Dominant and Alternative representations

Dominant Representation:

In the beginning of the advertisement there is a ladies academy which represents women's being posh and composed. However this dominant representation of women portrays them to be unintelligent as they are trying to calculate how to get cheaper car insurance, as stereotypically women are bad drivers therefore are suggesting that women are not capable of understanding anything about cars let alone something as simple as car insurance. The long shot in the frame is to show the bored expression of all the women in the room as they feel that the equation is too challenging to understand.

As the Go compare man runs into the shot changes to extreme long shot and the women turn behind as he is distracting them, with his singing, although the man appears to be stupid and weird the women get up and dance with him. This signifies the dominant representation of women being good for entertainment and follow after the man as they sing along to the song.

Then there is a medium shot of two main women in the advertisement, one who is puzzled and the other who seems to be attracted by the strange singing man, this again emphasises the point that women are only interested in sex and are easily confused about anything else.

Alternative Representation:

In this advertisement we see that Keira Knightly is coming out of the balcony in a shirt and bowler hat which are stereotypically men's clothing, she removes the clothing and decides to put on a red dress which connotes lust as her facial expression is seductive. This challenges the representation of women as throughout the advertisement she seems to be aware of her surroundings and is deep in thought, as if carefully planning out her actions, which would be an alternative representation of how women behave as they would be shown as oblivious, air headed bimbos. Whereas this representation of women portrays them to be secretive, alluring and classy. The close up of Keira Knightly's face shows her to be seductive and reflective, this however can be contradicted as this could simply show her beauty and a dominant representation of a vamp.

The product placement of the perfume is behind Knightly's back which could connote lust or could add further emphasise on the secretive. She then walkes through what seems to be a hallways of mirrors but the model appears to be more interested in finding someone rather than staring in the mirror as women are stereotypically narcassistic. The mirrors are used as an action code to show us, the audience, what the model is holding behind her back.

Media Awards Analysis

The two media texts that I found most effective are The Essex Fairytale and The Night has a Thousand Lies.

The Essex Fairytale:

The fact that the title of the text is The Essex Fairytale illustrates that the thug lifestyle is all the characters can aspire to be a part of. The text consisted of a non – linear narrative as there were continuous flashbacks of the protagonists past memories linking to the questions being asked in the opening of the text. There is a dominant ideology of the underworld being secretive and maintaining the status quo of each gangster in the text.

There is repetition of the action code of a gun being shown, this could foreshadow the death of a loved one, and this connotes the poverty and corruption that the protagonist lives in. Another action code used in the text is the stash of cocaine that is being divided into smaller packets; the characters are the dominant dealers in the text as they have the authority to decide who and where it goes. 

There is a form of a cliff hanger in the opening as we see that the protagonist has a family who has broken apart evoking empathy as we already know the protagonist is now left with nothing.  Furthermore we already see that the text begins with Tzvetan Todorov’s theory of disequilibrium as before in the flashbacks the main character was arguably in an existing form of harmony however we see that he is experiencing an unfortunate event.

In addition the text incorporates Vladimir Propp’s theory of the role of characters as the protagonist has a helper lures another man to abruptly kill him, the denotations of this are that there will be a continuation of violence throughout the movie. The angle of the camera is at a low angle, from the man’s point of view, we can infer that he is staring at the protagonist and the helper in shock of being attacked.

The Night has a Thousand Lies:

The setting of the text is in a dark alleyway connoting secrecy and danger which ties in with the title being  ‘...a Thousand Lies’; clearly there are secrets to that need the lies to cover it up. The text is all in black and white which is stereotypical of a typical thriller movie. 

 The text opens with disequilibrium two men come out of jail and then the protagonist is on the phone. As the girl is on the phone the camera pans upwards showing off her figure this connotes that she is the centre of sexual attention. This also builds up the tension as she tells the guy to meet her without letting them ask any questions; additionally this shows her power over the men.

The text consists of stereotypes of a seducing the male characters through the use of her clothing and behaviour towards them. The lighting on the woman’s face is dark at one point suggesting that she is a misleading, deceptive character that she could potentially be of harm to others.

According to Vladimir Propp’s theory the woman is stereotypically the Princess however we see that the girl is actually the Villain as she lures in men consequently framing them.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure analysis

Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure:

In the beginning of the movie we see that both Bill and Ted are stereotyped as typical skater ‘dudes’ from California. Both Bill and Ted aspire to be a famous rock band called the ‘Wyld Sallions’ which contrasts with the fact that Ted’s father wants to send him to military school unless he passes his history test. Their band name (‘Wyld Sallions’) connotes how they as people are, wild, strange and dim as they can’t even spell their band name correctly. 

The narrative structure of the text begins with the equilibrium of Bill and Ted being at high school, having a good time and then rocking out to their songs. They are questioned about important figures in history which they stereotypically do not know about e.g. “Ted who is Joan of Arc?” “Errm Noah’s wife?” this put emphasise on the fact that they truly are quite dopey.

However we quickly see a disequilibrium; they’re struggle in the high school history report could lead them to not graduating high school and becoming separated thus breaking apart their dreams of being rock stars. This portrays the positive values of education, friendship and ambition in this text; although Bill and Ted are unintelligent they manage to find a man from the future called Rufus who helps them with their report, they remain as best friends and furthermore discover that in the future their music will influence the world. Throughout the movie there is an unclear foreshadowing as they repeatedly say “Most triumphant dude!” showing that Bill and Ted will be successful since they are aware of the consequences of not passing (this will be “bogus and uncool” according to them).

According to Propp's theory the villain in the text would be Ted’s father as he plans to separate Bill and Ted, which is where their mysterious friend from the future Rufus steps in as the danor and dispatches them by giving the time travelling booth which enables them to actually view these key events that they have been studying. While travelling in time they meet their princesses who are the King of England’s daughters but instead of saving them from their father, whom in this sub-plot is the villain, they decide to invite them to prom and call them “historical babes” which shows them failing to be the supposedly hero’s that they’re meant to be.

The text has a non-linear pattern as Bill and Ted repeatedly travel to many different time periods, changing the course of history which effects their present time, they also travel to the future where their music has a major influence on people, for example the enigma code of the air guitar when they say “Rock on dude” we at first believe this to be an action between the two of them as friend but in the future this message is revealed to be extremely important (ending poverty and starvation, and beginning of world peace). The action code of the text is the telephone booth which allows Bill and Ted to go back in time.

The new equilibrium of the media text is in the end when Bill and Ted present their history report in a school assembly using the real characters from the past, they pass therefore they can stay together and fulfil their dreams of being rock stars.  

E-media: Did You Know 4.0

6 facts from Did You Know 4.0 Video:

1. Well over 1,000,000 books are published worldwide every year.

2. A Google Book Search scanner can digitize 1,000 pages every hour.

3. 95% of all songs downloaded last year weren't paid for.

4. Ang Chuang Yang of Singapore: He typed a Guinness Book of World Records approved 160 character text on his cell phone in 41.52 seconds.

5. Twitter played an unprecedented role in sharing information during the 2009 Iranian presidential elections.

6. 47% of broadcast television viewers say they'd pay less of ad-less programming.

Devise a system for regulating the Internet:

1. The issues with images, words and ideas from around the world that are not regulated are that many people or even businesses can claim these as their own. For example if a major gossip site such as http://www.eonline.com/ were to use gossip, images, videos etc. from other minor sites there would be plagiarism issues and the minor site would need to regulate their content in order to prevent this in the future.

2. The owner of the website would be responsible for the regulation of their content as the Internet is not controlled by a sole organisation.

3. There are existing bodies who on their own site regulate the content according to their audience.

4. In my opinion there should be a new organisation as there has been an increase in the exposure of adult content to younger children and the fact that social networking sites need to be more secure for minors as there have been cases where they have been subjected to pedophiles without realising it.

5. They could use the information provided by internet service providers to show what people have been accessing.

6. The disadvantages of Internet regulation are that people won't be able to access many blogs that express their views on either current affairs or any other important topic and the so called 'freedom of expression' that we have on the internet will be lost.