'Faulty Towers' and 'The Bash Street Kids' essay

Both texts serve the purpose of entertaining its audience offering escapism. Basil Faulty promotes his hegemonic ideoligies of the Germans reflecting a sub-division of British society in order to create humour, his charcter and the show in general plays on sterotypes in order to promote prejudices but with a subtle response. One interpretation of text 1 is that it makes a mockery out of the war and disrepects those that fought, however it's a piece of satire mocking the higher authorities underlining the naievty of war but adding comic elements in order to release audiences tension. '

The Bash Street kids' plays on typical comic book conventions of male friends seduced by a female but they play games with her. The girl conforms to the theory of Laura Mulvey as she is a passive female sub-ordinate to the male however the 'kids...' torment rather than seduce the girl indicating that she does not have qualities of to-be-looked-at-ness. The comic strip although targted at young children raises issues about the hegemonic ideologies towards gender children are being presented to in media. Increasingly in contemporary society women are being viewed equally to males however in this instance the males overrule the female reflecting a division in gender.

Text 1 offers alternative interpretations towards the representation of ethnic minorities in the media. In the short extract a black character is represented and he plays the role of 'Doctor'. In this way text 1 reflects the push for equality in society in the late 70s/early 80s and is in favour of offering audiences more than the traditional white charatcer. In this way text 1 can be considered socially respondent to the times as the civil rights movement was high during the time of the series and the BBC serves the purpose of being a public broadcaster and representing all cultures of society. On the contrary, 'Bash...' represent the tradtional white, male friends. Similar to the representation of women it is ironic that no ethinc minority is represented because we increasingly live in a society of social equality across all spectrums.

Virgin Media in Big Brother talks

Stephen Brook

Thursday March 15, 2007

Virgin Media is in secret talks with Channel 4 to sponsor Big Brother, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

If the two companies reach a deal, Virgin Media could gain exclusive access to video-on-demand content, giving it an advantage in its battle with BSkyB for subscribers.

The negotiations come after Carphone Warehouse dropped its sponsorship - said to be worth £3m annually - earlier this month after Celebrity Big Brother became engulfed in an international storm over alleged racist bullying.

The retailer abruptly pulled its sponsorship idents midway through the programme's run in an unprecendented move in January after contestant Shilpa Shetty endured taunts from other contestants including Jade Goody. At the time Channel 4 denied racist incidents had occurred.

Virgin Media is locked in a fractious battle with BSkyB after Sky removed its basic channels from Virgin in a row over carriage payments.

The Big Brother sponsorship package includes branding and advertising opportunities across TV, video-on-demand, online, radio and mobile.

If the deal goes ahead Virgin could also gain exclusive content from the Big Brother house for its mobile phone customers, boosting its "four-play" offering of cable TV, broadband, mobile phone and telephone landline.

"Channel 4 is currently in talks with a number of high profile brands regarding sponsorship of the eighth series of Big Brother," said a Channel 4 spokeswoman earlier this month after Carphone Warehouse dropped its sponsorship.

"The show remains the original and most talked about reality television show and its ability to reach young people in large numbers is unique and one of extreme value to brands wishing to target this valuable audience."

SuMmArY

The article disusses the sponsorship of channel 4's reality TV show Big Brother. It indicates that Virgin Media has been strongly linked with sponsorship of the show following Carphone Warhouse dropping its sponsorship following the race debate in the Celebrity BB series involving Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty. It also highlights hwo if Virgin acquire the sponsorship they'll be able to compete with BSky B following their rivalry over recent months.

My OpInIoN

In my opinion, this article reinforces the growing phenomomen that it reality TV. Virgin media is a huge corporation competiting with BSkyB and they view a potential sponsorship of BB as a huge acquisition as they'll be able to control content for their mobile phone uses, cable TV and broadband. BB has become a huge show pulling in audiences of 5 million plus and became a centre of debate in the Celebrity series and if Virgin acquire sponsorship it is possible that they'll be able to compete with BSkyB and win competitors. However, its important to realise that Virgin Media will have to do more than just sponsor BB to compete realistically and constantly with Sky

Guardian ploughs cash into websites

Jemima Kiss

Thursday March 8, 2007

The Guardian will invest £15m in its websites over the next 18 months as it aims to update its digital services for the web 2.0 era with features including video.

The Guardian Media Group chief executive, Carolyn McCall, revealed the planned digital investment as she told the Online Publishers Association conference today that the organisation had to adapt and change.

She said the Guardian is no longer competing just with national newspapers but with broadcasters, search companies and web publishers.

"What we've done so far is our own version of web 1.0, but we want to continue to web 2.0 and what comes after that," Ms McCall added. "We need to be agile and ready to change."

Ms McCall said that GMG's 2007 digital revenues would increase by 50% this year, the fourth consecutive year that those revenues had increased.

However, she cautioned that the Guardian Unlimited website was not likely to report a profit next year as it begins a period of increased investment.

SuMmArY

The article highlights how the Guardian plans to increase its spending over the next couple of years to £15 million on its online servies. It also explains that this is because of the rise of internet servies and how the Guardian is no longer competitiong solely with national newspapers but broadcasters, search companies and web publishers

My OpInIoN

In My opinion this article highlights the ever-growing technoligal society that we now live in and how the tradtional 'buying and reading a newspapers' is a thing of the past. Today, the internet has become such a powerful tool for accessing news from all over the world and the Guardian investing £15million in its websites highlights this. I also find in extremely interesting how the Guardian no longer regards other newpapers as its competitors but broadcasters, and web publishers. I feel potentially in 15-20 years or even less we risk losing the traditional newspaper and the internet could take over people's lives increases the ill-literacy in society and lack of kids reading and studying at traditonal, grassroots 'reading and writing'.

EsSaY

Using the comparison of these two texts as your starting point, explore the media issues and debates which they raise

In your answer you will need to address:

Key concepts
Contextual factors
Media theory

Traditionally, rap music focused on a message promoting Black empowerment in society however in contemporary media, rap music is an ever-growing genre centred on money, cars, drink, sex and women. Gill Scott Heron’s ‘The revolution will not be televised’ from 1972 highlights the lack of black representation in the media and fights for equal rights. Sarah Jones feat. DJ Vadim, ‘Your revolution’ from 1998 fights for women’s rights and launches an attack on males and female representations as objects of the male gaze. Both artists use a direct style to shock and attract the attention of an audience

Heron’s ‘The revolution will not be televised’ indicates the lack of Black representation in the media in the 1970s. Whereas, Sarah Jones’s ‘Your Revolution’ identifies black representation in the media is evident however portray negative images especially women whom are degraded and degrade themselves creating a stereotyped image of black people in modern society. Heron highlights how the media was controlled by the white upper/middle class who imposed their hegemony on a passive audience, he argues effects theory and the hypodermic needle model, and how audiences are being presented with the wrong stereotypes and being brainwashed with no alternative viewpoints. Heron argues and challenges the theories and his song can be considered as a Black power version of Marxism, challenging the establishment whom give propaganda against black people, the Frankfurt school.

During the revolution ‘there will be no more pictures of you and Willie May pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run’, no more images of black people as animals and savage. Stuart Hall identified three ways in which black people have been represented in the media: as the victim, the entertainer or the savage and he indicated how racist ideologies where a result of colonialism which Heron alludes to and it's due to this that the white males hold a Marxist/capitalist view of society and discriminate against blacks. Heron tells the audience that it’s the anxieties of advertising that under-represent black people and says ‘The revolution will not go better with Coke’ and launches an attack, ‘the revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal’, a parody of advertising keeping one in control, the song links to Michael Moore’s ‘Bowling For Columbine’ and his portrayal of TV show ‘Cops’ where all suspects where Black, middle aged men. By the end of the song Heron offers hope and rallies for support, ‘The revolution will put you in the driving seat’, you can make the difference and by the end of the song he says ‘the revolution will be live’, suggesting it's time to start something new and challenge the Marxist, capitalist hegemony of white society and inject equal representation.

Sarah Jones feat DJ Vadim ‘Your Revolution’ from 1998 offers a more bitter tone, it’s a post-modern text offering an alternative voice, challenging black culture and fighting for a female revolution where women don’t need to use sex appeal in order to get somewhere. She makes direct reference to Gill Scott Heron highlighting how his song from 1972 had a direct impact on her influencing black culture as he had hoped, and she inevitably would be looking for the same response

Sarah Jones throughout the song is critiquing black media as they’re not representing themselves in the right way, she says ‘the revolution will not happen between these thighs’, how she will not sell herself in order to gain a few riches. It is this attitude that degrades women and portrays negative stereotypes of black culture in the media and society.

The text is a pastiche as it takes elements of other songs and mocks them. For example, she makes reference to LL Cool J ‘doing it and doing and doing it well’, in this way Jones is getting a powerful message across and she directly attacks icons of the rap genre who are typically associated with materialism, ‘money’, ‘cars’ and ‘bitches’. Furthermore, Jones challenges the misogynistic/patriarchal views of males whom fetishise women body parts. A key theorist whom would support Jones’s message is Laura Mulvey as women in rap are used as objects of the male gaze and desires.

To conclude, both texts raise topical issues about society and how the media in society is run and portrays different cultures. Gill Scott Heron challenges the hegemony of white society calling for black culture to unite and offer positive and equal representation. Sarah Jones launches an attack on black culture in rap as women are used as objects of males desires, she mocks black culture ‘think I’m gonna put it in my mouth just because you made a few bucks’ and fights for female empowerment and the female revolution because materialism isn’t happiness, equality or reality.