Half Term work on Critical Investigation

Critical Investigation title- The traditional representation of the male gangster has changed from the typical Italian mafia family, to a more modern emotional gangster.


Throughout the critical investigation, many references to media language will be made, for example connotation, which will be used when a word or object could suggest something, likewise with denotation, as this suggests a definite meaning of a word. As a result, i will be able to demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of key media concepts and terminology, which will help me achieve the highest the grade possible. This is because, i am illustrating to the examiner my knowledge of the subject, which covers AO1 of the objectives.


From looking at particular institutions for example Universal Pictures, we can analyze that the gangster films they produce for example public Enemy, American Gangster and Smoking Aces all promote a "new and improved" gangster, that is different from the stereotypical gangster. For instance, alter in race, age and social background.


The genre being investigated is gangster/crime, as most gangster films do contain elements of crime and violence.


The representation of these characters is fairly positive, depending on the way you choose to view it. For example, it is positive as the characters are shown to be strong and emotional representing males in society today.


The ideologies arising from these films does promote negative ideologies, but also shows a changing society which is reflected through the type of gangster illustrated in the film. As a result, the audience can relate to the characters presented in the film and can use this a of form of identification.


The narrative follow similar patterns, as the gangster or the protagonist has to go against the current or rivalry gangster in order to run his operation in the city. Along the way he is faced with many obstacles, like the loss of someone close to him or a love story, that leaves him to make a tough choice.


SHEP


Social- Because the gangster or protagonist is shown to be fairly young, encourages young teenagers to aspire to the protagonist. This means they could be motivated to get involved with criminal activity. However not all teenagers will act in same way, but a moral panic is created.


Historical- Historically , gangsters are represented through their three piece suits, top hats and come from a traditional Italian family, with strong values. The family is shown to be very well known to the local and throughout the whole city.


Economical- Certain areas are not represented in a positive way, which results in less people wanting to purchase land and houses in that area. Therefore, the area results in being de-valued and people already living the area lose a great deal of money.


Political- All politicians must really disagree with gangster films shot in urban areas, as they de-value certain areas. Also, not in all cases but they do encourage children to go get involved in criminal activity. This is more so the case, in english or British gangster movies. For example, the james Bulger case, where a child who was murdered by two minors after watching violent imagery.

This study fits into the compemtoary media landscape becuase the representation of gangsters in society today, has adpated and changed from the typical representation of gangster, which is the wealthy, well known Italian mafia family. Now, more people can indentify with the new gangster, as the demographics have been changed.

Summarized Research on Semiotics

10 Key words 

• Signs
• Cultural meanings
• Greek "Semeios"
• Roland Barthes
• Levis Strauss
• Structuralism
• Postmodernity
• Aestheticization
• connotations
  
• Denotations

 Red Herrings

• Semioticism
• Ugean Desus 
  
• Post-semiotic
• Ferdinand De-Saussure 
• Biosemiotics 

Semiotics, also called semitic studies or semiology, is the study of sin processes, or signification and communication, signs and symbols, into three branches: 

• Semantics: Relations between signs and the things to which they refer 
• Syntactics: Relations of signs to each other in formal structures
• Pragmatics: Relations of signs to their impacts on those who use them

Semiotics is frequently seen as having important anthropological dimensions. In general, semiotics theories takesigns or sign systems as their object of study: the communication of information in living organisms is covered in Biosemiotics or zoosemiosis. 

Research for Reality TV and News Values

Reality TV

• Genre of Television programming that show cases unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, actual events and usually features people who are not professional actors.
• Documentaries and nonfictional programming such as news and sports shows are usually not classified as reality shows.  
• The shows portray a modified and highly influenced form of reality and sensationalize the text to attract more of an audience.
• Participants are often placed abnormal situations and some times staged to create an illusion of reality, through editing and other post production techniques.

News values

• Term used by researchers to describe the various criteria involved in the selection of news by broadcasters and journalists
• First identified by Galtung and Ruge 
• Frequency: news has to be daily and frequent basis to meet schedules
• Cultural Proximity; news to be close to home or related to home issues
• Thresholds; news needs to be sufficient enough to generate attention
• Negativity ; bad news has priority over good news 
• Predictability; news tends to anticipate and justify expected outcomes
• Unexpectedness; news has to seem unexpected, even though is may take place in predicted patterns
• Continuity; follow-up elements of a big story are seen as newsworthy
• Unambiguity; Events need to be clear enough for the audience to understand 

Critical Investigation and Linked Production

For the critical investigation the student chose to explore the representations of women in black comedy films, this can be demonstrated through binary oppositions and stereotypical views towards black women, for example being fairly masculine and Feisty. 

The linked production is a sitcom trailer showing the representations of black women, that will be aired on Channel 4 . This is because the proposed show and Channel 4 both are aimed at the people with similar audience profiles, for instance young, female and male audiences. The language used will aim to its primary audience, as colloquial language will be featured in the trailer and sitcom. This will appeal to is audience, as they can use this as a form of identification.