Tuesday 23 September 2014

X-Factor Mediation



Ella Henderson is represented here as a strong female contestant with a sad history.
When we are first introduced to her, we are told of her back story about her grandfather, who has passed away and how she used to sing for him when she was little.
We are introduced to the whole family who all strongly support her and also tell her not to cry, this shows there is a strong chance she will.
We are also told that the song she is performing was one of her own, which makes us empathise with her even more as a contestant.
During her audition, certain faces from the crowd are seen showing their appreciation of the performance.
After she has finished performing, a shot is shown of the whole crowd giving a standing ovation.
We are also  given a lot more of the judge's comments than most auditions simply because she was good and her performance was emotional.
The simple mediation process used here shows X-Factor has big plans for Ella Henderson.

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Representation

Class - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14488486

The general representation of the underclass is rather negative and perhaps unfair, the opening sentence talks of a more menacing underclass, the pictures show teenagers, in hoodies and mainly show black people too which is an unfair representation of this race and class too. The BBC is a very respectable company and they offer coverage of most news stories, they are unbiased in the majority of their reportings and wish only to convey the facts, although it appears to be a negative representation, this is not intentional.

Gender - Family Guy



Family Guy represents women negatively the majority of the time. They are seen as either objects of sexual desire or just as complete idiots in general, this particular scene shows the suffragettes, who are displayed as silly teenage girls having pillow fights and calling boys cute. This is a negative representation but it plays on the stereotypical image of women for humour not because this the view they actually represent.

Age - Harry Brown



Harry Brown represents the elderly very differently to anything seen before, although it shows Harry as a standard pensioner to start with, he soon transforms into the badass that the film focuses on. This is neither a positive or negative representation as there are both aspects, it is positive that it shows not all elderly people just sit at home watching day time TV but it is negative in the fact that harry goes on to kill  handful of people. The producer has tried to change the representation of the elderly but he does not necessarily wish for it to be a positive or negative, it is more what you make of it. It is primarily done for the entertainment factor, as it breaks the stereotypes and therefore this draws attention to the film.

Race - Family Guy



This is a very negative representation of the British and Indians, it displays the british as conforming to the stereotypes such as having large teeth and being incredibly well spoken. The Indian woman has been given an incredibly strong indian accent and also has a bindhi spot, this is a religious marking from Hinduism, just because she is indian does not mean she is a Hindu. Again, this is a negative representation but just the same as before, it is done for the humour not because this is what the producer actually believes the British or Indians to be like. It plays on stereotypes because people find this funny, even those who have been given the negative representation.

Sexuality - The Big Bang Theory



Sexuality is represented negatively here, one with the women actually suppressing her homosexual tendencies and everyone assuming Raj is gay because he is incredibly camp. Raj is supposedly the stereotypical gay guy, this is a negative representation as it is saying everyone who is camp is gay, this is a view reflected by a lot of people, however it does not necessarily reflect the views of the producers of the show. This has been probably been done for humour rather than actually trying to represent sexuality in a negative light, and is a joke continued throughout the entirety of the TV show, showing it has been accepted as humour not spite.

Monday 8 September 2014

Summer Induction Project Research




(Rotherham abuse scandal: Key dates)


(Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (1997 – 2013))


(Action planned for child services)


(Rotherham sex abuse scandal: Victims seeking millions in compensation)


(Police chief at centre of Rotherham child sex abuse scandal receives death threats after refusing to quit)


(Pakistani community worker makes explosive claims on Rotherham's religious leaders who 'talked in mosques but not to police')

  • BBC News
  • The Daily Mirror

Summer Induction Project (Rotherham Child Abuse Scandal)

Following a report published on the 26th August by Professor Alexis Jay, revealing over 1,400 cases of child sexual abuse between 1997 and 2013, Rotherham has been plastered over the media for the past two weeks, and rightly so, a story as big as this deserves a lot of attention from the media as everyone tries to figure out exactly what happened and how it wasn't prevented.

The media has mainly focused on those apparently responsible for this scandal such as Rotherham council and the South Yorkshire police department. Rotherham council has been represented as a council of fools who care more about themselves than any of the victims, this has led to a great deal of hatred towards the council as a whole not just to the few members within the council who were particularly responsible such as Martin Kimber who has now stepped down as council chief executive. It seems that the specific council members are being used as ammo to attack the council itself. This is incredibly unfair, as the council as a whole actually does a good job with it's other responsibilities, the representation is somewhat accurate in that it was the council who are responsible for this mess but not the whole council, which the media seems to pushing towards.

Another focus on the media has been on the South Yorkshire police department, they seem to be represented as being terrible at their jobs and not really doing much, they manged only 9 prosecutions of child abuse over the 16 years. This has been a fairer representation by the media as they have made clear the man who is responsible, Shaun Wright, the South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner has been in the spotlight the most. However, Commissioner Wright still refuses to step down despite the fact that he has been represented as incompetent and remorseless, this is a fair representation but perhaps it has gone too far with Wright now receiving death threats.

The Pakistani community has been a focus of the media, with the majority of the acts having been committed by Pakistani males, it has came to light that religious leaders were 'contacted by agencies about the abuse' but they 'discussed it at the mosque' rather than going to the police. Some articles do not mention that the Pakistani community was involved whilst others blame them completely for this scandal. This is an incredibly unfair representation, although the acts have been predominantly committed by Pakistani males, others were involved too and this has not been made clear enough in the media.


I find the issue disgusting and I am actually quite horrified that nothing was done to prevent it regardless of the information the police or Rotherham council received. Over 1,400 children were abused between 1997 and 2013 and more than 30% of these victims were already known to social services. There were 157 reports concerning child sexual exploitation made to police in 2013 alone and yet only 9 prosecutions were made over the entire time. In fact, in autumn of 2009, Rotherham’s child services were rated as ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted because they felt the safety of children cannot be assured. This was met by the mister of state serving the council an improvement notice but this was lifted in January 2011 with no real evidence of improvements. Matters were made worst in 2012 when The Times published an investigation revealing that a confidential 2010 police report had warned thousands of child sexual exploitation crimes were being committed in South Yorkshire each year by networks of Asian men. Yet still in January 2013, Council chief executive Martin Kimber blames "systematic failures" as he apologised to victims and their families, this is simply outrageous and sickening, the fact that a man can stand there and blame systematic errors simply because they have not done their job properly and hundreds of children have been sexually abused due to this.

Another audience to this scandal would be the Rotherham city council, who have all admitted that there are simply no excuses for the scandal. However, they could have reacted very differently, claiming that it wasn't there fault and that they carried out their job to the best of their abilities despite what has happened. Mr Kimber has also stated no council employees will face disciplinary action, as there is not enough evidence, this shows that if they wanted to the council members could deny anything they are accused of. Some of the members have refused to comment on the matter and some have simply tried to blame other members for their mistakes. Everyone seems to be horrified at the scale of the scandal, the difference between the audiences is where you place the blame.