Princess Diana in the news summary of article
The article was talking about how Diana even after her death is still featured lots in the news and discussed why this is the case. The article suggests that Diana features in the news a lot since her death because ‘Britons love royal stories’ according to Dutton in his book the media. Even though her death was a small event, the people involved and the circumstances around the car crash made it newsworthy. The article says that car crashes are not usually deemed newsworthy but the circumstances of the event made it newsworthy. Argues that Diana is featured not necessarily to inform or educate about her life or death but to entertain, this is one of the key components of the BBC’s public service remit. Stories that feature Diana often sell more copies and do better in numbers. Galtung and Rugr devised a list of news values, two of these are consonance, claims a story is predictable, and unexpectedness which claims a story is unpredictable. Both of these values despite their contradiction disprove when applied to stories featuring Diana. People expect to see news stories about Diana but the stories themselves are not predictable so go against consonance. Newspapers use Diana stories when there is nothing else to write about or include her in a story, for example ‘Di’s gym is sold’ the story is not about her but something she used to be associated with when she was alive. Overall the article argues that Diana is used to sell papers because of the British love of royalty and the royal family.
- loaded mag started in 1994 in London
- There was no internet or mobile phones- magazines were something everyone had to pass the time
- There were no interesting magazines for middle and working class men (the lads)- Only GQ which was for upper class men
- Social classes where changing- ‘lads’ were a huge demographic
- Loaded magazine created the ‘lad culture’
- Loaded was one of the first magazines to talk about drugs (the cocoaine rise in the 90s)
- James brown refused to put sexualised/ objectified women on the cover of loaded ( he left in 1997 for GQ)
- Loaded was competing against fhm who were putting skimpy models on every issue front cover
- Loaded started only featuring female models on their front covers- became like all the other lad mags (start of its demise)
- 2004 even more lad mags entered the scene ( eg NUTS)
- In 2015 fhm, nuts and zoo were shut down, loaded stopped being printed and the sun newspaper stopped featuring topless models
- This is because objectified women were available on the internet and social media (revenge porn) so lads mags were not needed anymore they died out
Media magazine conference
Christopher Hogg- from DALI to DALL-E
Hogg was the first speaker of the day and he was discussing how AI has changed the media industry. He used the quote ‘the magic and loss of AI’ this basically means that AI gives us so much but it will also take something away- could this be us? Will AI destroy humanity? it is already taking away so many jobs and it will just keep getting bigger, stronger and more powerful. He then went on discuss the idea of our ludicrous limits- ‘we have to find the limits to play our ludicrous limits’. This refers to boundaries or constraints within which play or games operate. Hogg discussed the idea of the stage being the land of the dead and the audience being the land of the living, writers go from the land of the living to the dead and connect them through writing plays- this could help us to understand AI. He also suggested the idea that Dali wanted to paint and be creative but DALL-E is a slave, it doesn’t have any choice, it is forced to create. ‘True creativity goes into the world and has life’ but AI can’t ever do that it will always be alien and different. He then mentioned Dr Takeo Higuchi who is constantly coming up with new ideas- ‘by brightening your creativity you will never be afraid of AI’. Hogg also discussed the marshal machulans media tetrad- this consists of enhance, cancel, bring back and flip out- this idea says that AI will enhance human ability. He ended his talk with the quote ‘abracadabra, I create as I speak’ and said that we will still become who we want to become despite AI. He then had a student come up and read out a speech and as he spoke AI was listening and creating images based off of his speech.
Allison Philips- the former editor of the mirror
This was a Q&A session and Allison discussed what it was like to work as the editor of the mirror, how newspapers make money, how the news industry will change in the next few years and explained some of her decisions for the eduqas exam boars set text. Philips said that ‘newspapers shape the broader media agenda’. She then went on to speak about the mirror itself and said that it was a left wing tabloid and its target audience are 50+ years old and have a strong sense of working class and labour solidarity. Philips then discussed the impact of the internet on the news industry, the mirror was on of the first papers to go digital and reach a younger audience. She said that there is ‘no loyalty online’ unless you use a subscription model which is more focused and tailored to a specific audience, for example the time and the telegraph both have pay walls. Philips said that now that news is online, ‘people are absorbing content and they don’t know where it is coming from’ this means that they can’t put it into context and they beliefs are subconsciously changing. She said that the key to any successful media is true and complete authenticity. Philips then went on to discuss how newspapers make money, 90% of all digital advertising revenues goes to google or meta so newspapers don’t make their money from advertising. People want to feel that the media understand their struggles and lives. 97% of people who walk into a shop selling papers already know which one they will buy. Most money for news comes from the sales of print. Eventually in society, we will have the educated elite who read and buy news and we will have the uneducated, uninformed who read news online. 90% of all media is owned by a few conglomerates- there used to be more but it has rapidly decreased over time. This means that the big powerful tech groups have the most influence and power- eg) Elon musk- they make “Rupert murdoch look like a little kid in the playground’. ‘We are just pawns in the big games’ of power. Newspapers used to be a form of entertainment not anymore because we are entertained by technology instead so news is dying out. Philips also shared that there is a growing movement of news avoidance where people are actively avoiding news.
Hannah Ewan’s- evolution of fandom
Hannah wrote a book called fangirls- scenes from modern music culture. She studied fangirls and fandoms and discovered that fandom is a hierarchy- at the top is fans with money and support from their parents and there is also those who are ‘the best fans’ who are committed to the artist so much. But fandom is also a community- fans are more interesting than the artists themselves. Hannah spoke about the concept of “idol worship”, fans want to be in the presence of the artist is almost a religious experience to see them. There are 3 main features of fandom that Hannah spoke about: sexuality, mental health( ‘her music saved me’) and people ( when an artist explains a personal experience in a song). Hannah also share the idea of the old circuitry of fandom and the new circuitry of fandom. Artists used to say that fans are like my family but this is not used as much. Fans are no longer putting artists on pedestals so there is less idol worship and more extreme emotions towards artists. There is also the movement of ‘anti-fans’ who are obsessed with artists but in a negative way. Fans are longer family and are instead managers, press, policing artists etc. Fans create these images of artists and the artist will lean into this fantasy and let their fans think anything
Harv Frost- filmmaker
Harv frost was the director of the short film “prelude to ecstasy” for the Last Dinner Party. He did a Q&A discussing the film industry and how music videos are different from the traditional film industry. Frost started off by speaking about speaking about the cultural significance of music videos- in the 80s and 90s there was only a few channel and one was MTV which just constantly played music videos all day. Music videos used to be a big part of new releases for artists but the became less significant. YouTube videos were becoming obsolete but it is starting to get back up. Harv said that “music videos can create cultural moments” so they need to be released at the same time as singles. Music videos can use the concept of ‘world-building’- can link to the star persona of the artist. Songs are tied into the visuals of music videos. Frost suggested that artists are becoming more like characters and less realistic. They then screened the short film which consisted of 3 songs all set in the same fictional world.
David Hesmondhalgh- the cultural industry
Hesmondhalgh was in discussion with Anamik Saha about current media products. They started off by discussing newspapers, they said that the daily mail+ mail online has become the biggest right wing newspaper in the UK. They said that newspapers profit off of generating fear and anxiety in its readers. To link it to Hesmondhalgh’s theory of cultural industries, newspapers are about the culture of the journalist, what goes on in the company, and not just the audience. They then went on to talk about ‘Barbenheimer’ and its cultural significance. They argue that Barbie is a massive commercial hit but it is also a feminist film. Barbie takes existing intellectual property and makes profit off of it- branding repetition of ideas and style, predictability that makes money. To link to Hesmondhalgh’s theory, it is getting away from profit to promote newer and more interesting ideas. They then went on to talk about hip hop and the music industry. They suggested that hip hop challenges the way people believe in cultural industries. Spoke about the concept of cultural imperialism- the most powerful places and people in the world dominate the industry. Hesmondhalgh said that hip hop is the most commercially successful music genre in the world- he said that “there is something democratic about music”. They then went on to discuss the tv shows- Traitors, Beast Games and Squid Games. Each of these shows all have issues of distrust and competitiveness. Hesmondhalgh said that because Mr Beast has come out of YouTube, which is a different digital world, he has to raise the shock level to become profitable so he portrays people as greedy and immoral in order to make as much money as possible. The traitors follows the same idea but does it in a more playful way. Each of these shows exist in a different cultural context so have different meanings
Nida Manzoor- writer of ‘we are lady parts’ and ‘polite society’
Nida did a Q&A session talking about her career in the film industry. She says that ‘comedy is her go to medium’ and she enjoys moving through different tones and exploring how to do that. We then watched a clip from her show ‘we are lady parts’ and she explained how this show was her ultimate dream show to write and create. She put forward the question of “ should artists be more political in their music?” As the show features an all female, Muslim rock band who write their own music. For Nida, comedy is her vehicle of truth it is how she expresses her ideas and thoughts, she “can’t drive any other vehicles”. We then watched a clip from her feature film ‘polite society’ and Nida described it as ‘joyful, king-fu, Bollywood, epic”.
Lil Nas X and Radiohead- background research
Lil nas x (Montero Lamar Hill) rose to fame in 2019 because of his song old town road. Came out as gay in June 2019- the first artist to do so whilst having a number one song. His name is a tribute to the American rapper Nas. In his teenage years, he had an anonymous fan account for American rapper Nicki Minaj because he did not want people to find out he was gay. His biggest hits include ‘industry baby’, ‘montero (call me by your name)’ and ‘old town road’.
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in 1985. They are comprised of 5 members; Thom Yorke, Johnny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien and Philip Selway. They are most well known for their song ‘Creep’ which wad their debut single in 1997. Their songs often feature messages about the state of the world - politically and socially- at the time they are written. In 2016 they released their album ‘a moon shaped pool’ but since then have not released any new music or performed together.
No comments:
Post a Comment