Questionnaire

Year 12 Media Studies Student Questionnaire

Dalia Chowdhury

GCSE Results:

Eng Literature: A, Religious Studies: A, Resistant Materials: B English: B Citizenship, Beliefs & Values: A Sociology: A, Maths: C, French: C, Science: B, Additional Science: B, History: B and I.C.T: A.

Hobbies:

Swimming, Learning Bengali & Hindi, Music, Cycling, Fashion, Playing on the XBOX & PS3, Reading non-fiction books, Cricket, Cinema, Seeing Friends etc.

Media Interests:

Print Media:

I tend to watch the news on T.V and also news channels about Bangladesh to see what current events the country is facing and why, just generally to keep updated with the world.

I buy weekly the Look Magazine to see the latest fashion trends especially because I love fashion and how its forever changing and how old fashion aspects are being re-introduced.

Radio Media:

I mainly listen to Kiss FM, BBC 1XTRA, Radio 1 purely for musical entertainment, so I can listen to the latest songs. As for Radio 1, I like listening to the Live Lounge, where music artists cover other artists work. Although I don’t get much of a chance to listen to music on the radio I would much rather listen to songs on my laptop.

Music Industry:

Favourite Genre’s - Reggae(The Maytals, Bob Marley) Hip-Hop(Nas, Jay-Z, Tupac) Britpop(Oasis, Blur), Bollywood Music, UK Garage/Grime(The Streets, Dizzee Rascal), Motown(Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5) Contemporary R&B(Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Lauryn Hill), R&B and Soul (Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Usher) Indie/Rock (Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Kasabian) and some Pop music (Justin Timberlake)

I’m not in any sort of band. I normally access my music on the internet from places like YouTube and download them from iTunes on to my iPod. I don’t agree with illegal downloading although I have done it before and I can see why some people would do it as the media industry is changing every second and more new and recent songs are made and for some they don’t have the money to buy all these songs.

I think that if you do listen to music then it greatly influences the way you are. For example if your favourite singer is Beyonce Knowles then it is very likely you will try and dress like her and follow her trend and she may well soon become your role model, and this may also change your aspirations to further your career into music. Although only to an extent may it affect your attitudes. Personally I do look at what my musical influences wear and if it looks good then I would wear it and in that sense it influences me, but generally they are who they are and I am who I am.

Video Games:

My favourite video game is ‘Call of Duty: World At War’.

The game is much like a war zone, set in I think Germany. You can play different ways, such as just a friendly with another person or play the computer, or play by yourself to win rounds and get guns etc. There is a sub-game where you play Nazi Zombies, which means you must kill Nazi Zombies in order to get to the next round. Ultimately it is a shooting game.

Many video games may well be demeaning towards women as sometimes they are not used in video games as the main character, and if there are numerous characters then there is only a couple of female ones. Also women may well be objectified and subject to criticism, women are probably shown either as provocative or seductive. Also some may provoke the idea of violence through shooting and killing games. Suggesting that violence is fine and norm in society especially when many young children are allowed to get access to games which are not of their age rating.

New Technology

In a sense the internet and the more common use of computers has increased my knowledge of the world around us and enables me to research literally most topics I wish to look further in detail to. On one hand it increases the awareness of news and current events, but on the other hand people use it for other purposes which are not necessarily morally accepted.

Things such as MSN, Facebook, MySpace, Skype allow people to communicate quickly and easily and enable to make contact to whoever is in use of the internet. Also things such messaging which allow you to talk to those you wish to much like and email, but on a mobile phone, but even more common now is video calling and webcams which can be extremely useful when talking to others who do not live in the same country as you or for those who are business minded setting up meetings - Saves a lot of money of travelling!

With sites such as YouTube and iTunes allowing you to view and download music the music industry makes even more money and gets more demand. The advantages of having the internet especially in the music industry is that they get even more publicity. However with films, on sites such as YouTube there is a lot of video streaming which means that the film makers loose a lot of money same with music the illegal downloading of music also means they loose a lot of money(the music industry)

Everything is more efficient and easy to do such as upload videos and pictures which help with media texts. Also you can use other work for inspiration, so you can create your own ideas.

Television

My favourite television programmes include; Scrubs, Friends, 90210, Skins, One Tree Hill, Ugly Betty, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Kenan & Kel, Privileged, The Hills, The City, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Everybody Hates Chris, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Cribs, Pimp My Ride, CSI, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EMHE)

The main reason why I like these shows is because they are either funny of show a sense of realism which as a teenager I can relate to, especially with shows like ‘Skins’. However shows like ‘the Hills’ and ‘the City’ I like because they show all this ‘realistic’ drama which probably exaggerated, but is still interesting to watch. Television channels such as EMHE and Pimp My Ride I like because I like to see the transformation and especially with EMHE they give makeovers to really poor families who are deserving which is always nice. I like some Quiz/Chat shows when they have that funny element to them like how Jonathan Ross displays and also Simon Amstell on their shows. Although my favourite show is probably ‘Ugly Betty’ because I love how everything always seems to go wrong for her much like in ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ they’re like the anti-heroes, the flawed characters.

My favourite TV genre is probably comedy or teen drama because I find them entertaining and they make me want to keep on watching.

A Television advert which I really like is for Ugly Betty, its very clever as there is a song and with dialogue from every character the song is sung its very clever the way they get all the words and still make it work. it’s a very entertaining advert, the song is played in the background and the characters from the show say different words from different scenes in the series to make up the song and even the lift bell or a slap is used in the tune of the song. Then the show is contradicted with the name being ‘Ugly Betty’ and the one of the characters saying at the end of the advert ‘you are beautiful’ and betty smiling.

Memorable TV Shows

Different Strokes, My Wife and Kids, Kenan & Kel, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Come Outside

Feature Films

My favourite genres of film are drama(Shawshank Redemption, Philadelphia), comedy(Scary Movie 2), Romantic comedies(Knocked Up, My Super Ex-Girlfriend) and also I like a lot of Bollywood movies as I tend to watch them more than Hollywood or British films.

3 Films that I find outstanding

Shawshank Redemption - I love Samuel.L.Jackson and the way he acts, the story is all about escaping and getting freedom and the brutality of prison and what in can do to you emotionally and physically.

Scary Movie 2 - I like the take on comedy by using other scary movies and make them entertaining, it make you look at films that you wouldn’t necessarily look at in that sense. I also like Marlon Wayans character in the film.

Hangover - I admire its grasp on realism and how the plot is so simple, but displayed so weirdly and four group of men are put together of four very different personalities and things start to go downhill. There is a sense of childlike behaviour and also a way in which we can relate to the characters.

I like going to the cinema every so often to watch movies, but I would rather watch them on television on DVD because its just so much better, but then I like the whole atmosphere when you go to a cinema and the picture is much better too.

My favourite cinema is ODEON because its close by, the tickets are of a relative price and also there is restaurants close to, but sometimes I like going to VUE in Castle Mall just because its easier for me to shop.

I prefer watching it with a group of friends if they are interested in watching the film because I don’t like it when people are constantly talking when you are trying to watch a film, but then I don’t like watching films by myself because I loose interest after a while, and it starts to get boring.

Conclusion

A media text that offended me in many ways was the music video for ‘Nasty Girl’ which you can tell be the name objectifies women and make them out to be just sexual animals and as having one purpose. There is no morality and even the lyrics to the song are horrible and talk about women in a unlikely manner. Even the imagery is making the women the subject using sexuality and seductiveness, women are in skimpy outfits representing all women. Another reason why I don’t like the video is because its done in memory of someone who has died and they celebrating his death and his legacy with half naked women which isn’t the most morally acceptable thing to do.

The most interesting or innovative media text I have ever seen would have to be the music video for Jay-Z’s song ‘99 Problems’. The main reason why I like it is because it in a soft black and white colour and the camera angle are all on the side or jolted as they its someone just recording their friend like a home video. Also the constant snap shots on different people and it also displays different emotion and feeling with different slides. The opening part of the video where the camera runs up the stairs makes you feel like you actually there and its you recording.

No media text has influenced me heavily enough for me to change the way I think, but many of them have inspired me or allowed me to look from a different point of view.

If I had to choose a media text to construct which I felt evaluated the condition of England and make people aware it would be a video showing the ‘real’ life of the English and how much religion is being objectified, people say they are not racist, but their use of language, the media they encourage and watch and also they believe what’s shown on the news shows that they do not want to make England a more equal place, clearly not everyone is like that because there are many people who believe in racial unity and equality, but some ignorant people do not see the need in unity with other religions and races and we need to open peoples eyes to what’s going on.

I chose media as an option because I like finding multiple interpretations and layer of meaning from something that is probably just a camera shot. I also love the way everything has a purpose in media such as Why the prop is used? Why the colour red? Why the film is set Paris? What’s the use of the voiceover? All of this interests me. Also I am taking English Literature and believed they fit well together.