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Week Seven- Identity, Reality and Postmodernism

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Week Seven- Identity, Reality and Postmodernism

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What is reality?
what we can see, hear or touch ?
what is considered reality in one society, may not be the same reality with another
what is considered reality to one individual may not be the same to another
social constructionism occurs on macro level of societies and the macro level of the individual. Gender, race, social class etc. are socially constructed. Discourse defines the world that we live in.

Social Media- Crystallisation
social media aids the social construction of reality.
information and attitudes cluster together and form crystals as such.
Defining Identity
Stuart Hall has argued that various developments within twentieth century social thought have forced an attention to identity:
-Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism and the 'linguistic turn' (language that doesn't carry meanings but makes meaning)
Bauman argues that with the collapse of fixed and stable identities around gender, nation etc. there is more of a social fluidity and insecurity around identity.
How is identity formed?
-essentialism vs social constructionism
-nature vs Nurture
-identities stems from a persons nature- biological/psychological
-identities are shaped by experience, interactions and language.

Identity Categories and Representations-
identity categories
-social categories formed on the basis of social divisions
-gender, sexuality, race, social class, dis/ability, age etc.
-differences are socially constructed meaning they are not natural
-identity categories are constructed as unequal
Intersectionality-
the idea that identity categories such as gender, race, class, dis/ability and sexual orientation are interwoven.
Gender-
gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as roles and relationships between groups of men and women. this varies between societies and can be changed. people are born either female or male but are still taught norms and behaviours including how they should interact with people from the opposite sex as well as the same sex.
-femininity and masculinity - founded by myths and stereotypes
-gender binary

Social class-
-career and education
-Social mobility
-opportunity
-privilege
-socio-economic factors
-taste and capital
-upbringing and values

Photographic Truth
Susan Sontag discusses the relationship between photography and notions of truth and reality.
photography is as much as an interpretation of the world as much as paintings and drawings are.
photographs capture of how something or someone once appeared.

Hyperreality and Postmodernism
- the media affects our perception of the world and reality.
-reality and meaning have been replaced with signs and symbols.
-experience is a stimulation of reality.
-there isn't a clear distinction between the real and the fake.
-over time we have relied on media texts to have a sense of reality.
what is postmodernism?
postmodernism in media suggests or infers that no media text has a greater value when compared to each other.
the distinction between media and reality have collapsed and now we live in a world where reality is based off what we see in media texts or photographs, defined by representations.

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what is representation? and what does it mean?
representation is the re-presentation of reality, our understanding of the world whether that is geography, culture, ideology is gained from the way these are represented. Media study is a large part of shaping and changing sense of reality.
Key theorists:
-Roland Barthes
-Michel Foucault
-Laura Mulvey
-Stuart Hall
Media provides us with representations of different aspects of reality for example travel photography, TV documentaries, newspaper articles (travel section) films also may give us an interpretation of countries when we haven't been there.
Ideology-
any given ideology contains a common set of values, beliefs and ideas. these limit the range of acceptable meanings and representations that an ideology can accommodate.

Representation of gender
women are objectified for the satisfaction of male viewing
possible essays:
how has digital culture and social media impacted on the representation of women in photography?
how are men represented in photography and what impact has social media had on this?
Representation in games
there's a range of representation between men and women, for example Mario and Baby peach from super Mario.

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different types of intertextuality:
-self reflective
-adaptation
-homage
-parody
purposes:
-to reduce or inflate a texts cultural status
-to critique or imitate
-for transmedia storytelling or adaptation
what is intertextuality?
intertextuality is the idea that media texts are connected to each other.
intertextuality theory argues that we should not attempt to analyse a media text by itself, but rather acknowledge that texts are part of a larger web of cultural texts.
Theories: Bakhtin and Kristeva
Mikhail Bakhtin was interested in how language works- how we understand words and language and how we are creating meanings from them. He argued that we can only understand words in relation to other words, that language is a cultural web reliant on context. He also thinks that texts are constantly in dialogue with each other.
Julia Kristeva expanded on Bakhtin's theories to come up with the word intertextuality. she believed that the word 'text' wasn't fit enough as it implied that it was possible to view a creative endeavour in isolation.
Encoding and Decoding
the encoding and decoding theory claims that meanings and ideologies are encoded into media texts during production. Meanings are then decoded or interpreted by audiences.

Parody and pastiche
Parody is a form of humour where work is seen as a playful satire.
Pastiche is a form of humour that is known as blank parody mimicking without an impulse.

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what are media institutions?
something that drives how media industries and the businesses within the media industries work.
an institution affects the way an industry runs.
types of media institutions:
-film
-tv
-the press
key debates:
-concentration of media ownership
-regulation

The press (the fourth estate)
newspapers are traditionally split into tabloids and broadsheets.
actual physical newspapers make money through advertisements as well as selling copies of the newspaper. online adverts and subscriptions are increasingly common.
(Media ownership)
The UK news industry is dominated by a few large companies that own 83%of British newspapers. this has implications for media plurality.
what is media plurality?
Media plurality is the information consumed by people on an everyday basis, that reflects views and perspectives on the world. meaning there are a variety of viewpoints available and consumed across the media.
(Regulation)
two sides of the press regulation debate:
-those arguing for the light regulation to protect press and business freedom.
-those arguing for heavier regulation to prevent multinational corporations from behaving unethically
Television (PSB)
public service broadcasting dominated UK tv until the early 90's (BBC, ITV, and channel 4)
The BBC is paid for by the use of everyone having to have a licence fee, they don't have adverts and all the profits are reinvested.
ITV was created in 1955 to compete with the BBC, itv have advertisements and this is how they are funded.
channel 4 was set up in 1982 to combat the BBC-ITV duopoly and lack of competition. This was designed to reflect multicultural Britain with innovative, diverse content.
(commercial)
In the 1990's satellite TV became a competitor to public service broadcasting.
Sky became a frontrunner and offered a paid monthly subscription, their only goal was to make money and was purely a commercial company.
Sky was well known for offering a variety of channels, including exclusive premier league football matches, because of this it was very popular.
(Regulation)
Television in Britain has been regulated by Ofcom since 2003. Ofcom is responsible for making sure:
-a range of companies provide quality TV programmes that appeal to a diverse audience
-viewers are protected from harmful or offensive material on TV, radio and demand
-people are protected from unfair treatment in programmes and don't have their privacy invaded.
Ofcom was set up in an environment that was increasingly dominated by commercial TV.
(media ownership)
satellite TV started competition with public service broadcasting  but then led to them having domination of commercial TV, in the 1990's.
this was until 2018 when sky was then owned by Rupert Murdoch.
Film (Hollywood)
three stages for the making of the film:
-film production
-distribution
-exhibition
after the making and distribution of the film it then goes through another process:
cinema-DVD release-premium TV channels-free to air Tv channels
(regulation)
BBFC guidance for 12A film ratings includes:
no knives or anti-social/dangerous behaviour
no discriminatory language or behaviour
no drug use
limited moderate bad language
brief and discreet nudity or sex
no frequent horror sequences
no emphasis of injuries or blood in violent scenes
(media ownership)
major film companies of today are all part of larger conglomerates
-paramount pictures is owned by national amusements
-warner bros is owned by AT&T
-universal studios is owned by comcast
-Disney is becoming a conglomerate, owning tv channels ABC and ESPN, film studios Pixar, marvel, 20th century fox and Lucasfilm, plus more in tv, music and theme parks.

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what is new media?
describes the texts produced, disseminated and consumed as a result of digital technologies
new media can also be referred to as digital media or digitalisation
digital technologies capture a media text in a numerical, immaterial format.
in new media/ digital media media texts are dematerialised, data can be compressed into very small spaces, it can be accessed at very high speeds and in non linear ways, and it can also be manipulated and changed easily.
examples of new media:
-films
-music
-television
-photography
-animation
-gaming
-journalism
New media has changed how media industries work. The way they engage with media texts has also changed as data files are easier to access, share and manipulate.

Journalism
most people now are reading the news online, as it is free and easily accessible, meaning the sales of newspapers is decreasing. News can be accessed on newspaper websites, apps, or social media.
making people pay for online content is very difficult as its very hard to persuade people to do so.
with news being on social media also allows for clickbait to make an appearance, a large proportion of social media is clickbait as it has more views or responses as people are more encouraged to click on webpages when they see it, which increases the advertising income.

What is convergence?
convergence changes the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres and audiences. we are now entering an era where media will be everywhere, and we will use all kinds of media in relation to each other. fuelling this technological convergence is a shift in patterns of media ownership.
Three ways of understanding convergence:
-Technological convergence (media devices)
-Economic convergence (media ownership)
-Media convergence (media texts)
Technological convergence describes the converging of distinct media technologies into one device.
Economic convergence describes the increasing concentration of media ownership.
case study: Comcst
Comcast is a conglomerate that owns dozens of smaller media companies.
Media convergence describes when a media text is developed for exploitation across a companies various platforms.
case study: Harry Potter
Harry Potter visual rights are owned by warner bros.

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Audience Engagement-
sales and ratings made by viewers help media companies the audience engagement helping them to identify the consumption patterns.
New media technologies, like smartphones and the internet, have changed how the audience engagement data is collected and used. for example with cookies, they harvest customer data to target you with ads and products.
Demographics- categories that attempt to define people by certain identity characteristics. Most demographics include: age, gender, race, sexuality, and class.
-upper middle class
-middle class
-lower middle class
-skilled working class
-working class
-casual/lowest grade workers
Audience segmentation- The process of categorising consumers based on identity characteristics, designed to promote and sell products. This is a marketing strategy to reach a certain audience type so products are sold easily.
Media effects theory-
The media forces perceptions onto the audience forcing them to have certain thoughts and perspectives because they easily brainwashed by it. This is also known as a 'Passive audience'. Changes the way the audience thinks and acts shaping them into different mind sets.
Hypodermic needle theory- a theory that refers the medias messages, ideas and perspectives are directly injected into the brains of people from a passive audience. This is when the audience is seen as weak and are easily influenced by a message, meaning they are being manipulated as they are seen as an easy target by the media. The media are basically spoon feeding passive audiences information like this as they seem to not have the capability of having their own ideas or thoughts without the media and other ways of gaining an understanding are not considered, regardless of the individual or cultural circumstances.
Uses and gratifications theory-
this theory claims that the 'active' audience pick and choose media texts based on their own thoughts and perspectives as well as their needs. they have their own interpretations, they choose media texts to satisfy their personal needs such as an emotional release, as entertainment, diversion or escapism.
an 'active' audience means they are not passively overpowered by what they see or read in newspapers, hear on the radio. or see on the television. Instead they actively choose what to listen and pay attention to. They selectively make use of the material in front of them.
Encoding/ Decoding-
This theory claims that meanings and ideologies are encoded into media text during production. Messages and meanings are then decoded or interpreted by the audience during consumption. Humans communicate through the process of encoding and decoding. An encoder is the person who creates and sends the message. Decoding is when the audience receive the message and take it into their own hands to decode creating their own thoughts and interpret it in their own way, turning communication into thoughts.
Stuart Hall claimed there are three hypothetical positions from which decodings may be constructed.
Preferred- audience responds to the message the way the producers intended
Negotiated- audience understands the message, accepts and rejects certain elements.
Oppositional- audience understands the message but doesn't agree with it
New theories are created by the way media messages are produced, circulated and consumed. The meaning of media texts is located between the producer and the reader where the texts are being circulated and analysed by audiences with different beliefs and thoughts. The reader decodes the texts differently depending on their personal lives including their own experiences, giving each reader a different mindset so there will be all different perspectives.

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Semiotic Analysis- semiotic analysis is looking into the cultural signs and symbols. It's a form of deeper analysis to gain a better understanding of what you're studying whether it be textual, video or photographs. linking it to my pathway of photography this helps to see the meaning behind photographs, these are the types of things you have to think about when handed a photograph, most photographs have an intentional. meaning but isn't always visible to the viewer straight away.
How meaning is formed-
Icon- the meaning is physically resembled in the photograph
Symbol- arbitrary relationship between the signified and the signifier.
Index- a direct link between the sign and the object.
Denotation- what a sign describes, and is very easy to decode.
Connotation-the meanings the viewer attaches to a sign.
Psychoanalysis- An analysis of someones interactions and thoughts aiming to treat mental illnesses, including conscious and unconscious elements in the patients mind. Psychoanalysis helps to see how fears could've been built up giving you a better insight to their thoughts and imaginations, which helps to see life from their perspective.
Psychoanalysis consists of several theories:
Human subjectivity- emotional
How a persons life and uniqueness can form their perspectives and perceptions.
The unconscious- the repression of culturally forbidden drives and instincts.
Sexuality- the process where sexual differences are found and maintained.