Celebrities, Narcissism and you (Pt. 2)

The way media portrays things is that being ordinary is drab. There always needs to be flashing neon lights of sorts, drama, larger-than-life atmosphere etc….which is consistent with celebrity culture. We love buying tabloids instead of books. They are after all, bright and full of life rather than just plain text.

Let me take a notch closer to my home, South Africa. We want to emulate our stars. We want to eat sushi off semi-clad women, drink Moet, VIP access to the hottest clubs in the country, wear Christian Louboutin heels, drive an Aston Martin and live in Camps Bay. It’s exciting and vibrant!

Let’s look at an important aspect of making a media message: Editing. I made an example of the television show “Toddlers and Tiaras”. What is it that you suppose they are NOT telling us? We all know children have temper tantrums, they show us snippets on the show. If supposedly these are normal children, why don’t they show us them playing with other children? Why do we not get to see the ‘non-glamorous’ side of their lives, them JUST ordinary children.

Now, this ‘hidden’ side of this show is not the only one. It’s a classic aspect in our reality television shows, they never show the ugly and ordinary. Even the ordinary is glamourized! So what is being imparted to us with and ‘nothing bad happens to me’ type of life? What kind of culture are we breeding?

For the person that watches these shows with a critical and questioning mind, I commend you. Being passive is the most dangerous thing you could ever do. I don’t believe that we all want to be led by the nose and be fed tubes of garbage encouraging a sort of mind control.

Therefore, as upcoming media message makers, we have a responsibility to our audiences to try and be realistic as possible and provide context for the stories we tell people.  

Celebrities, Narcissism and you (Pt. 1)

A long time ago, according to Greek mythology, there was a fellow who fell in love with his own image reflected on a pool of water. That's where the term ' narcissism came from. Mayo Clinic says “narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism”. (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/narcissistic-personality-disorder/DS00652)

                                                  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism)

I recently watched a British documentary titled Starsuckers  ”… as a series of five lessons on fame in the modern world: how children are persuaded that fame is something they want, how television and the media reinforces the importance of celebrity and the efforts to attain it, how the mind and body reinforces our need to follow the activities of well-known people and strive to join their number, how the press became addicted to celebrity coverage, and how the art of promoting fame has led to celebrities and their handlers controlling the press instead of the press having say”. (http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/starsuckers/). The link below is a trailer of the documentary.

Reality television is a genre which arguably sets to document real events occurring in real time, happening to real people. With the current trend of reality shows all over our televisions screens, where does that leave you?

After having watched this documentary, it cemented the questions I already had in my mind about celebrity culture and how the media portrays it and subsequently what effect it has on the human mind. I’m not a psychologist or doctor so I can’t analyze the effects thereof. What I do know is how media messages are constructed. Let’s take an example of “ Toddlers and Tiaras “ that airs on TLC. Toddler and Tiaras is show about beauty pageants for young children. The first question is does a child even fathom what she is doing? The second one is what is that particular parent trying to teach the child. The third is, what about your child that is watching that show and all of a sudden wants to take part because he/she sees other children doing it and it looks cool? I can’t deny that it has entertainment value, the children’s personalities are hilarious to say the least.

 (http://www.expressimpress.org/2013/03/18/toddlers-tiaras-what-is-our-world-coming-to/)

 

Now, with being told how ‘ cool ‘ it is to be a celebrity and the things afforded to you, does that not leave you with an inkling feeling to emulate that the more you watch these shows? I mean dress code/ fashion trends, hairstyles, attitude and behavioral patterns?

Think critically about it….where does it leave you?

Constructing media messages

In as much as this blog is about deconstructing media messages, it would be a failure on my side not to go into how media messages are constructed.

Recently, my two friends and I decided to produce a show. This is South Africa's OTHER satirical news show called The Comical Globe. The news content is mainly focused on our province's (Eastern Cape), the nation and world at large. Since we are journalism students, we decided that having a platform express our views on world affairs would be a good start to our budding careers.

So we have one guy with experience in radio broadcasting producing the content and is also the presenter of the show. Then another fellow has an avid interest in editing, is a self taught editor. He says " I've learned most things from tutorials on YouTube", and he also assists with the camera operation. Then there's me. I do the camera operation, lighting, sound, production design and continuity. I have had some training in film and video production. My interest lies in the construction and deconstruction of television programmes, films and advertisements. Having trained in this field has garnered interest in the analysis of such, and the implications of them in the societal sphere. Now being a trainee journalist, I have the added interest in the way in which these messages are reported.

This particular episode was shot on a Sony PD170 on 16:9 aspect ratio, in standard play mode.

http://www.mediacollege.com/equipment/sony/camera/dsr/dsrpd170.html

We also used redhead lights, although no diffuser paper was used. The lights were partly bounced off the ceiling, hence we have some sharp lighting on the presenter.

http://photo.net/photography-lighting-equipment-techniques-forum/00ZRhp

We've faced some challenges during production, noticed glaring mistakes and so forth. So, if you have some constructive criticism and advice, please feel free to drop a line or two.

Sunshine reporting or reality?

As I was watching the news last week Tuesday, September 10^th 2013, my attention was caught by something to the effect of “when I read the news in this country, I want to leave sometimes”. As a journalism student I was gob smacked to say the least. Since I caught the news report halfway through, I had a percentage of the information. So, using skills acquired already I decided to research this report.

The Mail and Guardian on September 10^th 2013 reported that the president of South Africa addressed a group of Tshwane University of Technology journalism students that were visiting Parliament. The paper quoted him saying "…when I am in South Africa, every morning you feel like you must leave this country because the reporting concentrates on the opposite of the positive," http://mg.co.za/article/2013-09-10-zuma-condemns-opposite-of-the-positive-sa-media . Perhaps I’m still wet behind the ears but in a country where crime and corruption are prevalent, I would think that it makes it a bit of a challenge to report on positive news. Undoubtedly, good news never hurt anyone and it would seek to improve our sullen moods when it comes to the state of the country. So he might have a point there.

What I did like about this address was that he was speaking off the cuff. None of those awkward pauses as he pushes his spectacles up his nose while reading a speech… He raised important points such as who owns the media, who are the watchdogs of society and that these media owners are concerned with profits. What I found a bit disturbing is juxtaposing South African and Mexican media models. One has to take into account and scrutinize the current climate of both countries. I can only think that he was referring to crime statistics, perhaps I stand to be corrected. The following day, an article in the Mail and Guardian titled “Mexico is no mentor for SA press, Mr President” http://mg.co.za/article/2013-09-11-mexico-is-no-mentor-for-sa-press-mr-president echoed some of my sentiments.

In my view, the president has told us how to construct the news. I wonder what this means. Do we leave the negative stories and start reporting on about dogs that are run over on the freeway? Or do we report about my neighbour that swears at passerby at 3am? Help me out here, I’m already running out of ideas!

It would be to my benefit to go and research more on this before I shoot my mouth and look like a complete idiot. The points that the president did raise are a point of discussion in future blogs. Let’s keep reading and watching with critical minds folks!

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to Deconstructing Media Messages!

This blog has been created to interpret how media messages are constructed through visual media; namely films, television programmes and adverts.

Media messages arouse feelings in the audience and have behavioural implications on an individual in the societal sphere.

Please feel free to comment on your own findings and any expertise.