Textual Analysis Alphabet

In today's lesson you are going to create an alphabet of textual analysis. For each letter, A-Z, come up with a term, definition, and example.

For instance, the letter A could be: A for action code, or A for Alvarez, or A for asynchronous sound.

You then need to screen grab and example from a TV drama we have studied in class.

e.g.

A is for Alvarez. Alverez identfied common racial stereotypes in media texts. These were... an example of this can be seen in the screen grab below from Hotel Babylon

FAQ

Where will I find all this? Look through your class notes, essays, blog posts, feedback sheets, my blog, the internet to find all the terms, definitions and examples

How long do I have to do all this? Today's lesson and some of your festive 50  

What about the letter X? Xenophobia

Z? Zoom

Social Class and Status Feedback lesson

CLASS AND STATUS FEEDBACK SHEET

FEEDBACK PPTX

In today's lesson you will act on the feedback given and make improvements to your class and status essays.

Next Steps: 
 Go through your first draft and highlight every time you have used the words ‘class’ and ‘status’ 
 Select two paragraphs of your essay which I’ve written a number by. Re-write these paragraphs to address the target in GREEN pen 
 Improve accuracy of terminology use -> starting points: sound and editing definitions above 
 Improve links to critical views of stereotypes -> starting points: Perkins explanation above 
 Include evaluation of audience response 
 Integrate mise-en-scene into your examples 

Gender

Traditional Stereotypes

The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey from Neill Ford

 

 

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of gender using the following: 

• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition 
• Editing 
• Sound 
• Mise en scène

Summer 2010 OCR Media Studies Extract from N Tennear on Vimeo.

SOCIAL CLASS & STATUS

SOCIAL CLASS & STATUS 

This has much in common with issues around urban v rural which can be seen with regional identity. 

Clothing codes are often crucial, but so too accent and speech: use of slang v complex language. 

Possessions naturally, and housing, are key factors. 

Camera angles can be used to establish class difference, as seen in the opening of Tess of the D’Urbevilles with the minister high up on horseback and the humble peasant literally beneath him. 

In dramas with a degree of comedy (‘dramedy’) the clash between the classes will be used as a source of humour, the refines tastes of the ABC1s (middle to upper class) clashing with those of the C2DEs (lower- middle class to working class). 

Class identity is established in TV drama partially through possessions of characters. For example when drinking alcohol the receptacle (container) it is poured from can be significant: from the cheap lager of Shameless to the decantered brandy of MofG. 

The easily offended sensibilities of the middle classes are also often a source of humour. With working class characters, the key stereotype tends to revolve around crime, though laziness/dole scrounging can also be commonly seen. 

Having said that, there are still some stereotypes associated with different classes:

• Upper Classes (eg Made in Chelsea) – often shown as rich, clever, snobby, very posh

• Middle Classes (eg My Family)– often shown as “normal”, good family values, well behaved

• Working Classes (eg Coronation Street) – often shown as poorer, less happy, less intelligent, but with strong community links

• Lower / Under Classes (eg Shameless) – often shown as being criminals, no family values, no community links, bad parents etc

People have often noticed that in many TV shows, people of different classes, don’t mix. And when they are shown together, they are often shown as clashing and being very different.

If you get “class” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:

• Can I identify what class characters are?

• Are people from different classes shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?

• Is their class represented as being important in their life?

• Are people from particular classes portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?

• Are people from particular classes portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/more pathetic than others?

• How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different classes?

• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about class?

KEY IDEAS: refined/sophisticated v crude/backwards, eg with language, choice of drinks, clothing; often similar to urban v rural; power/less; victim v criminal http://bit.ly/1qzip7f

TASK

Watch the sequence FOUR times. 

Read each of the following Band 4 essays (below) and prepare them for me to mark as though they were your own.

Complete a cover sheet for each (see link COVER SHEET), you will need 3 in total

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwqZRopnG_XKcm4zaWhsc3JSRDg

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwqZRopnG_XKQWo3djJ2VExJSVk

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwqZRopnG_XKLWhZdXV1Z2FCclU

COVER SHEET

Representation of Age - Feedback lesson

Today's PowerPoint:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwqZRopnG_XKWmpCSGVqN09SWjA 

Using the class feedback sheet and marking grid, select TWO paragrapgh to re-write and improve.

Once again ALL work must be prepared for marking, and a cover sheet completed prior to submission.

Links to the marking grid, class feedback, and reflection sheet can be found below.

Age Self Assessment Cover Sheet   

Age Whole Class Feedback 

Marking Grid  

Your work now carries your own personal anonymous number. Remember this number so you can see how far off your target grade you are.

Representation of Age

How does the extract construct representations of age using:

Camerawork
Mise-en-scene
Editing
Sound

50 marks


Explanation/argument/analysis = 20 marks
Examples = 20 marks
Terminology = 10 marks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SLmRxu2Qnc&list=PLAC15C50BB775177D&index=27

In today's lesson I want you to watch the sequence FOUR times.

The first time you are NOT allowed to make notes. During your second, third and fourth viewings you may make notes.

After you have made notes you need to write your essay in 45 minutes and prepare it for me.

SELF ASSESSMENT GRID

Improving your essays

Today you are going to make improvements to your TV Drama essays. Use the marking grid below (see link) to help identify where your work requires improvement, and then select two paragraphs which you will re-write. Improve these sections by hand and pass to me with a completed reflection sheet.

Grade boundaries

A 40-50
B 35-39
C 30-34
D 25-29
E 21-24
U 0-20 

MARKING GRID

CLASS FEEDBACK ETHNICITY 

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION SHEET  ETHNICITY

EXAMPLES OF GOOD STUDENT WORK ETHNICITY

CLASS FEEDBACK DISABILITY

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION SHEET DISABILITY

EXAMPLE OF 'A' GRADE WORK DISABILITY

EXAMPLE OF GOOD STUDENT WORK DISABILITY

AFl monarch Of The Glen

Monarch of the Glen (Analysing Age) from Steve Boyes on Vimeo.

Yr12 Media Afl Monarch of the Glen

Representation: disability

How does the extract construct representations of disability using:

• Camerawork
• Mise-en-scene
• Editing
• Sound

50 marks

Explanation/argument/analysis = 20 marks

Examples = 20 marks

Terminology = 10 marks

The handout to accompany this lesson can be downloaded HERE

Today's Lesson - Complete your TV drama essay and prepare it for submission.

Before I mark your essay you must prepare it for me. If you skip a step I will not mark your work.

Step 1

• Highlight every references to 'regional identity' in red
• Highlight every technical term for camera angles in yellow
• Put in bold every technical term for editing
• Italicize every term for sound

Step 2

Reflection and target

Is there a technical area which you can already identify you have under analysed? Write this at the end of your essay.

Step 3

Underline ALL references to Roland Barthes narrative codes.

Step 4

Highlight all coordinating conjunctions in blue

and, also, in addition, not only … but also, moreover, further, besides, or, or else, alternatively, in the same way, likewise, just as, both … and, but, however, in contrast, on the contrary, instead, nevertheless, yet, still, even so, neither … nor, though, although, despite, in spite of, notwithstanding, whereas, while..

Writing an essay

Regional identity from Mr Smith

Regional Identity - The 'oner'

Representation of Regional Identity Regional Identity refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is from. It could refer to a general area such a “north” or “south”, a country such as “English” or “Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or “Manchester.” There are several regional stereotypes widely seen on television: 

•Scottish – often shown as being money obsessed, won’t pay for anything, drinks a lot of alcohol, loves the outdoors, wears kilts, eats haggis, quite aggressive and violent 
•Welsh –Often shown as living in the middle of the countryside, less intelligent, good at singing (Male voice choirs),with people making jokes about them “shagging sheep” 
• Irish – often shown as living in the countryside, working in rural areas such as farms, being very religious, being good at dancing and singing (love a good craic), very friendly but less intelligent 
• English – often shown as being racist (think St George cross on houses or cars), obsessed with beer and football living in London. Sometimes the stereotype goes in the opposite direction of showing English people as very rich, posh, happy, living in castles and being very “royal.” 
•London – There are two main stereotypes of Londoners. One is that they are often shown as being rich, posh, snobby, upper class, Hugh Grant types from central or west london. The other is that they often shown as being from north, east or south London, poor, common, lower class, criminalistic, violent “Kidulthood” style 
•Manchester / Newcastle / Liverpool – Often shown as being “chavs”, wearing fake designer labels, or tracksuits, drinking a lot, being aggressive, uneducated, criminals 
• Essex – often shown as being glamorous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying, being quite stupid 
•Yorkshire – Often shown as living in rural countryside, with rolling hills and cobbled streets, being quite old fashioned (despite Yorkshire being the biggest county and containing large cities such as: Leeds, York and Sheffield) 
•Cornwall / Somerset – Often shown as being “backwards”, living in rural areas, working on farms •South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny, richer, doing middle class jobs where one dresses smartly 
•North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders etc 

If you get “regional identity” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip (use these bullet points to analyse the clip): 

•Can I identify where the characters are from within the country? 
•Are people from different areas shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how? 
• Is their regional identity represented as being important in their life? 
•Are people from particular regions portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others? 
•Are people from particular regions portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others? •How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different regions? 
• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about regional identity?



Discuss the ways the extract constructs representations of regional identity.

• Consider:
• Camerawork/angles/movement
• Sound
• Editing
• Mise-en-scene

Today's Lesson - Our First Essay

Today's tasks are:

1. Complete the stereotype work from last lesson and post to your blog

2. On lined paper, answer the following exam question using the Hotel Babylon sequence

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of ethnicity using the following:

• Camera shots, movement, angles, composition
• editing
• sound
• mise-en-scene

Reminders of stereotypes for ethnicity:

dangerous
exotic
pitied
humourous
'mystical negro' stereotype
irrational (not reasoning, and easily led by their emotions)
lustful
not usually powerful in society


Asian:

academic/scholarly
wise
respectful



REMEMBER THIS:

Unity and Conflict
Conflict is often the theme between ethnic groups and the wider society.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes yr12 updated from Mr Smith

Camera and Editing Terms

Thanks to Mr Hibbert for these resources. More resources can be found HERE

David Fincher - And The Other Way Is Wrong

TV Drama Representation - Ethnicity

Look at page one of your ethnicity handout; watch the extract and then answer the questions regarding ethnicity and post to your blog. 

You MUST freeze frame the image to demonstrate where your opinion is from. You MUST include a minimum of EIGHT images (one per question).



If you get “ethnicity” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip: 

• Can I identify what ethnicities people are? 
How? Why?
• Are people from different ethnic backgrounds shown as different interests, 
 personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how? 

• Is their ethnicity represented as being important in their life? 

• Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being better, more 
 powerful, than others?
• Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ 
 more pathetic than others? 

• How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different ethnic 
 backgrounds? 

• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about ethnicity? 

• Don’t ignore the white characters as they need to be analysed too! 



Four Key Themes in Racial Representations
 exotic
 dangerous
 humorous
 pitied
(Alvarado et al. 1987: 153)

Unity and Conflict
Conflict is often the binary opposition of ethnic groups and the wider society.
Unity is often an element of the representation of ethnicity, this hits a stereotype of ethnicity, that of close families and tight communities.

Representation: A Simple(ish) Explanation

Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures


The term refers to the processes involved as well as to its products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity - Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity (the 'cage' of identity) - representation involves not only how identities are represented (or rather constructed) within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people whose identities are also differentially marked in relation to such demographic factors.


Consider, for instance, the issue of 'the gaze'. How do men look at images of women, women at men, men at men and women at women?


Representation In The Media

By definition, all media texts are re-presentations of reality. This means that they are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us.



When studying the media it is vital to remember this - every media form, from a home video to a glossy magazine, is a representation of someone's concept of existence, codified into a series of signs and symbols which can be read by an audience. However, it is important to note that without the media, our perception of reality would be very limited, and that we, as an audience, need these artificial texts to mediate our view of the world, in other words we need the media to make sense of reality. Therefore representation is a fluid, two-way process: producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess a text on its relationship to reality.

Representation

The area we will be covering is Textual Analysis and Representation.

You need to familiarise yourselves with the 7 areas of representation and the 4 areas of analysis. These are the areas we will be covering in class over the next 14 weeks.

As a starting point I want you to think about how you construct your own representation.

Use UK Tribes (password is on the wall in H2 but you may not need to sign in and can use it as a site for research instead) to find the group or groups (there can be crossover) that you think you belong to. Why do you belong to this group(s).

What media figures (actors, musicians, sportspeople, celebrities) do you consider similar to you. In what way are they similar to you/ are you similar to them?

Do you consciously 'model' (copy modes of dress, style yourself, act like) yourself on any of these media figures? Why is that?

Construct a representation of yourself using the above information. Add images of the type of clothes, accessories and gadgets you prefer. Add images and descriptions from UK Tribes to further illustrate your self representation. Post directly to your blog, or if using word embed in Scribd before uploading.

The 4 Key Areas of Textual Analysis

Camera Shots, Angle, Movement, Composition

Shots: establishing shot, master shot, close-up, mid-shot, long shot, wide shot, two-shot, aerial shot, point of view shot, over the shoulder shot, and variations of these.
Angle: high angle, low angle, canted angle.
Movement: pan, tilt, track, dolly, crane, steadicam, hand-held, zoom, reverse zoom.
Composition: framing, rule of thirds, depth of field – deep and shallow focus, focus pulls.

Editing

Includes transition of image and sound – continuity and non-continuity systems.
Cutting: shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, graphic match, action match, jump cut, crosscutting, parallel editing, cutaway; insert.
Other transitions, dissolve, fade-in, fade-out, wipe, superimposition, long take, short take, slow motion, ellipsis and expansion of time, post-production, visual effects.

Sound

Soundtrack: score, incidental music, themes and stings, ambient sound.
Diegetic and non-diegetic sound; synchronous/asynchronous sound; sound effects; sound motif, sound bridge, dialogue, voiceover, mode of address/direct address, sound mixing, sound perspective.

Mise-en-Scène

Production design: location, studio, set design, costume and make-up, properties.
Lighting; colour design.

Textual Analysis and Representation (The 7 key areas of Representation).

You need to understand how the technical elements (in the last post) create specific representations of individuals, groups, events or places and help to articulate specific messages and values that have social significance.

Particular areas of representation that may be chosen are:
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Sexuality
Class and status
Physical ability/disability
Regional identity

Representation

The area we will be covering is Textual Analysis and Representation.

You need to familiarise yourselves with the 7 areas of representation and the 4 areas of analysis. These are the areas we will be covering in class over the next 14 weeks.

As a starting point I want you to think about how you construct your own representation.

Use UK Tribes (password is on the wall in H2 but you may not need to sign in and can use it as a site for research instead) to find the group or groups (there can be crossover) that you think you belong to. Why do you belong to this group(s).

What media figures (actors, musicians, sportspeople, celebrities) do you consider similar to you. In what way are they similar to you/ are you similar to them?

Do you consciously 'model' (copy modes of dress, style yourself, act like) yourself on any of these media figures? Why is that?

Construct a representation of yourself using the above information. Add images of the type of clothes, accessories and gadgets you prefer. Add images and descriptions from UK Tribes to further illustrate your self representation. Post directly to your blog, or if using word embed in Scribd before uploading.

How to read a film still - Taken from MediaMonkey

Keep this in mind whenever analysing a moving image clip's mise en scene. These are all the elements you need to consider.

Mise en scene from The Henley College

 

TASK

Select a film still and annotate/analyse it using each of the categories on the work sheet provided.

Let us do the first together

How to Read Film Still

Introduction To Year 12

You need to complete the following tasks:

1.Set up a blog using Blogger.

The address needs to be yournamelcmedia1617.blogspot.com

IN THE HIGHLY UNLIKELY EVENT THAT THE COLLEGE NETWORK DOESN'T ALLOW BLOGGER TO WORK, SKIP TO NUMBERS 5 AND 6 AND PUT YOUR WORK ONTO A WORD DOCUMENT

e.g. johngreenlcmedia1617.blogspot.com

2. Add the following gadgets to your blog (as a minimum):

• labels
• blog list
• link to teacher blogs (also follow both teacher blogs )

3. Set up accounts in the following:

Scribd - used to embed text documents.
Slideshare - used to embed powerpoint. This may be blocked in college,you can create the account at home.
Flickr - used to embed image galleries and slideshows.
Dropbox - useful for saving files
Soundcloud - you'll use this for some of your presentations
Mixcloud - this will enable you to post themed mixes that will link to your music magazine coursework

4. The area we will be covering is TV Drama.

Please add this link to your favourites 

http://mrsmithasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/

http://fordasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/

5. As a starting point I want you to think about some of the TV Dramas that you've seen recently (this links to the summer hmwk) and produce a blog post which answers the following prompts in detail (this means around 250-500 words).

• What made you want to watch these shows (cast, channel, storylines, reputation of show, recommendation from friends, press hype)? Explain your decision fully
• Did you find the drama believable? 
• Is believability or realism important?
• Did you find the characters relatable?
• What factors impacted or your enjoyment or lack of enjoyment?

6. Complete the 5x5 task (see separate post).