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edia agazine Menglish and media centre issue 52M | april 2015 Owen Jones interview SOCIAL MEDIA AND SURVEILLANCE MOCKINGJAY – Ideology and Dystopia THE EVOLUTION OF RUSSELL BRAND The Last of Us – a Game-changer? CLOSE ANALYSIS MM MM This magazine is not to be photocopied. Why not subscribe to our web package which includes a downloadable and printable PDF of the current issue or encourage your students to take out their own £12 subscription? MediaMagazine is As this issue of MediaMag goes to the printers, the country has been revving up for the 7th May published by the election, and with any luck most sensible A2 Media English and Media students will have been following the press coverage, Centre, a non-profit those contentious TV debates, and the Twitter storms making organisation. generated by ill-advised MPs, tabloid pundits and The Centre publishes online opinion-formers. We’ll be revisiting it all in a wide range of hindsight in our September issue, so there’ll be classroom materials plenty of material for next year’s A2 students; but this and runs courses for edition also features the ideas of two people – Owen Jones and Russell Brand – teachers. If you’re who have approached the political process from very different perspectives, and studying English simple introductions to some key theorists such as Zizek, Gramsci and Althusser. at A Level, look You’ll have loads of ammunition here to debate issues about the Media and out for emagazine, Democracy, ideology, power, and politics and the media. Do read Lydia Kendall’s also published application of these ideas to the dystopian world of Mockingjay, and Sean Richardson’s piece on John Carpenter’s neglected masterpiece They Live. by the Centre. If you’re studying representation and identities, don’t miss Kathy Oborne’s piece on disability in the media, MediaMag’s analysis of a VisitEngland commercial, and an introduction to The Last of Us, an action-adventure survival horror game which takes an unusual and empowering approach to gender representation. Elsewhere, there are case studies on the sinister implications of surveillance by The English and Media Centre social media, and the ethics of 3D printers; regulatory issues raised by swearing 18 Compton Terrace London N1 2UN on TV; and Steph Hendry’s essential grounding in the relationship between Telephone: 020 7359 8080 media industries and their audiences. All useful stuff as you head towards the Fax: 020 7354 0133 exams. But don’t forget those everyday media stories too – for example, who’d Email for subscription enquiries: have thought Jeremy Clarkson and his hissy fits could be such a threat to the [email protected] status of the BBC… Editor: Jenny Grahame Good luck! Copy-editing: Andrew McCallum Additional proofing and copy- editing: Joel Sharples Subscriptions manager: Emma Marron Design: Sam Sullivan P.S. Huge thanks and congratulations to the many students who have Print: S&G Group submitted entries for our Production and Writing Competitions! Currently Cover: The Last Of Us 150 and still rising! We’ll be in touch with you all after Easter. ISSN: 1478-8616 In September’s MediaMag • The MediaMag Competitions: The Winners! • Taylor Swift, Spotify and Billy Bragg • The Election and the Media • Catfish TV • Breaking Bad • Young Women on Film – and Much More! 2 MediaMagazine | April 2015 | english and media centre MM contents The Front Page There’s Only One England The Last of Us – Or The First 04 Media news and views. 25 – Isn’t There? 44 Of A New Generation Of Jenny Grahame practises her Games? When Harry Met Owen: close reading skills on a TV Darren Meltzer-Harvey suggests 06 A MediaMag Interview ad representing England, and that The Last of Us, a ‘riveting’ With Owen Jones discovers that she’s not as action-adventure survival horror The Guardian columnist and skilled as she thought. game for PS4, offers a brave and left-wing activist explains his complex approach to gender passion for politics, why he The Missing – Memory, representation. got involved in the media, 29 Absence And Loss: The and how he communicates Meaning Of The Title They Live: Understanding complicated ideas to a Sequence 48 Ideology mass audience. Emma Calway explores the Sean Richardson introduces significance of a TV title a students’ guide to ideology, Two Key Concepts: The sequence which reveals more some key theorists, and a 09 Relationship Between with each viewing. brilliant cult movie which Audience and Institution illustrates the ways in which we Steph Hendry summarises The World Of Mockingjay: are controlled and manipulated what you need to know 34 Ideology, Dystopia And by the ideology of consumption. about contemporary Propaganda media institutions and The Hunger Games trilogy 3D Printers: A Case Study In their audiences. addresses media saturation, 52 New And Digital Media reality TV, celebrity culture Matt Kaufman suggests that 3D Somebody’s Watching and ideology. Lydia Kendall printing offers an A2 case study 13 You... Social Media And argues that media theory which brings together new Surveillance and concepts can help technology and media theory, Facebook surveillance, unpick the radical politics and raises a range of interesting privacy settings, data mining, underlying the latest film in ethical and moral issues. and mobile monitoring. the controversial and hugely Nick Lacey issues a thought- successful franchise. High Rise And The provoking warning. 56 Cinematic Worlds Cartoon by Goom Of J.G. Ballard Rebranded: The 38 Mark Ramey explores the 16 (R)Evolution Of Russell context and themes of Ballard’s Brand Nightcrawler: A Satire On controversial career, and its Does Russell Brand really 40 News Values impact and influence. want to overthrow capitalism, Owen Davey introduces or is he just another celebrity Nightcrawler, a 2014 Getting Into Character – begging for attention? Is he American neo-noir satirical 60 Cosplay In Some Modern the Messiah or just a very crime thriller, which Fandoms naughty boy? Pete Turner sheds disturbing light on Ruth Kenyon’s particular interest investigates. the coverage of real-life is fan theory, and here she news events – and on introduces you to a particularly From The Margins To The the cynical values of the intriguing aspect of fandom: 21 Mainstream? Disability, US news broadcasters’ cosplay. Identity And The Media search for ratings. All A Level Media courses now Watch Your Language: The include the topic of media 64 Extremely Rude History Of and identity. Starting with Swearing On TV the Paralympic games, Kathy Harry Cunningham investigates Oborne traces the shifting the history and issues relationship between the UK surrounding swearing on TV. media and disabled identities. english and media centre | April 2015 | MediaMagazine 3 MM Hidden gems The World Hobbit Project: of media history update, thanks, and Most of the Media A Level or Applied specifications you’re studying focus final appeal on the use of contemporary texts, no more than five years old (with a few In the February issue of MediaMagazine I was exceptions, and a different historical really grateful to get the chance to tell you about perspective in Film Studies). This the then-just-launched World Hobbit Project keeps your ideas fresh, allows you to – the most ambitious attempt to study film apply current debates and theories audiences across the world to new and ground-breaking material, and prevents you (and (www.worldhobbitproject.org) and request your your teachers) from recycling tired old case studies from the involvement in the survey. Thank you to all of past which have little relevance to today. But there are, of you who did respond. This is a quick update, course, times when there’s no substitute for a little background and a repeat of the invitation to any of you who research, archive clips or tasters of iconic moments from media haven’t done it yet. To date, we have received an breakthroughs of the past. astonishing 32,000 responses across the world, which will give us the largest body of data and MediaMag made a random inspection of the BBC archive to materials ever assembled. see what is on offer. Unsurprisingly, with over four million archived items and a million hours of recording, it’s a treasure This, in the teeth of the fact that the final trove. To name just a few, the James Bond archive offers 15 film of The Hobbit turned out to be far from BBC programmes from 1958 to 2008; one of the several Dr a critical success. Which makes the research Who collections includes original documentation, pitches, potentially all the more valuable. When we treatments and previews from 1962, while another covers the close the questionnaire, we will be able to ask: handovers between each Doctor and his successor; alphabetical what are the various grounds on which people lists of archived programmes, presenters and people are also have criticised, even rejected, the films? What contextualised by different archivists explaining why some did different kinds of people want but not get texts survived and others didn’t. Even the famous test cards and from the films? We are therefore really keen to continuity (the bits between the programmes) are archived. hear the voices of those who don’t often get heard in research of this kind, which tends to be Amongst a series of collections of archived programmes on dominated by fans and enthusiasts. BBC4 is its Talk collection, described as ‘A collection of BBC programmes where celebrated interviewers try to get behind If you were disappointed, we want to hear the public mask of some of the most influential figures of the your thoughts. (The very critical Mark Kermode 20th Century.’ Here are interviews with Martin Luther King, completed our questionnaire, and posted a vlog Orson Welles, Muhammad Ali, Sir David Attenborough, Jane of himself doing it!) Even if you ‘dropped out’ Fonda, Joan Crawford and Lauren Bacall, as well as some of the before the final film, we still want to hear your greats of British comedy, politics and literature, questioned in views.