Wednesday, 14 October 2009

TASK - Guardian 100

1.) The media Guardian 100 is the annual guide to the most powerful people in the industry.


A panel of experienced media watchers from the worlds of politics, journalism, advertising and the internet judged entrants using three criteria: cultural influence, economic clout and political power of all candidates.


The panelists include: Lord Waheed Alli, Diasy McAndrew, Jamie Kantrowitz, Richard Park, Sarah Sands, James Scroggs, Janine Gibson, Matt Wells.


2.) There are19 females in the top 100, making them accountable for 19% of the Guardian 100.


3.) 1 - Lesley Douglas. Job: controller, BBC Radio 2 and 6Music; controller, BBC popular music.


2 - Jana Bennett. Job: director of vision, BBC.


3 - Jenny Abramsky. Job: director, BBC audio and music.


4 - Rebekah Wade. Job: editor, the Sun.


5 - Helen Boaden. Job: director, BBC news.


6 - Sly Bailey. Job: chief executive, Trinity Mirror.


7 - Lisa Opie. Job: managing director, content, Channel Five.


8 - Majorie Scardino. Job: chief executive, Pearson.


9 - Carolyn McCall. Job: chief executive, Guardian Media Group.


10 - Zarin Patel. Job: group finance director, BBC; non-executive director, BBC Worldwide.


11 - Dawn Airey. Job: director of global content, ITV.


12 - Patience Wheatcroft. Job: editor, Sunday Telegraph.


13 - Elisabeth Murdoch. Job: chairman and chief executive, Shine.


14 - Jane Featherstone. Job: joint managing director, Kudos Productions.


15 - Jane Brutton. Job: editor, Grazial.

16 - Alexandra Shulman. Job: editor, Vogue.

17 - Polly Toynbee. Job: columnist, The Guardian.

18 - Allison Pearson. Job: columnist, Daily Mail.

19 - Emily Bell. Job: director of digital content, Guardian News.

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

The Post Feminism of "Flight Plan" in comparison to another contemporary film "She's The Man".

Feminism is a term used to depict females as being equal to their male counter-parts whereas Post-Feminism is a term used to depict females as being better than their male counter-parts. I viewed two contemporary texts which I feel were similar in using the theme of Post-Feminism. Those two contemporary texts are 2005's "Flight Plan" and 2006's "She's The Man". Jodie Foster plays the protagonist in the former and Amanda Bynes plays the protagonist in the later.

Within the film 'Flight Plan' Jodie Foster plays Kyle Pratt, the protagonist. Foster is represented in different ways throughout the duration of the film. In the beginning is she represented as being an independent, a nurturing and even bilingual woman. All of these qualities within her represent her as being a product of post feminism. She has just lost her husband, thought she is portrayed as being able to cope very well as her loss does not seem to affect the way in which she cares for her six year old daughter, Julia. She does not even seem that upset. This is the representation that Foster is a strong woman.

Howeover, as the movie goes on and the plot unfolds to the disequilibrium, Foster's representations begin to change. We, the audeince begin to become suspicous of her due to her immense paranoia and further on as it is revealed she has lost her child we begin to view her in an irresponsible light. At this time in the movie the audience probably begins to change their views on Foster being a product of post feminism but quite rather the opposite.

Though, as the movie finishes and it is revealed that Foster is not actually crazy the rest of the characters, and the audience themselves can view Foster in an extremely powerful Post Feminism light as she was the one who remained the most ‘sane’ out of everyone on the plane and therefore was better than any man or woman for that matter.

The pattern of "Flight Plan" is somewhat similar to that of "She's The Man". Amanda Bynes plays Viola, the protagonist. Bynes is represented differently throughout the duration of the film. In the beginning she is represented as being independent, the dominant force in her relationship and better than any boy on the school soccer team. All of these qualities within her represent her as being a product of post feminism.

However, as the movie goes on and the plot unfolds to the disequilibrium, Bynes representations begin to change. She is forced to dress up as her twin brother, Sebestian, in order to continue playing the sport she loves most, Soccer, as the girls soccer team as unfortunately been cut. Therefore, the fact that she has to dress up like her brother shows that women are still inferior to their male counter-parts. Now, she is no longer represented as being a product of post feminism.

Though, as the movie finishes and it is revealed that Bynes was actually playing as her brother Sebastian in the soccer team, the audience and the other characters portray her in a post feminism light as she was better than any of the other boys on the soccer team. From then on, she is allowed to play in the boys soccer team and the coach declares “we don’t discriminate on sex in this school”. This shows that the glass ceiling Bynes once faced has broken.