Representation

The literal definition of representation is the "description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature."

"Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective. Rather than examining media representations as simply reflecting or mirroring "reality," we examine how media representations serve to "re-present" or to actually create a new reality." - Source

In the media, people are represented in a variety of different ways such as age, gender, ethnicity, culture, and even status, through signs know as codes and conventions. In the example below, taken from Taylor Swift's music video 'You Belong With Me', a wide range of characters have been portrayed, representing very contrasting stereotypes within a high school setting. 

These first pictures have been taken from the beginning and middle of Taylor's music video. Within them it is apparent that the director's have attempted to represent her character as a shy, nerdy girl who carries connotations of big glasses, books and dull, basic clothing. Not only does this stereotype become immediately recognisable to the teenage audience but it allows the viewer to empathise with her quiet personality in the situation portrayed. 

This second character is in fact played by the artist again, but portraying a completely different teenage girl. Highlighted through the recognisable conventions of a cheerleader uniform, sunglasses and sports car, the viewer can see a stereotypical 'popular girl' that directly contrasts the initial shy character. 

The last stereotype presented in this music video is shown through the identity of the male protagonist. He carries conventions of being the school 'hunk'/sports star because of his relationship status with the popular girl, his charming looks and his position on the sport's team.

As a result of this analysis, I have realised the importance of representations and how they manage to connect to the audience through a variety of different signs, codes and conventions. This has inspired me to carefully consider my character choices and how they will be represented in my music video.

Composition Practice

As a result of looking at some examples of Rosie Hardy's work, I decided to experiment with taking a few different shots in order to develop my knowledge of compositions within photography. This will not only help me when it comes to filming my music video as I can frame each scene appropriately, but it allows me to practice working with a camera. 

This first shot of my sister, who will in fact be the actress featuring in my music video, I took as a medium close up. Not only does this composition frame her face very well, but it allows the viewer to see the her features in greater detail. 

With this photograph I made sure to position the tree slightly off centred so that it became more aesthetically pleasing, following the rule of thirds at the same time. The rope hanging down from the branch subtly became the central focus and I feel it added another layer of depth to this photograph. 

Using a variety of objects that are relevant to the narrative of my music video, I positioned the props in a variety of angles so that the many straight lines became the focus of this picture. As a close up shot I believe this was successful as it allows for a large amount of detail within the map etc. 

Another extreme close up is used in this photograph, again highlighting relevant items to my narrative of travel. The proximity of the camera to the map gives an opportunity for the viewer to clearly identify this recognisable location, whilst the composition of the trailing pins to the bottom right hand corner gives a sense of movement within the photograph. 

This final shot features a similar close up where it provides relevant text as well as an instrument relating to my country pop genre. The composition in this picture, however, provides a different layout where your eye moves from the guitar at the top to the journal and the bottom left. Overall I am pleased with my 5 shots as they not only provide a variety of compositions but also display scenes relatable to my chosen narrative and genre. 

Audience Theories

Hypodermic Needle Theory:

This first theory surrounds the idea that audiences passively receive information from the media, accepting many ideas without real thought. In other words,  we are easily manipulated, and have our behaviour dictated, by media creators. It does originate from the 1920s however, suggesting this theory is less effective amongst the passive audiences of today; we are becoming much more involved with media, dictating the experience for ourselves. 

Two-Step Flow: 

Continuing from the previous theory, this two-step flow suggests that information surpasses important, influential figures, or 'opinion leaders', before reaching the wider audience. As a theory, the two-step flow presents the media to be less powerful, suggesting other factors such as personal beliefs can infiltrate an audience's interpretation. 

Uses and Gratifications: 

This important theory recognises the fact that audiences are increasingly becoming passive when it comes to reading media texts, bringing their individual preferences for their consumption of media. Charles Wright Mills, an American sociologist, suggested individuals follow the four functions when it comes to media: 

• To give people instruction
• To give individuals identity
• To give people aspiration 
• To give people a sense of escapism. 

In 1974 researchers Jay Blumler and Elihu Katz extended the uses and gratifications theory, publishing their own list of purposes for individual media choices:

• Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Personal relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, for example substituting soap operas for family life.
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviours and values from texts.
• Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living, for example weather reports, financial news or holiday bargains.

Reception Theory:

This final theory was highly influenced by Stuart Hall, a cultural theorist, who by producing his encoding/decoding model created the new idea that the same text may be interpreted differently depending on the individual. This includes their gender, class, age, ethnicity, beliefs etc; encoded by the producer, decoded by the audience. 

It is most important that I refer back to these different theories throughout the development of my music video, making sure to include recognised codes and conventions that can be easily interpreted by any individual within my target audience. This can be achieved by obtaining audience feedback throughout, making it more possible to create a strong final video.

Photographer Analysis: Rosie Hardy

'Winter'

Rosie Hardy is a Manchester based photographer who began developing her interest in photography at the age of 17. On the 31st of March 2008 Rosie decided to make an art project called '365' where she would take a photograph every day for a year, helping her to learn how to direct and pose herself as you get used to being on both sides of the camera. 

'Spines to rest your spine'

'Untitled'

"I'm a 20 year old aspiring photographer with Peter Pan Syndrome. Surrealism rules my world, as does naivety and logic. I'm an existentialist, and I think I just told you all of that in the wrong order. Re-read it backwards and it'll make sense, most things do when you look at them differently." - Rosie Hardy

'Come Back'

'Hideaway'

What I particularly love about Rosie's photography is how she can create such interesting effects using clever editing and photo manipulation in post production. Her completed version of 'Hideaway' was created by cloning and transforming the surrounding buildings to make artificial roofs and walls to fill the blank space. After moving the umbrella around in 20 different places, Rosie created shadows in GIMP, an image manipulation programme, adding smoke and sky layers. As explained on her blog, she much prefers to build a square scene rather than crop as it helps to focus on composition, as well as the fact that if she'd shot this further away it would have been a lot smaller and the finish not as effective.

From Rosie Hardy's photography I can take inspiration from her interesting editing style as well as multiple compositions that she uses in order to construct my own scenes in my music video. Furthermore, her ability to build unique locations through her square crop method reinforces the idea that I should pay careful attention when framing each and every shot.

Moodboard

In the follow up to the making of my music video, I decided to create a moodboard that could express my thoughts visually. Using images I collected from Tumblr, as well as my own photographs, I arranged a variety of inspirational views, words, and symbols that link to my music video narrative - travel. Furthermore, I included a copy of the lyrics from my chosen song 'Lonely Road' by Emma Lauran, taking lines such as "see the world" and "make a new adventure" to emphasise my journeying theme, featuring them around my moodboard. Once completed, I presented the board and talked about some of my ideas to the class in order to obtain some initial feedback.

--------------------------------------

 Feedback/Comments:

+

"I think your images show a theme which is really linked to the song's lyrics."

"You explained a clear narrative."

"The images are bold and give a clear feel of your music video."

"It's clear you've thought about your narrative really well and made sure that there is an on-going mood."

-

"Apart from the lyrics, there is no real narrative on the mood board."
 --------------------------------------

From these constructive comments I have received, I now know that I need to focus on presenting my narrative. Although this is something I am sure of in my head, it is important that I begin to present these ideas surrounding the story of my music video by carefully planning and constructing a storyboard. By doing this it will be considerably easier to work from and develop my music video plans as I can refer to my chosen narrative throughout which is subject to change and improve. Overall, I am pleased with how my moodboard turned out as it presents the main themes of travel and aspiration that I would love to portray, as well as some inspirational images that I can use for compositional ideas.


Above is a slideshow I created to show the images I used for my moodboard.

Consuming Media Products

Since the start of AS Level, when I first began learning Media Studies, I can easily say that my knowledge of media texts and how they are read has noticeably improved. In both the way I read, or consume, media products that we come across every day, the development of Web 2.0 has dramatically enhanced this process - making media far more accessible for everyone, particularly on social networking sites. 

Web 2.0 is the term given to describe "a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online." - webopedia. In other words, it is the new branch of the internet; the media is heavily reliant on social networking and user generated content. This means that there isn't a clear divide between a media consumer and a media producer, bridging the gap between the two in our modern age. 

At this very moment we are living in a remix culture; we have become a part of society that allows as well as encourages derivative work (work based upon one or more pre-existing creations, such as a translation, motion picture, sound recording). This is achieved by editing or connecting current materials to produce a brand new product, changing, and even improving its original, hence the term 'remix'. 

Media Literacy

"Media literacy can be defined as the ability to read a media text, in understanding the process of communication through the construction of an artefact and its sets of representations. The ability to read a media text, in its visual or audio form, is itself paramount to understanding the meaning that a text may convey which is dependent upon the individual psychological, and sociocultural context of the reader." - Jason Mazzochi

 



The above quote, which was recently presented to me, I feel holds great importance to the development of my music video, particularly looking into my target audience, as it suggests that someone's reaction to and understanding of a media text is entirely unique.