I have researched my topic in media magazines the media books in the lrc and found many useful articles and pages. to make the most of these i printed/photocopied them and highlighed key points for future reference. I watched 'The wind that shakes the barley' following my research on ken loach and found it to be a useful example of a low key film which makes a political point. i still need to watch some hollywood blockbusters with my research topic in mind. I need to start working on a questionaire and on audience research in general. focus on audience reaction to characters, look into the popularity and idolization of the american dream, hollywood, look at different reactions to film, does intelligence affect it, therefore is there class difference. who watches films like 'the wind that shakes the barley'? older audiences are important as they are in full maturity and may show a clearer view, undistorted by youth and its goal to become adult.

Book References

James D. Torr, Violence in the Media, 2001, USA, Greenhaven Press.

Louise I. Gerdes, Media Violence: Opposing Viewpoints, 2004, USA, Greenhaven Press.

C. Kay Weaver & Cynthia Carter, Critical Readings: Violence & The Media, 2006, USA.

For those about to rock. I salute you!

my research will explore how is capitalist ideology of success/failure presented in film, in particular hollywood film. Also i will compare how the presentation of these political views in mainstream hollywood features matches up to more independant features with a smaller audience range. does the production of these movies centred around individual persuits affect the everymans political common sense and help shape a capitalist society.

ken loach - land and freedom, the wind that shakes the barley
trainspotting
superhero films
gangsta films - material possesions and individual power over others

My citical reasearch title

'How women are represented in American TV dramas partially Desperate housewives in comparison to British TV dramas such as footballers wives and how it is diverse with the class in British culture with such programmes as fat friends, coronation street and how audiences are perceived by the reflection on women?'

Re-do of question (2nd blog)

How does real crime relate to stories covered in the news?

I will use newspapers for this task, and possibly use only local ones...

Question

How are the teenagers of today portrayed in the media through the news and what impact does this have on specific people's views?

My idea set in stone

I've decided to focus on my 2nd Research option.

Topic: Children & The Media
Area Of Investigation: Violence in kids programming, specifically in an animated capacity and whether or not this has any effect, whether it be negative or positive on children, of which is highly publicised.

I've chosen this one over the first option of education in children's media as, after doing a fair amount of secondary research I discovered there wasn't all that much to look at nor to draw many conclusions from.

The question for my topic is:
In what way does TV violence, in a fictional animated capacity, affect the youth of today? If at all?

Critical Research Question

World Cinema: -

Q. How has Hollywood 'dominated' the cinematic movie goers scene in the UK over the last 20 years?

Critical Research Question

In my previous post, entitled "Selecting a research area", I mentioned two questions I am considering. I have chosen "topic 1".

My question is:

How are women represented in films specifically aimed at the female (aged 16-25) audience and what is the the target audience's reaction to these representations?


The types of films I am talking about are "Chick flicks" and possibly romance/comedy.

my choice in more depth/ key words

i have decided to at this stage look into the idea of world cinema remakes in Hollywood in order to research this i have decided to perhaps look at specific films and directors and compare them together for example the ring and grudge films as both of these films were made in japan and than remade in Hollywood by the original director which could be interesting to look at in terms of the movies values and weather the director overcame to Hollywood pressures and changed the movies intention and or values/ideology/style which may be unique to the films original country which it was made in .

in order to make it easier for my investigation i have devised i question which will help me explore my topic

why are Hollywood remakes of world cinema features successful ?

Critical Research Preference

I would like to look into World Cinema as my choice for this unit. As my second choice, i have been thinking about it and would like to have Sport and the media as a backup choice, rather than Politics in the media.

media magazine login

i thought i would be nice just incase people forget the login to it

mediamagazine6

w86ee9

???Tv drama

Critical Research
TV DRAMA
How women are represented in American TV dramas compared to British.
Questionnaires to women on how they feet women are interpreted in Dramas in as well as class, relationships, social issues, political, and family Desperate Housewives is the perfect study for American.

Can I have feed back on any ideas for a British TV drama to compare it to?

selecting research

for my first topic one of my main ideas is world cinema. i have 2 main i deas i would like to explore under this topic, the first is the representaion of western culture in east asian cinema. one of the main foucs films i was looking at that has an intersting viwe of western culture is the film battle royale and its sequal battle royale 2. the message in this film is very strong and has a very anti amreican theme to some extent, althought one of the main draw backs in following this topic would be the fact thati have yet to find anyother east asian film which follows a simlar theme or has a particualr strog represention of western culture.

my second idea that iwould like to explore under the topic of world cinema is the hollywood remake of world cinema features and explore how the origonal films values and thems/styleistic integroty of the film appeals to a western audience and how they are adapted to fit for a wetern audience. i would alos like to look at directors who started off making world cinema films and then went on to make a movie in hollywood and see how the films themselfs compare to eachother. i do like this idea but i feel i need to look into the topic at a greater depth before i can figure out which avenue i wish to persue

another topic i have had i few ideas for is children and the media one of the main ideas i wish to explore under this topic is that of how the media influences child crime spesifically looking at high school masscres such as colmbine and how the media balmed the killers obsession with marlin manson and viloent viedo games. think this topic is very intersting but there its a bit ambiguous as to weather this could be classified as children and the media or media and the crime depending on the ages of the murders/and other reported incidents.

Selecting a Research Area

1) Topic: Women and Film

Area of investigation: Looking at how women are represented in 'Chick Flicks' and the target audience’s reaction to these films.

Limits and range of research: I could do surveys of the target audience to find out their reactions to these films. I could ask them about a particular set of Chick flicks but that would limit my research to only the people who have watched those ones. I could also look at several of the films myself/ read Internet research about them/ books.


2) Topic: Women and Film

Area of investigation: Looking at how Chick Flicks are specifically marketed for women, for example they market them in women's magazines.

Limits and range of research: Again I could do surveys for this one and I could also look at previous/existing adverts for chicks flicks. This seems like it would quite a large area to research.


The strengths of my first idea is that it would be very doable and there are plenty of films in that area I can look at. The same goes for my second idea really. Perhaps the weakness would be getting the research from the audience.

I think I prefer the first idea more, but I'm still not entirely sure.

politics and the media
research into the way the news is presented to the people. is it bias and does this affectpolitical views and the way they lead their lives, isthere truly a negative correlation between class and media susceptability.
needs narrowing down. Who is most suscesptible to moral panics caused by the news, are there actually correlations between reported cases and number of cases. if so for what reason are these moral panics established

advertising and the media.
how is advertising used to target its audience. do tv adverts appeal to their target audience or not. Are advertising campaigns correct in the social classifications they allocate to specific programme audiences.

Critical Research - Selecting Research Area

World Cinema: - Research and compare the the facts and figures of the UK and/or US box offices between mainstream and independent films. I can only look at the groups of people who share an inerest for viewing both mainstream and independent films.

Advantages: -

• I can gather facts and figures from corresponding cinema's (eg. Cineworld) for the gross revenue of certain films for my primary research.
• I can also utilise online reseources as a form of secondary research.

Disadavantages: -

• It only allows me to look at the gross revenue from films in the UK and/or US box offices.

Politics and the Media: -Look into how the portrayal of famous political figures can influence the public opinion. I can only look at parties/groups of people who have an interest in political affairs and their portrayal in the media.

Advantages: -

• I can compile surveys and questionnaire for people who have seen a political drama/biopic (Frost/Nixon, W. etc).

Disadvantages: -

• As not everybody is interested in Politics or have seen such political films as W. it may be difficult to gather information/public opinion via primary research (Use of questionnaires and/or surveys).

I prefer to look into World Cinema as my Critical reserch area. I wish to look at my initial idea or any other idea within the topic area I have along the way, whilst i have more time to think about. it.

Selecting Research Area

Research 1
Topic: Children & The Media
Area Of Investigation: Education in Children's programming, focusing on the last 20 years and how prevalent this programming in today's society and with what impact.
Limits & Range of research: In this research I'd have the chance to talk to a wide group, ideally 2 seperate focus groups, one being a group of around 8-11 year olds and the second being a group of 12-15 year thereby allowing me to get 2 perspectives and also how attitudes towards this type of programming change with maturity. I'd also be able to get insight from people who experience the effects that these programmes have on kids such as teachers and parents. In terms of limitations, there could be the possibility that I won't be able to organise focus groups to work with. However, due to some personal contacts I can't see this being a problem.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Strengths of this research would include being able to get first hand perspective on what kids actually believe they're learning and wether or not they actually think they're learning from it. Others could be to get actual examples from people such as teachers as how educational programming helps and also ideas from people of that status, what they think of the current climate in terms of educational programming. Weaknesses would definitely be the quality of the answers, certainly from the younger focus group. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, getting the interviews and focus groups together could pose a challenge.

Research 2
Topic: Children & The Media
Area Of Investigation: Violence in kids programming, specifically in an animated capacity and whether or not this has any effect, whether it be negative or positive on children, of which is highly publicised.
Limits & Range of Research: As with the previous research, I'd have the chance to talk to a wide group, again ideally 2 seperate focus groups, one being a group of around 8-11 year olds and the second being a group of 12-15 year thereby allowing me to get 2 perspectives and also how attitudes towards this type of programming are whether it actually is gettting worse or awareness is being raised. I'd also be able to get insight from people who experience the effects that these programmes have on kids such as teachers and parents and how they think the media is blowing things out of proportion or how we as the public don't realise just how bad it is. As with the previous research, the focus groups could pose a challenge to get together.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Strengths of this would be me being able to show kids some examples of what I'm talking about and be able to analyse their reactions instead of explaining to them what I mean. (To be continued...)

Personal preference is really mixed at the minute. I'd ideally like to splice the two together in some way. How is a different question......

intial idea

Desparate Housewives - discussion on represention on women in tv dramas in america compared to britsh tv drama.
dicuss- class, relationships, social issuses plenty different ones as there is many issues with the different housewives.
corronation st compare lol???

Initial ideas

Crime and media how crimes are represented in the media and how they have an effect on people.

Initial Ideas

My initial idea is to focus on and compare the figures from the UK and/or US box offices gross revenue.

I also wish to look at the portrayal of famous political figures and how audience perspective can be influenced by them.

my first ideas

my two initial ideas are , firstly hollywood re makes of world cinema films and how this effects the narrtive and themes of the original movie works in the remaake and appeal to a weatern audience

my second idea is the representaion of wester culture in esat asian cinema eg. battle royale 1 and 2

My two initial ideas are:

Education in children's programming and how these has changed in the last 20 years and whether it's lost it's impact over the years.

How freer TV viewing and recent franchises are contributing to the oversexualisation of younger children and what effect this is having.

With both I'll need points of view from teachers, parents, peers and the kids themselves.

Initial Idea

Crime and the Media
How youths are portrayed in crime television series. For example:- The Bill, Heartbeat, A Touch of Frost.

Focussing on on areas such as gun and knife crime, gang culture.

Intial Ideas: Women and Film

My idea is to research into films aimed specifically at women such as 'Chick Flicks' and how women are represented. I'm going to research audience reactions to these films, I could do that through surveys or interviews.

I was also thinking about looking into how these films are advertised through women's magazines and before 'Chick Flick' films for example.

initial idea

Crime and the Media- Presentation of crime in local newspapers or TV News and choice of crime shown.

usefullness-

• I can talk to people from the local newspapers to ask them about thier jobs.
  

• I can talk to local people in general about what they think of the news in relation to crime.