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Create a series of Photo-shopped images, using the techniques covered in lesson today. Be brave when using layers, selections, opacity, brushes etc. Use Mac commands to print screen and upload these images as evidence of the process of work. As always, steer clear of obscene/slanderous/harmful image-making.
All will be able to combine to or more images to create new meaning.
Some should be able to combine these images with skill, showing elegant new combinations.
A few could show excellence in combining images using advanced skill in Photoshop.
MISE-EN-SCENE (French for ‘put in the scene’)
EDITING
Some important edits are called: continuity (or ‘Hollywood’) edits; MTV (’music television’) edits; cross-cuts; follow-cuts; match-cuts; jump cuts; eye-line matches; dissolves; fades; montages; bridging; flashbacks…
SHOT TYPES
Establishing shot / long-shot / mid-shot / close-up / point-of view shot / soft-focus…
Semiotics is the name given to the study of the way by which meaning is created in the world, especially in the mass media. It is based upon the Idea of ’signs’ and ‘codes’, ‘denotation’ and ‘connotation’.
A sign is the basic unit of meaning in semiotics. A sign is any individual thing that signifies meaning; for example, your clothes are a group of ‘fashion signs’ which signify meaning (perhaps you are trying to look ‘cool’?). There are two ways that signs create meaning: all signs have a literal meaning, which is called their denotation; but, depending on the context, many signs also suggest other ‘layers’ of meaning, which is called their connotation. For example, an image of a girl dressed all in white denotes just that, I.e. this is what you ’see’; but it may also connote innocence or purity (and all that this means in our society and culture), i.e. this is what you ‘think’.
Connotation, therefore, is always more than the denotation. Signs rarely work alone. They are most often combined with other signs to form a code.
A code is a group of signs that we recognise as going ‘naturally together’ to signify meaning (e.g. a rose is a sign; but being handed to a girl by a boy could create a ‘romance code’ and suggest love).
Film and TV codes are often called technical codes because technical equipment is used to create them.
There are three ways through which codes and signs can signify meaning: Iconicity: an iconic sign or code looks just like the thing it seems to represent, e.g. an image of a cowboy seems to be just that; but it is called iconic because it suggests far more than it should: for example, our culture tends to associate extra meanings with the idea of ‘cowboy’, such as toughness, heroism, masculinity, etc. Iconic signs are never reality: they are a representation of reality.
Indexicality (an indexical sign or code) in a sign directly suggests meaning because what it shows seems to be the result of something we associate with the thing it represents, e.g. smoke suggests fire, sweat suggests exercise, appearance can suggest wealth, etc. This can be a short-cut way for a film director to create meaning.
Symbolism (a symbolic sign or code) suggests meaning because we have learned this meaning in our culture; a symbol, in itself, has no association with what it means, e.g. a red heart shape suggests love; letters combine to make words, etc. The meaning we gain from codes is said to be culturally determined which .means that our culture ‘taught’ us that particular way to interpret the meaning. For example, when we see our national flag, the Union Jack, we see more than what it simply denotes – a piece of coloured cloth: patriotism and pride, etc.
An important code is an enigma code. These codes put a fascinating question in the mind of the audience that only watching the movie will answer. They tempt the audience to watch and are often used in trailers. A convention is simply a way of doing something that we are so used to we usually fail to notice it; conventions can seem ‘perfectly natural’ or ‘realistic’ yet are anything but. So: women in cowboys tend conventionally to be either ‘very good’ or ‘very bad’ – and this seems ‘normal’ within the genre of cowboy movies; the wheels of a car always screech; guns always kill outright; a punch always knocks a person out cold.
Genre and narrative are important media conventions that are covered later, as are editing techniques and-the use of certain shot types (such as an establishing shot sequence or montage – see later).
Cinema and TV codes are created within an area bounded by the edges of a screen. By controlling what objects and action are in this frame, a film director creates what is called a mise-en-scene.
Asking questions such as ‘who, what and where’ of the characters and objects and their relative positions, expressions, appearance, costume, make-up, scenery, props, lighting, sounds, etc. in a mise-en-scene will help you analyse it.
Try to consider what effects are created in a mise-en-scene’, what meaning they have (their denotation and, most importantly, connotation), how they have been created and why they were created (which will be the director’s purpose – perhaps to develop a character, a mood, the storyline or plot and sometimes to explore a deeper meaning or idea, i.e. a theme).
Editing is the placing of separate shots together. This allows a director to manipulate space and time hundreds of miles or weeks of time can be reduced to a few scenes that appear perfectly natural and believable to the audience. A montage is a most important editing technique. It is a series of shots that are edited together to create a kind of ‘individual unit’ of meaning.
Continuity edits – especially matched cuts – are called ‘Hollywood editing’. This creates a sequence that seems to flow naturally on from the previous one, and in which the edits are ‘invisible’. These have the effect of creating a realistic and seamless flow to a story or narrative (see below) where one event leads naturally onto the next.
Jump-cuts are dramatic edits; MTV edits are rapid sequences of fast jump cuts used to create a conscious effect as used first in pop-videos;
cross-cuts/parallel editing follow different actions such as two people talking; follow-cuts follow an action to its consequence, e.g. a character looking edits to what they look at
eye-line matches are a kind of follow cut).
A sound-bridge is a sound edit that allows sound from one shot to cross into the next to create continuity.
An establishing shot is usually the opening shot of a sequence; it ’sets the scene’ and locates the action. It is often followed by a mid-shot followed by a close-up shot.
A subjective point-of-view shot (POV) is at eye-level and appears as if you are viewing the scene from the character’s perspective (as in ‘Blair Witch’).
An objective point-of-view shot acts as if you are an observer secretly looking into a scene.
CAMERA ANGLE Eye-line match / high / low
CAMERA MOVEMENT Zooming / tracking / panning / hand-held
LIGHTING High key, neutral, low key
‘DIEGESIS’ AND SOUND
VISUAL EFFECTS / SFX
NARRATIVE
GENRE
ICONOGRAPHY
THE ‘STAR SYSTEM’
REALISM
‘Verisimilitude’
‘Generic verisimilitude’
‘Cultural verisimilitude’
Camera angles can signify meaning, e.g. a subjective POV high angle shot can crate a superior feel. Different camera movements can create significant meaning – a zoom or tracking shot into a close-up of a face can create emotion, a pan across a war scene can suggest violence; POV tracking shots and POV hand-held camera shot can create tension and involvement by making you feel as if you are a part of the action.
Lighting can create atmosphere and mood as well as signify meaning, e.g. in a horror movie, light and shade are important codes of meaning. High-key lighting is harsh; soft-key lighting creates a romantic atmosphere, spotlighting picks out a character from a group, etc.
Diegesis means the ‘world of the film’: if something seems to be a part of the ‘world of the film’, it is called ‘diegetic’. So, sound that is a part of the action is diegetic sound, e.g. wind noise, screeching cars, etc; but sound that is added’ to create, most often, mood or atmosphere is called non-diegetic sound. Diegetic sounds may also be added in after filming, or may be exaggerated for effect (e.g. loud footsteps).
SFX (special effects’) often use computer-generated graphics to create compelling realism and meaning.
The use of a narrative structure is a major convention of cinema and TV. We are all immersed in narratives and have been since childhood as we tell of or hear about the complex events of the world not in the form of long-winded complex details or bald information but as absorbing and interesting stories. Yet this way of explaining real as opposed to fictional events greatly oversimplifies reality whilst at the same time; paradoxically, appearing very realistic and believable. For instance, real events are rarely clearly ‘connected’ by such simple ’cause and effect’ relationships as in stories (i.e. this leads to that because…). Yet in narrative they always are. And in the real world people are not either good (i.e. ‘heroes’) or evil (i.e. ‘villains’); but in narrative they always are to some degree at least. And so on. For better or worse, we tell and hear of world events as narratives and media producers know this and use it to create media texts that rely on narrative structures and forms to be absorbing, compelling and convincingly realistic. Because of this, filmed narratives can easily trick us into thinking we are viewing a real ‘window on the world’.
Genre means the type/kind of narrative being told, e.g. detective, sci-fi, horror, etc. Genre defines a text by its similarities to other texts. Importantly, when we watch a genre film we have many pre-existing expectations of the types of characters, setting and events we want to see (prediction is a major aspect of our enjoyment of a film, and genre helps this). Genre conventions are an important way a director can create believable ‘versions of reality’ because we fail to see that what is shown is not reality at, all, but a media convention that we have become accustomed to seeing in that kind of film. So… we don’t mind the owner of a casino being horribly killed because we see him, in the gangster genre as naturally a ‘villain’. Film companies use genre to sell and make films: a popular genre creates a greater chance of commercial success; and genre can be cost effective, making it cheaper to write new stories and reducing the need for entirely new sets. Iconography is an important aspect of genre. We come to expect to see certain objects within the mise-en-scene of a particular genre, for example, in a Western, we expect to see dusty lonely roads, saloon bars, cowboy hats and horses, jails, sheriffs badges, etc.; in a modern horror film, we expect lonely girls, ‘normal’ objects, use of dark and light, etc. These ‘genre indicators’ are called the iconography of the genre. Celebrities and film stars are an important part of the iconography of cinema and TV.
Different stars can be important signifiers of meaning. They can create expectations of character and action, help identify genre, and create powerful iconic representation of such as masculinity and femininity. Cinema and TV are able to offer high levels of ‘realism’: the bright screen, the clear and powerful Dolby sound, darkened room, etc. are highly compelling and persuasive. Such ‘appearance of reality’ is given the odd name of verisimilitude. This is yet another convention of course – there is nothing ‘realistic’ about an image on a flat screen.
There are two kinds of verisimilitude: generic verisimilitude is the ‘realism’ that convinces us because of the genre we are watching (in the horror genres it seems highly realistic for a vampire to sink his teeth into a person’s neck); cultural verisimilitude is the kind of reality that convinces us because it looks like the way things are or should
Notes on ‘The Gaze’
Daniel Chandler
Laura Mulvey on film spectatorship
Whilst these notes are concerned more generally with ‘the gaze’ in the mass media, the term originates in film theory and a brief discussion of its use in film theory is appropriate here.
As Jonathan Schroeder notes, ‘Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view’ (Schroeder 1998, 208). The concept derives from a seminal article called ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ by Laura Mulvey, a feminist film theorist. It was published in 1975 and is one of the most widely cited and anthologized (though certainly not one of the most accessible) articles in the whole of contemporary film theory.
Laura Mulvey did not undertake empirical studies of actual filmgoers, but declared her intention to make ‘political use’ of Freudian psychoanalytic theory (in a version influenced by Jacques Lacan) in a study of cinematic spectatorship. Such psychoanalytically-inspired studies of ‘spectatorship’ focus on how ‘subject positions’ are constructed by media texts rather than investigating the viewing practices of individuals in specific social contexts. Mulvey notes that Freud had referred to (infantile) scopophilia – the pleasure involved in looking at other people’s bodies as (particularly, erotic) objects. In the darkness of the cinema auditorium it is notable that one may look without being seen either by those on screen by other members of the audience. Mulvey argues that various features of cinema viewing conditions facilitate for the viewer both the voyeuristic process of objectification of female characters and also the narcissistic process of identification with an ‘ideal ego’ seen on the screen. She declares that in patriarchal society ‘pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female’ (Mulvey 1992, 27). This is reflected in the dominant forms of cinema. Conventional narrative films in the ‘classical’ Hollywood tradition not only typically focus on a male protagonist in the narrative but also assume a male spectator. ‘As the spectator identifies with the main male protagonist, he projects his look onto that of his like, his screen surrogate, so that the power of the male protagonist as he controls events coincides with the active power of the erotic look, both giving a satisfying sense of omnipotence’ (ibid., 28). Traditional films present men as active, controlling subjects and treat women as passive objects of desire for men in both the story and in the audience, and do not allow women to be desiring sexual subjects in their own right. Such films objectify women in relation to ‘the controlling male gaze’ (ibid., 33), presenting ‘woman as image’ (or ‘spectacle’) and man as ‘bearer of the look’ (ibid., 27). Men do the looking; women are there to be looked at. The cinematic codes of popular films ‘are obsessively subordinated to the neurotic needs of the male ego’ (ibid., 33). It was Mulvey who coined the term ‘the male gaze’.
Mulvey distinguishes between two modes of looking for the film spectator: voyeuristic and fetishistic, which she presents in Freudian terms as responses to male ‘castration anxiety’. Voyeuristic looking involves a controlling gaze and Mulvey argues that this has has associations with sadism: ‘pleasure lies in ascertaining guilt – asserting control and subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness’ (Mulvey 1992, 29). Fetishistic looking, in contrast, involves ‘the substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous. This builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself. The erotic instinct is focused on the look alone’. Fetishistic looking, she suggests, leads to overvaluation of the female image and to the cult of the female movie star. Mulvey argues that the film spectator oscillates between these two forms of looking (ibid.; see also Neale 1992, 283ff; Ellis 1982, 45ff; Macdonald 1995, 26ff; Lapsley & Westlake 1988, 77-9).
This article generated considerable controversy amongst film theorists. Many objected to the fixity of the alignment of passivity with femininity and activity with masculinity and to a failure to account for the female spectator. A key objection underlying many critical responses has been that Mulvey’s argument in this paper was (or seemed to be) essentialist: that is, it tended to treat both spectatorship and maleness as homogeneous essences – as if there were only one kind of spectator (male) and one kind of masculinity (heterosexual). E Ann Kaplan (1983) asked ‘Is the gaze male?’. Both Kaplan and Kaja Silverman (1980) argued that the gaze could be adopted by both male and female subjects: the male is not always the controlling subject nor is the female always the passive object. We can ‘read against the grain’. Teresa de Lauretis (1984) argued that the female spectator does not simply adopt a masculine reading position but is always involved in a ‘double-identification’ with both the passive and active subject positions. Jackie Stacey asks: ‘Do women necessarily take up a feminine and men a masculine spectator position?’ (Stacey 1992, 245). Indeed, are there only unitary ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ reading positions? What of gay spectators? Steve Neale (1983) identifies the gaze of mainstream cinema in the Hollywood tradition as not only male but also heterosexual. He observes a voyeuristic and fetishistic gaze directed by some male characters at other male characters within the text (Stacey notes the erotic exchange of looks between women within certain texts). A useful account of ‘queer viewing’ is given by Caroline Evans and Lorraine Gamman (1995). Neale argues that ‘in a heterosexual and patriarchal society the male body cannot be marked explictly as the erotic object of another male look: that look must be motivated, its erotic component repressed’ (Neale 1992, 281). Both Neale and Richard Dyer (1982) also challenged the idea that the male is never sexually objectified in mainstream cinema and argued that the male is not always the looker in control of the gaze. It is widely noted that since the 1980s there has been an increasing display and sexualisation of the male body in mainstream cinema and television and in advertising (Moore 1987, Evans & Gamman 1995, Mort 1996, Edwards 1997).
Gender is not the only important factor in determining what Jane Gaines calls ‘looking relations’ – race and class are also key factors (Lutz & Collins 1994, 365; Gaines 1988; de Lauretis 1987; Tagg 1988; Traube 1992). Ethnicity was found to be a key factor in differentiating amongst different groups of women viewers in a study of Women Viewing Violence (Schlesinger et al. 1992). Michel Foucault, who linked knowledge with power, related the ‘inspecting gaze’ to power rather than to gender in his discussion of surveillance (Foucault 1977).
MORE ABOUT MORE!: THE SEXUAL LANGUAGE OF YOUNG WOMEN’S MAGAZINES
On this page (by David Gauntlett) we consider whether the sexual freedom and assertiveness encouraged by magazines like More (and its sisters, like Cosmopolitan and Glamour) is a good thing for young women – basically, I argue that it is – and then we see what some actual teenagers think about this, via the results of some brand new qualitative research conducted over the internet.
More is a British magazine aimed at older teenagers and twentysomething women, although it is also enjoyed by younger teenagers eager to read a more ‘grown up’ magazine. International viewers might think of an even more youthful and zesty version of Cosmopolitan, with even more emphasis on sex and enthusiastic discussion of how you can make men submit to your sexual will.
The content of More is a clear-cut positive rejection of the stuffy old conservatism about sexual matters that was around 10 or 20 years ago. It is emphatically post-traditonal – or, indeed, anti-traditional (in terms of its exuberant celebration of female desire). Like other ‘girl power’ texts, it emphasises that women should be able to get what they want from men, when they want it; that men should not dictate the terms of a relationship; that a woman has the right to look and dress however she likes, for her own pleasure; and that a woman has the right to demand satisfaction in sex, in work, and in every other area of life.
Of course, there are some problems with this recipe. It is emphatically heterosexual (in a way that is not really undermined by the occasional feature on the joys of lesbianism). Some people complain that the magazines reduce women to sex-obsessed predators, and objectify men as ‘eye candy’ – but this is a blatant reversal of the traditional ‘male gaze’, and remains powerful politically. Also, like all women’s magazines (and to a lesser extent, men’s magazines) they may promote an ideal of attractiveness which readers may be unable or unwilling to attain.
Angela McRobbie has argued that feminists should not dismiss magazines such as More out of hand. She admits that such magazines may not exactly reflect feminist ideals, but points out that, as far as many young women are concerned, academic feminism is part of the world of middle-aged authority figures – and we cannot really expect young people to simply ‘do what they are told’ by the establishment. Nevertheless, McRobbie says that ‘feminism exists as a productive tension’ in the magazines. More and Cosmo do promote the kinds of confidence, self-awareness and assertiveness that feminism was always calling for: woman are encouraged to know their own bodies and their needs, to articulate what they want, and to make well-informed decisions based on their own interests and desires, and not what other people want them to do. As I say in Media, Gender and Identity (2002):
In the magazines for older teenagers and young women, the encouragement of women to be sexual actors – even predators – rather than sexual objects or victims, reflects a ‘feminist’ turning of the tables. Feminists never really suggested that having sex with lots of men was a goal in itself, but the rejection of passive femininity, and the freedom to openly desire others, is feminist progress.
So that’s one view, but really we need to check it out by talking to actual teenagers. To that end, I spent a lot of time on internet message boards for teenagers, such as Teenfront.co.uk, sending messages and emails to young people from the UK and further afield. (Being a 30 year old man hanging out on teen websites for research purposes raises ethical concerns, of course – I was always careful to say who I was, what I was doing, and reminding teenagers not to disclose their address or other personal details to anyone on the net).
Most of the young women liked More‘s openness about sexual matters:
I get every issue of More magazine and I think it is good that they talk about sex in the way that they do. I think that More is aimed at people in their late teens (e.g. 15/16 to early twenties or older) so the majority of these people are probably sexually active and the information they give you is good for these types of people. I am 16 and have been getting More for about a year now, before that I got Bliss magazine but I felt that I was growing out of it a bit. I still buy other mags too though like Bliss and J17. I personally think that if someone is reading More magazine and their parents are not happy with the content, they should not let them buy More magazine. But I think that More has a lot of information to offer about sex, and young people need educating about the facts, the more information you have the more you are going to know. Magazines are another source of information. My mum said she did disapprove at first of me reading More magazine because of the men on the centre pages and the sex position of the fortnight etc, but she was just finding it hard to believe that I was growing up – she still let me read it though. I don’t think my mum has any problem with me reading it now though. So basically I think that More is good for the right age group.
(Sarah, age 16, UK)
I think they should have a bit about sex in them, because some people don’t know properly about sex and stuff, but are too embarrassed to ask at home about it, but if they see it in a mag it might help them a bit… But if there’s too much it does get boring.
(Angie, 16, UK)
I think it’s good that magazines discuss sex… I’m 17, and I think it would be unrealistic to expect a magazine aimed at my age group not to discuss sex, as it’s already ‘part of our lives’ if you know what I mean. Personally, I think that sex being discussed in magazines makes me feel more confident, as the stuff you read in magazines is probably more reliable that the stuff people tell you, and so, if you know facts about getting pregnant or whatever, you are more likely to make ‘informed choices’ about sex etc.
(Clare, 17, UK)
Some responses made direct and indirect reference to changing gender roles and historical taboos:
I agree that with magazines discussing sex help us teens realise not only that we have to be careful, but I think it has made me more confident. With girl power and all, it has changed the roles a lot – not long ago the men were the bread winners and the women stayed at home looking after the children. Now it has all changed, a lot of women are the main money bringers, which would have seemed odd, back then.
(Charlie, 16, UK)
It’s good that magazines write about sex and boys. You learn so much, and it’s pretty interesting too. Boys are still ahead of us girls with lust and stuff. If a girl has sex with some guys, people call her a slut, and if a boy does the same thing people consider him cool. It’s not totally equal, yet. But I hope it will be some day. In relationships it’s more equal, I guess. I think it’s great that magazines brings the ‘girl power-message’. It makes you feel more confident, and it helps you 2 stand up for your rights as a girl!
(Camilla, 13, Sweden)
I reckon its great about equality, that something I feel strongly about everyone should be equal. however, I do think that sex is still a bit of a taboo subject hence all the teenage pregnancies. I think nowadays it is more open but not completely. in relationships girls are being the more dominant role and I reckon thats great we should all have a chance, but I think it tends to be the boys with the more dominant role.
(Kate, 16, UK)
This woman was supportive of sex coverage in general, so that readers would be well informed, but raised concerns about the tone of the writing:
I think it’s good that sex can be discussed in magazines as other types of media are a lot less willing to do it. However, More is slightly worrying as it focuses on the sex itself rather than the emotion, like younger mags (e.g. J17), and it only carries a small thing at the bottom of the page about contraception. If we’ve got one of the highest pregnancy rates then why aren’t mags constantly promoting ‘safe’ rather than ‘fun’ sex? Kids need to be clued up and with the prudish society we live in, mags are sometimes the easiest way to get it. As long as the content is aimed at the audience and is informative, I see no problem whatsoever. In my opinion, if parents aren’t willing to talk openly to their children about sex then they’re in no position to criticise mags that give them the information they need.
(Jane, 17, UK)
Others were less certain that a lot of material about sex was a good idea:
I think that you should have not too much about sex, but you should have some of it but just the right amount, as if there’s too much it gets really boring.
(Holly, 15, UK)
And some found the repetitive emphasis on sex rather oppressive:
I’m a virgin and don’t really understand what the point in underage sex is to be honest! I think I’d want to have sex when I’m settled with someone I love, not just to lose my virginity. … I think mags inform people about safe sex and I agree that all these ‘Sleeping with my best mate’s boyfriend’ stories are quite funny.
(Claire, 14, UK)
More! is not really a ‘teenage’ magazine of the same category as stuff like Bliss, Sugar, J17 etc. I’m 17, and so technically still a teenager, and it’s one of the ones we most read now. Some of my friends actually keep the ‘position of the fortnight’ bits, either for current use with their boyfriends, or for future ideas! I think it aims to make women feel more powerful about sex, like they’re in control etc, which is a good thing. As a 17 year old who is still a virgin, however, I do sometimes get a bit depressed by it. I find the ‘younger’ mags I’ve mentioned before too immature for me, but reading about all these people and their various romps does sometimes make me think ‘what’s wrong with me, why aren’t I doing this?’ The paradox is that I tell myself I’m happy being a virgin, that in the end it’ll be worth it, and anyway, it’s not like there’s been any great opportunity for me to lose it. But sometimes it seems to be implying that what goes on in their stories etc is ‘normal’ and a positive thing to be encouraging, and that those of us who aren’t doing it are missing out. The publishers will probably argue that it isn’t aimed at our age group, it’s meant for a bit older, but everyone reads it, and so is influenced by it.
(Helenia, 17, UK)
I’m 14 and even though I don’t often read magazines like that, when I do I find it annoying. It seems to put pressure on teens to have sex, which I think is stupid.
(Louise, 14, UK)
Overall, then, teenagers were well able to think critically about the magazines. Although some young and not-quite-so-young readers found the repeated sex themes to be rather claustrophobic, most readers recognised that they were useful in information terms, and also somewhat empowering, particularly when considered in contrast with gender roles and attitudes of the past.
Of course, it could be argued that teenagers themselves are not best qualified to say what they should and should not be reading – shouldn’t that be left to psychologists, teachers, politicians, social scientists? Well, maybe these authority figures can make a contribution, but we have seen (here and elsewhere) that young people are relatively cautious and sensible about their media choices – even surprisingly conservative at times.
The self-assured ‘girl power’ messages of magazines like More give young women a language of empowerment and self-fulfillment which is a vibrant element to stir into the mix of influences that teenagers face every day. This only makes sense within certain limits, of course – sexual power is not the same as power in other arenas, such as the workplace, and an emphasis on sexuality is often (though not necessarily) linked to certain notions of glamour and beauty. Nevertheless, the positive, confident message of magazines like More is surely a refreshing change from the subservient feminine lifestyle models of the past.
‘MUST contain an element of audience feedback and may be integrated with the presentation of the research and planning material or separately.’ – this is off OCR spec – must be included
Built-in Mac Screenshot Commands Key & Combination Result :
Command+Shift+3 Capture entire screen and save as a file
Command+Control+Shift+3 Capture entire screen and copy to the clipboard
Command+Shift+4 Capture dragged area and save as a file
Command+Control+Shift+4 Capture dragged area and copy to the clipboard
Command+Shift+4 then Space bar Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and save as a file
Command+Control+Shift+4 then Space bar Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and copy to the clipboard
One handy trick to know about when using the dragging methods (Command+Shift+4) is how the cursor crosshairs work. To delineate an exact pixel region, the cursor crosshairs should overlap the top and left edges of the area you want to capture, but extend one pixel below and to the right of it (see Figure 2). This technique works with the selection crosshairs in other applications as well
Hi everyone – as agreed – please complete the questions you are resitting using the 2006 and 2007 ocr papers. Post the answers on your blog and post a link here as a comment. If you do not pass this task, you will not be entered for Jan resits. Then keep records for your IOLP 3.1,3.2,2.1,2.2 – we will discuss when you come back.
http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as_alevelgce/media_studies/documents.html
Ad-abbreviation for advertisement
Advance (advance story)-news of an event to occur in the future
All caps-a word or word written in all capital letters
AP-abbreviations for Associated Press, a news-gathering service
Banner-type of headline stretching full width, usually at the top of a page; also called a streamer
Beat-news source that a reporter is assigned to cover regularly
Box-material enclosed, either completely or partially, by a printed rule
Byline-the name and identification of a story’s author
Caption-the heading placed above a photograph; sometimes used to refer to the descriptive copy below a photo
Center of visual interest (CVI)-the dominate item on a page – usually a photo, graphic or headline
Classified advertising-ads run in small type in a separate section, which is often classed into different categories, such as “Help wanted” or “Lost and found”
Column (1)-a type of feature that is regularly run in a paper, featuring a single writer
Column (2)-the vertical sections of type, which may have varying widths to story on a page
Column width-the actual measurement in picas or inches; also measured in character count as a way to determine the character count of the entire story
Copy-a story or article written for a newspaper; also used to describe a page or block to text
Copyreading-checking copy for errors before it is entered into computer or receives its final rewrite
Crop-to eliminate unwanted portions of a photo to emphasize its center of interest
Cut-term for a newspaper photo or art, taken from engraving parlance
Cutoff test-reporter’s check that final-paragraphs are not essential to story
Cutline-the descriptive copy below a photo
Dateline-line at beginning of news story giving point of origin, if not local, and date, if significant
Deadline-time at which job must be handed in or completed to make issue date of publication
Deck-each part of a headline in a single font, whether one or more lines (once used to define a single line of a headline)
Direct quote-the reproduction of a speaker’s exact words, set within quotation marks and correctly attributed
Downstyle-the use of a minimum number of capital letters in headlines and body copy, where good usage permits an option
Editorial-an article that represents the paper’s opinion
Editorial column-an article representing the opinion of a individual writer
Editorializing-inserting the writer’s opinion into a news story, which should be written objectively
Euphemism-a milder word used instead of another word, possibly offensive – not an acceptable way to soften a quote from a news source
Feature story-an article of special interest with a quality other than its timeliness as main attraction
5 W’s and an H-the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How – the key questions answered by a summary lead
Folio line-the heading of inside pages, indicating section, school name, issue date and page number
Follow-up-a news story written after an event has occurred
Graph-short for a paragraph (sometimes spelled graf)
Hammerhead-a large headline of only one or two words, followed by a longer and smaller head underneath – the reverse of a kicker
Headline-lines of display type printed above a newspaper story, calling attention to relative importance and attracting readers to the story’s content
Headline schedule-list of styles and sizes, often with counts, for use in a newspaper
In-depth report-a story that goes beyond the surface to discover the news behind the news; also called an investigative report
Indirect quote-using a version of a speaker’s words without quotation marks. Example: He said that he expected to reject the plan.
Infograph-a chart, diagram or graph presenting statistical information, such as survey results and enrollment figures, in easy-to-grasp form
Inverted pyramid-a method of writing a story using a summary lead and facts in diminishing order of importance
Kicker-short, lead-in phrase above main head
Label head-a headline without a verb; to be avoided
Lead (leed)-the first paragraph of a story (see also, under Desktop publishing)
Libel-untrue statement or material that damages a person’s reputation
Masthead-list of the paper’s vital statistics, including school name and address, staff members and other pertinent data, such as editorial policy; usually found on editorial pages
Menu-in newspaper terminology, a front-page box or boxes announcing a paper’s inside contents, sometimes called teaser (see also, under Desktop publishing)
Nutgraph-paragraph giving the key details of a news story – the 5 W’s and H – when a variation on the summary lead in used
Objectivity-an attempt to write a story without showing bias or injecting the writer’s opinion
Photo release-a permission form used by photographers for persons in photos not taken at news events, granting the right to print the photo
Plagiarism-unauthorized copying of another’s work. Reproducing copyrighted material without permission – whether words or art – is a crime
Profile-feature story about a person; personality piece
Pull quote-quote from a story or news source that is “pulled out” and set as a graph in a distinctive format and type to attract readers to a story and add visual interest
Retraction-a printed correction of an earlier error in the paper
Slug-one or two words that specifically identify a story, typed in the upper left-hand corner of work to be edited or processed; also includes reporter’s last name, plus date/time from edit menu
Stet-a term meaning “let it stand” – or disregard a change that was previously marked or indicated
Style-rules regarding punctuation, capitalization, abbreviation, etc.
Style book, style manual-compilation of style rules for a newspaper
Summary lead-a first paragraph that contains the essential 5 W’s and H of a news story
Teaser-a front-page box or boxes announcing a paper’s inside contents, sometimes called a menu
Trademark-the legal, registered name of a product or business. Be sure to use capital letters when using such trademarked names as Kleenex and Coke, which are sometimes used generically
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Write up guidelines
Critical evaluation has an introduction and three parts. In the introduction, you must outline exactly what you did for your AS production.
In this part you need to outline your brief, briefly how you researched it and the stages and decisions you made in the construction stage.
Include:
Part 2 (1,000 words max) – Post construction evaluation of the product and how it works
In this section you analyse the finished product. This means you must explain how the decisions and revisions you made affected the form of your work and why you made these decisions in relation to the audience e.g. ‘I changed x because it looked too childish and I knew my main audience would be women aged 30-40’.
Next, answer how your product makes meaning – what do the elements of the work signify to the audience?
Wherever possible, relate to critical theory from the course e.g. genre, audience effects, narrative, media language (feminist, Marxist, close-up, POV, hybridity, intertextuality) Remember this is synoptic.
Part 3 (1,000 words max) – Evaluation of the product with direct relation to the audience
In this section you must explain how your text fits in with the wider context of media institutions and audiences. This means you must compare your product with real media output of a similar nature. Direct comparisons to actual texts and real institutions (BBC, magazine producers) are vital.
You must analyse how well you think your product would work with the audience – you should include any comments you have had from audiences you have tried your product on. Remember evaluation is how well or effective this part is (e.g. colour choice).
Analysis is why things are as they are.
Advice:
o Don’t spend ages saying ‘I decided to research this…’ and ‘When I had done this I changed it to…’. Get straight to the point, for example ‘After researching women’s magazines I found…’ and ‘The next change made was…because…’
o Choose the key points and explain them in detail rather than trying to cover everything
o Refer to theories and ideas you have learnt in both years of the course as much as you can, think how you can use a higher level of language at all time e.g. ‘narrative structure’ as opposed to ‘storyline’
o Wherever possible try to think beyond decisions of liking or not liking. If you like something or don’t like something there is a reason why: try to uncover what this is e.g. you prefer the purple writing on the pink background rather than black. At first thought you might prefer purple but, purple and pink are actually complementary colours and this will account for why you prefer it. It is not wrong to prefer one thing to another, you must get to the ‘why’ you preferred it and write about that reason.
Avoid simply describing, always analyse and evaluate.
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