Media in the Online Age - PPQ

"How far do you agree with the view that the move to online media has been entirely positive for the audience so far?" [50]

Plan:

• Pre-Internet: Print newspapers, 9'OClock news, Cinema/TV/Video Recorders
• Early Internet: News websites, 24h news channels on TV, satellite tv, DVDS
• Now: Apps like Twitter; personal, portable, interactive, converged, available on every platform, streaming, Netflix, Megashare, VOD, Crowdsourcing
• Andrew Keen anti internet 
• macrowikinomics

Pros: 

• Easier to access
• Portable
• Interactive: can put personal opinion on news etc, and see other peoples opinions- makes influencing off other peoples thoughts more common
• Faster spread of information from all over the world
• Film streaming can be better financially rather than buying DVDS
• More films available - wider variety available to user 
• can download films on netflix aka portable streaming offline - can't do that w dvds unless you have a portable dvd player

Cons:

• Lost the traditional aspect of media: Newspapers less common etc - link into the guardian newspaper online plea for donations
• The interactivity of twitter etc can cause gang like opinions where people section themselves into groups based on opinions, making discussion turn into arguments because people can't accept other opinions
• ^^^ because they are from behind a screen, people are more likely to say things they wouldn't in real life: death threats, violent etc
• Older generations don't like
• Traditional film gone; no more film renting shops (xtravision shutdown) takes away from what film used to be
• cinema trips are more rare bc you can just watch illegally online; the traditional cinema vibe gone
• Owning things physically doesn't matter anymore - when streaming you never own the films you just have access to stream as long as you're contracted to
• Illegal viewing more i.e. loss of money for film companies and those who worked in the film - loss of revenue - work goes unnoticed

The proliferation of the internet has certainly made it much easier for everyone to be completely up to date with everything going on in the world at that point. Before the internet existed, if we wanted to know the latest news, we had to read print newspapers (not to mention that the papers with the most news were weekly Sunday papers), or wait for the 9 O'Clock news each night on the television. However, now because of the Internet, if anything at all happens throughout the world, whether it be finding out how Melania Trump decorated the White House for Christmas this year, or another ISIS crisis in any part of the Western world, we will find out about it in minutes through social media apps such as Twitter or Facebook, or the online news websites such as The Guardian or The Daily Mail. 

Twitter in particular is heavily used for news updates, as it not only has approved news updates available on the discover page, but you can also search key words or hashtags to see what other people are saying about that situation. People seem to like this interactivity, because we generally like to see when other people agree with our opinions on certain situations, so to see other people talking about these situations with the same attitude about them as you may have, we feel almost a feeling of belonging as we share the same opinion with many other people around the world. Twitter is also easily accessible as it's available on many platforms. You can access it on your phone as a mobile app, or on a laptop/desktop computer from anywhere. This makes it so easy for anyone to receive news updates and talk about these updates from anywhere in the world, essentially keeping us constantly updated with everything going on in the world. This news doesn't necessarily have to be breaking news that you'd see on the television, the news can range from anything you want it to - i.e. you can tailor who you follow dependant on what your interests may be, for example, you may follow all of your favourite artists and even some of their fans, which will help keep you updated on their lives and anything going on with them such as new tours, new music releases etc. 

However, Twitter isn't always so great because with everyone being able to give their opinion on situations or news updates, this can create a mob mentality, where people who agree with each other gang up on those who disagree with that opinion. This can cause serious disputes on the website between users, and because of the Internet allowing users to say whatever they want from behind a screen, people can be much more vicious because there is no real repercussion for their actions. This can cause disagreements to lead to death threats, racist remarks or general degrading insults which can be seriously harmful to many people. Another issue with Twitter can be that when a new news story comes out and no confirmation from actual media outlets or news channels has been made yet, twitter users can make up whatever they want and it will spread like wildfire, because people are willing to believe anything when not much information is available yet. This causes confusion and make many people jump to conclusions over a misleading piece of information. It is so easy to make up a viral story now, because if you get enough Retweets, someone is bound to believe you. 

There are also 24 hours news channels available every single day, so no one has to wait for the 9 O'Clock news anymore to get the daily updates, as there will be over 100 channels on your television that show news updates 24/7. If you don't wish to participate in the social media aspect of news updates, or don't have time to watch the 24 hour news channels, you still have the option of online news websites. Take The Guardian for example, it is quite literally the online version of a newspaper. It has everything and more; the news headlines, UK and world news, sports, business, lifestyle, art, and the list goes on. You can even use the 'find a job' option, which is the online version of the few pages in a newspaper that showed you the jobs available in your area. Everything is there, but do people really use it? This is debatable, as many people do use websites like The Guardian or BBC News to keep updated on news, but recently, social media platforms have become the place to go for news updates. This is definitely becoming an issue for news outlets, as many of them are predicted to go bust soon because of this. Again, The Guardian can be used as an example for this, at the end of each article they post, they ask for a £1 donation to keep The Guardian up and running - they literally have to plea readers for donations to ensure that they don't die out due to their social media competitors. As a result of the internet, our society really has lost the traditional value of receiving news. How often do you really see someone reading a newspaper now, instead of just flicking through their phone screens? 

This change in consumption of media hasn't just changed for news updates. Another area that has changed massively is the film industry. Before the internet, we would go to XtraVision on a Friday night, and rent out two films you hadn't seen before. We'd go home, watch them on our 30inch television screens through our Sony DVD players. Or, we'd go to the cinema to see the newest film out, and then probably buy it when it comes out for sale. This has entirely changed because of the Internet. Now, if we want to watch a film, we'll log onto our paid subscription Netflix accounts and watch a film by the tap of a finger, through our 50inch flatscreen televisions, or our iPad or phone screens. If we really wanted, we could do this in the car, or on a plane, because guess what? We can download our films now too, we don't even need the internet to stream them. We can watch a film from anywhere we want, without carrying a bulky portable dvd player around with us. It's so simple now. Many people will argue that this is a truly great development, which it is. We can literally watch as many films or television shows we want of any genre we want, for £10 a month. Compared to what we would've spent on purchasing the physical versions of these films, we're saving a lot of money by streaming these films rather than physically owning them, but does this take away from the traditional meaning of ownership?

Many will argue that the Internet has changed everyone's feelings about owning things; no one really cares anymore. We don't care about the quality in which we receive services anymore, as long as we have access to them, we really don't care what shape or form it comes in, whether its 360p quality, or 820HD quality. Instead of going to the cinema to see new releases, we can just look up MegaShare and illegally stream the film for free. This is a prime example of how we don't care how we receive services anymore, as we will be willing to watch a new film that was videoed on an iPhone 6 camera, and uploaded onto an illegal film website, rather than just paying the £5 it would cost to watch the film on the big screen. 

Andrew Keen, for example, challenges the dominant narrative about the internet - that it's a technology that liberates, informs and empowers people. The problem with this narrative, he points out, is not that it's wrong - the network society is breaking the old centre, compounding economic and cultural inequality, and creating a digital generation of masters of the universe. Far from being the "answer" to society's problems, Keen argues, the internet is at the root of many of them. The internet is now dominated by giant monopolists (e.g. Google). We live voluntarily in an "electronic panopticon". Keen argues that the big internet companies taken together are the net destroyer of jobs - jobs in independent bookshops, taxi firms, or even in printing companies for newspapers as we mentioned earlier. The internet has finally caused the industrial economy to run out of gas. 

However, despite these downsides, the internet isn't all bad. Collaboration, opens, sharing, and integrity - it's finally happening. With the proliferation of social media, we all have the most powerful tools and platforms for growth, social development and social justice at our fingertips. Social media is becoming social production. The new media are enabling the birth of a new civilisation. For example, we're innovating science and healthcare with 'PatientsLikeMe', where 80 thousand patients are crowdsourcing their data to help out doctors, scientists and their own course of treatment.

In conclusion, I believe that there has been many positive aspects of development that has come with the internet, which in turn, causes the loss of tradition. Everything is a the tap of a finger on a screen now, and it doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon. We still have a long way to go, and technology is only going to get more advanced, so we either need to move along and develop alongside it, or stay stuck in the past.

Media in the Online Age

Balkanisation/Splinternet
The splinternet is a characterisation of the Internet as splintering and dividing due to various factors such as technology, commerce, politics, nationalism, religion and interests.
"Powerful forces are threatening to balkanise it", writes the Economist weekly, and it may soon splinter along geographic and commercial boundaries.

Countries such as China have erected what is termed a "Great Firewall", for political reasons, while other nations such as the US and Australia, discuss plans to create a similar firewall to block child pornography or weapon-making instructions.

Technology
Describing the splintering of Internet technology, some writers see the problem in terms of new devices using different standards. Users no longer require web browsers to access the internet, as new hardware tools often come with their own "unique set of standards" for displaying info.

Journalist and author Doc Searls uses the term "splinternet" to describe the "growing distance between the ideals of the internet and the realities of dysfunctional nationalisms", which contribute to the various and sometimes incompatible standards which often make it hard for search engines to use the data. He notes that "it all works because the web is standardised." However as new devices incorporate their own ad networks, formats, and technology, many are able to "hide content" from search engines.

Stephen Lewis, information manager, describes the causes primarily in terms of the technology "infrastructure", leading to a "conundrum" whereby the internet could eventually be carved up into numerous geopolitical entities and borders, much as the physical world is today.

Commericial Lock-In
The Atlantic magazine speculates that many of the new "gadgets have a 'hidden agenda' to hold you in their ecosystem of content display and advertising. These are walls going up just as the walls to mobile internet access are falling down". Writer Derek Thompson explains that "in the splinternet age, ads are more tightly controlled by platform". They rationalise the new standards as possibility a result of companies wanting to increase their revenue through targeted advertising to their own proprietary user base. 

Forrester Research vice president and author Josh Bernoff also writes that "the unified web is turning into a splinternet", as users of new devices risk leaving one internet standard. He uses the term "splinternet" to refer to "a web in which content on devices other than PCs, or hidden behind password, makes it harder for site developers and marketers to create a unified experience". He points out, for example, that web pages "don't look the same because of the screen size and don't work the same since the iPhone doesn't support Flash". He adds that now, with the explosion of other phone platforms like Google Android, "we'll have yet another incompatible set of devices". However, both Android and IOS are Unix-based platforms and both offer WebKit-based browsers as standards, as does leading manufacturer Nokia.

Politics and Nationalism
A survey conducted in 2007 by a number of large universities found that Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia filter a wide range of topics and also block a large amount of content related to those topics. South Korea filters and censors news agencies belonging to North Korea.

It found that numerous countries engaged in "substantial politically motivated filtering", including Burma, China, Iran, Syria and Tunisia.
Saudi Arabia, Iran and Tunisia engage in substantial social content filtering.
Burma, China, Iran, Pakistan and South Korea have the most encompassing national security filtering, targeting the websites related to border disputes, separatists and extremists.

Organisations such as the OpenNet Initiative were created because they recognised that "Internet censorship and surveillance are growing global phenomena." Their book on the subject was reportedly "censored by the U.N" with a poster removed by the U.N. security officials because it mentioned China's "Great Firewall". In March 2010, Google chose to pull its search engines and other services out of China in protest of their censorship and the hacking of Gmail accounts belonging to Chinese activists. 

Religion
Internet access has also been blocked for reasons of religion. In 2007, and again in May 2010, Pakistan blocked the video sharing website Facebook and YouTube, reportedly along with the search engine Google, and Wikipedia, to contain what it described as "blasphemous" and "un-Islamic" material.

The Church Of Scientology recommended Internet censorship as a method of defending itself against what it said were a constant campaign of abuse by the group "Anonymous", along with "misinformation" and "misrepresentation" in the media. In September 2009 it asked the Australian Humans Rights Commission's Freedom of Religion and Belief to restrict access to web site it believes incites "religious vilification".

Interests
Splintering of the Internet community can occur when members of a specific interest groups use the Internet to exclude or avoid views that contradict their own cherished beliefs and theories. Cyberbalkanisation refers to the division of the internet into sub-groups with specific interests (digital tribes), where the sub-group's members almost always use the Internet or the web or communicate/read material that is only of interest to the rest of the sub-group. 

Cass Sunstein argued that cyberbalkanisation could damage democracy, because it allows different groups to avoid exposure to one another as they gather in increasingly segregated communities, making recognition of other points of view or common ground decreasingly likely. The commentator Aleks Krotoski feels that Jihadist groups use the internet in this way.

Despite the concerns of cyberbalkanisation, there is mixed evidence that it actually growing. One Wharton study found that internet filters can create commonality, not fragmentation. However, this study is primarily focused on music recommendation algorithms, and openly states that more research is required surrounding other domains (eg news, books, fashion). Another study found that ideological segregation of online news consumption is low in absolute terms, higher than the segregation of most offline news consumption, and significantly lower than the segregation of face-to-face interactions with neighbours, co-workers, or family members. 

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EG of Balkanisation; Net Neutrality issue! -web is becoming more fragmented.
Currently, when you access the internet on your phone, tablet or computer, you get to view websites and watch videos at pretty much the same speed as everyone else does. The traffic you create by browsing the web is treated equally by the companies that have built the infrastructure of the internet; internet service providers (ISPs). Net neutrality essentially means that everyone gets the same treatment.
The FCC - which regulates how ISPs are allowed to handle traffic - said that it would create new rules that may allow ISPs to treat traffic differently. Some people - companies big enough to pay extra, basically - may get faster internet than the rest of us. Here is what the FCC specifically said:

"The NPRM will propose...that broadband providers would be required to offer a baseline level of service to their subscribers, along with the ability to enter into individual negotiations with content providers. In all instances, broadband providers would need to act in a commercially reasonable manner subject to review on a case-by-case basis."

Instead of treating everyone equally, ISPs will only be required to give you a "baseline" level of service. Some people - again, likely companies rather than individuals - will be able to get faster, better service. The change came about because a federal court recently ruled that the FCC doesn't have the power to regulate the Internet the same way it regulates phones. With phones, companies have to supply everyone with the same hardwire service - even if they live way out in the countryside where its very expensive to put up the lines. The web used to work that way too - companies had to give you the same service even if you cost them more - but thats now going to change.

The big changes will be around companies like Netflix. Currently, sometimes almost a third of all web traffic is Netflix's streaming movies. Netflix often accounts for nearly 50% of all web video streaming at one time. Over time, companies like Comcast have gotten tired of serving bandwidth hogs like Netflix and paying for the privilege to do so. By amazing coincidence, the speed at which Comcast delivered Netflix movies started to get slower and slower. 

So, Netflix reached a deal with Comcast: Netflix would pay Comcast for a direct connection between its servers and Comcast's, so that Netflix's traffic didn't have to go through the interconnect companies. As if by magic, Netflix speeds went up again. 

This isnt the first time that an ISP has made major decisions like this: In 2007, Comcast blocked BitTorrent and in 2005 Madison River Communications blocked people from making phone calls over the net.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings believes that all companies' traffic should be treated equally, and if ISPs are in the business of providing the web service, they should do just that in aggregate, and not pick winners and losers based on the fees they're willing to pay.

Comcast has the opposite point of view. If it is to serve Netflix at the same prices it serves your personal homepage on About.me, then Netflix is essentially getting a huge service for free, Comcast argues.

AT&T argued recently....

Internet Is NOT The Answer
The internet that we use today was switched on in January 1983, and for it first 10 years, it was almost exclusively the preserve of academic researchers, which meant that cyberspace evolved as a parallel, utopian universe in which the norms of "meatspace" (John Perry Barlow's term for the real world) didn't apply. In fact, for most of two decades, the real world remained blissfully unaware f the existence of the virtual one.

And then Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, and in 1993 Marc Andreessen released Mosaic, the first graphical browser, and suddenly the real world realised what the internet was, with hindsight, predictable, though relatively few people spotted it at the time. It was later summed up by John Doerr, as "the greatest legal accumulation of wealth in history".

Andrew Keen- like many who were involved in the net in the early days - started out as an internet evangelist. His first book, The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture, was a lacerating critique of the obsession with user-generated content which characterised the early days of web 2.0.

Keen challenges the dominant narrative about the internet - that it's a technology that liberates, informs and empowers people. The problem with this narrative, he points it out, is not that it's wrong - the network society is breaking the old centre, compounding economic and cultural inequality, and creating a digital generation of masters of the universe. This new power may be rooted in a borderless network, but it still translates into massive wealth and power for a tiny handful of companies and individuals."

Far from being the "answer" to society's problems, Keen argues, the internet is at the root of many of them. As a result, it poses an existential question for democracies everywhere: can elected governments control the waves of creative destruction now sweeping through our societies as the digital revolution gathers momentum? Mr Keen doesn't have the answer to this. But then - as an inspection of our current campaign confirms - neither do we.



Andrew Keen noted that those people who really do think that the internet is the answer to all of our problems; not only in getting a taxi, or a sex partner, but also in education and politics, are the techno-utopians of Silicon Valley, the wealthy or wannabe-wealthy libertarians with a fetish for "disruption". Expressions of such a worldview are becoming more common outside the startup bubble, too. In the last episode of the BBC Radio 4 series "Can Democracy Work?", for eg, the Ukip politician Douglas Carswell was celebrating how the internet "democratises" everything, including the fusty old political process. 

The internet is now dominated by giant monopolists (eg Google). We live voluntarily in an "electronic panopticon". Keen argues that the big internet companies taken together are the net destroyer of jobs - jobs in independent bookshops or taxi firms.

Keen is especially angry about what has happened to music, since, as he relates he grew up at the end of the golden age of Soho record shops, and founded his own early music  startup, AudioCafe. "Back then," he confesses, "it really did seem as if the internet was the answer. The web 'changed everything' about the music industry, I promised my investors." As it turned out, it did, but not in a good way.




Macrowikinomics
Many of the institutions that have served us well for decades, or even centuries, have come to the end of their life cycles; from newspapers, record labels and old models of financial services to our energy grid, transportation systems and institutions for global co-operation and problem solving. 
The industrial economy has finally run out of gas, we're at a turning point in human history. At the same time, the contours of a new kind of civilisation are becoming clear, as millions of connected citizens forge alternative institutions using the web as a platform for innovation. From education and science to new approaches to citizen engagement and democracy, sparkling new initiatives are under-way, embracing a new set of principles for the 21st century. 

Collaboration, openess, sharing, inter-dependance and integrity - it's finally happening. With the proliferation of social media and social networks, we all have at our fingertips the most powerful tools and platform ever for growth, prosperity, social development and social justice. Social media is becoming social production. in every industry from all walks of life, people are self-organising, taking us from collaborative innovation in business, to macrowikinomics, the art and science of collaboration to change the world. The new media are enabling the birth of a new civilisation. 

We're innovating science and healthcare with 'PatientsLikeMe', where 80 thousand patients are crowdsourcing their data to help out doctors, scientists and their own course of treatment. In Kenya, a text messaging platform named Ushahidi, created to document election violence, has grown from helping emergency response teams in Haiti during the earthquake, to helping emergency snow removal in Washington, and even the BBC during the Tube Strike in London.

With GALAXYZOO, 275 thousand students and teachers are reinventing science and education by helping astronomers discover and map new galaxies. Teachers, professors and students are using the internet to reinvent education from the industrial model where teachers lecture and students are passive recipients of knowledge, to student focused, collaborative learning, customised to the needs of the learner.

Network models of the newspaper are providing good journalism, investigative reporting and ensuring that journalists get paid. Old style radio is collapsing, TV is becoming nothing less than a cool new app, and the failing music industry is being replaced by streaming audio which gives access to millions of songs with fair compensation to musicians and to song-writers.

The Wiki-Revolution sweeping the Middle East are harbingers of change. Social media didn't cause the Arab Spring, injustice did. Social media didn't create the revolutions, they were created by a new generation that no longer wanted to be treated as subjects. But just as the internet drops collaboration costs in business, so it also drops the cost of descent or rebellion.

Social change is in the air. Occupy Wall Street is the tip of the iceberg of a global movement for a world that is fair and just. The KONY 2012 video was seen by over 100 million people in a week. On the one hand, it led to a movement that caused the US Congress to take action and help hunt down the brutal warlord. But on the other, it raises tough issues about these networks - their accountability, their legitimacy, their representation and leadership. Issues that our new generation of social innovators and activists must address. This is a time of danger, but fundamentally its a time of profound change and great opportunity, and we can achieve a new age of promise fulfilled, but only if we get involved.

EXAMPLES FOR ESSAY

THEORISTS YOU CAN USE

Media Language Essay - The Secret Film

Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication, whether newspapers, TV game shows or a film such as The Secret, has its own creative language.

In the example of films, these creative languages usually represent the genre of the film; such as a horror film using scary music to heighten fear, or in a romance film using camera close-ups to convey intimacy. John Fiske's theory that the existence of genre benefits audience and institutions states that genre allows institutions to market films effectively and genre allows audiences to recognise familiar characteristics and make decisions of whether to watch a film based on this. Creative languages vary in each genre, which is why it's so important to be aware of the characteristics associated with a particular genre whilst filming. In 'The Secret', we used the characteristics of both an indie teen-film and a romance film. We tried to manipulate sound to fit the characteristics of these genres, such as using upbeat acoustic music in the opening scene. The music used here not only allowed us to manipulate the connotation; ie the feelings of the audience to think that 'The Secret' is an upbeat, happy film, but it also reflected the typical music you would hear in a teen-film. This immediately gave the impression that this film would be surrounding a young person, and probably surrounding topics such as relationships, friendships, family and behavioural issues which are typical themes seen in teen-films, in which some of these themes are heavily incorporated into 'The Secret'.

The music we used in 'The Secret' was actually quite special because as it began playing it was classified as non-diegetic sound because the sound was not located in the story world, but rather it was not explained in terms of any perceived source within the story world, but as the scene progresses, the sound changes to diegetic sound as it seems that the music is coming from the radio which appears in Will's room, so the sound's origin actually is located physically in the story world. This makes the audience feel as if they are included in the film as they hear the music changing from outside the story world, to being involved in the story itself. We also incorporated another source of sound from the radio, which was a news interview with a politician about gay marriage rights. This diegetic sound not only represents the theme of the film and presents Will's LGBT view point to the audience, which in turn, hints at Will's sexuality and gives an insight into the film's plot, but it also plays quite quietly in the film so the audience is almost subconsciously hearing the radio report which makes the audience feel more included in the story world; as if they are watching Will from the same room.

Mise-En-Scene refers to anything that goes into a shot, such as set, props, actor, costumes, camera movements and performances. All of these aspects were extremely important in bringing the plot of 'The Secret' across and conveying it to the audience in the way we wanted. For example, there was multiple text books and school books lying on the first desk that you see as Will enters the room, accompanied by a pair of tossed shorts and his school blazer. As well as these, there was also some aftershaves placed on another desk above it, which helps to represent the more masculine side of Will's character. The props in particular helped to represent Will's age group, and the fact that he is classified as a typical teenage boy, despite his sexuality being determined as 'different' to many people. Along with the objects within Will's room being gender neutral and almost slightly masculine, we also kept this theme in place by keeping the colours throughout the film neutral, featuring blues, greys and reds which are all gender neutral colours. All of these small details add up to give the audience an overall feel that Will is just as masculine as any other boy of his age, despite his sexuality.

Throughout the film the lighting consists of only natural lighting. We didn't incorporate any artificial lighting into the film apart from the close up shots of Will texting Taylor. The reason we used artificial lighting for those shots was because trying to capture the phone screen and focusing on the texts, making them readable, with natural lighting simply wasn't working. The use of artificial lighting helped to make these shots much clearer and easier for the audience to read what was going on in the film. Apart from those few shots, the lighting was strictly natural to give a feeling that this film surrounded a very normal topic within society. We felt that if we added lots of artificial lighting it would make the topic of the film seem very over exaggerated and almost over produced, which defeated the purpose of the film. We also chose to stick with natural lighting as natural lighting is a key convention in the romance genre and also in many teen-films, so we tried to stick as closely to those conventions as we could.

The shots taken throughout the film were all taken at eye level, as if the audience was at eye level with Will at all times. This height of shot simply makes the audience feel more included in the story, as we are seeing everything in the story world from Will's eye level. This changes in the shot where Will's sister enters the room, as the camera angle slightly changes from eye level to a lower angle. This gives the indication that Will's sister, who is presented as the homophobic character in the film, is of a position of power that intimidates Will as the audience is forced to look up at this character. This also helps to emphasise the differences of opinion between Will and his sister, and how Will's opinion on sexuality is almost deemed as less important/more looked down on in society, which can draw parallels with how society is today. This shot in particular allows the audience to relate the film to the society they live in, which makes the audience feel more included within the story. It is important to note that this shot is also taken as the sister states her opinion on gay rights on marriage as she uses a derogatory term against homosexuals to insult an LGBT pro opinion, which shows that from the perspective of Will, opinions like sister's are the opinions that determine and steer his relationship with Taylor- which we see is going badly due to his hesitancy to be honest to his family about his sexuality.

We used continuity editing in our film because our story followed a timeline of Will's life at a particular time in which he was struggling with his sexuality and relationships with both his family and his romantic partner. The story takes place in order, in other words, it follows a sequence and there are no flash-backs or flash-forwards. All of our shots transitioned into the following shot by cutting- meaning one sequence of film is immediately followed by another. This was simply because there was no need for any more complex transitions, and we felt that cut transitions just made it easier for the audience to follow the story without over dramatising it or adding unnecessary editing techniques.

In conclusion, lots of messages were brought across during 'The Secret' through connotations and denotations, which, as a result, help the audience to feel more included within the story world and understand exactly what is going on at that moment, as well as subconsciously giving them clues about the film plot and theme through techniques such as props, costume, and setting.

Media Language

For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise, an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning.

The Key Concepts are the single most important framework for the whole Media Studies course- they have evolved as a means of understanding a text by using a critical framework rather than just make unconnected and meaningless observations. The key concepts work in unison. 

RAILING  is a mnemonic used to remember these key concepts...

• Representations
• Audiences
• Institutions
• Language
• Ideology
• Narrative
• Genre

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Media Language

The Importance of Media Language

Every medium has its own 'language' - or combination of languages - that it uses to communicate meaning. Television, for example, uses verbal and written language as well as the languages of moving images and sound. We call these 'languages' because they use familiar codes and conventions that are generally understood.

Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication -- whether newspapers, TV game shows or horror movies -- has its own creative language: scary music heightens fear, camera close-ups convey intimacy, big headlines signal significance. 

Understanding the grammar, syntax and metaphor system of media language, especially the language of sounds and visuals which can reach beyond the rational to our deepest emotional core, increases our appreciation and enjoyment of media experiences as well as helps us to be less susceptible to manipulation.  

The word 'text' is used to describe any media product such as television programmes, photographs, adverts, film, newspaper adverts, radio programmes etc.

'Texts' are therefore the main point of our study in understanding how media languages create meaning. One of the keys to understanding the meanings in text is the use of codes; codes are the rules/conventions by which signs are put together to create meaning.

The codes used to construct meaning are varied and frequently depend upon the form of the media text- usually the text will use a variety of codes; visual, audio and written; which fit together in a certain way to create a particular meaning.

Media Language- Image Analysis

Denotation the level of analysis where you look at images and describing what you see.  It is what an image actually shows and is immediately apparent, rather than the assumption the individual reader may make about it; the everyday or common sense meaning of a sign.

EXAMPLE...

Framing

Framing defines the position from which the image was created (i.e. it is the border betwen the space we are allowed to see and that which is out of our sight). In terms of framing a still image, you can vary:

• Angle: the angle of vision refers to the camera's angle in relation to the vertical. The most common is the 'straight on' position. Other commonly used angles are low angle (which is often used to indicate a position of power as the audience is forced to look up to the character) and high angle (which means the audience has to look down on the character so often suggests subservience)
• Height: this is the height at which the shot is taken, usually eye level.
• Level: this refers to the camera's horizontal angle. As with the vertical angle, usually it is 'straight on' but the camera can also be tilted on its side to the left or right to change the level.
• Distance: this refers to the distance of the object from the camera. there are seven categories: extreme long shot, long shot, medium shot, medium close-up, close-up, extreme close-up.
• Depth of Field: this refers to the distance between the nearest and furthest area from the camera which is in focus. Deep focus photography will have the whole scene in focus, whereas a conventional photograph will focus on the main object with the background out of focus. Soft focus can be created by using special lenses and layers.
• Lens type: wide angle lenses make the scene appear deeper than it is; an extreme wide-angle will give a 'fish-eye' effect while telephoto lens pulls objects closer together (eg. two atheletes may seem to be running close together but when the shot is cut you see the true distance between them)
• Film stock: this refers to the speed at which film responds to the light. A fast stock will produce grainy images while a slow stock will require lots of light. Slow stock is the norm in cinema while most television companies use video tapes.

 Moving Image

There are 6 types of moving images:

1. Pan: the camera moves horizontally from a static position
2. Tracking/Dolly: the camera moves on tracks to give a smooth movement
3. Tilt: the camera moves up or down vertically from a static position
4. Crane: the camera is moved on a device that can move up and down laterally
5. Handheld: gives the frame as shaky look, often used as point-of-view shot
6. Zoom: technically not movement, but the change of the focal length bringing us closer or further away rom the object in the frame

Mise-En-Scene

Refers to anything that goes into a shot: set, props, actors, costumes, camera movements and performances. There are 3 main components of mise-en-scene analysis:

• The subject
• The lighting
• The setting

THE SUBJECT:

There may be more than one subject in an image and we bring our cultural knowledge to bear when looking at a subject. For example; if the subject is a person, we would consider all aspects of non-verbal communication as we did earlier.

THE LIGHTING:

This refers to how the image is lit. 

1. Where is the lighting coming from; front, side, back, above or below?
2. Is the lighting of equal intensity? (unlikely)
3. Where is this light coming (or supposed to be coming) from?

Three-point lighting is the most common set up, made up of a key, fill and backlight.

The key light is the main source of illumination and is directed on the subject, usually from 45 degrees above and to one side of the camera. It is a hard, direct light which produces sharply defined shadows.

The fill light is the soft or indirect light that "fills" in the shadows formed by the key light.

The back light shines from the behind the subject, usually to differentiate it from the background.

THE SETTING:

This is self explanatory; we have different expectations, eg, of a tropical setting when compared to an Arctic one.

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Connotation: the meaning of a sign which is arrived at through the cultural experiences a reader brings to it. 

The way we interpret what we see is connotation, where we add our own pieces of information. We fill in what is missing from the denotation stage and attempt to identify what message is being communicated. IE. Denotation is identifying an aspect of the image, and connotation is analysing that denotation. 

EG. The colour white, a clenched fist, a black dress = DENOTATION

        White could represent cleanliness, honesty, purity, innocence = CONNOTATION

Barthes (1977) argued that in film, connotation can be analytically distinguished from denotation.
John Fiske (1982) says that "denotation is what is filmed, connotation is how it is filmed"

ANCHORAGE: fixing/limiting a particular set of meanings. One of the most common forms of anchorage is the caption beneath a photo.

CROPPING: The advent of digital photography means many people at home now have experience of cropping pictures on their home computers. Choosing to focus on one particular aspect of a picture, so by definition missing something out, will clearly have implications.

JUXTAPOSITION: Being placed side by side. By placing information near an image is likely to influence your reading of that image. EG. an image of a craggy, handsome man juxtaposed with a mansion on the cover of a novel would suggest it was a romantic story. The same man, juxtaposed with a gun and the mansion would suggest a murder mystery.

GENRE: Provides audience with a clear set of expectations which are used to interpret the text. EG. If we read a horror text, we'd be surprised if it didn't include elements such as a big, creepy house, thunder, lightning, death, monsters, supernatural etc. Iconography is the objects we recognise as belonging to a particular genre.

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SEMIOTICS

This is an attempt to create a science of the study of sign systems and their role in the construction and reconstruction of meaning in media texts. It can be problematic in that some of the terminology makes it seem obscure and difficult. Semiotics is essentially the "study of signs" but it doesn't just refer to formal signs, but any system of communication. We will look at the work of 3 key figures; Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Peirce, Roland Barthes.

Saussure said that a sign is the sum of the signifier and signified. i.e.

The signifier is the sign's physical form in the real world while the signified is the mental concept evoked by the signifier. So, if we perceive a four legged animal with a very long neck (the signifier), this evokes the mental concept of a giraffe (the signified). This combination creates the sign "giraffe". You can see here how in your own perception, the signifier and signified are inseparable, but they are separated for the purposes of analysis. The basic act of signification operates at the level of denotation.

The relationship between the signifier and the signified is usually arbitrary (determined by chance and universally agreed upon). EG the fact a four legged animal with a long neck is called a giraffe in English is arbitrary. It therefore follows that if the signifier determined the signified than the word for giraffe in English would be the same in all languages; indeed there would probably be only one language. The fact that signs are arbitrary means they can have many meanings- they are POLYSEMIC. Not all signs are entirely arbitrary in nature. A photograph looks like what it represents. Signs such as this were defined by Charles Peirce.

Our understanding of signs rarely stops at the level of denotation. Once we see a sign, we have particular associations with it which colour our understanding. EG- arachnophobes would have negative feelings about the sign "spider" whereas a tarantula owner would have an opposite feeling. These connotations mean that the original sign has become another signifier which evokes an associated mental concept to create another sign which consists of "sign" + "associations"


There is a social consensus for many connotations; eg a dog, sitting down, tongue hanging out and head to one side (a denotative description) - connotation that the dog is friendly.
Meaning can't exist in individual signs because of their arbitrary nature. Meaning is derived from context.

Langue and Parole
Saussure distinguished between;

• Langue; the rules of sign systems (eg grammar)
• Parole; the articulation of the signs (eg writing)

Langue is the supporting structure of any communication, often implicitly understood but hidden beneath the surface. Parole is the performance of the rules, referred to by Noah Chomsky as "what the speaker does". 

To use the writing analogy above, langue is the grammar of English (eg the rules of punctuation) and parole is the piece of writing produced by a person who implicitly understands the langue. 

Codes associated with films (eg continuity of editing, use of diegetic and non diegetic sounds etc) act as the equivalent of the langue while the way these codes are actually used in a specific film is the equivalent of parole. unless a person has learned about the media language of Hollywood films, then it is likely they would know about the rules of (EG) continuity editing. However, because most people can make sense of the editing when watching films (the parole) then they implicitly understand the langue, as indicated by Chomsky.

Sychrony and Diachrony

Saussure demonstrated another way of structuring meaning: considering the vertical and horizontal dimensions of sign systems; synchrony and diachrony. Synchrony is the vertical dimension of meaning of meaning and diachrony is the horizontal dimension.

When we look at a still from a film, or a freeze-frame of a video, we are, in effect looking at the synchronic dimension: the sequence from which the still is taken is the diachronic dimension.
A useful way of remembering this is that synchronic is like freezing time (as said above) and diachronic is concerned with changes over time. If we analyse a text in a synchronic way, we focus on it as existing at one historical moment. If we analyse diachronically, we acknowledge that what we are looking at arrives with a history, not something that is complete within itself.

Theorist Warren Hedges defines the terms as:
"A diachronic approach involves an examination of origins, development, history and change. They focus on how things change over time."

"In contrast, a synchronic approach gives us a snapshot of a particular system at a particular moment in time. Synchronic approaches focus on how a given system is at a given moment, and how each part fits into the system."

To expand on Hedges' example of words: a synchronic analysis of the word "gay" in 2006 would focus on how young people in Britain have adapted the word to mean"rubbish" or "worthless" in addition to it meaning homosexual. A diachronic approach would ground the word "gay" in its historical context of meaning "happy" and follow the way it has evolved to mean homosexual and now "rubbish" or "worthless" to British school children.

Syntagm and Paradigm
Syntagm:
This is a chain of signs, that is, an element which follows another in a particular sequence. Saussure identified a syntagmatic relationship in language: language is linear so there is a relationship between the words: "the cat sat on the mat". This syntagmatic level can be seen as the structural level from which a text can be broken into its constituent parts - ie that sentence being reduced to analysis of individual words within the sentence.
In terms of film or television, a syntagmatic analysis would involve an analysis of how each shot, scene or sequence relates to the others. If you were analysing a still image, syntagmatic analysis would focus on the spatial relationship between objects.
Roman Jakobson used the word "combination" when defining syntagm.

Paradigm:
A paradigm is a class of objects or concepts which are all members of a defining category but markedly different in themselves. To use the example of language, the vocabulary of a language is a paradigm. The use of one paradigm over another (ie choosing to use one word instead of different word) shapes the meaning of a text. To change the selection of words can potentially change the wider meaning, which is crucial when it comes to analysis in Media.
Roman Jakobson used the word "selection" when defining paradigm.

Paradigmatic elements are those from which you choose, and the syntagm is the sequence into which they're arranged.

The Commutation Test:
In semiotics, the replacement of one sign by another is called a commutation test and illustrates how powerful syntagms and paradigms can be in analysis. by substituting objects for other signs in the same paradigm and decoding the new meaning, we can isolate what contribution the original sign is making to the meaning of the image.
As John Fiske puts it: "the meaning of what was chosen is determined by the meaning of what was not."
FOR EXAMPLE:


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Charles Peirce, the other great pioneer of semiotics, created a tripartite categorisation of signs:

• Iconic
• Index
• Symbol

Symbolic Signs

A symbol is a sign that represents an object or concept solely by the agreement of the people who use it, therefore, symbolic signs have no obvious connection between the sign and the object.

EG: The word DOG has no obvious link to a furry animal - it only works because we understand the rules that say the letters D-O-G when put into a certain order, mean/signify that furry animal. 

Internationally the colour green is used in traffic signs to signify "go". This is a symbolic or arbitrary sign because the world as a whole has agreed to its meaning. The colour pink could equally have been chosen if this had been agreed upon.

This means some symbolic signs can have several meanings that are contested, or about which people mightn't agree. 

Iconic Signs
Iconic signs always resemble what they signify. There is a physical similarity between a photograph/good drawing, of a dog, and most people's experience of these animals. Therefore, unlike the symbolic word 'dog', the photo/drawing is an iconic sign.
We are familiar with iconic signs in our everyday lives, for example a wheelchair is used to signify facilities for disabled people and we can usually find the men's and women's toilets wherever we are in the world by looking for the iconic signs on doors.

Indexical Signs
In a sense, indexical signs lie between symbolic and iconic signs. Indexical signs have some sort of direct connection with what is being 'signified'. EG smoke is often used an indexical sign for fire and a tear running down a cheek can be an indexical sign for sorrow.

READING SIGNS...
The three categories of signs aren't mutually exclusive! In fact- a sign can very well be all three categories at the same time. For example, a crossroads sign:

When signs are open to different interpretations, they are said to be polysemic. This ambiguity can be potentially disruptive and one way of trying to control the meanings made by a reader is anchoring.

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Finally, we will look at Roland Barthes, whose crucial contribution to semiotics was his definition and exploration of myths. Barthes looked at how signs take on the dominant value system of a particular society (ideology) and make these values seem natural.
Barthes used the example of a flower with red petals, green leaves and a thorny stem - a signifier evoking the mental concept of rose at the denotative level. However, rose can also signify the mental concept of romance, particularly if it is red and placed in the context of St Valentines Day.

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Binary Oppositions
One of the most powerful creators of a sign's meaning are binary oppositions. Here, signs are contrasted with signs which have meanings that operate which have meanings that operate in opposition. For example, town and country, man and woman, child and adult etc

Binary oppositions are cultural creations. Some theorists claim that the west uses binary oppositions such as white-good, black-evil to perpetuate and legitimise western power structures that favour "civilised" white men.

The media often use binary oppositions to structure their representations. So a portrayal of a town, for instance, may use pollution as a starting point. A text that uses binary oppositions usually assigns a positive value to one side against the other; by stating the one side is good, it follows that the other side is bad.

Adjectives such as artificial, polluted, over-crowded, exciting, commercial and dangerous could be used to describe a town, where as clean, natural, deserted, boring, and sage could be used to describe a country-side.

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Aspects of Mise-en-Scene -- video and print style

1. Location - settings, set-design and iconography
2. Character - costume, properties and make-up, actors and gesture
3. Cinematography - lighting and colour
4. Layout and Page Design - colour, juxtaposition of elements

Micro Elements: Camerawork

There are four aspects to camerawork that you need to understand:

• Shot types - particularly relevant for print
• Camera composition
• Camera angles
• Camera movement

Micro Elements: Editing

Editing is a post-production technique in which the footage shot during production is cut up and reassembled in such a way as to tell the story. TV shows aren't filmed in chronological order. They are filmed out of order in short sequences, called 'takes', which then have to be assembled in the correct order. Long takes are shots of unusually long length, and short takes are shots that only last for a few seconds. 

There are two basic types of editing: Continuity and Non-continuity.

The Structure of The Classic Narrative System

According to Pam Cook (1985), the standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:

• Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution.
• A high degree of narrative closure.
• A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence. 

Micro Elements: Sound

Sound is layered on tracks in order to create meaning. There are 2 types of sound; Diegetic and Non-diegetic.

Diegetic sound includes; dialogue, sound effects and music.
Non-Diegetic sound includes; incidental music, voice over/narration, non diegetic sound effects (which can be asynchronous).

Representation Essay - Y13 Film 'The Secret' October Assessment

Representation refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of 'reality' such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Our film 'The Secret' is based around a homosexual teen male, so the main topics represented in the film are sexuality and age. We tried to represent the topic of sexuality through the eyes of the character of Will himself, and show the audience what many homosexual people have to deal with on a daily basis.

Judith Butler's 'Queer Theory' challenges the idea that gender is part of the essential self that is fixed and immoveable; in other words, that our male/female gender doesn't control all aspects of our identity or how we perceive other peoples identity. The theory developed as a way of combating negative representations of gay sexuality in the media. It combats the idea that people should be divided and categorised due to their sexual orientation or practice and that a persons' identity shouldn't be limited to their sexual preference. This theory can be applied to 'The Secret' as we tried to break the 'gay stereotype' as much as possible, by making the setting of the room just like a typical teenage boy's room which we thought helped to challenge the stereotype that all gay people are feminine.

'The Secret' contains many aspects which represent sexuality through the 'Queer Theory' such as costume and setting. Will's costume consisted of a regular blue hoodie and some tracksuit bottoms, which is the outfit of a typical teenage boy. To give the same effect, we made the setting of the bedroom very gender neutral, and almost edging on masculine to represent his gender, despite his sexual orientation. For example, we had multiple text books and school books lying on the first desk you see as Will enters the room, accompanied by a pair of tossed shorts and his school blazer which represents how he is a typical teenager with a messy room. As well as these, we also had some aftershaves placed on another desk above it, which helps to represent the more masculine side of Will's character.

Along with the objects within Will's room being gender neutral and almost slightly masculine, we also kept this theme in place by keeping the colours throughout the film neutral, featuring blues, greys and reds which are all gender neutral colours. All of these small details add up to give the audience an overall feel that Will is just as masculine as any other boy of his age, despite his sexuality.

Another theory that can be applied to our film is Anthony Gidden's 'Traditionalist vs Post Traditionalist View of Society' theory. Media representations of society can be seen as traditional or post traditionalist. Traditional views in terms of our film would be people having a narrow minded view towards sexuality and believing that romantic feelings are only acceptable between a man and a woman rather than between two people of the same sex. This theory heavily relates to our film as Will obviously has a post traditionalist view on sexuality within society, where as his sister and other family members have a traditional view on sexuality, as we see when Will's sister uses a derogatory term for homosexuals as she hears Will listening to a debate for gay rights. Added to this, we purposely added the radio interview debate about gay rights to allow the audience to have an insight into the current societies views on the topic, and into Will's personal views on the topic. It also allowed us to show how serious the topic of gay rights is to Will, and how his post-traditional views help to define him. The fact that this theory can be applied to our film suitably shows that we efficiently brought across the topic and showed the views of two separate people within a short amount of time, while also expressing Will's emotions towards his sister's views by showing his stuttering and unsure reaction towards his relationship as she insults homosexuality.

Media texts usually represent the world in order to support a dominant ideology. An ideology is a belief system that is constructed and presented by a media text. Dominant ideologies are central to people's belief systems, and it's often difficult to challenge them effectively, but as traditional views are changing on homosexuality, we decided to challenge the dominant ideology of marriage and family. This dominant ideology states that the 'right way' to live is to marry an opposite sex partner and have children, which we decided to challenge by surrounding the film around a homosexual teen; so although the film doesn't feature marriage or children, it does surround a same sex relationship which is seen as taboo to many people. Dominant ideologies are considered hegemonic, which is the way in which those in power maintain their control. Our aim for the film was to challenge the belief that romantic relationships are strictly between two people of the opposite sex, by trying to normalise same sex relationships - this is why we named the other boy in the relationship 'Taylor' because it is a unisex name, so to the audience, the romantic relationship occurring was nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the dominant ideology until they were actually introduced to Taylor.

Dick Hebdidge said that subculture is a group of like minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and who develop a sense of identity which differs to the dominant in which they belong. 'The Secret' represents Will and Taylor as a group of these like minded individuals as they both belong to the gay community and have the same belief system, and as a whole many people disagree with that belief system, so it can be argued that they feel neglected by societal standards. However, the two characters experience this differently, as Will clearly doesn't have the support system of his family, which Taylor seems to have as we see when he mentions that his mother wants to meet Will, suggesting that Taylor's family are open to and accepting of his sexuality. So, although they both belong to the same subculture group, they experience their neglect from societal standards differently based on the company they surround themselves with.

The dominant representation of young people/teenagers tends to involve anti-social behaviour, gang culture, disrespect, drink and drugs, and teen pregnancies. In order to present the struggles Will goes through with his sexuality as a teen, we decided to leave these typical themes out of Will's character, and simply focus on his inner issues. The theory on age representation of teenagers doesn't necessarily apply to Will's character, however, it can be applied to the character of his sister. This can be argued because, as stated before, a typical tendency of a teen in films is disrespect, and in our film, Will's sister disrespects the opinion of others as she insults the gay community and those standing up for them, as she uses a derogatory term as she voices her opinion on the gay rights debate playing on the radio.

Another theory that can be applied to the film is Psychoanalysis and 'The Mirror' by Lacan. Lacan's theory about 'the mirror' is an idea around the idea of identity. He considers the point which a person develops a sense of self and conscious identity. He considers the point at which a person recognises their own reflection and begins to consider how other perceive them and modify themselves to satisfy the perception of how others see them. Will never physically changes himself in the film, however he does hide his sexuality in order to gain the respect of his family and avoid being an outcast due to their opinions. This was important to us in the film, as this is a true representation of many gay people in society which we felt was an important aspect to include so many viewers who are gay themselves could relate to Will's hesitation to be honest about his sexuality, even to the closest people in his life.

In conclusion, many theories can be applied to 'The Secret' intentionally or unintentionally. These theories help to make the film come to life and present the real meaning behind the film itself. The theories also help viewers relate to the film or even change their opinions based on seeing issues from a characters point of view.