my media studies blog

thousands of news events happen everyday.

stories comes from the public,publicist, PR/ public relations, news agencies e.g. reuters, leaks and tip offs e.g. police and politics, research,

the popular press uses news values to decide what news is worthy for print:

negativity, proximity – how close is is to the public, unexpectedness, frequency – making the problem more worse than it is

forms: media laguage – hadline/image/caption/byline/masthead/lead story/ puffs\wobs (white on black). genres and subgenres – read tops/quality and popular. codes and conventions – daily mail has alot of text in their articles, uses sophisticated text i.e. times new roman; the sun has lots of images which tells the story, has less sophisticated text i.e. arial. narrative – story – eye journey – how is the story  in the news paper layed out i.e. the right hand page is the first page we see

audience: segmention – class/race/gender ect. taget audience – mass, aimed at middle class peopl, niche, aimed at young/ old people. mode of address - how does it appeal to the target audience. audience response – how would the audience respond to the article. a change in the audience - increse of audience going to the website for free, the decline of money coming in to company

The Children

THE MASTER BEDROOM, IN THE FAMILY HOME

ADINA AND ALEXANDER ARE SLEEPING IN BED, ADAM RUSHES INTO ROOM

ADAM

Mummy, daddy, it’s my birthday today, it’s my birthday today!!

ADAM SCRAMBLES ON TO BED AND STARTS TO JUMP

ADAM (CONT’D)

Oh come on, wake up, wake up!! (shouting) IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

ALEXANDER SITS UP, LOOKS AT ADAM WITH AN ANNOYED EXPRESSION

ALEXANDER

Adam, what the hell…

ADINA INTERRUPTS ALEXANDER

ADINA

Alexander, calm down.

ALEXANDER TURNS HIS HEAD AWAY, SCOWLING

ADINA (CONT’D)

Adam, what is the matter?

ADAM STARTS TO JUMP AGAIN

ADAM

Mama, have you forgotten my birthday?

ADINA

Adam, today is not your birthday

ADAM STOPS JUMPING, LOOKS SADLY AT ADINA

ADAM

It’s not, mama?

ALEXANDER LOOKS AT ADAM, SMILING SARCASTICALLY

ALEXANDER

Adam, your birthday is on the right day, but on the wrong month… you’re just out by two months, you hear, you’re out by two bloody MONTHS!!

ADAM STARTS CRYING

AMI WAKES UP

AMI

(crying) Mama!! (babbles) Mama!!

ADINA

Alex, was that nes….

ALEXANDER JUMPS OUT OF BED, THEN STRETCHES

ALEXANDER

Well… I’m going to have a bath. Bye.

ALEXANDER EXITS

ADINA

Alex!! Alexander, come back here right now!! (sighs) why does he do that…

ADAM AND AMI CONTINUES CRYING

IN THE BATHROOM

ALEXANDER IS IN THE BATHTUB, SINGING, THEN AKIRA ENTERS, SNEAKINGLY AND ALEXANDER SEES AKIRA STANDING INFRONT OF HIM

ALEXANDER

Argh!! Akira, what are you doing?!

AKIRA LOOKS INTO THE BATHTUB, LOOKING PUZZLED

AKIRA

Daddy, what’s that?

ALEXANDER LOOKS IN BATHTUB

ALEXANDER

What? What are you looking at?

AKIRA LOOKS AT ALEXANDER, POINTING

AKIRA

Is that your belyay, daddy?

ALEXANDER

Yeah, why?

AKIRA

I touch it, daddy?

ALEXANDER WAVES HIS HAND INFRONT OF AKIRA

ALEXANDER

Akira, go away!!

AKIRA EXITS

ALEXANDER (CONT’D)

(sighs) Why doesn’t Adina let me lock the door…

IN THE KITCHEN

AKIRA ENTERS, RUNNING

AKIRA

Mamma! Mamma! Nilch,nilch.

ADINA TURNS AROUND LOOKING AT AKIRA.

ADINA

(Patronising) What’s that bubby?

AKIRA STOPS AND STARES AT HIS MOTHER WITH AN ANNOYED EXPRESSION

AKIRA

Nilch!!! I want nilch

ADINA LOOKS PUZZLED THEN REALIZES WHAT HER SON IS SAYING

ADINA

Oh! Milk!

AKIRA NODS VIGOROUSLY AND GRINS

AKIRA

Ya! Nilch

ADINA SHAKES HER HEAD

ADINA

No you silly sausage! Milk.

AKIRA LOOKS AT HIS MOTHER WITH A HORRIFIED EXPRESSION

AKIRA

I’m not sorssage! I’m Akiwa

ADINA SHAKES HER HEAD

ADINA

(Sighs) He’s just like his father…brainless…sometimes…

AMI FLAPS HANDS WITH EXCITEMENT

AMI

(babbling) Dada!! Dada!!

ALEXANDER ENTERS

ALEXANDER

Hi Ami… (to Adam, sarcastically) I see you stopped crying, Adam.

ADAM LOOKS AT HIS FATHER, FROWNING

ADAM

Go away, you’re so mean to me.

ALEXANDER GETS ANNOYED

ALEXANDER

(Continues sarcasm) Oh, did You just realize how mean I am? Well, I must say, you’re pretty late, Adam…

ADINA DROPS PLATE ON THE FLOOR

THE CHILDREN LOOKS AT THEIR MOTHER IN SHOCK

ALEXANDER RUSHES TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE KITCHEN

AMI

(giggling and babbling)

ALEXANDER

Adina, darling, what is the matter?

ADINA LOOKS AT ALEXANDER

ADINA

Why… why can’t you leave your son alone?

ALEXANDER LOOKS CONFUSED

ALEXANDER

…is that the reason why you dropped the plate, Adina?

ADINA NODS, THEN GRINS

ADINA

I knew that would grab your attention

ADINA KNEELS AND PICKS UP THE BROKEN PLATE PIECES OFF THE FLOOR, ALEXANDER HELPS HER

AKIRA

Oooohhhh!!! daddy gone bad!!

ADAM SHAKES HIS HEAD

ADAM

No, Akira, daddy is bad, he always been bad, and he made mama sad.

ALEXANDER STANDS UP WITH AN ANGRY EXPRESSION

ADINA LOOKS AT ALEXANDER AND SHAKES HER HEAD, THEN TURNS TO ADAM

ADINA

Now, Adam go to your room, I’ll talk to you in a minute.

ADAM EXITS, RUNNING.

ADINA (CONT’D)

(to Alexander) I hope you know you are late for work, Alex…

ALEXANDER LOOKS AT THE CLOCK, THEN LOOKS AT HIS WATCH

ALEXANDER

(rushing to his feet) oh god…

ALEXANDER EXITS

ADINA

Alex, haven’t you forgotten something?

ALEXANDER ENTERS QUICKLY, KISSES ADINA THEN EXITS

ADINA LISTENED FOR THE FRONT DOOR TO SLAM SHUT

ADAM’S ROOM

ADAM IS SITTING ON HIS BED, LOOKING SADLY DOWN AT THE FLOOR. ADINA ENTERS CARRYING AMI

ADAM

Mummy, I don’t understand why dad is so mean to me? I’m not naughty. Doesn’t daddy love me?

ADINA SAT NEXT TO ADAM WITH AMI ON HER LAP, DRIBBLING

ADINA

(Sighs) I don’t know why your father so… aggressive towards you, Adam… (muttering sarcastically to herself) you are one annoying boy who plays the dumb card all the time.

ADAM LOOKS AT HIS MOTHER

ADAM

What did you say mum?

ADINA WIPES AMI’S SYLVIA ON HER BIB

ADINA

Oh, er, nothing, Adam, it’s just your sister drooling on my hand.

ADAM

(turning his head away) oh, OK.

ADINA CUDDLES ADAM

ADINA

Oh, Adam, cheer up!!

ADINA CONTINUES CUDDLING ADAM VERY TIGHTLY

ADAM

(struggling to breathe) mum! Mama, I can’t breathe!! Stop hugging me!!

ADINA LETS GO OF ADAM

ADINA

Oh, I’m sorry Adam, I just feel you needed a big hug.

ADAM NODS, THEN STARES AT THE FLOOR AGAIN

AMI BEGINS TO FIDGET

ADINA (CONT’D)

OK, Ami lets get your brothers ready for school.

AKIRA ENTERS WITH A LARGE MISCHIEVOUS GRIN ON HIS FACE

AKIRA

Mummy, I’m weady for school.

ADINA

Oh, what a good boy you are, Akira.

AKIRA SNEERS AT ADAM, BUT ADAM TURNS HIS HEAD AWAY

ADINA (CONT’D)

OK children lets go.

ADINA EXITS CARRYING AMI

AKIRA CONTINUES TO GRIN

AKIRA

Daddy hates you ‘cos you are not clever, Adam. I clever. You are not.

ADAM STANDS UP AND STARTS TO LOOK FOR HIS SCHOOLBAG

ADAM

Yeah, dad hates you too, Akira.

AKIRA SHAKES HIS HEAD IN DISAGREEMENT

AKIRA

Daddy knows I smart ‘cos he talks to me a lot, not you.

ADAM SULKS

AKIRA (CONT’D)

(laughing evilly)

ADINA CALLS THE BOYS FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRS

ADINA

(shouting off set) boys, what are you doing? Do you want to be late for school? Do you want to miss out on education? Do you want your father to be cross with you? Do you…

ADAM INTERRUPTS ADINA

ADAM

(shouting) OK, OK, we are coming mum… gosh!!

ADINA GETS ANNOYED

ADINA

(shouting off set) Adam, do you want me to call your father?

ADAM SIGHS

AKIRA SNEERS AGAIN AND START TO DO A SMALL JIG AND SINGS

AKIRA

I good, I good, I good, I good, I…

ADAM PUSHES AKIRA AND EXITS, AKIRA CONTINUES TO SINGS AND EXITS

End of episode one

The name of the script I created is a domcom called Family Life which is about a Asian-Caribbean family living in London. the first episode is about the three Afeen children and how the behave around their parents and each other. The target audience are middle class ethnic families with children of their own, this is because the the parents would understand what it is like raising a family. This would appeal to them because the of the cultural differences between the parents, which happens a lot in mixed raced families in this modern age.

i have represented Adina Afeen, the mother, as an old fashion but modern Caribbean woman who loves her children and husband; she is a stereotype of a housewife living in the 1950s but she doesn’t do some of the household work such as cooking everyday and cleaning all the time. Alexander Afeen, the father and wife of Adina, is represented as, sometimes, typical Asian father who rarely communicates to his children, but loves his wife very much. The children are represented as happy and miserable at the same time; Adam, the oldest son age 8, is represented as simple minded child when happy but when been told off, he seems to act his age. Akira, the second son age 4, seems to represented as an intelligent boy and he bullies Adam for being silly. And Ami, the youngest daughter age 2, is just a typical baby who laughs at bad events, for example when Adina drops the plate.Family Life would come on the BBC channel because a british company would have made it. This programme would come on in the late afternoon because this is the time when most families are settled in the house.

the genre of this programme  is domestic comedy. The programme follows the codes and the conventions of sitcom, for example, there is lots of sarcasm in and some physical humour.

The name of my teen magazine is called Spice. I have use photo shop to create the front cover and to edit my own images, and Microsoft publisher to create my content page and my double page spread. The genre of my magazine is a hybrid, which is teen pop and crafts. I made my magazine a hybrid because there’s not that many magazines in this industry which have fashion and gossip mixed with arts and craft; my magazine is based of the 1970′s magazine called Jackie, which has the same codes and conventions of the a typical teen girl magazine but it has articles on how to keep healthy, fashion, making domestic objects and gossip. In a typical teen girl magazine, they have young celebrities behaving, dressed and look in a certain way to make the public think that they are perfect and the audience should look like them.

There is not much stereotypes in my magazine, I use Robert Patterson on the front cover of my magazine because he is liked very much by teenage girls, most teen magazines use images of celebrities, mainly good looking male celebrities, to attract the target audience. My magazine does not use the same ideologies as the typical teen gossip magazine, for example, there’s not images of celebrities looking ‘plastic’, I want the teenage girls be themselves, to behave and dress whatever way they want without being  judged according to the stereotypical behaviour of their friends who are imitating the celebrities in the magazine.

My target audience would be for teenage girls between the age of 13 – 17 years who like fashion and gossip, and also arts and crafts. The colours I used in the magazine are pastel colours because these colours are seen as feminine which would attract the target audience. The only problem i would have, if this magazine was published to the public, is selling the spice magazine due to the fact that most girls of the age of 13 – 17 are mainly interested in their image; the magazine might sell in small amounts because of the fashion, cosmetics and the gossip pages and not the creative pages.

I improve my my magazine by adding more stereotypical images of celebrities posing in a certain way; the use of colours in the front cover of my magazine seems to be aiming at a younger audience, between the age of 9 -13, the colours i should of use for the front cover would be bright colours like yellows and greens or bold colours like red and royal blue. The front cover of the magazine doesn’t look authentic because the background of Robert Patterson’s picture was edited out and replaced with a pastle yellow background.

the music video i  re-created with my group is called ‘Migraine Skank’ by Gracious Nappa Man K. the genre of this video is hip-hop because of the location music video and the clothes they wear.  in a typical hip-hop music video, the location is an urban area with graffiti on the walls. this music video follows the same codes and conventions of a typical hip hop video, but there’s a few changes.

the camera movements used in the video is mainly stationary, but the camera movement increases near the end of the video; we held the camera to make the music video seem casual and imperfect. the location of this music video is a council estate and the other is in the school, this would attract teenagers who are interested in hip-hop because it is based at around the school life and their social life as most teenage. also, the in the music video the teenagers mainly wear baggy clothing and gold jewellery, even though in some shots the teenagers were wearing school uniform.

the target audience for my music video is teenagers who are in school or college and they are into hip-hop, this would appeal to them because of the location of the video and the way the teenagers dress in the urban area. although this genre of music id not in my interest, i had to do a lot of research on the hip-hop culture, and this was quite easy due to the fact i was working with people who are interested in hip-hop.

the representation of the people in this music video seem to be the idea of having fun by dancing and singing, which the lyrics of ‘migraine skank’ is potraying while living the depressing school life. the council estate location didn’t seem to be ghetto area because there’s no graffiti on the walls and the area look clean compare to the typical hip-hop location, which is dirty. there are some stereotypes in my video, for  example, all urban teenage boys wear baggy clothing with large gold jewellery and a baseball cap and the girls also wear large jewellery, but the clothing is more fitted to their body.

my music video would be shown hip-hop/R&B channels like MTV Base, Box and kiss because my target audience would be watching these channels, and the TV channels i had mention would broadcast music videos like mine. i would publicise my music video on the Internet via online social networks like facebook and myspace as an advert or setting a fan page for my video so the urban teenagers would watch it publicly.

We can tell this is a music video because Lily Allen is lip syncing, dancing and the way she dresses. The genre of this music video is pop, we know this because there is no band playing the music. The song Lily Allen was singing is about getting famous by doing stupid things like stripping off their clothes for the camera and Lily Allen does not understand why people do it. At the beginning of the music video, lily Allen was in a caravan, in the a field which seems to be a low class lifestyle, then she walks into the caravan door and ends up being inside a grand house with dancing butlers like in Hollywood musicals like Annie. Also, when Lily was in the room filled with presents and then they suddenly started to dance around Lily, this could suggest that celebrities are always showered with gifts.

Lily Allen’s target audience are young girls who wants to be famous. It appeals to this specific group because the music video is represented as a dream fantasy world of becoming famous which most teenage girls dream of, but the lyrics is telling the teenage audience that being famous is difficult, for example, staying thin to stay into the spot light. The lyrics are very ironic, especially when lily said ‘…flock load of diamonds, I heard people died while trying to find them’, Lily is saying celebrities wants so many exquisite items and they know something negative has happened to someone or something. The audience’s response to Lily Allan’s video might be different views, for example, the audience who like music videos like Holly Valance would want that sex appeal and the pop music industry wants their teenage audience to follow that stereotype of being famous by doing this.

Lily Allan is signed to London Records, which is an independent record lable, so the idea of lily originaly being an indi singer means that her audience was middle class teenage girls. Now London Records is owned by Warner Brothers, which is a major record lable, because of this, Lily is known world wide.

The music video is mainly parodies of the other pop music videos in the music industry and each part of Lily Allen’s music video is constantly doing this, for example, when the butlers are dancing around Lily, this is simular to Holly Valance’s video, but the difference is that Holly seems more sexual in her music video when she dances with the male dancers while touching her body; Lily seem to be more elegant when she was dances with the butlers like ballroom dancing.

I think this music video is very good for girls who are wanting to be famous, they need to listen to the lyrics of the song carefully more than watching the music video because the music video is showing the dream that most girls would want but the song is saying the comlete oposite to the video.

the name of my film poster is called ‘the wrath of notredame’. the poster shows a person’s hand holding a sword with blood smudged across it and a silhuoette of a castle in the backgroung. the title is in red text that had ‘blood’ dripping off it. here is the synopsis of ‘the wrath of notredame’:

artemis, named after the greek goddess of the moon, has just moved to france with her mother and father. on the way to the new house, artemis sees an old, abandoned castle standing on its own in the countryside. after she had settled into her new home, artemis goes back to the old castle and there she discovers something about herself and the castle.

my poster has dark colours, a sword, silhouettes, blood and gothic text. each effect tell us it is a horror film poster, for example, dark colours represents death, silhouettes represents the person or the object is unknown and no one knows who or what it is, the blood represents danger, murder and death, the old sword represents murder, and the gothic text represents ancient and evilness. i made this poster scary by putting blood on the sword, so it looks like the person who is holding the sword killed someone. the horror iconography i used in this poster are blood dripping from text – i used this technique on the title in gothic text, it looks like the villan written the title with the victim’s blood, sihouettes – i use this technique on the castle, so the audience has to geuss what the castle’s appearence, for example, a gothic castle, a medevil castle, the sword – i use this object  being held by the villan. the sword is an ancient greek sword and in ancient greece, swords were used in battles and it is a symbol of wealth.

the target audience for my horror film is aimed at age 15 and over. the other horror films that my  target audience would have seen are’i know what you did last summer, i am legend, the strangers, mirrors, lake eden and saw 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. the target audience’s response to my poster could be interesting, scary, not scary and wierd. my poster might have mixed views because it has a simple design and it does not crowded with lots of people and objects in the poster.

my poster is a low budget british production that would be advertised in film magazines, on the internet and on major billboads. i have shown my poster is a low budget production by the simple design of the poster and it has actors and actress who are not well known.

my poster has someone’s hand with a sword and no one knows if the person is a man or a women, but in most horror film posters have a women as the victim and the man as the villan, this shows that men are physicaly stronger than women, which is a stereotype.

i created my poster using photoshop. making the poster was difficult because i had quite alot of trouble using the faulty laptop, it did not connect to the wireless network, some times, and it took a long time for me to finish the poster. the images of the castle, sword and the blood i took it off the internet. the picture of the hand was taken by me and it was my hand. i think the out come of the poster is pretty good even though i rushed it, abit.

flight of the conchords is very different to the stereotypical sitcom we are use to. they were satairing the rap video; in a typical rap music video, there are hydrolic sports cars which have blackout windows and so them being on bikes, they move them up and down like hydrolic cars.

hi all. i have started my media blog!!