For your homework today:
- Please create a blogger profile if you do not already have one.
- From your handout on Critical Viewing Analysis, blog the equivalent of a one page (double-spaced) paper on the role of a producer. This MUST BE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE HANDOUT!
- Log on to www.accesssacramento.org and view a community produced program. Familiarize yourself with the resources available at this organization and come to class prepared to discuss.
Have a great week.
13 comments:
The role of the producer is in
four parts. First the producer
must identify with what the target
viewer is going to be(an age group
of 25 to 40, for example). Once
that has been determined, the
second step is that the producer
must have a goal to attain (to
sell video games with enhanced
sound for example). The third step
will be to have an understanding
of a certain type of background or
culture (like baby boomers who
grew up with the dawning of video
games). Finally the producer is
able to become a viewer and see
how the product is going to catch
the eyes of the target viewer.
It used to be in my grandparents generation, that if we were told something by the media in a news report or paper that it was the truth. The newspaper and media held a sense of importance. Now, two generations and a half century later, we are taught to ask questions. Everything is subject to opinion and social dominance.
As a producer, he or she must decide what they are going to try to say with their piece of media. Who is their target audience? What is socially relevant in today and how can it sell their product? Also, once their pitch or product is completed they must be able to sit back and separate themselves from Producer and turn to Viewer to make sure they are getting their message across.
As an example, take a look at any television news program and you will see how Hollywood scandal is dominant over more crucial events, like the Iraqi War. The most notorious event of the last year wasn’t the war and its effects nor was it our upcoming Presidential election. Instead, pop star Britney Spears’ meltdown was covered by every form of press. Unfortunately, major news events are subjective. Producers have surveyed and in turn, used that information as a source of reporting or selling its news. What they found was that in some cases, the Presidential election will not sell as many magazines or news papers as Britney Spears.
It isn’t by chance that those immortalized by pop culture are now publicly involved in today’s important causes. The media pays celebrities to use their face or name to bring attention to a product or news event. Producers put together coverage and add in certain celebrities so those of us in society will pay attention to what they deem as important. The media is like anything else, a product to sell and we as a society are ready to buy anything that we feel would increase our knowledge and stature in our community. Producers must know what is important to our generation and know what is acceptable in each culture so that a product will be bought and viewed as news.
Producers Do the Thinking For Us
Giant billboards, newspapers on every corner, televisions in most every home, it is very difficult for people to walk around the world without coming into contact with some sort of media. New technology allows messages to reach farther and faster than ever before. At the same time producers are getting smarter about how to send out their messages. They send information so subtly into our subconscious that the unconscious viewer can be convinced to do or think something without being able to place the exact reason why. These producers are not all knowing, they are just experts at using the “Critical Viewing Analysis” to get across the results that they want (Critical Viewing Model).
Every image or situation has two meanings. The first is the literal meaning (Denotation) and the second is how each individual reacts to that meaning (Connotation). So basically when watching a commercial, reading a book, encountering any kind of media, viewers are reacting to two messages, the literal, and the assumed meanings of what they are encountering. In order for a producer to get their meaning across they will have to predict the both the positive and negative connotations of the viewer (Critical Viewing Analysis). By analyzing images thoroughly a producer can decide exactly what audience to reach with their specific ideas, as well as identify any contradictory messages that could be sent unintentionally.
Once media producers have identified the messages their piece is sending they can work that to their advantage by using them to reach their goals (Critical Viewing Analysis). Whether these goals are selling an item, or delivering a new moral belief, the message will be stronger when it is sent using connotative meanings. In order to choose what messages to send producers have to consider why the viewer would want to listen to them. What in the viewer makes them want to buy that item, feel that emotion, hear that story? If the producer can identify the viewer’s wants and needs then they can fulfill those wants and needs while sending a message.
When considering an audience producers also need to consider cultural understanding (Critical Viewing Analysis). That is they need to work off of what their particular audience knows. For example, many commercials contain current pop references such as a movie quote, in order to get the full meaning the producer is assuming that the viewer will understand and identify with this particular reference. Each generation and geographic area hosts a different set of cultural beliefs. To bring out the result that they want from their audience producers need to understand the culture of that particular audience.
Only after taking all of these things into analysis can a critical producer fully understand the impact of their work. In the Critical Viewing Analysis the author called this step Literacy. It is at this point where a producer can decide whether the media is achieving its goal. If not changes can be made and the process begins all over again.
This is why media in the world today is so effective at sending messages. The producers of this media are anything but ignorant of how the media will affect you. They analyze tirelessly until they feel sure of the messages they are sending and what results those messages will bring about. It is our job as a society to realize that media will always be sending us messages, using everything at their disposal to send that message. If we take that into account then we will become critical viewers, able to filter the information we encounter everyday and think for ourselves.
Angy Nylund
When it comes to new products coming out, we are always amazed by commercials that catch our attention and make us want the item they are promoting. Any good producer will always aim to dazzle the viewer into wanting the item even more; but it is not all just television commercials. There is also billboards, newspapers and magazine ads.
Have you ever noticed when seeing fast food ads? How everyone in the ads are always skinny, or athletic looking. By seeing these skinny people eat these monstrous greasy burgers, and look as if they have never gained an ounce in doing so, gives the viewers the idea that eating this food wont affect their health or weight. Same goes for cigarette ads, we see a super model of sorts with sparkly white teeth, and perfect skin. That person probably has never really smoked a single cigarette in their entire life. If producers can manipulate images such as those to completely throw off the viewer, what do you think they can possibly do for battery operated blenders? And that’s just commercials alone.
What about news media? How often is what is said actually true; word for word, or do they over emphasize certain aspects, or under emphasized to avoid a sense of panic. Especially when it comes to celebrity media. How often do we make a big deal of their stress and human mishaps that happen through their life, only for our own entertainment. Since image seems to be everything, we tend to make a huge deal out of it.
Jose C. Rodriguez Jr.
July 17, 2008
Survey of DFVP
HW Week One
Critical Viewing Analysis
When it comes to Critical Viewing Analyzing for any type of media, they are looking forward to capturing the attention of society or a certain class of audience that will either help benefit them or keep society up to date with the world around them. The media is a great attention gaining way to attract society to its viewing. Whether it be through television, radio or internet, it is the best way for huge corporations or just any small organization to catch the peoples’ eye. They just have to know exactly what it is they will have to present in order to make it happen, and that’s where critical viewing comes in.
Critical viewing is an important part the media has to play off of. It takes this process to know what to present to the public. A symbol for instance, can represent something good to people or something not so good, depending on the target audience the media is trying to attain. Once they see the target media message they are trying to announce with a publics’ eye point of view, they can launch it on to society.
The media has had many changes throughout the years; Updating itself more and more to reach a world wide audience. The news is a good example of changes in the media. Starting from television and then becoming part of the world wide web, it has expanded even towards other countries, bringing news back from places farther away. No doubt the media has had an impact in society throughout history. There is only the fact that it will always play a vital role in human society.
My definition of a producer is a person that has the perfect vision of what the film and concept is going to be. And try to make it come to life through the script and the final picture being the movie. Get the attention of the audience they what to attract. Also have the viewers asking questions after the movie, and making the audience wonder what the real statement of the movie is.
Anton Jennings
Maurice Perkins
Critical viewing is common is the postmodernism age of media, and is widely used as a social examination of the relationship society and media has to one another. Because the media shows the world a reflection of the many different cultures in today’s society, because though out the years it raised questions by some which has lead to a greater understanding of the media through media literacy. By not accepting the media at face value and the images and symbols it perpetuates, certain Marxist, feminist and racial stereotypes and pre constructed opinions are less likely to be elements accepted by the uneducated viewer.
Some of our countries great thinkers challenged us to use our minds to decipher codes within programming and symbols throughout the media to find the underlying meaning. Subjects my be relative to political economic lines drawn out by alliances form through business, which uses these relationships to convey a certain political opinion shared those in which networks, political parties, and certain companies shared a common interest. This allows a certain amount of ideology to become expressed, thus changing the perception or opinion of the average audience member on certain subjects, who lack critical thinking skills. These concepts also can be applied to feminist studies, which media can dilute the role women play in the changing of structure in today’s society. As well ass Ethnic Studies, which if not examined would allow certain racial stereotypes to go unchallenged.
In all, as viewers we must be critical of the media to examine it’s social function, to obtain a true understanding of it communicated messages to the public.
No one is immune to the effects of advertising. When you look at a magazine ad or watch a TV commercial or even gaze up to a billboard on the street you are already subconsciously sucked into that campaign .The producer of that advertisement is pulling you in and making you think about their product.
The producer uses a critical viewing analysis. There are two aspects to the cva, the producer who is responsible for the concept of the ad and the viewer who receives and consumes the concept. The cva has four steps. The first step is connotation / intervention. The example would be a flashy sports car. A black Audi A3. The producer needs to identify and understand what that sports car means to the target market. The target market is the upper middle class. The second step is denotation / goal attainment. This is what the product represents to the viewer. It could represent luxury, higher status, or maybe even safety. The goal would be of course to sell this sports car to the target market. The third step is ideology / cultural understanding. In this step the producer must understand the beliefs and cultural background of the viewer. The viewer is financially able to purchase the product. The fourth and final step is literacy. The producer understanding the first three steps , becomes a viewer, thus knowing how the actual viewer or target market will receive the advertisement.
Although advertising is a little annoying sometimes, it is necessary. Advertising revenue pays for the media we hear on the radio for example. It’s a necessary evil in today’s society. The media we buy and use, where do we find out about it? Through advertising. It seems like a vicious circle.
William Purcell
Lichtenstern , Mariah
DF1101: Digital Film
July 24, 2008
The mediated message, it is what focus on the casual viewing and critical viewing. It is two different ways to see what is the viewing is thinking. It puts the produce in control of the message that is going to be on the TV, and it helps in designs of the message. Ideology is a collection of ideas, a produce uses a four step process. The first step is the produce identifies a connotation for the mediated message, such as a picture of a sweet animal in the wild. You see the picture and it’s gets you to think about something sweet that you saw as a child or something like that. In step two is the model consists of identifying the denotation and it is also looking at goal attainment. Goal attainment is the understanding of one’s own reason for viewing the media message. The two types of goals one is personal and the other is others producers for the media message. The third step is ideology it is codes for the cultural understanding and knowing about the social schema for the media message. The viewer works on external awareness, viewer is concerned about understanding the media message being viewed. The final step is literacy; it comprehends overall grammar in the media message. This step the produce can use the first three steps for knowledge of the critical viewing model and he can interpret the overall meaning for the creation for the media message.
DeJuan Henderson
07/25/2008
Lichtenstern , Mariah
Week 2
Above The Influence
As I sit back and relax from a long
day of work, flipping through
channels on the television to see
if there is anything worth watching
on Comcast cablevision, a Live
above the Influence commercial
appears on the screen. In my
personal opinion, I do not really
care for these commercial but they
are interesting to view only
because I like to see what new and
creative ways producers are coming
up with to influence other to stop
partaking in illegal drug use.
The commercial starts out with two
boys and one girl. Each one going
through their personal belongings
to find an item of importance.
Afterwards, each one travels to an
open flame and tosses this item
into the fire or sets it on fire.
In the background, you hear a
teen’s voice say, “Marijuana costs
you more than you think”. I think
to myself, Wow! Smoking pot makes
you burn your stuff! Then I think
about the role of the producer
making these commercials using the
Critical Viewing Model.
The Message: “Marijuana costs you
more than you think”. The producers
target audience between the ages of
12 to 25, give or take a few years.
In my own word, “Young enough to
know and still be influenced to old
enough to know better with a chance
to turn it all around stage in
life”. As a producer, using the
critical viewing model, he or she
would make the message stated and
break it down in four parts:
Connotation/intervention,
Denotation/goal attainment,
Ideology/cultural understanding,
and Literacy. Each step provides
the message to fabricate in two
perspectives.
The first step:
Connotation/intervention, the most
important out of the four, because
it takes the average viewer,
unreceptive to any anti-subject
being shown on his or her
television, to becoming an active
viewer, who shows interest in the
message the producer is trying to
relay. The producer must take the
messages from his own perspective,
and come up with ideas on how the
average viewer would see it.
Step two: Identifying
Denotation/goal attainment.
Denotation is to take the most
specific meaning of a word or
phrase. Then taking that and
figuring out what goal attainment
or understanding his or her reason
for viewing the message.
Third step: Ideology/cultural
understanding, next a producers job
is to take the ideology or system
of social beliefs and understand
that the message viewed is through
different perceptions and opinions,
other wise known as cultural
understanding.
Step four: Literacy, a producers
final step, where he must take all
of his knowledge from the first
three steps and mesh them into one
concept and reads between the lines
the overall meaning created from
the message.
As a future producer, I think to
myself, about the message that the
producer was trying to relate when
he or she came up with the idea for
the commercial. You will see It was
more than just the burning of
stuff, but only if you look deep
enough.
Steve O’Brien
7-29-08
Week 1
The role of the producer is in four parts. First of the producer must identify with the target
viewer. For example if the producer is going to use video games, he might get the idea of young
adults gathering around having a fun time of competition. Or even some older adults who just
have love of video games who grew up with them and can remember the beginning of the video
game era. Those older adults now know how far the graphics, sound, and story lines have come
in a few short decades.
Now having the beginning knowledge of what product he has to work with and the connotation
of the product, the producer now has a goal attainment. In this case he/she would be working
toward showing the parts of that particular game in its graphics, sound, and even leave a little bit
to the imagination with how the story line is going to be. The game will surely get the appetites
of gamers everywhere.
With the goal out of the way, the producer will be able to determine that whatever types of
product that he/she may have. The generation that had grown up with that type of game will
make those gamers want to really have that game. He/she knows that the older adults will have
some memories that will bring back some joy from when they use to play a similar game,
weather it was on a board or even something that has been made up. They will still be able to
identify with what good memories they use to have when they use to play long ago.
With the three other steps out of the way, the producer can see now the over all affect of what is
being put out for the viewer to see and be able to see why the viewer will be able to express
his/her views on the product. He/she will also be able to feel why this is going to be something
that is a must have for those types of people and really enjoy the game.
Manuel Velazquez
7-24-08
HW week One
Critical viewing analysis
The Critical-viewing handout was a blueprint on how to become, basically, a critical viewer. You need to do this if you want to become a producer of media and the reason is because you have to know what you are showing your audience and how to reach them so that they take your message in completely. The media is a powerful tool to reach society and you need to know how to do that correctly. The article showed you how to do this with a basic four-step model.
The media affects many of the choices people make today. Whether its as small as choosing which grocery store to shop at, or as big as electing the next president, chances are that person made their decision because of some type of media. Television, newspaper, radio, they all have the same goal: to get the viewer to understand their message. The article states that the first step in doing this is called intervention. This is basically seeing a symbol or an object. This is the most important part because this is when the viewer immediately thinks about their opinion or view of the product. For example an image of an iPod might come on the screen and many people would look on it as a handy device or a waste of money. This is basically when the viewer gets hooked and wants to learn more.
The second step is called denotation. This is basically looking at what the object really means to an individual. With the iPod, to a young person it means simplicity, and convenient storage for their media. The article explains here that there are two goals, one of the viewer and one of the producers. The viewer has their personal goal, to buy it, and the producer has his goal, to sell it. The third step is identifying the cultural understanding of the product. The assumption that is being made is that young people will mostly identify with the image of the iPod. The last step is called literacy. This is basically taking everything in and getting what the message is trying to say. Getting your message across to the viewer is a very powerful tool because it pushes them to make decisions. Taking these steps and using them will allow you to correctly convey what you are trying to say to the viewer and will help you reach your goals as a producer.
if you were to look at a large billboard today you
might do one of three things, one ignore it, two
carfully analise it, or three admire it and or its
product. only one of these three things alows you
to remain the smallest bit affected and give t=you
the best suited chance at learning from it.
analysing it fully, can lead to better ideas of your
own in the future by reflecting upon what that
creative mind that came up with the billboard
thought about to get their message across to the
public more effectivley. these lessons are largley
attributed to knowing your target audience's age,
gender, and social background as well. and having
a good idea or creative concept to aid you in
reaching that said demographic. the more you
narrow it down the better the original audience will
be influenced to come to purchase your product.
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