Post Colonialism

1. Films: Kidulthood, Adulthood, Ill Manors, Bulletboy, Attack the Block

TV programmes: Goodness Gracious Me, Citizen Khan, Top Boy, Luther, 53 degrees north

Online productions: The Ryan sisters, Meet the adebanjos, Brothers with no game, Venus vs Mars, All about the Mckenzies


2.  Alvarado's and Fanon's theories do link with Destiny's short films in some ways. In the production 'Tight Jeans' there are two racial representations which apply to Alvarado's theory; humorous and exotic. The clip shows three black male youths who basically talk nonsense which is meant to be funny making comments such as 'black people are the reason for world population', they make fun of each other and question the stereotype of whether a black mans intimate area is bigger than a white mans. The exotic element is due to those youths having a background from Africa. However this clip goes against the element of black youths being dangerous, the stereotype is subverted; what is shown is completely the opposite. All three of them are sitting on a wall talking amongst themselves whilst two white men walk past, the dominant stereotype would normally be that the black youths would act violent against them but instead they keep to themselves. Fanons theory links as these youths are infantilized, they act like children which is represented by what they talk about and the way they converse with each other. They also act decivilized because of the way they are presented, sitting on a wall with nothing to do and just hanging around like thugs.

'Gone too Far' is a comedic film trailer which is about a Nigerian family. An element of pitied according to Alvarado's theory is felt as the audience feels sorry for the brother who comes to visit London from Nigeria as he is not familiar with the differences. There is definitely humour as it seems to be quite funny, an example would be the brother from Nigeria singing in a chicken shop. It is exotic because he is from a different country. The stereotype of black people being dangerous is subverted as the film is all a comedy however there was a little bit of violence shown in the trailer of  a guy threatening another whilst playing basketball. From Fanon's theory we associate the characters being infantilized because of the way the person from Nigeria acts which is quite idiotic by singing and the way he approaches the females.

ndm

Bloomberg switches off comments in website redesign

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/28/bloomberg-switches-off-comments-in-website-redesign

The Bloomberg website has taken out the comments bit, so individuals would have to have their say through social media instead. 

• Bloomberg has removed the option to comment on its stories after a relaunch of its flagship business website.
• A spokeswoman for Bloomberg declined to comment on the removal of comments, but it is understood the company believes the conversation about its content is better served on social media rather than on its own platform. 
• It is understood the impact of switching off comments will be monitored to see if it should be made policy. 
• Bloomberg’s new site aims to bring together content from the media company’s digital, print, television, radio and live event operations
• It’s faster, smarter, and frankly bigger than anything we’ve done before – and it’s uniquely digital, built for a global web audience, and designed to deliver the right news at the right time,” Topolsky said. 

This website taking out the comments section is a way of becoming popular on social media so if people have a say then they can find the site on Twitter or Facebook. 

ndm

Seven things we learned from Facebook's latest financial results

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/29/seven-things-learned-facebook-financial-results-video-oculus-rift 

Facebook has gained many users and throughout the years has been expanding. The video aspect is growing and the use of Facebook has increased due to smartphone usage. 

• Watch out, YouTube: Facebook is parking its tanks on your lawn. “Video grew significantly this year, to an average of more than 3bn video views per day on Facebook,” said Zuckerberg.
• “Today, over 50% of people in the US who come to Facebook daily watch at least one video per day and globally over 65% of Facebook video views occur on mobile,” said the chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg.
• Facebook had 1.19 billion mobile monthly active users in the final quarter of 2014, which equates to more than 85% of its total users, and it counts 745 million people as mobile daily active users.
• A user in the US or Canada was worth $9 in the final quarter of 2014, but Europeans were only worth $3.45 and users in Asia-Pacific $1.27. Users in the rest of the world including Africa and Latin America – which is the big potential growth area – were only worth 94 cents.

This article shows the growth and innovation of Facebook throughout the years. 

Riot questions

1.      The selection of images created a stereotypical representation of youths as they were shown in ‘chav’ clothing such as track suits and the background of the images were filled with vandalism e.g. buildings on fire and shops being smashed up.

2.      David Buckingham mentions Owen Jones because he believes youngsters behaving in the way they did during the riots shows a strong perception of the working class which is a perception that is demonising.

3.      The 2005 IPSOS/MORI survey found that 40% of articles involving young people were about crime or violence. Also 71% could be having a negative tone.

4.      Stanley Cohen says that the coverage by the media of the riots talked up a disturbance and an even bigger moral panic.

5.      The elements of media and popular culture that were blamed for the riots were: rap music, violent computer games and reality TV shows.

6.      Social media was blamed as people used sites such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate on whether to riot and to join people to groups. Also by using Blackberry messenger which was popular at the time. During the Arab spring the use of social media was seen as a good thing by the Western media as people were going against the bad in their country.

7.      The two-step flow theory links as the rioters using social media were seen as the opinion leaders, therefore those who wanted to follow took action on what these people had to say.

8.      Henry Jenkins sees this as a decline of power by the media giants as democratisation is now coming into action and I also agree because individuals showed their power in freedom of expression through social media sites.

9.      The right wing response was that the rioters were all uneducated and had not been taught by their parents very much and do not have any sort of respect and do not know what they were doing. They were also compared to being animals.

10.   The left wing response suggested it was to do with poverty and unprivileged youths with horrible backgrounds. Also to do with cuts in youth services and the removal of education maintenance allowance.

11.   I believe the main cause of the riots was that it gave youngsters an excuse to loot and act immorally.

12.   Capitalism can be blamed for the riots as money is the goal for everyone and individuals saw this as an opportunity to loot as many valuables as they could.

13.   People involved in the riots hardly got a chance to explain themselves in the media.

14.   The causes happen to be opportunism, lack of money, unemployment, an increase in student tuition fees and how they felt they were treated compared with others.

15.   I believe that the solution to solving issues is not violence and the rioters caused a lot of damage and were quite unintelligent to take part and I believe that most of their intentions were only to steal and damage for the fun of it and to act ‘cool’. Therefore there should be harsh prison sentences.

 

ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/23/twitter-verified-users-photos-instagram

Twitter encourages 'verified' users to stop posting photos from Instagram



This article is about how Twitter urges consumers to stop posting pictures through Instagram and to instead use their development to post images onto Twitter.

• Twitter has taken the unusual step of interrupting high-profile users within its own app, to suggest they stop posting photos from Instagram to the social network
• A number of Twitter’s ‘verified’ users – accounts held by celebrities, brands and other public figures, including journalists – received the in-app alert, which reminded them to “post your photos directly on Twitter to make sure your fans always see them”.
• Instagram photos haven’t been displayed within tweets since December 2012, when the company switched off its integration with Twitter’s “cards” system, in an attempt to drive more traffic to the Instagram website.
• The move could be seen as defensiveness on Twitter’s part: when Instagram announced that it had more than 300 million active users in December 2014, most reports chose to compare that figure to Twitter’s most recent milestone of 284 million.

The integration of both social media sites was a good idea as it promoted each site, helping them gain more users.

ndm

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/jan/21/social-media-engagement-tv-ratings-fremantle

Social engagement now more important than TV ratings, says Fremantle boss


This article is about how social media is generated through shows such as Britains Got Talent and is more important than the show viewer ratings. The industry is showing a shift towards social media.

• Hindle – chief executive of digital and branded entertainment at the production giant behind The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and American Idol – said that the level of social engagement that shows drive has superseded TV ratings as the most important indicator of content’s success in the eyes of advertisers.
• TV “would be here for a long time” but described the change as a significant turning point for an industry in which social engagement would have been treated as an afterthought five years ago: “No longer is it: here’s a content idea we’re going to make, let’s produce it, put it up and then let’s think about the social engagement around it.”
• “A few years ago, the only things that mattered was ratings. Now what matters more is the level of social engagement around the content.”

This shows that social media has now become very powerful in determining how popular a show can be.

Learner response

The internet happens to be a more democratic space as according to an article written by The Guardian, social media sites such as Facebook are supporting the French in the recent terrorist attacks against them. Facebook owner Mark Zuckerburg supports freedom of speech and says social media should be used to express opinions, in contrast he also believes there should be censorship as it may not be safe for individuals to express certain opinions which are a reason why the French were targeted by terrorists for their right of speech. Therefore the internet is a place for democracy to flourish even though it can be dangerous for individuals which suggests “the internet is an empowering tool”-Al Gore. The internet is empowering as it enables consumers to act as the decision maker on whether to act out on other peoples opinions which was the case with the French magazine 'Charlie'.