First Presentation.

I have to choose an artifact in the media industry and find three or more related products in different media genres. We then present it to the class. This presentation is used as a practice run for the brief we will be doing through the year.

I have decided to look at how the world-popular pop star 'Rihanna' and how she effects us audiences, how she does it and how. I am also going to concentrate mainly on how she sells herself - is it the music which hooks in audiences? The risque lyrics to the music? The clothing and actions which could be seen as controversial.

I will make a series of posts looking at her in the media industry, especially in radio, television, the web and magazines and newspapers.

First of all, i will outline her as a performer and person:

- Formally, her name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty (i will do a post about her name being one word!) and she is an Barbadian R&B recording artist and performer.
- She first came onto the scene in 2005 with her popular song "pon de replay".
- This photo (left) generally shows the kind of clothing she wears on stage when performing.











I'm not choosing to analyse Rihanna to critise her, but i am more trying to understand why she does the things she does in her job. I do not own any of her CD's myself, however if one of her songs was on the radio there is a big chance i would sing along to it. So this makes me think - she manages to reach her music to me eventhough I'm not her biggest fan - the only reason i know about her is through different media genres - television, radio, magazines etc, including the two-step flow concept. Most of the people of my generation know who she is - but they may see her in different ways - either as a entertainer, a sex symbol, a good role model or a bad role model etc.

As i was planning my post for this research task i couldn't help but think i was thinking like a 79-year-old in the 1940s, instead of a young 17-year-old person who likes music, fashion and a little bit of controversy - and even though i like these things, i still think Rihanna can go a little too far. From my rough estimations i would say that her main audience is girls aged 12-30, meaning that young girls are taking in the risque lyrics, suggestive dance moves and skimpy clothing.

Eventhough kids are being exposed to this, she gets away with it - people even celebrate it. Some people may see the lyrics, dance moves and clothing as something which shows a woman being young, independent and comfortable with her sexuality. Do i have double standards? - is Rihanna a good role model or a bad one?

To help me with this whole task i have scanned a drawn mind map about different factors of Rihanna:

There are some things that i must mention when reseaching - Intertextuality

                                                                                         - Borrowed interest

                                                                                         - Audience theory

                                                                                         - The two-step flow concept

                                                                                         - Exibition and distribution processes