Historical and Cultural Context in Media

 

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

This iconic film poster conveys the historical context of the year 1912, when the supposed "unsinkable" ship called the Titanic was to first set sail, however, unfortunately, sank. Because the film is inspired and based on that event, the older audiences more specifically, will want to see it as they were either survivor of the tragic event or because they were alive when the event occurred. The event will have been the news of 1912 for months and is still well known and discussed now. While the film mainly shows historical contexts (such as social classes), the film itself has become cultural to today's generation. 

The woman in the poster is obviously of a higher class than the man; this is shown through their appearance as she is wearing finer and better clothing then he is. This shows the historical differences between the higher and lower classes and their lifestyle.

During the tragic event of the Titanic, there was actually a passenger named Jack, assumably he may have been the inspiration for Jack's character within the movie. 

CULTURAL CONTEXT

The magazine cover shows the cultural context of popular movies, specifically from the 80s. This more than likely attracts the attention of that specific generation, although it may appeal to general movie watchers or provide suggestions for which movies to potentially watch next. The iconic images of movie characters (E.T; Marty McFly etc.) and the iconic text font used all collaborate together and create a sense of nostalgia through the magazine cover. 

Fun with Fonts!

 

This unique font for Halloween reminds me clearly of a forest in the dark, autumn nights. It is written in capital letters and shaped like old, dead trees, however, in my opinion, it is not terrifying, I think it is quite pretty and interesting, though some may beg to differ.

The Transformers font makes me think of space and technology. This also suggests that the movie will be either sci-fi or an action movie, making the movie more intriguing for watchers.

The Harry Potter font looks custom made and generally compels people to think of storms and lightning. To me, this reflects the terrible events that just seem to swirl and strike the Hogwarts school, every school year. 

Finally, one of the most popular movie series, the Star Wars font is written in complete capital letters and is rather iconic to many people's childhood. However, the Harry Potter font is also very iconic. The title STARWARS makes people automatically think about space.

The final font is probably one of the most iconic drink product logos because it is an original font that has been used since the late 1800s. This almost tells its customers: "We're original" and that they never change, highlighting that it is trustworthy. The site text against the red background stands out and catches the attention of customers.

Statista/Newsworks Data

 Every year, newspaper circulation changes due to many factors: increasing technology (hat makes it easier to access the news online); sales of a specific newspaper; access to newspapers etc. Although, it could also be - in context to 2020 - being unable to shop as often as usual due to lockdown/quarantine. Because of the ever changing circulations of newspapers, it isn't always easy to keep an accurate record of these circulations. However, there are some websites which provide regular information on newspaper (i.e. Oxfam).

One example is (https://www.statista.com/statistics/246077/reach-of-selected-national-newspapers-in-the-uk/) Statista.

The graph above shows the monthly reach of leading newspapers within the UK from April 2019 to March 2020. This shows me that The Sun (a Red Top tabloid) is the most reached newspaper (2019-2020) with up to 39,626 individuals. It is closely followed by The Sun on Sunday (38,567 individuals), the Daily Mail (35,803 individuals), The Guardian (35,543 individuals) and the Mail on Sunday (34,647 individuals)- suggesting that these were the most commonly reached newspapers for almost a year. 

However, this does not necessarily mean that they are the most popular/positively reviewed newspapers, the graph below shows popularity statistics from August 2019 - August 2020.

While none of these newspapers have a minimum of 50% of their readers who have a positive opinion on their newspapers, they top 5 positively viewed newspapers (according to the graph) are: the Metro (44%); The Times (36%); The Independent (35%), The Guardian (35%) and the Financial Times (33%). This graph highlights that while The Sun was the most commonly reached newspaper, it is not the most positively viewed upon.