Formation

Formation by Beyonce

• A single is a song which is released by itself in it's own album
• A load of songs is an album 
• Was released without any announcements, a surprise release
• Was a one hit wonder
• Beyonce was apart of destiny's child
• Got a lot of profit due to Beyonce's popularity
• Formation, lead single for the album Lemonade, was released the day before Beyonce's performance at the SuperBowl final in February 2016. The formation music video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was released with the song
• This music video one many awards including a Clio Award for innocation and creative excellence in music video at the 2016 awards, and has been nominated in the music video category at the 59th
• Video is deliberately controversial as it's message is bold about black people with links to oppression and slavery
• Video is highly Atypical, the unique selling point is the setting

Encoding: When the producer puts meaning into something
Decoding: When the audience is trying to understand what the producer has encoded
Colonialism:

1. We see the world as a binary opposition by comparing the UK to the world, foreign vs familiar

• The master shot (beyonce on a car) involves ordinary people and the police, the ordinary people is suggest by the mise-en-scene of what she's wearing, (a stereotypically working class dress) Conflict between calm and rebellion, Beyonce on a police car is illegal but she is calm
• There is conflict between the police and the people
• Another example of the police business is the young black kid acting like a threat to the police
• There is a big amount of conflict due to the low-key lighting and a lot of political ideology of oppression being encoded
• A conflict between civilisation and the weather, there is a huge amount of apocalyptic setting.
• Rich and poor opposition: Wig shot transitioning to Beyonce in a posh antebellum victorian room
• Mise-en-scene is set in the Antebellum Era
• Many different Eras in the video such as Antebellum, 80/90s and modern, it's Atemporal
• Her movements in the antebellum house were very aggressive and powerful and foot stamping is symbolic of power
• her sticking up her middle fingers shows her disrespect and lack of hegemonic norms in society
• Examples of sexualisation include the antebellum house when Beyonce is wearing revealing clothes
• Makes Beyonce relatable to everybody in poverty, it reinforces stereotypes to make money

David Gauntlet: Pick and Mix theory

• Audience and people pick certain parts of ideologies and create their own identity
• Things that influence the way you are
• Sexuality
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Class
• Culture
• Race
• Religion
• level of education
• Location
• Nationality
• Age
• These are all demographics: a simple way of categorising audience groups

Lisbet Van Zoonen: Feminist Theory

• Gender is encoded through media language
• men and women are encoded in different ways
• Assumes that every audience member is a man
• Ballet on ice is symbolic of women's stereotypical elegance

Paul Gilroy: Ethnicity & Post-Colonial Theory

• 
  
• Formation is:
• Unique
• Subversive
• Atypical
• Experimental
• Different from a conventional music video
• Establishing racial hierarchies is a way of establishing hegemonic control
• Adding binary opposition can help make sense of the world

1. White, middle-class teen boy, 13
1. Vouyerism towards Beyonce
2. Wouldn't understand the racist themes
3. Would enjoy the dancing
2. Mixed race woman, working class, 21
1. May particularly enjoy the representation of women being powerful, direct mode of address from Beyonce
2. Personal identification
3. Black, middle class professional man, 25
1. Far more interested and identified with the themes of racism

That B.E.A.T: Abteen Bagheri (2012)

• Got a genre thats underground as its breaking copyright law
• Bounce music has a big gay aspect within it
• Genre is aimed towards gay, black, working-class people from Louisiana
• Allows Beyonce to explore an aspect of black southern American culture, but is it just cultural appropriation?
• What we are seeing is a black commercialisation, as Paul Gilroy says

1. Establishing shot of southern american house sinking in the water
2. Men twerking
3. Tracking shot from moving car filming dilapidated Louisianans houses
4. Police and neon lips, nightime handheld shot of black boy on bike with strobing police car, binary opposition between black youth and opposition
5. Iconographic shot of ceiling fan connotes  a run down and poverty striken enviornment
6. Under the bridge shot, covered in graffiti and signifies gang violence and crime

Intertexual reference to bounce music, a typically underground, non-mainstream genre of music.

Gives the video to formation a unique selling point (USP)

Allows Beyonce to target a wider audience, specifically southern state audience

Creates awareness of a genre which may otherwise be overlooked

Gives Beyonce an 'edge' dangerousness, a threatening feeling

Gives video a sense of 'realness' and authenticity, a representation of black, working class people

However completely ignores any representation of gay people, which is fundamental to the bounce genre

Removing the representation of gay people ensures the song's financial success

Woman Magazine

mid-shot
Alfred Hitchcock is a movie director who directed the birds and psycho
Mise-en-scene includes
shoulder length hair also seems sensible
brunette
well presented with a sensible hairstyle
brown eyes
attractive middle age women, hegemonically attractive
Bold text saying "Woman" stating that this is the hegemonic norm of women of 1964. The style of the font of the masthead is serif, and handwritten, suggesting the mode of address is friendly, the model is also smiling with pearly white teeth, with a fake smile.
Additionally the way she looks at the audience perhaps shows she is relatable, being relatable means that she is not dressed in beauty as if she is going to a party but rather just going into town or something, suggesting that the target audience isn't well educated and has low self-esteem
"Seven Star" shows signs of exaggeration to show how great the magazine is. Stereotypically suggesting women should be in the kitchen "improvements for your kitchen"
aimed towards working class, straight, age 30-50 women
Pinkish background enforces it's for women
"are you an a-level beauty?" is a direct mode of address, making the target audience feel bad about themselves
Binary opposition: Dark background vs the Yellow banner on the front

• Woman magazine is published weakly
• Published by a company called the IPC
• Still sells magazines to this day
• Cheap magazines 7d = 80p
• Genre of this magazine is women's lifestyle
• Woman magazine is aimed at a broad audience
• It's circulation was 3 million copies

Socio-Historical context

what was going on in society at the time

Content:

• 'extra special about men' assumes the audience like men, therefore are women
• 'knitting' assumes the women enjoy to knit and all women do it
• 'gardening'
• 'back to school clothes' suggest that the target audience are mothers and are straight
• This magazine has a heteronormative theme

Documentary

more women going into higher education

26,000 women were now going to University by 1960

Women's rights were very popular by the end of the 60's

wanted equal pay

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Ideology: The beliefs of the producers that they are trying to give out through their products
The producers ideology is that all women should be housewives

Hegemony: A widely held belief for a certain people group
Women belong in the kitchen according to the front cover

Anchorage: Words that go along with an image to give it a specific context
"Seven star improvements for your kitchen"

David Gauntlett: theories of identity
pick and mix theory: audiences can select which ideologies suit them, and completely ignore the elements of the product.

"so any girl can assemble it quickly"

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Reinforcing Hegemonic Norms

1. That there are very specific roles women should follow (women are good at cooking). That they should be loyal to their husbands/that they are heterosexual. "Are you an A-level beauty" suggests that all women aren't beautiful unless they read such magazines as the Woman magazine. Women have plenty of spare time. Women have to wear make-up, in order to be attractive, you've got to be young
2. Heterosexual women, but possibly appealing to men as thats how the male genders would've wanted women to be like in 1964. It enforces what the hegemonic norms were in 1964
3. 
   

The magazine encodes certain stereotypes that if you do not follow in society, you will not be accepted in society.
There is a reality to stereotypes, if someone is told something a numerous amount of times, this will enforce that 'belief' more and more. For the magazine, it reinforces a women's place in society, it reinforces patriarchal hegemony. Stating men are better than women, with the magazine also produced by men.

Voyeurism: Taking pleasure in watching someone or something
The magazine gives women the pleasure of social interaction, talking about it with your friends

bell hooks: Feminist Theory

• argues that feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women
• Feminism is not a lifestyle choice; it's a political commitment
• Race, class and gender all determine the extent to which individuals are exploited and oppressed

Advertising in magazines

• 1/3 of total revenues across the industry are advertising, it is therefore vitally important that the magazine and advertising content target the same audience in order that the advertising brands benefit from increased...

Analyse the ways in which the advertising in Woman constructs stereotypical representations of women, for example:

1. Women's place in the home - wife and mother
2. Women don't make important decisions
3. Women are dependant on men for acceptance and protection
4. Women as sexual objects, and inferior to men

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• The copy adopts a direct mode of address which is friendly
• This soaps will show you kindness, like a gentleman
• The very first sentence is an example of interpolation
• This advert makes big claims about what women actually are, that you are not attractive if you don't buy the soap
• She is stereotypically attractive, full breasts, slender body, hourglass figure.
• Her body is being used to sell the body, that if you use the soap, you'll get her body shape/style
• She is an aspirational figure
• The advert is not meant to sell a product but rather a lifestyle, that of course appeals to men.
• Sexual objectification, all we know about her is a object purpose, only for the product to be used upon.

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• Man is pleased by how the woman looks after putting on the make up. Sexual tension, in some ways this advert is subversive, she potentially is rejecting this man, or rather that he is stalking the woman.
• Serif font "beauty at a moment's notice..." suggests a stereotypical feminine type of beauty of it, aimed towards women, also a tagline and suggests it's easy to use.
• Assumes that the only thing women are shopping for is make-up and are doing it everywhere they go.
• The layout is much like a comic and presents a storyline, the use of panels creates a sequential narrative
• The title being at the bottom supports the z-line theory, presenting everything in a straight possible way
• "at a moment's notice, putting on make-up is hegemonically the right thing to do, it assumes that women not wearing make-p is not attractive
• This advert creates a clear insecurity to the target audience, manipulating the audience, thinking that they are ugly.
• The compact mirror is an essential part of the narrative, suggesting that she can see the man and is smiling
• Being in black and white suggest classiness, restoration of the equilibrium, presenting as if it's the happy ending of a romantic film, intertextuality

How can the ad effect men?

• Men are expected to approach women, and women should not approach men
• Men cannot wear make-up and women should
• Men should be constantly formal, wearing suits and looking professional all the time

Pros to stereotypes

1. Provides a solution to make certain people groups happier
2. Allows producers to target a target audience
3. It makes it much easier to make a product
4. Can be used to make a profit
5. In a patriarchal society, women are safer, don't need to go to war and have men to protect them
6. Uniformity, can make life a lot easier
7. It is possible to have a positive stereotype, e.g men are strong "man up"
8. Stereotypes help us make sense of the world 

Brand identity

How businesses presents itself to its consumers and how it wants to be perceived

Vogue has more sexual connotations with thick lips and styled out eyes that are sharp

Woman is less sexual and more aimed towards women who have gone through that hegemonic age of looking for men and are rather housewives.

High production values

On vogue, the focus is on the model, the text blends in with the dress so it doesn't distract you from the woman

Woman magazine, cover lines are very large and visible

Vogue assumes that the audience has cultural capital as they should know what the price is, since you need to squint to see the price

Vogue is more full colour and glossy, whereas Women is more dull
Vogue is £4.50 and Woman is 50p.
Direct Mode of Address for Woman is aimed towards working class age 30-50

• Vast majority of the magazine is on women however this article is on men. This is not however a regular feature.
• The enlarge font of "MEN" suggest men are superior
• This article's purpose is how to get it's target audience (heterosexual women) a man.
• The representation of women is Woman magazine are fairly stereotypical
• The reason being that women are meant to make happy. This article reinforces patriarchal hegemony
• This article reinforces binary opposition
• The advice in the article is accepted by the reader, showing Stuart Hall theory of reception.
• The article is giving the audience vital information
• The man doing his tie reinforces a man in his right place and a woman in his right place
• A critique of arrogance, "'Man's is creations masterpiece but who says so?' -Man", Taking the piss out of men
• On the dominant image, it shows the woman having power, Subverting stereotypes of patriarchal dominance, and the man is doing a stereotypical woman pose. There is also binary opposition with the man wearing black and the woman being in white.

Back to Basics: 2019

Denotations: everything you can see

• Red: setting
• Attractive White Woman
• Black: mise-en-scene is that she has black hair and dress
• Loreal: Brand
• Shampoo bottle: symbolic code
• Hand: gesture
• Glossy hair: mise-en-scene, iconography
• Words: Slogan, details

"expert for damaged hair" san-serif text

Mid-shot

Connotations: This relates to that, this means that

1. Romance and love
2. Ideal women of beauty, target audience is middle age white women
3. black signifies formality, elegance and authority
4. Loreal brand font presents order combined with craziness
5. Hand signifies she doesn't want men following her or that she can handle herself, also shows direct mode of address.
6. glossy hair

Intertextuality and mise-en-scene is a reference to a classic romance film

San-serif bold font of 'paris' has reference to romance, fashion and love

The light colours have connotations to being innocence, purity

the red colours have connotations to being, romance, love and sex

This advert has a binary opposition between love and innocence

Adverts by making the audience dissatisfied with their lives, and that the products can fix that

• pink shades: crazy cool, epic, mocking

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COMPONENT 2

1. Media Language: terminology
2. Representation: how its presented
3. Audience: what they see
4. Media Industries: who owns it

compared with the past, Gauntlett argues that the media today 'we no longer get singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of gender identity'

Evaluate the validity of this claim with reference to the set editions of woman and Adbusters and the historical contexts in which they are produced.

Stereotype: a wildly held belief of a certain group of people

ROLAND BARTHES

SEMIOTICS

• Codes such as Proairetic, Hermeneutic and symbolic

CLAUDE LEVI STRAUSS

STRUCTURALISM

• Binary Opposition

The way which magazines work are that they are specialised industries, completely different to everything, including newspapers

Magazines are mainly gossip, have a smaller audience and have a specific interest.

They are less focused on general current affairs and have glossy covers\

Magazines have a smaller circulation

Circulation: how many copies are produced and sold

Charity & Identity & Water-aid

David Gauntlet: Theories of Identity

Gauntlet believes that despite many negative perceptions of the media, audiences are capable of constructing their own identities through what they see on television.

Additionally, he writes there are now many more representation of gender than the traditional 'gender binary'

Stereotypes of men

• Strong, buff,  manly
• wear suits
• do all the work
• drive, like cars
• leaders of countries
• drunk
• more comedic
• more dangerous
• brave

Stereotypes of women

• always wear dresses
• belong in the kitchen
• smart, clever
• women are weaker
• always wear makeup
• very emotional
• elegant
• jewellery

Representation is a construction of reality

The producer constructs these representations

They do this to encode their ideology

Manipulate - negative connotations

Charity advert

Purpose of a charity advert is that they ask for money for people in need of that money for devices that can assist them

They work by making the audience feel guilty by making it very emotional

The mode of address is quite sad and depressing, their very blunt and only want one thing from the audience

Use of low-key lighting has connotations towards darkness and death

Use of extreme close-ups shows that the audience is positioned in the room with the children, making the audience uncomfortable.

Use of sound effects like child crying makes us feel sorry

Sad and nostalgic 

the use of slow fades symbolises that the child cruelty is still continuing

The word "please" show the desperation for money

Charity adverts get played during mid-day, which means that it could be aimed towards students, unemployed, working-class and elders.

There is direct address.

'If you do not donate, you are a terrible person'

Water-aid- Deliberately went away from the stereotypical archetype
Juxtaposing the representation of Africa adverts

Is an established charity from the early 80s and is a campaign for clean water, sanitation for poor nations in Africa, Asia etc.

Shots include: Mid-shot, Close up, long shot-ish
The scene is slowly establishing the location, it starts off with her walking alone until she slowly has people joining her, perhaps suggesting she's not alone

Low C/U tracking shot of Claudia shoes establishes that she must walk far to collect water
Positions the audience literally in Claudia's shoes, allowing the audience to emphasise with her

Initial tracking shot symbolic lack of wealth. Follows Claudia as she collects water

Polysemic (multiple meanings) Both bleak and depressing but also hopeful and uplifting

Claudia is working class/ young/ black & female
Not a stereotypical representation of a 16 year old girl
Also non-stereotypical representation of black teenager. Positive!

Identity: African people are represented as cheerful, happy and carefree, yet also stereotypical

Claudia sings, an upbeat, catchy, positive song. As she reaches the village, all the people join in the song, this symbolises community, friendship and cooperation.

Clear binary opposition between the rainy season of England and the colourful, cheerful Africa
Atypical representation of Africa

M/S of Claudia walking directly in to camera, and framed by a dusty, empty landscape. Connotative of bleakness and emptiness

Conventional(what is generally believed) vs subversive(Changing that belief)

Costumes- Colourful, yellows, pinks are associated with happiness and positivity

Audience now desensitised to charity adverts. The Claudia advert presents a resolutely positive ideology to it's target audience.

Colourful, bright colours

Many children

Peaceful

Very isolated

happiness

poor but in a good way