Critical investigation proposal

Working title

The question that i will have, will be talking about gender representation of females. So "To what extent does the representation of women in The Walking Dead challenge traditional gender stereotypes?"

Angle

Is this a positive representation?

This is a postive representation as its something that doesn't happen often.

Hypothesis

That the walking dead show shows positive representation of women not being their traditions self.

Linked production piece

I will be having strong female main character whose life has been hurt by her ex-boyfriend and she gets revenge and is mentally disturbed. This will show that she's strong, independent and wont let people get in her way.

MIGRAIN

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

Who is being represented? In what way? By whom?

There are many people getting presented for example, the main 7 characters and the zombies are. They are getting represented by us and by the way they have to be and how they act when bad and good things happen almost like a split personality. There are lots of representation going on for example, some teenagers are seen to be as bad people, who are in gangs and have weapons. This has happened to one teen but not as bad. As this world has been changed into a zombie world in order to protect himself the teen had to be able to use a gun and knife to kill a zombie when it was being approached by one. You have the main representations between adults and kids seeing as adults seem to know best when in the show they are seen sometimes as equals as the kids have been taught to use weapons etc. Women are being represented as they are shown as the masculine gender alongside males.
What are the non-verbal structures of meaning in the text (e.g. gesture, facial expression, positional communication, clothing, props etc)?

The way that the characters have to go around are all different. As each character are different they have to play a different role and they think in different ways that the other characters may not. For example, Rick the main character is the dominate, leader type of person who gets violent and aggressive when needed. As he is the main character he is seen as the leader of the group telling his group how certain things will go and how it will be done. As they don't get alot of things they need to reuse and wear the clothes they have for a long time. They cant eat as there may not be enough food to go round or because they wont have any. There clothes are rugged, dirty etc and so are they as there isn't clean water in some parts they go to or where they live. The other characters will have the same clothes they wore when the apocalypse came out. They clean when they can. They eat when they can as there are children they make sure they eat first as they need their strength. But as a group they get along, they are like family and work together to get supplies when there are abandoned places or cars.
What is the significance of mise-en-scene/sets/settings (CLAMPS)?

The mise-en-scene is the most important thing. Costume is very important as the way that characters are dressed you can tell that they haven't got new or spare clothes. You can see that they have to wear it for a long period of time. A t-shirt that was once a white top is now brown due to the things that they have. There are holes and ripped jeans that are worn etc. The camerawork is being used in the series is very good. The way that it uses close-ups, medium shots, extreme shots, tilts and crane shots are all being used in various wayss. When they use these camera shots they make sure that the audience don't get bored when watching the series.Lighting is important to as the show is mainly done during the day time they use natural lighting but when its dark you can see when the lighting is shown. As when its dark the lighting would hit the character and the zombies as that when the characters would know something is going to happen. Lighting is effective in that way. The characters would have torches and fire to show lighting on themselves and to see what's around them. The actors/actresses have really good roles and have been doing a good job of showing how there characters are throughout the show. They show alot of emotion and act realistic in a way. Make-up is vital in a zombie show like this. The zombies look realistic and scary and gruesome which is what they want. They want the audience to look grossed out when they see the zombies. The way the makeup and elements are done to the zombies are from head-to-toe. For example, when a character sis killing a zombie, the blood would shoot out, you will see how the zombies die and the sounds are realistic. Even when a zombie is eating a human, its realistic in the sounds and make-up. The make-up on the characters aren't done too much to detail like the zombies are. The make-up is more plain and realistic too on the characters. Fr example, like dirt on the face, dirty, unwashed hair, making the characters look thin on the face, dirt in fingernails etc. There are so many props being used is alot. There everywhere. The weapons, clothes, shoes, food, scenery, vehicles etc. Everything is a prop as its being used in the series. Alot of detail goes into it as its important that they use them.
What sound and visual techniques are used to convey meaning (e.g. camera positioning, editing; the ways that images and sounds are combined to convey meaning)?

In the series there are many things that would show a meaning. For example when the camera does a close-up of a zombie or an object. This would mean that there would be something bad happening. When the editing happens at a faster paced this would mean that a character is getting chased or running away. When the deep, interesting music comes it would mean that someone bad is coming etc. There are many things that happen.
To whom is the text addressed? What is the target audience? (Demographics, Psychographics)

The target audience are people aged between 16-50 years old. This is because people this age would be interested in things like this and have been attracting a lot of people. I think this type of programme would attract working class and normal class people as its something they can watch after work or on their day off. These people would be normal average people, everyday working people. Some of the people may be above working class and have office jobs in London and watch this type of programme as it does attract different people. This means people who are struggler or reformers or mainstreamer would be interested in this show.
What are the major values, ideologies and assumptions underpinning the text or naturalised within it?The main things about this programme is that its based on zombies and killing and surviving. Some people may find these things offensive but as no one has mentioned anything the show still went ahead. The main idea is to make people realise that things like this could happen and some people believe in it just like people believe in aliens. I think some of the people that would be interested and there values match would be Innovators, thinkers and survivors. This is because the people that are within these groups match some of the ideas and values that are shown on the series.

What criteria have been used for selecting the content presented?

The criteria that has been used is that a lot of guessing and predictions are being used in this show. As this hasn't happened and they want people to believe that this could happen later on in life just like some people believe in aliens. Some people may not believe in that stuff but find it interesting to watch a show like this as it is interesting and gives the audience alot of questions to think about.

To whom is the text addressed? What is the target audience? (Demographics, Psychographics)

The target audience are people aged between 16-50 years old. This is because people this age would be interested in things like this and have been attracting a lot of people. I think this type of programme would attract working class and normal class people as its something they can watch after work or on their day off. These people would be normal average people, everyday working people. Some of the people may be above working class and have office jobs in London and watch this type of programme as it does attract different people. This means people who are strugglers or reformers or mainstreamers would be interested in this show.

SHEP

Social- There have been many views ion how females are being represented. For example, they are seen as sexual object or they are seen as traditional housewives. These views have been changing but not as much as we would like. For example, in some sci-fi films or programmes there have been times where the females are more stronger and not seen as boring or a damsel in distress.

Historical- A long time ago women have been seen as traditional housewives. The women would be at home looking after their children and cooking and cleaning. Whilst the men would be at work. Nowadays women are working and still doing their traditional roles but also men are taking part aswell. This shows that times are changing but slowly. On TV the representation did change a bit as its something that changes. Having the representation changed the TV world as they would normally see them as housewives or being the damsel in distress.

Economic- Now that women are taking part at working they are also building an income.Before women didn't get the same pay as men and they still don't-so this something that i could bring up.

Politics-For example,women are seen as sexual objects, housewives, weaker gender etc. Feminism is the main political view that happens still to this day. It was worse along time ago and is getting better later.This is a big part of the female world as its something many females believe in strongly.

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:

Representation and stereotyping
Reality TV
Moral Panics
Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century
camerwork

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
Audience theories
Genre theories
Levi strauss
watershed

What your main focus will be, E.g.:

The walking dead and be at liking about how gender is being represented in the show. This will be on women-on how they are shown as being dominant, masculine and not like the weaker gender. This is good to talk about as there is a lot to support it.I will al;so, be talking about laura mulveys theory and talk about how her theory goes with gender representation.

TV documentaries

FOX- The walking dead
Fear the walking dead

Academic texts/books

I will be mentioning books about gender as there aren't many things linking to the actual show.

Feminism at the movies- Radner and Stringer.

Women and film both sides of the camera-E.Ann Kaplan

The walking dead comic series-Robert kirkmen