News Corporation

1. News Corporation response to the growth of new and digital media has led them to releasing a range of new digital media products to benefit the public's viewing. For instance, Sky has introduced 'Sky Go', this allows users to watch the news on their phone anywhere in the world, this really does imply the dramatic changes as before the news was watched on T.V or read on newspapers and really does imply the dramatic changes due to the rise of new and digital media. Another example would be that The Times have introduced a pay wall, this means that audiences would need to pay a certain amount of money a month to access the times news articles. This really does imply the change as many audiences get their news for free from social networking sites or etc. meaning that many institutions don't make enough money making them have to introduce the pay wall to earn more money.

2. The impact that new and digital media has had on News Corporation brands could possibly the new idea of 'citizen journalism, this means that people around the world can send in video or images to news institutions and this has really benefited them. Reason being, is that this has allowed institutions to make a lot more news stories as they would have a lot more stories to report on due to a lot of video's and images being sent in from the public that they could talk about. Another example would be that fewer newspapers are being sold due to the rise of media, reason being is that many of the public can access the news for free as many social networking sites present the news to the public for free. This has led to many people to using the free services for news instead of buying newspapers making it very hard for news institutions to make money.
3. I believe that traditional media institutions are trying to adapt to the challenge posed by new and digital media so that they can come on top and try to earn the amount of money that they was making before the rise of new and digital media. For Instance, making apps to try and support the public with their news implies that they are trying to adapt to the rise of new and digital media as many audiences tend to have phones that support apps therefore having an app would help them gain a lot more audiences as they will be supporting the rise of new and digital media. Another example could be their interaction with social networks, the use of making Twitter and Facebook accounts as made them attract younger audiences as many tend to use them, this means that they would be attracting a lot more audiences meaning they would gain a lot more consumers and implies how they are trying to adapt to the rise of new and digital media.

NDM Summary

22/10/13- Drake NDM
28/11/13- Ian Tomlinson
17/12/13- AVB NDM
09/01/14- New And Digital Media Impact On News
28/01/14- Snapchat: Worried Users Search Hacked Database
28/01/14- Stan Collymore: Twitter must take action for safer social media - because I’m not going anywhere
29/01/14 - Pirate Bay ban lifted in Netherlands as blocking torrent sites ruled ‘ineffective’
29/01/2014 Justin Bieber could be asked to return to Canada
29/01/2014 Pirate Bay ban lifted in Netherlands as blocking torrent sites ruled ‘ineffective’
29/01/2014 UK government plans switch from Microsoft Office to open source
04/02/14- Social Sharing Sends 'Flappy Bird' Developer to Top of the iOS App Store
04/02/14- Murdoch Paywall
05/02/14 - Web advertising: still a small net in a very large pond
05/02/14 - Sky's internet service mistakenly blocks web-critical plugin
06/03/14- News Value
10/03/14- David Cameron NDM
18/03/14- Katie Hopkins NDM

Examiners Report

1) How many of the examiner's points did you manage to cover in your answers?

In my first question, I did good and analysed quite a few of the examiners points in my answer which helped me get a good mark and the report will benefit me improve this mark by one or two.

2) How many examples did you provide in your answers that did not come from classwork?

I believe that I gave a range of examples in the second question, I linked my answer with theories that were suitable and worked well to get me a good enough mark which was very beneficial. 

3) What will you do between now and the exam in June to ensure you have a wide variety of examples to refer to in questions two and three?

To ensure I have a variety of examples and theories to refer to for June, I will read through my blog and look at my new and digital media stories then analyse them into an order that shows which of them relate to the Movie industry, Music and other, this could help me in the final exam as I will have a range of answers for the question that comes up.

New and digital media

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/katie-hopkins-faces-furious-twitter-3254882          From this story you can see that the rise of new and digital media has had a bad effect to celebrities lives as the use of social networks such as twitter as many audiences can be able to speak to celebrities in a foul manor. 

Critical Investigation 2nd draft

Back in the 1980's many people considered hip-hop to be “primarily about DJing (and) Graffiti,—involving black, Latino, and some white youth...”[1] This implies how hip hop brought cultures together during times that it was really hard to do so back in the day without the use of hip hop and really does imply the amount of power hip hop brings to the world to make every race come together peacefully. This is important because these representations seem “starkly at odds with the way hip-hop is currently represented, marketed, and sold in mainstream America”[2] this shows the amount of negativity that is represented in today’s hip hop and really does put a mixed opinion on the genre of music. Mostly meaning over the years many people have tended to change their opinion on this genre of music and think it is mostly linked towards “gun homicide, suicide, and aids among young blacks”[3] and many stereotypes believe that this is putting a huge negative affect on our society as many young adults seem to copy what many of the hip hop artists portray to their audiences. In this investigation I will be expressing my views on how hip hop is represented mainly focussing on the artist J.Cole but also giving a lot more examples in media language on how he challenges the negative stereotypes to represent hip hop in a positive way.

The rise of “Media Technology” [4]has had a huge effect on how Hip-Hop is portrayed to be, from the uses of “Twitter Beef”[5] to explicit and violent videos being put online, to many Hip-Hop artists’ social life; as well as concerts. For instance, The Game was recently featured to be one of the Hip-Hop artists to be seen online for beating up other Hip-Hop artist 40 Glocc[6]  as seen in the video The Game is seen to be rapidly punching the rapper 40 Glocc. This automatically will bring the negative stereotype of Hip-Hop as it may be seen that both artists are promoting violence by recording such violent events in their life and sharing them with the public. Also as the videos were broadcasted live, this shows the ‘negative effect that media technology has in relation to hip hop’[7] as more viewers have the chance to witness the types of behaviours hip hop artists take out.

 Many people consider hip hop videos to be very disturbing and portray a lot of negativity towards audiences; however J.Cole represents himself in videos to be a role model type and usually sends a good message to his audiences compared to very negative artists such as ‘Chief Keef’[8].  The main comparison with Chief Keef and J.Cole would be easily based on the different types of videos they do. The “Mise En Scene” [9]used in most of Chief Keef’s videos includes props such as cannabis and other harmful drugs. Also the continuous costume of baggy jeans and no shirt may attribute a negative look on Chief Keef as this may make him look intimidating; this therefore may provoke audiences to be scared of his image. This relates to the theory of the ‘bobo doll affect’[10]  for example’ young children copying exactly what he does in relation to drugs and the way he dresses, this would make him a bad role model as he is influencing negative and disobedient behaviour.

However J. Cole represents a more positive side of hip hop within his music videos. Majority of his videos are lesson learning and show a story of what he has been through and overcome. His videos tend to show audiences you have to go through some powerful wars to pre-vale. His videos would most likely be linked to Todorov's theory of ‘equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium’[11]. The video “lost ones” would be an example of this as the video starts off with a female telling him that she is pregnant, resulting in confrontation and negative aura as he decides he would like her to abort the child. However, by the end of the video they both decide it’s for the best to keep the child as a new life will benefit both of them and happiness of a birth is more important than anything else. This theory and video therefore affects the audience as it may make them f eel very motivated on doing the right things in life. This video also allows audiences to see he can be seen as a wise man and also a positive role model towards his fans, as well as showing the amount of positivity Cole brings from his videos and how much he really does the challenge the negative stereotypes of hip hop.

J.Cole represents himself to be a very positive figure in the hip-hop industry from the uses of inspirational storytelling within his videos. He focusses much more on a positive mise en scene  and defeats the stereotypes of a hip-hop video as instead of 'strippers and drugs' he delivers 'pain and emotion' which is very unique as this pushes back the stereotypes of the hip-hop genre as Cole doesn't represent himself to be negative in his videos but a role model figure instead. Most people stereotype Hip-Hop to be negative, promote violence and very explicit images. This is surely a bad look to Hip-Hop as many people portray the genre to be disrespectful making it really hard for them to break through and prove that there is a positive side to Hip-Hop.  Although there are many positive hip hop idols, the new generation within hip hop are making it much more difficult for the positive artists to shine. This could be from simple factors such as their ‘tag name’ (rappers name) or their song titles. For example rappers such as ‘Blood Money’ or ‘Gunplay’ automatically allow audiences to judge their character based on their names. Some hip hop songs such as ‘Who shot ya’, ‘Bitches love me’ or ‘Trap house’ will also represent a negative view upon what hip hop brings to the table. These song titles alone connote disregard to women, questions towards murder and houses full of drugs. 

These type of artists and songs therefore push away and block those artists that rap about positive things and real life happy situations. Artists with their own government names may not get as much recognition and praise, for example ‘Kanye West’, ‘Kendrick Lamar’ ‘Kevin McCall’ and Jermaine Cole.

Lyrics from Kanye West such as ‘Nothings ever promised tomorrow or today’ or ‘Hey Mama, I want to scream so loud for you, cause I’m so proud of you’; show the ambition and heart felt experiences he has been through. He also brings wisdom and good emotion to the music and this is a real positive of rap music as this is how rap music originally started. “Hip Hop and its most popular form, rap, changed from the 1970s to the 1990s”[12]. Sugar Hill Gang were one of the first males to record and produce a rap single called ‘rappers delight’. The video focussed on 3 black males all taking part in rap activities whilst young ‘hippie’ [13] type of individuals, mostly white watched on enjoying the rapping taking place. This also gave the chance for viewers to see different ethnicities mix together and enjoy rap music.

When linked to theories I believe that gender and ethnicity has a huge role to play when linked to hip hop, reason being is that there are not a lot of powerful female rappers in Hip-Hop in society today. Rap music is mostly dominated by males whilst females are usually represented by some male rappers to be tools and decorations towards male rappers. The men within rap music and rap videos are usually stereotyped to be powerful and dominant whilst females are represented to be explicit in terms of wearing hardly any clothes and usually and under control by the men. This is done by making woman look like toys and just used for entertainment in videos. An example would be the current video ‘Bitches love me’. A certain part in the video shows the male rapper (Lil Wayne) to be on a bed and has at least eight women in bikinis surrounding him. This connotes the dominance and power the male has as his wealth allows him access to this amount of women. “Some people say that it’s just boys being boys, but I think it has a lot to do with boys figuring out early that girls are there for us to sexually objectify or to be our sexual playthings.” [14] This shows the amount of negativity that hip hop brings on itself from the uses of representing females as if their objects. The users and gratification means an audience that wants entertainment and escapism; as they want to be satisfied and watch something good but also watch something that has something to do with their lifestyle they are seeking.

 Most people in the world want to be rich and famous. The use of J.Cole motivating lyrics would most likely influence audiences to aim for success and do something with their life instead of wasting time and this is very positive for hip hop as this represents the genre to motivate audiences and make them do something with their lives. "Popular songs of today have more power than ever before. They dictate social circles, fashion trends, the clubs you go to (preference of DJ playlists), new memes, slang... the list goes on. And let’s not forget – according to popular conspiracies – mainstream music is also responsible for ‘brainwashing’ the delicate minds of the prepubescent population." [15] This is very effective as this really does challenge the negative stereotypes of hip hop promoting negativity as artists like J.Cole motivate audiences in a positive way. It also allows a positive reflection upon black males. “Black youths have turned to hip hop as a means to define themselves”[16]. Stereotypes and self-fulfilling prophecies amongst black males may find it difficult for them to have a chance to shine and have their say so they turn to rap in order to get a chance to have the voices spoken. Other critics see it as a door for young white people to try to see and understand black culture[17]”. The psychographics would most likely be linked to aspirers and mainstream people as they seem to follow the most popular trend but also because they are mostly motivated to do well and earn good money to live a good life and this would be very beneficial to them and suit their taste that’s why they would most likely be hip hops physcographics. There are many different types of audiences that may like rap music; this will be due to different generations of rap music. Some audiences may enjoy the ‘old school’ type of rap whilst other audiences may prefer the new generation of rap music. The new generation of rap may be teenagers and young adults, “It was reported that more people purchase hip-hop CDs than any other genre of music in any time in history”[18] and also “though the music and culture are frequently associated with urban America and with youth of colour, more than 70% of hip-hop CD's are purchased by white middle class teens”[19] “However people in the CDE classes would be the typical working class as they may seem to relate to Hip-Hop as it helps guide them and motivate them to do something with their life. When analysing 'Chief Keef-I Don't Like' there are many negative sources that really imply the negative stereotyping of hip-hop. For instance, Chief Keef is shown to be holding a gun in a threatening way, the “iconography” [20]of the gun could portray to audiences viewing the video that holding up a gun to someone he dislikes is ‘okay’, “So intense that it beckons you to act violent”[21] this therefore puts a huge effect on hip-hop as this implies to audiences that hip hop tracks and videos such as these imply the negative stereotypes towards the genre. Also the Mise En Scene of props within the video such as a ‘ghetto’ type of area where drugs and ‘beat down’ areas are acceptable make him look intimidating and provokes many audiences to be scared of him. The different use of camera shots within the video also gives the audience a chance to reflect on the rappers actions. There are extreme close ups in the video of him smoking cannabis as well as showing how intoxicated he is really does imply the negativity he brings to hip hop in this current generation of rap music. The lyrics within the song itself such as 'we smoke dope all day all night’; this shows all he focusses on life is the activity of smoking cannabis. “Some of the greatest painters, writers, poets, and social critics in history have admittedly used alcohol, marijuana, absinthe” [22]this is very effective as this implies that many hip hop artists shouldn’t be judged from taking drugs as many iconic people in the world do drugs but don’t get judge like hip hop artists and really does imply how the media criticises hip hop artists unfairly also this is dumbing down the audience as the use of lyrics talking about ‘drugs, sex and violence’[23] puts a huge effect on their audience and really does show the negative stereotyping on hip hop as Chief Keef seems to be a very violent and frightening role model. Also the use of ‘low-key lighting’[24] in the video seems to be mostly dark; this can portray the darkness behind his lifestyle. This could scare audiences as they may feel he is living a threatening and unfortunate life. Also many times we see that the camera seems to go blurry at times, this could possibly imply the vision of Chief Keef as the use of him being very intoxicated, the camera shot is trying to represent his vision after smoking that amount of cannabis, “As Blacks moved out of
the inner city, drugs such as heroin and crack moved in. The introduction of hiphop
also marked the beginning of the Reagan/Bush era that governed for the next
decade and into the 1990s”.[25]

When analysing 'J.Cole-Sidelines’ there are many positive sources that challenge the negative stereotypes of hip hop, for example, the use of J.Cole showing the amount of famous city's that he is visiting to tour really does put a positive on Cole’s lifestyle by showing off the success he is trying to gain. The amount of cities shown can also imply to audiences that Cole is recognized around the world for being a very good rapper and Cole is welcomed in many famous places in the world to perform and even places that main music audience isn't even rap such as Dubai shown in the clip. Also the way J.Cole is dressed is very casual and efficient, from the uses of just wearing simple straight jeans and a hoodie really does challenge the negative stereotyping of hip hop, as many people would think that a rapper would stereotypically wear ‘baggy jeans and no shirt with tattoos’[26] all over their body, however, Cole challenging these stereotypes by wearing very casual clothes could be seen as a positive to a wider range of audiences. The use of camera shots are very affective within this video, for instance, the long shot of Cole rapping outside of a church is very positive as this implies to audiences that Cole is very religious but also very different to rappers such as Chief Keef as he doesn't have any drugs or violence throughout most of his videos but shows how holy he is which isn’t usually linked with a rap video. There are also ‘long shots’[27] of fans screaming his name but a key point would be the amount of mix cultured fans within the video. This would show that Cole’s music is very affective as it shows that his music is very much appreciated and that he can bring everyone in the ‘world to come together from different cultural background’[28] to hear his own music really does put a positive onto hip hop as he is connecting everyone in the world together on the bases of hip hop music.

In conclusion I think that hip hop stereotypes can be challenged in many ways from the uses of artists such as J.Cole as they provide their audiences with motivating and wise lyrics and videos to promote their music in a good way, however artists such as Chief Keef imply the amount of negativity that stereotypes brings to the genre.

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[1] Hip-hopsploitation: Representing 1980s Hip-hop in Wild Style and Beat Street

[2] Hip-hopsploitation: Representing 1980s Hip-hop in Wild Style and Beat Street

[3] Bakari Kitwana

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media&Technology

[5] http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iv-drip/jeremy-clarkson-vs-piers-morgan-the-twitter-beef-you-always-wanted-to-see-8907394.html

[6] THE GAME VS. 40 GLOCC www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL_xU6QLYxM

 

[7] http://udini.proquest.com/view/the-relationship-between-pqid:2414555231/

[8] www.chiefkeef.com/

[9] Mise En Scene Definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_sc%C3%A8ne

[10] Bobo Doll Theory Definition: http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html

[11] Disequilibrium Foundations of Equilibrium Economics

 By Franklin M. Fisher

[12] Media Messages: What Film, Television, and Popular Music Teach Us about Race 
Linda Holtzman HL p244-p245

[13] Hippie Definition from Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hippie

[14] PBS org: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/hiphop/gender.htm

[15] Media Magazine 2011

[16] http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters_1400/1746_ch1.pdf

[17] Media Messages: What Film, Television, and Popular Music Teach Us about Race 

 Linda Holtzman P245-P246

[18] Media/cultural Studies: Critical Approaches Peter Lang P153-P154 HL

[19] Media/cultural Studies: Critical Approaches Peter Lang P153-P154 HL

[20] Iconography Definition: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/iconography

[21] Ibid

[22] The State of Hip Hop: http://www.thestateofhiphop.com/article-04-drugs-and-hip-hop.html

[23] Sex, Drugs, and Violence in the Jewish Tradition: Moral Perspectives

 By Daniel B. Kohn

[24] http://www.ephotozine.com/article/high-key-and-low-key-lighting-tutorial-13881

[25]  American Behavioral Scientist             P85-P86 Laura Lawrie

[26] http://www.gangstagroup.com/

[27] http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html

[28] http://www.skf.com/group/career/our-people/salahi-basaran.html

Question 2

The two trailers use the narrative technique of enigma to encourage the target audience to watch the films is from the use of Todorov theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium to identify with audiences what the film is about and what it will include. For instance, at the start of Twilight they focus on what is going to be the exact plot in the film (Equilibrium). While in the middle of the trailer they show the fight scenes and important scenes in the film (Disequilibrium) and toward the end of the trailer they show what is going to happen towards the end of the film making audiences more eager to watch the film as the use of important snippets through Todorovs theory makes audiences understand the story and make them more eager to want to watch it.

new digital media

http://www.theguardian.com/media/shortcuts/2014/mar/10/david-cameron-facebook-price-friends

This clearly shows how the rise of new and digital media has a lack of privacy, reason being is that many people realized the huge increase to likes on David Camerons facebook and this really does imply how public people's lives are now due to the rise of new and digital media.

New digital media

http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/4933119?utm_hp_ref=uk                                       This really does show how the rise of media technology can have an affect on everyone as the use of them tweeting back in that manor made loads of people retweeting it making them more recognized in the world as they will getting retweeted a lot 

News Value

Immediacy: 

new and digital media today the ability to report news instantly has been catered for, new advances are being made weekly by social media company's to keep up with advances in technology. the release of 4G networking allows for faster transfers of data through cellular networks which has allowed YouTube to implicated a live stream facility in some parts of america, so normal citizens can become the news reporter themselves, providing a live feed to the internet.

Frequency:

new technology is increasing in a daily basis to the extent when keeping up with user generated content has become difficult

Predictability: 

 news reports that rely solely on social network footage are the only source of footage because news crews were unable to predict the event before hand and when it comes to news, corporations understand that footage of the event is key, no line is usually interested in the aftermath

Surprise: 

unexpected events are usually covered by the public because these cant be predicted and no previous notice has been provided to make news crews aware

Continuity:

Many pieces of footage on youtube created my normal members of the public are never listed as news untill news company's see them as relevant to a story this is key for company as reporting old news would be bad 

Negativity: 

It is sometimes taken well in society to hear another country is doing poorly, this aids others lift there own moral, for example the crisis is syria caused some in people in america to feel patriotic and this helped lift moral

Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death

The news is balanced  between positive and negative this balances news available to the public, different news channels take diffrent approaches to this, some leave viewers negative and other leave them positive 

Essay Evaluation

Overall, I think that include a useful amount of media terminology, I also expressed my points in a very punctual way for audiences to understand the ideas i'm trying to get across and make it easier for them to understand. Furthermore, I also included theories and explained how they are linked to my investigation. However, I don't think my quality of work was at a high, reason being is that i didn't have enough theories and media terminology to get a strong level 4. Adding in this all into account, I think that my level would be 2, the reason for this is that i didn't have enough research and information to get my points across in a detailed way.

WWW EBI

WWW: Good use of theory and use more then one, demonstration of autonomy, research, functional source list (contextual sources) 

EBI: Contextualize quotations, check for small spelling, grammar mistakes, bit more evidence for evaluative statement.