A2 G325 Collective Identity (Exam question 2): Tasks To Complete on Representation

Representation: thinking points
1. Firstly, think about how you represent yourself! Make a list of all the different identities you have in your life: school pupil, daughter, sister, friend, babysitter, Tesco worker, dog walker... Then draw up a pie chart with each chunk representing how much you think of yourself as that identity.
To make a pie chart that represents your identity, follow these steps:

Complete the sentence ‘I am…” ten times.

Put those in to a basic order of importance.

Give each ‘identity’ a score, relative to the others, based on how import this label is to your overall identity.

Use this information to make a pie chart.

You can use the attached Excel sheet to help you make your chart – just put in the details and the numbers and the chart will do the rest.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=122759157

Here's one drawn up for a media studies teacher:

2. Make a collage (either digitally or cutting and pasting pictures) of all the things that represent you as an individual. It might be pictures of hobbies, clothing, activities you enjoy, possessions that mean a lot to you, TV programmes that are important to you, people you admire (such as celebrities or bands)...

3. Think about the way you represent yourself to other people. Make a list of the different ways you communicate with people, particularly online: facebook, twitter, email (school and home), mobile phone - texts, bbm, Skype, letters, Youtube, MySpace, online games... Watch

The Onion's Lost Friendster Video

http://tinyurl.com/y939xk8. How has communication changed since your parents' generation? Now watch Obama's advice about facebook.

TASK: Make a MovieMaker presentation on the history of YOUR communications from the time you were a baby, entitled 'Me and the Online Age'. You can include found images and music, with captions.
Now think about how certain groups want to represent themselves to the world. This 60-second video to promote a school is used by an education marketing company, 1803 Creative Media, which helps schools promote themselves to potential pupils (and, even more importantly, their parents). What do you think of it? How does it compare to the 6th form promotional video our Sixth Formers made? How is the school represented?

You can check out the company's other work on the 1803 Creative Media website.

4a. Watch the following Slideshare presentation about women in the media, making notes.

Representation of gender - Women from Amanda Simmons

4b. Watch Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo'. Write a review of how women are represented in this film, taking into account Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory and Barthes Semiotics. To help, see this excellent Film Studies for Free site. On the male gaze, see particularly http://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1058&context=etd
Key point for your exam: In 'Visual And Other Pleasures', Mulvey writes that "the presence of woman is an indispensible element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a storyline, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation" and that "this alien presence then has to be integrated into cohesiton with the narrative". Note moments in the film where the camera focuses on Madeleine's (played by Kim Novak) physical presence - when Scottie first observes her in the restaurant, frequent shots of her gazing at the portrait of Carlotta, frequent close-ups of her face, her lack of speech. Compare this with the active shots of Scottie (James Stewart).

5. Watch 'Made In Dagenham' (Nigel Cole, 2010). Think about how Antony Giddens' theories about how individuals can bring about social change applies here (http://www.theorycards.org.uk/card01.htm). Also, read p110-112 of your textbook, which explains Power, Control, Hegemony and Marxism very neatly.

6. Watch 'Fish Tank' (Andrea Arnold, 2009) and her short film, 'Wasp'. These are examples of British Social Realism. How are women represented here?

For the social implications of representation: What is a Chav? see:

The Chav
http://media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/article/ocr-a-level-g325-collective-identity-social-implications
Also available on Powerpoint from Mrs Williams. Do 'chavs' really exist?

7. Watch the horror/thriller 'Eden Lake' (James Watkins, 2008). How does Watkins use social stereotypes to create fear?

8. Further reading:

Women in Film. Use the resources below to create a presentation on the way women have been represented in film over time:

See this presentation on Feminist Film Theory: Mulvey and the Male Gaze. And another here. Plus a biography of Laura Mulvey on the BFI website.
Women and Film - see this article on Screen Online, and also the related article Female Protagonists: The Changing Image of Women in Fiction Film.
For an interesting example of advanced use of theoretical language, look at this lengthy essay on Marilyn Monroe: Gentlemen Still Prefer Blondes. Also, see this more readable essay on Marilyn Monroe as an Icon. After this, look at this very interesting overview of Hollywood Icons and a second essay on The Male Gaze by Anna-Louise Felstead.
For masses of brilliant theory on the representation of gender, see David Gauntlett's website.

9. Watch a range of Fairy Liquid advertisements from the 1960s to the present day. Discuss how women are represented in these advertisements, and how this may change over time (or not!).

10. Read some of Judith Butler's book, 'Gender Trouble'. Discuss Butler's theory that "gender is performed". Read the following articles and discuss the way Madonna might be typical of Butler's theories: http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-butl.htm, http://www.theory.org.uk/madonna.htm, http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-que1.htm. Now do some of your own research on Lady Gaga. How far do you think she fits the model?

10. Make a list of TV Drama you have watched recently and how women are presented in TV Drama. For example:
'Misfits' Lead Director, Tom Green, spoke at the 2011 OCR Annual Media Studies Conference about his part in choosing the actors to play the main characters. He says the creators "played with the superhero genre" and he deliberately selected a very inexperienced actor to play the "chavvy" part of Kelly, even though it was hard work for the team. Why do you think he did this?

'Misfits', which won the 2010 BAFTA award for Best Drama Series, is also a great example of the audience getting involved in TV drama. Green reports on Series One, first shown on Channel 4 in July 2010: "The web side hit more than any other show, with a million Facebook members and the audience tweeting and facebooking during the show." Series 2 and (coming) Series 3 are to be on E4. Why the change of channel?
Tom Green, a graduate of the National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield, was critical of the representation of young people in another E4 BAFTA-winning series, 'Skins', complaining that some of the female characters are borderline anorexic, and that the consequences of some of the characters' behaviour was not true to life. He said that if characters in 'Misfits' behave irresponsibly, such as taking drugs, he tries to show the consequences realistically. He said, "Skins is incredibly aspirational. It's kind of wrong." What do you think, especially considering all the characters in 'Misfits' have super-powers!?
Debate about representation of women was raised with the cot death storyline in Eastenders. See Pete's Media Blog to read about the debate and add your own feelings. See also his March 2011 posts for discussion on the representation of young people in the media.
Think about the representation of ethnic minorities in the March 2011 'Midsomer Murders' Race Row, reported here in 'The Guardian'.

11. List any sitcoms you have watched recently. Note how many gender stereotypes are presented in those sitcome:

The way groups of people are represented by stereotypes is a great source of comedy. Look at the representations of women in the following: 'The IT Crowd', 'Outnumbered', 'Friends', 'The Inbetweeners', 'Hustle'.

12. Watch an evening of TV and make a note of the advertisements you see. What sorts of people are represented in those advertisements? See:

'Minority Report' (2002)

Information from the Internet Movie Database, including film trailer and photos: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181689/

13. Representations of reality:

Think about going to a football match, then watching the same match on TV. The choices are made for you by the camera on TV, so we are always seeing someone else's take on reality. Think 'Big Brother'. How 'real' is reality TV? What exactly is going on in 'The Only Way Is Essex' and 'Made In Chelsea'?

Watch this clip of 'Supersize Me' up to 1.58 mins. What did you just see?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2diPZOtty0

14. Representation of different social groups past and present - the working-class family

Thinking about genre, representation and postmodernism, look at the way the working-class family is represented in these two videos: Madness 'Our House' from 1982 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shVdK2cbRuA&ob=av2e followed by Kid British 'Our House is Dadless' from 2009 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltPxz4PinDA.

How does this reflect our views about society now as compared to the 1980s? About young people? About women? About culture?
Now look at the 2011 Virgin Media TV ad, which uses the lyrics from the song as a voiceover. What does this say about representation?