Content Analysis : Female Sexuality in Grand Theft Auto IV

Why Computer Games?

• Easy to count!
• Pause Function
• Unexplored area personally despite interest
• Under representation of Female
• New literature available around subject

Hunch

Representations of female sexuality in computer games are often constructed from the perspective of the male gaze, therefore inaccurate and furthering the male dominance within gaming culture.

Worth Researching?

• Recent efforts to make games more accessible to a female audience - is this apparent?
• Masculine dominated genre
• GTA IV - up to date game from groundbreaking series, targeted at males, reflection of society, based on NYC - Realism

Coding Categories

• Appearance - Body Size, Hair, Clothing, Flesh exposure
• Speech - None, flirtatious, aggressive, neutral, bussiness
• Location - Poor/Rich/Industrial, Venues - Bar, Bowling alley, Strip Club

Problems Faced so far

• Began counting 'pedestrians' (randomly genrated)
• Playing linear aspect of game to view actual charcters
• Missing results
• Scale

Ideas that exist already

• Already know women are underepresented: 'Bryce and Rutter' - content analysis
• 'Theorists have argued that representational factors . . . are partially responsible for alienating women from computer games' (163:2006)
• Can an avatar even assume a gender? - 'it would be difficult to establish at this point, if the object on screen evoking recognition in this way even has to be humanoid - let alone representative of any gender' (164:2006)
• Seperation of gaming from thoeries surrounding film culture, however in GTA women cannot be described as 'avatars' as they are fixed characters, cannot be controlled by the user.
• Journal: 'From Barbie to Mortal Kombat' (Cassel and Jenkins) - Violent games tend to exclude women - Quake (female avatars)
• Girls Game Movement - www.womengamers.com - 'Digital women critique'

Consumerism Module - Product Comparison - Tesco

We were set the task of buying two products from a supermarket of our choice. One from a low price range and then the same product from their higher price range to compare packaging and other differences. One thing i found just on browsing through products online is the number of same products. Certian items have around 4 different types of the same product, something i belive to be relatively new and increasing. I chose to to look at Tesco's range of Cola.

This image shows the lowest priced cola Tesco has to offer. It is priced at 18p. Its packaging features include the familiar Tesco value logo with the blue stripes and red font. The coloring here is basic with most of the label with no colour meaning minimal production costs. Font also takes a basic form whilst the words used are also minamal giving no more infomation than needed. The Tesco value range is available for a large number of products and its interesting that the same font, logo and colour scheme is used throughout. This allows the consumer to identify these products easily. The type of consumer to buy this cola product would be interested in more value products as thier priority is cost rather than quality. The finest products do have thier own logo which is found on all types of product, yet are more individually packaged with different colour schemes to reflect what type of product is being sold and differentiate themselves from the rest. The extra packaging often cotains an image which is trying to tempt the consumer as we can see below.



The main difference here can be identified by the image of a glass of cola on the front which has been photographed whilst the cola is splasing into the glass making it more appealing through hightening the consumers senses and replicating the visual of pouring a glass of cola, which reminds the consumer of sensations experiened whilst drinking cola. This item in particular doesn't contain the 'finest' logo earlier mentioned and shows another high brow price range from Tesco which they have called 'premium'. The product is more than 4 times more expensive than value cola. They still both have the focal point of the word 'Cola' although the visual overshadows this on the premium product. Whilst browsing these products online i found it interesting how when you select a particular product it gives you the option of viewing a cheaper alternative which gives the consumer a heightend sense of autonomy. For tesco however this allows them to offer thier products alongside branded items giving them more independance as a supermarket.

My holiday - Innovation in the Sun 2008

Unfortunately we didn't have the money to go into Barcelona to experience some architecture and art and other forms of culture. The holiday is essentially a 7 day clubbing holiday and we were situated in a 4 star hotel where some of the artists performing in the club were also staying. The town where we were situated was obviously driven by tourism with examples of globalisation round every corner with a limited number of Spanish shops and restaurants. Spain also won the Euro 2008 trophy whilst we were staying there which was an experience to see so many people dancing in the street. i noticed a difference between how seriously English culture considers football whilst the Spanish seemed more chilled out towards the sport. I think it would have been a greater celebration in England. Just because we invented the sport i think we feel like we need to prove something! Just a couple of pictures i got from my stay -

End of Year Review

I have returned home for summer after completing my first year as a student. Overall i think i could have performed better than i did with my academic studies but the mistakes i did make can be acted upon and changed to start with a clear outlook in year 2. I had to do a couple of re-sits due to failure to meet deadlines meaning i must improve on time management next year. My priority for the summer is to find a job, and save money for my holiday in June and festivals later in the summer. I will publish some photos of my summer adventures on here when i have some!

MSVC 105: Celbrities and Stardom

For this assignment i chose the following essay question -

A star image ‘speaks to us in terms we can understand about things that are important to us’ (Dyer)
With reference to specific examples suggest how audiences ‘use’ stars.
I decided to anaylse the fans of stars particularly hip hop fans, and discover what different ways audiences interact with stars and for what reasons.

Read my assignment HERE

MSVC 104: Genre: Assignment

For this assignment we had to chose one genre to analyse, and attempt to uncover factors which make up that genre through deconstruction of a chosen text, for example iconography and narrative. I chose the gangster film genre and my text was Martin Scorsese's Casino (1995).
Read my assignment HERE

MSVC 102 Postmodernism Literature Review

We had to pick one theoretical area to write abut from the ones we having been studying. I chose postmodernism as i felt i needed to read more around the subject as i wasn't sure about the concept . I was pleased with how this assignment went and feel i am regaining my essay writing skills slowly!

Read my assignment HERE