Compare and Contrast the Representation of the Third World

Following media forms:

- Band Aid 'Do They Know it's Christmas'

- Oxfam Advert  

- 'Beast of No Nation' 

The oxfam advert focuses on showing the ripple effect that small regular donations can have on a whole community. 'Beast of No Nation' addresses the social issues presented in the movie of child soldiering. Band Aid presents the idea of Christmas bringing a community together. 

The Oxfam advert shows the audience the struggles that some people have to deal with and what has already been done. They repeat the benefits that have come from small donations like the well that is mentioned frequently. The advert uses the shot of a woman collecting a bucket of water from the well using a low angle shot. The voiceover consistently says "this is the well Oxfam have built thanks to two pounds a month from someone like you, during the shot. The advert is telling us that we have already made a difference because before that, the people didn't have clean water to drink from or to clean themselves. There are several sections showing the audience what small donations have brought to these people with a lower quality of life. They emphasise the important on agriculture, growing crops for food which links back to the well from the water. Their whole message links back to the idea of us giving small donations can help change lives forever. They emphasise that without the donations they would be extremely more vulnerable. If the people didn't have the different elements that contributed to the advert like agriculture and school then we could understand the position they would of been in.

The movie 'Beast of No Nation' reinforces the stereotype of African people as animalistic. 'Beast of No Nation' doesn't seem to be intentionally promoting negative stereotypes but instead attempting to raise awareness about different important social issues going on in the movie involving the children. It draws attention to social issues like making child soldiers to fight for the rebels. They portray Africans as the source of their own problems and conflict. The soliders or the rebel group are represented as violent, this is apparent as they are shown being violent towards each other as many scenes show the rebels getting into physical altercations and they are also shown holding guns and using them against their enemies.

Band Aid 'Do They Know it's Christmas' music video show the true struggles of people, who are starving, living in Africa. They use a handheld shot to show a child crawling on the hard ground. They use many pans, usually quite slow, to show what the children have to go through with no food and little water. The music video tries to emphasise that these children have no food through the use of close-ups to put more detail into their faces and their bodies. They do this to show how little they are eating. At the end, they show an image of what looks like a young child being wrapped up in a fabric to show they he has died. The on-screen text then follows up and says 'The dying continues... so the giving can't stop.

All of these adverts are very similar and successfully attempt to put forward an important message that people all around the world need help. 

Tide Assessment URL

https://www.slideshare.net/Ju-at-BSix/tide-assessment-section-a-feedback?qid=55cb7b71-232b-4f4f-a83a-9d882f0d913b&v=&b=&from_search=1

'Beasts of No Nation'

The movie reinforces the stereotype of African people as animalistic. The movie doesn't seem to be intentionally promoting negative stereotypes but instead attempting to raise awareness about different important social issues. It draws attention to social issues like making child soliders. They portray Africans as the source of their own problems and conflict. The soliders or the rebel group are represented as violent, this is apparent as they are shown being violent towards each other and many scenes show them getting into physical altercations and they are holding guns. These are all ways of portraying violence. 

Social, Cultural and Historical Contexts - Key Terms

Women's monthly magazines are more aspirational than weekly magazines
- feature people who you aspire to be like.
- increase aspirational value as it has more time to create a more aspirational magazine.

Rise of consumerism:
- Women's magazines were seen to enter a new phrase.
- James Curran suggests that, having gone through a 'make-do and mend' phrase in the 1940s, middle-market women's magazines became part of the 'shop and spend' euphoria of the 50s and 60s.

1960s Sexual Revolution:
- new era of female liberation.
- a significant factor in this regard was the introduction of the contraceptive pill in the early part of the decade.
- legislative changes ike the Married Women's Property Act, enabled women to gain a greater degree of financial independence than had previously been possible.

1960s Cultural Revolution:
- 'swinging sixties'.
- emergence of new trends in music, fashion and films.
- Britain was at the centre of this cultural revolution.

Editorial philosophy
- refers to a magazine's underlying values, attitudes and beliefs, and the particular viewpoint and it adopts. Helps to determine the style and content of the magazine. It influences decisions regarding what should and what should not be included in the magazine, and shapes and informs the magazine's mode of address and the way in which the content is presented to the reader.

Sub-genre
- smaller category of subdivision within a larger genre.

Socialisation
- process through which we learn the norms and values of our culture. Gender socialisation refers to the way in which we learn what is excepted of us as men and women. The media are often said to play an important role in this regard, functioning as agents of socialisation.

Psychographic
- divides the market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics.

Differences between Woman's Realm and Huck Magazine

Woman's realm has a target audience of woman whereas Huck focuses on everyone as it celebrates independence. Huck's audience is mainly young adult.

Woman's realm: Commercial - attempts to sell products to their readers Huck: Less commercially orientated - doesn't include as many adverts. Huck attempts to focus on both genders not just solely on woman which is what Woman's realm focuses on.

Woman's Realm is published weekly where as Huck is published monthly.

Focuses on woman stereotypes e.g. such as fashion and housework - Woman's Realm. Originally, Huck focused on skate and surf.

Huck Research

Print magazines come out every 2 months
Huck celebrates independence: people and movements that paddle against the flow
Launched in 2006
Initially inspired by surf and skate
It's included in graphic design
'Refusing to be civilised since 2006'
Gallery in London

Woman's Realm Research

Woman's Realm was a British weekly magazine
First published in 1958
In 2001 it was merged with Woman's Weekly
- sales dropped
Woman's realm's content no longer reflected the financially independent lives of its target readership
Articles based on knitting.

Tide Advert Annotation

Tide Advert - Applying Theories

David Gauntlett's theory of identity 

Woman represented in the advert as role models of domestic perfection. The woman were being targeted by cleaning products or domestic products for advertising  because it was presented that domestic products would make a woman's life easier. This links to the use of the indirect mode of address which shows the woman being obsessed with the product. The hearts also signify her love for the product. Because the woman in the advert is represented in this way she is being a role model for other woman to also act in this way. 

bell hook's feminist theory 

hook's argues that lighter woman are considered more desirable and fit better into the western ideology of beauty, and the advert could be seen to reinforce this by only representing "modern", white woman. This is evident in the 'Tide' advert as a lighter woman is used as the main image which is shown in a close up. 

Tide Advert Set Text

The 'Tide' advert stresses the idea that woman are so focused on cleaning supplies like 'Tide' through the successful use of superlatives like 'cleanest' and indirect mode of address which emphasises her love and obsession with the product. The 1940s advert similarly shows the woman concentrated on her work which appears to be showing the woman making clothes which is apparent in a close up. This represents the context of the time. Woman at the time were mainly viewed as objects which supports van Zoonen's notion that woman are viewed as objects in western patriarchal society. It was the norm for woman to stay at home and to watch the children. They never or rarely ever worked and earned money which was part of the reason that woman stayed at home. Also, men were much more dominant than woman in the 1940s which prevented women from having say because man controlled everything and had more power over woman.

Both adverts present this idea that woman have to help. In the 'Tide' advert we see the use of a comic strip showing the woman hanging male clothes up to dry. This is evident as she is shown holding shirts in her hands. In the 1940s advert, the copy states 'The soldiers need our help!'. The soldiers were all men so it presents the idea that woman in both adverts were helping the men complete their jobs. So, instead of the men working in the factories now the woman have taken over doing that job as the men go to the war.

Propaganda 
Public sphere 
Telling woman to finally be useful for something important
Part of a community
Enjoyment in the home
Promotion capitalism 
Materialism 
Domestic products, making life for them easier

- aspirational
- 'living the American dream' 

Miss Representation Documentary

Women are being portrayed as objects in the media. If women are seen trying to attempt to get powerful jobs in politics for example, like congress or running for presidency they will get critized over and over again for all their actions because they are seen as incapable for taking on a role that is valuable as extremely important. They are portrayed as these sex symbols on TV. Women are also portrayed as weak, physically and emotionally. Women are also being treated as objects, 1 in 4 woman are abused by a partner once in their lifetime and 1 in 6 survived or escaped an attempt of rape. Overall, the media are always trying to degrade woman.

Woman is general are portrayed the same on every media platform from a news anchor to roles in a movie. In the movies and as news anchors they are seen as objects which supports van Zoonen's notion that woman are looked at as objects. It's rare to see woman take on a protagonist role in a movie because in the media they are seen as weak and incapable of taking on an important role. they are shown wearing short skirts with their hair down and messy and overall all over the place. "They look like they should be serving me a drink in the bar, not reporting the news." (quote from the documentary)In reality TV, woman are seen as bitchy, catty and jealous of each other.

Men are represented as powerful and dominate in general especially over women. This is evident as men are shown as having the 'bigger', more important jobs and roles in today's society and even in the past. When running for leadership roles, men dominate that sector, which is evident in the political sector. This is because unlike woman they are portrayed as being powerful and strong, mentally and physically. We also see men taking on the role of being a  protagonist in major blockbuster films. We see the same stereotypes that the 'strong' man saves the day and ends up falling in love with the girl or saves the girl from the antagonist.

The media has attempted to degrade or diminish the feminism waves mainly by listing as many disadvantages and problems about woman gaining control or becoming more powerful/important in society. Even on news networks, men would make sexist remarks about women to lead people away from believing women could lead a country or could be trusted in high classed jobs.

Magazine Industry - Glossary

Brand identity
- a company's brand identity is how the business wants to be perceived by consumers.
- the components of a brand include:
  name, logo, tagline, typeface.

Aspirational magazine
- realting to a strong desire for something.
- appeals to people who want to attain a higher standard of living.

Role Model magazine

Main messages communicated:

- questioning his 'role model' status

- motivational, challenging question 

  - reflects his work ethic 

- trying to become a better person 

  - cover lines 'Would I still be your hero?'

  - it also mentions self-confidence 

    - could reflect his self-confidence in his sport (Nike advert) 

‘role models serve as navigation points as individuals steer their own personal routes through life’.

I agree with this quote made by Gauntlet. The main reason people have role models is because they are seen as motivational. People being motivated can change/steer a person's life in a different way simply because they have changed their mindset and lifestyle in order to be like or do stuff similar to their role model. Some people will disagree because they might think that role models don't change you as a person they just make you look at them differently. 

Web 2.0 - Gauntlett

Any user can contribute/produce media - previously large corporations/media producers told audiences what they could watch and when.

This is possible as media is now more assessable/cheaper and easier to produce.

People having a route to self-expression, and therefore a stronger sense of self and participation in the world, through making and exchanging online.

Media can be places of conversation, exchange, and transformation

The need for better "platforms and creativity".

So it's still the idea of people building their own sense of self-identity, but through everyday creative practise.

'This Girl Can' Advert

Peer assessment