Notes and Quotes

1. Does the media inspire copycat killers-http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/media-inspires-mass-shooters-copycats 

• The article looks at a story that came about in 2015 which saw a former TV reporter gun down innocent people and it was captured all on camera. The controversy here is that the media outlet that published this story in the newspaper had come across some images of what had happened and published the gruesome pictures, this caused outrage among the victims’ families
• “But what the Daily News editors didn't realize was that this sensational approach can possibly do more than perturb or offend. Such images provide the notoriety mass killers crave and can even be a jolt of inspiration for the next shooter”-  Suggests that the media and the way news stories represent the killers instead of the victims almost glorifies them and provides inspiration for new killers.
• The savvy of these individuals to capitalize on visual exposure should not be underestimated.

2. The mass killing 'contagion effect' -   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34385059 

• This article from the BBC is a report from an Oregon town sheriff about a mass shooting which took place.

• It's true that rampage shooters show a pattern of being "obsessed with the previous murders and obsessed with the tally," sociology professor Zeynep Tufekci told BBC World Have Your Say on Friday.

• Research shows that, in fact, mass shooters may be more likely to act when there has recently been a high-profile mass killing, a model more attune to viral infection than pure copycat. – Shows how the media could be to blame by reporting the story it also acts as a way to some as ‘promoting a killing

• Towers heard about three other school shootings that same week and wondered if her work with models of contagion - "how people are infected with ideas" - would apply – Can be linked with the media theory about audiences, The Hypodermic needle model which suggests audiences can be injected with views and values about what they see on TV/ in the media.

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3. More information to what the media effects theory is about- http://www.sociology.org.uk/AS_Media_effects.pdf

• This article gives more information about media audiences and the effect It has on them. It gives more insight into how influential media texts are at empowering audiences. It looks at theories like the hypodermic needle model and other media theories.
• At its most basic, this theory suggests the media transmit ‘messages’(ideas, information, beliefs and so forth) that are then picked up and acted upon by the audience (receivers).

4. Here is another example of people "following the media" in a copycat killing, this time it is based on the show Dexter and the person involved claims he felt just like the "psychopath serial killer"-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1312182/Teenager-inspired-TV-Dexter-murder-brother.html

• Here is an example of someone actually saying that they have copied someone they’ve seen on TV because they felt them and the character were the same. This killing was supposedly inspired by hit American TV show Dexter, a gruesome, crime/thriller about a socio-path serial killer.

• ‘Dexter made me do it’ – These are the words from a psychotic killer who killed his younger brother because he felt like his TV show idol Dexter, he says it as he is almost forced to commit murder when the show says nothing like it.

• Hall won a Golden Globe for his portrayal but the show was criticised in the U.S. for its violent theme by the Parents Television Council

5. This article aims to give a balanced argument into who is to blame, the media or people?-https://drmarkgriffiths.wordpress.com/2016/07/25/imitate-modern-why-do-people-commit-copycat-killings/

• This article looks at why people commit copycat killings; it gives examples of films that are accused of inspiring these people and looks for a link between them. It looks at the psychology behind it and it looks at the sort of people that actually commit the crimes and leaves the question open about whether the media is to blame or not.
• But is the media to blame for copycat murders? Well, partly – but not totally. – This raises the main argument that is the media to blame for peoples actions?

•  most people convicted of copycat murders admit to being motivated by something they had seen on the news or in a film -  The keyword Is motivation, they are not forced into anything but instead choose to take what they see on TV as real life and acceptable, this tends to happen in a case where the people are younger than the specified age restrictions which opens the case for more censorship in the media to ‘protect’ younger people
• they already had a criminal record (often violent crime) and/or were mentally ill before they began killing -  This does partially prove that the acts committed by people who claim to be motivated by the TV shows/ movies aren’t always your ordinary everyday person and that there is almost always a catch.
•  Copycat killers are more likely to suffer from personality (and other mental health) disorders, come from socially dysfunctional and alienating family backgrounds, be emotionally vulnerable, be trusting of the media, and – as noted above – a previous criminal history (as well as self-identifying with criminals they have watched or seen in fact and/or fiction). -  This somewhat backs up that the media content does not influence the general audience in a vindictive way and that a small proportion of people take  it In the wrong way. People look at the media in different ways, just because some psychotic people view and act on the media in negative ways it doesn’t mean, for example news channels can influence the general audience and create moral panics.

6. How Breaking Bad has shaped the meth industry-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11206140/Breaking-Bad-blamed-for-shocking-rise-in-crystal-meth-usage.html

• Although the show does not go out to glamorise the drug, its very inclusion promotes interest in that substance.
• The fact this character who we grow to love is taking crystal meth instantly makes people curious
• We live in a hedonistic generation where people are seeking pleasure from various sources, and increasingly these are be found in the most illicit forms -  Hedonistic= engaged in the pursuit of pleasure; sensually self-indulgent

• Showing the horrendous impact of crystal meth can have a boomerang effect and cause curiosity among some viewers who might think 'that must be good – Another way the media can influence audiences is through glamorising certain things in such a way that it makes the audience curious and want to actually go out and do it.

• The fact millions of people have watched the show and been entertained by it almost instantly glamorises its subject matter, whether deliberate or not. -  The fact that so many people have had access to it means it may have reached groups of viewers whom the show wasn’t targeted at, the type of genre may be new to them and they may see it as something intriguing

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobo_doll_experiment - Bobo doll experiment
8. http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html - Bobo doll experiment and what it discovered

• The Bobo doll was an experiment devised back in the 60/70’s to see how young children reacted to violence
• Children learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observation learning – through watching the behaviour of another person, this study has important implications for the effects of media violence on children
• Cumberbatch (1990) found that children who had not played with a Bobo Doll before were five time as likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour than those who were familiar with it; he claims that the novelty value of the doll makes it more likely that children will Imitate the behaviour – This says that what your exposed to effects how you deal with the situation, the kids exposed to the violence on the Bobo doll may only feel aggression towards that and may not wish to re-create this on other people, whilst the kids who weren’t exposed to the Bobo doll violence can’t see the novelty behind it.

9. http://www.internetjournalofcriminology.com/marsh_melville_moral_panics_and_the_british_media_march_2011.pdf - how moral panics are constructed

• This article about Moral Panics look at how the media can help create them and at the same time make it exaggerated enough that riots and outbreaks can occur

• The term moral panic has been widley adopted both by the mass media and in everyday usage to refer to the exaggerated social reaction caused by the activities of particular groups and/or individual
• Such activities are invariably seen (at the time) as major social concerns and the media led reaction magnifies and widens the ‘panic’ surrounding them
• Moral panics ‘translate fantasy into reality’ – Actual real life moral panics that have occurred because of vast media coverage include people in hoodies are dangerous and the paedophilia problem in the UK
• Essentially a moral panic refers to an exaggerated reaction, from the media, the police or wider public, to the activities of particular social groups. These activities may well be relitivley trivial but have been reported in a somewhat sensationalised from the media; such reporting and publicity has then led to an increase in general anxiety and concern about those activities

10. http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/lapam/lapam024.pdf - Censorship won’t reduce crime (from a feminist perspective).
11. http://shannonscorner.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Mass-Shootings-Copycats-and-Media-Fame.-Research-Paper-on-Journalism-Ethical-Role.pdf - Copycat killings in the media
12. http://www.truthaboutnursing.org/faq/media_affects_thinking.html - more about the media effects theory
13. https://fyiliving.com/mental-health/crime-dramas-influence-societies-view-of-crime - Do crime shows influence audiences to commit or fear crime

• This article looks at both sides of the argument, the argument being does the media have a direct impact on the audiences behaviour, whether this be the news or in this case a crime drama, for example the Bill and Breaking Bad
• They depend upon media to gather information and then form opinions about crime.
• was found that fear of crime seemed to increase when people watched crime-related programs on television
• The details of violence and dramatization of a crime story may be responsible for the increased fear
• Watching a culprit being caught by the law and sentenced might reduce the fear. 

14. http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/should-tv-crime-dramas-better-8894935 -Should TV crime dramas better reflect reality? We speak to retired officers in the North East

• Crime dramas are just that, dramas – Looking at the context of the article we can say that dramas are different from reality of course but because reality is so mediated and controlled (Jean Baudrillard simulation) how do we as an audience know what reality is when watching the news, crime dramas.

15. https://infodocks.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/stanley_cohen_folk_devils_and_moral_panics.pdf - This text is from the original theorist of moral panics; Stanley Cohen. (SEARCH ‘BAD DRUGS ON ARTICLE TO BRING UP SOURCES)

• One, the Jamie Bulger story, was utterly unique, yet triggered off an immediate and ferocious moral panic;- Look at why this happened and the coverage it had on the news and if it was an inspired attack
• But during moral panics and media frenzies the atypical case is compressed into general categories of crime control (such as ‘juvenile violence’)
• The crude model of ‘media effects’ has hardly been modifi ed: exposure to violence on this or that medium causes, stimulates or triggers off violent behaviour

16. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10796211/Do-we-really-need-more-TV-crime-dramas.html  This news article looks at whether we actually need more TV crime dramas

• The genre has become what period drama was in the Nineties: over-used, over-egged and, even though individual series can be very good, it is somewhat predictable en masse due to the homogeneity of its content.
• Crime is also a lazy way of creating psychological tension: it makes an instant grab for sympathy, sidestepping the need to devise experiences that mean something on their own terms and have more in common with viewers’ lives – marriage, say, or raising a child.

17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_system_dependency_theory Dependency theory and media effects

• Media system dependency theory (MSD), or simply media dependency, was developed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin Defleur in 1976. The theory is grounded in classical sociological literature positing that media and their audiences should be studied in the context of larger social systems. MSD ties together the interrelations of broad social systems, mass media, and the individual into a comprehensive explanation of media effects

18. http://www.uky.edu/~dlowe2/documents/2.RaneyandBryant2002IntegratedTheoryofEnjoyment.pdf  Moral judgement and crime drama: An integrates theory of enjoyment

• Often the source or basis of these evaluations can be explained in terms of stereotyping
• Most that have addressed the topic have focused on the desire to see the good guy/gal win and the bad guy/gal lose.
• Viewers pre-existing apprehension  toward crime and fear of victimization

Book quotes

19. Media regulation by Lunt and Livingstone-https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zAdEAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT19&dq=lunt+and+livingstone+media+regualtion&ots=unK3Z0Qqad&sig=_tpYBCYBynARSUgqqxvLanzH5Uw#v=onepage&q&f=false

• Time and time again the view was expressed that the real problems of society(crime, immigration, corruption) weren’t being tackled while faceless bureaucrats developed elaborate systems of rules to constraint or intrude on the freedoms of the majority and while people themselves had little or no influence on how regulation was formed or shaped, as fairly passive recipients 

20. The television genre book by Creeber G-https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bHAFCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Creeber+key+television&ots=F2xOBTKkae&sig=TlvV1K8YZDlYKRKz3yaQdJCBMY8#v=onepage&q&f=false (bit about crime dramas in particular Dexter)
21. the contradictions of media power by Des freedman-https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jEVuBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=des+freedman+contradictions+of+media+power&ots=eG2yqsQJEb&sig=dg_hNFvq_rcssd_GwsITNgdM3iM#v=onepage&q&f=false

• Miliband stays closer to the traditional marxist lexicon of class power but nevertheless argues that it is neither possible nor even necessary for the elite to achieve complete ideological domination.
• Media coverage can have unintended consequences in conditions of wider conflict

22. folk devils and moral panics by Stanley cohen-https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eDhPbH9roU4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=moral+panics+stanley+cohen&ots=4J9Db-qGjO&sig=wBHaJrREpjHVgUU9QxyGM7jYT-U#v=onepage&q=moral%20panics%20stanley%20cohen&f=false
23. Ball-Rokeach, S.J., & DeFleur, M.L. (1976). A dependency model or mass-media effects. Communication Research, 3,3-21.
24. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W8bLDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA279&lpg=PA279&dq=dependency+theory+in+crime+dramas&source=bl&ots=GXZOhPKgPJ&sig=_Ub67gm0kRbWvqvV_zkUCdiTDF4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjs8bi0zajQAhVKCcAKHRpxC2oQ6AEIQDAG#v=onepage&q=dependency%20theory%20in%20crime%20dramas&f=false  Media effects and Society by Elizabeth  Perse and Jennifer Lambe

Media magazine

1. This is a link to media magazine number 49, it looks at aspects of Breaking Bad-https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0i5diL3vrEiSGxRNHIyZmM4Ums  - Pg24 MM49

• The article mainly looks at how key media concepts and the relationships between media texts, producers and audiences will take you a long way in media studies.
• Heroes are central to conventional narrative and the focus of a story – In this article from media magazine we can start to apply more media theory as we can link Propps character theory here an infer what audiences see in the characters and how this differs In TV crime dramas like Breaking Bad
• Audiences tend to sympathise with the hero – In this case of Breaking Bad which is my main case study we sympathise with a character who isn’t our ‘hero’ as such but more of a false hero and deffinitley a villain but we are made to sympathise for this character even though as an audience we can see a line between right and wrong and binary oppositions in the show are prominent, for example the DEA (government body vs The war on drugs (Good vs Bad) however we are not forced to choose a side of what we believe is right
• ‘everyman hero’

2. This is a link to the media magazine number 42, the title is “who decides what’s a media issue’? https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0i5diL3vrEiSGxRNHIyZmM4Ums -MM42

• The article looks at how some events, ideas or behaviours come to be regarded as social issues, or indeed as social problems? Professor David Buckingham raises some big questions about the ways public debates about social problems are constructed.
• ‘issues’ aren’t just out there in the world they are not natural events, like the weather – Issues are not just there they must first be created and this is where the media comes in, although they may not be the ones who start the issue they are certainly involved with spreading; no matter what intentions they had on the issue its up to the audience decided how to take it in and react to it

3. Media Magazine 31 page 25 “Understanding Fantasy”

• This article in the media magazine unpick definitions and theories about fantasy from an examiners perspective

4. Media Magazine 33 Pg 52-  Creativity and Genre in TV Crime Drama

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5. Media Magazine 31  - Dexter

• This article in media magazine looks at the serial killer Dexter being a 21st century hero for a 21st century audience
• Heroes traditionally embody fulfilment as they strive to reach goals that are often shared by the audience (to save the day, to get the girl etc) and are all in some way fantasy figures- We see the opposite occur with Dexter and in Breaking Bad as the hero in this case is not the clearly distinguished ‘good’ characters but we are left to sympathise with the one who has a moral excuse for his criminal actions, but at the end of the day the audience is still made to see them as a hero (Propp’s character theory).
• Heroes tell us a lot about the culture that created them- Could lead us to suggest that people aren’t seeing how the media can create a difference between right and wrong and what is accepted in reality, can be linked to Baudrillard’s theory of simulation.
• In modern media drama texts (TV crime drama) it is often difficult to identify who the heroes and villains. What used to be thought of as “simple binary opposites”, the idea of Good vs Evil and Right vs Wrong has been complicated in many television and film narratives.-  Here we can link it to the theory on ideology from Levi Strauss who talked about there being binary opposites, for example good vs bad and that the audience is always made to choose one side from being influenced by the media and the way it is shot etc.…
• Heroes for example takes good characters , turns them bad and then brings them back to the side of ‘good’- This can be linked to Todorov’s narrative theory of equilibrium, because the character itself goes through phases of good and bad going from equilibrium to disequilibrium.
• Serial killers have often been received as twisted heroes by audiences, perhaps best exemplified by Hannibal Lecter in the silence of the Lambs, a psychotic monster who became a hero of sorts when he helped the FBI catch a killer- Relatively new term of ‘twisted heroes’ whom the audience can’t help but sympathise or relate with.
• Dexters apparent normality and the fact that he is so average is simply a reflection of the audience itself
• In a world where one man’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter- This notorious religious quote is used here to show that people have different perspectives and these vary and differ depending on what views and values that person has been taught; either though the media or family.

Textual Analysis (breaking bad extracts)

Clip 1

This clip shows the first 'cook' session that Walt and Jesse do together. Firstly, I chose this clip because it's showing something highly illegal, but we the audience are not made to see it that way, we are led to believe that this is art just like the way the characters describe the cooking in the clip. The clip also shows us how showing something explicit like this in an almost comedic way takes the edge off the whole scene and makes it enjoyable and not in a burden in the back of our mind that makes us think that this is illegal and wrong.

In the clip the sound is used in different ways to provide a differentiated and enjoyable scene, for example from around 20 seconds on wards we have a non-diegetic song playing whilst they were making the meth. Without the music we would be able to focus on the diegetic sounds that were going on in the clip and if that were the case we wouldn't be distracted about what's happening. The music used in the clip was very upbeat which did go with the pace of the scene and the type of shots that went with it, however it was contrapuntal because the mood the song gave off was more like the one you see at a concert and you don't tend to associate sort of electro-rock music with something as 'street' as this. A more parallel song which would have related to the clip may of been something more explicit like trap music or songs from the Rap genre, however the contrapuntal song worked well with drawing the audiences attention away from the true meaning of the scene and offered a distraction from reality. The song does make the scene more enjoyable and much more of a pleasure to watch as it turns the cooking scene into a performance more than anything else. This is one of the reasons why audiences can relate to TV crime dramas such as Breaking Bad much more easier as it takes away the censorship that regular TV has and it exaggerates it in either a negative or positive way.

Also in the clip, the cinematography used can make the scene appear more relate able and because of this the audience may see this is as something real. For example at the start of the clip we see a shot filmed entirely on a camcorder, which is recognisably different from the professional cameras which are used later in the scene. By using an ordinary camcorder the audience may be able to relate as you could associate this prop with something you would use to film family moments or special occasions and not to cook meth with. This then lightens and removes any tense moments from the scene as the camcorder shot can make the audience think of nostalgic moments. The type of shots used after the first part all mainly medium shots of the cooking apparatus. This gives the audience enough view to see what is going on and it removes a lot of human element from the shop and only focuses on the cooking process which helps in differentiating what is real and what isn't as if an audience were to see another person doing something, they may be more likely to do something, this can be linked to the media effects theory and in particular we can link this to the Bobo Doll experiment as it looked at how violence can effect a child's behaviour. This can be linked here as if the audience saw a person preforming an act like cooking meth, they may be more prone to go out and try it as they have been exposed to it. However, audiences aren't always passive in the way they take in media, the hypodermic needle theory suggests otherwise and states that audiences are injected with the content that the media product they are viewing is showing, this is of course not applicable for everyone but it does raise the concern that some people do see TV crime dramas as real life and relate-able and this is a bad thing because TV crime dramas include behaviours that shouldn't be copied.

Jump cuts are also used in the clip to show the making of the meth. This was a good decision to add this in as watching liquid poor in to beakers maybe quite boring so the jump cuts sped up the process, making it more enjoyable to watch and less like a meth cooking show. This could mean audiences don’t see the line between right and wrong which causes them to react upon things in different ways.

The Genre of Breaking Bad is a TV crime drama and the clip here displays some similar characteristics but also goes against some of the key codes and characteristics. The iconography in crime dramas comes from the mise-en-scene and in this case the props used were typical of the genre as drugs were shown. This is typical of the genre as it shows the aspect of crime, but in this clip Breaking Bad doesn't put much emphasis on the iconic props as it is quite negative. Breaking sort of goes against the general codes and conventions that TV crime dramas have as even though we see there is clear binary oppositions; (first proposed by theorist Levi Strauss) of Good vs. Bad and the Police vs. Crime. Usually we are on the good side and follow the story of the detectives and not the criminals. However in Breaking Bad we follow the story on the wrong side of the binary opposition. We know it's the wrong side because we can identify this by the iconography as we can identify the side we are following with the costumes and environment they're in. In the clip we can identify this as we can see no person working for the law and a 'good' person wouldn't be in a shady RV in the middle of the desert cooking drugs. The fact that it portrays the opposite side of the two variables doesn't make it any less of a crime drama as to have a binary opposite would mean you would need to compare it to another thing. Breaking Bad does this with the incorporation of the DEA, however just like in the clip we are only shown the recreational part of the wrong side. We know it's the wrong side because of the binary opposite and that the police force is the good but we are not made or forced to choose what to believe in.

Clip 2

This clip first looks at an advert for the fictional company Los Pollos Hermanos (The chicken brothers), this is the company which was the cover for a much larger drug smuggling business. The advert then switches off and it transitions into the process in which the drugs are packaged and sent off using the business as a cover.

The scene from Breaking Bad is edited in a way which removes any safeguards from the clip making it seem for the audience as though they are watching a harmless advertisement. The clip makes an almost seem-less transition between the advert and drugs scene that it doesn't really give the audience time to prepare. We are being shown something that is very likeable, fried chicken in slow motion which is another editing effect, this has slowed the whole pace of the clip down. By first showing us something we can relate to then something quite shocking afterwards, it dampens the effect it would have had and makes it seem rather ordinary.  The transitions also continue throughout the shots where we see the drugs being packages. The transitions happen in such a way that the last shot fades into the next the one which gives the effect of smooth transitions just like you may see in a food advert. That's what the editing tried to make it look like so it takes the severity away from the fact that they are packaging drugs and not food.

The sound in the clip is also used to make it seem as though the clip is just one big advertisement. There is a sound bridge from the original authentic advert into the sequences of shots which show the drugs so by doing this is still manages to keep the same mood as to what the advert was as there is no sudden change. Also the non-diegetic song which was playing also worked in parallel with the advert however not so well with the second half of the clip, this is why the sound bridge worked so well in transitioning from one scene to another extreme. The song may have been parallel in the beginning whilst the advert was playing, however when it transitioned into the next part of the clip the song was then contrapuntal, because a summer time melody doesn't bode well with the packaging of drugs. Breaking Bad do this throughout the series and use songs that contradict what’s going on in the actual scene, this could be quite a negative thing because it desensitises the clip for an audience which could make them think that drugs and violence isn't as bad as they same. Sound in the media really can have quite an adverse effect on and audiences reaction, as playing a song that doesn't really fit in with the mood of the scene can make an audience remember the scene much more easily and this could be bad if the scene is a violent one, it may inspire people, however this has never been proven and only theorised that the way media texts portray certain issues can influence someone behaviour.

The mise-en-scene in the first part of the clip is typical of that which is similar to an advert (for food more specifically) as, for example the advert at the start is very well lit (high key lighting) which is a general code and convention of a regular advert. The director here may have wanted the audience to relate to what they think an advert is by using familiar tactics. This was used so that the audiences could be guided into the next part of the scene which is a lot harder to take in as many kilo grams of drugs are being packaged and this is not something you see all the time, therefore it may have caused shock to the audience but it did no such thing in this clip.

In the second part of the clip the mise-en-scene was used in a different way which followed some of the aspects of what a typical TV crime drama is. We can look at the props and costumes used here, for example the people shown we're wearing face masks and white overalls, we usually see this in some shows where people are packaging substances, therefore we can make the link to what’s happening, also we actually see the drugs and the cooking equipment used and this identifies the moral issue in the scene as you are shown the whole operation, however the like what’s been mentioned above with the sound and editing (what the mise-en-scene doesn't show you) it's that even thought its made to look like a 'bad and unethical' scene we aren't made to see it that way and we see it as an advert because of the various other factors in the scene.