Media Literacies

Chapter 10 : Entertainment

Entertainment
The action of providing or
being provided with
amusement or enjoyment
Oxford dictionaries.com

Entertainment Formula
General Story Formula
Genres
Challenges

AFAF HULMA BINTI ADZMI

170939

News follow
particular
formulas.
The question
is, do
entertainmen
t
.the answer
is
YES!
follow
formulas?

Why?
to grab &
hold
attention

 Follow standard patterns.

e.g. songs formula: The Hit
Equation
How about general story?

General story
Sue Clayton : the
genetic blueprint for a successful
formula
movie
Genetic blueprint for a successful movie

Action
Comedy
Good versus evil
Love/sex/romance
Special effects
Plot
Music

erfect movies based on formul

al entertainment story fo
Begin with a
conflict/probl
em

Climax:
Problem
solved,
conflict
eliminated /
reduced

Conflict
heightene
d
continues

Main
character
s try to
solve the
problem

Help
recognize
good and
bad
characters

Quickly
find where
we are in
the story

General
formula
is used
to:

The
formula
is The
used
creators
by:
of media
messages
The
audience

Genres

Drama
Comedy
Romance
Reality programming

Tragedy
Must have noble and good characters.
Bad things happen to the characters.
Audiences compare themselves to feel better.

Mystery
An important element of the plot is missing.
whodunit mystery
Solve the mystery.

Action/horror
Good and evil fight in a deep conflict
Characters: stereotype / comic book types.
Fast-paced action, emotions and violence.

D
R
A
M
A

COMEDY
Subgenre:
Character comedy/comedy of
manners

Put-down comedy

NUR NAJMI BT SHUIB 171082

ROMANCE
the expressive and pleasurable
feeling from an emotional attraction
towards another person associated
with love.

CHALLENGES
Challenge by medium
Changing public taste
Dealing with risk

1) Challenge by medium

Most challenging
medium

Many competing channels &

interrupted by breaks.
The stories must be fairly simple.

2) Changing public taste

People get bored
Media become more sensitive
Popular music
Love or sex

NURSYAFIKA HANA BT ABDULLAH 171163

3) Dealing with risk

Too standard and formulaic
Break formula too much
Line of acceptability

CHARACTER PATTERNS

Gender
Ethnicity
Occupations
Characters

NOOR AIN ZAHIRA BT NAFIAH 171149

Why different ?

Demographic
Stereotype

Demographic Patterns
Comparisons of Occupation Prevalence in the TV World and
Real World
Occupation
Real World (%)

TV World (%)

Medical workers
0.9

12.1

Police

11.4
0.9

Lawyers

8.3
0.7

Executives / managers
31.0

6.4

Media people
0.3

8.3

Space travelers
0.0001

5.9

Demographic Patterns
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Gender
Ethnicity
Age
Marital status
Socioeconomic status
Occupations

Stereotypical potrayals

SITI NAZUHA BT HAJI GHAZALI LEE

161942

What is stereotype?
Assumption
Based on what we see on the
surface

Why?
For viewer to recognize certain
characters

Stereotypical Potrayals
1) African American
) Was negative
) Changing more positive
nowadays

2) Gender
Male (more
competent,
brave)
Female
(strong emphasis
on the body
image)

3) Occupation
Male VS Female
Marital status
Ethnicity

4) Families
Fathers are more fool
Age difference conflict
Negative side

5) Elderly characters
Stubborn
Infirm
Not respected

6) Body image
The ideal standard

Controversal
Biased
Harmful if people apply the
assumption in real world.

Question!
Does the entertainment world portrays the
real world or the real world portrays the
reality?

Controversial Content
Elements
Sex
Homosexuality

LIYANA PUTRI BT MOHD SUHAIMI

162988

SEX
Prevalent since the 1970s
Can be divided into two
Vision
Verbal

Are sexual portrayals increasing or

decreasing on television???

HOMOSEXUALITY
These issues were invisible during
the 1950s and early 1960s.
The timeline of homosexuality have
their up and down due to prejudice
and recognition.
Fun fact : the character normally
played by straight actors ..

Violence & Language

Nor Azimah bt Hamdzah 163872

Violence
The most studied form of content in all
mass media.
Its has been found in 57% to 89% of all
entertainment program.
Verbal violence is even more prevalent
on television than in physical violence.
Rates of physical violence remained
stable but rates of verbal violence had
increased dramatically.

 One change was that recent slasher

films rarely mixed scenes of sex and
violence.
Movie previews also a present a high
dgree of violence
Not only examined for its frequency
but also its context.

Language
Broken the barrier on the television
Continue complaining about bad
language
Bad language also includes racial
and gender slurs
Trigged the attention of the media.

HEALTH
Deceptive health
pattern
Responsible health
pattern

SYAMILA SYAFAWANI BT SALEHUDDIN

170757

Health
Generally the (black box) always
portray healthy patterns of life.
Some of it are responsible in
presenting a healthy message
but
the other parts are actually deceptive
; present false message about health

Deceptive

Health Patterns

i) Healthy habits - eat, exercise, medical

check up. Most appear healthy , fit and thin.

Deceptive

Health Patterns

ii) Violence
only few characters
are portrayed as
suffering any harm

Eg : superhero
&
antagonist character

Deceptive

Health Patterns

(iii) Normal health maladies are rarely

shownif shown, itd be more dramatic and social way

Deceptive

Health Patterns

(iv) Mental health- Exaggerate dangerously

stereotypical manner

Deceptive

Health Patterns

(v) Doctors greatly overrepresenteddominate the ranks of professionals.

Responsible

Health Patterns

Alcohol- was common on tv in mid1980

Tobacco
Illegal drugs

VALUES
Content Analysis
Method
Becoming media
literate with
entertainment
message

NURUL HUSNA BT OSMAN

167865

Becoming Media Literate with Entertainment

Messages
Television and film deviate far from reality on purpose
Best examples would be Twilight (vampires and
werewolves?) and Thor (a Mjolnir wielding Greek God is
highly unlikely)

Creative minds behind the stories create plots that are

so surreal illogical at times
Teman Lelaki Upahan (how hard is it to find a boyfriend even
without paying him, and the protagonist even paid the man
a large sum of money)

E.g.; No matter how big a problem is, it will always end

within the span of the screen time (like the TV series
Revenge, the protagonist always manages to solve her
problems by the end of the episode)

 We are in danger of absorbing the warped up

reality on screen
Hence the increase of early marriages because
nowhere in the series did it say how hard and how
much a marriage would cost, only the happy faces of
bride and groom

BUT! It is unrealistic to ask producers to produce

realistic plots
You cant become Social Justice Warriors and bash the
casting agents for not creating a more realistic body
expectation for the main characters

Instead, we ourselves must be educated

 Analyze the content patterns of

stories
Notice how only the emotional things
are exaggerated (falling in love, first
kiss, date) but not the mundane
everyday work (walking to class)

Refer to Table 10.5 page 226

Cognit
ive
Skills

Ability to
see
entertainm
ent
formulas

Ability to
analyze
entertainme
nt content

Knowledge
Knowledge of elements in entertainment formula

Ability
to
compar
e/contr
ast

Emo
tion
al
Skill
s

Ability
to
take
contro
l of
the
emoti
ons

Ability
to
empat
hize
with
the
chara
cter

Ability
to
analy
ze the
portra
yed
feelin
g

Knowledge
Recall from personal experience how it felt

Aesthetic Skills
Ability to
analyze the
craft and artistic
elements in the
story

Ability to
compare and
contrast the
artistry used to
tell one story
from another

Knowledge
Knowledge of writing, directing, acting, and so on
Knowledge of good and bad stories

Moral Skills
Ability to analyze moral elements based on
character choices
Ability to compare and contrast ethical
decisions presented in different stories
Ability to evaluate the ethical responsibilities
of behind the scene teams
Knowledge
Knowledge of what moral systems say about different choices
Knowledge of other stories that have portrayed the same topic
Knowledge of values of people in media

 Try looking at box-office films

How close are they to the clich?
Educate yourselves and be strong
against the media messages.