Banksy and The Simpson's

Banksy has created a new opening sequence for The Simpsons which has aired on US television. See what you think. He gets away with critiquing the way the show is allegedly manufactured which shows a willingness of a big media company (Fox)to accept being pilloried from within. The Simpsons is the biggest, best and most universal comedy in the world so can only benefit from this ability to make fun of its own shortcomings. Not even someone as cool and anti-establishment as Banksy can bring it down. In trying to criticise and make a statement has Banksy joined the art establishment as a celebrity icon ?

Feckless Britain's poster boy

Keith MacDonald has become a tabloid favourite. He has managed to father 15 children with 14 women and claims disability benefit for a bad back.

The Sun also uses the term 'feckless' which its sister paper the Times uses in its headline. They go on to call him a 'jobless scrounger' and a 'love rat'. He gets £67.75 a week in incapapcity benefit which they clami he spends on alcohol.

Eleanor Mills in the Sunday Times believes the 'underclass needs to change' and estimates that Keith's irresponsible lifestyle is costing £2million pounds. Each child receives £20 a week cghild benefit while most of the mothers gets £65.45 a week as they do not work. Housing benefit, free school meals and council tax benefit all add up.

What do you think of the media representations of this story ?

How will this story be received by different audiences ?

What does this story reveal about our society and our media ?

Why has this story caught the public imagination ?

10 : 10

A controversial video for a pressure group hoping to raise awareness about climate change has achieved exactly what it set out to do. The press have had a field day with the clip which has more exploding children in it. This seems to be the shock tactic of the moment. (see MIA post)

They have apologised and removed the video from their web-site but the damage has been done and their goal has been achieved. Viral marketing works on the basis that people will pass things on through social networking and people will search this video out. They have succeeding in putting their cause on the agenda as the event approaches.

The question is how will audiences recieve this media text ? Will they be outraged or will they feel that the message is so important that it justifies the content ?

Compare coverage of the video in the Telegraph and the Guardian. What does this tell you about the audiences for those papers ? How do you think schoolchildren will react as opposed to parents ?

Read the comments on the Guardian blog to see if the stunt has worked and to see how it has been received by a range of people.