Ideology: further reading and tasks

Page 34: The World Of Mockingjay: Ideology, Dystopia And Propaganda

1. The capitalist ideology that is demonstrated in 'The Hunger Games' is of today's society that we live in. It is identical as both our and the society in the film have a authoritarian figure whom is in control of his people and makes decisions accordingly due to the power which he possess; this is also what happens in our society today. In contrast with today's society is reflects negatively in 'The Hunger Games' as the government is trying to retain its power through the force is has using it as a deterrence so that no member of society will rebel back as fear has been injected into their minds due to the president. The common ideology that the government have is that they are the ones in control and the ones who have power have dominance in society which is why the games are created so that they can retain this power rather than society overthrowing them and obtaining power which is seen to be something that the president deserves being the alpha male in society. This is seen as in the text of the article is says ''the world is caught under the dictatorships of President Snow, a man who believes more in his own supreme leadership than the people of his country''. This quotation shows that the ideology of the President is for the one of a higher social status should be in power leaving everyone else inferior to him which is also a common ideology in today's society which is people can't change their position in society and it shouldn't be changed.

2. 'The Hunger Games' shows the power of media to shape and influence ideological beliefs. The media is used to influence the ideology that the President is the one who has the most power and those that are in the game are inferior; this is done to eradicate any hope of rebellious behaviour that the members of society could conform to if they see that there is hope if the people in the game start to seem more powerful than President Snow himself. The media also helps promotes ideologies about society such as the Marxist view that ruling class keep the working class under control through civic means. 

Page 48: They Live - Understanding Ideology

1. The four accepted ideological beliefs in western societies highlighted by the article are: 

Realise your true potential

Be yourself

Lead a satisfying life
People should put their families first

2. Gramsci says that power isn't forced upon them but through consent, which means that people allow some sort of power to be placed upon them rather than it just being forced.

3. Louis Althusser says that the consumer which is us, are controlled through ideology. He believes that ideology was 'the greatest material of power which also dominates our day to day lifestyle. There are 2 key forms repressive state control and Idealogical State Apparatuses. Repressive state control are those who have power such as the government and ideological state apparatuses are institutions such as the church who dominate through common sense rather than fear.

4. I do not completely agree with this as the media does play a role it is not the only factor that plays a part. There are people who don't use the media or cannot afford this so are less likely to be controlled of influenced by this.

Ideology and binary opposition

The binary oppositions are between the working class and the Middle class, this is seen between Russle Brand and Nigel Farage. Russle Brand being someone who's come from a working class background. Another one is between the British people and immigrants that are coming into the country. This is also seen between the people voting for Nigel Farage and the people who are on the side of Russle Brand and his views on the questions being asked.

The ideologies that are demonstrated are that people in Britain, that immigrants are taking over their jobs and that immigrants are usually from an Asian background and people don't usually don't think of Americans or Australians to be immigrants.

The binary oppositions are between the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist being an American and the antagonist being from another country. This is also seen with the law and civilians in the court room when the judge takes away the child from her farther. There is also a binary opposition between the protagonist and the bank.

The common ideologies are that the law is powerful and controls society. Men are stronger than women and aren't emotional, always assertive and dominant. The protagonist is strong and is usually a white male. Women are seen to look after the man and children.

12D Cover Work - Monday 7/12, p1/2

P34: The World Of Mockingjay

Ideology: In this article the ideology is those who have a higher status and are in control usually have most or even all of the power due to dictatorship amongst everyone else. The world is caught under dictatorship of President Snow, he is a man who believes more in his own power than the people in his country that are under his control. The aim was to add his ideas into the games to vanish any thoughts or hope of rebellion against him so he can stay in power which is common amongst people that are in power as they want to obtain this power rather than getting overrun. This is due to his ideology of hope being stronger than fear meaning removing any signs of hope would lead to his people embracing fear erasing all signs of rebellion. 

Dystopia and propaganda: The article states that those in power eventually lose power. This is because although they hold most of the power, those who are inferior to the government will rebel to take control. The one who has the most power in the districts is Katnis and she uses propaganda to influence the need for rebellion as she hacks into Capitol system and publishes a video of a hospital being bombed by the Capitols. This was to gain hope for the people under the control of the government who had fear injected into them. Katnis uses the power of the T.V to help deliver he message across to the world stating that the Capitol is cruel and is not right.



P48: They Live

Ideology: This article is about the ideology in Britain changing as new ideas emerges, however there are also 3 dominant ideologies that society accepts or agree. These 3 are people putting their families first, working hard for money and women to behave in a feminine way. These ideologies are often accepted throughout society as they've been around for so long. On the other hand some people challenge this view in society as they may see this to be a sexist thing or even out of date(new ideologies that are modern and to do with with society in today's century). 

Media Magazine reading and tasks

MM50

1. The article is talking about how the media is sexist towards women and portray women as having to be slim and sexy in order to be accepted in society and that this is the dominant male view on this.

2. The film which has sparked the debate on female body image and female representation is called 'A Perfect 14.' It is a documentary which challenges the idea of beauty and what is beautiful and normal ignoring what traditional women looked like.

3. The female gaze differs from the male one as men look at women and objectify them, they aren't able to do anything and just have to accept they're being looked at. The female gaze is similar to the male gaze as they're looking at males in the same way but it isn't as passive.

4. I think real women should appear in the media as it shows a representation of women all over the UK regardless of their actual size, it could be damaging to women's self confidence of health if they decide to starve themselves in order to go down to a size 0 just to be accepted by society and women.

5. The film is trying to get across that women don't need to be too self concious about the way that they look and that they're beautiful no matter what they look like even if it's not like the 'ideal women' that are portrayed in the media.

MM51

1. The introduction talks about how different people create media texts with their own ideas which other people then view in the exact same way that they do.

This suggests that there is a representation process in which certain people in the media including the photographer, picture editor and news editor. They're able to influence how we see an image and can give it different meanings on the basis of how the photo could be taken(camera angle).

The expectations and needs of the target audience, the limitations provided by the genre codes, the type of narrative they wish to create and their institutional remit.

This is how the audience interpret the media text, they might believe what they're viewing or have a different view on it.

 Social media gives more people a voice, this can be on social media website or even people on YouTube, they can influence people to speak up and get their voice across.

Media texts such as a newspaper or broadsheet would promote the ideologies that they want but not e-media platforms.

2. I'm aware of what I post on social media, I make sure that it represents me in a positive way rather than conforming to the stereotype that all teenagers do drugs and are violent. I use the media for entertainment purposes and post things that doesn't cause any offence to anyone.

3. I think that the audience is more powerful that institutions as the audience can decide whether they want to watch something or not, they can influence the decisions the institutions make by protesting or deciding to do other things that the majority of the audience want to change or add in today's media. An example of this would be with BBC where the audience can decide whether they're representing majority of the UK and if not the audience and get their view across and influence the BBC's decision to change something.

Representation theories: blog task

The clip that I picked was the trailer from the film 'Southpaw'. The first theory that this links to is Levi-Strauss: Representation and ideology this is because the ideology that people have of men are usually to do with being strong and independent. This is seen in the film as the main protagonist is a boxer which reinforces this theory as boxers are seen to be powerful and dominant fulfilling the idea of what every man should behave in today's society. The trailer of this film also links to another theory which is Perkins: stereotypes can be positive or partly true, this includes stereotypes such as men being strong and this is positive in the clip of this film as the male is a strong man who has a lot of power. The set idea of men are to be strong and not to show any emotions but an alternative view of this is shown when the protagonists wife is murdered in the film and he starts to break down and cry which isn’t a dominant representation of men. This is also seen when the protagonist loses her daughter after she is taken away, he also starts to cry which isn’t seen as a masculine thing to do. Also, it isn’t usually to see a male taking care of his daughter or being a single parents as women are the ones who are seen to be caring and nurturing towards their child as this is a feminine thing a male is seen to be incapable of doing. Another theory that this links to is Berger: ‘Ways of seeing’ which is an additional representation theory that influenced Mulvey. This is seen when the main protagonist is sitting down whilst in the boxing ring and he sees his wife on the ringside looking at him which could also link back to the female gaze. The protagonist wife is also a dominant representation of women as she is caring for her husband and women are also seen to be emotional which she is due to her husband’s boxing career. The villain of the film is also someone from another country which is usually done to promote the white male as the hero which is usually done in most films. The hero is normally is set to win against the villain, in some cases the villain is usually someone from Britain and goes against the Americans but in this case it is someone from South America and the main protagonist is set out to beat him after the death of his wife to avenge her and get his daughter back. There is also a common trend with boxing films in the past where the hero has been a white American male most of the time and is going up against someone from another country or different ethnicity; this makes the white male superior and other ethnicities to seem inferior which is a common thing in most films. An example of this would be ‘Rocky’ but this is changing over the years where there is now a black hero in recent film ‘Creed’. This challenges the common stereotype of the white male although the male is still an American.

12D cover work 26/11/15

The groups that are represented are males and females, straight men and gay men. This is seen as the host of the TV show is a gay man and the other members who are seated on the show are straight. I think Graham Norton is a dominant representation of a gay man as people see them to be talkative, happy, loud ect. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a dominant representation of a male as men are seen to be tall, confident, strong creating the image that he is the ideal male. This links to Medhurts theory as it talks about how stereotypes can be negative which creates a negative image of Graham Norton as he is a gay male. 

The groups that are represented in this are British people, tourists and royalty. The representation of the Queen is dominant as it shows the power that she has and how wealthy royalty is. The representation of the tourists is also dominant as they are usually from other countries and are usually interested in the royal family. Tourists are also seen to be on holiday and learning new things about different cultures. This links back to Richard Dyer: Stereotyping and power as the British people were mainly white and the tourists were from other ethnicities.

The groups that was represented was a dominant representation of girls in high school but also an alternative representation as the girls were playing football and this is seen as a more masculine thing to do. This links back to Mulvey as the dominant view in the media is masculine and created for the benefit of men. Women are presented for men to look at, hence the ‘male gaze’. This links to the idea of ‘sex sells’ and women being represented as sex objects.

representation photoshop collage

Dominant Representation

These qualities are usually associated with males and are common stereotypes about how men should look or act.

Alternative Representation

These qualities aren't usually associated with men and go against the usual representation of them in the media.