Media Exam 2017: Monday, November 20th @ 3pm
Media Texts & Society's Values |
Answering Questions |
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Gentleman’s Agreement
Discourse The evolving attitudes towards Jews in pre-and post-World War II America from 1927 to 1947. Structuring a Response + Type of media text, time and place of its production, & target audience for the text. + Value type (Dominant, Emerging, Oppositional). + “That...” statement specifying the exact value (i.e. the belief held). + Codes/elements used to indicate how that value is evident in the text. This part should be approached in the same way that you discussed CAMELS for the Narrative unit. You should refer to specific examples from the text and analyse the way that production elements have been used to create representations or convey ideas. Note: you may also refer more generally to the dialogue or events of the text (i.e. the script) provided that you also analyse these in reference to the value/s, but you should never do this exclusively – always include some discussion of CAMELS in your response. + Relationship of the value in the text to the real values in society at the time and place of the text’s production and place of distribution. You must research evidence (i.e. societal examples) relevant to the values you’re discussing in your response to highlight this relationship. Once you have found evidence (stats, surveys, historical events, political policies) you should source it, qualify it, cite it and insert it into the analysis in a way that reads coherently. You may also need to explain its relevance with an extra sentence. Using the colour guide above, you need to start with your values, the blue and green parts, and structure them into “that” statements for each value. What are the dominant, emerging and oppositional values for Gentleman’s Agreement? In establishing and writing these values down, you will begin to form part of a response. For example: Dominant Values The 1947 American film, Gentleman’s Agreement, explored the dominant value that anti-Semitic attitudes were surreptitiously rife in post-War World War II America. Example scene to look at: Philip is at the hotel @ 1:26:40 The 1947 American film, Gentleman’s Agreement, explored the dominant value that before a country can be truly free, equality and justice must first be achieved. Example scene to look at: Mrs Green reads the story @ 1:53:40 Emerging Value The 1947 American film, Gentleman’s Agreement, explored the emerging value that it is everyone’s role to stand-up against prejudice if it is to be eradicated. OR… The 1947 American film, Gentleman’s Agreement, explored the emerging value that even small elements of anti-Semitism are still anti-Semitism and need to be pushed back. The 1947 American film, Gentleman’s Agreement, explored the emerging value that dismissing surreptitious, or “low-level” examples anti-Semitic behavior still condones anti-Semitisim. Example scene to look at: Kathy and Dave have dinner and Kathy tells the story about the joke she said nothing about @ 1:48:05 “I wonder if you’d feel so sick now, Kathy, if you HAD nailed him. There’s a funny kind of elation about socking back.” The 1947 American film, Gentleman’s Agreement, explored the emerging value that it only takes one person to stand-up to prejudice to make a difference. Example scene to look at: as above At 1:28:43 when Phil returns from his visit to The Flume Inn to determine if they’re restricted or not, Kathy says that there was a gentleman’s agreement not to hire/rent/sell to Jews. The idea behind a “gentleman’s agreement” is firstly that it is not written down, and is perhaps even unspoken, just known, but also that what holds it together is the honour and good character of those parties involved. By the film being called Gentleman’s Agreement and its reference to the exclusion of Jews, it is subverting this idea by highlighting that this sort of agreement is not honorable at all. In this scene when Kathy and Phil argue, Kathy says, “What can one person do?” This is an ongoing theme throughout the film and a question that Kathy asks multiple times. 1:34:14 - Phil says, “I've come to see lots of nice people who aren't [anti-Semitic]…people who despise it and protest their own innocence, but help it along and wonder why it grows. People who'd never beat up a Jew or yell kike at a child . People who think that anti-Semitism is something away off in some dark crackpot place with low-class morons. That's the biggest discovery I've made about this whole business, Kathy - the good people, the nice people.” At 1:35:34, Kathy yells, “I hate it, I hate it, I hate everything about this horrible thing. They always make trouble for everybody, even their friends. They force people to take sides against them.” Oppositional Values The 1947 American film, Gentleman’s Agreement, explored the oppositional value that Jews were accepted and treated equally in post-War World War II America. Example scene to look at: Kathy and Dave have dinner and Kathy tells the story about the joke she said nothing about. Published in the pages of Forbes magazine in 1938, 67% of Americans polled at the time believed that, with regards to those fleeing fascist states in Europe, most of whom were Jewish, that the immigration quota in America should not be raised and that, “we should try to keep them out” of America. Whilst Kristallnacht hadn’t occurred at this stage, an additional Gallup poll in 1939, following the events of Kristallnacht, 61% of Americans polled answered “No” to the question, “Should we bring 10,000 refugee children from Germany, most of them Jewish, to be taken care of in American homes.” This attitude of indifference to the plight of the Jews in the early days of World War II was indicative of the later prejudices that is highlighted in the 1947 film “Gentleman’s Agreement”. Whilst the outward attitudes may have been of acceptance and sympathy towards Jews following the horrors of World War II, when it came down to a deeper level of acceptance and integration into American society, there were many who harboured negative attitudes towards welcoming Jews into American society. Indeed, in 1943, The Bergson Group, a group set up by Peter Bergson that eventually focused on saving Jews in Europe, took out full page advertisements in major newspapers to raise awareness of the atrocities occurring in Germany and named prominent entertainment, business and political identities, shaming them, and in turn America, for its inaction in saving European Jews from mass murder. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/17/what-americans-thought-of-jewish-refugees-on-the-eve-of-world-war-ii/ It wasn’t until June of 1944, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, following pressure from his own cabinet and an American Jewish community signed an Executive Order establishing the War Refugee Board to facilitate the rescue of European Jews. Whilst some were later critical of the WRB for being too little too late, it was directly involved in saving more than 10,000 Jewish lives, and aiding at least 100,000 more. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007094 https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007409 2016 Media Exam Questions 1a. Describe one dominant value in one text that you studied this year. (2 marks) The 1947 American film, Gentleman’s Agreement, explored the dominant value that anti-Semitic attitudes were surreptitiously rife in post-War World War II America. This was highlighted in the scene when Phil returns from his visit to The Flume Inn to determine if they’re restricted or not (meaning that they don’t rent rooms to Jews). Kathy acknowledges the commonness of this, saying that there was a gentleman’s agreement in her hometown not to hire/rent/ or sell property to Jews. 1b. Outline how another text you studied this year reflects an oppositional or emerging value. (2 marks) 2. Discuss how one media representation has been constructed to reflect an idea, a value, an attitude, or a discourse in one media text that you studied this year. (4 marks) 3. How has one discourse or social issue evolved over time? In your response, compare representations from two or more media texts that you studied this year. (6 marks) 4. Discuss how one or more media texts that you studied this year presented a discourse or an issue. In your response, refer to:
Best sequences to reference from Gentleman’s Agreement 1:26:40 – At hotel 1:28:35– Kathy not doing anything, one can’t make a difference, kids abused Tom 1:48:05 – Dave and Kathy have dinner and she tells story about joke 1:53:40 – Mrs Green reads the story (shadows across face) More evidence The journal of Psychoogy published a study with data showing that nearly three quarters of those viewing gentleman’s agreement maintained the movie had given them a more positive attitude towards Jews. So what does this mean? That essentially, there was room for more positive attitudes to develop which lends itself to the “unspoken” idea of the anti-Semitism in the film, because if Jews were already being treated as equals, then there wouldn’t be any room for attitudes to be “more positive” in the first place. The Jazz SingerDiscourse
The evolving attitudes towards Jews in pre-and post-World War II America from 1927 to 1947. Structuring a Response + Type of media text, time and place of its production, & target audience for the text. + Value type (Dominant, Emerging, Oppositional). + “That...” statement specifying the exact value (i.e. the belief held). + Codes/elements used to indicate how that value is evident in the text. This part should be approached in the same way that you discussed CAMELS for the Narrative unit. You should refer to specific examples from the text and analyse the way that production elements have been used to create representations or convey ideas. Note: you may also refer more generally to the dialogue or events of the text (i.e. the script) provided that you also analyse these in reference to the value/s, but you should never do this exclusively – always include some discussion of CAMELS in your response. + Relationship of the value in the text to the real values in society at the time and place of the text’s production and place of distribution. You must research evidence (i.e. societal examples) relevant to the values you’re discussing in your response to highlight this relationship. Once you have found evidence (stats, surveys, historical events, political policies) you should source it, qualify it, cite it and insert it into the analysis in a way that reads coherently. You may also need to explain its relevance with an extra sentence. Using the colour guide above, you need to start with your values, the blue and green parts, and structure them into “that” statements for each value. What are the dominant, emerging and oppositional values for Jazz Singer? The 1927 American film, The Jazz Singer, explored the dominant value that American Jewish families are trapped, by their religion, in the past. The 1927 American film, The Jazz Singer, explored the emerging value that younger Jews were beginning to embrace American culture and society in 1927 America, but were still heavily bound by their religion and traditions. OR The 1927 American film, The Jazz Singer, explored the emerging value that Jews were becoming increasingly enthusiastic about being part of American culture and society. The 1927 American film, The Jazz Singer, explored the oppositional value that Jews, regardless of their religion, were fully embraced by society. The examples for this are that in 1927 America, many Americans were against jazz music, as they saw it as a predominantly Jewish style of music and a way for Jews to propagate their own religion. This is further supported in the film by the fact that whenever Jakie is performing, especially in his big break on Broadway, he is wearing a mask, the mask of blackface. So quite literally, he is appropriating somebody else’s culture in order to hide his own. The duplicity of the blackface paint – that he’s hiding who he is, appropriating somebody else’s culture, whilst also battling with the challenges of accepting/or leaving behind, his own. The main evolution between the two films is that one of the dominant values in The Jazz Singer is that you can’t be Jewish and part of mainstream US society at the same time, whereas one of the dominant values in Gentleman’s Agreement is that Jews want to be accepted and apart of American society but are shunned due to anti-Semitism. The dominant value that women have become progressively more powerful and outspoken in Jewish society in 1927 America. This is highlighted by Jakie’s mum going behind her husband’s back to see Jakie and read his letters after the Cantor has banished him from the family. Additionally, Jakie’s big break on Broadway only comes and exists because of the opportunities provided for him by Mary Dale, his fellow performer. Another dominant value within The Jazz Singer is the idea that there is anti-gentile sentiment in some regards, as much as there is anti-Semitism. When Jakie’s mum hears that Jakie is spending time with a women, she cries, “I hope he hasn’t fallen for a shiksa” a Yiddish term for a non-Jewish woman that translates to mean “the detested one”. As much as Jakie’s father, the Cantor, isn’t accepting of anything outside of the Jewish faith, Jakie’s mum is also very judgmental. Question 3 (6 marks) How has one discourse or social issue evolved over time? In your response, compare representations from two or more media texts that you studied this year. |
1. You should write around 50 words per mark that the question is worth.
Therefore, a 2 mark response should be around 100 words, a 3 mark response should be 150 words and a 10 mark response should be around 500 words. 2. You must use media specific terminology. For each mark that a response is worth for Narrative, you should use one media specific piece of terminology. e.g. if you're writing a response about camera, then you should use terms like close-up, framing of the shot, pan, etc. One of those for each mark. |
Homework
Week 1:
Watch the above Editing clip and then write a response for editing for both films.
So, you're going to watch the above editing clip and then write a response to these questions:
1. Discuss how editing is used in Inglourious Basterds to engage and convey meaning to the audience. (4 marks)
2. Discuss how editing is used in Everything is Illuminated to engage and convey meaning to the audience. (4 marks)
Email them to: ash@occupied.com.au by Saturday 14th October.
Week 2:
Write the setting, sound, camera, genre response for Everything is Illuminated.
Rewrite the mise-en-response and the sound response about the folk music.
Important!! - use terminology, be fancy (sentence structure).
Email them to: ash@occupied.com.au by Saturday 21st October.
Watch the above Editing clip and then write a response for editing for both films.
So, you're going to watch the above editing clip and then write a response to these questions:
1. Discuss how editing is used in Inglourious Basterds to engage and convey meaning to the audience. (4 marks)
2. Discuss how editing is used in Everything is Illuminated to engage and convey meaning to the audience. (4 marks)
Email them to: ash@occupied.com.au by Saturday 14th October.
Week 2:
Write the setting, sound, camera, genre response for Everything is Illuminated.
Rewrite the mise-en-response and the sound response about the folk music.
Important!! - use terminology, be fancy (sentence structure).
Email them to: ash@occupied.com.au by Saturday 21st October.