Representation- Gay/Lesbian

In the media there are lots of controversy about being gay/lesbian, but over the years it has become more acceptable and a lot more people find it more comfortable to be open about their sexuality.

But in the media gay/lesbian is explored and shown widely, there a lot of soaps that are including gay/lesbian people within there scripts.
An example of a soap that explores and portrays being gay is Eastenders , they include a character Christian Clarke (John Partridge) as a openly gay funny guy, but when he meets his soul mate Syed Masood (Marc Elliott) everything does not work out so well, as Syed is muslim it is not in his religion to be gay and it is not acceptable, while struggling to come to terms and his family disowning him he eventually reunites with Christian and they end up being a happy couple.

What I do not think is right is that the gay people who are not ready or do not think they can come out about being gay , if they are watching the soap and see the difficulties about being gay then this is going to be something negative on their part.

Even though the media are slowly representing gays more now than ever it is still not in the right mind frame, all the soaps that I watch show great disadvantages to being gay, they show violence, suffering and being pushed out. So even though they are including it, I do not think its the right way to be representing it.

Some real people who are happy openly gay are some people such as 

• Elton John
• Will Young
• John Psrtridge
• Ricky Martin

 I looked at a report of statistics about gay people on Stonewall which is a gay/lesbian charity they shown in their statistics that..

• Lesbian, gay and bisexual people were portrayed for 5 hours and 43 minutes - 4.5 per cent of total programming.
• However, lesbian, gay and bisexual people were portrayed negatively for two hours and three minutes.
• Lesbian, gay and bisexual people were positively and realistically portrayed for just 46 minutes, 0.6 per cent of total programmes monitored. 
• Three quarters of portrayal was confined to just four
  programmes – Hollyoaks, I’m A Celebrity..., How to Look
  Good Naked and Emmerdale. 
• Half (49 per cent) of all portrayal was stereotypical.
  Gay people were depicted as figures of fun, predatory or
  promiscuous.
• Lesbian, gay and bisexual people were portrayed negatively
  for two hours and three minutes – accounting for 36 per cent of all portrayal.
• Lesbian, gay and bisexual people were presented in a
  realistic and positive way in just 46 minutes of programming
  out of 126 hours.
• Just seven minutes featured scenes where homophobia
  was challenged.

This shows that Gay/Lesbian people are being noticed but not always in a good way, obviously with the soaps they try to show the real things that happen in life such as deaths and other things that can commonly occur but with dealing with being gay I don't think watching these things such as violence and bullying towards people who are gay will motivate any person who wants to tell the world, although in the soap i mentioned before the couple are now together and everything is Ok there are various parts of the soap in the past that have shown people dealing with the fact that Christian was gay, but in one scene he was actually beaten to a pulp because of this fact.Gay/Lesbian is being portrayed with the wrong message, and I can predict that it is not doing any good for the younger generation , as they will be scared and worried about the consequences.My Personal view is that it should not matter if your straight gay or lesbian you are who you are and your life is your own you should life it the way you want as long as your happy, There should not be any consequences for being yourself.


Pink listThe Pink List is a list of the gay people who volunteer to be put on this list because they are very open about being gay and want to inspire other people to come out and be the person they are and not to be scared.

Aswell as men there are a lot more women now by comparing the list to the 2006 to 2010 there a lot more women present on the list, I think the soaps which I watch do not represent Lesbian as much as they do Gay, I think this might be a step for them to take, Gay has come through a lot over the years great media stirs have happened from certain subjects that have been mentioned, but Lesbians are not as common on screen well within soaps as much as gays are.
With soaps i think that they should explore every aspect of life gay/ lesbian/ transsexual/ bisexual and some of them are such as Hollyoaks, that represents a man who dresses as a women and has a relationship with a woman and a man, it shows gay people and even a person who is a girl who wants to be a boy, but lesbian is very rarely seen, this might not be the case for other media types such as news and other programmes , but I think quite a lot of people must watch these programmes and if they are not dealing with it then how would a person feel watching it thinking they are not normal because this is the message that has been portrayed to all gays for many many years.

Statistics Of Pink List.

 You can see that in 2006 there were a lot more men than women on the list but that changes by 2010 there are still a lot more men but more women have joined the list. Which backs up my point from before about there not being enough women who feel free enough to come out about being a lesbian it strongly needs to be improved in the media and portrayed as much as being gay is.

 

Men- Creative/Non Creative

 

Here you can see the difference in people who are creative and not, in 2006 there were a lot more creative people who were on the list but compared to the 2010 list they have dropped and some more non creative people have been added. 

Women- Creative/Non creative

 Same with the women, a lot more creative women were on the list , but in 2010 you can see there are some more non creative women who have joined.

Over all, you can see the figures are strongly with the Men on all counts even with the creative statistics they still are a lot more popular than non creative men.
Specially women have been more introduced into the 2010 listings but I still think these statistics should be a lot more even.

Hellcats

As a group we were shown the first 15 minutes of a show that we had not seen before, while we were watching we was asked to think about who the target audience could be, what adverts we would show in between the breaks, who we could choose to sponser the show and what time and what channel it would be aired on.



We found out the name of the film Hellcats, we decided as a group that the target audience would be about 13-15 year old girls, this made sense as the show was about cheer leading and other girly things, I think boys might watch it but would only be to watch the young girls in the show.

Further we decided that we would air the show on Channel 5 as it is too much of a smaller show to air on the other channels, the time of the show would be between 6-7pm as this would be the time that the target audience would be home and probably watching tele.

The adverts we chose to show between the breaks were:

• GHD
• High School Musical 
• Charlie spray 
• MaxFactor 
• Loreal 
• Nintendo DS 
• Animal Crossing.

 I think out of all of these products the best to be the sponser would be GHD as they are a big company and are perfect for the sponser, to advertise to young girls to buy their product.

The way women are represented

In today’s society older women are being replaced for younger models, but some aspects are still trying to keep the age range wide open.

For example X Factor, they use a certain way of making sure that they have a wide range of ages between their contestants. They are divided into groups the youngest contestant can only be 16 and can go up to any age.

Where as with the X factor judges it is a different case, there are 2 older men in the 50s and the girls a substantially younger with one at 27 and another at 39 but they look good and younger for their ages.
The difference between the male judges and the female judges is that the male are widely known and very popular for what they do they are managers and very professional. Whereas the girls who are judging have had only a slight bit of stardom.
There is great controversy that elder women are getting pushed when they are just as good as the younger ones maybe even better. If anything they are wiser and have a lot more experience.

Another example is Strictly Come Dancing, there was a big up raw by the viewers of the BBC as a few years ago they got rid of one of the judges and replaced her with a younger model Alisha Dixon. The BBC got in trouble for this as they were seen as replacing her for younger models even though the previous judge had a lot more experience and was clearly liked on the show.
To overcome their mistake they are now seemed to be making sure that they are asking a wide range of contestants from younger to older so that they cannot be criticized for making elder women obsolete.

Websites-Retail

TopShop
Design elements:
Logo:

The colours are very similar, they use white and different shades of Grey within the website.

I made a colour way of the different shades of colours used on the front page of the website:

Examples of photos:

There are a range of ethnicity as shown by the pictures I think as a high street shop this is a good point to have. The other point is that they all seem very airbrushed and thin, this is a problem i think they will come across when trying to intrigue other women who are bigger in size.

These images represent some of the clothes ranges that TopShop has, I see these models as being very pretty and airbrushed they are very thin and I think that top shop idolizes this fact. I think this could be a issue for marketing for larger women.

The market they are aiming at are women, they seem to be advertising the women as very thin, this could be a issue for the larger ladies as they will feel they need to be thin to purchase the products. Overall I think the models market the clothes well for the company.

The marketing range is a very good way to appeal to the other women of the nation, such as other religions. I think their clothes are stylish and fashionable but they represent women in the wrong light.

Criminal Damage
 Logo:

Pattern that is shown on the website-

Colour way-

They use a range of bright colours around the middle section of the website, probably used to draw users into that certain section.
It also uses colours to partition different parts of the website such as Guys and Girls.

I don't think there are any issues with the representation, they use different models than the other website, such with tattoos , I think this website is more down to earth and slightly rock/punkish. I think a really good point is that they use slightly larger women this is better than topshop as they do not seem to be representing the larger women when they advertise. The only problem I see with the representation is that there are not many pictures of other ethnic groups they seem to be all white models. I think exploring the ethnic groups within their marketing would help them a lot.


Gio-Goi
Logo:

The style is very loud with bright colours, the use of dark colours as main design though such as blacks and grey with green to break it up.

 This is a pattern that runs down the side of the website in the background , it is the same as the markings on the logo.

This is the home page as you can see the use of colours again is partitioning the different sections, the green is breaking up the dark shades of black and grey used.

Colour Way- 

The range of colours are very polarized, they have dark and then really bright prominant colours which could have some relevance with colours from the 80's which were linked to drug taking and partying., but it works along with the mood and attitude that the website is aimed to reflect.

Some pictures to reflect the representation:

I think it works well for the type of audience that it is aimed which would be urban youth, the website has relevance to drinking and drug taking.
I think the only issues with this website is that it has a lot of reference to partying, drinking and clubbing, this promotes a certain lifestyle that is not acceptable for everyone it could be an issue for the younger people viewing the website, it could encourage them to do so.
"Gio-Goi is a British fashion brand created in the 1980s, and relaunched in 2005".


Gina
Logo:

  



I think the style of this website would be for girls who have a quite a bit of money, who are more classy and professional. Just by looking at the main picture on the website you can see how the woman is stood in a city background at night with the lights in the background, this shows elegance and shows that they are girls who like to go out, spend money and socializing.

 This is the home page for the Gina website, it looks very unique and stylish, use of lots of black but polarised by the white, but it works well.

Colour way- 

These colours are very simple but effective, they give the website a sort of mysterious feeling, but stylish and sassy. The black and white images represent professional such as professional photos, they look thin and pretty which shows that they are wealthy and like to look good and be thin.

Some images of the website that reflect:

They are all black and white, they look like professional women, classy with a bit of money.
I dont think there are many issues with the site, the women seem to be in proportion, the only issue I could say as it seems like a high class store, non privileged women would feel intimidated to shop in the store as they feel not in place as they have less money and there is no representation of marketing to the ethnic backgrounds. I think the ethnic background is a big part of marketing to cover, people need to feel like they are part of a group to feel like they can be able to go into a shop and buy and feel equal to the people around them.



Van Dal

Logo:

 this is a bold pattern used down the sides of the website.

Straight away you can see that these are really polarised compared to the other websites that have been discussed here, it is for a completly different age range for elder women, the dont use the colours in the same way, they are different shades of colours, but still have the colours for each section.

Colour way- 

images to represent the marketing type:

From the images shown on the website, there doesnt seem to be any from an ethnic background this could be an issue for ethnic people, and as a retail store I think this could be an issue for them.


I think the marketing audience are ones such as the elder lady who are becoming older with larger feet, they seem pretty expensive with the prices so I would say the wealthier women would like to shop here.
Some women could argue that as they get older all they want is for themselves to be comfortable and be able to relax, yet they can't simply go to a shop and get a comfy pair of shoes without it being a high price.

The website is small and uses a simple structure, the women seem to be middle aged + which is good to show the audience that they are aiming for them, the ethnic background should be covered by these in their marketing. Larger women should get treated equally as well they do not seem to be treated fairly by most marketing products.


"Van Dal shoes are part of the Florida Group Ltd. - a family company whose origins can be traced back to the early 1900's. Founded by Mr Adelman Goodman - the grandfather of the current Chairman - the group originally made shoes in London, but in 1936 Adelman and his two sons decided to manufacture shoes in Norwich instead".

Websites- Internet

Audience Internet access-   
Home-

• Phone line.
• Broadband.
• Mobiles.
• Dongle.

Mobile/Out and about.

• iPad.
• Mobiles.
• Laptop.
• Work machines.

• Hot spots.
• Internet cafes.
• The cloud.
• Library.
• Hotels.
• Restaurants.

Public Phone.

• Internet .
• Mail.

Issues Public Space-

• Stalking
• Law is behind- Pirating - 10 years - Napster
• XXX- trying to make a new domain purely for porn- to protect minors from unexpected incidents.
• Youtube- adult access to violence.- Chucky films. 

Types of websites.

Retail- make money by selling commerce.
-TopShop

Marketing- to advertise & promote products.
 Le Creuset

Advertising- to embed adverts within articles.
-Elle.co.uk

Service- Providing a service for users
social networking- Facebook  
video converters
Google.

Information- to provide information
Academic- Wikipedia
Government - Council







X Factor-
Funding- Advertising
Sponsers- Very.co.uk, Talk Talk, L'Oreal, Nokia and Sainsburys. 
Phone line votes, downloads of performances from ITunes.

Target Audience- Mumsy people , who like cooking, mainly women older.
Purpose- to broaden experience viewing the website.


Strictly Come Dancing-
Funding- BBC which originally had funding from the government
Profit- None

Target audience- people who like dancing, like to watch celebrities.
Purpose- of website to broaden experience give other oppurtunities.





Website Monitoring.
A media producer of a website will want to know their progress, they can do this by counting their number of hits to the website, then can also download software that can tell you these things also other things like what pages are most being looked at.

The reason why media producers would want to keep up with their progress is to make sure they are hitting the right audiences , to find out if they are doing anything wrong towards their audience type.
For example the BBC websites would need to know this information because they will have to verify their advertising because they are using government funding.
Also the X Factor will need to present this information to its sponsors so they are up to date with the ratings and things within the website.

A site that is an example of this is www.uptrends.com

It is a good thing to have as it will let you know where the site is being let down it can inform you of any improvements such as new people joining the site.

X Factor

The X Factor is a singing competition that is hosted on ITV 1 they also have a extra show on ITV2 called Xtra Factor.
They travel all across england gathering people from auditions that they think are good at singing after all the places have been visited they take the contestants to boot camp where they will perform again for the judges, they are then singled down to about 24 contestants, the acts are divided into the categories such as , Girls, Boys, Groups and Over 25's.
The next process is for them to go to the judges houses where they will be narrowed down to 3 acts per judge.

The judges are, Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Dannii Minogue and Cheryl Cole.


They are then going to the live shows where they will compete live in front of the studio audience and the people viewing at home, week by week acts are dropped out by the public vote. Until the winner is announced.

Adverts and Audiences.
The adverts that are shown between the x factor are a good way of depicting what the broadcasters think the target audience is by what adverts they are showing. The actual show is sponsored by Talk Talk, and some other adverts i am going to explain.


Talk Talk- Is a video clip before and after each break that shows different groups of people from a broad range from children to and elder range of about 50. I think they are using this because it is relatively aimed at about everyone it is to do with latest technology and has pictures around the people who are singing.

Vagisil- is aimed at women, I think it would be relatively older women like 20+ I think they would use this to appeal to the women who are watching the X Factor as they think that age range of women are more likely to watch.

McDonald's- I think in general it is aimed at busy people, workers, people who are always on the go, but also families and younger people , the actual adverts was for one about coffee so I do think this one is aimed at the people who are more on the go and obviously older than children as it is coffee they are advertising.
This shows the type of audience they think will be watching, such as men an women who are working and want a coffee in the morning before they go to work.

O2- this advert was advertising tickets for the Foo Fighters, I think this is a good advert to have as it is X Factor is about music, I think O2 are trying to link themselves in with music, so I think this advert is obviously aimed at people who like the Foo Fighters also the ones that are already and O2 customer.
I think the people who O2 aim at would be teenagers to older people over 20 as they are more likely to have a mobile and want the deals and offers.

Family Guy Box set- I think family guy itself is aimed at teenagers to 20+ who like to have a laugh, I do not think its aimed at younger people below 14 but I do think they watch it anyway, I think the box set in particular that was advertised would be at parents or elder people wanting to buy it as a gift for example Christmas. 

Cat Food- I think that the cat food is aimed at obviously people who own cats, I also think that they might be showing it in a posh way as single people may be more persuaded to buy the more expensive brand of cat food, I think this shows that they also think a lot of singles and cat lovers may be watching the show.

Target Audience.
I think the target audience for this show could be any body, the contestants are aged between 16+ they can even be up to 80 years old it depends how good they are. So all age ranges could watch this show such as families, elder people, middle aged and really young people such as teenagers.
I think from summing up the adverts shown that the main target audience would be families but more of the older ones such as parents and say singles over the age of 20.