Key Concepts

There are a number of key concepts which the exam board have specified.

 These are ideally used as frameworks with which to address questions set.

It is up to you to select the frameworks, the ways of thinking, which are best suited to the question set.

Codes: meaning systems consisting of signs. Signs are anything that has the potential to generate meaning, to signify. When a sign has generated meaning, it is said to have achieved signification. This is fundamental to the semiotic approach to the study of communication.

Communication: a process through which meanings are exchanged.

Context: the situation within which communication takes place.

Culture: a particular way of life which expresses certain meanings and values.

Identity: the sense we have of ourselves, which we then ‘represent’ ‘elsewhere’: a person’s social meaning.

Power: control and influence over other people and their actions.

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

Value: the worth, importance, or usefulness of something to somebody.

Cultural Theory

 

Hypodermic Needle Theory

 

• Created by E.D Martin
• The idea that media has a powerful, direct impact on the audience.
• We can't help but be effected by the media that we are exposed to and it shaping our outlook on different situations.
• It has links to propaganda which is the media loaded with a certain ideology.
• It has a negative outlook on the people it effects, it assumes that people aren't clever meaning they don't like to think for themselves.
• An example of this theory is using the same slang as someone from a TV show because you aspire to them.

Uses and Gratifications

• Created by Blumer and Katz
• It gives reasons as to why people buy and watch certain things.
• Includes popular culture and higher culture books, films and clothes.
• Uses for which people have for media artifacts, there are 4 uses:

1. Escapism-You watch and buy things to take or divert attention from the mundane everyday stuff as well as the important things.
2. Personal Relationships-You buy and watch things to develop a relationship with something such as a characters, book or trilogy.
3. Personal Identity-The taking of aspects of their identity from the media and the people from it. It can come from a variety of things.
4. Surveillance-That people gain an understanding of the world around them from the media artifacts around them.
 

 

 

"Skint"; is it right or wrong?

I disagree with the concept of programs like skint which are being  named "poverty porn". They seem to exploit the situation that the people in poverty find themselves in. Even though the program shows individual cases they still feel like a generalization. This could of been done for a number of reasons, the most important may be to make the show more entertaining or, to a degree, stay along the lines of the general public's stereotyping. The way the program is edited seems to serve a purpose of firstly entertainment, where they focus on putting the stories forward that are going to produce the most opinions which will then be talked about to boost the popularity of the show. There also seems to be a lack of  humanity that comes across in this show, missing out any aspects of the person that's being documented seeming to share any interests with the audience. 

The audience of the show could be a range of people from all classes and cultures, each having a different motivation as to why they are watching. Those in upper classes and higher culture throughout their life could watch the show with a genuine interest to see how those in poverty live. However, they might be watching with an intent to mock the people in the program, a situation in which this program doesn't covey the message the channel apparently wants to get across. People who are working class may want to watch to see what people in a similar situation live like and how they may deal with a similar situation . 

Posh People:Tatler

The program shows a good insight into the culture of the people who have grown up and lives in a higher culture setting. The people who are classed as posh like to think of themselves as part of a small elite group that take part in social events of a similar nature. However, they are finding that as that the middle class is becoming richer and rich people are moving to England, their small elite group is becoming neither small nor elite. Within the group they still perceive themselves as small, they also put across in the magazine that they are "a group of upper class good looking people who wear pretty clothes." The code of higher class people is apparently all in the hand book 'Debrett's Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners' which details the way they think they should act. It includes; rules on social kissing, the use of compliments and how to eat caviar. 

Even though the higher culture have a view of the middle class such as “The middle class becoming rich has destroyed taste in Britain." they are increasingly trying to embrace popular culture, due to the struggle of some people to spend well, in addition to having to maintain a large house. One even had part of his mansion be covered in graffiti to attract "punters" to get money to keep running his house. Within the program one of the writers within Tatler is sent to do a piece on poundland, she is given a £15 budget to spend on the most impressive things in the shop. In the shop she was amazed by things such as washing powder for £1, which is "unheard of". She breaks the stereotype of higher class people looking down on people who use shops such as poundland, yet there seems to be an aspect of being entertained by the environment she's in. There's also a change in the people in the upper class. In the program they interview a man from Nigeria who's made large amounts of money before moving to London. When he was driving in his Ferrari he was asked who he played for, the assumption being that he was a football player. This shows the stereo type that most people have in all the classes that those that have lots of money through means of their own are posh and white.

Amy Cuddy's TED talk, Your body language shapes who you are.

Amy Cuddy's TED talk focuses on how we can change the way we are presented to others as well as ourselves. The way we communicate to people causes them to judge us based upon these communications; they can be verbal or non-verbal. The talk focuses on the importance of our non-verbal communication and how we can change it. She also makes the point that we are influenced by our own non-verbal communications. Cuddy says we often change our body language to show either our dominance, by opening up and making ourselves bigger, or our powerlessness, wrapping ourselves up. It is seen too often be linked to gender, "women feel chronically less powerful then men". She says that our non-verbal govern how we think and feel about ourselves. The research that she conducted showed that after partaking in high power poses for 2 minutes, such as the "wonder woman", the candidates felt more confident and took more risks than the ones who were in low power poses for the same period of time. These poses can, eventually, cause us to change how confident we are in everyday situations, and even change our non-verbal communication permanently.

Sub-cultural groups are sensitive to contemporary trends in fashion,style and music.

   Students are a sub-cultural group that is sensitive to contemporary trends in fashion, style and music. This group is younger, often 16-18, than the rest of the western sub-cultural groups. Stereo typically, they all dress very similar to keep with current trends. A signifier of students is often an up to date phone and fashionable clothing, along with the way they talk by using abbreviations, are a syntam of a student.

    

    Maslow's hierarchy of needs gives some reasoning as to why a person would join a group that is sensitive to contemporary trends in fashion, style and music. The hierarchy suggests that you need friends before you can wok on self esteem, which is aided by your friends who you receive respect from. When you've achieved the self esteem you can do the parts in self actualization such as creativity. The creativity is what allows the trends to become sensitive. People also join a group to fulfill the need for a social status, in accordance to Gration, Reilly and Titford. The trends are also there for the need everyone has for group identification, if the group changes the way it's identified also will change.

     There are many codes that attract people to be in a sub-culture, even within culture there it is a code to be part of a group. There is code within the group to wear clothes of the same style, fashion in popular culture is sensitive, causing the group's style to be sensitive. The music is less sensitive as groups usually stick to a few popular artists. Other groups that are different to the stereotypical student will use fashion, style and music to show how they are separate to popular culture. There, there is a code to dislike the popular culture.

Semiotic analysis of Inception poster

    
The poster is used to create meaning to the person viewing it, also to give them an idea of what the film is going to be about. The connotation of the silhouette with a gun is that there will be violence, they also seem comfortable holding the gun which could mean that he could be used to the violence or has been professionally trained in using the gun. The suit can imply that the gun has something to do with a business, or the need for the person to go undercover. The text of the title of the movie look similar to a maze which could give the meaning that the movie is going to be confusing and hard to understand. The name along the top of the poster shows that the actor has a large part in the film, the fact that there are no other names also shows that the actor is well known and can help promote the movie alone. The tag line of the move shows that it may be different and original; it also makes the poster personal to the viewer as it uses the word "your". There is text that names another film with the same director; this implies that it could be in a similar genre. Also the film mentioned was well received, meaning that the director is good and causing the viewer to make connections to the other movie to help with the syntam of the poster. With the tall buildings around the silhouette it gives the idea that the person is alone and makes the setting look empty, which is unusual as it look like it should be a heavily populated city. The water in the poster is very unusual, causing the viewer to question what’s going on is the film as all the connotations don't seem to fit together well enough to give them much understanding of the film or its plot.