Postmoderism Essay

Define postmodern media, with examples.

In order to attempt to define/identify what postmodern media is, one must first understand the origin of postmodernism. Its predecessor was Modernism; this era existed dominantly during the late 19^th and early 20^th century and can still be seen existent in society today. Modernism is a movement, which moves “towards modifying traditional beliefs in accordance with modern ideas”. Shortly after World War 2 is the time period where many theorists believe that postmodernism originated. Postmodernism became the product of a historical period whereby information technology became dominant in society. Postmodern media rejects the ideas, conventions and “truths” of modern media by opposing the idea of Grand Narratives. Which are totalizing forms, such as religion, science and war that have been used by many to understand the world we live in. Postmodern media defies definition and thus, cannot be attributed to one strict sentence of definition. However in order to help define the term postmodern media, I can group together texts in the form of films, music and television shows, that can be considered postmodern media texts, such as Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and Musical artists from across the Hip/Hop genre. These media texts all contain similar elements, such as hyper-reality, simulacrums and bricolage. These aspects are what enable us to label, for example, a film as a postmodern text. These elements can be used as homage, pastiche or parody to evoke audience emotion, to carry fourth important ideas in to media texts, or to pointlessly/importantly offer a platform for self-reference/self-reflexivity.

An example of postmodern media is a film by Quentin Tarantino called Inglorious Basterds. This film is a fictional representation of WW2. In Nazi-occupied France, young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the slaughter of her family by Colonel Hans Landa. Narrowly escaping with her life, she plots her revenge several years later when German war hero Fredrick Zoller takes a rapid interest in her and arranges an illustrious movie premiere at the theatre she now runs. With the promise of every major Nazi officer in attendance, the event catches the attention of the "Basterds", a group of Jewish-American guerrilla soldiers led by the ruthless Lt. Aldo Raine. As the relentless executioners advance and the conspiring young girl's plans are set in motion, their paths will cross for a fateful evening that will shake the very annals of history.

One element that enables this film to be classed as postmodern is Tarantino’s use of self and intertextual references. An example of this is when introducing the first scene and chapter of the film; Tarantino uses the text "Once Upon a Time... In Nazi-Occupied France.” This is a traditional opening to a fairy tail. Tarantino uses this to immediately outline to the audience that this film is going to be a fictional narrative, and not a traditional “factual” based war film. Another intertextual reference within the first scene of the film is one to “The Sound of Music”. The setting in the hills and the mise en scene of the opening scene has clear comparisons to the 1965 cult classic’s opening scene. Here Tarantino uses this simply as homage to the film. This is the start of a film where Tarantino has a lot of fun with self/inter-textual references.

Both of these references are self-reflexive, in the fact that Tarantino uses them to immediately let the audience know that this film is not intended to be realistic or historically accurate. But instead is trying to create a statement about existing war films and their historical inaccuracies, which I shall discuss further on in this essay. The interpretations of such intertextual references are reliant upon the audience’s cultural capital (a body of knowledge) of the topic. So, such references will only be noted by the more intellectual viewer, which have a high level of cultural capital and understand the semiotic landscapes and codes of Tarantino’s work. This is an example of a theory by Jacques Derrida, a postmodern critic, whereby he believes that Postmoderism requires a highly literate audience, or else references like the ones Tarantino includes in Inglorious Basterds can be either mis-interpreted or missed entirely. Furthermore, a suspension of disbelief from the audience is necessary to watch this film. What I mean by this is that the audience accepts the story and events within the film regardless of them being historically inaccurate and sometimes farfetched. This can be related to Bahktin’s Carnivalesque theory. Whereby he states that the normality’s of behaviour and the socio-cultural hierarchy of existence are suspended during the carnival, or in this case the film (Inglorious Basterds).

The second storyline of the Basterds, a bunch of American-Jewish Nazi killers, and in particular the second chapter “Inglorious Basterds”, takes its inspiration from the Robert Aldrich 1967 war movie, a self reference to, “The Dirty Dozen”. This is a further Homage to the film, which Tarantino is clearly a big fan of. In chapter 3, “German night In Paris” The American actor Samuel L. Jackson narrates the scene. This is an intertextual reference. Tarantino has Samuel L. Jackson starring in some way in almost every single one of his films; this is homage to Samuel L. Jackson. And also this gives members of the audience with notable cultural capital and knowledge of Tarantino’s film the quiet nod, Tarantino uses this reference as a way of interacting with his cult fans. Also S L. Jackson is used as the narrator in order to create an ironic statement. Here Tarantino has a black, overly American voice giving commentary to a film set in WW2 France, this creates controversy and irony, again the audience’s recognition of this reference will defend of their cultural capital.

During Chapter 4 “Operation Kino”, In a Tavern basement in a small French village, British soldier Lieutenant Archie Hicox blows his cover whilst conversing with a German officer. And a Mexican stand off occurs between himself, the German officer and a fellow Basterd. This is a reference to Spaghetti Western films, Tarantino Is paying Homage to this genre, as it is a personal favourite of his. Here he uses Bricolage, by placing a Mexican stand off out of context of its origional genre, a Spaghetti western film, and placing it in a WW2 film. Due to Tarantino’s combination of genre’s the text is given a new meaning. Again The interpretation of such intertextual references rely upon cultural capital (a body of knowledge) of the topic, so they would only be picked up by the more intellectual viewer that has a high cultural capital and understands the semiotic landscapes and codes of Tarantino’s work.

In Chapter 5 “Revenge of the Giant Face” Tarantino further uses bricolage by playing David Bowie - 'Cat People' whilst Shosanna Dreyfus puts on her 'war paint' in preparation for her revenge. This places a song from the 1980’s, in to an era before it’s time, a war film set in the 1940’s. The lyrics sound “Putting out the Fire” this is ironic as she is about to burn down the cinema. In an interview with Billboard, he’s quoted to say that he literally looked through his record collection to find which songs he would use in Inglorious Basterds and could envision this song being used. Tarantino further challenges traditional war film convention here, by including a song from the 80’s era in a WW2 film. 

The shoe sequence between Hans Landa and Hammersmark is taken from Cinderella; this is also a reference to Tarantino’s ‘foot fetish’. Here he references a low culture text in the supposedly high culture context of WW2. Such a reference is an example of opposing Critical theorist of postmodernism called Frederick Jameson. He critiques the breakdown between high and low culture in postmodern society. Here Tarantino who is a postmodernist is saying that all spectrums of culture whether that be high or low, can be viewed equally.

Tarantino takes the grand historical narrative of WW2 and Hitler, dresses him in a cape and tells his death in a cinema. He uses low Culture references such as that to spaghetti westerns, Fairy tales and Blaxploitation films along with the distortion of historical truths, to reject the Grand Narratives and “truths” of traditional war films and to highlight falsehoods of existing/traditional war films. He makes the point that If in traditional war films, you can see people getting shot to pieces with minimal bleeding and sound from guns, and If there can be people jumping out of cars and getting up and walking off, and If films like Pearl Harbour convey that America won the war. Then I (Tarantino) can fill Inglorious Basterds with intertextual and low culture references, twist historical facts and truths and what makes that any less realistic than all of the existing traditional war films. Tarantino does include many ‘realistic’ aspects such as the use of German and French dialogue rather than English. This correlates with a postmodernists viewpoint that they reject the idea of high and low culture references and view everything as equal and even.

This is Critiqued by Jameson, an anti-Postmodernist theorist, a modernist that claims that postmodern media and postmodernism is completely depthless. Jameson would argue that Inglorious Basterds would be depthless, that it has no Grand Narrative and references a load of low culture media meaning that there are no truths and morals projected by the film, as that the surface of what you can see is depthless. In some cases he is right, for example some of the random references Tarantino includes. However Tarantino also uses postmodern conventions and references to question a deeper thought, the authenticity of traditional war films. This is not depthless. Thus making Jameson’s theory paradoxical, as he states that all PoMo is depthless, however in the example of Inglorious Basterds sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t.

Postmodern media is not limited only to the realm of films, but also musical artists can be considered postmodern. An example of this would be Hip/Hop & Rap artist “Drake”. One-way Drake can be seen as a postmodern artist is by his use of intertextual/self references and sampling. His song called “Marvin’s Room” Is a reference to Marvin Gaye, and he even recorded that track in Gaye’s old studio. This is Drake showing homage towards one of his role models and an artist that has massively influenced his current musical direction. Also Drake’s most recent album “Nothing Was The Same” has a number of references and samples of Hip/Hop pioneers Wu-Tang Clan, his song “Pound Cake” samples almost word for word Wu-Tang’s 1993 classic “C.R.E.A.M”. This could be interpreted one of two ways, Drake is obviously paying Homage to Wu-Tang, but also it could be concluded that he pastiche’s them, by creating an inferior copy of the origional, which results in this song being controversial, which is a key theme throughout postmodern media.

Drake’s number one hit “Take Care” was a word-by-word copy of Gill-Scott Herons song “I’ll take care of you”. This is an example of a postmodernism theory from Kirby Ferguson, whereby he claims that ‘Everything is a remix’. He believes that nowadays, in order to produce something new: something is copied, transformed and combined. This can be applied to Drake’s Take Care song, as he copies the lyrics of Gill-Scott’s song transforms them to match a hip/hop beat and combines the vocals of pop artist Rihanna. This technique is prevalent predominantly in the hip/hop genre, and the Internet allows for the distribution of remixes and samples to the masses. This is also an example of bricolage, whereby Drake takes the song from the Soul/Jazz/Blues artist of Gill-Scott Heron, transforms this with rap lyrics and adds pop vocals from artist Rihanna. This is a further characteristic of postmodern media.

Another attribute that makes Drake a postmodern artist is his created persona. His real name is Aubrey Graham, he is Jewish, and he was raised in Canada in a relatively wealthy middle class family. However his created stage persona “Drake” reflects a much different image. He regularly raps about the struggle of growing up in rough neighborhoods (‘The Ghetto”) portrays the image that he is a “Gangsta” and refers to cities such as Memphis and Dallas as his ‘home’ despite never living there. This creates a hyper-reality, whereby even Drake’s own fans cannot distinguish between his real life and simulation. This can be related to Baudrillard’s hyper-reality and consumer culture theory whereby he states that due to us being constantly immersed media, we can no longer differentiate between reality and the simulation of it.  

In constantly evolving world, the boundaries and existence of postmodernity and postmodern texts are bound to change over time.

It may be argued that, due to the large number of texts that will be created, whether it be consciously or subconsciously, that everything thing will become a complete or part copy of something pre-existent. Henceforth, it may be that no matter how much supposed originality or creativity a producer puts in to making a text, due the volume of texts being/been created previously, In the words of theorist Kirby Ferguson “Everything will become a Remix”, and thus become Postmodern.

Improved Postmodern essay - Inglorious Basterds

“Postmodern media manipulate time and space”. To what extent does this definition apply to texts you have studied?”

Postmodern texts that I have studied manipulate time and space in a number of different ways. Postmodernism rejects the truth of time and space, enabling film directors such as Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds) and Christopher Nolan (Inception) to manipulate the conventions of films allowing for greater creativity. This manipulation helps to present some important aspects of postmodernism, such as hyper-reality, self-reflexivity, simulacrums and bricolage. All of which are used for comedic effect and/or to provoke audience emotion and enable media producers to carry fourth important references, ideas and meanings to their work.

Prior to the postmodern era, modernism existed; during this phase texts were made to be realistic and in particular ‘traditional war films’ (such as saving private Ryan) were supposedly accurate accounts of historical events. However directors and producers of films often overlooked pristine historical details and tended to focus more on explosions, action and excitement in order to acquire commercial viability. Frederic Jameson theorised the idea of historical deafness, whereby films were created with inaccurate historical details, subsequently misinforming society, thus meaning that our knowledge of the war is gained from inaccurate war films and that the majority of events that occurred in ‘traditional war films’ were in fact untrue. This then had subsequent effects on the audience and became an incorrect schema for them to relate to future texts. For example Tarantino’s ‘Inglorious Basterds’ has been labeled as an extremely inaccurate and farfetched war film due to it’s historic flaws, however, it is no less realistic than other war films such as Saving Private Ryan or Pearl Harbour that claim to be and are perceived as a true reflection of war events.

Audiences and critics scrutinise Inglorious Basterds for its inaccuracy. This is because they have been distorted in to accepting that other falsely accurate war films like Saving Private Ryan (for example glorifying America’s insignificant role in winning the war) are legitimate and realistic, when in fact they are not. The purpose of postmodern texts, such as Inglorious Basterds, is to be so blatantly inaccurate historically (Expressing Hitler’s death as an assassination), that other perceivably accurate texts are exposed to be equally as ‘untrue’.

Therefore, Tarantino’s postmodern text is manipulating time. The chronological order and factuality of events that occurred during WW2 are completely reshaped in Inglorious Basterds, and albeit occurring around the same time, the accuracy of such events has been completely tampered with. For example the way that Hitler’s death is depicted, as an assassination is a complete manipulation as it is universal knowledge that Hitler’s committed suicide just moments prior to his capture. It could also be argued that equally inaccurate modernistic texts also manipulate time and space, for example the National Geographic Channel produced a documentary called Beyond the Movie: Pearl Harbour which covers some of the ways that "the film's final cut didn't reflect all the attacks' facts, or represent them all accurately." However Tarantino manipulates time and space through postmodern texts intentionally rather than due to lack of regards for historical accuracy. He does things through a number of platforms; he creates a bricolage of genres and influences by including many intertextual and textual references from different era’s of interest or importance to himself. For example the stark black and yellow font employed in Inglorious Basterds, used when introducing Hugo Schtiglitz, is a self-referential homage to his own past work, all of which employ the very iconic Friz Quadrata Bold used Iconically in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. This is bringing fonts in to a WW2 film that perhaps wouldn’t have been used or even existed in film until decades later, thus manipulating time and space.

Furthermore, within the opening sequence, Tarantino holds a still shot of the LaPadite’s French farmhouse after the ‘Once upon a time, Nazi occupied France’ which resembles the opening sequence to “The Sound Of Music”.  Again, this is a pastiche of the fairytale genre, to remind the viewer of the fact that they are watching a fictional war film. Tarantino’s deliberate combination of genres into

Inglorious Basterds does not halt anywhere near there in fact, within the same opening scene; Landa drinks his entire glass of milk in one gulp before massacring an entire group of people. This is similar to an early scene in Pulp Fiction where Jules drinks an entire cup of Sprite in one gulp before he commits a massacre, and it also pays homage to Anthony Burgess’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’ in which, the main character, Alex DeLarge famously drinks milk before committing acts of ‘ultraviolence’.  Here Tarantino further merges genres together in order to manipulate time, he includes intertextual references to scenes of films that are set more than 50 years later in time to mock the validity of supposedly ‘realistic’ traditional war films. More discrete examples of manipulation of time and space like so, may only be picked up on by the more literate and intelligent viewer, something which Jacques Derrdida cited as being very important when trying to understand the deeper meanings of post modernistic texts. Which explains why Inglorious Basterds and further postmodern texts will be perceived completely differently by variant intellects.

Further manipulation comes in the form of various pastiches and homage’s, one such of these is the Homage to David Bowie, when his song with Giorgio Moroder from Cat People ‘Putting Out The Fire’ is played during Shosanna’s preparation montage for her revenge. This manipulates time as it places a song from the 1980’s, in to a previous era, a war film set in the 1940’s; he does this in order to pay homage to David Bowie who Tarantino admires musically. Also, in the bar scene, Michael Fassbender, Til Schweiger, and August Diehl are involved in a Mexican standoff, much like the endings of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. This is an intertextual reference to some of Tarantino’s previous work; he does this in order to pastiche the ‘conventional’ war film genre, by placing an out of context scene of a Mexican standoff in to a WW2 film, in order to mock such films in a sort of ‘Hey…look I can put anything in this war film and still make it more realistic/accurate than those other films’ mindset. Also homage is paid to ‘The Dirty Dozen’, a favoured war film of Tarantino. This is seen in the second ‘courtyard’ scene where lieutenant Aldo Raine is assembling his group of Basterds. The similarity in terms of mise-en- scene and of course cinematography is manipulating space and time, recreating a scene from a text of a different era and applying it to a modern text.

Other more obvious intertextual manipulations of space and time are the ‘slipper on the foot scene’ between Colonel Lans Handa and Bridget Von Hammersmark which is identical to that of Cinderella (again, reinforcing the hybrid of genres always omnipresent in Tarantino’s works) and the upwards - facing camera shot at the end of the film, when Aldo Raine and ‘The Little Man’ have carved the swastika into Colonel Lans Handa’s forehead. The camerawork in this scene in particular is almost always featured in Tarantino’s other works (such as Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Death Proof) and is another clear example of manipulating space and time to create a hybrid-genre film, which in turn reveals to the audience the equally ‘unusual’ nature of other war films they once held as being truthful and accurate.

The overly stereotypical representations of Aldo Raine, in terms of his heavy southern accent, and Hitler, with his features of hair and moustache emphasised alike are other examples of how equally stereotypical other war films are. On the other hand Inglorious Basterds includes uncannily realistic features, for example ever present are long dialogue’s in French and German, which adds realism to the text as most traditional American war films usually feature the Germans and French speaking in English with an accent. In this sense, Tarantino creates a hypereality in the film whereby the audience may find it difficult to distinguish, which parts are historically accurate and which parts are not, which is itself manipulative of space and time. The short film ‘Nations Pride’ featuring Frederich Zoller within Inglorious Basterds is another example of an overly emphasised and historically inaccurate war film, the very kind Tarantino created Inglorious Basterds to shun. The ‘film within a film’ is a very deliberate manipulation of space and is perhaps the boldest feature that reminds the audience they are watching a fictional film, which is just as fictional as any other inaccurate WW2 film. Tarantino himself stars as a soldier in the film within a film, which pastiches further this idea of the perception of historical accuracy.

Despite the obvious informative meaning of Tarantino’s work, it is arguable that to the less literate and intelligent audiences, the ‘historical deafness’ will only be amplified, creating an even more distorted view of history because of texts like Inglorious Basterds. Something Jameson feared would accompany postmodern texts.   

In the future the boundaries and existence of postmodernity are bound to change. It may be argued that over time, due to the large number of texts that will be created, whether it be consciously or subconsciously, that everything thing will become a complete or part copy of something pre-existent. Henceforth, it may be that no matter how much supposed originality or creativity a producer puts in to making a text, due the volume of texts being/been created previously, everything will become postmodern.

Audience Booklet - Q1 1b exam prep

25341346 Audience Booklet A2 Mr Smith

Key Terms for PostModernism and 'The Worlds End' - Inspired by RW-

1) Self-reflexivity can be found everywhere in pop culture, for example the way the Scream series of movies has characters debating the generic rules behind the horror film.

2) irony and parody. Connected to the former point, is the tendency of postmodern artists, theorists, and culture to be playful or parodic. Shows or films will often parody themselves in mid-stride.

3) a breakdown between high and low cultural forms. Postmodernists often employ pop and mass-produced objects in more immediately understandable ways, even if their goals are still often complex (eg. Andy Warhol's commentary on mass production and on the commercial aspects of "high" art through the exact reproduction of a set of Cambell's Soup boxes).

4) retro. Postmodernists and postmodern culture tend to be especially fascinated with styles and fashions from the past, which they will often use completely out of their original context.

5) visuality and the simulacrum vs. temporality. Given the predominance of visual media (tv, film, media advertising, the computer), both postmodern art and postmodern culture gravitate towards visual (often even two-dimensional) forms. As a result, Baudrillard and others have argued (for example, through the notion of the simulacrum) that we have lost all connection to reality or history. Pop culture also keeps coming back to the idea that the line separating reality and representation has broken down.

6) late capitalism. There is also a general sense that the world has been so taken over by the values of capitalist acqusition that alternatives no longer exist. One symptom of this fear is the predominance of paranoia narratives in pop culture. This fear is, of course, aided by advancements in technology, especially surveillance technology, which creates the sense that we are always being watched.

7) disorientation. MTV culture is, again, sometimes cited as an example as is postmodern architecture, which attempts to disorient the subject entering its space. Another example may be the popularity of films that seek to disorient the viewer completely through the revelation of a truth that changes everything that came before (Inception)

Genre Theory -Inspired by RW-

The identification of a text as part of a genre (such as in a television listings magazine or a video rental shop's section titles) enables potential readers to decide whether it is likely to appeal to them. People seem to derive a variety of pleasures from reading texts within genres which are orientated towards entertainment. 'Uses and gratifications' research has identified many of these in relation to the mass media. Such potential pleasures vary according to genre, but they include the following.

• One pleasure may simply be the recognition of the features of a particular genre because of our familiarity with it. Recognition of what is likely to be important (and what is not), derived from our knowledge of the genre, is necessary in order to follow a plot.
• Genres may offer various emotional pleasures such as empathy and escapism - a feature which some theoretical commentaries seem to lose sight of. Aristotle, of course, acknowledged the special emotional responses which were linked to different genres. Deborah Knight notes that 'satisfaction is guaranteed with genre; the deferral of the inevitable provides the additional pleasure of prolonged anticipation' (Knight 1994).
• 'Cognitive' satisfactions may be derived from problem-solving, testing hypotheses, making inferences (e.g. about the motivations and goals of characters) and making predictions about events. In relation to television, Nicholas Abercrombie suggests that 'part of the pleasure is knowing what the genre rules are, knowing that the programme has to solve problems in the genre framework, and wondering how it is going to do so' (Abercrombie 1996: 43). He adds that audiences derive pleasure from the way in which their expectations are finally realized (ibid.). There may be satisfactions both in finding our inferences and predictions to be correct and in being surprised when they are not (Knight 1994). The prediction of what will happen next is, of course, more central in some genres than others.
• Steve Neale argues that pleasure is derived from 'repetition and difference' (Neale 1980: 48); there would be no pleasure without difference. René Wellek and Austin Warren comment that 'the totally familiar and repetitive pattern is boring; the totally novel form will be unintelligible - is indeed unthinkable' (Wellek & Warren 1963: 235). We may derive pleasure from observing how the conventions of the genre are manipulated (Abercrombie 1996: 45). We may also enjoy the stretching of a genre in new directions and the consequent shifting of our expectations.
• Making moral and emotional judgements on the actions of characters may also offer a particular pleasure (though Knight (1994) argues that 'generic fictions' themselves embody such judgements).
• Other pleasures can be derived from sharing our experience of a genre with others within an 'interpretive community' which can be characterized by its familiarity with certain genres (see also Feuer 1992, 144).

Genre Questions.

General 

• In what context did you encounter it? (web, film, TV etc): Web. 
• What influence do you think this context might have had on your interpretation of the text? The fact that my video was only going to be shown on the platform of  youtube meant that it had to be instantaneously gripping towards the audience. We achieved this by using quick editing and a gradually building backbeat to the track. And within 20 seconds of the video starting, the lyrics and song kicked in. 
• To what genre did you initially assign the text? Indie-tronic, alternative, pop. 
• What is your experience of this genre? Listening to artists within this genre, such as: The xx, We have band. Also reading articles of such artists and during the R&D phase of the coursework; looking at texts within this genre. 
• What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with? The Performance of the song in a conventional way. The band are enjoying the media exposure whilst being filmed, and appear easy going. 
• How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content? Very typical, follows the convention of a simple performance video, by where the band are dressed in minimal/plain clothing.
• What expectations do you have about texts in this genre? I would expect existing music videos in our genre to be very similar to ours (as ours was based and gained inspiration from existing videos). Simple performance video, by where the band are dressed in minimal/plain clothing. 
• Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where)? A band, lip syncing, instruments, plain white room, conventional performance video, plain& simplistic clothing, mixture of different pace and type of editing. 
• What generic labels have others given the same text? So part of the audience that recognised our genre interpreted it correctly and viewed it as an indie-tronic/pop conventional video. Whereas those with a lesser knowledge of our genre didn't interpret it quite as well, and viewed it as more of a rocky genre.
• Which conventions of the genre do you recognize in the text? 
• To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of its genre?
• Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of the genre?
• Which conventions seem more like those of a different genre (and which genre(s))?
• What familiar motifs or images are used?
• Which of the formal/stylistic techniques employed are typical/untypical of the genre?
• What institutional constraints are reflected in the form of the text?
• What relationship to 'reality' does the text lay claim to?
• Whose realities does it reflect?
• What purposes does the genre serve?
• In what ways are these purposes embodied in the text?
• To what extent did your purposes match these when you engaged with the text?
• What ideological assumptions and values seem to be embedded in the text?
• What pleasures does this genre offer to you personally?
• What pleasures does the text appeal to (and how typical of the genre is this)?
• Did you feel 'critical or accepting, resisting or validating, casual or concentrated, apathetic or motivated' (and why)?
• Which elements of the text seemed salient because of your knowledge of the genre?
• What predictions about events did your generic identification of the text lead to (and to what extent did these prove accurate)?
• What inferences about people and their motivations did your genre identification give rise to (and how far were these confirmed)?
• How and why did your interpretation of the text differ from the interpretation of the same text by other people?

Question 1a Research and Planning

1. Research and Planning What skills did we learn about the importance of R&P? G325: Section A: Theoretical Perspectives in Media Question 1a)

The Research & Planning within my AS preliminary magazine task, AS final magazine task and the Digipak/Poster task in A2 was vital. And the amount of R&P I did within each task had a correlation with the out come and the quality of the final product. 

Firstly, prior to and during the creation of my preliminary magazine I only partook in a very minimal amount of research&planning. I basically quickly created a school magazine in an hour or two, with only reading one blog post on the conventions of a magazine as part of the research and planning section of the coursework. This lack of R&P was evidently one of the key factors that caused the prelim magazine to lack quality and aesthetics.  

Carrying fourth the realisation of the importance of R&P in to my final magazine coursework, I spent a hugely greater amount of time doing so. For example I analysed 3 front covers, contents pages and double page spreads of existing magazines (NME, Q & Fantastic man). This gave me an idea of the conventions of existing magazines and what a 'real' magazine looks like. Thanks to this, I was able to using certain aspects and convention, such as the placement of the Masthead in the top-left hand side of the front cover, in my magazine. This made my magazine look realistic and like a 'real' magazine. Another aspect of R&P i partook in was looking at specific magazine genres, such as Indie-tronic, minimalism and dance punk. This enabled me to choose my preferred genre of 'indie-tronic'. After this I then researched in to the target audience of this genre of music, this allowed me to then go on and plan towards attracting this target audience. For example I looked at a lot of Clash magazine's work with the xx, and made sure that I included features of minimalism in order to attract my required audience.