Leveson Inquiry

David Cameron rejects call for statutory press regulation

This story was about a dispute between the coalition government, conservative David Cameron and liberal democrat Nick Clegg over the release of the results from the leveson inquiry as Nick Clegg argued that press should be regulated over this story as he argued that he wants to protect the people as argues that the press  can expose abuse of power without abusing its own. On the other hand David Cameron wants free press as he argued that legislation could ultimately infringe  free speech and a free press. 

Personally i would agree with David Cameron that the press should not be regulated as British citizens deserve the truth, and every little detail about it, as regulating would be a form of silencing the press, also regulating will only lead to reinforcing the theory of hegomony as the government will only let the press publicise what they think is appropriate, and regulate anything that would badmouth them. Also i believe that Britain is a pluralistic country as we believe in democracy therefore regulating the press would go against that. However i can understand where Nick Clegg is coming from as free press has caused alot of trouble in the past therefore i understand why he would want to regulate it, however i think that due to being a democratic country i believe that there should be free press.

Source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/29/leveson-report-david-cameron-rejects

E20

#E20

The representations that I can gather of young people from watching eastenders spin off e20 is overall negative as they shown to be delinquents through their actions as they go against rules set by the care home, (go against the norms and values of society), from the way they dress to the way they talk shows how they disobey authority portraying themselves in a negative way, therefore not being a fair representation as most of the teens shown within the webisode are portrayed in a negative limelight    

Producers and audiences may be more interested in negative stereotypes of young people as its what audiences expect therefore producers are more interested in portraying the negative stereotypes of young people, this can be linked to verisimilitude which refers to what an audience expects from a text in terms of content and forms/conventions. The quality of appearing to be true or real, however producers may use some form of mediation where audiences see the producers version of reality, in this case being the negative stereotypes of young people within the show e20 as they have been over exaggerated. Also some audiences enjoy watching negative stereotypes of young people as it provides entertainment (escapism) for them, also some audiences may see themselves reflected in the text (personal identity).

However a positive example of representations of youths in British television would be the show Waterloo road which subverts the negative stereotypical portrayal youths, as the programme shows hard-working students in school rather than on the streets causing havoc. however the show portrays some aspect of youth delinquency as it shows some students who form an anti-school subculture, who achieve through illegitimate means. The uniforms is another way   Another example would be the show skins which heavily portrays youths to be deviant as it portrays them to be promiscuous as they encounter in a number of sexual activities, it also shows them to be feral as they go against the law by stereotypically causing anti-social behaviour as they drink an excess amount of alcohol and take drugs, this negative representation has been associated heavily with youths and has been overrepresented within British television.

Kidulthood Questions

Kidulthood

The general representation that is conveyed of young people in London through the film Kidulthood is overall negative as it portrays them in the stereotypical manner as they are shown to be feral through the violence, such as the fight scene between the two girls, the drug taking as the opening scene showed two youths smoking a 'zoot' (weed). They also show the youths to be very intimidating through their clothing as they wear hoodies and baggy trousers, this was shown through the opening scene as one of the main characters 'sam' was seen as the ring leader who wore this type of clothing.

It can be argued that this is a fair representation of youths within London as the events shown within the opening scene are common amongst youths such as bullying and the violent behavior, however it can be argued that these events have been over exaggerated, as they have all been condensed into one opening scene, also it can argued that its not a fair representation of youths within London as not all youths are like the people that are shown within the opening scene of Kidulthood, as you do get youths that show a positive attitude towards school, who would rather catch up on work before school rather than smoking weed and be deviant.

The opening scene from Kidulthood is a good example of verisimilitude as it shows the groups that typically form within schools, for example you have those that play football, those that hang around in gangs who cause trouble and those that stay quiet and do their work. Also the language used within the opening scene is typical of teenagers as they talk in an restricted language code as they use slang words such as 'sket' and 'blud', therefore being a good example of verisimilitude as its what the language and the behavior which is shown is what the audience expects. It can be argued that audience have formed these interpretations from the dominant ideologies which the media has presented of youths within London, this can be  linked to the theory of hegomony. 

A negative representation is better than no representation at all

The word representation can be defined as a description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature. Teenagers especially have been stereotyped negatively ever since the ‘Mods and ‘Rockers’ event occurred. Nothing much has changed since then as teens are still being represented as the feral youths that were represented back then. Some may argue that any representation is better than nothing at all as teens are being shown in the media; however a majority of that coverage seems to be negative publicity, therefore giving a general negative representation, in this essay I shall sum up both the pros and cons of a negative representation and shall assess which is better.

Some may disagree with the statement as teenagers for example would argue that no representation at all would mean that there would be less of a negative stereotype, therefore meaning that there would be less of a stigma attached to teens. The media have played a big part in the negative representations of teens For example this statement can be linked to current examples such as the London Riots has given young teens a negative representation as the mass media have portrayed youths within London to be ‘feral’. This is reinforced by the images portrayed by institutions such as the guardian which have carefully handpicked images of young delinquents committing utilitarian crimes; this is an example of hegemony – the dominance of one social class injecting dominant ideologies into audiences which can also be linked to the theory of hypodermic needle. This has affected many teens within London as it may have led to Howard Becker’s theory of self-fulfilling prophecy, where by the label attached becomes true. Also a theory which can be linked to the negative representations of teens within the media is the dependency theory, this theory talks about how people look to the media for true representations, therefore if a representation is negative then teens would be stereotyped as negative, therefore a negative representation would not be better than no representation in this case.

On the other hand some may agree with the statement as for celebrities a negative representation would benefit them more than no representation at all as a bit bad publicity Is good publicity for celebs as it keeps there name circling around the media, which informs audiences that that person is still around, For example the negative representation of  jimmy savile may not be positive, but it has kept his name circling around the media which may not be good for him but it has made people remember him, therefore for celebrities a negative representation is better than none at all.

Personally I would disagree with the statement as a young teen living in London, this negative representation that surround teens like myself within London is generally negative, having previously been formed by the moral panic that was created by the Mods and Rockers, I think that this negative representation has hindered a lot of the youth within London, especially as the constant negative publicity that has been portrayed across all 3 media platforms, especially print has altered a lot of people views/opinions of teens in general, injecting views that teens are ‘feral’, etc. I therefore believe that no representation is better than a negative one as the constant negative representation that has surrounded teens in society has altered a lot of the choices we as teenagers have made, as they form the opinion that the representation is not going to get better, so why not do as the media portray us out to be (self-fulfilling prophecy).

Lord McAlpine

The BBC will pay £185,000 in damages to Lord McAlpine following the Newsnight broadcast in November which wrongly linked Lord McAlpine to allegations of child sexual abuse. Although the programme did not name Lord McAlpine , however he has indicated that he now intends to sue the Institution BBC after it led to him being identified on the internet (twitter, etc). George Entwistle the ex director general, stated that "We should not have put out a film that was so fundamentally wrong. What happened here is completely unacceptable" he goes on further to say "I have taken clear and decisive action to start to find out what happened and put things right." He also admits that the institution was facing a bad crisis of trust in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. In my opinion i don't think that the programme newnight should close as this incident is similar to ITV's this morning where a list of  pedophiles was revealed on national TV including Lord McAlpine as one of them, this lead to Institution ITV being fined a sum of £125,000 similar to BBC. I think closing a show like newsnight will only cause even more problems for institution BBC as the recent story on jimmy savile has put them under enough pressure already.

This was the tweet that Sally Bercow tweeted which landed her in a lot of trouble. She argues that her tweet was just mischievous and not libellous and  if she gets sued for it then so be it.Personally i think that the tweet was wrong as the accusations made on BBC Newsnight were false and that the tweet was just another way to get at Lord McAlpine himself. However i don't think the tweeter should be fined as this is a form of pluralism, having the opportunity to voice your own opinions, but in today's society i think that with sites like twitter, peoples voices are becoming suppressed as it has seemed to land alot of people in trouble, for example the Tom Daley and Riley incident .

Sources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/20340847
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/nov/15/bbc-lord-mcalpine-compensation-newsnight
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/bbcs-newsnight-report-implicating-lord-mcalpine-in-child-sex-abuse-should-never-have-gone-out-8303444.html

Case study - Young people in London

The representation that I can gather from looking at  the jpeg cutting from the newspaper article called 'trouble in the hood' is that young Londoners are portrayed as feral as the image shown within the article shows young Londoners being delinquents as they battle against authority by committing utilitarian crimes, showing an overall negative representation of young Londoners placing them in the news for negative reasons

Media theory which can be related to this could be the hypodermic needle as the representation that is shown within the article is injected into audiences creating stereotypes and opinions on certain ethnicity's and gender, another theory which could be related could be Stuart Halls reception theory as audiences might take a preferred reading that all teenagers are feral and delinquents, which again creates a negative stereotypical image of young Londoners

This text can be referenced to in an exam as it is a prime example of negative representation of young teens (Londoners) within the media, as it surrounds the issue as to why young teens form such a strong anti subculture which causes them to become delinquents within society. Also the fact that a lot of media theory covers the issue of teens and negative representations which would benefit this text being referenced in the exam as there would be a lot to write about.

The representation that I can gather from looking at the jpeg cutting from the newspaper article called 'broom army' is overall positive as it puts young Londoners in a positive light as they sweep to reclaim back their streets. However from looking at the image, it is clear that a majority of the sweepers are predominantly white, therefore portraying the image that other races/ethnicities don't care about their streets

Media theory which can be related to this could be

media story

ITV to pay Lord McAlpine £125,000 in damages

Institution ITV agrees to pay a sum of £125,000 in damages to retired politician after Philip 

schofield revealed a list of politicians that had been linked with child sex abuse on the 

programme this morning with current prime minister David Cameron. McAlpine said he was 

"pleased to have reached a pragmatic settlement with ITV". His law firm,  RMPI, said in a 

statement that ITV has agreed to "remove from public records all media coverage relating to 

the defamatory incident". 

My view/feelings on this story/article is overall mixed as i think that what Philip Scholfield done               was wrong as the list was broadcasted on national TV which i also think was institution ITV fault for broadcasting it in the first place. I thought that the list should have be given to PM David Cameron in private, off screen. Therefore the fine charged was an appropriate one as there was other ways to deal with the issue raised. However it leaves me with a question as to why  Philip Schofield wasnt fined and his job is jeopardy  as he was the one who researched and handed over the list in the first place.

Young people in London

Case study: Young people in London

As you know, our case study is the representation of young people in London.

Today's task:

Look through the newspaper cuttings from the week of the London riots in summer 2011. Make notes on the texts that you could refer to in the exam should you choose a question on representation. The following questions may help:

1. What kind of representations of young Londoners can you find?
2. Can you link them to any media theory?
3. How might you use these texts in an exam answer?

Think about how you could use these texts or notes to answer an example question such as the following:

A negative representation is better than no representation at all. Discuss this statement with reference to the group or place you have studied.

This was an actual question from the A2 exam a couple of years ago and is useful to make sure our notes are relevant to a representation essay.

A negative representation is better than no representation at all?

Discuss the statement with reference to the group or place 

1.Young Londoners are 'Feral'

media story

All three-year-olds swear, says the sick dad who posted RVP vid of son

29 year old Arsenal fan sefki suleyman posted a video of his 3 year old son Kye, who sang a foul-mouthed chant about former arsenal star Robin Van Persie. The 29-year-old said: “I am sorry I took the video. I’m really not a bad dad. I love my boy and I love Arsenal.
“I got caught up in the emotion of watching a game with him. I shouldn't have had my boy singing the word ‘c***’

Being an Arsenal fan myself, i think that this type of behavior is unacceptable, getting a 3yr old to express your feeling on a certain football player is just outrageous and getting him to sing a foul-mouth chant is even more shocking. For me football is just a game, at the end of the day i have views on certain players but i don't go expressing them through 3 year old children. The strangest part of this article is when the father states that 'all 3 year olds swear' this just made me question his parental skills, whether hes mature enough to even have a child. overall this story gives a bad reputation for arsenal fans, which will hinder the club further down the line

Story: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4634943/All-three-year-olds-swear-says-the-sick-dad-who-posted-Robin-van-Persie-video-of-son.html

Feminism Essay New

To what extent do you agree with Judith Butler's theory that gender roles are socially constructed?

The 21^st century in which we live in, plays a massive role in influencing different attitudes and behaviour of those within it. These differences are reflected in society where primarily the media plays a big part in the advance of certain gender-related social roles and behaviour traits. In this essay I shall discuss the debate whether gender roles are socially constructed or not 

Judith Butler, a post-feminist believes that traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ and argues that gender is not biologically fixed, and that by dividing men and women, Feminists accidentally reinforce the idea of differences between the two genders. Butler further believes that gender roles are a ‘performance’ and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology.

In society today, the feminine is usually characterised by nurturing, innocence and compassion, whereas the masculine, however, is characterised by strength, independence and intelligence. A clear representation of this in today’s society would be the media, where it plays a big part in supporting Judith’s Butlers theory about gender roles being socially constructed, adverts targeted at men showing how men should act and behave, being the ‘breadwinner’ by default, reinforcing Butlers theory about gender roles being socially constructed. Similarly adverts and magazines portray women in a sexual way but showing their compassionate and nurturing side.

This type of social construction of gender can also be seen within the print platform where a recent Guardian blog on children's toys in Morrison's is an excellent example of reinforcing Butlers post-modernist view that gender is a 'performance' and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology, this is explaining how due to socialisation, we receive our own identity where colour is one factor which separates boys from girls, as seen in this article where the colour blue symbolises the boys toys and the colour pink symbolises the girls toys. This does not empower women, instead does the opposite as the kind of toys you would see on those shelves would be doll houses and baby dolls, which may connote the typical housewife which stays at home and looks after the kids.

Social construction of gender can also be seen within politics, where some women have gone against the norm of the typical gender role. A recent example would be Julia Gillard, who has recently been in the news for defending her position as PM for Australia by slamming down opposition Tony Abbot over sexism. This has gone against the theory that gender roles are socially constructed as she has disapproved the label attached to women that their sensitive, emotional, compassionate women and has proven that women can be strong and independent.

In conclusion because of this societal influence, girls and boys act the way they do because of the way they have been socialised, the media being a major factor/influence in the decisions we make. Examples such as the Morrison’s article reinforces the way gender roles have been socially constructed as colour blue and pink have been used to identify gender, blue being for boys and pink for girls. Therefore supporting Judith Butlers theory about gender roles being socially constructed

Feminism homework

Guardian blog on children's toys in Morrison's.

This article is an excellent example of reinforcing Butlers post modernist view that gender is a 'performance' and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology, this is explaining how due to socialisation, we receive our own identity where colour is one factor which separates boys from girls, as seen in this article where the colour blue symbolises the boys toys and the colour pink symbolises the girls toys. this does not empower women, instead does the opposite as the kind of toys you would see on those shelves would be doll houses and baby dolls, which may connote the typical housewife which stays at home and looks after the kids.

In my opinion I think the issue is being framed slightly wrong, which allows the shop to get away with their answer. If you accept that there are toys for girls and toys for boys, then of course it makes sense to put them in different sections as the colours easily allows kids to identify which toy is for girls and which toy is for boys, however this article has left me with the question why should there be toys for one gender and not just toys for children?

sexist stereotypes dominate the front pages 

This article doesn't supports Mcrobbies theory that women are empowered by men as it quotes that ‘Male journalist wrote 78% of all front page articles in which means there are only 32% of women journalist and 84% of those quoted or mentioned are male, 38% of women are writers on the front page this is an example gender inequality as most of the front page articles are dominated by men.

The Quote 'Sexist stereotypes, humiliating photographs of women and male bylines dominate the front pages of British newspapers' portrays the way women have been represented on front pages, as mentioned in the article, front pages tend to portray women in a bad light, making them sex objects and portraying them to be vulnerable with the Kate Middleton and maddie McCann photos, where as Men are portrayed in a positive light where men are shown to be strong and independent with it showing Simon Cowells successful biography. 

Media Story

Ashley Cole Fined For Twitter Outburst

 Footballer Ashley Cole has been hit with a £90,000 fine for his foul-mouthed twitter outburst    
 towards the FA after hearing about the written reasons by the governing body for John Terry's     
 racism ban he tweeted “Hahahahaa, well don #fa I lied did I. #BUNCHOFT**TS.”
  Cole apologised soon after but has still been fined  less than a week’s wages 

 after admitting a charge of bringing the game into disrepute.

Reading this news article i found myself to be in the middle, as i think that what Ashley Cole 

said was wrong especially expressing his foul-mouthed feelings like that on a major social 

networking platform where millions can see what he tweets, however i don't agree with the fine 

that he received. the story can be argued both ways, one way that he has the freedom of 

speech, therefore should be allowed to express his feelings, however there is a more     

appropriate way of doing that, as in the past has been fined for previous twitter outbursts 

We’ll smash you up, Amir

This story in the news is about a masked thug who try's to threaten boxer Amir khan through a online video, ranting about the smash up between Amir khan and his fellow gang members. The threat was uploaded and shown yesterday on the e-media platform youtube , four days after Amir fought of this gang who tried to carjack his £100,000 range rover.

My thought on this media news article is overall negative, my reason for this is that the masked thug as seen in the picture above is a fake, my reasons for this is that he says that he has amir khans car keys that he stole from the fight, yet he holds up car keys to a porche, where at the scene of the fight it was said that amir khans was driving his £100,000 range rover, so this leaves me thinking that this video is a scandal, and publicity stunt due to the proof not matching the evidence.

Friday News

Twitter trolls made me feel hated ... but I won’t change

A vicious stream of Twitter attacks left X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos feeling she was “one 

of the most hated women in Britain”. Tulisa says she is targeted daily by cruel online trolls but is 

determined not to get upset.

The problem with celebrities these days is that they can't take the criticism they invite from the general public. They encourage their public to come and chat directly to them via twitter and then are surprised and disgusted when they find out there are people out there who don't adore them. The thing about it is, I'm pretty sure her public image is not as popular as she thinks it is, due to the things she has done in the past, however I think that people should forget about the past and think about the present as she can be seen as a role model to some people as she is an example of someone who has come from a deprived area and has made it big, therefore people should respect that fact and move away from the past instead of bringing it back up social networking sites.

An example of Tulisa's 'Trolls'

Virtual Revolution (BBC, 2010)

• Tim Berners Lee -> Invented the internet -> around about 2 billion people are now online -> free for people to use, no profit made -> Decentralised  
• Digital Divide - split between digital haves and digital have nots 
• Al Gore -> refers to the internet as an empowering tool, 'exciting and revolutionary'
• billion pounds a week -> spent on the internet (e-commerce)
• 5 million users use dating sites and 18 million reading blogs (mainly west london) 
• Internet revolution -> Identical to industrial revolution
• 65 million users around the world use Wikipedia -> challenges authority -> people power -> allows ordinary people to shape information -> Accuracy!?!
• 6th august 1991 -> first website launched, 1965 -> Email started
• MITS -> created first computer, Altair 8800
• Microsoft owned 90% of the market -> pressurised company's to have computers with windows software preinstalled
• Shaun Fanming -> Owner of Napster -> allowed others to share music online for free -> global piracy -> Metallica one of the bands enraged by Napster
• Chad Hurley -> CEO and co-owner of youtube -> youtube allows creative freedom, allows everyone to be seen -> Pluralism, UCG
• Ebay 21 million hits a month , Amazon 16 million hits a month, 1/3 people have a Facebook page
• Jimmy Whales (Co founder of Wikipedia) ->editors can lock and administrators can delete -> CENSORSHIP -> due to pressure/struggle by police
• Is the web unequal?!? -> Does it mirror hierarchy in the real world
• Web can be seen as a space of perpetual innovation -> provides extraordinary opportunities
• ^ BINARY OPPOSITION, GOOD VS EVIL

Friday Media

'Please, please tell us you're OK': Anguished parents of teacher, 30, who ran away with Megan, 15, plead with them to make contact

Jeremy Forrest, 30, a maths teacher and pupil Megan Stammers 15 ran off together on a love journey to France, There have been no sightings of the pair since they left Britain and Megan’s parents have issued an urgent appeal for their daughter to contact them and let them know she is safe and well.

Reading the article about the fifteen year old schoolgirl who's run off with her thirty year old teacher, my view on this story is overall negative, I think that what these two have done is wrong, firstly its paedophilia which is not taken lightly in this society as it is seen as a taboo, also the media are portraying him as a sex offender, which may give bad publicity to England as both fled to an EU Country. Overall I find this sickening as the teacher has breached a code of conduct between a student, therefore jeopardising his position as a teacher, both have not done themselves any favours as both will be frowned upon by society.

New Media Institution Case Study

        Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin 

What other internet sites do they own?

What is its revenue?

Annual revenue: US$ 37.905 billion (2011)

What is its overall worth?

Worth $200 Billion

Five key facts about the institution

620 million visitors visit Google.com daily.

97% of Google Revenue comes from their advertising services.

Google started in January, 1996 as a research project at Stanford University, by Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Google is the most popular site in the US, Iran and South Korea, 

Around a third (31.1pc) of Google’s traffic comes from the US, with 8.1pccoming from India and 3pc from the UK

Three quotes about the institution

If it isn't on Google, it doesn't exist. 

Jimmy Wales 

We want Google to be the third half of your brain. 

Sergey Brin 

Half of Google's revenue comes from selling text-based ads that are placed near search results and are related to the topic of the search. Another half of its revenues come from licensing its search technology to companies like Yahoo. 

Eric Schmidt 

Company’s corporate homepage

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.

Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University in 1995. By 1996, they had built a search engine (initially called BackRub) that used links to determine the importance of individual webpages.

Our company has packed a lot into a relatively young life. Since Google was founded in 1998, we’ve grown to serve hundreds of thousands of users and customers around the world.

Google facts

·         Founded

1998

·         Founders

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

·         Incorporation

September 4, 1998

·         Initial public offering (NASDAQ)

August 19, 2004

·         Headquarters

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View

CA 94043

Wikipedia:

History -> Google began in January 1996, as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin -> Both went to Stanford University, Page and Brin originally nicknamed their new search engine "BackRub", eventually, they changed the name to Google, originating from a misspelling of the word "googol", The domain name for Google was registered on September 15, 1997.

Advertising -> In 2011, 96% of Google's revenue was derived from its advertising programs. Google advertisements can be placed on third-party websites in a two-part program. The sister service, Google AdSense, allows website owners to display these advertisements on their website, and earn money every time ads are clicked. In an attempt to advertise its own products, Google launched a website called Demo Slam, Demo Slam is "a place where creative and tech-savvy people can create videos to help the rest of the world understand all the newest and greatest technology out there.

Google Infographic