Standardization in Media. For this assignment, you are to analyze and then post two standard construction elements of one media product.
1. Start by choosing 3 of your specific media products to analyze; examples are 3 TV comedies, or 3 super-hero action films, or 3 women’s fashion magazines, or 3 single-player video games, or 3 pop music recordings, etc. Then
2. Find 2 commonalities in these products. Use elements that are prominent for that medium: examples are standard characters in police shows, or standard lyrics in pop songs, or standard fight scenes in action films, or standard “beauty” models in fashion magazines.
3. State each of the 2 specific common factors you have found. Be careful to not use overly-general phrasing such as “the fashion magazines all use women”, or “sports television programs all focus on games”. Instead use specific terms such as “Men’s fitness magazines always have a short section on new exercise routines to build muscle.”
4. Use detailed examples from your products as support for each of the factors you have described.
5. Conclusions. Use at least one course concept to describe your findings in how easy it was to find standardized construction and support your findings.
Analysis Examples: Note that they have clearly stated commonalities and then they use details from the media demonstrating these commonalities.
· Example: Media Standardization
For my specific media product I chose to look at women’s magazine covers. I will be analyzing the standard construction elements of three popular magazines: Shape, Oxygen, and Health magazine. These are three very well-known and respected media products that have many similarities. I have chosen to compare the Jan/Feb 2017 issues of these three magazines.
The first commonality I will analyze is that each magazine claims the woman on the cover has a new and improved body.
Shape magazine: This cover features Kate Beckinsale who is standing confidently in what appears to be a swimsuit. Next to her face the cover states, “I’m the fittest I’ve ever been!” This is put on the cover to encourage women that they can get in shape just like she did.
Oxygen magazine: The woman on this cover was the winner of their Oxygen challenge. She stands proudly in a sports bra and by her it says, “Patricia Arredondo lost half her body fat and reshaped her physique”. They put this on their magazine to show that health and fitness can help you reach your goal body.
Health magazine: This covers stars Khloe Kardashian in a tight one piece and says, “How her darkest days transformed her body”. She was featured on this cover because women appreciate her curvy body and want to learn how she became more toned.
The next commonality between these three covers is information about food and diet. Each magazine states something about this topic because it is a focus area for a lot of women.
Shape magazine: The phrase regarding food on this cover says, “Bold & bright meal ideas”. This is appealing to a lot of women trying to improve their diet because healthy food is often seen as boring. It offers new meals and recipes that readers may find exciting.
Oxygen magazine: The saying on this magazine about diet is, “What to eat + when”. This can be helpful to women readers who feel like they need guidance on the amount of food they should be having and at what times of the day.
Health magazine: “Surprising foods that crush hunger”, is the statement used on the cover of this magazine. This phrase is aimed at women who are dieting and trying to suppress a large appetite. Tips like these can be helpful to their readers.
Media Standardization
In all good live-action T.V comedies you have a variety of things, humor, drama, suspense, and most of these shows are fairly different in the ways that they broadcast themselves. But as you continue to watch and observe you will run into a few that are very similar. A lot of the comedies that are based around men and women have a lot to do with relationships, sex and the occasional slip of a joke or two. The ones that I will be talking about in this paper have one or more women surrounded by men.
New Girl- (2011) Zooey Deschanel is the women in this comedy who went through a rough breakup resulting in needing to find a new place to call home. In the search she finds herself rooming with 4 other people who all happen to be guys. At first the guys are hesitant on the fact that they are adding a feminist touch to their otherwise known bachelor pad, but they learn to warm up to it and Deschanel (Jess) becomes the center of their lives.
The Big Bang Theory- (2007) Kaley Cuoco is the beginning women in this series. It starts out with two Physicists living in an apartment together. Shortly after arriving home they realize that they have a new neighbor not really paying much attention to it because obviously they don’t care much they are just excited to go in eat Chinese and watch Star Trek with commentary Lenard looks around because naturally he is curious and sees a very attractive young girl named Penny (Cuoco). This sparks interest in Hofstadter because he doesn’t see much of women. As the series pushes on we see the relationship between the two Physicists, there friends and the girl grow into a group that throughout the show also grows bringing more women into the picture, more memories and connections.
Friends- (1994) This show is different. It has no one main character. No one main girl or guy. There just a group of friends that have a bunch of love drama all mixed up into this. It starts out with Monica coming back Ross leaving his now lesbian fiancé and Rachel meeting the new friends for the first time. As the show progresses we see new relationships, within the group and straying from it. But in turn the main focus is the friends and how they deal with hardships within each other and their friendship with love intertwined.
In these shows there are many twist and turns, surprises and no brainers. But there are also a lot of commonalities within all of these hits. In every single one there are female leads. Jess in new girl is the lead role showing guys that there is a better way to be whelp, men to put it out plainly. But the guys also teach Jess a lot of different things about being a lady and what type of men to go for. In The Big Bang Theory Penny ends up being the lead role in the majority of the series, showing the guys what it’s like to be around women. How to act, what and what not to say how to be more normal and socially acceptable we’ll say. But the guys also teach Penny a lot about herself and who she wants to be. Her aspirations and they teach her that she is better then what she believes and has much more potential then she gives herself sometimes. In friends we have Monica, Rachel and Phoebe which are the three main women in this show which follow the men Joey, Ross, and Chandler. It’s different in this show because all of the characters complement each other but we do see a lot of the women helping the men, telling them what to wear how to act, how to impress the ladies, all kinds of things just like the other two programs the women enhance the men, and these gals really are the center of these guys universe even if they don’t directly notice it.
The second commonality that I noticed in the three of these shows was that one of the women always seem to end up with one of the men. In New Girl, Jess ends up falling for Nick putting their friendship at great risk. All the other roommates try and tell them it isn’t a good idea but they don’t care they’re living on feeling alone, they soon find out that, that is not a good idea and neither was there relationship resulting in a split and an awkward couple months. They soon get over it but the other guys can’t help but say “ I told you so!” In The Big Bang Theory, Lenard falls for Penny, along with all of the other guys you seemed fascinated with the girl, Lenard is the only one who gets let in. Even though the other guys think this one is a score they encourage Lenard not to go for it because they didn’t want it to hurt the relationship between her and all the other guys. Meaning if they break up the pretty girl won’t come around anymore. Lenard and Penny’s relationship during the show has been very on and off but they have made it work with all the friendships Penny hasn’t given up quite yet. Friends in this aspect are also very different because there was a couple love interests within the group. But that obviously stuck out what Monica and Chandler, they decided a relationship for them was in the cards pretty early though the group did discourage it for a while they all decided it was the right thing for them and moved on with their lives.
One more thing that the three programs have in common is they all seem to have that one male friend that isn’t as smart as all the rest, in result getting all the dumb jokes from the other guys. In New Girl it’s Nick, he’s a bartender with a low IQ the lowest in the group we’ll say, he makes the least money, he’s the laziest and the only ones who doesn’t understand the joke. This is where a lot of your laughs with come from when watching the show is really brings character but you can’t help but feel bad for the guy. In The Big Bang Theory, it’s Howard and to almost everyone else in the world you would say this guy is a pretty smart cookie, he went to space for god’s sake! But he’s the only guy in the group that doesn’t have a PhD and the only one who didn’t go to a honors college, so we see him getting a lot of the slack, and the “you wouldn’t understand jokes” you’re just an engineer! In friends the not so smart friend is Joey, he is also prone to not getting the jokes, and having the group make fun of him, trying to be an actor isn’t the brightest decision they would say.. But he might not understand what they are getting at.
