Tarantino’s women
Jo Zelzulka
In this article, Zelzulka argues that Tarantino demonstrates a strongly feminist approach to his female characters including Beatrix Kiddo and Jackie Brown. both characters demonstrate strongly stereotypical views of womanhood through their prioritisation of motherhood. However, Zelzulka explains that this allows the characters to become more three-dimensional as the stories follow a plot which is able to intertwine motherhood within it. It is also clarified that ideas surrounding motherhood are present within the films not out of misogynistic views but from a place of adoration from Tarantino who describes his own mother as “ambitious, competent, successful, and well-educated” due to her ability to raise him without a consistent father figure for Tarantino. Jo also states that Tarantino’s representations of women display them as “strong, independent and complex characters…in all his films” further accentuating the idea that women in his films have characteristic depth and strength to them. From this it can be concluded that Tarantino chooses to present the female characters within his films as complex to reflect the strength and determination of the women within his own life who he appears to strongly uphold as both influential and inspirational. Zelzulka iterates at the end of her article that her opinion could be heavily influenced by the fact that she is a woman. She would see things from the perspective that supports her view that Tarantino would represent women and men in equal resale to of character without stereotyping either gender. Tarantino himself recognises the difference in approach which can be taken by men and women when looking into gender roles within his films. He elaborates that “…some of the strongest defenders of Reservoir Dogs were women…the women who got it would take on all comers.” which could suggest that Zelzulka may be accurate in her perspective of what Tarantino is trying to convey about women through the way that male characters within his films talk about and address women.
Feminist theory: Liesbet van Zoonen
Van Zoonen argues that females in media are often restricted to secondary roles as they are consistently led or controlled by a stronger male character. They typically possess the role of the romantic interest or another supporting role within television. However they tend to positioned in order to peruse male-based dependence through advice within magazines. Women are often constructed as passive participants in their roles which can be seen in sports coverage, shown in both magazines and news, due to the predominant focus on the performance of male athletes. This displays a clear theme in multiple media products of women being seen as almost a character that stands behind a man and bends to his will, creating patriarchal ideas about gender inequality and the stereotypical ‘weakness’ of women.
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Natasha’s Story: life as a new mum in temporary accommodation
Natasha discusses her fears as a new mother whilst being homeless. When her daughter was born, she felt terrified as her and her daughter had nowhere else to go. Natasha explains how living in temporary accommodation affects the lives of her and her daughter on a daily basis. She tells the audience about how their id mould and damp everywhere in the property. Her daughter has had a cough from the age of three days old until now. Within the property, there are damp collectors which tend to fill up within the space of a week and a half to two weeks. Natasha struggles to sleep because she is concerned that her daughter is going to stop breathing in her sleep. their toilet is filled with sewage and after it is flushed, it comes back with 20 minutes to half an hour. They are currently eating mainly tinned foods and baby dishes that do not need to be cooked because they do not have an oven. they also have rats within their accommodation, making the environment uninhabitable. She also explains that even without these issues, the accommodation is so small that it is dangerous for an adult and a toddler to be living there. Natasha does not feel safe in her temporary accommodation due to loud noises which can be heard from people being arrested and their doors being ‘booted in’. She has previously come back to her property and seen parts of the wall surrounding her lock that have been chipped away, making her worried for the safety of her and her daughter as she feels defenceless in the potential event that someone breaks in. She feels that there have been several serious issues that have never been dealt with. None of the tenants have direct contact with landlord and are only able to contact a team that works for the landlord, who have recently began ignoring Natasha’s phone calls and emails. Natasha and her child spend most of her day out of their accommodation, even in winter months just to escape their situation. One of Natasha’s neighbours has been in their accommodation for 7 or 8 years. Natasha said that feels that there are “not enough people that care” because there are not enough landlords that will help. She also discusses how there are a lot of new buildings being constructed but only to be bought or rented. She feels that these buildings should be social buildings in order to help thousands of people. Natasha often tells herself that their situation could be worse as her and her child could be living on the streets but due to the mice and sewage she feels that she is almost in that situation. Despite this, Natasha says that her child empowers her and is her motivation as she dreams of one day not being in temporary accommodation with her daughter. Through this video, Shelter informs the audience that temporary accommodation is not a solution to homelessness but instead the government need to invest in a ‘new generation of social housing’.
Loaded: Lads, Mags and Mayhem
I watched a BBC documentary which looked into the Loaded magazine and its development throughout the 90s from its origin, aiming to appeal to audience similar to the creators of the magazines. The documentary begins by focusing on how loaded began, as a fanzine focusing on interviews with bands created by James Brown. Loaded was then officially created in 1994 with a team including James Brown, Kristen Smith, Martin Deeson and Michael Holden. The title ‘Loaded’ was seen as effective due to its polysemic connotations which Brown describes as “power”, “energy” and “sex”, insisting the magazine had action in comparison to its competitors GQ and FHM. The magazine chose to target itself towards ‘men who should know better’, inspired by a comment made towards Brown by a teacher whilst he was at school. Loaded was seen as a reaction to newly introduced stereotypes of the ‘new man’ based on political correctness within the 1980s and 90s, choosing to shut down these stereotypes. Loaded was aimed at those who were a part of the ‘lad’ culture. ‘Lad’ culture is perceived as what was a mass of popular culture amongst working class people, mainly men within the 1990s. David Baddiel was a large part within this ‘lad’ culture along with other popular figures within media at the time such as Gary Oldman, Eric Cantona, and Paul Weller, who were perceived as ‘cool’. Baddiel comments that there was a redefinition of the word ‘lad’, causing a redefinition of the type of masculinity that had been looked down on by others previously. In early stages of production, it was suggested to Brown that the magazine included everything men like apart from women, which led to a change in approach and Liz Hurley featuring within the magazine. Sawyer suggested that women only seemed to be included within the magazine when sexualised, which continued and accelerated throughout the magazine’s production, especially after Brown left and was replaced by Derek Harbinson. This is a contrast to the way women were often represented when the magazine first began as they were typically seen as able to become a part of the ‘lad’ culture as ‘ladettes’ whose lifestyles were characterised in a similar way by humour, indulgence and hedonism. However, towards the end of the 20th century women who had largely been empowered within the ‘lad’ culture were once again being asked to strip for the magazines, solely seen sexually. Alongside the launches of Nuts and Zoo, an increased depiction of female nudity was seen within Loaded magazine. The magazine was now depicted as pornographic due to a shift in its focus from ‘lad’ culture to naked women. The circulation declined within the 2000s compared to the 1990s when the magazine launched. This can be perceived as a result of Loaded’s change in approach from capturing lad culture to becoming a magazine with a “babe-only cover policy” as described by Meg Carter in The Independent.
The Big Issue Infographic
I, Daniel Blake review
Directed by Ken Loach, the film focuses on problems within the welfare state and its ability to support those in need. The film follows the story of Daniel Blake, a man that seeks help as he is unable to work, and his interactions with the social support in place assigned to help him. Loach uses the film to highlight the issues within the system and its limited accessibility for those that need it most. For example, the increased use of the internet within the application for benefits is displayed to be extremely problematic for those that lack digital convergence is displayed within the film. People who are unfamiliar with technology are expected to use the internet to access financial support such as applications for benefits. Through this Ken Loach reflects how the measures put in place to request help are often difficult to access by certain sections of society. This furthers the idea that the state is not always wholly considerate of people's ability to access the help they are being told is available to them. Loach has produced several films reflecting a similar message about the inaccessibility of the welfare state, suggesting that no real change has occurred. One character in the film references Iain Duncan Smith, who was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following the 2010 election, further suggesting that the state itself is at fault for the lack of support for those in need. I feel that the film was a realistic and emotional representation of how the welfare state treats those in need and does not always entirely consider the circumstances of those in need. Beyond this, I felt that the film suggests that help is only available when its too late, reflected by the end of the film. In my opinion, I feel that Loach has been able to allow the audience to engage and build a relationship with a character that is based on stories of real people, encouraging ideas of collective responsibility within society, due to the unreliability of the welfare state.
Media Magazine Conference 24th January 2025
Chris Hogg: AI and industrial creativity
Chris Hogg teaches creativity, entrepreneurship and digital marketing at media department at Royal Holloway. Hogg explained that AI was given to people for free when introduced by Open AI, engaging people due to the accessibility of the service. Algorithms often reward the amount of time people spend looking at individual posts whereas before they would reward real people engaging with real people, leading to people making content designed for algorithms that will keep people engaged for as long as possible. AI has lucid limits, boundaries/constraints within which play or games operate, and has to steal from other sources, essentially making it a plagiarism machine. AI's impact on industrial creativity was analysed from several perspectives. Simon Stephens argued the stage ad theatre is the umber one tool for investigating AI as Greeks used to se it as a method of staring tragedy in the eye. Through the use of human technologies, we are able to understand the new intelligence of AI. Through an experiment using AI to create a page based on what it was hearing it as found that AI has a 30 second delay so therefore cannot be within the same reality as us. AI can be perceived as a slave which simply just follows instructions. it can be understood that it lacks true creativity as true creativity goes into the world and has a life. It is difficult to discuss AI as we lack the language to talk about AI being half-alive and half-there. Due to the lack of creativity and reliance on plagiarism, AI is only ever to provide the average, explored through the use of AI to recreate Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo. AI was only able to create a combination of other guitar solos performed by Van Halen, as it is only able to produce the average as opposed to original content. However, Ali Esami argues that photography didn't kill painting but instead it developed it and allowed it to progress. Similarly, AI may allow industrial creativity to progress. Dr Takeo Higuchi is known for recording his ideas and being the founder of the ideas marathon system. He has recorded 590,000 ideas by January 2025 within 580 notebooks in the space of 41 years. Higuchi argues that you need to use your brain everyday. In turn, this would enable you to brighten your creativity everyday oder to overcome AI. Marshall Macluhan said that any technology will have 4 impacts: enhancing something we do, cancelling something we do, bringing back something lost and flipping out something. AI will enhance the skills we have by automating mundane tasks. Creative friction will become obsolete along with digital design, coding and social collaboration. The true value of human craftsmanship, memory/hospices & Alzheimers, and the value of words will be brought back by AI whilst a loss of meaning in art, over-reliance on AI and more contactless profit, fake information and demoralisation will occur.
Alison Phillips - former editor of The Mirror - in conversation with April McCarthy
When discussing a front cover, used by A Level media studies students as a case study, Phillips commented that the creation of front covers if often instinctive. The target audience of The Mirror consists of people aged 50 and over, often members of north-weest manufacturing communities with a strong sense of working class labour solidarity and an importance for sport and showbiz. The Mirror in print is a visual representation of what it aims to represent. The paper chooses to produce stories that align with their views, such as the partygate stories. The stories on partygate were broken after being discovered through investigative journalism.
Hannah Ewens: Fandom
Ewens explained how fandom can be understood as a hierarchy. Often, the fans with money are at the top of this hierarchy as they can afford tickets to their favourite artists' concerts. However, fans without money are able to reach the top of the hierarchy through sheer determination, devoting their time, energy and commitment to their favourite artists. From viewing fans queuing for concerts and camping out waiting for the doors to open, Ewens notice that fans are often self-policing and stop. people from queue jumping by keeping track of each others places in the queue. Fangirls are often represented as the stereotypical view of hysteric fans, know for screaming and crying when seeing artists. Hannah chose to write a book illustrating a new perspective of fangirls and the motive behind their actions. From interviewing fans, Ewens learnt that fans desire to be in the presence of artists and describe those experiences similarly to religious experiences showing a sense of idol worship from the fans towards the artist. She also documented that sexuality is a large factor within the explanation for fandom. Fans often have their first crushes on certain artists, a similarity seen amongst straight and queer fans. Alongside this, fans often feel that the artist is able to articulate their emotions which fans often find moving, especially when struggling with their mental health.
The old circuitry fandom consisted of the artist and fan creating fandom together. However, fans were not taken seriously and often as hysterical. Fans are now talked about differently, often referenced as 'stans'. The relationship between fans and artists has seen significant changes with modern artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Chappell Roan. A change has occurred within fandom, especially with the use of social media by fandoms, creating constant pestilence and surveillance. Fans no longer put artists on pedestals and instead choose to now police them, displaying a decrease in idol-worshipping of artists. There has also been a rise of 'anti-fans' who are obsessed with an artist to the same extent as fans but simply for the purpose of projecting hate onto these artists.
A new circuitry of fandom has been formed where the artist, fandom, fan, and online audience all crossover. Fandom is no longer private, created by the artist and fan, but instead created by a larger audience who attempt to control artists' actions. Social media has disrupted fandom a sit is now publicised, busting a secret world open to others. It is likely that fandoms would have remained intimate without social media. Despite this, a special kind of passion still exists within fandom. Different approaches can be see for artists to build fandoms within the circuity. Artists such as Beyoncé and Harry Styles have built their fanbases through a mystique of not saying anything online, which allows fans to create an idealised image of their favourite artists. Other artists, such as Billie Eilish opt for being accessible to their fans. It is also common for artists, such as My Chemical Romance, to building worlds around their music, making the fandom exciting for fans to join. The term 'fangirls' is sourced from a small percentage of girls compared to boys participation gin the activities associated with the label. This could be due to boys presenting their appreciation for artists in different ways as opposed to the stereotypical fangirls. It can be noted that fandoms often surge during big cultural moments for artists and decrease back down to the original smaller fandom afterward, suggesting that some fans are simply just 'jumping on the bandwagon' when artists or albums surge in popularity.
Harv Frost: filmmaker of 'Prelude to Ecstasy'
Frost made her first music video around the age of 14/15. She began by creating music videos for local small bands, until she was noticed by bigger bands, leading to her career within the music video industry today. She explained that the music video industry is less gated than the film industry so those that want to be in the industry should just keep making videos until they are noticed or paid for their work. Frost stated that she was inspired to create music videos by her consumption of a lot of content through MTV and later Youtube. She was interested in the link between the visual and audio elements of music videos, inspiring her career. Although many people believe that music video consumption is decreasing, the industry sees the consumption of music videos increasing. Music videos often inspire cultural ideas around fandoms and due to this, singles are often released with aa music video in order to create a visual world of a record which young people often attach themselves to. The 'Prelude to Ecstasy' short film is a compilation of multiple music videos, creating a world around the album, leading to a cultural moment inspired by The Last Dinner Party. It can be perceived that the visuals of the music video somewhat exceed the sound as the music video is so visual and so cinematic. The aesthetic of TLDP is tied in with the visuals of the band and their music videos, creating a basis for their fandom. 'Prelude to Ecstasy' included the first and last song on the album along with other songs between them in the short film, encouraging the audience to look for a narrative. Fans want to be able to fully consume all elements of albums when they are released, which the short film attempts to do by creating a world around the album, allowing them to do this. Frost commented that as a creator, the marriage between music and visuals is a great space to work in as music videos allow the possibility of telling a story. Harv Frost felt that it is important, especially for female fronted bands, that members of the band can engage with the creation of the music video. Band member Abigail helped co-direct the music video for 'Sinner' creating a collaborative process between the artists within the band and the director. Frost also stated that she prefers the process of motivating and guiding artists within music videos as opposed to the 'dance monkey dance' approach. The short film was shot on film, which was more expensive but worked with ideas for the music videos. The biggest challenge within the project for Harv was the editing, not the shooting due to the structure of the project as music videos are often non-linear whereas films are typically linear. Harv is often inspired by lyrics and subject matter of the tracks when making music videos as the songs often have wider contextual meanings that can be dipped into. When attempting world building on a lower budget, Harv recommended finding settings in which the artists fit in which is often easier when the artist has a clear aesthetic. Fleshing out details and thinking about the big picture are also both crucial, particularly on low budget music videos. Frost's personal style is influenced by an exploration of style and the media influences surrounding her - particularly film but also TV and video games. 'Prelude to Ecstasy' was largely influenced by films Frost watched when creating the short film. Harv also found her preference for handheld filming through experimentation with tripods and other stands along with a preference for working with natural light.
David Hesmondhalgh in conversation with Anamik Saha: cultural products and the industries that shaped them
The Daily Mail and Mail Online makes profit on the basis of generating anger fear and anxiety amongst their readers. Their treatment of refugees and attitudes towards anti-vaxers is incredibly problematic. Journalists at the Daily Mail and other newspapers felt that they could hack people's phones including victims of crime, showing the culture within the Daily Mail. The viewpoint and ideologies within the newspaper is not purely sourced from the financial aims and ownership of the newspaper but also who works within the newspaper and how they project their views through their writing.
Barbie was a massive cultural hit, which provided audiences with a feminist message . Barbie dramatised girls' and women's relationship with childhood and adulthood, being playful with the idea of seeking to establish yourself in the world and feminism. For directors like Greta Gerwig, it is possible to be creative with blockbusters but there is danger that cultures can exploit bottom up creativity for marginalised people.
Hip hop has become one of the biggest music industries in the world. The genre discusses race and racism but has been accused of being misogynistic and homophobic. Cultured imperialism, the most powerful nations dominating the world with their products, can be seen with hip hop as it is an example of America exerting. itself on the rest of the world. Hip hop has become one of the most commercially successful music genres in the world, further suggesting this. Hip is often associated with slave culture, the underbelly of America life. This suggests that the music industry is accessible and democratic as it allows peoples voices to her heard, especially those from poor and marginalised groups. Delisted this, hip hop is also known to be exploitative of these marginalised people within society.
TV shows like Traitors, Squid Game, and Beast Games present issues of disrust which intercept with distrust. Mr Beast, the creator of Beast Games, gained popularity on YouTube which is unusual as it is often incredibly hard to make your voice heard on YouTube due to the large variety of content available to viewers. Mr Beast uses more extreme and shock value content to engage viewers, often representing humans in a really dark light by portraying everyone as greedy and immoral. Traitors represents people similarly but in a more playful way, displaying it as a more human show about distrust within society. Squid Game represents a counter to the idea that culture is dominated by Europe and the USA as it produced in South Korea. It can be understood as aa criticism of capitalism. However, games based on Squid Game can potentially be damaging, as seen through Beast Games.
Hesmondhalgh also commented that increasing diversity of gender and ethnicity is incredibly welcome within the media industry but is insufficient, and should not progress out of fear.
Nida Manzoor in conversation with Christian Cottingham
Nida originally had no connections to the industry, beginning by doing a freee course in film making. When she began in the film industry, there was a lot mire money in supporting ht arts. She began by making a short film which got into film festivals and was successful, leading to financing for other projects. She does however believe it is now harder for young people to get into the film industry as there are less grants and opportunities. Her show 'We are Lady Parts' is a music show with female muslim characters. The comedy was pitched around by Manzoor until she was able to find a production company that wanted to keep the show as she had originally written it. She tries to straddle the line between being comedic and presenting key messages through the content of the show. Manzoor does not preach the message that political art should be produced by marginalised people but chooses to explore this through her show. She does this often by using comedy as a vehicle for the truth. The tail end of s2 gave an immense amount of space for muslim creatives and artists that inspired Nida allowing a celebration of culture through the show. Manzoor currently has no plans for season 3 and is happy with the ending of season 2 as a finale. An American streaming site, Peacock, made 'We Are Lady Parts' which Manzoor commented was a positive experience as they supported the creation and development of the show. The show was successful in the US as the 'quirky british' element of the show appealed to a large audience. The songwriting process within the show begins with a title, then a genre, before Nida works on lyrics and instrumental with her brother and sister. She opted to work with her siblings more in season 2 whereas season 1 was more self-focused for Nida. Manzoor was able to have Malala Yousafzai star in a cameo within the show and communicated with her about this by writing her a letter asking her to feature within the TV show after hearing that she was fond of comedy. Manzoor described her film 'Polite Society" as a "joyful kung-fu Bollywood epic". She grew up loving action movies, Bollywood cinema and heist movies, creating inspiration for the film as a crossover of these genres. She used the action genre within the film to explore immense teenage emotions, depicting her truest expression oof what it felt like fighting with her sister growing up. Manzoor commented that her style has evolved through making short films imitating filmmakers that she likes - including action shots, bright colours and snappy dialogue. Beyond this her style has been informed by other creatives that she has worked with throughout her career. 'Polite Society' was made 11 years from writing her first draft, providing Manzoor with resilience within the film industry. The setting of London is often used within Manzoor's work as she finds it visually striking and interesting and she finds it thrilling shooting in places relevant to her life when she was growing up. She was originally encouraged to abandon the film as production companies and finding were not interested in supporting it. She ws disheartened in thinking that polite society would not be made and had to find self belief again after finally getting the green light on Polite Society'. Manzoor has enjoyed working with all the actors she has worked with and has no specific actor she aspires work with in the future. Muslims are often critical of Manzoor's work which caused her to find it difficult to write early in her career as she felt pressure to represent her community. However, she shortly realised that she can only represent her world and the people she knows within that, as being a muslim can be experienced in many different ways.
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