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Why are media products that represented outsiders, such as vampire films, so popular?The Inbetweeners are a group of four boys who are seen as outsiders because they are socially awkward and found it hard and embarrassing trying to get a girl to like them. Theses four boys are the narrative of the story because the audience wants to see what sort of mess they end up in next. The audience watch this because they can relative to some of the situations the boys get in to; this is uses and gratification escapism and personal identity, the active audience remain hooked to the program because they can see themselves as the characters. Most of the storylines in The Inbetweeners are closed; they show one adventurer the boys have and then the next show it will be completely different which hooks the audience in because they will want to know what is going to happen in the next one. They will want to know if it is something they did when they were the outsiders’ age, if so then they will have a dominate reading of the values the program is showing and will enjoy it more. Therefore this shows why media products that represent outsiders are so popular, because many people can relate to the narrative and the different situations that happen within them. A typical end to many genres of films such as action, fantasy, romantic, comedy, adventure etc. good is most likely to triumph evil. The main protagonist character always fights to the end and wins. An example of this is ‘Superman’, where an average ‘journalist’ who was unpopular, unlucky in love and a dead end career turns into an American icon, saving citizens and being the most talked about man in the city. This shows how the outsider has conformed to society and became something that the population wanted, even though he has super powers, he still has conformed to be something better. In contrast to this, the outsiders do win and not by conforming to the Marxist approach where the bourgeoisie should always be in power. For example Harry Potter, where he is an outsider and constantly stays that throughout, using his magic to constantly defy evil.Outsiders in films such as ‘Twilight’ have been represented in a more positive light compared to such classic vampire films such as ‘Dracula’, where vampires were seen as the antagonist. However, with the release of ‘Twilight’, this representation has weakened, and represents them as more of the protagonist; with the female character falling in love with him. This can be seen through a lot of outsider films, for example, ‘Juno’, the main outsider, Bleeker, is shown in a positive way through the use of the casting. For certain outcast genre films, they usually cast the ‘outsider’ as an attractive person, for example in the film ‘Bad Teacher’, the ‘nerdy’ teacher was played by Justin Timberlake, and in the film ‘Captain America’, Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers, who was initially seen as an outcast before turning into Captain America and becoming an icon. This could thus suggest that this ‘glamourisation’ and sexualisation of outsiders is because the media institutions are casting attractive people to play the roles of the outcasts. It could be argued that the cultivation theory has impacted audiences to think this way about outsiders, because, over the past few years, there are more and more representations of outsiders becoming more sexualized and glamourized, for example characters like Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) who is a wizard, have generated more fans, and has also generated a lot more interest through glamourisation. Also, this theory could also suggest the recent popularity of girls fancying the ‘nerdy guy’, because they have been brought up with a lot of outsider films with attractive characters.Outsiders have always had a big affect on the stereotypes we are used to now, the idea of geeks and socially awkward teens. Now the media has decided to embrace these outsiders has only reinforced these stereotypes within society, the idea of hegemony is that your class chooses what you are like, act and look. The inbetweeners is a good example of this, the show is concentrated around 4 teenage boys that find it hard to mix in society, mainly with women. This had become very popular especially with the younger generation, Thanks to this those that maybe shy and/or a bit socially awkward are seen as very different, with teenagers using the characters to intimidate and or embarrass those that may have similar traits. Stereotypes have always been a bad thing; whereas programs like ‘The Big Bang Theory’ show that sometimes embracing your stereotype is a good thing. ‘The Big Bang Theory’ is about 4 geeks, who have become very successful in there own right and what happens to them within society. This shows that not all stereotypes are bad and that some can work out for you, with intelligence being a big factor in the geek stereotype. Women have always been seen as weak, whereas in shows like ‘Doctor Who’ where his accomplish is always a women, shows that women can be active and are no different to men, that they can take control and aren’t weak or all the same where mainstream programs like ‘TOWIE’ and Soaps seem to embrace this stereotype.In recent years, producers for different media such for docu-soaps, films etc, use the same outline, storyline, character to revolve around their media product to create this popular and fast selling product in which the audience will buy; thus the producers earn profit from their product, whilst the audience have the excitement of the media product in which they are enticed by. This relates to capitalism, as the higher companies have power, control and dominant media to entice and attract their audience. The bourgeoisie helps capitalism, as the working classes are the main audience that helps the producers buy and make profit from their preferred media products. The main companies know what their audience wants, the freedom of speech allows the audience to tell the companies what they prefer in their chosen media. Given a preferred reading by the audience, this allows the companies, producers to recreate genres such as ‘Twilight’ allowing the audience to engage in what they want to see and enjoy from their media product. The opposition between the outsiders, the supernatural fantasy creates this different persona for the audience, particularly the younger audience, creating personal relationships with the characters makes the audience enticed to the film greater which creates new franchises; thus creating more profit by globalizing their product, converging to other media products to sell their original idea of a media product.Uses and gratification theory – escapism of fantasy worlds (vampire genre) Utopian theory The utopian theory is where everything is perfect a form of an “ideal world”. I think that vampires are represented as positive and utopian for example in ‘twilight’ vampires live for ever and do not get old, they feed off animals and not humans this shows audiences that they are good and that even after having humans to kill they choose the more peaceful way, they are basically not harming anybody. Audiences feel that this way of living may be better as they are different to the normal people. They find escapism through vampire genre as they ................
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