is easy.

The body language of the model suggests that he is proud of his shape and is self obsessed, looking away from the audience.

However, there still exist in the media the more stereotypical representations of men in strong roles defined by their power, independence and their ability to survive against all the odds. These representations tend to be associated with particular genres, for example the action film, still largely the domain of the male protagonist.

In Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, the audience is presented with James Bond, the action hero. The iconography that places him in this role is evident in these stills from the film; dinner suit, gun, action shot and the beautiful woman.

However, on closer analysis, this representation is more ambiguous and reflects the new man that is James Bond.

The woman is not an accessory; she is next to him and has clearly been part of the action. His bow tier is missing and his suit is dishevlled. His expression is not the usual cool and calm, but moody and unhappy. In another shot he is seen as protecting the female and looking intimidated himself. Different to the old James Bond.

Task 2:

Write 200 around words on the representation of men in the three texts, 

American Sniper, 

Casino Royale and 

Men's Health.