Elijah Warne A Level Media Blog

Events that could have influenced Homelands 2000: Marks and Spencers launches it's "I'm Normal" campaign, featuring a naked size 16 woman. This generates a lot of media coverage Nigella Lawson publishes "How to be a Domestic Goddess" following the success of her TV show "Nigella Bites" New Labour's Human Rights Act comes into force George W Bush wins US Presidential Election 2001 George Bush refuses to endorse the Kyoto Protocol  Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon kills almost 3000 people Invasion of Afghanistan - the war on terror begins President George Bush signs executive order stating that the US Military can detain any non citizens who are thought to be taking part in terrorism  2002 The first group of 20 prisoners arrives at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba 2003 The Iraq war began in this year 2004 Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg A series of coordinated bombs on a commuter trai...

Friday 11th October LO2: Discuss, explain and evaluate how media context (where the media product was produced and screened) may have influenced representations in the TV Drama you have studied Specific Terminology: Americanisation McDonaldisation Cultural Imperialism Capitalism Consumerism Islmaophobia/Islamophobic Prisoners of American culture Examples of American influence: McDonalds - It is in most of the countries in the world. These are the countries without a McDonalds: Clothing - Brands like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour we all wear everyday which are American companies Social Media - Companies like Facebook and Google are American and they are used worldwide everyday TV - From a young age we are influenced by American TV like Sky rather than British TV like BBC Technology - We use American technology everyday, for example all Apple products are American and are all designed by Steve Jobs an American citizen.  Dominant Ideology...

Wednesday 8th October   Todorov's Narrative Theory Introduction: Todorov's theory is that there is a specific structure which most films, books and mostly anything with a storyline will use, especially in TV Dramas. The five aspects of Todorov's theory are the equilibrium where everything is in order, a disruption where someone or something causes order to be lost, recognition of disruption where the protagonist is affected by or realises the disruption, attempt to fix disruption by the protagonist and then new equilibrium where order is restored in a different way.  His theory goes especially well with TV Dramas, as the include multiple uses of disruptions (a stage in Todorov's theory). This theory is very useful, however it has it's restrictions in TV Drama as they usually want the audience to be lead on and thinking about multiple disruptions. How this applies to Homelands: Equilibrium - CIA agent Carrie Mathison is doing her job in Baghdad Disrupt...