Issue 57 Summer 2015 ISSN 0268-1951

Issue 57 Summer 2015 ISSN 0268-1951

Issue 57 Summer 2015 ISSN 0268-1951 mej media education journal 2 contents editorial Issue 57, Summer 2015 ast year’s Scottish Referendum, which for culture, such as Underworld USA, Television Lthe first time gave the vote to 16- and and History, Brigadoon, Braveheart and the 17-year-olds, was a remarkable political and Scots and the seminal Scotch Reels, McArthur 2 Editorial therefore media event. It has had significant is well suited to this task. knock-on effects in this year’s General 3 Heterosexual Romance, Election on both the SNP and Scottish In the next article we turn our attention to Whiteness and Place in Notting Labour. The media played an important television, if Netflix can simply be called Hill role in the referendum campaign and there television. Mary Birch analyses the first 10 The Macbeth factor in House of were frequent accusations of media bias. episode of Season 1 of the ‘subscriber video- Cards In this issue of MEJ, we turn our attention on-demand’ (SVOD) provider’s House of to a media form where, in the battle for Cards (2013- ), a reboot of the BBC’s 1990 15 Studying Video Games as ‘Texts’ hearts and minds, the message is entitled mini-series but set in Washington DC in 20 Contributors to this issue to bias – the party political broadcast. Tom the current period. She defends the series Brownlee, an expat Scot and former editor from some US detractors who argue for its 21 Your Country Needs You! Part 1 of this journal, surveys the battlefield in Part inferiority to the original version and shows 1 of his article, ‘Your Country Needs You!’. the influence of Shakespeare’sRichard III 24 Mise en scène in Minnelli’s He will follow up in the next issue with an and, particularly, Macbeth in the way that Madame Bovary analysis of party political broadcasts leading its protagonist, played by Kevin Spacey, is 28 Barriers and Thresholds in to the General Election of May 2015, itself a constructed. Learning Media Studies Part 3 remarkable political and media event. Iain Donald has recently written several 37 Close-Up and Personal: Eyes In this issue we have three articles which articles in the MEJ on games as media texts Without a Face involve close textual analysis of film. In and in this article he puts the teaching ‘Representing Heterosexual Romance, of video games in the context of the new 43 Reviews Whiteness and Place in Notting Hill’, National Qualifications in Media. He argues Rajinder Dudrah scrutinises the popular that not only are video games highly suited 1999 Richard Curtis-scripted and Roger to the analytical aspects of media but also Mitchell-directed romantic comedy. In order the creation of media content using available MEJ to examine the representations constructed free content-creation tools. by the film, Dudrah makes a close reading of The Journal of AMES (Association key sequences to examine, in particular, mise From media content we turn to media for Media Education in Scotland) is en scène and cinematography, demonstrating pedagogy. When media studies was being published twice yearly. how it “depicts a limited version of the developed as a school subject in the 1980s, Editorial address: 24 Burnett Place area of Notting Hill as predominantly white its aims were radical in both content and Aberdeen AB24 4QD English.” In her contribution to the regular pedagogy. Rick Instrell, who was influential email:<[email protected]> ‘Close-Up and Personal’ series of articles, in that project, has contributed a number www.mediaedscotland.org.uk < > Tina Stockman relives the experience of first of articles interrogating media (and other) Editor: Des Murphy watching Franju’s 1960 horror, Les Yeux sans pedagogies. In this issue, he completes Editorial group: Des Murphy and Liz ( ) and chooses the the final part of the 3-part ‘Barriers and Roberts visage Eyes Without a Face Thanks to: Douglas Allen opening sequence of the film to analyse how Thresholds in Learning Media Studies’. He Typesetting: Roy Stafford Franju and his collaborators achieved the fears that, despite its lofty intentions, Media Printed by: Thistle Reprographics, 55 shocking effects that have made her avoid Studies for many students risks becoming, Holburn Street, Aberdeen AB10 6BR the horror genre ever since. like many subjects, a boring ritual, subject to AMES is a registered Scottish Charity, rote memorisation, mimicry and plagiarism, number SCO29408 Colin McArthur’s analysis of mise en scène in and looks at recent research for radical Teachers may reproduce material from Vincente Minnelli’s Madame Bovary (1949) alternative pedagogical approaches. this journal for educational purposes is the first of a series on film theory using only. Written permission is required for a single sequence from a film as a way The 2015 AMES Conference takes place in any other use. All text © AMES 2015 of illustrating particular critical concepts Stirling on 13 June and the presentations Images from Notting Hill © Universal, Madame Bovary © Warner Home Video, and methods. These reflect discourses on will be reflected in the next issue of the Les Yeux sans visage © BFI. Scans of concepts such as structuralism as debated in Media Education Journal with, among others, book covers/websites © the publishers publications such as Les Cahiers du Cinéma articles on Muslims in popular culture, concerned. Other rightsholders given (Cinema Notebooks), Screen and Movie. teaching The Hunger Games, an analysis with images or unknown. Many of our younger readers will not be of the opening sequence of Fight Club and The views expressed in the journal familiar with these debates even though articles aimed at teachers beginning to do not necessarily reflect the views of AMES as an organisation or of the they are very influential in the current teach media in both SQA Media and English. institutions where contributors work. practice of film and media studies. As author Articles should be submitted by the first week of several seminal books on Hollywood in October. cinema, British television and Scottish media education journal 57 3 Representing Heterosexual Romance, Whiteness and Place in Notting Hill Rajinder Dudrah eveloped out of teaching film, media a useful case study due to its ongoing The plot of the film revolves around Dand cultural studies, where students popularity since its initial release where, divorcee William Thacker (Hugh Grant) often have to come to terms with the in the UK at least, it is often aired on who runs a struggling independent difference between appreciating film prime time TV slots on terrestrial and travel bookshop in Notting Hill, and lives language for its mere aesthetic beauty non-terrestrial satellite channels during in the area with his eccentric Welsh and critically appreciating its workings holiday seasons. housemate Spike (Rhys Ifans). Through as ideological discourse, this article a chance encounter, Hollywood A-listed makes a close reading of key sequences Part of the film’s popularity has also to do star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) shops from the romantic comedy Notting Hill with the social and cultural issues that in the bookstore, where the two lead (dir. Roger Michell, 1999) to illuminate it raises through its genre as a romcom, protagonists meet for the first time. the formal properties of film as an aural which make it equally fascinating Shortly after, they collide in the street and visual medium, alongside some of for film, media and cultural studies which starts off a casual meeting that the ways that moral stories can be told researchers, through film. Using textual analysis teachers and as a key method, the popular and students. commercially successful filmNotting The issues of Hill is used to consider how its audio- hegemonic visual pleasures are articulated alongside heterosexuality its representation of a hegemonic and of race and heterosexual romance and how it depicts place that the a limited version of the area of Notting film can be seen Hill as predominantly white English. The to be representing article follows in the tradition of close are just two of film textual analysis as a pedagogical its topics which tool for bringing to life pertinent socio- can be considered cultural issues in contemporary further as important and higher education classroom settings. socio-cultural [1] The article ends by considering the ones and not just implications of doing this kind of work significant in and in the contemporary further and higher of themselves education context, where film, media and through cinema cultural studies teaching itself is often (i.e. simply to experienced by a range of students from be read off from different disciplinary backgrounds other the film’s plot than film or media. and narrative), but also to be Notting Hill considered further Notting Hill is a romantic comedy as to how they blockbuster that made over $247million are brought to life at the global box office from a production as representation budget of $42million.[2] It received a through cinema’s number of popular international awards ability of telling including the Audience Award at the stories in a BAFTA ceremony in 2000, and won the specific audio- Best Comedy Film at the British Comedy visual way. Awards in 1999. The film also makes for The ‘romantic comedy blockbuster’ media education journal 57 4 romance between our two protagonists is set up from the outset as a meeting of the ordinary (William Thacker, everyday English gent) and extraordinary (Anna Scott, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars), with suggested assistance from the cosmic order as an explanation for this exceptional encounter. The sequence and relevance of the kiss on their first formal date is then analysed, followed by a discussion of the limited social and cultural representations of Britain and of Englishness that the film depicts, even Fig 1 (00:02:12): Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) and the press.

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