Media Blog 1 (Bradley)

  Zendaya: Language and Representations blog tasks Work through the following tasks to complete the first half of your blog work on Zendaya. Introduction and background reading  Read  this Vox article on what makes Zendaya a great celebrity . Answer the following questions: 1) What was the 2015 Oscar controversy involving Zendaya?  Zendaya went to the red carpet wearing a white silk gown, with her hair in dreadlocks and on E’s  Fashion Police ,  Giuliana Rancic s tated that, “That hair is swallowing her. I feel like she smells like patchouli oil.” An offscreen voice added, “Or weed.”  This caused  commenters  saying that  the  Fashion Police  segment was racist due what Giuliana Rancic said. 2) How did Zendaya control the narrative of that controversy? She actively took control by making a post saying   “There is already harsh criticism of African American hair in society without the help of ignorant people who choose to judge others based on the curl of their hair.  My wearing my hair

OSP: Influencers and Celebrity Culture 1) Media Magazine reading Media Magazine 72 has a feature linking YouTube influencers to A Level media theories. Go to  our Media Magazine archive , click on MM72 and scroll to page 60 to read the article ‘The theory of everything - using YouTubers to understand media theory’. Answer the following questions: 1) How has YouTube "democratised media creativity"? "The YouTube platform  has democratised media creativity,  with ordinary users uploading their  own content: they are ‘produsers’  (producer-users) and ‘prosumers’  (producer-consumers). Content is published first and then filtered or  judged later by audiences. So, success  is measured by the number of views  and the reaction of the ‘fans’ rather  than the judgement and financial  power of an industry editor/producer." 2) How does YouTube and social media culture act as a form of cultural imperialism or 'Americanisation'?  "improved communications turned the

Clay Shirky: End of audience Media Magazine reading 1) Looking over the article as a whole, what are some of the positive developments due to the internet highlighted by Bill Thompson? Emailing and exchanging files with other people at university, access to talk to hundreds of thousands of users and being connected to other people and information around the world. 2) What are the negatives or dangers linked to the development of the internet? Illicit images may be discovered, bullying and abuse, extremists and radicalism  and the dark web. 3) What does ‘open technology’ refer to? Do you agree with the idea of ‘open technology’? The idea of ‘openness’ lies at the centre of this debate:It needs to be built on technologies which are themselves ‘open’, and that this is the only way to encourage a diverse online culture that allows all voices to be heard truely. 4) Bill Thompson outlines some of the challenges and questions for the future of the internet. What are they? Digital information