OCR G325 A2 Media Studies Section A 1b Essay Plan: Representation

Analyse Representation in one of your Coursework Productions

“I will be analysing my music video which I filmed and edited as my main task which formed part of my Advanced Portfolio in Media. In class, we studied representation in existing music videos such as Doug Walker’s low production value British independent ‘The Mystery’, Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed a Girl’, Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s ‘Telephone’, Ed Sheeran’s ‘Lego House’, and Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ ‘Empire State of Mind’. This enabled us to fully understand how representation can be applied to our own productions”.

• Identify the music video and importantly the genre or hybridised genre. Identify also if you think this genre is commonly subject to issues of stereotyping in the media e.g. rap/hip hop and misogyny, representation of ethnicity but also Laura Mulvey’s male gaze which can often be linked to the rock genre, particularly Americanised variants.
• Develop areas of representation in your music video that are relevant to illustrate your points on - social class/status, ability/disability, gender, sexuality, national or regional identity, race and ethnicity. This will involve a close textual analysis (see below). There may also be issues of intertextuality you may wish to discuss that are relevant to a representation.
• Analyse the technical codes and mise-en-scene in your video (literally you are deconstructing your own product). What representations do they reveal linking with theory? If you have strong female characters in your music video for example, Angela McRobbie’s post feminist icon theory is a useful framework for study e.g. as in ‘Telephone’.
• Do you challenge or reinforce hegemonic cultural stereotypes with this representation and WHY e.g. “Female characters in my music video are subject to the male gaze” but think about the WAY they are represented – link to genre conventions if you think it is relevant. Andy Medhurst said: “stereotyping is shorthand for identification”. Is this relevant to your music video?
• Are your characters marginalised from mainstream society or are the representations more mainstream – link this to the target audience of the music video and think about youth culture. Can you link your representations with Levi-Strauss in terms of maintaining dominant culture in reference to marginalisation? Levi Strauss can be linked with Stuart Hall’s theory of dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings – do your representations reinforce dominant, mainstream culture or do they challenge it.
• David Gauntlett acknowledges pluralistic change but suggests a hegemonic framework still exists in society but also in media representations. Does your music video conform to Gauntlett’s ideas or do you exploit mainstream genre conventions and familiar representations in relation of audience identification? A good essay on representation links with ideology e.g. consumerism and patriarchy or even developing a link with collective identity. What statements is your music video saying about culture, society, self-representation and social interaction?

Importantly, in this essay you need to explain how your music video both reinforces but also challenges stereotypical representations e.g. “in conclusion, I believe that I have addressed a number of representations in my music video that both reinforce and challenge dominant mainstream culture and ultimately allow consumers to develop an understanding of the genre through audience identification and audience expectation”.