Ill Manors: Music video analysis

Notes
Media Forms: The Mise-en-scene: Setting of London in the rougher areas, council estates, stereotypes on the shorthand-Andy Medhurst a lot is show about the place in the short space of time. Direct address shows its a personal matter for the main protagonist who stars in his own music video, montage helps shows off the genre shows does the setting, fast paced editing.
Media Representations: theorists to consider- Levi strauss- representations are formed by the ideologies, hypocritical in the way he wanted us to see the riots, Perkins some stereotypes are true makes you think about the government on the one hand but on the other its shows the true stereotypes of the rioters.
Media Audiences: the socio -economic group that would be most likely to view this video- C2,D,E's which may also be the Plan B's audience, two step flow model, from opinion leaders to followers, Gramscis hegemony focusing on ideologies, dont always follow what the government say and revolt
Media Institutions:

Question 1:  Media Forms

From looking at the mise-en-scene of this music video we can see that the setting of it is in a run-down area of London. It also depicts some real life scene from the London riots which was in the same area. If we were look to look at Andy Medhurst's Theory of stereotyping on the short hand we could apply this here as we see all of the negative stereotypes of council estates and the people that live there in a short space of time as it is in a music video which is significant,Examples of the stereotypes include Plan B saying "Urban Safari", Safaris are often used to connote wildlife in jungles or deserts so to compare the people living in this part of London to that makes them seen like they're animals just to be looked at.

Another way that this Music video is typical is because it shows a direct address from the protagonist and artist in this music video.The video seems as though he is interacting with the viewers on a personal level as he is always looking into the camera when stating important messages. Also, Plan B may also want to address the audience directly as this is a personal matter towards him as he grew up in the places which are shown in the music video and it affected him.

Furthermore, the editing used it typical in a music video as it is fast paced and almost like a montage sequence showing various fast paced shots. This also helps us to imply the genre of the music video as this sort of editing and cinematography is commonly used in rap videos. The props and costumes used also helps us to imply a genre, for example we see the use of tracksuits and hoodies being worn by people on the estate, this is another example of Medhurst's shorthand theory as wearing this sort of attire is associated with bad behaviour and troublesome/violent youths. This is illustrative as the music almost seems to be reinforcing the negative stereotypes in-order to strengthen the points of the music video about not enough is being done to help the people that come form this environment.

Question 2: Media Representations

In this music video we see scenes from the real London riots and staged ones. The use of establishing shots in the beginning of the music video (to show London "burning") makes you see the full scale of violence that was caused. This music video therefore shows a negative representation of London as it is not what the rest of the world and un-informed domestic audiences see London as, they see it as a place of wealth and tourism and are unaware that it is surrounded by these council estates which are all assumed to be bad because of shorthand stereotypes linked to Medhursts theory.
The rioters are also represented in this music video but as the way most people would expect to see them as you wouldn't expect to see a middle class white man joining in in the London riots and this reinforces that. The reason why we see the rioters as "chavs" and people on "council estates" is because these representations are formed from the ideologies that have been passed down form the opinion leaders which are usually the government and higher class white people. This links to Levi Strauss's theory on representation and ideology. Strauss also wrote about the producer of the text holding the set of values and beliefs but this doesn't link well with what Plan B may have been trying to communicate as his views of the politicians in the music video are overshadowed by the erratic violence caused by the rioters which he is saying is the government's fault. As a result we may see Plan B being hypocritical as what he is trying to resolve may cause further violence as he is showing  what fun could be had of looting and rioting.
In this music video we see two types of people being represented in their own way by one opinion leader; Plan B. He states that on the one hand the politicians are the blame for the behaviour of the misguided youth which was a big factor in the riots but on the other hand the music video also portrays the group of people he is standing up for and representing as negative. Although true what he says about politicians never listening it contradicts himself and the people represented in the video as it shows stereotypes that are true about them. All together the way London is represented and the way the rioters were represented is done in a way to scapegoat the government as multiple people were to blame for the riots but the rioters were unable to accept responsibility.

Question 3: Media Audiences  

First of all, i believe the typical audience for a Plan B song would be young and older teenagers and young adults, this is because Rap music is typically aimed at this segment. Also there would be a higher male audience in comparison to females as Plan B has more fans that are male as more of his songs may appeal to them. The socio-economic group for his audience would also be the C2 D and E's as more working class people may be more interested in his music. Because of this specific audience different groups of people will get different feelings about this music video. For example the groups in the lower part of the socio-economic classifications would get different pleasures out of this video than middle/higher class citizens. For example an 18 year old male may feel like Plan B is communicating with him directly due to the direct address and because he may idolise him as an artist making him and his loyal fan audience followers from an opinion leader. This is based on the two step flow model  which also suggests that the opinion leader (Plan B) is influenced by the mass media but in this case we see it being subverted as Plan B doesn't seem to follow what the media says, especially about the working and lower classes.
A theorist called Gramsci developed the idea of hegemony which involved governments and capitalist societies manipulating their people to stay in power through the use of violence and other means. Gramsci advanced this and added that ideology was a key factor in hegemony. This links to the audiences pleasures as this music video goes against all of the typical ideologies western societies tell us. Therefore we are left to assume that the audience that are viewing this also go against the ideologies that have been fed to them about what is right and wrong so would like this genre of music and film. However, middle and higher class people may not see this video as a protest song but as something that just promotes bad behaviour like the riots so would receive different pleasures from this and different interpretations of the video as they wouldn't necessarily be in conflict with their governments.

Question 4: Media Institutions 

For a music video as big as this you would expect there to be different types of media promoting it,such as print,broadcast and E-media. This is because it was distributed by the conglomerate Time Warner. As a result they would be able to finance the promotion on various media platforms but the most effective way in my opinion would be on social media. This is because it would be able to reach a lot more of Plan B's fans as the majority of them are young teenagers and are avid users of social media. By using E-media to promote the song it may also be able to promote the film that goes with it as there wouldn't be any other large costs as posing to social network sites such as facebook and instagram is free. Cross promoting is called synergy and Plan B is able to do this very well as he could use the promotion of the film to further his music career and use the music to promote the film in-order to get his message across.