Explain why the idea of "postmodern media" might be considered controversial

Postmodernism is where you take an text and you interpretate in different ways. It gets shown over and over again but the meaning stays the same. This happens in many different ways through the media. An example of this is Rihanna's song umbrella. This was an interpretation of the classic singing in the rain song. It has been modernised to make it look like in the 21st century but it is still based on that version. The inspiration at least came from that. Now that song umbrella has been remade an number of times after her song and the most famous was when Glee made there own interpretation. Even that version had reference to the singing in the rain with them dancing around on an stage with water pouring out and dancing around singing Rihanna's version.

But there are times when the Media can become controversial. The media like to push boundaries and there are times when people blame the media for having the wrong kind of influence and creating tensions. The Columbine Tragedy is an good example of this. It was blamed on video games having the wrong kind of instructions and it made it expectable, in some peoples eyes, to go out buy an gun and do what they did. Taking this an step forward an controversial film came out called "Super Columbine Massacre". This is an example of popular culture media. The person who shot this knew that it would be an hit because of the media coverage it would get. (bad or good) But he also went onto studying this tragedy years to get this as accurate as possible and for some people, ie- the families of the murdered people, would find it distressing and hurtful of being reminded of the terrible day.

But also TV shows can be controversial. As eluded to earlier Glee is an popular TV show following high school students and there time in high schools. With that they are trying to Represent the average teenage life. But how truthful is this representation and is the media telling us how we should behave or is it taking from studying the teenagers of this generation. Some argue one or the other. This gets the feeling of the death of representation where the media dictates how we should be portrayed. This isnt just Glee the print media or social media has these controls. The media is so powerful that people do not know that they are being dictated because it has been engrained into our lives.

This brings be onto my next controversy video games. Video games are one of the most controversial parts of the media around. As I talked about earlier the Columbine Tragedy was blamed on video games and how much influence it had over us. They have developed over time and have been become more violent. The question is how much influence does it have? To the vast majority it doesnt but for the tiny minority does people get so influenced by the games they play. Some Theorists say yes and others say it cant just be one thing which makes the problem and the things they do afterwards.

This will get tougher to solve because of new technology. As technology moves on the sifitigation of games moves on as well. From sitting in your room playing with an pad just 5 years ago now you play virtual violet games 3D games and people against children playing these games are arguing that an child's brain hasnt fully developed. So children are vulnerable to influences around him or her. So bad influences could lead to problem later on in life when the problem is too big to solve. So they might not believe in total bans of these games but maybe stricter rules to stop children or teenagers getting hold of these games so these theories can at-least be tested.

But is Post Modern Ideas of text really that controversial. In some texts and content they can be controversial. The media do sometimes push the boundaries and maybe sometimes it allays with bad consequences. Some people blame the media for Diana death pushing her to the edge to taking risks which ended in an bad way. There is an need for better regulation to safe guard children and better education for them. There are new dangers occurring every day. Technology is moving forward and great in some ways but dangers in others. There is the internet which is impossible to catch out the bad from the good. But overall I believe that Post Modern media isnt that controversial. Its part of an ever changing life and media. As long as evolve with the changes we should be relatively safe and less and less controversial as time goes on.

Grant theft Auto Oxford

Welcome to this new and exciting game called GTA Oxford. This is an thrilling game which is full of adventures through the historic town of Oxford. In this game you will have to fight your way through the Cowley Road where all the gangs are based. You will be driving fast down the A34 as you go through the posh areas of Oxford and fighting off spies which are all around this famous city.

One of the missions is to save an young girl from these terriorist. In this mission you will have to have your wits with you at all times as you will have to first collect evidence, however neccessary, make sure you are not spotted by Police as you are an wanted person and save this little girl life by going in finding her and getting her out safely.

The values of this mission is about forgivesness. Even though you cannot change the fact you are wanted by the police you feel that erge to do you bit for society. You want to rectify what you have done wrong and the only way is help the society that you betrayed and do good for people. It plays on the thought of morality and doing whats right but also knowing whatever you do you will always be someone wanting you.

He wants to be an good force but he was never able to be an Inspector Morse but more an Martin Mcguinness without the hero tag with him. It could be argued that we are Fragmenting him as the representation of him is always that he isnt accepted and for that reason he has to do his missions in hiding.

There is also an debate in this mission in who takes the higher ground. Some may argue that he does take the higher ground because he giving back to society but others would say he has stolen from society and its only right that he does this and he doesnt get the higher ground.

With Reference to at least The Inbetweeners and Glee discuss the extent to which representations of young people in the Media can be viewed as Post-mo

In an ever changing technology world young people in the media is also changing fast. The way the media see the youth now is different to how they see the youth of yester years. Because of the vast media outlets now the way we picture the youth now is changing quicker than ever before through different social networking sites and the media in general. This is also a challenge to the television media to represent there age category (target audience) accurately. If they don’t then the audience will go elsewhere and as the media expands the likelihood is that you would loss that audience forever or having a smaller audience.

As young people are part of this technology generation the youth have an bigger say over how they are represented. Just 20 years ago this wasn’t possible as the media which were available were 5 TV channels and there news, newspapers and the start of the internet. But then the internet hadn’t taken off and print media had a lot of power over the representation of the youth. But if we look at the world now this has significantly changed. The print media is in decline we have many different TV channels, including 24 hours news channels, internet and dot com boom and now a technology youth, like Facebook, Twitter, MSN etc, and the media outlet has changed drastically. by getting news on the phone or the IPAD or the latest gadget. By having this new power it is sometimes a double edged sword if the young people are viewed in good or bad light but a shift is happening and we can see the young people in the Media are viewed as Post-modern.

But all these changes haven’t always changed how the TV media has represented youth in dramas. True there are soaps now for teenagers (Hollyoaks) and they have given a new dimension to soaps but there are a lot of shows which have used old media into modern day texts. If we compare Grange Hill 20 years ago this was a break through into young audience and raising issues that hasn’t been raised before such as young love, anti-social behavior and problems based on growing into an adult. Now shows like “The Inbetweener” have used that concept and have devolved into wider problems. Now it is more socially accepted to have difficult issues tackled on youth problems and deeps of them. What the media has done is highlight it and maybe make it easier for people to come out. What has changed is what is socially expectable to be seen with the media as it is now. By this concept it has allowed TV explore deeper issues without fear of a backlash.

By making it easier is has also made it more expectable to look at issues in a number of different ways. Take “The Inbetweeners” as an example it looks at young teenage boys and there problems of life is general but through a tongue and mouth way of making fun of it without becoming too offensive. Now that would be not too offensive now but maybe 20 years ago it was probably not get to the airwaves as these issues would become too controversial to talk about and made fun of.

Options are also vast in this generation. The TV has expanded significantly over time and options are so much more then they were just 10 years ago. To find your identity maybe easier and harder at the same time. Easier as in you have choice in what you watch but harder because there may be more than one represents you and it might be harder to explain your identity.

Skins is an modern text. What the success of Skins is that they represent most of the teenagers in society. Each characters represents a hope group and what the hope of Skins is that you can relate yourself to one of the characters and understand them properly and know what they are going through. So we can all go on this journey together.

But A show like Glee is a very different show to “Skins”. Glee is an club within a high school in America and they have these story lines where teacher and pupil have issues to sort out and the show goes with convention with drama. Having a start setting the picture, a middle where the crisis point happens and an end where there is a resolution to the problems to get back to start where everything is rosy. It goes through the Wheel of Fire when you go in you have to do the full circle to get out. It has a bit of a feel like Hollywood type glamour. Another difference between the two are that Skins is an British drama and Glee is American drama. By being from different countries cultural would be different. British drama are based on more “real situations” and American style is more on convention which goes on start building a picture, middle creating problem and ending with a solution and normally an happy ending. British shows have such as Grange Hill, Biker Grove and more recently Skins traditionally gone on real life issues then going on Hollywood blockbusters which are unrealistic and shows go on that convention and American shows such as High School Musical or Glee go on more fantasy lines. Even though they are more realistic then Hollywood blockbusters but not as real as British sitcoms.

Representation of Islam

http://www.revolutionmuslim.com/

http://www.inspiredbymuhammad.com/

Muslim Council of Britain
http://www.mcb.org.uk/

These are text of how Britain see Muslim and the works to build relations with other groups.

Mr Gray's essay- Analyse the ways in which the media represents one group of people you have studied?

In this essay I have chosen to focus on representation of Women in the UK by using contemporary British film in this case study. I will examine the film Wasps and Fish Tank. I will also consider feminist theories of gender.

Historically women were seen as wives, prospective wives or married lovers. They were judged to have held back the men’s ambition and drive. An instance of this films such as “Saturday Night Sunday Morning” and “A Kind Of Loving” but their has been women who have got out of this image. New Realism is a contemporary movement in British film. People like Andrea Arnold are trying to paint a different picture of women. A more honest picture where they have aspirations and goals in life which they try and fight for.

Dogme 95 is where the rules or the “vows of chastity” make sure that films do not distract from the central theme. Andrea Arnold try and use the feminist perspective using these types of rules. The awareness of the vows of chastity as it is being used more and more often in Modern British films.

In Wasps, Andrea Arnold uses the “vows of chastity” to show women are trapped. An good example of this is when the start of Wasps shows the mother dragging the kids down the stairs is these block of flats down these gloomy staircases. Then seeing the baby not dressed properly or when she makes the kids wait outside the pub and she talks about not having a life outside of the bubble she is in. What Andrea also did was make it feel real when for example at the end when the wasp was coming into her they had shaky cameras it made us feel like we were there. The audience is also made to feel sorry and sad on her behalf as she feels trapped but also the audience feels annoyed at the same time of having the children comes with a lot of responsibilities that she sometimes sys away from.

In Fish Tank we see the mother take no care towards her kids especially with Mia. When she does anything wrong she would be violet and aggressive towards her and throughout gave the impression that he would not care if anything happened to her. An example of this is when Zoe holds a house party and Mia opens the door to some guest she is aggressive to her by grabbing her arm and forcing her upstairs.

But in all this mix up right at the end we do see a different side when Mia was about to leave the house. They have this dance the whole family did together which was a rhythm dance some connection with the whole family.

Fish Tank is driven by the family by the boyfriend (Conor). There seems to be a sexual rival between the Mother and the Daughter Sigmund Freud Oedipal triangle which illustrates that the Mum is jealous of the daughter as she is the younger sign of her and the Daughter is Jealous of her as she wants to be loved by the mum’s lover. But during the film it takes unprecedented turn when Mia swapped the role of a Jealous daughter into the “The Mother” role in kidnapping Conor’s daughter and now the roles have changed into a harmful Mother when she throws the little girl into the river but then turns into caring mother when he saves her life and takes care of her.

Due to the lack of care from the elders on the family the older sisters are taking on the responsibilities of the mother’s job. In Fish Tank we see Mia taking care of younger sister Tyler. Tyler looks up to her and you can see there chemistry when big Mia is leaving the house where Tyler gets upset. There are times when she gets her job when wrong given cigarettes and alcohol to her younger sister but overall she is much of a role model than her mum is. In Wasp we see much younger girls acting as responsible and possible. I say as much as possible because she is too young to take care of 2 children and a baby at her age and understand what he going on all the time. An example of this is when she fed food from the floor and gave it to her sisters.

Both of these films confront traditional representation of female uniqueness. As well see all these magazines around trying to sell women off like they are objects and always trying impress men. Even Women magazines are being shown off in such a way that is also to try and impress all the men. The fantasy is shown in both film for example in Wasp the women wants to be like Victoria and David Beckham and goes so far that the man he went out with was David and that means he must be perfect and she would do anything to keep him happy including going against her kids. In Fish Tank this happens when Mia dances for Conor to impress him and eventually ends up having sex. All of this shows off what the media has on these girls where they have to be what ever the magazine says its hot and what’s not.

In conclusion I believe British Films should carry on using new realism as it gives an proper look on life and not that the Hollywood type of showing everything everywhere is good cosy. It gives out a more positive message to out there for good than having this world where we think everything is all good. If more of these films are brought out it would slowly change people’s mind out about women and the sales of magazines would start to drop and women are on a more even float to men. The “Vows of chastity” rules have helped with this as they almost force the director into making their film more realistic and more a truer picture of society than a fantasy world.

Andrea Arnold represents youth culture in a number of different lights. To the eye it looks like he is giving them the youth of our country a bad name. Some people may argue that is what he is showing but what he is showing is a deeper problem in society.

He is trying to give the people who don’t get reported on fairly, in his eyes, a say and a chance to show their of the story. What I felt was that he was giving a say to unspoken Britain who are not given a fair chance in life and have to struggle to day to day activities. There are obvious problems in some of Britain youth through their background. The tendency is to slate them off, the media plays a big part in trying to define these people rightly or wrongly this is what the media has built them up to be.

By knowing that this is what people see in some of the youth today he plays on that mind and uses that stereotype to show them for who they are but he tires to use that and challenge the audience to question their view on these kids. He doesn’t change them for who they are but what he does is make them see it from the youth point of view. By doing this it gives the audience a better understanding of where they are coming from and their struggles in life. By seeing it from their side it gives the audience a better understanding of what it is like to be a kid growing up in a council estate where they have to fend for themselves. What Arnold challenges the audience to do is to make their own mind of these kids rather than being fed by the Media. It is telling them to think about their situation and how it would affect them physically and mentally and really being on the youth side in trying to drive this message through.

I believe that class plays a big part in “Fish Tank”. The girl’s family that we see would be seen as lower class and the boyfriend the man had would be seen as a higher class. We see the man taking advantage of this family and really he is only their for the sex and the fun of another relationship. But he played it in such a way that he built them up to just knock them back down by having fun with the girl’s mum and then going on the girl. He made them feel special but he as seen as a well off middle class family he could use them and dump them whenever he liked. He basically ruled the family and when he had enough he left. By showing it from the young girl’s point of view it shows the difficulties that she is going through everyday and we feel a bit of sympathy with her.

This links into Gender which also plays a big part. The men in “Fish Tank” are always shown to have a better prospective in life. It also shows the women’s aspiration throughout is low or have no aspiration at all. From the men who work in selling and using second hand materials to build cars and keep a life together to the man who played with the girl’s family and messed up all their lives. On the female side the livelihoods are shown at a low level. The only job interview that she goes to is basically a strip/nightclub dancing. In the area they live in isn’t highly educated where then men do the work and can scrap to keep these people afloat and the women are shown as objects not really being human being.

The race issue is a key part of this film. Andrea used a stereotypical view of a council estate in these block of flats of the sort of people which would live there, the white middle age working to lower class.

Bibliography

The music we used in our film was all from copyright free sources. The music from the start throughout the chase was "Killer" (www.freeplaymusic.com) then the heartbeat noise when Rory thinks he has escaped is called "Threatening Behaviour" (www.audio.lgfl.org.uk) and finally the "boom" sound at the end when the person opens his eyes is from iMovie.
We also downloaded "Philly Sans" (www.dafont.com) font a copyright free text.