Home learning and independent study

1. Look at the post below and make a point of reading the materials linked there. You might want to draw a few key points out of the article on Representations of Women on Television (this looks at adverts and TV drama / soaps).

2. Watch an episode of Ugly Betty, preferably from series 1 or 2, and make some notes on Betty's Character. End with a reflective response to:
IS 'UGLY' BETTY A STEREOTYPE?
You can work in pairs here but please post your notes individually.

UPDATED Collective Identity - Materials from one neat place

Dear all,
I have gathered a few key posts from previous weeks here, starting with the slides on Uses and Gratifications, then Stuart Hall, the vids on Women and advertising, the link on US TV drama characters, and some of the links from the 'Materials' page. Another way to quickly get all relevant posts is of course to click on the relevant label.
Let me know if there is anything else you want to see here.
PS: You can borrow any of the films we have mentioned in class to watch at home properly (ALiens series, Terminator as well as many others).
Don't forget to watch some of Knocked Up for your next essay.

- Media effects and Uses and gratifications presentations

- Collective Identity - Stuart Hall on Representation and the Media

- Media mag article - Stuart Hall

- Collective Identity - Women in advertising

- Representation / Identity - videos to watch

- The Portrayal of Women on Television - article by Helen Ingham

- US TV Drama - better female roles: With The Big C, Nurse Jackie and Weeds, US TV has given us women who are more than just Mistresses A generation of American leads are getting comedy from cancer, chaotic nursing and drug-dealing. When will the UK catch up? Read the article here

- Presentation on representations of women in magazines

- The Impact of Social Media on Women's Self-Image and Self-Representation

- The Future? The Expression of Female Identity Through New Media

- Scroll down this page to find 2 presentations - one on Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze and one on Feminist Film Theory

- ARTICLE JUST ADDED: Older women unhappy over their portrayal in films, survey shows Sixty-one percent of women aged 50-75 want more focus on their sexual desire, according to UK Film Council poll

How many of you have conducted that survey of women around you by the way? It would be a welcome addition to your arguments!

Timely article for you to read!

Women, gay and black people still shown as stereotypes in film, says study
Older females portrayed as sexless while homosexuals and ethnic minorities also suffer, says extensive survey of opinion

Read article here.

Home Learning Due in 22.3.11

1. Conclusions of your Magazine Investigation.
Please take a look at this PPT to support your research (I am not the author)

Representations - Magazines

View more presentations from hgaldinoshea.

2. Complete the exam practice essay set in the lesson.
“Representations in media texts are often simplistic and reinforce dominant ideologies so that audiences can make sense of them.”
To what extent is this true of the social group you have studied?

Do read the exemplar essays and moderator's comments.

Home Learning for Tuesday 15th March

1. Trace the development of the Bond Girl - Use an early Connery film, then a Moore (not necessarily the one with Grace Jones; look at the silly ones that followed), one with Brosnan and maybe one with Craig to finish. What emerges? What is changing and what remains the same?
Refer to your Gauntlett article (boxed, distributed in class)
2. Look at the emergence and evolution of the strong "action" female character with the Alien and The Terminator series, with Ripley and Sarah Connor respectively.
How did they develop as characters? In what sense can we call them "strong characters"? Do they lose their femininity as the films unfold or simply present a new definition of what it means to be female.
Refer to Berger and Mulvey as a starting point.

Collective Identity - Women - Work due in

Reminder:
- Research task set before half-term - Find out how women feel they are represented and how it affects them (aim to complete by week beginning 14.3.11). Use more than one research method.
- Exam practice question set in last lesson - due in next lesson: To what extent do you think that contemporary representations of a particular social group mirror current social attitudes towards that group? Two media to use for examples: adverts and music videos.

Also have a look at this article - it focuses on TV Drama which we haven't really tackled yet this year in detail.

With The Big C, Nurse Jackie and Weeds, US TV has given us women who are more than just Mistresses
A generation of American leads are getting comedy from cancer, chaotic nursing and drug-dealing. When will the UK catch up?
Read the article here.

Collective Identity - Women - The Bechdel test

We will be looking at and applying the test to films in next lesson. I thought some of you might want to get ahead and see if you can find films that successfully pass the test!


Reference: Nick Lacey's article - Engendering Change (in the pack I have given you)

For more interesting videos from the same source, see this website: www.feministfrequency.com/. It focuses on pop culture and you will find great examples for your essay!

Representations - COUP online magazine

You have got to subscribe (for free) to this great mag. The current issue (issue 7) has a fantastic article about stereotypes, and just check out the Cover! Some real gems in the following article as well about the relationship between PR and the media.

COUP website

Independent Study - Representation of women

Make sure you keep reading, watching and listening to representations of women and start making your notes using the 4 key questions as sub-headings.

Start by reading the materials on this blog and the articles that your peers have found and linked.

You should also put together some examples that you think would make an interesting answer. For example, look into that Tangled film and read reviews. You could contrast it to older Disney films and look at how gender representations have evolved (Mulan also springs to mind).

You could also start selecting some TV or magazines adverts and analyze them

You could choose to focus on soaps and start exploring some key female characters.

Finally, remember to conduct your research into how a female audience responds to these representations and how they might be affected by them.

Debates about representation - Pete Fraser's blog

Re: the Eastenders cot death/kidnap plotline saga, here is what Pete Fraser wrote on his blog about it. He focuses on what it is that infuriated some of the mums from mumsnet, i.e. the representation of grieving mothers on the tele. The relevant clips are embedded inhis post.
Debates about Representation

(Apologies to the girls - it was posted!)

Representation / Identity - videos to watch

Please watch the videos from the Media magazine website which are listed below. NOTE: You will need your log-in details.
David Buckinghan on:
Ideology - Debates about Identity
Representation - A definition including Stereotypes

Representations of women - Slides from lessons

Here is a shortened version; it contains slides which we did not have time to cover but would be useful for you in terms of planning your research and thinking about the impact of media representations on women (i.e. how they might affect their sense of identity). Find the research task towards the end.

Representations of Women (blog version of class slides)

View more presentations from hgaldinoshea.

representations: construction of gender in popular culture

representations construction of gender in popular culture

The Portrayal of Women on Television - article by Helen Ingham

The Portrayal of Women on Television

Media mag article - Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall Introduction and Representation in Kidulthood

Collective Identity - Stuart Hall on Representation and the Media