02 NEWS: Representation

 What/Which women are represented and how?

Women are underrepresented in the 60s Observer, due to patriarchal, social and cultural standards and contexts dictating their roles in media, politics, households, and more, clearly shown by the lack of authoritative or even representative female roles in the cover, besides those associated with royalty, social standards, or advertisements.

Examples of this may include the two advertisements for lingerie, which appear to be advertised towards women besides the lack of representation besides this. The objectification of women through these advertisements highlighted through the loss of other representatives shows that women were seen as an extension of their male counterparts - brothers, husbands, fathers, are represented by the men in political and social power in the media, but women are only second to them, shown by their domesticated and very objective audience appeal and representation through sensual products, that also benefit men visually. This presents the women in the cover as objects to be admired and advertised, not respected by political or social standards.

However, Barbara Castle makes a small appearance, as the only female politician on all three covers, arguing for 'less unequal pay'. While she is in an authoritative position, the fact that she is unable to argue for fully equal pay, and the demeaning of her position as a politician by such, also reflects cultural contexts at the time being that women were lacking in power and importance compared to men.

In addition, the representation of the marriage of a 'mixed couple' also shows cultural contexts, and that the event was probably so rare or unexpected it made a headline. In addition, discriminatory language was used, against a Mexican protest unselfconsciously by the newspaper.

SB to TD Differences/Notes

SB:

Low-level/desaturated lighting

Grunge Theme

'Pretty Face' villainised for being too stingy, and her looks, behaviour, etc.

Very dynamic, fast-paced camerawork. Centres the movement and the artist.

Avril doesn't need a well-structured narrative as the structure itself reflects her rebelling against music video and narrative norms.

Low-angle shot of the final concert places the camera in the crowd - integrated feel.

TD:

Highly-saturated

Stereotypical/Fantasy Theme

'Noelle' idolised for her looks, behaviour, etc.

Narrative, story-telling camerawork. Centres TD and the artists.

The artists express the TD's emotions, facially and verbally.

Low-angle shot with slow-motion makes the Jocks seem like a powerful unit.

Music Magazines - Representations of Gender

Mojo Cover - Nick Cave

This magazine celebrates older musicians, going against the stereotype the stereotype of most popular, influential musicians being younger. Popular musicians tend to be depicted as younger, but the cover is a complete contrast.

Although, the cover also conforms to the stereotype that older people tend to depict a lot of serious, uncertain attitudes, rather than bubbly, energetic attitudes depicted by younger stars. The cover fits this, with Nick Cave falling into this category of gloomy depiction alongside his 'grievers' audience.

The stereotypical linking of excess and youth but using a photo of the members of Queen when young to illustrate a cover line about excess.

Men stereotypically also tend to be linked with male seriousness and authority, which is also presented in the cover, alongside the very stereotypical link of warfare, aggression and masculinity in the cover line about Billy Bragg. 

"Explain how music videos use media language to promote their artists" (10)

(Mise en Scene, camerawork, narrative, messages, editing, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds)

Gender/Hierarchy Roles - Football Jocks (hostile, childish, authoritative) , Noelle (floats towards him, very stereotypically feminine, petite, idolised) , Main Guy (the underdog)

Setting - Relatable experiences, similar to American Sitcoms, Car-Bike contrast.

Camerawork - Close ups, cuts between narrators and main guy, high angle shots depict the main guy in a victimised, smaller position - creating empathy. Arc pans centre the artists to focus on their message.

Music Magazines: Media Language

 Look carefully at the front covers of MOJO and RNR magazines. 

QUESTION: How far do MOJO and RNR use different media language to create different connotations? (CONNOTATION meaning: an idea or quality that a word makes you think about in addition to its meaning.)

Answer on your blog. This is a high-value question and should take all lesson to answer. You can use the class blog search engine for more examples of how to analyse music magazines.

In your answer you should have 2 paragraphs:

• analyse the media language in MOJO and RNR magazine. 'Media language' includes the placement of the main image, the type of photography, lighting, colours, fonts, how busy or restrained the cover is, the layout (such as alignment to the margins), how serious or playful 
• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the media language is used differently in both extracts to create different connotations. Are there similarities in both covers? What sorts of audiences are they targeting? You could think about MOJO's rock aesthetic of living loud and dangerously compared to RNR's folk, rock, blues vibe. 

The contrast between the red and blue creates a more vivid and expressive character from the Foo Fighters cover. In addition, words like 'adventures' and 'battle' also present them as more bold and determined from the language - accented also by the posture of the cover figure hunched over the title much like a hunting predator. Also, the sans serif font alongside the more 'adventurous' language connotes that they have struggled - 'we've been to...we've been to...' also highlights this, showing that they are both experienced and unshaped by their 'struggles' - displaying a different kind of but still respectable figure compared to the RnR cover.

One of the magazines is busier than the other. MOJO's cover is quite cluttered and busy, due to its numerous cover lines, images and puffs as well as a very dynamic cover mount in neon colours, with a vibrant cartoon image. RnR also has many cover lines, but they are all more minimalistic, and justified to the right-hand margin. They are exclusively in white, creating calm, orderly, uncluttered quality. Equally, the cover mount has modest verbal play, and is very plain and streamlined.

MOJO's choice of colours is vibrant, electric and dynamic, particularly in the primary colours of the cover mount, with its playful skeleton. By contrast, RnR uses soft, dull browns and only red an accent colour.

Although both magazines conform to genre conventions - both magazines centre a star at the centre of visual interest, and both magazines celebrate that star, but MOJO does so in a more dynamic, aggressive, confrontational way compared to RnR's gentle, lowkey, folksy vibe. This is because MOJO targets a primarily male rock audience, while RnR is aimed at folk and blues audiences. 

Also, although both music magazines feature many articles, RnR is more orderly and restrained.

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Statement of Intent