Media Revision

How Does Media Language Incorporate Viewpoints and ideologies in these front pages of The Sun and the Daily Mail

Guardian and Daily Mail Front Cover Comparison

Deautschland' 83 Character Profiles

Deutschland' 83 Intro

80's Germany Research

Stranger Things Essay

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Regulation Research

Industry Presentations

Circulation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RDBwl4DcrSHPSEI3e_-kY4B-Kym7_Sv9t76ceN5_rHo/edit?usp=sharing
Production:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hPOdOLhCoMXUMpyvVQj5BqzCWgECtAtC1casZ3Nv6iQ/edit?usp=sharing
Ownership:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WcOZORCu8fFKySiAlzXFDJ8EZIe26SJyc9ijsDJm8p4/edit?usp=sharing


Distribution:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-1c6Ikuopbl7ItwvhWcHWAQfXHM3uzCAurdBLl_Wb08/edit?usp=sharing

Textual Analysis-With Mrs Brookes

Textual Analysis

Explore the way that different groups of people are represented in Stranger Things and (Deutschland 83)

• Audience 
• Media Language

P: In ST, we see a countertypicalrepresentationof women (especially considering the 1980s setting) in that we see empowered women.

E: We see the ‘social worker’ murder Benny, Eleven kills two men, and although Nancy isn’t aggressive, she does control the scene with her and Steve.

E: It is an interesting subversion of stereotypes– the 1980s setting leads us to expect submissive, powerless women, but the 21^st Century construction transfers modern ideologies and values and empowers the women.

CEMS: When we first meet the social worker, we view her from a high angle shot, from the point of view of Benny. This reinforces the patriarchal hegemonywhich tricks us into thinking that she is a typical submissive woman. However, when she shoots Benny, she is elevated onto an equal level with the other government officials, and is even empowered through a low angle shot. This reinforced by the editing– the screentimeshe is given compared to the (silent and nameless) male officials is significantly greater, therefore empowering her.

A: This shocks the audience, which is important for narrative, but the Duffer Brothersare also trying to highlight the everyday sexism in society– even though we are a modern audience, we fell into the trap of putting sexist assumptions onto the scene.  

Research Activity 3 – Long form TV drama and fandom

How Netflix Changed TV. How is Netflix Killing Traditional TV?

Representation Essay

Industry Presentation Notes

Who Produced the Drama?
21 Laps Entertainment  sounded by Shawn Levy
Above the line is gross profit and amount of money they will need for marketing eg. trailers, posters etc
Below the Line is free things like twitter, memes, word and mouth etc.
Andrew Stanton wrote some episodes, he has also written Toy Story 1, 2 and 3, Finding Nemo, Monsters inc. etc.

Where did the idea come from?
There were rumours of secret government work in Montauk (a real place in USA), The Demogorgon was supposedly inspiredly the 'Montauk Monster'.

The drama was filmed in Atlanta, Stockbridge etc.
Season 1 took 3 months to film.
Filming per episode took 11 days.
Editing took 3 days to edit
Kevin Ross and Dean Zimmerman were the lead editors for Stranger Things.
A film grain was added over the whole production to make it look more like the 80's.

Stranger Things Distribution:
Netflix distributed it, Laps Entertainment initially produced it.
Stranger Things was a Netflix original released on July 2016, Season 1 episodes were all released at once so it allowed the audience to binge watch it.
The drama was released in 130 countries in the world.

Circulation:
Received 104 nominations Teen Choice Awards 2017, Best Supporting Actor in Drama series.
Age Group: 18-29 and 30-34
Made Beyond Stranger Things
Penguin Random House partnered with Netflix to release a series of books related to Stranger Things starting in late 2018.
Dark horse Comics announced a partnership with Netflix
Merchandise: Stranger Things Cookbook
Sony Interactive Entertainment releasing a Play Station 4 exclusive game

Stranger Things Scene by scene (timings)

Stranger Things - Representation

• Goes 'beyond the binary'
• Characters move beyond simply good or bad
• Steve and hooper-complex characters
• Novelistic- multiple storylines and characters that are over a number of episodes and seasons
• Flashbacks that explain their background
• Systematic change- isn't just focussed on one individual
• Communities facing challenges and dealing with them by embracing or rejecting their own diversity (Jeff Gomez.)

Key Representations

Teenagers

• Disobedient
• Grumpy
• Typical
• Social divisions
• Imaginative

Family life and relationships:

• Interdependent
• Communal 
• Conventional/Dysfunctional
• Typical
• Arguments

Government:

• Questionable
• Corrupt
• Manipulative
• Secretive 

Mothers:

• Caring
• Worried
• Hardworking
• Dominant

Absent Fathers:

• Mikes dad
• Idiotic
• Distant
• Wills absent father
• Stereotypical

Police:

• Carefree
• Smoking/playing cards
• Has feet up on table
• Laid back 

Appearance Vs Reality

Mikes family appear conventional but are very dysfunctional, they show a normal family eating dinner in an 80's setting, although an argument starts and 'dysfunctionality' is shown. 

Social worker is someone we're supposed trust
Government are people we are supposed to abide by
Sheriff is really lazy when we should be relying on him to keep the town safe
↳This all leads to a sense of mistrust

Key Terms:

Dominant ideology
Constructed realism
Paranormal elements
Family life
Suburbia
Self reflexivity

Themes:

Isolation (Eleven doesn't't fit in, she doesn't know what is going on)
Darkness
Light
Fear 'the monster'
Social groups, events and issues

Social Groups

Age
Gender
Class and social status
Ethnicity
Sexuality
regional identity
Ability
Appearances
Lifestyle interests or preferences
Political values
Professions

Two main narratives:
-Will goes missing
-Eleven appears
-Appearance of paranormal

Paranormal themes:
Paranormal noises when the man runs into the lift
Light flickering on garage
Eleven stops the fan
The monster growing on the wall


Social Groups:
Government and scientists
Families
Teenage groups

Issues:
Family issues
Paranormal issues

Narrative Structure

Linear Narratives:

• Have a clear beginning, middle and end.
• They follow a chronological time-frame
• Action A leads to action B with leads to action C

Fragmented Narrative:

• Called non-linear, disrupted or disjointed narratives e.g. Joyce's family, Hopper and scientists.
• Don't have a clear beginning, middle and end.
• Events or actions may be shown out of chronological order and not in order they would naturally be shown in so C might happen before A.
• Its a narrative technique that can help show parallel stories, a story within a story, dreams and so on within the same episode or serial.
• They make the audience participate in the story to try and piece the story together.

Enigma Codes:

• Man in elevator is taken-why do't they care about the first character and what attacks him?
• Social worker shooting, who is she, why?
• Will Nancy get together with Steve?

The events in my episode occur in a fragmented order and chronological 

The flashback gives some context to Joyce and Will's disappearance. Hoppers past is known to us through the casual conversation between the lady and Mr Clark in the woods when we find out his daughter died when she was young. 

Restrictive Narrative 

• We experience the story through the senses and thoughts of just one character.
• Almost always the main character (protagonist)
• Narrative cannot tell the audience things the main character does not know, we find things out from the story the same times the character. (dramatic irony)

Omnipresent Narrative

• A panoramic all-seeing view of the world of the story, not just one characters point of view.
• Provides the point of view of many different characters and their experiences and feelings within the story. 
• Helps the audience see a broader background to the story, from a number of contexts. 
• Used for telling stories in which the contexts, views and feelings of many characters are important. 

The narrative type helps appeal to the audience by....

Narrative Endings

Closed Ending

Open Endings

• When an episode or season ends on a cliff-hanger 
• A story telling technique 
• Open endings make people want more because they want to find out what happens. 
• In LFTVD, open endings indicate there will be a continuation of the 'story' or possibly a resolution in the next episode. 
• Each episode of Stranger Things has an open ending making it more exciting for the audience.

TODOROV: Equilibrium Theory

• Traditional narratives follow a 3 part structure

1. Narratives begin with a state of equilibrium
2. Equilibrium is disrupted by an event to create a disequilibrium 
3. There is then recognition of the disruption by the central character
4. Central character goes on a quest to restore the disruption (search for Will/protecting 11)
5. Quest is successful, there is a happy ending and a return to normality or new equilibrium. (However, the first episode doesn't end with a normal equilibrium). 

• E.g. Benny's Disruption, Lift disruption, Joyce's disruption, Nancy didn't know she was going to end up with a disruption.
• To make the story interesting you have to have obstacles.

Strauss- Binary Oppositions

• He identified that we understand the world nay the relationships two have together. e.g. we understand bad behaviour by knowing what good behaviour should be
• He believed narratives are arranged around the conflict of binary oppositions
• Some oppositions could be:

Man vs Woman

Good vs Bad

Day vs Night

Old vs New

Right Vs Wrong

Justice Vs Injustice (government are injustice- we are normally supposed to trust the government)

In stranger things, the conflict between the oppositions help to drive the narrative structure forward....

Conventions of LFTVD

Representations in Stranger Things