Critical Investigation: Project proposal

The next step in our critical investigations is to develop our presentations into detailed academic proposals. 


You will be given a one-to-one tutorial to help you find the right angle and issue to concentrate on but first need to develop a blog post working through the following headings and tasks:

Working title

Include specific texts in the title and either 'how or 'why' or both, e.g.: To what extent and why are video games such as 'Call of Duty' and 'Grand Theft Auto’ becoming more violent?

How do young black males in the UK represent themselves to the media ?


Angle

E.g.: What impact are these increasingly violent games having on their audience? Is this simply a moral panic of the 21st century or is further regulation required?

What impact has the release of the Gangland two part documentary have on the younger black audience ?


Hypothesis

E.g.: Video games are psychologically damaging for young people, and audiences have become increasingly desensitised to screen violence.

Social factors are the reasoning for violent behaviour occurring from young black males. An example of this is the area they live in and the people they are being brought up with such as estates and gangs.


Linked production piece

E.g.: Newsnight-style documentary video report looking at the impact of violent video games on young people.
  
For my linked production piece I will be doing a music video. The soundtrack for this music video will be from a UK artist/gang such as 410, 67 or Harlem boys. In this music video there will be a number of young black males e.g teenagers and young adults. displaying their lives in estates etc.

MIGRAIN

Apply the Key Concepts to your texts/topic by using the questions from the Summer Research Project to help you. (Include at least five bullet point/key concept). Include as many media keywords as you can.


Media language












SHEP

Apply the Wider Contexts (Social, Historical, Economic, Political) to your text/topic, including at least three bullet points on each one.


Social

•   Negative representations of black men in the UK 
•   Gang violence and its impact on the younger generation
•   Why younger black males are being stereotyped more negatively than other ethnic backgrounds

Historical

• Black lives matter
• The civil rights movement
• London riots 

Economic

• Crime rates are increasing in the UK
• "Blacks commit violent crimes at 7 to 10 times the rate that whites do."
• 2.7% of the UK population was black people over the age of 10 that were arrested

Political

•   How the percentage of crime rates from black people have increased over the years in the UK

Issues/Debates

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using the Media A-Z to help you think about this:

• Representation and stereotyping : Black males are always stereotyped as violent individuals who commit crime etc. They reinforce these stereotypes by the way they represent themselves from clothing, weapons, speech etc.
• Media effects
• Reality TV
• News Values :
• Moral Panics
• Post 9/11 and the media : 
• Ownership and control
• Regulation and censorship
• Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century
• The effect of globalisation on the media

Theories

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using keywords/specific theorists' names from the Media A-Z:

• Semiotics : In terms of semiotics it relates to my study because of the props used. When looking at the Gangland documentary there were a number of props such as guns, knives etc. These props portray violence and contribute to the negative stereotypes made upon young black males in the UK.
• Structuralism and post-structuralism
• Postmodernism and its critiques
• Gender and ethnicity : This relates to my study as I will be investigating how young black males represent themselves to the media and this focuses both on a specific gender (males) and ethnicity (black people). 
• Marxism and hegemony
• Liberal Pluralism
• Colonialism and Post-colonialism
• Audience theories : In terms of audience theories I think the audience will be influenced by documentaries by Gangland. The lifestyles that these young black men live in the first episode may influence the teenage audience to do as they are doing in the documentary too. However the second episode has a more positive side where the audience may actually be educated about what not do at that age and how to avoid the negative stereotypes made upon them as black males.
• Genre theories 
• Contemporary Media Landscape

Explain how your study fits into this.

Research plan (media texts, academic texts and websites)

Media texts
What your main focus will be, E.g.: 
Call of Duty
Grand Theft Auto


Other media texts
(at least five related examples)

• Black lives matter
• Black female empowerment
• Police brutality
• Black history month

TV documentaries
Research videos online, e.g.:
BBC One - Panorama, Addicted to Games? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wlmj0

• Channel 4 - Gangland   http://www.channel5.com/show/gangland
• Youtube - Gangs war  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjSonusfLDI
• BBC Three - Teen gangs  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f6sbg
• BBC One : Panorama : Gangs , Guns and the police http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b070rnw4
• Gangland Mediators : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04kfctm

Academic texts/books
(a minimum of five, including author/full title/year, e.g.:)
Barrie Gunter: The effects of video games on children: the myth unmasked (1998)
James Newman: Playing with videogames (2008)
Nancy Signorielli: Violence in the media: a reference handbook (2005)
Peter Vorderer, and Bryant Jennings: Playing video games: motives, responses, and consequences (2006)

• Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education (Mychal Denzel Smith , 14,06,2014)
• The Fire This Time ( Jesmyn Ward, August 2016)
• Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement (Angela Y. Davis , January 2016)
• From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, January 2016)
•  Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond (Marc Lamont Hill, July 2016)
• 
  

Internet Links
1. At least FIVE from Media Guardian or Guardian Culture or another newspaper website.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/02/hillary-clinton-north-carolina-police-shootings

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/30/boycott-police-brutality-civil-rights-isaiah-washington-shaun-king


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/22/black-students-only-assembly-arkansas-maumelle-little-rock-high-school-apologizes

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/feb/17/gangs-youth-crime




2. At least FIVE from university websites/academic papers online. Use Google Scholar as a 
starting point.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1997.tb00880.x/abstract

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SVZ9BgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=black+violence&ots=-VKEJKunZp&sig=q0PCrbB_dUfJDjgeQJkCbBINCuE#v=onepage&q=black%20violence&f=false

http://www.jstor.org/stable/23716977?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2779588?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents


https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3226953/Sampson_UrbanBlackViolence.pdf?sequence=7


3. Any other relevant sites/articles - the more the better.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hojXQcOVzg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn7OqnInzQE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P59ioa2EZ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSTnpLGWv8E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHpIsKtKeus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZFFkXQH1-s

Ignite presentation learner response

Gangland + young black males

• Good, clear opening that defines the topic and text.
• Reading text off the screen not ideal but following slide is image based, much better.
• Excellent knowledge, authority coming through- engaging with audience very interested. Subject matter is quite shocking but largely narrative/description - no real media analysis or debate.
• Mention of BLM is better - very important aspect to wider media debate but no real depth offered here.
• Attempts to bring media concepts in but audience demographics are very basic- certainly not A2 level.
• Lack of media issues/debates-no attempt to include theory so far despite plenty of opportunities to.Serious lack of depth to research as a media project-clearly good knowledge of the original text but no attempt to analyse or apply media debates. E.g to what extent are gangs responsible for own representation ? Impact on wider society/ community ?
• Q+A- first question on Black lives matter is relevant. Lack of insight in response suggests a lack of research and considerate of wider issues. Essential to address this in critical investigation.
• Some more good questions but answers are quite confused and contradictory. Good knowledge of the text is a start but loads more work to do here.

Context - 2

Clarity-2

Presentation-2

WWW

• There was  clear opening and explanation of the topic and documentary.
• Good amount of images and examples of what was being explained in the topic.

EBI

• Think about slightly changing your question slightly to how young black males represent themselves.
• Go into more detail in the presentation about demographics etc.

After receiving feedback from the presentation I have decided to slightly change my topic question. Instead of basing the topic of how young males are being represented by the media I will be basing my topic on how young black males present themselves in the media. I will be looking at a number of different sources to better my research for my  critical investigation. To help me do so I will be having a look at music videos made by gang members such as 410, 67 gang , Harlem boys etc. I have chosen these gangs/ music artists as they are based in London whereas I could have chosen music from artists like Kendrick Lamar and Meek Mill but they are american artists. I do think that there are young black males who present themselves in a positive way in the media , however I have not yet found any sources which show this. So for my critical investigation this will be one of my next steps to do some more research into finding positive representations of young black males in order the balance the argument. I will also re-watch the 2 episode documentary Gangland and look at it in better detail, this will allow me to get a better opinion and view on the debate from both sides.

Ignite presentation