Task 1

The text I chose for my critical investigation is Gridiron Gang.

The media language used in the scene is connoted through how most of the prisoners are from ethnic decent and how they are the athletes. It connotes a negative representation by the media on ethnic minorities from the majority of athletes as they are the prisoners however on the other hand they connote that sports is an alternative to issues associated with ethnic minorities in society i.e. knife crime.

However the institution decided to go for this representation as it provides an entertainment factor of how ethnic minorities are represented as underdogs in sport, and is a common representation we associate in sports through the media; which is also present through the movie.

The genre is linked to the narrative by following the “typical” narrative of sport movies. Since the 70/80s to now, the same narrative is played in the sport genre, how ethnic minorities are given a second chance and participate in a sporting event, which is the representation that would be carried on when watching actual sports, thanks to the media.

To a certain extent ethnic minorities are represented positively on the basis that they can change. However it is negative as the film is connoting Marxist arguments that the upper-class is using sports to reinforce their ideologies which are represented through the media (Althusser). The media representation is separating them into a different category from the majority of other athletes.

The audiences will consume it, and learn to subordinate ethnic minority groups, but it would be unintentionally, thanks to the representation from the film. The main ideologies from the whole area are that everyone is equal in our post-colonialist and globalised world. So there has to be ethnic minorities portrayed in sports for it to be seen as a norm. But there are colonialist values still present, which is why they are in jail using sports to be normal.

The narrative is that the prisoners are given a “second chance” to become athletes, which is the representation the press have on athletes from ethnic minorities in society today. This narrative has not changed from movies of the same genre. The movie has similar narratives to Longest Yard and Wildcats. It’s almost has become the cliché of sport movies that have ethnic minorities starring in the movies.

The social issues with the scene are that the difference between the ethnic minorities and the majority of athletes is apparent, which ethnic minorities standing out thanks to the issues surrounding them in the media, i.e. knife crime. The ethnic minorities are the people in jail, while the white people are the Christian football team. This has been the typical ideology in Sports Movies portrayed by the media. The ethnic minorities then become fairer and “change the way they behave” thanks to football.

The historical issues are that Colonialism still exists to a certain extent, the fact that they’re second class citizens. Another reason why ethnic minorities are present in sport is down to the fact that we live in a globalised world, and this diversity brings in more cash, this links in with how they are represented as underdogs and that they can change. The political issues are that the upper-class are using sports to reinforce their ideologies.

5 new Websites

Used by advance search, e.g. using "postcolonialism" +representation etc.

Sport and Post Colonialism by John Bale and Mark Cronin (e-book)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cEMh41y9YjkC&dq=%22postcolonialism%22+%2Bsports&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=bNiUsNCnIg&sig=QrHKpg75oheAgEfI18kC8kV5pwU&hl=en&ei=ZYklS7iFL8yd4Qbb6dXyCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CAwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22postcolonialism%22%20%2Bsports&f=false

Before sports was used for colonialist gains. For example, in India the British troops would make indians play cricket and bet money on it. But now this has changed as sports is used for post colonialist gains.

Racism in the Olympics in previous years discussed:

http://no2010.com/node/196

Today’s modern Olympics are an example of Western Civilization and the global empire it has constructed. They are a means to expand its ideology & culture. During the early 20th century the clearest Olympic endorsement of racist & fascist white supremacy, however, was yet to come.

A wikipedia article on racism in football, not looking at media aspect but still relevent information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_association_football

Shows how racism in the UK while not dissapearing, the FA are trying to get rid of it. It's also more common between ethnic groups instead of white vs ethnic minorities.

Rangers chairman claiming media obsessed with racism

http://www.tribalfootball.com/content/rangers-chairman-media-obsessed-sectarianism-and-racism

He talks about how Rangers recent friendly for troops in iraq. He argues that it has shown how far scotland has come from being a racist and violent football atmosphere to being more sophisticated and also how the media is trying to sensationalise stories such as racism in Scotland where it's not the case.

NBA dress code connotes racism, what media think

http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=7158

The new dress code was aimed at black people as nowadays they wear suits as part of this micheal jordan era and jay z business era. It's so that they appear to the mainstream and that they carry this stereotype.

Ehtnic Minorities surbordination through football and media:

http://www.le.ac.uk/ua/pr/press/footballresearch.html

Leicster University found that football clubs still haven't done enough to challenge racism. Over half (51%) of all professional football clubs are situated in areas which have a minority ethnic population of 5% or more, whilst over one quarter of clubs (29%) are situated in areas where one in ten local residents are of minority ethnic backgrounds.

Team told by FA to have more ethnic minorities on board, they are a minority:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3477189.stm

The media aren't representing ethnic minorities in football enough, and are showing football to be a racist sport and therefore a lack of ethnic minorities in football clubs (it's declining).


Racism in Rugby, ethnic surbordination:

http://www.wires.u-net.com/racismrl.htm

Talks about racism in Rugby. Despite efforts to try and rid of it, it always seems to creep up in the sport and it's mainly from fans shouting it at players. It's alright to like an ethnic minority in their team but if it's in another team, racism is acceptable.

Very Important link, post colonialism and sports linked:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yz6wsZC1u4oC&pg=PA183&lpg=PA183&dq=post-colonialism+sports&source=bl&ots=srGRlRm_ey&sig=oDQsymid8v9gr_iKxzD9CHwaBbI&hl=en&ei=7JchS8iiCcf-4AbRjdHnCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=post-colonialism%20sports&f=false

Growth of ethnic minority participation in sports down to globalisation and companies wanting to expand to meet everyone's need. It's for economic benefits. most disputes tend to be regional e.g. Cameroon not getting world cup place and therefore boycotting 1982 worldcup.

Bibliography for my topic area

Probert, David and Graham, Andrew (2008): Advance Media Studies. Oxfordshire; Phillipalan retailers (156-158)

It's about the nation backing their country, in an international game. The media would relate it to war and other international problems e.g. Germany vs England always relate to war, which alienate German footballers in the EPL.

"German national team is routinely represented in the press in terms of its (military) machine-like organisation... ...tabloid headlines often use the indexical semiotic signifiers of military stregnth and ruthlessness... ...Football is used to connote the historical antagonism between the English and the Germans"

Bennet, Peter; Slater, Jenny and Wall, Peter (2006): A2 Media Studies, The Essential Introduction. Oxon; Routledge (page 12)

Talks about regionalism, and how regions play an impact on sports. With regions such as Leicster and London having a diversity of ethnicities, it almost makes it a war between nations when London collides with a team up north.

"matches angaints germany in any sports are an explicit example of how you can find a clear indication of the paper's ideological mode of adress"

Casey, Bernadette; Casey, Neil; Calvert, Ben; French, Liam and Lewis, Justin. (2002). Television studies: they key concepts. London; Routledge (227-228)

World Cup influences national characteristics. It divides the nation and alienates people from other countries. Subsequently if an athlete is from an ethnic minority and is competing in England he would be made fun at because we have to back "Britain" at all times. They have created sporting narratives, where Britains are heroes and ethnic minorities villains.

"Thus young men in the Carubbean are turning from cricket, a tradional sport (transplanted through conolinists), to NBA basketball. Television is variously seen as an agent of Cultural Imperialism or globalisation"

Creeber, Glen (2004). Fifty Key television programmes. London; Arnold. (85-88)

Focuses on Fifa world cup and Olympics. Talks about how ethnic minorities have to choose between England or their home country while compting in England.

"There has been much hostility towards South Korea during the 2002 world cup, with BBC stereotyping most South Koreans as chinese, and holding chinese traditions."

Williams, Kevin (2003). Understanding Media Theory. London; Arnold. (217-218)

Defines Cultural/Imperialism Thesis. Argues that the West, when colonialism was vanishing, set up economic structures to later suite thier needs and nations from the south can't change as they are being held back through culture and sports.

"They developed dependency thoery to explain the gap between the West and the rest of the world"

Ferguson, Robert (1998). Representing "Race". London; Arnold. (134-138)

It's arguing that Althusser argued that sports is used as a bridge to open gap between chauvinism and racism. Basically we use sports to be racist. For example, if we play Germany in the World Cup, we then are allowed to make fun out of Germany with newspapers (Daily Mirror) even encouraging it. It alienates germans in England, for example Klinsmann was booed when he was playing for Totenham.

"Althusser noted that the role of sport in Chauvenism is of the first importance as part of the 'cultural apparatus'...
...in which 'national' issues are represented in relation to sport often bridges the gap that might exist between chauvinism and racism."

Carmann, Lyan and Mclean, David (2003). Media and Society in the 20th century. Australia; Blackwell (147-148)

Talks about ethnic minorities impact on olymics/fifa world cup. It's negative, similar to most other books.

"The nation all came together for the world cup, to go angaints other nations, and therefore be racist and everyone is okay with it"

W.Said, Edward (1994) Culture Emerialism. London; Vintage (pg 8)

Gives a concrete definition of Colonialism; which is the main thoery to supprt my study. It also compared it to Imperialist theory and talks about recent changes (Post-Colonialism). It also looks at the effect it has on the media.

" A policy in which a nation maintain or extends it's control over foreign dependencies"


MacKinnan, Kenneth (2003) Representing Men. London; Arnold (176-178)

Williams (1990) argues that in sport media today, for example during a football game, that women and ethnic minorities are refered to by their first names. For example UFC fighter Kimbo Slice (Black America) is refered to as simply Kimbo. This leads them not to be taken as seriously as other athletes who are refered by their last name.

"Williams study, published in 1990, found that throughout the media, in reference to sports, women and people from ethnic groups where refered to, by commentators, by their first names. This was opposed to white men who were refered to by either their last name or their full name"

E.Senn, Alfred (1999). Power, Politics and the Olympic Games. USA; Human Kinetics. (page 45)

He talks about the fact that during the olympic games, there is tention towards other ethnic nations, it's the one time in year we are allowed to be partially racist. It also gives inside to the political effect on other ethnic nations other than the USA.

"The so called 'national unity' which happens when everyone comes together for the Olympics to 'back thier country' is no different from the wars fought between nations."

Let's hear it for Selina Scott and her anti-ageism victory over Channel Five. First, you'll remember, they asked her to replace Natasha Kaplinsky as news presenter while the toothsome thirtysomething was off on maternity leave, and then changed their minds. Instead, they've recruited a 28 year old. Ms Scott, 57, settled out of court for £250,000. Good work.

I certainly don't begrudge her the cash. But the truth is, there has never been a better time to be a fiftysomething woman, and not only because there's a law against ageism now. You only have to look at the reports about student beauty pageants to realise (although you probably already had) that the pressure on young women to look good, and the definition of what looking good is, has eased off not one jot in the past 30 years. Only now, you're expected to be clever with it.
The joyous thing about being more than 50 is that, at last, none of it matters. You might have spent the previous 35 years telling yourself that it didn't matter what you looked like, but you never really believed it. That made it even more complicated. You felt bad because you didn't look like Madonna, and you felt bad because you cared that you didn't look like Madonna.
For all the exhortation of the feminist movement, the evidence all around was that youth and beauty were the indispensible attributes of success for women. What was inescapable culturally was reinforced by all those men, and quite a lot of the women, at work. I say that with humble apologies to some of the really great women I worked for. Thank you for trying to tell me.

Now, on the sunlit uplands of middle age (and just look at Madonna, to see how sunlit), even those of us who have never been brave enough to thumb our noses at the world feel confident that it just doesn't matter to anyone but us. At last, we are free – unchained from the atavistic compulsion to look like a promising childbearer, beyond (well, speaking personally) the need to pick up a man to reaffirm one's worth.

Sure, we are acquiring new caring responsibilities as daughters, even as we shed the old ones of motherhood. But, in so far as caring is not one of them, this is a blog about the good things in life.

We've got it so much better than our mothers, and they had it better than their mothers. Our mothers grew up in a depression, lived through war and hit motherhood before the invention of disposable nappies. No wonder the survivors of their generation also discovered the great liberation of being 50.

Barbara Castle was 51 when she became a cabinet minister for the first time, in 1964, and experienced a surge of energy that was all about power – political power, yes, but also the power of autonomy. And as her career slowed down, 10 years later, she recognised it (enviously) in another woman: Margaret Thatcher, aged 49. It didn't stop either of them trading on their femininity. But, in middle age, femininity becomes a mere facet of personality, which entitles you to wear a short skirt and think about climate change at the same time.

I reckon that with a broad streak of luck (and you sure know about hubris by the time you hit 55), I've got a good 20 years of energy left to do at least some of the things that I didn't have the time or confidence or space to do before. Starting, in a very small way, by pointing out that the picture at the top of this blog is at least 10 years old.

Selina stokes a diversity debate that needs addressing

It will come as a surprise to few but a delight to many that Selina Scott is suing Five over ageism in its refusal to hire her for a maternity cover role and choice of younger presenters instead. It is a delight not because Five is worse than anyone else in this respect, but because it stokes a debate which urgently needs to be taken more seriously. Casual sexism, ageism and racism are the collective dirty secret of the vast majority of media institutions, and they represent as much of an industrial challenge as they do a moral one.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission's Report on Sex and Power, published last week, drew a depressing picture for women in the workplace. In general the progression of women at the highest level in the workplace is pitiful and the media are no exception: only 13.6% of national newspaper editors (including the Herald and Western Mail) are women; only 10% of media FTSE's 350 companies have women at the helm; and at the BBC, which has often been held as an exemplar of diversity, women make up less than 30% of most senior management positions. It puts into context Jeremy Paxman's deranged rant about the white male in television. Ethnic minority representation is even worse.

A couple of weeks ago Pat Younge, former BBC head of sports programmes and planning who left to work for Discovery in the US, caused a stir at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival by saying that diversity targets should be like financial targets - you don't hit them, you get fired. I have to say that as board champion for diversity at Guardian News and Media I would currently be firing myself and most of the board for some missed targets. But Younge is right - because diversity targets are not just a feelgood add-on, they are vital to the health of any media business. The temptation to hire in one's own image for most managers is as irresistible as it is subliminal - which is why there are a lot of opinionated women working in digital management at the Guardian, and why we all need targets to remind us to look beyond the mirror.

On screen, any number of unconventional-looking ageing blokes (Jeremy Clarkson, Jonathan Ross, Chris Moyles, Alan Sugar, Adrian Chiles, Jeremy Paxman, Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan) are paid at a top rate for the talent they possess beyond their appearance. For women it is an altogether different story - appearance and age are clearly factors in choosing female presenters in a way that they aren't for men.

The media should be deeply concerned about this un-diversity - not because it represents moral turpitude on our part, but because it represents bloody awful business sense. What is happening to the UK population at the moment? It is ethnically diversifying, and it is ageing. It is also the case that it is, as of the 2001 Census, marginally more female than it is male. And we live longer - so older women, and non-white potential audiences are on the rise. In London, the major urban conurbation and key market for so many media brands, the population is around 37% ethnically diverse, yet this is nowhere near reflected in the management structures of media companies. Or indeed in their on-screen or in-paper representation.

How though, can you hope to address audiences for which you have no instinctive feel, and towards which you show casual discrimination? We are all in danger of becoming irrelevant to the changing demographics of our target audience at a time when holding any kind of audience is key to survival. If white men are so good at solving business problems - and given that they represent well over 80% of FTSE 100 directors we can speculate that this is a skill they must possess in measure - then I'm surprised they haven't grasped this one already.

3 articles that link with your CI

The night France's philosopher king spat in the face of the common man

It was another Frenchman, Jean‑Paul Sartre, who cooked up the phrase "by any means necessary" as a war cry to eradicate class in Gallic society. Then along came Thierry Henry to invert its purpose as the strong stamped on the weak on the road to the World Cup.

That's the last time we'll want to hear a homily from Henry about how he escaped the projects to become a superstar, a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur and a Gillette ambassador. The double handball that sent France to South Africa at the Republic of Ireland's expense was the aristocracy micturating on the proletariat while law and order looked the other way.

"It was necessary to exploit what was exploitable," Henry told French journalists. He was referring partly to Ireland's missed opportunities but the double-meaning is obvious. "I do not understand why we are being portrayed as the guilty party," chimed the barmy Raymond Domenech, the France coach. "I can see it is a mistake by the referee. To me this is the game and not cheating."

In the year of the fraud – fake-blood capsules, deliberate F1 crashes – the theft of Ireland's hopes of going to the 2010 World Cup offered incontrovertible evidence that deception is now endemic in the world's favourite game. "I really don't think he meant it," said David Beckham, who was bound to interject at some point. Pearl Harbor was instinctive. Those Japanese bombs made spur of the moment contact with those American ships.

"I'm not the referee, but if I hurt someone I'm sorry," Henry tweeted. Notice that Henry waited until after Fifa ruled out a replay before saying it might be the right solution. With each swan dive, handball and feigned injury we have shuffled to the moment where the modern player thinks it is his duty to cheat, and the responsibility of the state to stop him. To Henry and Domenech, this was a failure not of spirit, of fair play or values but of governance, as a perfectly good Swedish referee who had correctly refused to award France's Nicolas Anelka a penalty moments earlier had his reputation sullied by a pair of chancers.

Not content to take the game down, coach and captain took the ref down, too, impugning his professionalism in a way that might haunt him evermore. Life is so random that sometimes you wonder why we bother planning anything beyond the next 10 seconds. For example: had Ireland's Paul McShane stuck a foot out to redirect the high ball into the penalty area that Henry twice controlled with his hand instead of watching it pass then we would have been spared the nauseating spectacle of the Barcelona striker seeking absolution from Richard Dunne later as the two sat on the pitch.

Henry's guilt was scored across his face. France had just added a player to their World Cup squad: Raskolnikov, consumed with guilt and writhing in his room in Africa. But then came the self-acquittal. It was necessary to exploit what was exploitable. And the most dispiriting aspect of it might be that the Ireland players, by their reluctance to confront him after the game – Dunne actually tapped Henry's leg as if in sympathy – were acceding to what they all know about their trade. The balance is now tilted in favour of swindling. As in society you grab what you can.

The visceral resistance to this fundamental corruption is apparent across Ireland, Britain and France, but there will be no exodus from stadiums because the drama-addiction always outweighs the disgust. Italy won the last World Cup in the year of a huge match-fixing scandal, and the victory in Berlin was cast as a redemptive tale. Expect more of the same if Henry scores the winning goal in next summer's final.

One thinks of Opus Dei, the Roman Catholic organisation to whose doctrine Giovanni Trapattoni, the Ireland coach, adheres. In this faith we are all called to holiness and life is a path to sanctity. In modern football – an exercise in plunder – few will be signing up for Mortification, the control of desire through self-inflicted hardship. Better to do the crime and then talk like Sartre.

There was worse news in Ireland: severe flooding, 20% of households in arrears, two more swine flu deaths. Yet there is no overstating the emotional jolt that came with France's ill-gotten gains. It made people queasy. It was another violation of a great sport's raison d'être, another step on the path to a dystopian future in which chiselling is an art form, with its own scoreboard.

A referee traduced, a nation conned, a morally demented coach, an unrepentant perpetrator, supine governing bodies, a contagion of embarrassment across France: all in all, a grand night in Paris. Next time you burgle or stab someone, try this as a defence: "I'm not the police."

Dave Whelan insists Marlon King has no future in football or at Wigan

The Wigan Athletic chairman, Dave Whelan, has reacted strongly to the claims of Marlon King's agent that the disgraced footballer has a future in football. Whelan, who insists he will sack the striker after he was convicted for sexual assault and actual bodily harm and sentenced to 18 months in prison, was infuriated by agent Tony Finnegan's claims that King will find a new club on his release from jail.

"He will still be a good goalscorer and I'm sure someone will want his signature to play football and do the job he's best at," said Finnegan. "There are lots of players in this country who have fallen short of the law, done the crime, done the time, and I'm sure if you're sitting in a [cell] you do have time to reflect on the change you make as a person."

Finnegan's statement, however, has further enraged Whelan. "I do not want convicts at Wigan Athletic. Some club will sign him when he gets out – they'll take the risk. But they shouldn't," he told Sky Sports. "The FA should stop him playing professional football for 18 months after he has served his sentence. They should ask themselves if we want people with criminal records like this lad, especially with the type of crime he has committed over his career. This is not just a one off.

"They should say, 'Well, we have had enough of that". I can't see him coming back. He is absolutely sacked. We will not tolerate this kind of behaviour. It will be very, very difficult for any club to stick their neck out and take Marlon on. I cannot really see him coming back as a professional. A lot of people will say you do something wrong and you get a sentence and when you have completed it you are allowed back in. But I wouldn't allow him back in.

"I think it was Steve Bruce who signed him for us and I was a little bit surprised. I knew he had some form in the past. Steve sometimes thinks he can settle these lads down and get them to go on the straight and narrow. We laid out £3m on this lad and we've lost most of that money now. But we have standards that we want to keep to. It's a professional game. I am sure every club in the Premier League would have sacked him like I did."

Barton released from jail

Joey Barton has been released from jail after serving 74 days of a six-month sentence. The Newcastle midfielder had been jailed for assault in May after he attacked two people in Liverpool last December and had an appeal for early release turned down this month.

But today the midfielder enjoyed his first taste of freedom after weeks in the cells. Barton, wearing jeans and a jumper and carrying a holdall, shook hands with a friend waiting for him outside the prison gates. He made no comment to reporters before getting into a waiting silver Land Rover and being driven off.

Barton also has a four-month suspended sentence hanging over him after being convicted of an assault on his former Manchester City team-mate Ousmane Dabo, but the Professional Footballers' Association are hoping Barton is able to focus on his career and put off-field problems behind him.

The PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, believes that the Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan could be the ideal character for Barton to be working with.

"Hopefully Kevin thinks he can work his oracle with Joey and get his life back on track, both as a human being and as a footballer," Taylor told BBC Five Live. "Kevin is very much a people person. He has shown his emotions quite clearly in public. We're all human beings and we all have our failings.

"At the same time you've got to be responsible for your own actions. We've tried to help Joey with the Sporting Chance clinic and to be there to help him when he's needed it. But you need to see something in return."