Friday 9 September 2016

Critical investigation research

MIGRAIN key concept research

To what extent did the media coverage of the EU referendum affect the engagement of young people in politics?

Research links and things to include:
  • 2015 election, 2014 Scottish Referendum
  • Politician expense scandal, distrust in politicians
  • Student tuition fees increase riots
  • EMA 
  • London riots
  • Chilcot report, Iraq war started things going
  • Media generally sidelines
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28600677

 "But the Daily Telegraph's Tim Stanley explained that those who try to begin their political career at a young age are "immature" and "think they have all the answers"."

 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/07/tony-blair-war-iraq-british-politics-chilcot-report

 "Tony Blair’s war destroyed Iraq. It also broke young people’s trust in politicians"

 "Too young to remember the “good” Blair years of the late 90s, my generation associate his name only with unfathomable death; voting for his ideological successors is pure anathema"

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNtoFgxztME

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11149578/Generation-Z-think-they-know-it-all.-Theyre-so-wrong.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukVd_kreUZM


Media Representations 

Youth and young people are being represented. They are represented in a negative way by those in power. 

 This is in accordance to Richard Dyer's theory of power and how those with power stereotype those with less power. Adults in society have more power and so they tend to look down upon those without power, in this case, the youth.

 In a way the representation is accurate as it is definitely one that you see in some areas of London, which are what films like Ill Manors, Kidulthood/Adulthood are based on. This however also means that the representation is pretty much always negative in a way that it shows them using the same stereotypical views. This essentially creates this generalised negative perspective of youth which is then deeply placed into society and is eventually taken as a fact rather than in some cases an opinion.

Media Languages and Forms 

The coverage is being broadcasted for almost 24 hours and since it's being broadcasted, all the presenters and guests are very formal in their suits and business attire. This shows the level of professionalism and the serious aspect of the event. The settings of the interviews and broadcast are mainly the BBC studios which again help with the brand identity but also show the level of professionalism. 

 There were the usage of different medium shots for the various presenters and interviewers. It's interesting to note however that for the interviews, the guest is always in one half of the frame and the half where the guest is looking out of frame towards is always empty. This is a convention that is often used to stimulate the visual idea of an off screen interviewee and creates this sense of dialogue between the two. 

Narrative 

There doesn't seem to be a general narrative during the BBC broadcasts as the politicians  are presented in a neutral perspective. However, in the articles there are quite a few different ways how the narrative is structured. The politicians such as Tony Blair are considered to be the stereotypical villains in terms of Propp's character theory. There are also other different perspectives in the sense that Brian May of Queen is defending young people in his interview and he could be seen as a helper in terms of character theories as he is essentially promoting the opposite image of young people of what society thinks of them. He subverts stereotypes and reinforces a positive outlook rather than a negative one. 

Genre 

The text belongs to the genre of television broadcast. It has many different conventions, such as the BBC logo to invoke brand identity and also the stereotypical conventions of a political broadcast such as the interviews of different guests and also the lower third ticker which displays urgent information about the event. There are also the use of different graphics in two separate contrasting colours to show the vote for and against which help to make viewing easier for the viewers as it boils down hard data into simple graphs and visuals. It also has a presenter, David Dimbleby, who is well known in the political current affairs broadcast but more importantly he was one of the presenters for the BBC in the previous EU referendum. There are also the correspondents who are located around the UK at different places but mainly at the headquarters of the polling announcements which is Manchester. 

Media Institutions 

The institutions for the texts are a variety of different sources. The main texts for analysis are the BBC for their coverage of the EU referendum whilst many of the other texts are from various media articles and interviews. The BBC is a public service institution which is good in the sense that their public remit means that they are required to be neutral in everything that they report and must always be following their remit which is to educate, inform and entertain. The text has been distributed through a majority of different mediums, from television to print to e-media. The institution is essentially controlled the public through the TV license fee and therefore is for the public in its entirety which is huge factor in the institution's neutral perspective in all things political.

Media Values and Ideology 

The major assumptions when it comes to youth and young people are the ideas that they are violent, lazy and troublemakers. This essentially creates a negative perspective and representation of young people and by doing so it shows the young people that they are not valued. This would then in turn affect their engagement in subjects such as politics and community engagement. 

 The content selected focuses a lot more on the engagement of young people in politics but also in different aspects. It also shows what young people think of politics, but also what people in power think about young people, whether their views reinforce or subvert already enforced stereotypes.

Media Audiences 

The target audience are the voting populace of the country. However in terms of demographics, it would be targeted at the educated but working class. In terms of psychographics it would be targeted at the mainstreamers, aspirers, succeeders and possibly explorers. This is because it would be addressed to an audience that would want to see their country succeed and feel as if their vote is counting towards democracy. However, seeing from a youth's perspective this text would not entirely be targeted towards the youth. This again enforces the idea that young people are looked down upon and shouldn't concern themselves in politics. In the question time debates, many of the questions from young people are actually not answered in full by the politicians and are dismissed quite a lot. However the BBC coverage aims to show the involvement of young people through different means such as the young people volunteering with ballot counting in the background shots.
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