Monday September 12th:
Today has been our first lesson with Callum. We were being told all about what we are going to learn about with Callum and what we will be covering in these lessons. This 2 hour lesson is the only lesson of the week where we have Callum. I took notes about what we will learn and the learning outcome is to understand how media producers define audience for product, understand how media producers create products for certain audiences.
Questions were brought up in the lesson to discuss such as "What is audience classification?" and "Which creative media producers may use this process?". The answer we all discussed in class was almost all kinds of media producers like film makers, TV shows (whether it's day time TV or prime time TV), magazines, websites such as google or clothes companies.
Another question was "What are the categories a media producer might use?" as in what kind of people like age (kids, teenagers, college students, adults, people over 65/retired), gender, sexual orientation (gay, straight or bi) and socio-economic groups.
The next we all discussed was "Why creative media producers may classify and categorise audiences?" this answer was simple; Because media producers will need to know WHO does or WILL like their product so it can be a success to sell. They don't want it to be a failed product and waste money. And because of other obvious reasons like consumer breakdown and to determine WHO is the audience.
The final question was "What different research methods may be used to classify audiences for creative media products?" which were things like questionairres, ask in the street, primary, secondary, quantative & qualitative research, focus groups, sample viewings etc.
Monday September 19th:
Today in Callum's lesson, we've been "defining audiences". The aims of today were to discuss different types of audience research and to analyse companies that conduct audience research. I learnt a lot today and had a recap on last weeks lesson and went into further detail on some stuff we did last week. Such as "Why is it important for media producers to define audiences?"
What I've learned from this question is that so they know who to aim their product at like age, gender, occupation, socio-economic groups, sexual orientation. Other reasons like they don't want to waste money on a failed product, so they can DETERMINE WHO is the AUDIENCE. Also things like so they can make changes or improvements for certain areas of their products. And consumer breakdown -who's buying, change their marketing strategies, they need to know who the audience is and their likes/dislikes. They want their product to be successful and profitable, therefore they must ensure that they are targeting their product to the right audience and that they will respond in the desired way.
Other questions we answered: What methods do media producers use to help define audiences? The answer was primary, secondary, quantative & qualitative research. And a market research website I first heard about today which is called ipsos.com. We also went into further detail on the definitions of "Quantitative research" and "Qualitative Research".
Quantitative research is research based on measurable facts and information that can be counted, producing numerical data.
Qualitative research is research based on opinions, attitudes and preferences rather than facts and figures e.g. Focus groups, interviews, questionairres, open questions, market research.
Then we learnt about RAJAR and BARB and spent the remainder of the lesson doing the tasks given which involve writing about BARB and RAJAR and then had to do a questionnaire.
Monday September 26th:
Today I have been learning about the codes and conventions of sitcoms. I also learnt about the differences between a traditional and a non-traditional sitcom. I learnt about codes and conventions of sitcoms like limited characters, limited sets, catchy theme tune (that often introduces all of the characters), canned laughter, catchphrases, linear narrative that uses equilibrium, disruption and then returns to equilibrium, and the use of small social groups like family, friends and work. Now our task is to watch a traditional and a non-traditional sitcom and write about them, giving reviews on both of them and how the codes and conventions are similar or different. I will be looking at The IT Crowd - a traditional sitcom and The Inbetweeners - a non-traditional sitcom. Callum has noted that we can only do British sitcoms and that if we are going to write about Inbetweeners then we cannot mention anything about The Inbetweeners Movie because we are supposed to be looking at TV sitcoms and the movie is falling out of the category.
Monday October 10th:
Today I have been looking at "The Effects of Media" and have been discussing in class and the effect of exposure to explicit content. We discussed theories that relate to the effects of explicit content on audiences and had debates about censorship. We looked up news stories that had been blamed on the media such as the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre which was blamed on violent video games and Marilyn Manson. There were many more stories that we looked at such as the 1976 film "Taxi Driver" starring Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster as a 13 year old prostitute which made a fan called John Hinckley Jr attempt to assassinate the then-president of the United States, Ronald Reagen. Also looked at "A Clockwork Orange" made by Stanley Kubrick. This film made people commit murders in the same way as they do in the plot to the film and even wearing the same costumes as the characters in the film, Kubrick did not allow this film to be released in the UK and was banned in the UK until 2000 when it was unbanned the year after he died. This then made us look at other films that have been banned and censorship.
Monday October 17th:
Today in Callum's lesson, we have gotten feedback on the work we submitted 2 weeks ago. None of it has been graded, there's just a "status" on what has and hasn't been submitted. It will say either "submitted", "not submitted" or "submitted, missing folder". Callum showed us what we missed out and gave us improvement plans for what to do when we resubmit this. We have 2 weeks today to resubmit this.
For the rest of the lesson, we looked at "Developing Responses to Media texts". We looked at "What textual analysis is. Textual analysis is when you deconstruct and critically analyse key elements of a media text.
Analysing the meaning of a test
Analysing Media texts
Analysing for a text can be persuasive
Critical
I learnt today that genre's and generic conventions are important for audiences because audiences gain pleasure from codes and conventions by having their expectations of media products fulfilled and by being able to predict what will happen.
We then looked at reality TV show's and learned about the types of codes and conventions they have, such as:
Stereotypes - Bimbo's in Towie and The Only Way Is Essex
People from different backgrounds
Single community - real locations
Obstacles
Real life situations
Eddentric - people who act up - every day people
Drama
Monday October 31st:
Today we were learning about "Representations in the media" and the definition of "Representation". It is:
The way media producers portray characters in fictional works
Artificial versions of the reality we percieve around is
It is important to note that in the media representations are composed and constructed
Representations are mediated
Representations are composed of signs and symbols that are easily understood by audiences
Representations help audiences make sense of the media they are consuming
With media representations, audiences perceptions of the world around us would be very limited. Media representations mediate our view of the world by providing audiences with information.
Who: Audience
Why: To create ideological purpose in a way that furthers producers arguments
In the remainder of the lesson, we learned about "stereotyping". Today I learnt that the main cause of stereotypes is because of the media like movies, TV shows, the news etc. Today I was learning about how stereotypes worked, they're widely circulated ideas and assumptions about a particular group of people. They involve categorising groups based on qualities such as age, gender, code of dress etc. and evaluating the group being stereotyped. They emphasise easily grasped ideas and features of certain cultures/social groups.
My homework is to identify representations and stereotypes being used in whatever reality TV show we looked at for last weeks homework. I looked at "Young, Dumb & Living Off Mum" and before we were set this homework, I noticed a few stereotypes such as a girl from Stockport who talks like a chav, it could give people the impression everyone from Stockport talks like that. And there was a gay character who was an even more perfect stereotype which I will write about in my homework where I will need to deconstruct and analyse how certain people are represented.
Monday November 7th:
Today I have
Monday November 14th:
Today is the final submission day for all of our work and the homework we were given a month ago to write an 800 word article about something that has been blamed on the media. I wrote my article about A Clockwork Orange which influenced people into murder the same way it was shown in the plot. And the other task (task 4) was to fill out a textual analysis table on a reality tv show and write an essay about the codes and conventions of it including stereotypes shown and how they are represented. I spent the lesson getting all this finally completed and ready for submission by the end of the lesson.
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