Body Image In The Media (not finished)

How do they represent body images?

Why do they do this?

Explain how they do this (audio/visual/technical codes)

What audience are they trying to appeal to?

My Mad Fat Diary

In the first few seconds of My Mad Fat Diary body image is being represented very clearly. We  can see this through the popular people of the show being very petite, skinny girls, whereas the main character Rae, is not skinny like the popular girls and so because of this she is excluded from a lot of people at her college. They may have done this as this show is set in the late 90's when being bigger was seen as not pretty, unlike now when all shapes are considered fine. 

This is done through a number of ways, such as the visual codes. For example when the popular girls are walking through the college they are being shot from below which helps portray them as their characters, popular, confident and beautiful due to their body shape. However 

Preferred, Oppositional and Negotiated Reading.

Harrods - http://www.harrods.com
Preferred - People who have a lot of money and are in the higher social and economic classes who can actually afford to buy things from this shop. Groups A - B, probably aged 30 plus.
Oppositional - A lower social and economic class who cannot afford to buy things from Harrods. Groups - E, D and C
Negotiated - People who know they cannot afford things from Harrods, but enjoy browsing the website as they may have an interest, maybe teenagers doing a fashion course, as the website sells very high end clothes.  

Apple - http://www.apple.com/uk/
Preferred - People who take an interest in technology , probably aged about 18-40.
Oppositional - Older people who may not be that interested in technology. Aged 40+
Negotiated -  

Cultivation Theory

Cultivation theory is a social theory which examines the long-term effects of television. "The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend "living" in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television." Cultivation leaves people with a misperception of what is true in our world.

Developed by George Gerbner and Larry Gross of the University of Pennsylvania, cultivation theory derived from several large-scale research projects as part of an overall research project entitled 'Cultural Indicators'. The purpose of the Cultural Indicators project was to identify and track the 'cultivated' effects of television on viewers. They were "concerned with the effects of television programming  on the attitudes and behaviors of the American public." They claimed that because TV contains so much violence, people who spend the most time in front of the tube develop an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world. He identified two types of TV viewers - heavy viewers who watch 4 or more hours daily and light viewers who watch for 2 hours or less a day. He predicted that heavy views would perceive the world as a more violent place as violence is in 80% of TV shows. He found that by watching more TV a person can become:

• More materialistic 
• indifferent about environmental issues
• more violent
• more racist
• unaware of what is TV and what is reality. 

it can perpetuate stereotypes such as “all Asians are either smart or ninjas” or “every black male is most likely a criminal.” Although, this is very much not true. However, it can also give off positive stereotypes as well as negative. An example  of this would be a TV show like Skins where the teenagers on the show, smoke, drink, do drugs and get into fights often which could lead to other teens who are watching the show to do it. How these teens are represented in Skins could lead to older people seeing teens in a very negative light, and being scared of teens and nervous to be around them.    

Stereotypes - Young and Old

Young -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2405745/Kylie-Jenner-16-crashes-125-000-Mercedes-Benz-SUV-just-18-days-getting-license.html

A stereotype of young people is that they are reckless and careless and this article fits this stereotype because Kylie Jenner crashed her $125,000 car after only 18 days of having passed her test. This stereotype has been around for a while and it has now come to that when people think of teenagers they think about how they can bum what they want and do not have a care in the world. The article is not challenging this stereotype at all it is only reinforcing it. 


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/neha-ramu-teen-with-a-hig_n_3404115.html

However, this article challenges this stereotype as the three teenagers in this article have really high IQ scores, the girl who the article is mainly focussed on, Neha Ramu, has a higher IQ than Albert Einstein. This challenges the stereotype that teenagers do not care about education and getting anywhere in life

What I Can Do To Improve

To have got a better mark on my mock exam and a good mark on my actual exam I need to learn some of the terminology of media to use in my work instead of replacing it with a word from me trying to explain (kind of like what I just did). To have improved my audience question I could wrote about, lighting, the mise en scene a bit more, mode of address, colour scheme etc. generally write more about things instead of skimming over them - identify & justify!!! For example, when writing about the colour scheme say how it as secondary meanings like being suave and classy. 
Coursework wise I just need to put it on my blog I think(??) so I can improve on what is needed as I have time. Also, I need to revise more as I didn't revise over Christmas (my excuse was Christmas) so if I begin to plan out when I am going to study, along with my other subjects, it should help me get a much better grade in my actual exam. 

Better Magazine Production