Aims of the portfolio task

As a group, we decided the almost dumb down the text enough so that somebody with no media training would be able to understand the key points it was aiming to make. Also, we tried to make it humourous as it is said that satirical and humourous writings are often more memorable as they are easier to read. Therefore, by making it funny, we would make the reading more approachable.

Paragraph 6

Mr. Advertising and Mr. Culture-Industry are quite good friends. Often, they have been thought of as having likening qualities to Mr. Propoganda. They constantly repeat themselves over and over to their friend, Mr. Consumer to try and sell him something. They use long words and over-complicated methods in the attempt to over power Mr. Consumer, who is seen as absent-minded and therefore doesn't pay close attention to the way in which he is being told.

Reflection- this style, although dumming it down considerably, allows the reader to get a clear defintion of what it means. Personifying parts of the media allows for easier communication and means that the reader will definatly understand.

Rachel Sutcliffe

Paragraph one of the portfolio task

I decided to do mine as a cartooon strip, i hope you can read it ok.

by Hannah Templeman

paragraph 3 Craig Stemp

When we think of celebrities, our favourite songs and the television programs we watch (and record on sky plus) there are similarities. However naturally, there are also differences and with that they all make entertainment what it is and each in its own way. Although these differences keep us hooked and only leave us wanting more, without us realising it, every gossip piece we read or every new pop star to come onto the scene is the same as the next. How many times has the young innocent teen done something billed in the press as ‘outrageous’ or been given a get out of jail free card when they were caught drink driving? It’s funny how break up stories become popular news just before the new celebrity fragrance line is been launched too. It’s clear that every story is planned and to be honest and quite frank we’ve heard it all before!

paragraph 2, Skills portfolio 7

You can relate the mass media and ownership to many things, even the game of monopoly. There are all different types of monopoly: Disney monopoly, star trek monopoly..the list goes on! But underneath all their bravardo, they are essentially the same game, following the same rules. Just like mass media culture. The big media bosses at the top are now unlikely to hide the dominance and power they retain in the industry as with this power comes fear and therefore obedience and acceptance of this power. Likewise, players who own such top-end propeties as mayfair and park lane rarely bother in hiding their winning streak and are the most likely to become competitive. The mass media make out like they are a 'business' or 'industry' so that they can carry on making inane programmes, radio shows etc. and get away with it because it's all 'just business'. Similar to that very annoying monopoly player who's clearly cheating but getting away with it because they've done it so many times you're used to it. At the end of the day when the big media bosses get their paychecks, the implications and social repercussions of the media material they have produced is the last thing on their minds! At the end of the game, whoever wins monopoly is unlikely to care what they did to get there (cheaters!) as long as the, albeit paper, cash and rolls in...

by Clare Strong

Skills Portfolio 7 Paragraph 5

We are constantly being bombarded by media images which promise us a better life; whether it be buying that new car, dying your hair a new colour or spritzing yourself with the newest celebrity-endorsed scent. Yet this promise never, ever actually seems to become a reality. We are supplied with an array of options, yet whichever one we choose, it never seems to be the right one. As consumers, we are constantly searching for the product which is going to provide an escape, yet we are always left with the same old life we had before that brilliant, oh-so-cool, life-enhacing invention. I’ve yet to meet someone who has met the love of their life, married them and had their children, all thanks to Jordan’s new perfume. Who knows, maybe they do exist, but I’m going to pretty much garuntee you that they don’t, and probably never will. So why do we keep buying in?

Abi Stickland

Skills Portfolio week 8 section 7

Everyone has the right to feel free and enjoy themselves, whether it is alone, in the dark with the monthly playboy reading or together, experimenting with the usual congenial dancing on top of a loved one. With religion going down the pan these days, courting has become some what of a past time. However with our sixpences few and far between these days we never get to try anything erotic and new with our found sense of freedom in the bedroom.

I've been having relations with a rather frolicsome lady lately and I’ve come to realise that I just can’t read people anymore. Even at the most intimate times of our human interaction, behind those beautifully shining white teeth and that musk body odour, i find myself lost in thinking of new audacious things to try. Thank goodness for the triumph of advertising, which as introduced me to many sexual fantasies over the years. As a consumer i have felt compelled to buy and use these products upon my affairs.

Tim Smith

The End is here

Yesturday was our presentations and I'm happy to say I think it went smoothly. We met up at 1pm in the taff (yes, the only time we didnt meet in the library) and made sure we had everything together such as the powerpoint slides and corrected any of the mistakes that Claire pointed out. We then began to discuss any problem areas anybody had, asking each other questions that we thought we might be asked by the tutors.
I then went down to the computer lab and got the internet sorted on my computer so that we would be able to have our blog accessable to those who walked past.
We arrived at the great hall walk through (late- oops) and began ruining Justin (aka Tims) thumbs by tacking all the information to the board. We then made sure our area was clear and professional and discussed where we would all stand. As a group we then discussed both good and bad presentation techniques and got ready for the tutors to arrive.
Just past 4 our first visitor came and, although it was scary, I think it went really well. I felt we answered the questions as a team and not as individuals, which I felt showed how successfull we were working all together. Watching my group answer questions fluently and elequontly made me feel so proud of them :) It may sound cheesy but I was so happy that everyone seemed to know what they were talking about and that we had so much fun working together. Although at times it was a struggle getting everything together, I think I might miss our little study group and our crazy gang banging sessions

Rachel :) x

Nearly time!

The presentation is about to start! For the last couple of days I have been preparing the handout for our group. We have been sat in the Taff for the past few hours, going over the final details of our presentation and now we are just about to actually do it. It's exciting to know that we are ready and soon everything will be finished.

I hate my life

Last blog entry!

For the final couple of days I have been preparing the introductory pages of our presentation. Using the information from the previous group meeting, i brokedown our orginal question into sub questions that a media scholar could focus on.

Right now im sitting in the Taff preparing for the presentation with the group! I'm having the best time of my life!

Justin (Tim)

...Some Bulgarian experience...

It's week 6 already and we have like an hour untill the beginning of our presentation... I feel like it was yesterday when we first met and just akwardly say hi to each other...and today we are like having great time together as friends... :)
I think that we had really good time and we worked as a group and I also believe that our presentation will be one of the best as we are confident, well prepared and always smiling ;)

Nora :) xxx

D-Day!!

ok soooo... it's the morning of presentation day! we all met up yesterday and talked about the last minute changes that we need to make to each of our sections. we then went and showed claire our presentation...i like to think that it went quite well! At 1 we are meeting so that rach can test us all on r knowledge :)
Finger's crosssed!
Hannah x

Me and craig met up to brainstorm or 'thought shower' (for those who are easily offended about 'brainstoming'...) our ideas on how we could research the watershed in terms of television, internet, radio, advertising etc. We definately had trouble getting started lol! But as soon as we got the ball rolling we managed to get quite a few impressive ideas together (so modest lol). After we got all our ideas together, we split the sub-topics between us (i did advertising and television..unfortunately not as impressive as craigs!) and typed them up onto our powerpoint slides. Craig also came up with the nifty background logo 'team GB'. GO TEAM G.B!

Claire :)

I'd just like to ask who Tim is?!?! I take it you mean justin? Thought i'd better clear that up for any confused readers.
hannah x

Week 4 - Red, White and Blue

My turn to write!!

Register:

Rachel
Hannah
Tim
Craig
Abi
Clare

This week each person was assigned a certain area to complete for the presentation. Tim was given the introduction, Hannah - what has been overlooked at in media?, Craig and Clare - how we would research the aspects of the watershed that haven't been looked at before, Rachel - What has been looked at already in the watershed and Abi is preparing the handout to compliment our presentation. We looked deeper into what could be studied and how to research it and had a rough idea of the layout of each poster.

After giving each other things to do for next week we then looked at how to structure our presentation. Rachel and Hannah came up with some "amazing ideas" of banners and balloons. Some good ideas were put through and in the next meeting the final touches of the presentation will be completed! No photo for this week as were all so amazingly smart to remember one!

Watershed the Musical?!

The register for today was -

• Tim
• Rachel
• Craig
• Nora
• Clare

Basically, we discussed the research we had gone off and done. We found that in terms of advertising, there was little use of a watershed at all, excpet for maybe sex lines and gambling, before 9pm. It was interesting to find that radio didnt have a watershed at all and we thought about, if we were to research it, we would use Chris Moyles as a case study because he recieves continues complaints about the content of what he says on the radio. Also, the internet has no watershed at all.

We decided to think about how we were going to present. We talked about smart clothing (for proffesionalism) and the posters we would create. We decided on four-

1. What has been over-researched
2. What has been under-researched
3. Does the watershed still exist?
4. Examples of previous re-search into the watershed.

We then discussed the ways in which we would present on the day. Tim thought of the very unusual idea of singing perhaps? would definalty be orginal...

The meeting was cut short due to lack of people and rubbish weather. We decided that we would meet twice next week, once on monday and again on the thursday. We also decided to post all research everyone had done onto our facebook account so that it was all in the same place on monday ready for us to template our posters.

Rachel x

Week 2!

This week we all met up again in some cheeky Harry-Potter esque room in the library for another team G.B meeting.

Register:

Tim
Craig
Hannah
Rachel
Clare
Abigail

We then decided to ensure we all knew what we were doing for the presentation. We essentially divided it into 3 parts-

1. What has been over-researched (spider diagram)
2. What has been under-researched (spider diagram)
3. Focus in on a under-researched- how would BBC research it?

We then began to brain storm idea again about under-researched areas and came up with more key research questions to add to our previous Disney and Radio ideas-

• Does the watershed still exist?
• What do children actually consume of the media?
• How do early soaps affect teens?
• How do statistics compare to opinions?
• How powerful is the Disney corperation?

When we moved on to deciding which one we would focus on. Through a lengthy discussion and a sidetrack onto talking about films/soaps, we decided on the question "Does the watershed still exist?"

We then delegated out a part of the media to each think about how we would research if the watershed still existed in that part. The media parts were; T.v Licience channels, Other channels, Internet, Sky, Advertising & radio.

We are now all going away to research each of these areas and will speak about it more next week

Rachel :)

Our first official meeting 6/10...:)

Ok soooo....we had a very productive first meeting i think, set out a few ground rules, did a bit of planning, came up with out name but first of rule the rigister...

• Nora
• Meg
• Craig
• Tim
• Clare
• Rachel
• Hannah

Everone who attended got a big pat on the back of corse!!

We decided that we needed a team name, so after a lot of hard considersation and thought we came up with the name the Gang Bangers, or formally known as team GB! The name came from a story told by Justin (Tim) about a girl who goes to uwic uni and told everyone that her main aim at uni was to have a gang bang! we found it so amusing that we decided to make it our name!

Rachel then showed us our lovely blog and we decided that a different person each week would takes notes and then post on the blog for that week....what a team!! :)

We also took a group photo as proof of who was there and to show just how much fun we were having! this will now happen every week! :)

So about half way through the meeting we decided that we should get on and do some real work so Justin read to us exactly what we were meant to do and we decided that we'd start by creating a brain storm (or should i say spider diagram) on what has been covered loads within the media......

Ok So it wouldn't upload so i'll list them for now

• Violence
• Body image
• Celebrities
• Sport
• Feminism
• Teenagers
• War
• Drugs
• sex

Then we went on to thinking about things that hadn't been covered much in the media and we came up with...

• Deisney films are always sad so 'the way in which desney films alter childrens perceptions of relationahips'
• What is the definition of a cult and how does it compare to what desney does?
• Peodophiles and disney?
• Loss of radio

That was about all we had time for in our first meeting!! We decided that we would meet at the same time next week.

Hannah xxx

The Gangbangers!! (or Team G.B..)

We are on facebook!! It is official... we will become a cult!!- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34806892037&ref=ts