Letter To The Free - Notes

Narrative Song is about the 13th Amendment Lack of emotion - they are faceless	Cinematography Special Effects Steady-cam Long Shots - the artists highlight how the black people in general seem insignificant  There is slow movement e.g slow zooms in and out Artists are usually with someone in the same room - implies that they won’t stand alone and it will be something that the whole community stand for
Editing  Black and white - connotes the separation of the black and white people. The video cuts on every other beat we hear.	Mise en Scene Costumes - they are dressed in posh clothing and contrasts the idea about the black being slaves - they are more than that. There is only natural lighting - from the sun  The words written on the wall ’No Excessive Sound’ shows that everything is dictated

Southern leaves, southern trees we hung from
Barren souls, heroic songs unsung
Forgive them father they know this knot is undone
Tied with the rope that my grandmother died
Pride of the pilgrims affect lives of millions
Since slave days separating, fathers from children
Institution ain't just a building
But a method, of having black and brown bodies fill them
We ain't seen as human beings with feelings
Will the U.S. Ever be us? Lord willing!
For now we know, the new Jim Crow
They stop, search and arrest our souls
Police and policies patrol philosophies of control
A cruel hand taking hold
We let go to free them so we can free us
America's moment to come to Jesus

Freedom (freedom)
Freedom come (freedom come)
Hold on (hold on)
Won't be long (won't be long)
Freedom (freedom)
Freedom come (freedom come)
Hold on (hold on)
Won't be long (won't be long)

The caged birds sings for freedom to bring
Black bodies being lost in the american dream
Blood of black being, a pastoral scene

Slavery's still alive, check amendment 13
Not whips and chains, all subliminal
Instead of 'nigga' they use the word 'criminal'
Sweet land of liberty, incarcerated country
Shot me with your ray-gun
And now you want to trump me
Prison is a business, America's the company
Investing in injustice, fear and long suffering
We staring in the face of hate again
The same hate they say will make america great again
No consolation prize for the dehumanized
For america to rise it's a matter of black lives
And we gonna free them, so we can free us
America's moment to come to Jesus

Freedom (freedom)
Freedom come (freedom come)
Hold on (hold on)
Won't be long (won't be long)

Feminism

Discussing feminism and learning a range of feminist theories is an essential part of A Level Media Studies.

Are we living in a post-feminist state? Do you agree there is still a need for feminism? To what extent does the media contribute to the identity created for women in popular culture? These are some of the questions we need to consider when studying representation in A Level Media.

There is a current debate regarding whether feminism is still required in the 21st century (the idea that we are now in a 'post-feminist' state) against the view that the use of new and digital media to further feminist campaigns constitutes a new fourth wave of feminism.

Key notes

Waves of feminism

First wave:early 20th century, suffragette movement (right to vote).

Second wave:1960s – 1990s, reproductive rights (pill), abortion, equal pay.

Third wave:1990s – present, empowerment, reclaiming of femininity (high heels, sexuality etc. See Angela McRobbie's work on women's magazines).

Fourth wave?2010 – ongoing, use of new technology and digital media (e.g. Twitter) for activism.

Fourth wave?

Many commentators argue that the internet itself has enabled a shift from ‘third-wave’ to ‘fourth-wave’ feminism. What is certain is that the internet has created a ‘call-out’ culture, in which sexism or misogyny can be ‘called out’ and challenged. 

This culture is indicative of the continuing influence of the third wave, with its focus on challenging sexism and misogyny in advertising, film, television and the media.

Key quote: “power users of social media”

The internet has facilitated the creation of a global community of feminists who use the internet both for discussion and activism. 

According to #FemFuture: Online Feminism, a report recently published by Columbia University’s Barnard Center for Research on Women, females aged between 18 and 29 are the ‘power users of social networking’.

(Source: Political Studies Association. Read more about this: http://www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus/feminism-fourth-wave)

Critics of online feminism

Critics of online feminist movements suggest that petitions and pressure from Twitter campaigns is simply a witchhunt orchestrated by privileged middle-class white women.

They ask: are ‘trolls’ the danger they are portrayed to be?

Introduction to feminism: blog tasks

 Case study: Everyday Sexism

Watch the TEDx talk by Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates:

1) Why did Laura Bates start the Everyday Sexism project?

She started the everyday sexism because she had 3 separate cases of sexual harassment and wanted to help women and men of all ages to come forward and talk about their experiences so that the involved people could get reported and that all in all stop sexual harassment of all sorts. 

2) How does the Everyday Sexism project link to the concept of post-feminism? Is feminism still required in western societies?

3) Why was new technology essential to the success of the Everyday Sexism project?

4) Will there be a point in the future when the Everyday Sexism project is not required? What is YOUR view on the future of feminism?

I personally believe that feminism is slowly being heard and hopefully in the future we should have more equality 

Media Magazine: The fourth wave?

Read the article: The Fourth Wave? Feminism in the Digital Age in MM55 (p64). You'll find the article in our Media Magazine archive here.

1) Summarise the questions in the first two sub-headings: What is networked feminism? Why is it a problem?

Feminism on the internet- where we can all connect with each other (a network)

2) What are the four waves of feminism? Do you agree that we are in a fourth wave ‘networked feminism’? 

3) Focus on the examples in the article. Write a 100-word summary of EACH of the following: Everyday Sexism, HeForShe, FCKH8 campaign, This Girl Can.

Everyday sexism is the website and also a book by

4) What is your opinion with regards to feminism and new/digital media? Do you agree with the concept of a 'fourth wave' of feminism post-2010 or are recent developments like the Everyday Sexism project merely an extension of the third wave of feminism from the 1990s?

Music Video : Theory

Music Video: theory

There are a range of important theories we need to learn as part of our Music Video unit.

Both our Music Video Close-Study Products contain representations of black Americans. We therefore need to study a range of theories that address the representation of black or minority ethnic people in the media.

Notes from the lesson

Paul Gilroy: The Black Atlantic

Paul Gilroy is a key theorist in A Level Media and has written about race in both the UK and USA.

In The Black Atlantic (1993), Gilroy explores influences on black culture. One review states: “Gilroy’s ‘black Atlantic’ delineates a distinctively modern, cultural-political space that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but is, rather, a hybrid mix of all of these at once.”

Gilroy is particularly interested in the idea of black diasporic identity – the feeling of never quite belonging or being accepted in western societies even to this day.

For example, Gilroy points to the slave trade as having a huge cultural influence on modern America – as highlighted by Common’s Letter to the Free.

Diaspora: A term that originates from the Greek word meaning “dispersion,” diaspora refers to the community of people that migrated from their homeland. [Source: facinghistory.org]

Gilroy on black music

Gilroy suggests that black music articulates diasporic experiences of resistance to white capitalist culture. 

When writing about British diasporic identities, Gilroy discusses how many black Britons do not feel like they totally belong in Britain but are regarded as ‘English’ when they return to the country of their parents’ birth e.g. the Caribbean or Africa. This can create a sense of never truly belonging anywhere.

Additional theories on race representations and music

Stuart Hall: race representations in media

Stuart Hall suggests that audiences often blur race and class which leads to people associating particular races with certain social classes.

He suggests that western cultures are still white dominated and that ethnic minorities in the media are misinterpreted due to underlying racist tendencies. BAME people are often represented as ‘the other’.

Hall outlined three black characterisations in American media:

·The Slave figure: “the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted to ‘his’ master.” (Hall 1995)

·The Native: primitive, cheating, savage, barbarian, criminal.

·The Clown/Entertainer: a performer – “implying an ‘innate’ humour in the black man.” (Hall 1995)

https://youtu.be/Ouhdtrmzenw

Tricia Rose: Black Noise (1994)

 

Tricia Rose was one of the first academics to study the cultural impact of the hip hop genre in her influential book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994).

Rose suggested that hip hop initially gave audiences an insight into the lives of young, black, urban Americans and also gave them a voice (including empowering female artists). However, Rose has since criticised commercial hip hop and suggests black culture has been appropriated and exploited by capitalism.

Michael Eric Dyson: Know What I Mean (2007)

Georgetown University Professor of Sociology Michael Eric Dyson has passionately defended both hip hop and black culture – Jay-Z describes him as “the hip hop intellectual”.

 https://youtu.be/q6rBbT2UktU

Dyson suggests that political hip hop in the 1990s didn’t get the credit (or commercial success) it deserved and this led to the rap music of today – which can be flashy, sexualised and glamorising criminal behaviour.

Dyson states: “Hip hop music is important precisely because it sheds light on contemporary politics, history and race. At its best, hip hop gives voice to marginal black youth we are not used to hearing from on such critics. Sadly, the enlightened aspects of hip hop are overlooked by critics who are out to satisfy a grudge against black youth culture…” Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean (2007)


Hip hop debate - full video
This appears to be the full Google debate on hip hop if you want to watch more from where those extracts came from.

Childish Gambino, the musical stage name of writer and performer Donald Glover, has just released a critique of American culture and Donald Trump with This Is America.

Racking up 10m views in 24 hours and already dubbed ‘genius’ and ‘a masterpiece’, the music video is a satirical comment on American culture, racism and gun violence.

1) How does the This Is America video meet the key conventions of a music video?



2) What comment is the video making on American culture, racism and gun violence?

The music video is exploring the relationship between the dancing and partying and violence that combine to make up so much of both entertainment and black life in America. To be black in America—at any given time, vulnerable to joy or to destruction. When his character is not dancing, he is killing. Childish Gambino is playing Jim Crow

3) Write an analysis of the video applying the theories we have learned: Gilroy, Hall, Rose and Dyson. 

Gilroy:Black Atlantic - 'the idea of the black culture never quite belonging or being accepted in the western society even to this day’ we see this in the music video how the black people are perceived as rebels and against society. They don’t feel that their culture fits in. 

Hall - Hall outlined three black characterisations in American media:

· The Slave figure: “the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted to ‘his’ master.” 

· The Native: primitive, cheating, savage, barbarian, criminal.

· The Clown/Entertainer: a performer – “implying an ‘innate’ humour in the black man.”
We see these characteristics outlined in the music video through the way that the slave figure is present throughout the video (the people running to help cover the killings. The boy running to hide the gun, person taking the body away.
The Native is the majority of people who we see in the background jumping on cars and running around the place
The Clown/Entertainer - is Childish Gambino in the music video - his character is the one who implies innate humour.

Read this Guardian feature on This Is America - including the comments below.

4) What are the three interpretations suggested in the article?

1) He’s playing Jim Crow
2) He’s dumping us with dance
3) He’s taking on the police 

5) What alternative interpretations of the video are offered in the comments 'below the line’

An interpretation a user made was that the song is ‘just music’. Another interpretation could be that towards the end of the video he is running away which could suggest two reasons... 1) he is finally free and not controlled by the police or a completely opposite suggestion 2) that he is running away from the police that want to shoot him.

13th Documentary Review

13^th

What is the likelihood of a black male being incarcerated in America?

1 in 3

 

History is not just stuff that happens by accident. We are the products of history that our ancestors choose, if we’re white. If we are black, we are the products of the history that our ancestors most likely did not choose. Yet here we are all together, the products of that set of choices. And we have to understand that in order to escape from it. — Kevin Gannon, 13th 

What are your thoughts on this quote? Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? 

I agree with the point that we are the products that are ancestors didn’t choose. Also I agree with the fact that we have to understand that it is not by accident and understanding so will help us escape from it.

President Lyndon B. Johnson ushered in the War on Crime, Nixon began a figurative War on Drugs that became a literal War on Drugs in the Reagan era. 

Were you surprised to learn about the racial underpinnings of these legislative policies, and the active role of the state in criminalizing and targeting communities of color? Discuss using the quotation below.

 ‘The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. – John Ehrlichman, Nixon Administration Advisor.’

Super predator. Criminal.

Think about the power of media and the power of words.

 Discuss media and how words impact the perception and criminalization of people of color, both in the past and the present (animalistic, violent, to be feared, threat to white people, criminals, etc.). 

Give 2x modern-day examples.

PRISONERS FOR PROFIT. 

Were you aware of the Prison Industrial Complex and how corporations are profiting from incarceration? 

 What are the dangers surrounding ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council—a committee of politicians and corporations influencing laws that benefit its corporate founders and pushing forth policies to increase the number of people in prison and increase sentences)?

 What is the impact of  CCA? (Corrections Corporations of America, leader in private prisons that is required to keep prison beds filled—the leading corporation responsible for the rapid increase in criminalization) and how that impacts our communities. The film argues that there is a direct link between American slavery and the modern American prison system. What is your take on this argument?

People say all the time, ‘Well, I don’t understand how people could have tolerated slavery. How could they have made peace with that? How could people have gone to a lynching and participated in that? That’s so crazy. If I was living at that time I would never have tolerated anything like that.’ And the truth is we are living in this time, and we are tolerating it.” -Bryan Stevenson

What is the power of media representations and how does this relate to cultivation theory?

N.S.

Find some examples of music, musicians and music videos serving successfully to raise awareness to political issues. Post them to your blog.

DOCUMENTARIES + BOOKS + WEBSITES

 •The House I Live In—www.TheHouseILiveIn.org 

• Broken on All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration and New Visions for Criminal Justice—www.brokenonallsides.com 

• Rikers: An American Jail—rikersfilm.org YOUTH FOCUS:

 • TIME: The Kalief Browder Story—series on Netflix • Young Kids, Hard Time (45 min.)—www.msnbc.com

 • Children Behind Bars: American Youth Violence (46 min.)—www.msnbc.com 

• Children in Prison: Locked Up for Life (55 min.)—www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLrlajvhUaQ 

• Alone: Teens in Solitary Confinement (22 min.)—www.csgjuscecenter.org/youth/publications/alone-teens-in-solitaryconfinement WOMEN FOCUS: 

• “A Nation of Women Behind Bars” 20/20 (30 min.)—http://abc.go.com/shows/2020/listing/2015-02/27-2020-022715-a-nationof-women-behind-bars-a-dianesawyer-hidden-america-special

 • Women Behind Bars (30 min.)—www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2013/09/women-behind-bars201393010326721994.html

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness—Alexander, Michelle. 2012. 

• Just Mercy—Stevenson, Bryan. 2014 

• Are Prisons Obsolete?—Davis, Angela Y. New York: Seven Stories, 2003.

 • The Growth of Incarceration in the United States—Committee on Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration, et al. National Academic Press, 2014. 

• The Collapse of American Criminal Justice—Stuntz, William J. 2013

. • Arrested Justice Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation—Richie, Beth. 2012. 

• The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream: A Collaborative Examination of Connecticut's Criminal Justice and Corrections System—Moran, Brian E, 2014.

 • Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow: An Organizing Guide—Hunter, Daniel, and Michelle Alexander, Veterans of Hope Project, 2015.

 • Monster—Myers, Walter Dean. 1999. (Juvenile Fiction novel) 

• Campaign for Youth Justice: www.campaignforyouthjustice.org

 • The Sentencing Project: www.sentencingproject.org

• Juvenile Justice Information Exchange: www.jjie.org

 • Free America (John Legend’s Org): www.letsfreeamerica.org

 • Just Leadership USA: www.justleadershipusa.org

 • Justice Fellowship:www.justicefellowship.org

• Justice Policy Institute: www.justicepolicy.org

 • Prison Policy Initiative: www.prisonpolicy.org

 • Equal Justice Initiative: www.eji.org

 • Vera Institute of Justice: www.vera.org

Public Service Broadcasting

Public Service Broadcasting

Public service broadcasting refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve commercial interests.

The media regulator Ofcom requires certain TV and radio broadcasters to fulfil certain requirements as part of their license to broadcast.

All of the BBC's television and radio stations have a public service remit.

Ofcom report into Public Service Broadcasting in 2017.

1) How does the report suggest that TV viewing is changing?

-  88% adults have internet access at home

-  76% own a smartphone/tablet

-  36% have smart TV’s in their homes

-  55% have ever used on-demand services
2) What differences are highlighted between younger and older viewers?

Individuals in the UK watched 3 hours 32 minutes of measured broadcast TV on a TV set in 2016. Viewers aged 65+ watched an average of 5 hours 44 minutes in 2016, 16-24 year olds watched an average of 1 hour 54 minutes in 2016

3) Does the report suggest audiences are satisfied with public service broadcasting TV channels?

The majority of people in the UK with a TV in their household watch the PSB channels on a 

weekly basis. In 2016, 83% of the TV population aged 4+ watched any of the main five PSB 

channels in a typical week. This increases to 85% when the BBC portfolio channels are 

included.

4) Public service broadcasting channels are a major aspect of the UK cultural industries. How much money did PSB channels spend on UK-originated content in 2016?

In a year of devolved parliamentary and assembly elections, spend on new, non-network 

originations for viewers in the nations and regions reached £276m in 2016, a 2% increase in 

real terms since 2015.

Goldsmiths report

Read this report from Goldsmiths University - A future for public service television: content and platforms in a digital world. 

1) What does the report state has changed in the UK television market in the last 20 years?

The proliferation of channels has reduced the market share of the public service broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – although they have largely retained their prominence and developed portfolio services. Sky has emerged as a major force, contributing to the success of pay television. New technology has facilitated on-demand access to television content, and created new services and platforms.

2) Look at page 4. What are the principles that the report suggests need to be embedded in regulation of public service broadcasting in future?

Public service media should not be regulated simply in relation to the impact of their content and services on the wider media market.  Principles of independence, universality, citizenship, quality and diversity need to be embedded into the regulation and funding of an emerging digital media landscape.

3) What does the report say about the BBC?

The BBC is the most important part of the television ecology, but the model of universality underpinning its public service credentials is under threat. 

4) According to the report, how should the BBC be funded in future?

The government should replace the licence fee as soon as is practically possible with a more progressive funding mechanism such as a tiered platform-neutral household fee, a supplement to Council Tax or funding via general taxation with appropriate parliamentary safeguards.

5) What does the report say about Channel 4?

Channel 4 occupies a critical place in the public service ecology – supporting the independent production sector and airing content aimed specifically at diverse audiences.

6) How should Channel 4 operate in future?

Channel 4 should not be privatised – neither in full or in part – and we believe that the government should clarify its view on Channel 4’s future as soon as possible.

7) Look at page 10 - new kids on the block. What does the report say about new digital content providers and their link to public service broadcasting?

Television with the characteristics of public service broadcasting now appears outside the public service system: from Sky and other commercial broadcasters, on subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix and Amazon, and through the new Local TV services. 

Final questions - your opinion on public service broadcasting

1) Should the BBC retain its position as the UK’s public service broadcaster?

The BBC

2) Is there a role for the BBC in the 21st century digital world?

Many people are converting to streaming things online, on prime, netflix and Hulu and others for their TV and films. They prefer to pay subscriptions for streaming rather than pay for a TV license in order to watch Sky or Virgin. I think that besides sports channels the rest of TV and film can be found online and therefore the BBC will only be popular with the older generations who are used to having the channels to flick through.

3) Should the BBC funding model (license fee) change? How?

As well as paying for a license fee to be able to watch television Sky also charge for he viewers to have sky cinema and movies, sky kids and sky sports. This is inconvenient for the younger generations who prefer to save money and will happily stream on Netflix while in bed.