Reality Tv

Reality Tv

Contemporary reality game show: Total Wipe Out

The general stereotypes are constructed to refer to the characters; this is based on their appearance. The slimmer characters with an upbeat mentality are represented and introduced to be aggressive and positive. This foreshadows their success.

On the other hand, the contestants of a larger sixe, despite their mentality, are represented to be slow, lazy and unhealthy. This negative representation provides humour but also demeans the actual people considering that they are real people, have real feelings and are no in character roles. The geeky contestants are usually slim, with big glasses and have a loving personality which gains them more support. They are shown to be the most likely winners and therefore are the focus of the game, until they reach their downfall. Their downfall is used for humour and adds a sense of sympathy whilst providing many laughs.

There are always the employed and the unemployed. The employed are usually professionals such as teachers and are usually young. They provide an important role in the game show as they attract student’s aged 13-18. Viewing pleasure increases for certain audiences such as when the teachers are hurt, disgraced, and made a mockery of by others and not the students. This provides the most humour and viewing pleasure as it enables the viewers to get their own back on the teachers. Students want them to fail.

Representation & regulation

Representation & regulation

Family Guy has more stereotypes than Eastenders, as Eastenders contains fairly limited representations of different groups that are featured in the UK. In Family Guy, gender is fairly represented through the male and female characters of Peter Griffin and Lois Griffin. Peter, on one hand is represented as being immature and gullible, as he purchases outlandish items such as a 1920s magazine kiosk, helicopters, and other unimaginable items and is often dominant, as he doesn't listen to his wife. However, Lois Griffin is represented as being practical and sensible, as she makes the right decisions, as signified when she removes the carpet in the house to prevent Peter from statically shocking everyone , due to his fuzzy pyjamas. However, she is also sexually driven and can be seen to be alluring to other males such as Quagmire. The female newsreader Diane Simmons is a female character that is subordinated, as she has little to say on the news and is a sex object that is controlled by her co anchor Tom Tucker.

These representations contrast with Eastenders, where there are a range of representations of different groups, such as homosexuals, black people and Asian families. Firstly women are presented as being obnoxious and sexually alluring, as signified with Kim Fox. Other dominant representations of women include Zainab Masood, who controls her husband and is in charge of their company Masala Masood. Women are also represented as always being concerned with love as Heather Trott is really excited to go on a website with someone else. Men are also represented as being dominant, as signified with Phil Mitchell and Max Branning, but are also represented as sly , as signfied with Michael Moon.

Dominant reading:
** Lisa uses her intellect to avoid disappointment and failure
**Bart uses his charm and gets away with naughty behaviour
** Marge acts as the devoted mother and wife figure and supports the family

Negotiated reading:
**Homers lack of intellect and high stupidity levels, he still gets out of bother
** Fact that homer acts as a waste of space and literally is

Oppositional reading:
** Homer serves no purpose, he provides nothing for his family but bother.

Task 2

Task 2

The development of new and digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view.

Firstly, audiences have access to cheaper technology and so this enables more consumption and provides the consumers to become producers of their own media. For example, websites such as www.youtube.com allow the user to upload their own productions and view others as long as it does not infringe copyright laws. So this has made it much easier to consumer media worldwide over the internet using web 2.0. However, net neutrality is still not available to all and therefore this challenges democracy- the fairness and equality of all. And so, although the technology is available to the citizens the actual content, how and what they are supplied by the internet providers vary, meaning that audiences have become more powerful than the past, but they are not the most powerful in terms of consumption and production.

Similarly, user generated content has flourished in recent years and has lead to the vast increase of citizen journalism where citizens produce media. For example, the ‘rodney king’ video tape available on www.youtube.com, shows a black citizen in America being beaten by white police officer. If it was not for the recording by a fellow citizen then this illegal and unconstitutional act would have gone unnoticed. And it is for this reason that citizens and their media provided on the internet strengthens democracy, and therefore the development of new and digital media has bettered the world. Additionally, the vast changes in technology and worldwide advances have allowed citizens of all backgrounds and classes to provide and consume media. This has been due to new devices that allow citizens to record, phone, email, watch television and search the ‘web’ at the same time anywhere. For example, the apple iphone, blackberry mobiles and htc mobile phones are internet enabled and produced with cameras over 5 megapixels. But, despite a larger variety of technology available it still does not acknowledge the fact that these mobile phones are still expensive, with their recommended retail price at around £495. Also, certain laptops produced by apple are purchased at £900+. On the whole this increases interactivity within a community formed by users and increases a sense of an internet family worldwide; making the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production of their own media.

On the other hand, regulations and ownership of certain music, images and videos used by the citizens in their own productions are removed by certain websites as it infringes copyright laws. It is for this reason that citizens are not yet powerful enough to publish media of their own if they sample other artists track without permission. Although this does mean plagiarism, the media industry should have certain regulations that lessen the consequences of imprisonment and heavy fines and are slightly more liberal with the use of certain samples in the use generated content. And so, this means that the audience is powerful in terms of consumption but not in terms of production.

In conclusion, the productions by citizens maybe of an amateur quality and therefore may only target a minority audience and so they are not powerful enough to disturb the worldwide media industry. But new technology means that user generated content is widely available on the internet and as a result this strengthens democracy and therefore also strengthens the media industry as a whole.

Task 1

Task1

At the beginning of skins we instantly see that the young teenage girls are represented as to be sexual objects and infact seen to be the dominant force. This is connoted by the teenage girls smoking and by the way they looked at other people, which made them look superior to others. In skins the girls are seen to be challenging stereotypes as they are shown to be violent because it shows them hitting another person which goes against a typical teenage girl stereotype. The males are seen to be abit opposite to the girls as they are seen to be much more calmer and laid back, which shows that skins completley challenges gender stereotypes.In the trailer of Bully the males were seen to be more dominant as they were portrayed to be the active and aggressive characters shown through kicking boxes. Through the use of the male protagonist using weapons shows that teenagers are primarily torublesome and want to inflict pain on other people. In both texts, they portray teenagers to be selfish and carry out illegal acts, such as smoking illegal substances or using weapons.Also, in both texts it is apparant that teenagers are inflicting pain on each other creating the idea that teenagers are complying with gang voilence.

Bully displays anti social behaviour and is shown to be a teenage tearaway. The game introduces a peaceful school and then introduces the ‘bully’, this creates a storyline with a peaceful equilibrium, and then when the protagonist is associated to it a disequilibrium is produced. The fact that this production emphasises that the main character uses weapons to ‘bully’ and intimidate weaker students such as slingshots and fire extinguishers connotes that the representation of male teenagers is negative. Similarly, the fact that the only female to be introduced in this production is also shown to be negative implies that the youth in American society are all disagreeable and that they should strive for constant fun and wish to not do any school work, as connoted when the protagonist is told of by the teacher and fellow students. This production clearly demonstrates that teenagers attempt to cause havoc where ever and when ever they can.