David Gauntlett’s Media Studies 2.0 theory

David Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist. He specializes in the study of contemporary media audiences, the everyday making and sharing of digital media, and the role of such media in self-identity and self-expression.

Gauntlett’s Media Studies 1.0

This traditional approach to Media Studies, which is still dominant in a lot (but not all) of school and university teaching, and textbooks, is characterised by:

-          Expert fetish

-          Classics and canons

-          Traditional media focus

-          Critical resistance to big media

-          Teaching students to read critically

-          ‘Conventional’ research methods

-          Division between audience receivers and expert producers

-          ‘Sit back and be told’

Craftsman theory by Richard Sennett

Richard Sennett is Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. The craftsman theory is an eternal complaint of the craft communities that craft is marginalized, ignored, and simply not accepted as a subject worthy of attention by the media or critics.

The book is about perfectionist skills and the desire to do things well. When we downgrade dedication we do so at our peril, Sennett argues, in great knowledge and thought-provoking work. He says that doing a job properly takes the time it takes and that doing our own work well enables us to imagine later categories of good in general.

Sennett does is put a stake in the ground by asking rhetorically whether our commitment to work, our craftsmanship, is merely about money, or about something deeper and more human. He argues that our work commitment, the skill, the late nights, the pride and the problem solving that go into our work, is a lot more than about the money.

The Conventions of Genre: (Pop)

The music video I chose to analyse was Pixie Lotts ‘All about Tonight’ and i looked at all the different features and conventions to represent this. 

The cinematography consisted of a range of various shot types and camera angles. The first example was the full body shots. It was portrayed in the video when we saw Pixie and the backing dancers dancing in the street. The full body shots create emphasis on the location of where the artist is, which in this case she is dancing in the middle of the street at night with the spot light on her. Another popular shot in this music video is the close up shots. These shots were more common when the music slowed down. The close ups in this video tend to show the emotions of the artist but reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist. The last common camera angle is over the shoulder.

Most of the lighting in the video is artificial, and there is hardly any natural light used. This may be due to the fact that the video is filmed in a night setting. There are bright spotlights on Pixie Lott herself throughout the majority of the video. This is to show the artist in detail and also to see her beauty.

There are a few different editing techniques which have been used in this video. Some shots have no transition at all and it flashes from shot to shot but in other parts of the video, two scenes have been merged together. An example of this is where there is a shot of the artist which is a close up shot and the shot of the destination is a long shot so you can see the detail and work out where the location is. (New York)

The mise-en-scene in this video consists of mainly minimal clothing, dark colors, glamorous outfits and popular cities, The location used looks like it is in the middle of a street. This could be as they are on their way out and are so excited to get to the club that they feel the need to dance on the way there. They want to be the centre of attention as the lyrics state that it is ‘all about tonight’ and therefore they want to make the most of it. Pixie is wearing very minimal clothing throughout the whole video, however she looks very glamorous, especially with the neat make up and bright red lipstick. Considering it is nighttime in which the video has been recorded the lighting is very dim and the backgrounds are very dark but spotlights are seen to be added to make Pixie stand out from the rest of the dancers.

 

There is a close up shot of Pixie texting a friend saying ‘Ready to go?’ which has been exaggerated to make the viewers feel involved in her night out. It is also very realistic and shows to us that she is just like every other normal young girl. It also is an advertisement as we see the Nokia logo on the phone, and so her fans may want to be like her and buy the same phone.

The audience is left to feel on edge throughout the entire video. There are very regular outfit changes and therefore the viewer doesnt know what to expect or what she will be seen wearing next. 

The Long Tail

An example of a power law graph showing popularity ranking. To the right is the long tail; to the left are the few that dominate. Notice that the areas of both regions match.

 The long tail is a frequency distribution pattern which shows how online advertising can make a brand expand as certain shops do not have enough shelf space in store, so therefore they can sell from warehouses and stock more space that they could in a superstore. This means the company can therefore sell more products. Occurrences are most densely clustered close to the Y-axis and the distribution curve tapers along the X-axis. The long tail refers to the low-frequency population displayed in the right-hand portion of the graph which is represented by a slightly sloping curve that becomes asymptotic to the x-axis. In most cases, the number of events in the tail is greater than the number of events in the high frequency area. This is simply because the tail is long. The long tail is important for media because it expands the general advertisement of products. It places advertisements on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.