Health and safety

Health and safety issues to think about.

Wires for lighting etc could cause a couple health and safety hazards. The first is the possibility of people tripping on them. Therefore when filming I will make sure that any wires are taped down, this makes it less likely for people to trip over them. Another hazard involving wires is if they are lose or broken. I will have to make sure that all wires are good and not broken before I use them.

Transporting the performers and equipment to different locations could cause a hazard. I will have to make sure everything is safe.

The camera. To make sure that no damage is done to the camera I will need to check it each time it is used and make sure not to leave it unattended. I will also need to make sure that it is secure on the tripod or whatever is being used at the time.

A first aid box will need to be at each location in case of any of the performers or anyone else is injured.

Hypodermic needle theory

The hypodermic needle theory or magic bullet theory (1930) is mostly considered wrong today.

Marxism

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher who believed that material goods are the root of the social world.
He said that dominant classes create dominant ideology: how culture is constructed in a way that enables the groups holding the power to have maximum control with the minimum conflict. His theory looks at how society has classes and argues that the lower classes cannot better themselves and that upper class people are the powerful and control ideological views put to society.
He says that power is held by a minority group known as the 'elite' and that these people have access to capital and through this they could use their money and power to keep within their group. He also said that the majority of the 'mass' population labour to help them make a living. Marx stated that because of this industrialization the 'elite' were the only ones who has access to means of production.
Because the elite hold the money and the power it means that the mass are dependent on the elite and this leads to the elite taking advantage of this power to maximize their own profits. Basically there are the the rich and powerful and the rest of us work for the rich and powerful to be able to earn a living. We have accepted this role in society.

Tim O'sullivan et al (1998) - Ideology continued

Ideology helps us to make judgments about the world and the different views people have within it.

It can be argued that ideology is one mechanism by which a ruling group tries to deceive and control the ruled - J.B Thompson (1984)
Ideology implies that a powerful group can choose what messages are in the media and how society view these people in certain ways because of expectations.
As in examples that we looked at when looking at stereotypes, the powerful want 'black' people to be represented as gang members which have negative connotations. This is because 'they have the power to feed this ideology to society and for society to believe it to be true as it is what we are told by powerful groups who control the media.
Ideology is controlled and we consume their opinions as the right ones.
"Nobody has yet come up with a single adequate definition of ideology" - Eagleton (1991)
Eagleton may be right as far as the wording of the concept of ideology is concerned. However, scholars generally agree on the social nature of ideology: It is about social relations, consciousness and power struggle which play important parts in carrying out ideological objectives. Ideology therefore is also about the consciousness of those relations - Kelle and Kovalson (1973); Gouldner (1976); Thompson (1984) and Fairclough (1989)

Ideology and society
Ideology gives us ideas about the world that we live in. Because the media is powerful it can control what and how ideas are portrayed to an audience/consumer. The more powerful you are in society the more control you have over how messages are given to an audience.

Tim O'sullivan et al (1998) - Ideology

Tim O'Sullivan et al. (1998) Ideology - refers to a set of ideas which produces a partial and selective view of reality. Ideology involves widely held ideas or beliefs which are seen as 'common sense' and become accepted by society.

Richard Dyer (1983)

Richard Dyer is a representation theorist who studied the representation in media generally looked at how media texts represent themselves to society and an audience. He studied the ideological and historical significance of film stars and also looked at media in general.
'How we are seen determines how we are treated, how we treat others is based on how we see them. How we see them comes from representation' (Dyer 1983)

Representation enables us to understand a media text. It allows us to be able to categorise he ideology of the text to give us meaning. 
With out representation texts would be meaningless and have no messages. Without representation texts would not be able to translate a narrative to an audience. Without our representation there is no denotation.

Stereotyping - Tessa Perkins

Tessa Perkins (1979) Stereotyping is not simple and contains assumptions that can be challenged.
5 assumptions
Stereotypes are not always negative (e.g. 'The French are good cooks')
They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful (e.g. 'upper class twits')
They can be held about one's own group
They are not rigid or unchanging
They are not always false

Tessa Perkins says that stereotyping is not a simple process and has identified some of the ways that stereotypes are assumed to operate aren't true. 
As society changes its hard for stereotypes to change as they stick in society.
Not all stereotypes are bad or all good and we can categorise ourselves.

Stereotypes are always erroneous in content (usually wrong)
They are negative concepts
They are about groups with whom we have little or no social contact; by implication therefore they are not help about ones own group - Stereotype of a stereotype
They are about minority or repressed groups.
They are simple.
People 'hold' stereotypes of a group (believe them to be true) or do not.
Because someone holds a stereotype of a group, his or her behaviour towards a member of that group can be predicted.
Stereotypes are an innvaluble aid to understanding the world and all stereotypes must have a bit of truth or they would not have such and influence.