As we have been handing in our 300MC essays this week, I feel it would be very appropriate to reflect upon the module and the essay itself. To summarise briefly, the module, titled ‘Genre, meaning and production 2′, was based around developing the knowledge we had learnt from the previous level 1 module (of the same name) to a higher level. We focused on exploring the themes power, spectacle and memory, and contextualising their meaning and use within cultural and media texts.
For my essay, I decided to contextualise the film ‘V for Vendetta’, as I felt it explored all three themes in great depth. To research for this module, I mainly focused on reading through books, and one of the theories that stuck out to me the most was Michael Foucault’s theory on the surveillance society. He had based this theory on the previous ideals of the theorist Jeremy Banthem, who designed a prison format called the Panopticon. It was designed in such a way that the prisoners couldn’t tell when they were being observed, and therefore were forced to behave as if they were under constant surveillance. Foucault theorised that this design let to the legitimisation of surveillance into our modern society. I found this an interesting idea, especially in our current British society; there are over 4 million CCTV cameras in Britain alone, which adds up to about one for every 14 people. The film V for Vendetta, which is a futuristic look at how the English government and media could end up having total control over it’s people, really highlights this issue throughout. There are constant government ‘sweeps’ listening in to the conversations of the English citizens and reporting back to the higher orders, there are constant curfews, speaker phones coincide with the surveillance cameras enforcing the strict laws and people can be recognised on camera via retinal-identification.
I feel that this film is an approrpriate medium for conveying this message to a large mass of people (mainly the British as it is a British film) and I feel that, culturally, it points out that we need to be more aware as a society of what is happening around us, and that if we dont, we could end up giving up our right to freedom.
After watching the film and writing the essay, I feel that I should start to become more aware of my surroundings and contextualise my media environment so that it is relevant to me. It also made me realise that as someone who wants to become involved in the media industry, I am a powerful tool myself in telling people what I have seen and learnt, and helping them to become more aware.
I feel, therefore, that this module has been crucial in developing my cultural knowledge, and is a contributing factor to my development from a student to a professional in the media industry. You could be the best camera-person, editor, scriptwriter, etc. in the world, but if you’re unaware of your surroundings and the ideas, ideals and messages surrounding you, your own message is either going to be weak, or meaningless. In my eyes, that means failure.
