Roland Barthes Cultural Codes Theory

Roland Barthes' work is widely referenced within analysis of media texts because of his work on how meaning is constructed according to cultural ideas and influences. How audiences consume these media texts is influenced by their own understanding of society and their own viewpoints.

 

He described five codes that are woven into any narrative.

1. The Hermeneutic Code refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader.
2. The Proairetic Code also builds tension, referring to any other action or event that indicates something else is going to happen, and which hence gets the reader guessing as to what will happen next.
3. The Semantic Code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word.
4. The Symbolic Code is very similar to the Semantic Code, but acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. This is typically done in the use of antithesis, where new meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas.
5. The Cultural Code refers to anything that is founded on some kind of canonical works that cannot be challenged and is assumed to be a foundation for truth, for example science or religion.

Evaluate Perkins five assumptions regarding stereotypes in relation to the Hotel Babylon sequence we have studied.

• Stereotypes are not always negative: Most stereotypes that are used attached and labels a group of people are usually bad or gives the particular group a image that isn't desired, for example, youths are widely regarded as violent, "hoodie culture" law breaking citizens. However Perkins described how stereotypes of youths aren't always a negative thing, when riots occur the majority of the blame goes to the "violent" youths being violent just to be violent, these riots could result in property damage, arson, looting and even murders. On the other hand, using the 2011 London riots, they started by the death of 29 year old Mark Duggan, who was shot by police and the riots began as retaliation of the polices action. In the eyes on Perkins and few others, the youths acts of violence was justified as it was to get justice for the death of Duggan that the courts wouldn't have done efficiently, Parsons says this these acts are justifiable and is the example that not all stereotypes is bad. This has a relation with the Hotel Babylon scene as a stereotype holds the upper class, wealthy and powerful in this class that doesn't help or protect others, which the owners of the hotel rejects.

• They are not always about the minority groups or the less powerful: Perkins saw that most stereotypes were aimed at the lower/ working classes therefore she argued that the upper classes could always be treated in the same way and making assumptions isn't always the safest option. This could hold a parallel link to the Hotel Babylon because although the minority's are the helpless workers in the scene, they are however acting on this stereotype which the rich aren't, the rich and powerful upper class are more likely to be fighting against the working class and helpless, the people in the scene however are caring and look after the people who need it most by providing them with jobs and protection. 

• They can be held about ones own group: Perkins saw that even in larger groups of people stereotypes can still be made about each other by the people in said group, even though they hold the same believes and ideologies just on assumption. The group involved in the Hotel Babylon clip is portrayed in this way though a few forms, first being how the police should be seen as the ones to protect and serve the less fortunate in society yet they are the ones hunting down the despite and powerless in the scene.

• They are not rigid or unchanging: Perkins stated that even if a stereotype has been pinned on a group of people or class, even though it may be difficult, it still is able to change over time. For example, women used to be seen as only housewife's but now they're recognised as being more career driven. This could also link to the shift in behaviour of the police in the Hotel Babylon clip, usually seen as the protectors they are here being seen hunting down the helpless that shifts the point of views of the audience on the police force.

• They're not always false:  Simple enough, some stereotypes are truthful to a group of people. Stereotypes probably surfaced though first or second hand experience to create the stereotype in the first place. In the Hotel Babylon clip this can be seen though the migrant civilians that are hiding from the authority in the hotel, they are stereotyped as helpless, powerless and hard working, in the show they are portrayed in all three of these examples.  

Alvarado's racial stereotypes theory (1987)

Alvarado studied multiple areas of society and how the media, documentaries and we as people view different groups of people.

• Mainly seen in areas such as Africa and the children living there, documentaries display these children in a way to portray poverty and death so the audience will feel a sense of pity for these groups of people whereas we do not feel the same pity when examining the less fortunate groups of people in our own country.
• Some ethnic groups are in many forms displayed as dangerous and violent in their behaviour, there are TV soap characters such as EastEnders character Yusef Khan who acts in a villainous and violent way so the audience can recognise and relate his particular behaviour to his ethnic group.
• Being exotic has become a label mainly for Latino Americans who are now seen as sex symbols because of characters such as Shakira's controversial behaviour.

Film Piracy

Film piracy

Hypothetically, two movies come out on the same day: The Wolf of Wall Street and the new Transformers. You are allowed to see one in an IMAX theater and you will illegally download the other one online. Most people would choose Transformers over The Wolf of Wall Street due to the fact that there are robot dinosaurs and everyone else is going to see it in theaters. Those robot dinosaurs will look a lot cooler in a theater rather than on a laptop. Many people then realized how lacking the movie really was after walking out of their local theater’s showing of Transformers: Age of Extinction. Meanwhile, many of the same people went on to watch The Wolf of Wall Street online to realize that it was actually a really good movie. Most people don’t realize that this is at all a problem, and at first glance it’s not. However, after more in-depth research, the problem soon becomes apparent. Transformers: Age of Extinction only gained an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (Transformers, Rotten Tomatoes), one of the most critical and most trusted film-review sites online. The Wolf of Wall Street, however, gained a 77% rating on the same site (Wolf of Wall Street, Rotten Tomatoes). It was also nominated for five different Academy Awards. The Wolf of Wall Street is clearly the better film. Yet, besides the fact that Transformers was clearly not a great film, it somehow managed to be named the highest grossing film worldwide of 2014 and earned over one billion dollars in the Box Office (2014 Worldwide Grosses). The Wolf of Wall Street went on to be the most pirated film of 2014 with over 30 million illegal downloads (Spangler, 1) and didn’t even gross $117 million, giving the producers and the studio under $17 million after the production cost, which is not a much of a profit at all for such a high-budget film.

Piracy has become more of a problem in the past decade than it ever has before, specifically movie piracy. In fact, a study from Columbia University came out recently that said at least 45% of US citizens pirate movies actively, but that number bumps up to 70% if you include the younger demographics as well (Mick, 2). This act of pirating is growing more and more common every year and most people do it mindlessly, not realizing what it costs. Everyone has seen the text at the beginning of movies saying “Piracy is not a victimless crime,” and this is completely true. Piracy is extremely harmful to the movie industry and its effects are larger than anyone could imagine.

But Where Do These Pirated Movies Come From?

There are many different ways that people pirate movies. One of the most classic ways people pirate is by “leaking” them. This involves a person going into a movie theater with a camera or a phone and recording the movie as it plays. It is usually a poor quality, but many people still download these recordings anyways instead of going to see it in a theater. This usually occurs when it is only in theater since that is the only version most people are able to see. Sometimes these leaks occur before the movie is even premiered, often because it is filmed during a special premier before the opening night. This is referred to as a pre-release, and they tend to result in a 19% decrease in how much the movie makes at the Box Office (Hart, 2). Many people defend pre-releases because it gives a movie more publicity so more people would want to see it, but the facts state otherwise. Leaking a movie that’s in the theaters always tends to decrease how much the movie makes regardless of when it is released and sometimes even leads to the movie not even making as much as there was put into it.

One of the other common ways for a movie to be pirated is for it to be digitally hacked. This one has become more common lately as technology improves. One of the most extreme and recent examples was the Sony hacking. Though some people will claim that Sony faked the hacking, evidence shows that they were legitimately hacked. During this hacking, many of Sony’s movies were released illegally online, such as Annie and Fury (Note: Annie had not even been released yet). A hacking involves someone digitally cracking into the studio or company’s computer system and taking the movie from their files. This logically would actually decrease a movie’s Box Office revenue by even more than someone’s recording of the movie would because it’s a better quality.

There are more ways to watch a pirated movie other than just downloading it online. In fact, some people tend to start their own pirating businesses. It’s very inexpensive and easy for a person to start one of these businesses. More recently, people only need to buy a bunch of blank DVD’s, the same amount of DVD cases and a computer that can burn a DVD. From there, they must find a source to get the pirated movies from. Sometimes they will personally film them in a theater, or find a hacked or leaked version online and download it. After that, all they need to do is download the stolen films onto their blank DVD’s and sell them to anyone who is willing to purchase it. Within a short amount of time, this person has made a great deal of money that should have gone to the movie studios.

What Kind of Effect Does it Have?

Most people would just say that pirating has a small effect on the industry and that the studios already have enough money. They believe watching a movie online isn’t going to hurt anyone. The Motion Picture Association of America looked into this belief and discovered that piracy costs around $20.5 billion annually in the United States alone (Plumer, 2). In fact, a study back in 2005 estimated that a 10% decrease in worldwide piracy, including both film and music, over the course of four years would add 1.5 million jobs, $64 billion in taxes and $400 billion in economic growth (Kai-Lung). That, however, was ten years ago and is outdated. Those numbers are likely to be much higher today due to inflation and an increase in popularity of the film industry. This means that the studios are making much smaller amounts of money than they should be making from their films due to piracy.

Quit Talking Numbers. How Does it Effect My Movie Experience?

The decrease in money from studios will often decrease the quality of other movies and even sequels, but more often it will decrease the quantity. A studio is much more likely to throw all of their money into the next big franchise sequel than give half of it to the franchise and the other half to a movie like Twelve Years a Slave simply because Twelve Years a Slave won’t sell as well in theaters as the franchise movie will. Movie studios and production companies don’t look at reviews and DVD sales nearly as much as they look at the Box Office Revenue, or how much it makes in the theater.

In many cases, piracy of a film will even damage the likeliness of a franchise sequel. For example, the Kick-Ass movies came to an end due to lack of funding from piracy. According to Chloë Grace Moretz who stars as “Hit-Girl” in the series, Kick-Ass 2 was one of the most pirated films of 2013 despite having an extremely low Box Office Revenue (Highfill). Because of this, the plans for the third movie in the series have been cancelled. Whether or not you like the Kick-Ass series, it is clear that piracy has become a serious problem and will only continue to damage the film industry.

What About New Movies That Aren't Franchises Yet?

It is not franchise movies that need to be worried about, though; it is the movies by the independent filmmakers. Due to the increase in film piracy, production companies and movie studios are now much less likely to loan money out to an independent filmmaker with an idea than they are to a team of writers and producers working on a Harry Potter spin-off. When people think of the term ‘independent filmmaker’, they think of a man in his 20’s with an Associates Degree in Theatre that wrote a screenplay in two weeks. Though these people are independent filmmakers, I refer to the higher kind of independent filmmakers that actually make Oscar nominated films, but take out enormous loans to do so. Now, due to piracy, no matter how many Oscars their movie is nominated for, many filmmakers are having to foreclose their houses or take out further loans from a bank to make up for the losses in the Box Office for their film due to piracy. It also means that the studios do not get their money back that they invested with and therefore stop funding films without promises of success like Birdman or The Theory of Everything, both of whom won Oscars this year.

Now Let's Think More Economically...

The loss of money affects more than just the filmmakers and studios, however. It helps the entire economy grow due to tax and job increase. Pirating less films will mean that the studios will get more money, which leads to more movies, which employs people like hairdressers, electricians, actors, costume designers and countless other occupations. This will add more jobs to the United States and will also add more tax money to help the country.

But Is It Really Stealing?

Many people argue that piracy is not illegal because they are not technically stealing anything. Though they are not physically taking away anything from anyone, they are stealing intellectual property. Just because you can’t hold a movie file in your hands does not mean that it is not someone’s property. Downloading a film online is the equivalent of stealing a movie from a movie store. It may not come in the same fancy case as a movie at the store, but it still carries the same contents. By pirating a film, you are stealing the money that should have been paid had you watched the movie legally. You do not have a right to watch whatever movies you want to watch without having to pay for them just as I do not have a right to walk into the local Dollar General and eat their candy bars without paying first. As much as people may argue it, film piracy is stealing. It is not your property, so it is not yours to take without paying for it first.

Going Back to my Original Example at the Beginning of All of This...

The Wolf of Wall Street was 2014’s most pirated movie with over 30 million piracies worldwide. Let’s do the math to see how much money piracy actually robbed this movie of had these people gone to see it in a theater instead. In 2014, the average price of a movie ticket in the United States was $8.17 (Linshi, 1). When a person goes to see a movie in the theater, the money spent on the ticket goes to two different places. It is split between the movie studio and the movie theater, with more going to the theater the longer the movie has been out (Campea). For the purposes of now, let’s average that overall the theater and the studio would each get 50% of the ticket price. Now for the part with the actual math. If each illegal download of The Wolf of Wall Street, which more specifically evens out to around 30,035,000 downloads (Spangler, 1) equals one movie ticket that costs $8.17, and the movie studio only gets half of the amount from each movie ticket, that results in about $122,692,975 that was robbed from Paramount Pictures for just that one movie. That amount stolen was more than the movie actually made in the Box Office, and that is assuming that only one person watched each illegal download. Several of those downloads were most likely copied onto multiple different blank DVD’s and given out to others to watch illegally. That is even more money that was robbed from The Wolf of Wall Street. In the Box Office, the movie barely broke even out of how much they spent making the film. These numbers would have helped the studio, the filmmakers and the crew a lot more in order to make even more Oscar nominated movies. Unfortunately, these thirty million people seemed to overlook that.

Now the Real Question: How Do We Stop Piracy?

It all starts at home, just like it takes a spark to start a fire. Many people argue that “everyone is watching movies illegally online, so why is it different if I do it?” Well the same argument could again go for people that steal candy bars from a store. It may cost more than you like and others may do it, but it is not your property to steal. Like voting, if just one person takes a stand against piracy it will make a difference. Simply quit pirating movies or watching them online. There are many different excuses people use about watching movies online illegally, but it does not override the fact that it is illegal. Even streaming movies online is illegal if it is not authorized by the studio that made the film. If you aren’t willing to pay to watch the film, you aren’t allowed to watch it. This is the way the industry works.

What Can The Theaters Do?

A way for movie theaters to prevent piracy is to change their types of projectors. In the past, the government came up with a way to prevent the filming of a movie in the theaters. They did this by projecting an infrared spectrum over the projected film. This infrared image was not visible to the audience, but it would make the video on the camera someone brought into film the movie into a very low quality that would make the video almost unbearable to watch. Since then technology has improved to attempt to improve the quality of the filmed video regardless of the infrared. Though this has worked to an extent, film pirates have not yet fully recovered from the addition of the infrared. Only more research will be able to help improve the projectors so that this does not happen anymore.

What Happens if Someone gets Caught?!

When it all comes down to it, one of the major reasons you should avoid pirating movies is that its an enormous risk. Since it is illegal, there are certainly punishments for those that choose to break this law. These punishments are severe. For example, if a person is convicted of a misdemeanor in piracy, as in they only downloaded or uploaded a small amount of movies without the owner’s consent, the person would be punished with up to a year of prison time and would have a fine of up to $100,000, depending on the extent of the piracy. That, however, is just for a small offense. For someone that downloads or uploads movies illegally without the owner’s consent in large amounts will be charged with a felony. The punishment of this crime is up to 5 years of imprisonment and up to $250,000 in fines. The fine, though, can be more. In some cases, the fine is set as double what the person gained for pirating the films if they made money off of it, or it set as double the amount of money the person cost the studios he or she stole from (AlanS). In any of these cases, it is clear that movie piracy is not worth the risk.

Piracy is Clearly an Enormous Threat

Filmmakers are in danger of losing their jobs and the movie theaters are in danger of only showing films like Transformers sequels and Terminator reboots. Helping the film industry does not just entail not illegally watching a movie, it also entails going to see those movies in a theater to reverse the mistakes made by those who don’t realize the consequences. Some of the greatest films do not get the proper credibility in the theaters because people are too distracted by other films or because people would think it’s smarter to illegally watch it on their computer than paying to see it in a theater. As stated earlier, this has many more consequences than these people would think, such as taking away jobs, taking over $20.5 billion from the US film industry and decreasing both the quantity and quality of the very movies they are downloading. In addition, is it really worth spending five years of your life in prison just because you didn’t want to pay to watch a movie? It’s time to stop pirating and to stop making excuses for watching a movie illegally online. Film is a form of art. People use it to tell their stories.

LINK to original source

Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens - Seven Areas

1)The Issues Raised by Media Ownership in Contemporary Media Practice

As with any other piece of media, The Force Awakens is owned by a legal owner. In this case, the legal owner is Disney, who acquired the rights during its acquisition of Lucasfilm. As Disney is one of the ‘Big Six’ film companies, this meant the film had a lot of money behind it. This meant that the film could attempt a larger scale, as there would be a larger budget for special effects. Disney would also have many connections to big names in the film industry, for if the film needed specific jobs to be fulfilled. Disney also has a reputation for producing good movies, either directly or through their various branch companies (like Marvel Studios or Pixar), which would help to give the film a boost in the eyes of the public.

It also is produced by Bad Robot, meaning it is partly owned by them as well. Bad Robot is a production company owned by the Director and Producer, JJ Abrams, which has a good track record from producing on the newest Mission Impossible films, the rebooted Star Trek films and both Cloverfields. It also has a good reputation for having only one out of their 12 films be a loss (being Infinitely Polar Bear, which only made $1.8 Million of its $6.7 Million budget).

Because of the film’s well-known production companies, the film was granted a large budget of $306 Million (second biggest budget recorded), which allowed them to make the film on a larger scale. 

2) The Importance of Cross Media Convergence and Synergy in Production, Distribution and Marketing

Star Wars is a renowned, acclaimed and recognised franchise which is known by the majority of people of this planet, but how did this recognition and remembrance actually occur? The first star wars film, A New Hope, was one of the most influential because of its ground breaking use of special effects and was one of the most successful films of all time. Charles Lippincott was in charge of the marketing of A New Hope which consisted of T-shirts, posters, toys, trailers and billboards. However, Lippincott wanted to boost marketing by looking at other devices such as securing deals with Stan Lee, Marvel Comics and Roy Thomas for comic book adaptations as well as novelised adaptations with Del Rey Books.  Although Star Wars merchandise was available to enthusiastic children upon release, only Kenner Toys—who believed that the film would be unsuccessful—had accepted Lippincott's licensing offers. Within three weeks of the film's release, 20th Century Fox's stock price doubled to a record high. The marketing had led to such a mammoth success that the beginning of the prominent and outstanding franchise, Star Wars, had begun! It is no surprise that every film that was made after A New Hope was commemorated and celebrated by many, many people. 

Lucas film has now been signed onto a partnership with Disney as it distribution core. The accessibility of Disney’s recourses allows the marketing for Force Awakens to become so strong that this will help increase their marketing strategies due to the connections and deals Disney can make with other companies. We can see a considerable jump from Below The Line Marketing to Above The Line Marketing. Posters, Toys, mugs, pyjamas- The list goes on! With all these items released to the general public with the produce from Disney it’s no wonder that so much profit was being made from items. Disney is company which works considerably with its visuals and merchandising and this is what helps the items to appeal to all ages. With the classically designed posters following the original art work of the previous films helping to appeal to the original audiences as well as the teddies and children’s clothes appealing to younger, more influential audiences. 

3)The Technologies That Have Been Introduced in Recent Years at the Levels of Production, Distribution, Marketing and Exchange

Because technology has only improved over the time of which the other films were released to the most recent, there is no question why excitement has only risen for the franchise Star Wars. The special effects have only gotten better and the filming and ways to see films have only improved. The idea of there being more ways to watch films, such as 3D and internet streaming, have made the profits from the viewing of Star Wars: The Fore Awakens increase. Overall the film was shown on well over 5,000 screens globally. The idea that Disney aided the films distribution is incredible; the company is so well known and if Disney distributed a brand this big this would only increase its presence. Disney is known by cinemas and is trusted amongst making deals, the connections that they have also managed to attain during their existence has managed to make their ideas of distribution much more achievable. The film was available to be distributed digitally; this managed to save the companies money because the process is in fact cheaper and easier. 

During the production processes many companies with connections to the franchise and workers were able to get involved, thus allowing there to be a lot of technology available to be used. Because of the fat that Star Wars is an franchise with obviously focuses on sci-fi we can agree that one of the most common features for Star Wars, as a production company, to focus on is their depiction of technological progress.  Although the technology has improved the production team wanted to make sure that the special effects and visuals used in the films that feature later on in the franchise, in comparison to the prequels, were just as ubiquitous.  The idea that mast of the effects such as explosions, costumes and fight scenes were able to be made on set was one of the huge advances. Being able to time the explosions of designing the costumes for some of the imaginative creatures made the franchise come across as even more creative and effective toward the audience. 

4)The Significance of Proliferation in Hardware and Content for Institutions and Audiences

The film was marketed in many ways to grab the attention of the audience and future viewers of the film, in the modern time of social media and almost everyone having access to the internet multiple clips, scenes and posters were released to the public through the internet to increase the hype of the film, the companies producing the movie may have tacitly dropped hints and particular scenes of the film to get people excited. The production team of the film made sure that there wasn’t many details of the plot or characters was released for the audience to know about, even in the trailers that was released didn’t give much details of the plot, which intrigued the audience to watching the film. And with the December release not many films were being released at the time so there wasn’t much competition to compete with.   

5) The Importance of Technological Convergence for Institutions and Audiences

The worldwide audience for the Star Wars saga is still growing and so is the audiences viewing habits of the franchise when a new addition of the films is released. Many of the fans of the films have taken to the way of illegally downloading and viewing the films on their mobile phones and laptops, this is for the fact that it’s a way for them to save money, its easy and hassle free. How the films are viewed on the online sites can be quite good, with lots of the films being viewed in 720 (HD), but this can vary and can also be in much poorer quality for cheaper prices, some of these films have been recorded and put onto the site by members of the public, these are probably in the worse quality as it has probably and visibly been filmed on a handheld device. Disney and LucasFilm couldn’t have prevented this as it is so embedded in today’s popular culture of viewing films. However, Star Wars is still a strong factor in today’s culture and film so the film still earned a lot from cinema viewings.

6)The Issues Raised in the Targeting of National and Local Audiences (Specifically, British) by International or Global Institutions

Due to The Force Awakens being the seventh instalment in a franchise film, it received a boost in its reputation, as it is a well-renowned name due to its previous instalments. This also meant it had a wide-appeal, as the kids would’ve seen Star Wars with their parents, the teenagers and young adults would have watch the prequel when they were younger, whilst the older demographic would have grown up with the original trilogy. This wide-appeal would increase the film’s audience and thus its box office figures, however this would only work in certain areas of the world like America, Europe and Britain. Other places, like China or Former-Communist countries, might not receive this effect as the original films were not shown there, so the nostalgia would give the same effect, which may have affected its global box-office intake.

Despite the film having well-known Western actors star in it which would help to pull in audiences, the film lacked any Asian or Eastern actors, who would appeal to the foreign audiences. The film however also starred some unknown British actors, which may help to sway some of the British audience in watching it. It would also appeal to the British audiences as it classifies as a British film, due to the contribution from the British government and most oit being recorded in Pinewood Studios.

7) The Ways in Which the Candidates’ Own Experiences of Media Consumption Illustrate Wider Patterns and Trends of Audience Behaviour

Recent movie viewing habits mean that online-streaming is more popular and more accessible. This also has led to illegal pirate streams too, which were very popular around the film’s release, taking away some of the film’s ticket sales. Many people who streamed from these illegal sites however, were viewing it as a repeat, so the studio still took some money.

However, despite this, the majority of people still went to the cinema to view the film. With a few thousand screens around the world showing it over several months, bringing in massive amounts of money ($2 Billion worldwide box office). Many people even went back to the cinema several times to see it.

The other option to view this film is to wait for its Blu-Ray and DVD release (released in April 2016) and view it. This doesn’t bring in as much money for the studio but allows the audience to view it multiple times and share with others.

Personally, I both went to the cinema and purchased the Blu-Ray for this film. This allowed me to watch the film at the time of release as well as watch it again on demand. Many others that I know also follow the same trend.