Critical Investigation: Project proposal

Critical Investigation: Project proposal


Working title

Include your specific text in the title and either 'how or 'why' or both, e.g.: To what extent and why are video games such as 'Grand Theft Auto’ becoming more violent?

To what extent do political hip hop music videos such as T.I - Warzone initiate the media debate of police brutality and has this helped to transform the social issue? 

 Angle

How will you approach this question? E.g.: What impact are these increasingly violent games having on their audience? Is this simply a moral panic of the 21st century or is further regulation required?

How effective would Warzone be to an audience in the 21st century? Does this music video exploit the idea of police brutality for income? Would this music video cause outrage to an audience of a different ethnicity? How accurately does this mirror events in police brutality? What is the overall representation on police brutality? Has the music video educated different ethnicities? 

Hypothesis

What is your current opinion or viewpoint on the media debate? That is: what will you be testing through your research and investigation? E.g.: Video games are psychologically damaging for young people, and audiences have become increasingly desensitised to screen violence.

I will be testing:

  • Whether or not police brutality is increasing or decreasing. 
  • The demographics of the audiences that view hip-hop.
  • T.I's target audience. 
  • If campaigns such as #blacklivesmatter have had an effect on police brutality. 
  • Has the increase in video footage changed the persecution of police officers and perception on how brutal police brutality is. 
  • Other artists that have addressed police brutality in their songs/music videos. 
  • Different views of different ethnicities police brutality. 


Linked production piece

What are you planning to make as your linked production piece? E.g.: Newsnight-style documentary video report looking at the impact of violent videogames on young people.

 For my linked production I will be making a music video that addresses the need for change in society. 

MIGRAIN

Apply the Key Concepts to your text/topic by using the questions from the Summer Research Project to help you. (Include at least five bullet points per key concept). Include as many media keywords as you can.

 Media Language and Forms: 
  • The significance of T.I - Warzone's connotations include there being role reversal, the use of Caucasian victims and African-American police officers. 
  • The dominant stereotype of the nature of police brutality and the portrayal of recent victims. 
  • The soundtrack in the music video and how this explores the themes of police brutality and racism. 
  • There is a dominant iconography of what happened to Eric Garner, Philando Castile and Tamir Rice. 
  • There is racial profiling in each of the scenarios as police thought that the victims' aim was to act violently. 

Media Representation:
  • How the music video creatively subverts the representation of police brutality through ethnicities. 
  • There is a dominant representation of police brutality and their unjustifiable misconduct. 
  • How the audience are able to identify the codes and conventions through what is being represented even though there is a race reversal. 
  • How effective this representation is. 

Media Narrative:
  • The narrative is explored to show what happened to the recent victims of police brutality. 
  • The audience are positioned to react similarly (empathetic) due to the nature of the narrative. 
  • The soundtrack mirrors the events and narrative within the music video and explores the themes of racism, racial profiling, racial inequality and police brutality.
  • The mise-en-scene generates the idea that the victims were living everyday life and were not threatening. 
  • The screen text and speech given at the end reinforces and concludes the overall message of the narrative within the music video. 

Media Genre:
  • The genre that this music video belongs to is political hip-hop. 
  • The music video follows this genre as there is an overall aim for there to be political change in society.
  • The major generic themes of this music video is police brutality, racial profiling and discrimination that has happened to African-Americans in the American society recently.
  • The music video and T.I follows the genre as it is socially and morally conscious.

Media Institutions: 
  • The institution of the text is Grand Hustle and Roc Nation. 
  • "Warzone" has been distributed by Roc Nation Records. It has been released on numerous platforms like Youtube, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Tidal and Amazon
  • Roc Nation has influenced "Warzone" due to the creativity of the music video as this company is described as "diverse". Grand Hustle has influenced it due to there being some key conventions of hip-hop music. 

Media Values & Ideology: 
  • The major values, ideology and assumptions underpinned within "Warzone" is police brutality towards a selected race. Only one ethnicity is being targeted. 
  • The criteria that has been used for selecting the content presented is role reversal to re-enact the deaths of  Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Philando Castle.
  • The video fits into the current political landscape as there is a movement carried out by activists called the "Black Lives Matter movement" to improve ethnic minorities' way of living and to get justice for those who were killed by police. 
  • There is a political viewpoint as the likelihood and events that has happened in police brutality are shown in the music video. 

Media Audiences: 
  • "Warzone" could target a wide audience as even though the subject is police brutality and racism, there are Caucasian victims so could appeal to a wider audience. 
  • The age demographic that this audience may fit into is 11-36 due to the the genre of the music. 
  • The VALS that the audience may be placed into is achievers and makers as they are both motivated and practical. 
  • The psycho-graphic group that the audience may fall into is reformers. 
  • The probable and possible audience readings of the text is that race reversal is used to target the problems in America. Some may see this as a positive way to reinforce understanding from different ethnicities though some may see this an an attack.  
SHEP

Apply the Wider Contexts (Social, Historical, Economic, Political) to your text/topic, including at least three bullet points on each one.

 Social:
  • Black boy joy/Black girl magic hashtag. 
  • Black lives matter hashtag. 
  • Black Twitter. 
  • Camera footage of police brutality victims. 

Historical:
  • Civil rights movement 1954 – 1968.
  • Slavery can be traced back to the earliest records, such as the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1860 BC).
  • The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 in the UK. 
  • Martin Luther King jr, Malcom X, Rosa Parks, Tupac Shakur, Jane Elliot, Jesse Williams and etc were/are all black activists. 
  • The deaths of Tamir Rice, Philando Castile and Eric Garner. 
  • Black Panther Party. 

 Economic:
  •  Did T.I use this issue in his music video to generate money?

 Political:
  • Black Live Matter movement. 
  • Black girl magic movement. 
  • T.I soundtrack includes the political slogan "Hands Up" and "Can't Breathe".
  • Other artists like Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar and celebrities like NFL star Colin Kaepernick kneeling when the national anthem comes on (Take A Knee) - peaceful protest. 

Issues/Debates

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using the Media A-Z to help you think about this. Your research and essay plan will need to factor these issues and debates into your work:


Representation and Stereotyping: In the T.I - Warzone video and society, there is racial profiling, racial inequality and police brutality happening to African-Americans. 
How African-Americans are viewed within a society and the music video. 

Media Effects: The increasing cases of unjust against African-Americans in the media has made people more aware of the issues. T.I - Warzone's race reversal could help other races to have better understanding. 

Moral Panics: The issue of police brutality has resulted there to be moral panic perhaps against police officers as African - American's fear for their lives and safety around them. 

Media Technology And The Digital Revolution – Changing Technologies In The 21st Century: The increase of camera footage and this being shared on social media has brought evidence into the issue of racism/inequality and holds points for discussion. 

The Effect Of Globalisation On The Media: People from across the world are able to communicate and view what goes on in different countries to do with this issue. As a lot of countries have access to Youtube/Tidal and other social media platforms, they are able to view the T.I - Warzone music video. 

Theories

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using keywords/specific theorists' names from the Media A-Z:
  • Gender and ethnicity - This theory relates to my topic as my topic is strongly to do with ethnicity and the effect that an individuals ethnicity could have on society's viewpoint of them.
  • Marxism and hegemony - The way that the government controls society is a theme that is being focused in  my text. This is due to those that have authority controlling the way that police brutality and racism is handled. 
  • Liberal Pluralism - This theory is also a theme that is being focused in my text as the community also have some control on how many police officers/victims are exposed. In addition to this, there is alot of protests that are carried out against this.  
  • Colonialism and Post-colonialism (Gilroy) - This relates to my text as racism is a prolonged issue. 
  • Audience theories (two-step flow, Shaun King) - This theory relates to my text as this explores how the audience take in information and act their reaction towards it. 
  • Contemporary Media Landscape - The media landscape relates to my theory as the media has alot to do with video's and issues revolving around police brutality and racism, enabling it to reach a wide audience. 

Research plan (media texts, academic texts and websites)

Media texts

 T.I - Warzone. 
-Police brutality

Other media texts
(at least five related examples)


TV documentaries
Research videos online, e.g.:
BBC One - Panorama, Addicted to Games? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wlmj0

  • Crisis Of Distrust: Police And Community In Toronto
  • No Justice, No Peace
  • These Streets Are Watching
  • The Central Park FIve

Academic texts/books
(a minimum of five, including author/full title/year, e.g.:)

  • Paul Gilroy - There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack / 1987
  • Bell Hooks - Feminism is for EVERYBODY - Passionate Politics / 2000
  • Stuart Hall - Representation - Second Edition / 2013
  • Paul Butler - Chokehold: Policing Black MenChokehold: Policing Black Men / 2017
  • Bell Hooks - Black Looks: Race and Representation / 1992


    Internet Links
    1. At least FIVE from Media Guardian or Guardian Culture or another newspaper website.

    2. At least FIVE from university websites/academic papers online. Use Google Scholar as a starting point.
    3. Any other relevant sites/articles - the more the better.

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