Analysis Critical Perspectives: Essay Analysis: Gender -

Extract from Candidate  - 

Examples

Terminology

Theory

Analysis

Grammar

I have been researching teenagers and their identity. I’ve been looking into how the media shown teenagers.

I will relate this to Misfits and Fishtank, and explain their collective identity.

Misfits is a british tv series based on a group of teens who are all facing community service.

We learn all there individual identity’s and are made to believe they have no hope. We meet 5 teenagers who are all stereotypically shown with anti-social behavior. In the group there is a party girl, sports runner, cocky one etc.

Tajfel and turner quote that ‘people tend to categorise themselves into groups which they then build their identity’s’. I disagree with this as these have been emerged together as they have all been in crime. These include drugs, drink driving, fighting etc.

Historically this can relate to Skins and grange hill, these are all school based although skins covered more controversial issues. We see petty crimes which aren’t as serious as the ones in misfits. Tajfel and turner quite is related to skins as they are all a group of friends and they build there identity together.

Fishtank a 2009 film, teenagers are portrayed differently. We get to see Mia a 15 year old girl who has no hope. She has a dream of dancing but with young single mothered mum who shouts and swears at children she has a poor family structure to help her. David Buckingham quotes that the media don’t just offer a transparent window of the world but a mediated one.

Mia smokes, binge drink and has underage sex. The audience are made to believe that all teenagers are like this. He young mother who gets a boyfriend, he wants to help Mia and find her identity. He often asks her to dance to his favourite song although when she does we see them having sex. David Buckingham quote can be related to misfits, we are made to believe that all teenagers have convicted crimes. In Bullett Boy we see a gang of boys who are all involved in drugs and crime. The media show teen culture in a very bad way. Misfits is released on TV past the water shed times as they all swear etc. It is shown on both E4 and channel 4, their website contains games, podcasts, blogs etc. On the blogs you can communicate with other fans. They have a facebook and twitter page with all individual accounts. David Gauntlett explains that identity’s are complicated however everyone thinks they have one.

In Fishtank her mothers boyfriends finds a dance event she can attend Mia then believes she made have found her identity when she gets there she is called up on stage for which she didn’t know it was pole/lap dancing.

The media then show how teenagers have no hope or luck.

Historically this could be related to Dawson’s creek as we are made to look down on the anti-social behaviour teens. It could also relate to Waterloo road which is a tv series on a school who the youngens follow the action of the olders.

We then get to see the mother having a party in her council estate flats with family and friends. Her two children aren’t invited an stay upstairs. This shows the lack of family structure at home. We meet Mia’s little sister tyler with a friend both who are swearing and smoking.


The audience are left to believe all young mums live in broken britain and teenagers have no hope at all.

Mia was kicked out of school and they receive In both misfits and fishtank the media have stereotypically shown teenagers and portrayed them very negatively. We are made to believe that all teenagers are into anti-social behaviour, drinking, drugs, smoking etc. The media will only shown the negative sides of teen culture so everyone will believe teens do this in everyday life not the positives that they do. 

Mark - 

Terminology: 2 / 10

Analysis: 5 / 20

Examples: 5 / 20

(Grammar: - 5)

End Mark Prediction: 7 / 50

End Mark Actual: 27 / 50

End Grade Prediction: E

End Grade Actual: E >

Theories used with limited convictions.

Assumes straightforward connection of meaning.

General and simplistic showing basic understanding of basic critical perspectives and terminology.

Analysis Critical Perspectives: Media Essay: Gender -

Critical Perspectives Essay: Gender - 

• “Media simply represent collective identity, they don’t create it.” How far do you agree with this statement?

Collective identity is a group with shared norms and values which could include any subculture within society such as gender. The media as an influential institution within society is often responsible for representing and mediating groups to mass audiences and it has often been a concern of theorists as to whether collective identity is self-constructed or ruled over by ideas of the ruling class in a hegemonic way.

Firstly, magazines well known in Western culture aimed at both males and females help to exemplify the collective identity of gender in media. For instance, Men's Health magazine and Women's Health magazine are both formed by the same company but aimed at the subculture of two genders. It could be argued that the collective identity of the most widely accepted female or feminine construction within society is formed within the mass media whilst the less accepted variations are those created by group refusing to conform to the hegemonic values as coined by Gramsci. For example, the below examples of Women's Health and Men's Health are both old media texts from 2010 and appear as though they would focus on the same ideals due to the head noun of the headline "Health" but structuration ideas in society mean that media representation is more so than just that and is also responsible for constructing the ideal feminine female and masculine male. Women are encouraged to consider their weight and appearance through the use of lexis such as "Shrink" and "Bikini Body". To further this, the use of the word "Body" as opposed to focusing on the whole person places women in a position of sexual objectification as is discussed by Mulvey and her theory of "The Male Gaze". Additionally to this, the females magazine focuses on sex often from the perspective as how to please your male counterpart whilst all other stories on the front page relate again to appearance and how to fit societal ideals of feminine constructions of the female collective identity subculture. This could be due to the owners of the media being predominantly male, 22.6% of reporters were female to 77.4% male, meaning that the media conveys gender collective identity in cohesion with the constructed patriarchal ideas of a male dominated society made for the mass males. Similarly, the males magazine also delves into representations and constructions of the stereotypical male through reference of appearance and sex. This specific magazine constructs the male collective identity as masculine only when muscular, concerned about sex and training. Despite this, the magazine also conforms to Hansen's "The Female Gaze". Buckingham states that "to understand identities, one is required to investigate the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their effects" as is exemplified by the below magazines in reference to the everyday construction of identities reinforcing the structuration of the period.

The representation in the characters of Westley and Princess Buttercup in "The Princess Bride" both construct ideas on gender within the media and is an example of an old media text from 1987. Princess Buttercup is constructed by William Goldman as an archetypal character representing the stereotypical female gender collective identity. Buttercup is beautiful by definition of the media within the structuration of the period; she is a pale skinned, blonde and slim Princess who serves as the object of desire to be won by the both attractive and intelligent male exemplar Westley. The fairytale structure of the film places the genders in roles in accordance with Propp's narrative theory. Princess Buttercup is under the character type of "Princess" whilst Westley is the "Hero". Buttercup as the "Princess" is the prize to be won by the "Hero" after battling against perils. Also, once the relationship is established they exemplify the collective identity together in that they fit the 'straight white blonde couple' stereotype. Furthermore, the female lead would be expected to be independent and strong willed but instead Goldman employs a stereotypical novel fairytale character in film to exaggerate the cliche and thus challenge the societal structuration and ideologies at the time revolving around feminism as the film was released in second wave feminism. This links to Butler's (1990) idea of gender being exaggerated and "tongue in cheek". Moreover, Westley, as a male lead is the pinnacle of masculinity; he is, as voice by Earp and Katz (1999), the image of "manhood" in his dominance and battle prowess. This construction is a reinforcement of the ideas of the time although the stereotypical ideas are actually used to challenge society and encourage a new structuration which soon introduced the meterosexual male which could be seen in the magazine as outline above. 

In comparison, the protagonists of Ragnar and Lagertha in the modern media text "Vikings" from 2013 - present also convey varied perspectives of gender. Structuration over time changes, as voiced by Giddens, and thus the modern media representations of characters change too. As a result, despite the programme being set in the viking era, the characters are varied to the earlier 1987 text. Lagertha is a sheild-maiden and a farmer in a position of high power after marrying a power hungry, sexually driven and violent male Ragnar Lothbrok. Additionally, there is a scene when the vikings make a deal with King Ecbert in which a christian woman sattes her husband abused her after falsely accusing her of infidelity; the viking state that the female word is taken over males on realms of domesticity to whig the christian King asks "So the pagans are more advanced than us there?". Ragnar is known for his infidelity but is forgiven his cheating due to his position of power first as Earl and then King of the Danish vikings. The power hungry relationship established between Ragnar and his brother Rollo is one of violence and manipulation as they conform to the stereotypical male in their appearance and actions as according to Earp and Katz (1999) idea that within media "a widespread and disturbing equation of masculinity and pathological control and violence"; to elaborate, the male vikings are given right to any female in their service. Although, women are able to rule in positions of power and not concern themselves solely with their male counterparts. The reasons for some gender inequality may be as a result of the setting in the viking era whilst the representations and structuration of modern society can be seen in the dramatisation of some events and representation of the female gender which was not constructed by the media but instead influenced by now ancient history relating to earlier human ancestors. 

To conclude, it can be said as is voiced by Buckingham that "Media does not just offer a transparent window on the world but a mediated version of the world. They don't just present reality, they re-present it -" although it can also be created within the media. The outline media texts above conveying gender exemplify the possibility of construction of the ideal collective identity but collective identity as a concept itself cannot be created within the media.

Analysis Critical Perspectives: Media Notes: Gender -

Critical Perspectives: Gender - 

Definitions:

• Sex: Refers to biological and physiological characteristic that define men and women. 
• Gender: Refers to socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. 
• Transgender: Denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender.
• Misogyny: The dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.
• Patriarchy: Male dominated society. 
• Metrosexual (1990s): Young single man with high disposable income, living in the city near to best shops. Is not gay but is often confused with being homosexual. He is objectified and sexualised as a sex object (against stereotypical ideas). 
• The Norm of Gender: White middle class heterosexual male. 
• Feminism: Campaign for equality of the sexes. 
• Post-Feminism: Feminism is a dead concept as it has been fazed out. 
• Dual Burden: Women balancing housework and paid work.
• Triple Shift: Women balancing housework, paid word and children/home life. 
• Invisible Work: Work not seen as a large role and completed quietly. For instance planning for birthdays etc. 
• Genderfuck: A term used to describe a person's gender identity (as in male, female, no gender, queer) or the act of consciously and conspicuously challenging traditional ideas of the gender binary through androgyny, hyperbole, and cross-dressing.

Masculinity:

• Strength (physical and mental)
• Power, sexual attractiveness (also based on power)
• Physique
• Independent (thought, action, finances)
• Isolated

Femininity:

• Beauty (narrow conventions)
• Size and physique (narrow convention)
• Sexuality (linked to prior qualities)
• Emotional (opposed to intellectual)
• Relationships (opposed to independence/ freedom) 

Other:

• Representation: The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way by the mass media. 
• Collective Identity: A social group who shares a set of norms and values. 
• Structuration: The process in which human agency, people, and social structure, society, are in a constant relationship. The social structure is reproduced by the repetition of acts by individuals which means that society is flexible and can change over time.
• Stereotypes: A biased and prejudiced understanding of a social group.

Textual Media Examples - 

The Lego company has created magazines for genders to accompany their toy ranges; the "girls" magazine is explicitly stated to be so as it is deviant from the male norm whilst "boys" magazine is not.

The "boys" magazine focus around action, superheroes and battles. Dark strong colours like reds, blues etc. 

The "girls" magazine focuses on fashion, relationships animals etc. Bright bold colours like pinks and lilacs etc. 

Strauss: Binary Opposites

"Female" magazine focuses on subordinate relationships with their male counterparts "how to mend a broken heart", how important appearance is "body confidence" and gossip society "celeb hair". 

"Male" magazine focuses on females as a sexual object for male desire "(AND ONE HOT WOMAN)", obsession with domination and power "MEN OF THE YEAR" etc. 

Mulvey: Females as an Accessory/ Sexual Object for Male Desire

Theorists for Males - 

Earp and Kats (1999):

Studies male representations in the media and found "a widespread and disturbing equation of masculinity and pathological control and violence".

Claim it is media responsible for the steady stream of images that define "manhood" connected with dominance, violence and control.

Metrosexual (1990s): 

Young single man with high disposable income, living in the city near to best shops. Is not gay but is often confused with being homosexual. He is objectified and sexualised as a sex object (against stereotypical ideas).

The Fool/ Buffoon: 

Well intentioned and light hearted, range from slightly inept to completely hopeless in work, parenting and domestic situation.

Theories for Females - 

Propp:

Females in media are the passive HELPER or OBJECT ( Often passivity extends to victimhood).

Women and Domesticity:

Women as housewives or mothers.

Women as sex objects represented to entertain and titilate the male.

Females in Magazines: 

Young, slim, overwhelmingly white and conforming to image of ideal beauty (perfect skin, hair and alluring gaze).

Theories in General - 

Vern and Bonnie Bullough (1993): 

Gender roles are equated with masculinity and femininity or male as provider and female as nurturer.

Gender Identity: Self conceived.

Gender Role: As it is perceived by others.

Judith Butler (1990): 

Gender is not the result of nature but is socially constructed.

Gender is often exaggerated "tongue in cheek" representation of masculinity and femininity. This causes 'gender trouble'.

Queer Theory: 

Challenges the traditional idea that there is a binary divide between gay and heterosexual and instead suggests that sexual identity if more fluid.

Heterosexual is constructed as the normal.

Steve Neal: Gay Gaze (1992):

Images which show men in passive, submissive, sexualised poses can be described as homoerotic. Usually the male will have their hands behind their heads in a pose which could suggest
submissiveness.

David Buckingham: Re-Present:

"Media does not just offer a transparent window on the world but a mediated version of the world. They don't just present reality, they re-present it -"

The Bechdel Test:

Questions - 

• How does society treat people who do not conform to gender norms?

Society believes that gender is based solely upon biological sex at birth despite the fact that gender is a social construct. Groups who do not conform are often made to seem invisible. However, in relation to structuration, societies ideologies are changing and improving over time. For instance the introduction of the gender neutral pronoun on university applications of "Mx". 

• What is our society's dominant ideology abut gender? 

The dominant ideology is that females are submissive, males are dominant and other gender groups are invisible. 

(Boy George) 

Boy George made an appearance on 'Top of the Pops' as part of a band and the audience were unsure of his gender for some time after that. The use of makeup stunned audiences. 

(David Bowie)

(Ruby Rose)

Further Notes - 

Women in Media:

"The average percentage of female reporters was 22.6% - compared to 77.4% of males - " Guardian (2011)

Women are a rarely in the role of owners of the media thus meaning that the construction of women in media is less likely to reflect collective identity.

Wonder Woman:
Feminist icon or sexual objectification?

The United Nations wanted to promote Wonder Woman to be an ambassador for women. This caused an uproar as:

• She is a fictional character without her own ideas, opinions and the ability to unite the people.
• Her ensemble is overtly sexually objectified.

Old Media:

New Media: 

Analysis Critical Perspectives: Media Notes: Youth -

Critical Perspectives: Youth - 

Definitions:

• Hegemony: The values of one social group being enforced upon another.
• Mediation: Intervention in a dispute in order to resolve it (influenced by social, economic, political and other factors).
• Representation: The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way by the mass media. 
• Collective Identity: A social group who shares a set of norms and values. 
• Structuration: The process in which human agency, people, and social structure, society, are in a constant relationship. The social structure is reproduced by the repetition of acts by individuals which means that society is flexible and can change over time.

Examples:

• Hegemony: Rupert Murdoch owned newspapers enforcing biased political beliefs. Altering the media to ensure it agrees with their personal beliefs/ a vested interest. 
• Mediation: Political policies, Theresa May's new grammar school policy. 
• Representation: Fold devils of Islamic culture post 9/11.

Collective Identity Material - 

Contemporary:

• Attack the Block (2011)
• Fish Tank (2009)
• The Perks of Being Wallflower (2012)
• Inbetweeners
• Misfits
• Skins
• Fresh Meat
• Bad Education
• Waterloo Road

Historical:

• To Sir With Love (1967)
• The Young Ones (1961)
• Quadrophenia (1979)
• Rebel without a Cause (1956)
• The Breakfast Club (1985)
• Mean Girls (2004)
• Wild Child (2008)

The Independent: Media Demonising Youth - 

Key Points:

• More than half of the stories about teenage boys in national and regional newspapers in the past year (4,374 out of 8,629) were about crime.
• The research – commissioned by Women in Journalism – showed the best chance a teenager had of receiving sympathetic coverage was if they died."We found some news coverage where teen boys were described in glowing terms – 'model student', 'angel', 'altar boy' or 'every mother's perfect son'," the research concluded, "but sadly these were reserved for teenage boys who met a violent and untimely death."
• The word most commonly used to describe them was "yobs" (591 times), followed by "thugs" (254 times), "sick" (119 times) and "feral" (96 times).

Theoretical Approaches: Levels - 

Representation:

• Giroux (1997):  Giroux argues that in media representations youth becomes an ‘empty category’. This is because media representations of young people are constructed by adults. Because of this they reflect adults concerns, anxieties, and needs. As a result of this media representations of young people do not necessarily reflect the reality of youth identity.

• Acland (1995):  I’m interested in the effects of media representations of delinquent youth. Developed the concept of the ideology of protection. Thinks the media representations of anti-scoail youth reinforces hegemony.

• Hebdige (1979):  A subculture is a group of like minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and who develop a sense of identity which differs to the dominant on to which they belong. Youth as fun and or trouble. Youth subcultures resist hegemony through style.  Hebdige said that subcultures use style to represent their resistance to the dominant ideologies of a corrupt society. They take symbols like the smart clothes or mopeds (Quadrophenia) and modify or customise them to show their alternative values.

Effects of Representation:

• Gerbner (1986): Cultivation theory;  "The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television." Also stated " You know, who tells the stories of a culture really governs human behavior. It used to be the parent, the school, the church, the community. Now it's a handful of global conglomerates that have nothing to tell, but a great deal to sell". He studied the effect of television on people’s perception of crime. He found that people who watched a lot of television tended to overestimate the levels of crime. He called this ‘mean world syndrome’.

• Gauntlett: Media has influence on how people interpret identities. 

Role of Representations on Society:

• Gramsci (1920s-30s): Coined the term Hegemony; a way of the ruling people keeping control of the proletariat. 

• Cohen (1972): Youth subculture, sensationalisation, folk devils and moral panic. Media representations of youth reinforce hegemony (agree with Acland). Three elements of media reporting: 1. Exaggeration and Distortion 2. Predicition and 3. Symbolisation. 

• Althusser: Ideological state apparatus; dominant ideology reinforced through different groups such as the media. Althusser divides social institutions into two categories: 1. The Repressive State Apparatus (functions through violence either potential or actual) and 2. The Ideological State Apparatus (functions through ideology such as family, religion, education, law, political parties, trade unions, he arts, mass media). 

• Gould (1999): Media stereotypes of youth involve being: rebellious, an artificial tribe, sexual, nihilistic, violent and self-destructive.

• Wilkins: A spiral of lacking tolerance, more acts of those groups being defined as crimes, action against the groups, alienation of deviant subcultures, more crime committed by stereotyped group which results in less tolerance of these groups by the hegemonic conforming masses who share the bourgeoisies norms and values.  

Other Theorists: 

• Philo: Argues that contemporary ‘hoodie cinema’ reflects middle class anxiety about the threat to their dominance posed by the working class.

• McRobbie: Suggests that contemporary British TV often contains ‘symbolic violence’ against the working class. For example, representations which emphasise middle class dominance and depict the working class in negative ways.

Textual Media Examples - 

This exemplifies the idea of youth as rebellious and nihilistic in an anarchic manner of rebelling against the hegemonic state. 

This article exemplifies youth in various manners; this article is more sympathetic in that gives reasons for rebellion against the state due to socialisation. 

This displays youth as sexual, as according to Ann Gould's theory on youth subculture, in which young people are ruled by more animalistic traits when compared to adults of a shared society ruled by norms and values variant from the subculture of youth which conforms to Albert Cohen's theory.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Examplar - 

• America
• Gould: Artificial Tribes of Youth: jocks, indie/ rock kids, won't turn down the music, "welcome to the island of misfit toys". 
• Gould: Youth as violent: the boyfriend hitting his girlfriend mid fight, Derek and Candice. 
• Hebdige: Youth as fun: the crazy dancing at the school disco. 
• Gould: Youth as self-destructive and rebellious: having parties with underage alcohol and drugs. 
• Gould: Youth as nihilistic: main characters friend committed suicide. 
• Gould: Youth as sexual: Brad and Patrick together at the party. 
• Hebdige: Youth as fun: the tunnel scene.
• Hebdige: Youth as troublesome: eating pot brownies. 

Bullet Boy Exemplar - 
(The hegemonic mediation of working classes; the owners of the media are middle to upper classes and enforce their biased perceptions on the masses) (Ideological state apparatus is groups that allow for the enforcement of hegemony values: institutions such as education, peers, religion etc)

• BBC Films and UK Film Festival
• London
• Cohen: Youth as rebellious: was in prison but got released. 
• Cohen: Youth subcultures, moral panic, folk devils, scapegoats: young black male in hoodie arrested and released not charged with any crime. 
• Philo: Hoodie Cinema: youth as working class troublesome hoodies. 
• Gould: Youth as nihilistic and rebellious: smoking cigarettes.
• Gould: Youth as an artificial tribe: specific subculture with a different lexicon/ socialect "aight", "blud", "innit". 
• Gould: Youth as sexual: the characters kissing and undressing before having sex. 
• Hebdige: Youth as troublesome: the characters friend pretends to shoot him with an empty gun. 
• Gould: Youth as violent: the character shoots the dog of the person who was cussing him. 
• Hebdige: Youth as fun: ice-skating and playing like children. 
• Althusser: Ideological state apparatus: peers (girlfriend, mum, minister step father) convincing him to not get involved in crime or other such behaviour. Repressive state apparatus, threat of violence either potential or actual, in reference to warnings from his probation officer.

Analysis Critical Perspectives: Media Essay: Youth -

Critical Perspectives Essay: Youth - 

• Do media representations of youth reflect societies perceptions and concerns?

Society is the pinnacle of the confirmative masses norms and values held within the traditions of culture; the collective identity of youth conform not to the main ideologies but instead to that of their own subculture, as coined by Cohen, of varied principles to the wider society. Such is the process of structuration that the constant relationship between social structure and human agency is flexible and liable to change if the masses norms and value change. Youth as a deviant culture of human agency bend and flex the rules of society perhaps before they are willing to change.

Newspaper: Old (London Riots 2011)

Film/ TV: New

Film/ TV: Old (Fresh Meat 2011-2016, Inbetweeners 2008)

Conclusion

Analysis Generic Theory: Media Notes: All

Generic Theory - 

Definitions:

• Representation: The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way.
• Hegemony: The values of one social group being enforced upon another.
• Mediation: Intervention in a dispute in order to resolve it.
• Identity: Who a person believes they are.
• Collective Identity: A social group who shares a set of norms and values.
• Structuration:  Structuration is the process in which human agency, people, and social structure, society, are in a constant relationship. The social structure is reproduced by the repetition of acts by individuals which means that society is flexible and can change over time. 

Representation:

The working classes are stereotypically mediated as a group who are on "chavs", have many children with many different people, don't work and live off of the system.

The working class social group have the ability to unite in their collective identity due to shared norms and values around family attitudes, hard work and other such ideologies. 

Mediation:

                                         

The notion of the underclass is that it is working class people without jobs who used the riots as a means to steal, vandalise and behave violently. 

Collective Identity:

                                            

The above text is an example of the supposed "working class" chav subculture collective identity. Representation of working classes in the media may lead to a deviancy amplification spiral in which the identity becomes adopted by the masses of the social group due to the mediation of the subject. The collective identity of the working classes is hugely separate to music genre, clothing style and attitude to authorities etc but the chav subculture is forced upon all working classes as a stereotype by the media. 

Collective Identity Self-Constructions:

Collective identity can also be self-constructed by the social group on social networking sites or in social situations; these identity ideas can be positive or negative.

                                       

For instance, far right liberal social groups have gained a large gathering of support from the working class young collective identity in both America and Britain in support of Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders. This has even inspired the generation to produce their own examples of parody accounts for important public figures such as the tweets pictured above; these are instances of #corbynfever. 

Structuation:

                                           

"Hairspray" was set in the early 60s and displayed the attitudes surrounding the segregation of black and white citizens in America. The film also follows the human rights movement in which people peacefully rioted against the segregation. 

Important Theories - 

David Buckingham: (1987)

• "A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and heir consequences for social groups."

David Gauntlett: (2002)

• Identity is consciously constructed and the media provides some of the tools needed for this presentation of collective identity. The media coveys messages which encourage a series of messages about appropriate identity and lifestyle choices. Although, the public have their own diverse set off feelings. Neither feeling is more powerful than the other. 

I interpret this as the idea that the media has encoded messages which can be understood and decoded differently by various members of an active audience. The audience are not passive simply accepting their daily dose of the media via hypodermic syringe but are instead able to challenge and conform. Neither is more powerful than the other. 

Stuart Hall: (1980)

• Encoding is the message the producer has given the text.
• Decoding is the way in which the audience can interpret it themselves as an active audience. 

Anthony Giddens: 

• There is a social structure which shapes our lives such as traditions, institutions, moral codes and unwritten social rules but this relies on the system being followed. 
• Structuration is the process in which human agency, people, and social structure, society, are in a constant relationship. The social structure is reproduced by the repetition of acts by individuals which means that society is flexible and can change over time. 
• "Society only has form, and that form only has effects on people, in so far as structure is produced and reproduced in what people do". 

Paul Lazarfelds et al: (1944 and 1955)

• The two step flow theory is a communication model that hypothesises ideas of flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population.

Analysis Critical Perspectives: Media Essay: Islam -

Critical Perspectives Essay: Islam - 

• The post 9/11 mediation of Islam is biased and unfair to what extent do you agree with this statement. 

The mass media is an important institute of secondary socialisation within society and its mediation of matters and can directly influence the masses interpretation of a collective identity; this process is called hegemony and is when the values of one dominant group is forced upon a submissive social group. A collective identity, these can be portrayed positively or negatively by the media, is a social group which share norms and values as a result of religion, class, gender, age, ethnicity and so on. Unfortunately, mediation, which is the intervention into an ideology to resolve it, of such collective identities is not always positive, as is often a subject of discussion when it comes to the reporting of Islam in the mass media specifically post 9/11.

The collective identity of Islam is one based off of shared norms, values and principles around beliefs in religion. The six main values of the Muslim community is the belief in Allah as the one and only God, belief in angels, belief in the holy books, belief in the Prophets, belief in the Day of Judgment and the belief in Predestination. These beliefs are of a peaceful religion that is too often seen as deviant from the Christian norm of western countries. Although, globally Christianity is the largest religion held by 31% of the population Islam is only shortly behind at 23%. Despite this, the theory of Orientalism in media as coined by Said is that the representation and understanding of Islam is that they are uncivilised and coordinated to be violent, their socialisation process is inferior and that generally their lives are of lesser value than their western counterparts. This conforms to Head’s 2014 investigation into Islamphobia being reported in 8 manners; one being that they are seen as “violent, aggressive, threatening, supporting of terrorism and engaged in a clash of civilisations”.

Analysis Critical Perspectives: Media Notes: Islam -

Critical Perspectives: Islam - 

Definitions:

• Hegemony: The values of one social group being enforced upon another.
• Mediation: Intervention in a dispute in order to resolve it (influenced by social, economic, political and other factors).
• Representation: The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way by the mass media. 
• Collective Identity: A social group who shares a set of norms and values. 
• Orientalism (Edward Said): A way of seeing that exaggerates and or distorts differences of people from the orient cultures to that of Europe and the USA. Oriental people are assumed to be exotic, backward, uncivilised and possibly dangerous. 
• Demonisation: The process of making someone or something the demon/ villain of a story or situation. 
• Hypodermic Syringe Model: Passive audiences receive daily does of media controlling their perspectives.
• Decoding Approach: Active audiences can decode their own messages from the media.
  Uses and Gratification Approach: Active audiences use the media for their own needs which include: Entertainment, Information, Socialisation, Identity.
• Monolithic: Large and slow to change.
• Bloc: A group of countries or political parties with common interests who have formed an alliance.
• Encoding: The intended message.
• Decoding: The message that can be inferred. 

Examples:

• Hegemony: Rupert Murdoch owned newspapers enforcing biased political beliefs. Altering the media to ensure it agrees with their personal beliefs/ a vested interest. 
• Mediation: Political policies, Theresa May's new grammar school policy. 
• Representation: Fold devils of Islamic culture post 9/11.

Notes - 

Orientalism: Edward Said:

• A society in which Muslim lives are apparently not as important as lives of other Europeans, Americans (The Occident).
• Sees Muslims as uncivilized and inherently violent.
• Societies in West are being socialized believing that Islam is inferior, savage and irrational system of beliefs, with extremist followers more then ready to kill in the name of their God. 
• Post-colonialism explains demonization of Islam with concepts of orientalism, imperialism and (neo)colonialism. 
• West needed justification for subordination of East, thus depictions of Orient as inferior, undeveloped and uncivilised. 
• These inaccurate and Eurocentric cultural representations have persisted and developed into stereotypes we are very familiar with today and represent an important foundation of current conflicts in western societies as well as around the world. 
• Demonisation of Islam serves the imperialistic ambitions of political elites in West, which act on behalf of capitalist greed and multinational businesses.

Runnymede Trust Commission on British Muslims and Islamphobia: Head 2014:

The report identified eight patterns of behaviour that characterise Islamophobic attitudes: 

• “Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change.” 
• “It is seen as a separate ‘other’. It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them and does not influence them. 
• “It is seen as inferior to the west. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive, and sexist.” 
• “It is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supporting of terrorism, and engaged in a clash of civilisations.” 
• “It is seen as a political ideology, used for political or military advantage.” 
• “Criticisms made of ‘the west’ by Muslims are rejected out of hand.” 
• “Hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society.” 
• “Anti- Muslim hostility is seen as natural and normal”.

Laws on Burkhinis and Islam Clothing:

• Dutch "Burqa Ban" now employed in France and Belgium.
• 2016 Burkhini removal on French beach.

Other:

• Nigerian Muslim converts who killed military Lee Rigby. 
• http://harvardpolitics.com/world/portrayals-violence-abroad-dehumanization-home/

The Sun Representation - 

The favoured UK newspaper, which plays a large role in hegemony of the people via the hypodermic syringe model, holds biased views that are in kinship to the ideologies of "Orinetalism" as theorised by Edward Said. These views present Muslim people as possibly dangerous due to their "sympathies" with a terrorist group. The Muslim people belong to a collective identity due to their culture although Islam is significantly different from terrorist organisations such as the Jihadi's. This newspaper is trying to create a moral panic by using the public's manipulated answers to demonise fellow Muslims. For instance, the questions themselves fail to mention the terrorist organisation of the "Jihadi's" featured in the headline; the questions were deliberately ambiguous to mislead the misconstrue the inserts to the mass public who then form an opinion the same as that of the newspaper due to their position as a passive audience. Additionally, the word "fighters" could be an organisation against terrorist groups but this is not even addressed within the newspaper article. Furthermore, the statistics were rounded up to make a more impacting headline to influence the people. Additionally, the meaning of the word sympathy could have been interpreted differently by each individual involved in the phone interview and therefore the idea of sympathy for fighters could vary hugely. To further this,  whilst the statistics for Muslims were 1 in 5 the same test was conducted with non-Muslims who showed sympathy 1 in 7 times. The mediation of this newspaper was sensationalised to express a specific viewpoint that matched the bias of the newspaper owner. 

Media Interpretation/ Representation of Islam - 

Muslim Women in Media - 

Charlie Hebdo - 

These images are extremely offensive, even though they are considered satire, due to their nature of going beyond dark humour and simply being disgusting in what they believe is entertainment. The original photograph of the drowned child refugee, Aylan Kurdi, off the coast of Greece was allowed on newspapers because it served as a potent reminder of the ever occurring issue of deaths caused by unsafe journey's to Europe as a result of the difficulties of home countries. The satire is lost and becomes instead an insult to refugees through the photograph of a dead child who died trying to reach Greece and therefore safety. However, the only justification that I can give this image is the subtle criticism of the western world in its unsympathetic cause, simply watching on as people struggle for their lives thinking little more than about our capitalist society and what we shall have for lunch or how we can save money. Furthermore, the Charlie Hebdo company was later attacked after a cartoon about the Prophet Muhammad. 

The second image, the translation being "Proof that Europe is Christian", "Christians walk on water - Muslim children drown".  This one appears less directly critical of the West's handling of the refugee crisis and instead from even more of a racist standpoint. This image is difficult because it appears to be placing one religion against another culture and therefore more implicitly saying that the Christian religion, much like the medieval ideas, is considered superior and the one true religion compared to Islam. The encoded message may have been a political statement about the handling of refugees but it can more easily be decoded as racism and Islamphobia which is evidenced by the protests of the public in response to these cartoons; any attempted mediation by the company was lost and, if not intended to be, appears anti-Muslim. This could be linked to Edward Said's theory of Orientalism where the need to assert Western values over others has led to depictions of the Asian countries and people as less developed or even as uncivilised and able to understand the norms and values of another culture. 

The Mediation of Islam

http://harvardpolitics.com/world/portrayals-violence-abroad-dehumanization-home/

The issues of media is that mediation in subjects is often one sided and biased; the few media owners decided which information they wish to pass on to the masses so that they can instead remains to inject them directly with a hypodermic syringe of their own morals to create a society that are practically clones. However, some of the masses can take matters into their own hands, with access to the internet, more information can be shared freely. The Charlie Hebdo attack was widely published as international news, the attack was considered a terrorist attack and many vigils and campaigns took place soon after; one of these being the "Je Suis Charlie" campaign. However, the reporting of the death of three young Muslims in a white terror attack was kept quite by a media which did not want their belief systems challenged. Most owners of the media are white middle to upper class males and therefore would not want information condemning their collective identity shared whilst that is intact what they do with every other social group within society. 

However, the only justification for the covering of these attacks could be the death count. The Charlie Hebdo attack resulted in 12 casualties whilst the Chapel Hill attack resulted in 3. Once again, though this brings about the question of the value of Muslim lives matter, Black lives matter and other ethnic minority groups. Campaigns such as #blacklivesmatter and #muslimlivesmatter have been vital in bringing a new discussion of otherwise unreported media events as it is a media institute of the masses rather than the few. 

Islam Post 9/11 - 

Facts:

• As of 2010, Christianity was by far the world's largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth. 
• Islam was second, with 1.6 billion adherents, or 23% of the global population.

Muslims Have Six Main Beliefs:

• Belief in Allah as the one and only God
• Belief in angels
• Belief in the holy books
• Belief in the Prophets
• Belief in the Day of Judgment
• Belief in Predestination

Dr Chris Allen Research:

• 4% of the British public claim that they know 'nothing or next to nothing about Islam’ 
• 64% of the British public claim that what they do know is ‘acquired through the media’
• Research from 2006 suggests that the press coverage relating to Muslims and Islam in British National newspapers had increased by approximately 270% over preceding decade 
• 91% of that coverage was deemed negative 
• 84% of press coverage represented Islam and Muslims either as ‘likely to cause damage or danger’ or as ‘operating in a time of intense difficulty or danger’