Hesmondhalgh theory supercurricular reading

 Previously I made a PowerPoint for our lesson where we went through each theory to make sure we had covered all theories and understood them. Here I have uploaded pictures of the presentation I made on Hesmondhalgh’s cultural industries theory.

After creating this presentation, I read the chapter from the Dixon theory book, about this theory to enhance my understanding. I believe that since reading this chapter of the book, I have better understood the concepts within this theory. Below I have featured some of the new things I have learnt that were included in this chapter, which helped me to better understand it.

1) the impossibility of predicting audience tastes coupled with the high costs of production and the effects of mass competition mean that the business of making commercially successful media is very difficult

2) media businesses are reliant upon changing audience consumption patterns, the media industry is reliant on marketing and publicity functions, and media products have limited consumption capacity.

3) relating his theory to internationalism- where producers are able to distribute their products on a global scale. This global distribution increases the profits that are made from any single investments, but also results in media products that sacrifice local flavour to maximise global appeal.

4) product branding decisions are increasingly channelled by audience research and focus groups

5) artificial scarcity= restricting access to products by limiting their availability to platforms that are owned by the parent company of that product

6) some formatting strategies that are used by the media industry to reduce risk is a) star formatting, b) genre based formatting, c) serialisation, d) remakes, e) independent labelling 

7) the web gives unequal user access and depends on user skill level 

8) the internet is dominated by a relatively small number of providers 

9) internet is increasingly dominated by commercialised activity 

10) 2 theorists who challenge the features of this theory are Henry Jenkins and Clay Shirky

Shelter advertisement video

 

For my supercurricular, I chose to look at and analyse the Shelter 2023 winter and Christmas advert, posted on their YouTube channel. Within this advert, it represents what life can be like for those who are living homeless, particularly what other children wish for at times like Christmas aren’t necessarily what everyone can access, because being homeless means that they are wishing for a stable home and a roof over their hand, when most children would wish for toys, dolls or books. This is a poignant message which is constantly referred to throughout the whole advert, as it pictures a young girl of primary school age wishing for a new home when she overhears that ‘if you are as good as gold you can get anything you wish for’, and so starts to carry out various kind behaviours, in the hope that she can be living in a stable home in time for Christmas. However the naivity represented by the fact that we know being good won’t necessarily get the young girl a house, makes us more willing to donate because the audience want to make her wish come true, and help those in need.

This emphasises that young and innocent children are having to face the difficulties of homelessness, and makes the audience more willing to donate, because of wanting to help the youth when they are struggling, particularly because society has constructed the idea that children are a lot more vulnerable than adults, and so deserve to be helped. By using a young girl also makes it more relatable for the audience, as everyone watching will have experienced being the same age as the girl in the advert, and so can picture what it would have been like themselves at that age, to be experiencing homelessness, and this therefore makes the message even stronger, and encourages them to donate. 

Like most of their other adverts, they use simple and bold statements at the end of the advertisement, to show the facts of what is happening in reality. For example they have said in this advert that ‘over 131,000 do’ experience homelessness. By using this as a bold statement at the end of the advert shows how it is fact that this is really happening, and that people like the family in the advert do really need the help and support given by donations. After this fact, they have pictured their logo at the very end, with ‘donate today’ below it. They use an imperative of ‘donate’ which is telling the audience to do it, making them feel obliged. However, the audience are more likely by this point in the advert to want to donate, as they will have seen previously in the advert how it can negatively impact the lives of many young children and their families. 

This advert reflects altruism as it highlights a concern for the well being of others, due to the impacts of homelessness. They reflect altruism by making the situation as relatable as possible for the audience, by picturing them in locations like a post office, school, field, and shop, which are various different areas the audience will have been in, the only difference being that they experience homelessness or poor housing conditions, and the members of the audience don’t. Therefore, by making the relatability of the advert as high as possible, makes it evident that in reality, there isn’t any difference between the audience and the people in the advert. Therefore, the audience would feel more highly encouraged to donate because they want to help people who are similar to them, and have a family to run around Christmas time. 

Media magazine article supercurricular

 Chick Flick or Guy com?

I read this news article about the typical conventions of rom com films, using the examples of Pretty woman and Knocked Up, and how this genre stereotypically or countertypically represents both males and females. I thought that it was interesting how although being released not too many years apart, pretty woman in 1990 and knocked up in 2007, the representations of gender are quite different. Pretty woman, being an older film than Knocked up, follows more stereotypical representations of gender, as a woman from a lower social class being married and ‘rescued’ by a man from a higher social class, and they fall in love, living happily ever after. The transformation of a woman is also involved in this narrative displayed in Pretty Woman, as she goes from being an ‘Ugly Duckling to a Swan’. I thought that this concept mentioned in this article was particularly interesting, because it is a feature that can be found in most films of this genre, and is quite rare for the main female character to be very head strong, and is instead often rescued by the man, and plays the damsel in distress for the rest of the film before her rescue. Also, another typical feature of chick flick /rom com films are that right before the end of the film, the man comes back to declare his love for the woman, before she was going to leave the country. This is reflected in the narrative of Pretty Woman, as Edward’s character comes back to declare his love for Vivian at the end of the film.

Films such as Hooked Up follow a slightly different narrative, and slightly more countertypical representations of both men and women. In this film, the man is represented as a more clueless ‘loser’ character who is unwilling to grow up, and is free of adult responsibilities, until he ‘gets the girl’ at the end of the film. This article shows the differences between both chick flicks and guy coms, and how each of them represent gender differently and how they use the 2 genders differently to form their narrative. 

However, Pretty Woman and Knocked Up have some things in common, even though their genres are slightly different. For example, both film genres include the comedy element into their narrative. The article uses the examples of visual and verbal gags, or comedic situations and misunderstandings, and suggests how the comedy aspect of these kinds of films is a key sub genre within the film. I think that the sub genre of comedy in chick flicks and guy coms are a key part of the film, and it’s interesting how both genres can involve comedy, but used in various ways, dependent on the specific genre, highlighting the contextual differences. 

Overall, I’m going to use the information shown in this article with my studies, as I believe it is going to help me understand the more subtle differences between genres of film, and it will therefore be useful and help me analyse film better in my A Level. The ideas presented about how both genres can feature the same thing but show it in slightly different ways will be useful for me to learn in more detail and depth about how film producers make subtle differences in ways that can entirely change the representation of a character that the audience interpret by watching the film. This article was very helpful for me to read as supercurricular, and I will use its ideas to help me discover more about film producing in the media industry.

Supercurricular- bbc article

 Films made with AI can win Oscars, Academy says - BBC News

I read this article about how films made using AI could possibly win Oscars. I found this article particularly interesting because I think that the fact films that have used AI in their production stages could win Oscars shows how society has progressed, because it shows how AI is becoming increasingly accepted over time, as they likely wouldn’t have brought in this rule a while ago. 

The two examples used in this article show how even though a film has used AI for voice effects or enhancing singing voices, it is still accepted and can win a highly prestigious Oscar award. Because of examples of AI being used in these settings, it has become more widely accepted to use AI for similar reasons in creating film. However, people are still concerned about how using AI can limit the creative freedom which should be evident in films. For example, people have said that the use of AI in these production stages won’t help or hinder performance. I think this is key because in my opinion, even though AI can be helpful in some ways, it is also unfair for AI work to win such a prestigious award. AI also still has a long way to go, as it was said that the AI generative tools starting to be used in film making aren’t good enough to replicate the original work, or win an award. I think that this highlights not only the progression of AI and how it is constantly evolving over time, but also shows that it can possibly be a danger to originality, individuality, and creativity, as it continues to develop over time. For example, the use of AI in film can be a threat to people creating films of their own, as developments of technology have meant that people can get AI to do the thinking for them. Therefore, when they win an award for it, they are winning an award for AI’s work, not their own. I do believe, however, that AI developments are key and can definitely be helpful in editing or enhancing, but to use it successfully, it must be used in the right way, where it is aiding film production, such as using voice effects or enhancing vocals to make the scene of the film more believable.

As a more recent article, published 22nd April 2025, it shows what the more recent influence of AI is on film, and how it is progressing, to become more helpful and useful in the film and media industry, but is also more recently, able to be used to do the thinking process for people creating film. To test this, I asked ChatGPT to “create me a rom-com film for a teenage girl audience”

The fact that when asked, AI apps like chatGPT can generate plots for a film, demonstrates the impact it is having on society. It proves that AI technology is advancing, allowing anyone to visit the website and create whatever they want from it. This article is reflective of its social context because it shows the stage AI technology is in nowadays, and that anyone can access it.

Therefore, this article shows how developing AI technology can be useful in editing and enhancing stages of making a film, but most of all, it hinders producers’ creative freedom which they should have, in the early production stages. It gives us an idea about where society is going with AI, and how it can be dangerous if used in the wrong ways.

supercurricular- podcast

 The Film Programme

The Film Programme - The Last Picture Show - BBC Sounds

I listened to this episode of the Last Picture Show, where Francine Stock and Antonia Quirke were talking about how the streaming services are influencing cinema, because with growing use of streaming services like Netflix and Disney +, people nowadays are less likely to pay to go to the cinema.

I found this episode particularly fascinating because it is interesting to look at how the ease of using these streaming platforms is having a big impact on how (or not) cinema makes money, because people would rather pay to watch movies with a subscription for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney + and other streaming platforms, than have the more immersive experience that going to the cinema offers. This highlights a link between developing technology, and how it is impacting the economy, because as more people use streaming platforms, it means that the economy for cinema is suffering more, and are making less money, selling less tickets.

I also found it interesting that this episode of the podcast was released over 4 years ago: on the 30th September 2021, as now that this episode is older, it is comparable to the society we live in today. I think that even though streaming platforms were popular at the time this episode was recorded, it has advanced even more since then, and it's crazy to think that in 2021, we were concerned and worried about the progression of the use of streaming platforms and how it impacts cinema, but even now, we still talk about the same thing, only now, AI is more of a topic of conversation, and people talk about how AI is a threat to the economy of cinema. However, it's interesting how people were still talking about it over 4 years ago, because it demonstrates that this is an ongoing issue, and has been going on for a long while. 

Overall, this was a very fascinating podcast, as I find it interesting to look at how society is progressing with its developing technology such as streaming services, because it can also show us what it may look like in the future, and allows us to imagine how we may be living in 10/20+ years, and whether we will even still have things like cinema, or whether it will fail to make the money to continue running.