Friday, 6 February 2015

Critical investigation feedback

WWW: There is some excellent content in this essay: Superb quotes and generally clear overall argument

EBI:
- written english is seriously holding you back particularly on the first 2 pages
- you need to introduce your quote seeing who reads it and in what
- your paragraphs all need strong sentences
-mobile media theory is essential: Feminism
-you need up-to-the-minute example on your modern feminism section: No More Page 3 etc
-conclusion is weak and needs work

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

Preliminary exercise: Recreation task

Preliminary exercise: Recreation task

Your Year 13 Preliminary Exercise is to produce a 30-second shot-by-shot recreation of an existing text that is similar to the production you are planning to create. Complete the following in a blogpost called

'Recreation task planning':

Name of the text you plan to recreate:
·         Trey Songz - Touchin, Lovin ft. Nicki Minaj

Scene/section you will recreate:
·         Opening 0:20 – 0:50

Location you will use for your recreation:
·         Bedroom

Actors you will require for your recreation:
·          1- Male

Props/costumes you will require for your recreation:
·         A bed

Equipment you plan to use:

·         Camera and Lights

Linked Production Brief

Linked Production brief Complete the following and post it to your blog in a new blogpost called 'Linked Production brief'.

Your Critical Investigation topic:
·         To what extent are women explicitly objectified in music videos?

Your Linked Production brief:
·         Recreate a music video 3minute – 4minute aimed at a MTV audience which doesn’t sexual objectify women.

Length/size of production (e.g. 3 minutes, 5 pages etc.):
·         3minute – 4minute

Give an example of an existing media text this is similar to what you plan to produce:
·         Same Girl - R Kelly

Give an example of an institution that would produce or distribute your planned production:
·         Zomba Recording, LLC

How would your production reach its audience?
·         YouTube

Who do you plan to work with on this project?

·         Individual 

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

Task 3

Critical Investigation Task #3
Historical text analysis and research

Salt n Pepa
Salt-N-Pepa is an American hip hop trio from Queens, New York.

The group, consisting of Cheryl James ("Salt"), Sandra Denton ("Pepa"), and Deidra Roper ("DJ Spinderella") and was formed in 1985 and was one of the first all-female rap groups.

"Let's Talk About Sex" is a song released by the American hip-hop trio Salt-n-Pepa. It was released as a single from their Blacks' Magic album in 1991, and achieved great success in many countries

The song talks about safe sex, the positive and negative sides of sex and the censorship that sex had around that time in American mainstream media.

The music video for "Let's Talk About Sex" directed by Millicent Shelton starts in a black-and-white scene with a girl turning on a radio and listening to the song. Then she starts kissing her boyfriend and scenes of Salt-n-Pepa and other couples kissing and hugging are shown. Next the video colorizes when Salt-n-Pepa are shown dancing.

This song is similar to my primary text and other latest singles as the lyrics are still around and about a sexual or an exotic nature. The song is different compared to latest hits and my primary text as it doesn’t over sexualise women and promotes safe sex rather than downgrading. There is no close up shots of boobs or bums in the video, which is different compare to now, where in Anaconda by Nicki Minaj there are several shots of Boobs and bums such as ; 0:19, 0:47, 0:57, 1:08, 1:18. There are also other very sexual or exotic shots such as 1:34 where there is a long shot of Nicki Minaj in pretty much a bright pink “thong” and “bra”, and there is another shot of her just bending over whilst wearing this “thong”. This is later followed by a couple shots of her giving lap dance to another artist named Drake. These are things that are not seen in "Let's Talk About Sex" by Salt-N-Pepa 

Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Task 1

Nicki Minaj ‘Anaconda’ and Flo Rida’s ‘Turn around’

Nicki Minaj ‘Anaconda’ and Flo Rida’s ‘Turn around’:
Media Representations
Women have been represented as the weaker sex compared to men in the 21st century music videos and have been given less importance. These women are being taken advantage off and shown in explicit and over sexualised ways to help the artist win over its audience and have a financial gain. These women are used as objects and are not seemed be respected in anyway. This may be because the music videos are just a representation of the lyrics these artists come up with and there for they are just adding moving images to what we may already interpret by listening to the song.  Although male artists are seen more too present women in this way, female artists present themselves in this way too to probably attract the male audience to their music videos. This is seen in Nicki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’ video as she presents herself in a sexual manner which has 240 million plus views on her YouTube page since it has been released. The latest trend in society is the booty shaking which has just been on a spiral from when ‘Good Girl’ Miley Cyrus changed how she was and her personality when she produced, ‘We Can't Stop’ in which she was twerking and being sexual with the extras in the video.

The ideology of what the videos would link too is the male gaze and female gaze of the audience’s reason for looking at the videos. These videos would link to the audience trying to have some sort of escapism.

Media Languages and Forms
The denotative levels of the meaning is that women have become inferior in the way they are represented in music videos, this is evident in videos such as, Flo Rida 54321 Turn Around and Nicki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’ video . This is also evident as women represent themselves in this way too and don’t really support or promote the independence of women and feminism. Women are presenting themselves in ways they want to be seen by certain audience rather than presenting themselves how they would like to been seen.

The connotations of the representation of these female in the music videos, Could be that they are just used for financial reasons. This evident as music videos which are very sexual or display women half naked tend to get publicity for the raunchiness of the videos and have a wide range of views by the public. This has meant that the significance of the text’s connotation could subvert the stereotypical view of women, being strong, independent and smart. This is because in the music videos women are shown as flaunting their assets or using this to get their way. These costumes are normally tight clothing, short or revealing, to catch the eye of the audience and make them want to watch more of the video and this in turn means that the audience will be listening to the song even if the lyrics were bad. Much of the screen time is devoted to goddess-like women circling around the place in waist-high underpants while licking or doing something with random objects. This also involves these women dry hump whatever's closest to them a man, woman or objects.

Narrative
In relation to the narrative the audience are positioned to view the video for pleasure and satisfy their male or female gaze. This view contrasts the stereotypical view of women now in the 21st Century of being independent. Most media now are described as having a feminist ideology, meaning it promotes the idea that women are the equal of men and should not be discriminated against on the grounds of gender or role.



Genre/Media Institutions
The genres of these music videos which contain these explicit videos are mainly Rap and Hip-Pop. This is different compared to back in the days when rap and hip songs such as 2Pac - Keep Ya Head Up were mainly about the lyrics and the main artist in the video. Cash Money Records is the record label in which Nicki Minaj is signed to and the label consist of other artist who also present female extras in the downgrading ways she does. These artists consist of Lil Wayne, Tyga and The Game. Universal Music Group is the distributor worldwide and the largest music corporation in the world with a revenue of $6.552 billion in 2013. These artists are signed to Cash Money Records as they produce songs which link to the genre of the label which is rap and hip-pop.

Media Values and Ideology
The main value that is being presented is the representation of women as the weaker sex and has been shown to be less important compared to men. This reinforces the traditional stereotypes of women being the inferior sex and perceived to do the labours of the household and not capable of matching the working capacity of men. The way men have been portrayed in music videos is mainly dominant. You also get the rare videos where females show themselves in power with men in the background, but in these videos they also portray themselves as sexual objects to get more views. When females put males in the background they always seem to be muscular and just have a dominance with their presence.

Media Audiences
The targeted fan base for the music videos would be the demographic of both males and females that are aged between 12 years old and 35 years old who would be in the social classes of B, C1 and C2. As these institutions are mainstream organisations they would target the audience of mainstreamers. These songs and videos are also for inspirers, as they make the audience want their flash and expensive lifestyles and people who want a sense of escapism. According to Bulmer and Katz theory of uses and gratifications there is evidence of escapism, as the audience is known to escape reality and avoid there real life problems and relieve stress form work. The audience pleasures consist of using women as a sex object to attract the male gaze which is also clear to see. My reading and evaluation is heavily influenced by my age, gender and background.


Clamps:
Costume:
·         Tight clothing
·         See through
·         Shirt clothing
·         Revealing 

Lighting:
·         Dark- e.g Clubs
·         Bright- e.g Beach and Exotic Places

Actor’s expressions:
·         Sexual expressions

Make up:



Props:
·         Household objects
·         Objects
·         Food
·         Vehicles 
·         Expensive jewellery

Sound:

Camerawork:

Friday, 24 October 2014

Critical Investigation Tutorial

Rename research plan blogpost to ‘Notes and Quotes’ – then continue your research.

Primary texts now nailed down – good to see. Secondary texts also listed. Make notes in N&Q blogpost on actual videos (note particular timings etc.) In huge detail for primary texts, less for secondary texts. This will be 1,000 words+ in N&Q document.

Good collection of video research in general.

Three books already in plan – including relevant page numbers. This is great to see.

Look at chapter in Feminism at the Movies – Ch12 p163, Sex and the City.

There are other books in DF07 on gender and music videos so make sure you use them. Then it will be the BFI Library trip for the rest.

Not much on internet links and there will be so much out there…




Journal articles – five attached to get you started but there will be more, check Google Scholar.


Loads to be getting on with – good luck and aim for 1,500 words+ on Notes and Quotes for a couple of weeks time!

Wednesday, 15 October 2014

Critical Investigation "Notes and Quotes"

Critical Investigation Notes & Quotes

Primary Media Texts


Secondary Media Texts
Miley Cyrus


“Doing this video was really an eye opening experience. I knew it was going to be pushing the envelope in certain areas, but because of the fact that we were flipping the roles. It was a real role reversal for men and women. For years we’ve been watching on MTV and all these videos of all these rappers and R&B singers and even pop singers have all of these girls all over the place for no reason half naked shooting and washing cars and doing all this. To do this today was really funny because, as we were shooting it, it was all of the men on the crew and director and everybody; they were so uncomfortable seeing the guys do it. It was like we couldn’t get out of there fast enough; oh that’s one take, we got it, we got it, we got it. Meanwhile we’ve been watching this for years. If this was a girl doing that, they would be like; can we get it from this angle, could you rub your breast on the car just a little bit longer. It was like we have been watching this for years; you know what, its girl time.”

Other:

Book
Gender, Branding and the modern music industry
Kristin J.Lieb
Published- Routledge 2013
ISBN- 978-0-415-89489-0
Pages 88-91, 114, 118, 119

Music Video and the Politics of Representation
Diane Railton, Paul Watson 2011
ISBN- 978 0 7486 3323 4
Pages 18-21

Although sexual objectification is commonplace in media culture, music videos provide the most potent examples of it. In the current study, we developed a coding system to measure sexual objectification and its correlates in music videos. Our analysis compared sexual objectification across artists' gender and musical genres (R&B/hip-hop, pop, and country). Compared to male artists, female artists were more sexually objectified, held to stricter appearance standards, and more likely to demonstrate sexually alluring behaviour. In addition, sexual objectification was more prominent in R&B/hip-hop and pop videos than in country videos. The results are discussed in light of objectification theory and sexual agency.


Page: 254, 256

“Various content analysis have shown that from the 1940s to the present, between 70% to 90% of popular songs have contained themes related to sexuality.”

“The proportion of music videos with sexual  imagery varies by genre, from about 50% of pop and rap videos to just 8% of heavy metal videos (Tapper, Thorson, & Black, 1994)

“One analysis of 1,000 music video characters found that males are more often depicted as adventurous, aggressive and dominant: females, in contrast, are more often depicted as affectionate, fearful, and nurturing. Another analysis, comparing videos in diiferent musical genres, found that rap videos were especially likely to be sexiest, females depicted as sexual objects (Utterbach, liungdahl storm. Williams. & Kreutter. 1995)”

Mass Communication and Society
Publisher: Routledge

Page 70 “For example, teens with highly sexual ‘‘media diets’’ perceived more sexual encouragement from those media messages and were more likely to intend to engage in sexual
intercourse than teens with low sexual content in their media diets (Brown & Newcomer, 1991).”

Page 70 “In addition, survey results indicated that participants’ identification with same-sex popular television characters significantly associated with greater support of women as sex objects and with greater sexual experience. Peter and Valkenburg (2007) demonstrated that the degree of media’s sexual explicitness informs the relationship between exposure to a sexualized media environment and notions of women as sex objects. Specifically, as the media environment became more sexual (ranging from non-explicit fashion magazines, through semi explicit television, up to explicit XXX Internet pornography), the less explicit forms of sexual media ceased to significantly contribute to their model.”

Page 71 “30% of the men in the misogynous rap condition chose to show the sexually violent vignette to a female confederate, as compared to only 7% in the neutral condition, suggesting that exposure to misogynous rap facilitates sexually aggressive cognition and behaviour. It seems reasonable, then, to conjecture that sexually themed music videos might have similar effects regarding sexual aggression. Kalof (1999) examined this very phenomenon and found that female undergraduates exposed to a sexually stereotyped music video indicated greater acceptance of interpersonal violence (i.e., violence within relationships) than those exposed to a neutral music video.”

Page 82 “In response to the growing concern that hip-hop music and music videos may foster permissive sexual attitudes and distorted sexual norms (Barongan & Nagayama Hall, 1995; Gan et al., 1997; Lackley & Moberg, 1998; Ward et al., 2005), the current study investigated the potential effects of sexual imagery in hip-hop music videos on college students’ objectification of women, sexual permissiveness, gender attitudes, and acceptance of rape myths. It was found that the effects of sexual imagery in hip-hop videos were mainly detected among the male participants. As anticipated, those who watched the highly sexual hip-hop videos expressed the higher levels of objectification of women, stereotyped gender attitudes, and acceptance of rape myths.”

Page 83 “Men in the highly sexual hip-hop videos were portrayed as powerful, sexually assertive, and as having a fair degree of sexual prowess, whereas the women were portrayed as sexually available, scantily clad, and often preening over the men. This might have served as a cue to male participants that sexual coercion is more acceptable and that women exist for the entertainment and sexual fulfilment of men.”

Nina Power (2009) One Dimensional Woman
(O Books: Winchester and Washington)?

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Internet Links

“The report, Pornographic Performances, gathered academic research on sexism and racism in music videos, and found that women – especially black women – were routinely portrayed in a hyper-sexualised fashion.”

“The report found that videos portray men as the characters with “power and dominance, and women as passive recipients of their ‘gaze’. Black women, in particular, are “commonly portrayed as hypersexual and with a focus and fascinated gaze on their bottoms, invoking ideas of black women as wild and animalistic”. Those who have watched these videos in a controlled setting are more likely to “endorse the ‘sexual double standard’ which sees men who have many sexual partners as admirable and women who do so as ‘sluts’”

“One study found viewers were more likely to make excuses for perpetrators of “acquaintance rape”.


“Women are objectified in music videos, especially in hip hop and rap; from sexy dressing, speaking in seductive tones to acting and dancing in a sexual manner. The perfect portrayal of women as sex objects.

“Sometimes in music videos, the woman’s face is not shown. Instead, her body becomes a showpiece and is put on display. It depicts her as not having an identity or a sense of individualism thus, reinforcing her role as a sex symbol.”

 “Women’s bodies are often dismembered and treated as separate parts, perpetuating the concept that a woman’s body is not connected to her mind and emotions,” states the sociologist, Erving Goffman in his book, Gender Advertisements.”

Media magazine:
Issue 34:
Topic: Engendering Change: What’s Happened to Representations of Women?

“Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at “
Berger 1972

“One of these, Nina Power’s book One Dimensional Woman, begins thus: Where have all the interesting women gone? If the contemporary portrayal of womankind were to be believed, contemporary female achievement would culminate in the ownership of expensive handbags, a vibrator, a job, a flat and a man – probably in that order.”
Power 2009: 1

“The ideologies of male dominance and patriarchal values have not diminished; and the belief that they have offers a classic example of ‘hegemony’: a state where the oppressed consent to, and accept, their situation because they are not conscious of being exploited. We, both female and male, are socialised into a world where the relationships of power between the sexes appear ‘natural’, and so few question the inequality.”