Sonia Livingstone

Children’s use of the internet

• In the UK, recent surveys show that among 7-16year olds 75% have used the internet, double the adult population of 38% (Wigley & Clarke, 2000).

• Valued by children to use for information and entertainment, for relieving boredom – the preferred activity being communication (chat, email, instant message).

• Youth TGI (2001) – the most common uses are: studying/homework (73%), email (59%), playing games (38%), chat sites (32%) and hobbies and interests (31%).

• Children prefer online entertainment centered on fandom transferred from already-established media – music, stars, sports, television programs (Livingstone, 2001).

Charles Leadbeater

WE THINKWE THINK

The web allows everyone to publish, share, connect, collaborate and to create…thats why its a platform for mass creativity and innovation.

More people than ever can participate in culture, contributing their ideas, views, information.

[Sharing] leaves us more open to abuse and invasions of privacy. Over crowded participation and forced collaboration.

Gives more people a voice, democratically.

In the past you are what you own, in today’s world you are what you share.

Charles Acland

• Acland (1995) argues that the media representations of youths actually reinforce hegemony. This is done by constructing an idea of normal youth behaviour and contrasting it with deviant youth behaviour which is shown to be unacceptable.

• His ‘ideology of protection’ claims that the out of control representations helps the state to have more control of them, it has the idea that young people needed surveillance and monitoring.

• This is because youth is the time when young people learn about social roles and values, it allows the state to make sure that they are conforming to hegemonic values.

• Young people are being stereotypically watched and seen as wild.

"Youth is a time of substantial surveillance,

because it is a time when the culture is learned".

Louis Althusser

• Louis Althusser (1969) discusses ideology in his work, looking at the way in which people lose their individuality and become subjects based on ideological views.

• He believes that ideologies are circulated by the media and used to help construct peoples identities. It is subtle so people don’t realise it is happening.

• He argues one way the state maintains control is through ideological state apparatus, they are a range of different groups who transmit dominant ideology to the groups. These groups are known as the ruling classes and brainwash until we believe their ideologies.

• A dominant ideology is the accepted stereotype.

• Interpellation – this is when people are stripped of their individuality and then categorised into groups. These groups then live by a set of rules they think is normal behaviour.

‘Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real

conditions of existence.’

Thomas De Zengotita

• Believed and stated that almost everything we experience or learn is through the media.

• This also implies that the media shapes and creates us, our views and our identity.

• We subconsciously believe ourselves to be important because of all the media addressing to us.

Theodor adorno

• He argued that capitalism fed people with the products of a culture industry to keep them satisfied.

• He identified that popular culture was the reason for people’s passive satisfaction and lack of interest in the capital system.

• Adorno suggested that culture industries churn out a debased mass of unsophisticated, sentimental products which have replaced the more 'difficult' and critical art forms which might lead people to actually question social life.

Michel maffesoli

• Discovered the theory about urban TRIBES.

• Wrote the book called “the time of tribes.

• Urban tribes are micro groups of people who share common interests in urban areas.

• The micro groups share similar views on the world, dress sense and behaviour patterns.

• Examples of these mentioned in his book include:PunksRahsChavsMetal heads

Carol VernallisCarol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis theory is based on 4 key concepts that all relate to how a music video is manufactured:

1.Narrative2.Editing3.Camera, Movement and Framing4.Diegesis

Daniel ChandlerDaniel Chandler

GENRE

“Conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they create particular fixed conventions of content (themes or setting – iconography) and form (structure or style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them.”

Andrew GoodwinAndrew Goodwin

Goowin’s theory is based on 5 main principles:

1.Thought Beats2.Narrative3.Star Image/Voyeurism4.Relationship between lyrics and visuals5.Technical aspects

"Some groups have more say, have more opportunity to make the rules, to organize meaning, while others are less favourably placed, have less power to produce."

"The meaning of subculture, then, is always in dispute, and style is the arena in which opposing definitions clash with the most dramatic force."• Dick Hebdige's Subculture is a structuralist (why we do things as

humans) approach to understanding the styles of Britain's youth cultures.

• Hebdige argues that style, through the rebellion of common objects, allows Britain's subcultures to characteristically separate themselves from the mass culture to which they belong in

• Much of this research was concerned with the relation between subcultures and social class in post-war Britain, Hebdige saw youth cultures in terms of a dialogue between Black and white youth.

• He argues that punk stems from Black Cultures (Reggae, Rastafarian) response to discrimination in British society in the 1970’s that lead to separatism.

• He also compares the similarities to the Teddy boys, Mods, Rockers and Skin heads that preceded the punk era. Hebdige argues that punks only homology was derived from chaos be it through a thoroughly ordered style of chaos.

Henry GirouxHe said that Youth has become an empty category inhabited by the desires, fantasies, anxieties and interests of the adult world.He further suggests that the collective identities of youth are constructed by adults and serve the needs of an adult society.

1997

Galtung and Ruge

1973 News Values

1.Frequency— short-term events like murders are preferred over long-term developments like a famine2.Threshold— basically the size of an event indicates his importance3.Unambiguity— events do not have to be simple but they must be accessible to the public - i.e. simplified by the media4.Meaningfulness— divided into two categories after Galtung and Ruge’s ‘Familiarity’: a) cultural proximityin which the event agrees with the outlook of a specific culture; b) relevancewhere events will be reported and discussed if they seem to have an impact on the ‘home’ culture, especially a threat5.Consonance— or ‘correspondence’ where the familiar is more likely to be thought than the unfamiliar6.Unexpectedness— or ‘surprise’ where it is the rarity of an event which leads to its circulation in the public domain; Dutton notes that the ‘newness’ of the event is usually processed through a familiar context. It has to work with 4 and 5.

Our perception of what constitutes an event is culturally determined and not a natural occurrence – but they also believed that it related to ‘human culture’ and therefore should not vary too much globally.Their theory argues that the more an event accessed these criteria the more likely it was to be reported on in a newspaper.Example: in the Western world we are obsessed with celebrities and their lifestyles. David Beckham splits with Posh Spice and on the same day five children are killed in a minibus accident. The tabloids will carry the Beckham’s story on the front page because we as a society have decided that celebrity gossip is more interesting and news worthy than the other story. These are 12 of the most significant news values:

7.Continuity— once a story achieves importance will be continued to be covered for some time8.Composition— this is to provide a sense of balance, gloomy news with good news, foreign with domestic.9.Reference to elite nations— events are more likely to be reported if they occur in the developed world; the threshold system would apply for developing countries’ events to be reported10.Reference to elite persons— the famous and the powerful are more newsworthy than ordinary people11.Personalisation— events are seen as actions of people as individuals; an institution may be personalised by reference to a prominent person within that organisation12.Negativity— bad news is good for the press and TV news; the threshold is much lower for bad news than for good news.

Greg Philo• "The culture of violence is real. But for the

British media, it's simple – bad upbringing or just evil children. Their accounts of what happens are very partial and distorted, which pushes people towards much more right-wing positions. There's no proper social debate about what we can do about it”

• Greg Philo found that the media depicts teens as violent hoodie wearing ‘chavs’ and that the media depicts teens this way as it is exploiting the fears and views that the middle class hold on teens. Writing headlines about violent teens and spreading fear sells papers.

• Contemporary ‘hoodie cinema’ reflect middle class anxiety about the threat of the working class

• Mainstream Example: Guardian article titled ‘Hoodies strike fear in British Cinema’ –The media links social classes with strong stereotypes (everyone below middle class is dangerous)

• Niche: Essex Chronicle ‘Teens Hurl large rock from bridge at car on A12’ (the first line was about the social class of the people behind the incident.

Michael Wesch Effects of new media on kids Originally created the video for his Digital Ethnography class and sent it only to his colleagues to gather feedback. From there it spread and the video was being mentioned in blogs & used as a discussion piece in courses.

•YouTube as cultural phenomenon: here the value of YouTube is being acknowledged with the availability and access to resources it provides being taken for granted despite it origination in recent history, 2006. •The machine is us/ing us – to not fear the future of media but to be aware of it. •‘Instead of reacting to the evolution of technology with caution we should discuss it, test it, push it to its limits, see what happens, learn from it, and continue to do great things that change the world.’•The title of the ‘Machine is Us/ing Us’ implies a negative & fearful expectation for the audience.

Margot McRobbie

Media influence on genderBritish culture theorist •She looks at the way in which gender roles are represented within different media. The media socialise us into gender roles. This suggests that humans behave like they do because of what the media tells them to how to behave and what to do with their lives. •She believes that in the media men are portrayed as masculine, aggressive and powerful. Women are portrayed as weak, subservient to men and they have traditional roles such as mother and nurse.•She believes some representations empower women as sexually powerful.•Post feminist icon theory suggesting female character are determined, strong, independent and in control but also utilise their sexuality e.g. Lara Croft, Lady Gaga.•Examples: Ill manors – Jodie, Chanel, prostitute, Daily Mail ‘Never mind Brexit who won Legs-it!’

George Gerbner

• Cultivation Theory: Studied the effect of television and found that the media over estimates crime. News Reports/ Drama and Crime shows show lots of crime which influences the perception of the world.

• Niche: Essex Chronicle very negative about crime

• Mainstream Example: Dramas like Broadchurch

• Personal: Feels like your security is impacted as it is over exaggerated

GENRE Theory of repetition and

difference• “genres are instances of repetition and

difference”• “Difference is absolutely essential to the

economy of genre”

Genre is defined into two things:• How much it conforms with a genre’s

stereotype and conventions. A film must conform to these conventions to qualify for that genre.

Subverts stereotype and conventions. A film must subvert these conventions enough that it is still viewed as a unique film, not a clone.

Steve Neale

Readings – Preferred, Negotiated, OppositionalBelieve the media text, take it with a pinch of salt, disagree completely.

Audience Theory

The "Magic Bullet" or "Hypodermic Needle Theory" of

direct influence effects was based on early observations of

the effect of mass media, as used by Nazi Propaganda.

Therefore, it used to create fear within society and manipulate

consumers.

AUDIENCE THEORY

The media can directly inject message.Audience is; Passive – weak and inactive HomogenousThe audience is powerless to resistTherefore the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged

Mediation

Mediation is the idea that the media decides what to show its audience and that it does not tell the whole truth but instead carefully selects how they want to portray a representation. Media institutions will alter or leave out information purposefully so that the article or other media text will have a bigger impact and attract people’s attention. Sometimes an entire story will be condensed into one catchy, witty headline on the front page to make you buy the newspaper - although this may not accurately reflect the content of the article.The reality of the event could be drastically different to how it is represented in the media.Youth: this can lead to the demonisation of the youth as media is often diluted to only show the bad side of teens. For example: sometimes an image of a teenager in a newspaper, relating to a negative article, would have been carefully chosen to depict the teenager in a negative way (show them as scary or threatening.)

EVENT

(Reality)

REPRESENTATION TO MASSES

MEDIATION PROCESS

Filtering and selecting what to include

HegemonyOtherwise known as Marxist Hegemony as it was an idea derived from Karl Marx, a revolutionary socialist in Russia.

The theory is that the Bourgeois elite make and control the media thus controlling the stream of information that reaches the masses.

The masses are passive and believe everything they read and hear from the media (‘Thank you for telling me that’)

Youth: This is what used to happen with youth representations during the time of ‘hoodie horror’. There were very few positive representations of youth because the media did not want to show any. The passive audience believed what the media said about teenagers and so began to fear them.

GatekeepingGatekeeping is the theory that “those who make the media are the gatekeepers of information and chose what to show and what not to. ”

The editor would be the gatekeeper as they decide what to print and what to discard. Their political, social or other views influence what they chose to print and where in the paper.

The information will often be filtered down so that only the most controversial stories and big headlines get printed. Youth: Editors will pick the articles that they know their readers will respond to and often that involves demonizing the youth and predominantly showing articles with negative teenage representations. It’s more interesting to read about dangerous and reckless teenagers rather than normal and good ones- can look to newspaper articles for these types of representations.

Kurt Lewin- first coined the term ‘gatekeeping’

Hegemony/Dominant ideology

• Ideology- belief system that is constructed and then embedded in the publics consciousness by the media.

• Media texts- represent the world usually in order to support the dominant ideology.

• Example- newspapers often promotes the dominant ideology of patriotism through their representation of race and nationality. Another example is marriage and the family – this is that the right way is to get married to the opposite sex and have a family.

• Hegemony- the way in which those in power maintain their control. Dominant ideologies are considered hegemonic.

David Gauntlett• David Gauntlett argues

that classical media studies fails to define when the categories of ‘audiences’ and ‘producers’ unite and that new, altered teaching methods are needed.

• Example – Ill manors i.e. Jake.

“Making is good”

Henry Jenkins

“We are entering an era where media will be everywhere and we will use all kinds of media in relation to one another”

• Media convergence refers to a range of media merged into one. Jenkins argues that media will be everywhere and it does not exist just in one form. Media will continue to grow in multiple ways through computing and communication. Old media doesn’t die out it evolves in a new form.

• Example- cassettes to Mp3 file.• Representation of youth – media is

updated to the new technological advances we have – turns into the norm, but some people still use other forms. In relation to the example some people still use cassettes.

David Buckingham

‘Genre is not simply given by the culture rather it is in a constant state of negotiation and change.’•He believes that media reveals the bad side of the world. Children consequently spend time around various types of media. •Genres change over time because of how times change, however conventions stay the same.•An example: The Osmonds ‘Love me for a reason’ (1974) and One Direction ‘Little Things’. Although they were released 40 years apart, they still show similarities; fairly simplified editing, no visual narrative and focus mainly on the vocals of the band. Buckingham's theory can be applied as the One Direction music video proves to follow similar conventions as The Osmond's but has just evolved to the generation of music now.

Tajfel and Turner

Social Identity Theory –•Persons concept of self comes from the groups they are part off. •Groups construct our identities. •They suggest people have innate tendency to categorise themselves into one or more groups.•An example: Notting Hill is an example as they are grouped through location and class. Also Ill Manors how they are all grouped in class.

• Commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and its resistance against the mainstream of society.

• Working-class encounter daily hardships from the ruling hegemony.

• Younger generations are reluctant to suffer from hegemony.

• An example: The media/newspapers writing about a news article but only writing about information they want the public to know. So newspapers are controlling what we read about a situation – e.g. only showing teenagers when writing about the London Riots.

Dick Hebdige

Stuart Hall - Representation

Hall was concerned with media power, including how it propagates social values. ‘The mass media play a crucial role in defining the problems and issues of public concern. They are the main channels of public discourse in our segregated society’.He noted how blacks appeared on TV often in racially stereotypical positions, despite liberal assumptions and discussions by broadcasters. ‘When blacks appear in the documentary/current affairs part of broadcasting, they are always attached to some ‘immigrant issue’, they have to be involved in some crisis or drama to become visible actors in the media’.

NARRATIVE THEORIESBarthes - Narrative

Enigma code – mystery within a text, clues are dropped but no answers are given.Action code – this code contains in order elements of action in the text.Semantic code – parts within the text that suggests or refers to additional meanings.Symbolic code – symbolism within the text, shows contrast and create greater meaning, creating tension, drama and character development.Referential code – anything in the text which refers to an external body of knowledge such as scientific, historical and cultural knowledge.

Strauss - Narrative

Examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. These are usually expressed in the form of binary opposites. Binary opposites are a conflict between two qualities or terms.For example weak and strong.

Todorov - Narrative

Most stories all follow the same path.1.Equilibrium2.A disruption3.Realisation4.Restored order5.Equilibrium again Todorov argues that narrative involves transformation, the characters or the situation are transformed through the progress of disruption.

Propp - Narrative

Propp’s narrative theory uses these 7 types of characters so that audiences can easily identify the characters in the film/TV show. Hero, villain, helper, mentor, dispatcher, blocker, prize.

Daniel Chandler

Chandler says that genre is made for a specific audience or ideal reader. Media texts will include stereotypes that the audience expect to see, with regards to class age gender and ethnicity.

Genre Theory

Henry GirouxHe said that Youth has become an empty category inhabited by the desires, fantasies, anxieties and interests of the adult world.He further suggests that the collective identities of youth are constructed by adults and serve the needs of an adult society.

1997

Greg Philo

“If you want to scare a British moviegoer, you don't make a film about zombies – you cast a kid in flammable sportswear and a hoodie”

Contemporary ‘Hoodie Cinema’ reflects the middle class fear of “those who might undermine their security” – threat of the working class.

Niche example: Local newspapers such as Essex Chronicle covering teenage knife crime – generalised to all teenagers

Mainstream example: The Guardian article ‘Hoodies strike fear in British cinema’ – social class linked with stereotypes e.g. working class youths are ‘thugs’.

British films use teenagers with hoodies as the ‘bad guy’ – due to the creation of the violent teen image created and exaggerated by the media.

This influences the older generation to feel threatened. Youths, particularly those in the working class, are heavily associated with crime and trouble.

Hoodie Cinema

George Gerbner

Cultivation Theory

“The more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television."Exposure to television gradually ‘cultivates’ the way viewers perceive reality by being constantly exposed to the same images and labels.

Focuses on violence – the media overestimates crime in films, news reports, dramas etc – creates fear and influences people’s perception of the world.

Niche example:

Mainstream example: News coverage of London Riots – caused fear of teens all over the country

Personal example: Use of catchy phrases in TV shows such as The Only Way Is Essex and Made in Chelsea