Week 5: Representation of Issues

Notes on Representing Issues:

Representation of an issue from ddoggart

Representation of Poverty:

An introduction and some core ideas:

Poverty from ddoggart

Reference is made in the PP to Slumdog Millionaire and there are hyperlinks to two charity websites as well - these form the three case study texts. Some ideas linked to them can be found in the document below:

Poverty worksheet from ddoggart


Representation of Raunch Culture:

This issue looks at the increased sexualisation evident in the way way female pop stars are portrayed in music videos and whether this is a positive or harmful thing, especially for children.


Here is a PP that will allow you to explore this:

  

Raunch culture in music videos from ddoggart

Obviously the stars that promote such images see them as showing confidence and power but not everyone sees it that way. here is a worksheet to help you explore this issue:

Raunch culture worksheet from ddoggart

You may need to ask your teacher for copies of the news articles or can track them down online.


The Riots:

Another issue you could look at instead of one of the above is the riots - rather than just looking at how the event was covered, you could explore the issue of what caused them or who's to blame (feral youths or oppressive social conditions? The police or Tory or labour politics?) Or is youth violence just a  myth perpetuated by the media portrayal of the hoodie - what other texts reinforce this link? Do statistics back this image up?

Look over the same texts used for looking at the riots as an event.....

A useful text to consider would be Plan B's official music video for Ill manors:




Overview:

The key think here is to look at who has produced each media text, what angle they take and to consider what might motivate it. As with most of the work on representation, there is no one true way of seeing an issue - each text is mediated and shaped and reflects one way of seeing things. Any answer on this topic will need to weave this in to their answer/ conclusion.

Week 6: Representation of Events

Here is a worksheet to focus on the representation of events:

Events worksheet from ddoggart

And here is a PP with hyperlinks to some of the clips referred to in the worksheet:

Events clips from ddoggart

Week 3: Audience Revision

Here is an overview of what you need to know to tackle audience questions in the exam:

Audience revision from ddoggart

Summary of Exam/ Revision Required

Here is an overview of what you will need to cover for your MS1 resit in January:

Ms1 revision overview from ddoggart


And here is a summary of the exam:

Ms1 summary of exam from ddoggart

Week 2: VAT Codes / Analysis Revision

Here is a grid to help you revise the media language features you will need for analysis of audio-visual material.

Analysis revision from ddoggart


If you are given a print text, you may also be expected to comment on layout and graphic design features and visual codes should also cover the language used/ style of language used. Make sure that you look over notes on these and have something to say.

Week 4: Representation

Here is some guidance on how to answer the question on representation in the exam. Don't forget that you will also need to make notes on the case study representations you covered last year - describe the representation, offer some evidence/ details from the text to prove your point, summarise and account for the representations... why not create an A4 sheet for each topic? At this stage you only need to consider: representations of gender, ethnicity, age, national and regional identity. You will go through representation of issues and events in the taught sessions that follow, although there is nothing to stop you going over your notes for these topics too!
Revision session representation

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