Reflection

I first thought A level media would be mostly about film and TV and how it is made. After the induction lesson and doing some of the bridging tasks I realised it also about analysing film and television programmes and trying to understand why they are made in a certain why. For instance why a certain camera position is used, or a type of editing. I also realised that media also deals with magazine and Newspaper production and writing reviews. This bridging task has taught me how to make a blog and update it regularly which I struggled to do before, I've also learnt how to analyse magazine covers in more detail. I enjoyed the TV drama post the most out of all the tasks because I had the chance to watch a television programme but also write what I thought about the programme which meant I had to watch it more carefully and try to fully understand it. After doing the media bridging unit I am more confident with AS Media because I have a better idea about what the course is about.

Gaurdian Media Summary- Ofcom investigates violence in TV shows

I read an article about Ofcom which can be found HERE. Ofcom regulate the content on TV shows in the UK  and make sure that shows with higher levels of violence and sexual content are shown after the watershed (after 9pm). In the article I found out there have been concerns with what kinds of shows are being shown before the watershed and being exposed to children. This is because an episode of Hollyoaks which shows someone being killed by a train was shown before 9pm. Ofcom believe it's their job to protect children from mature content and after a survey they found that 10% of Hollyoaks audience are aged 4-9 years old and could be being exposed to violence. However the people involved in the hollyoaks storyline said that viewers would be predisposed to the upcoming violence and intense storyline of the show.
I thought this article was interesting because I like to know how the media regulates and decides which programmes are not suitable to be shown on TV at certain times and why. I also thought it was interesting to see how violence affects young people and if violence in the media is really becoming an issue.

Annotated magazine cover

(click to enlarge)

Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and geeks is a comedy drama set in 1980s America. It follows the lives of a group of two different types of high school students and shows how the main characters try to fit in to different social status' schools have. The show only had one series which aired twelve 45 minute episodes before it was cancelled. It has been ranked 3rd on the best tv shows of 2000 and due to the cult following it had fans of the show managed to get the production company NBC to air all 18 episodes of the show.

 The show follows the lives of the two groups of high school students the "freaks" and the "geeks". The opening credits gives us an indication of who the geeks are and who the freaks are as well as introducing us to the main characters in the show. It shows them getting their school pictures taken which shows it will be based around a high school and the lives of high school students and also shows a bit of the characters personality as we get to see how they react to getting their pictures taken. i.e awkward, shy, confident etc.

Episode 1- Pilot

Episode one shows main character  Lindsay Weir who was a geeky girl but now wants to be part of the 'freaks' it also shows us the second main character her brother who is a geek and introduces us to his friends and shows them trying to defend themselves from a bully.

Main Characters:

Linsday Weir

Linsday Weir is the main character in the series, all episodes feature her. Linsday is displayed as a smart girl who has a bright future and has the ability to go to top colleges, she is also gifted in maths however she isn't sure what she wants to do with her life and feels like the black sheep amongst her geeky friends. She decides to start hanging out with the "freaks" (the teenagers with no future prospects) and this causes some concern for her parents and guidance counsellor.

Sam Weir

Sam Weir is Lindsay's 14 year old brother who has just started high school. In the first episode we see that Sam finds it hard to stick up for himself and is being bullied. Sam is portrayed as a geek, he enjoys doing things people may find geeky such as playing dungeons and dragons. We also get introduced to his love interest a girl called Cindy and see how he struggles to ask her out on a date.
Response to this episode and overall
I enjoyed the first episode it introduces you to the whole cast and gives you a sense of all the different characters personalities. It is also funny and slightly addictive. I would say this programme is suitable for teenagers mostly because it is about teenagers so they will be able to relate to it the most. I also think families could watch this because it does show how the parents react to the things their children do and it doesn't have any inappropriate content.

Media Representation

After doing some research I have a small idea of what 'media representation' is.
I have learnt that media representation can be how the media represents things such as gender, age and common stereotypes. The media can do this through newspapers, magazines, television and film. For example the media may want to represent elderly people as fragile so will use a character in a soap opera to portray this e.g. Dot in Eastenders.
The media expect us to understand this type of representation and accept it this can also change or view on things through re-presentation this is when an original idea is presented differently.

Three resources I found most useful and why

After looking around the Beaverwood Media Bridging Unit blog, I had a better understand of the course and the task I had to do for my bridging unit.
These are the 3 resources I found most useful.

1. The How to create a blogger post (Create a blog on blogger)
I found this the most useful because it was very easy to understand. I personally find it easier to learn from videos than from reading text because it shows you what to do and is clear and easy to understand. The only problem I would say with this is that it could have been a bit more update with the new blogger format.

2. I found the page telling you about what we would be doing in the course useful too. Which can be found here AS Media bridging unit. It gave me an idea of what we would be doing in the course and I also learnt how it worked (50% Exam, 50% courswork). I find this post very easy to understand too.

3. The last resource I found useful was annotating a magazine cover this is because I only had brief knowledge on how to annotate a magazine cover as I haven't really annotated one with detail before. I liked the image used to show you exactly how much detail you need to have when annoting because it included good examples of how this can be done.