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1. Legal & Ethical report
Please research and use online tools to complete the below
worksheet. Then turn the information into something of your own
display.
What are the possible effects of these theories on our
audience?
Theory/effect Explain what this is Can this be an effect that
the force awakens has on
an audience? How?
Hypodermic needle theory This theory suggests that the
mass media has a ‘direct’
and ‘powerful’ influence and
effect on its audience. It is
called this because it like the
mass media are injecting
information straight into your
brain.
This can be an effect that
star wars has on its
audience. With all the
advertising and promotion
this film had people were
almost definitely going to see
it because of how the media
made the film look so
amazing and for original fans
the trailer would have been
nostalgic. The mass media
advertised on all platforms
(social media, television,
YouTube, radio and many
others) this would have made
sure that the film was known
about by everyone once
again injecting information
into the publics brain.
Two step flow The two step flow theory
states that the media is taken
in by people called the
‘opinion leaders’ and it is
these people who put out
their view opinions on the
news and the masses listen
to them. Normally the opinion
leaders are trusted
individuals like politicians or
social media influencers.
this theory plays a key aspect
into why people went to see
the force awakens, from my
survey results I found that the
people whose parents were
fans (their influencers) had
seen and enjoyed the film.
This also applies when the
actors become influencers
such as Adam driver (kylo
ren) who is a well known
membr of the snl cast,
making his fans want to see
the film.
Uses and gratifications The uses and gratifications
theory was developed by
Katz and Bulmer and they
suggested that the users of
the media have an active role
of using and choosing what
I believe that the uses and
gratifications theory is very
prominent when talking about
the force awakens. As star
wars will most likely be a
source of entertainment and

2. they want from the media.
They suggested that the
users of the media uses the
media to fulfil their personal
needs. These needs consist
of:
 Information and
education
 Entertainment
 Personal identity
 Integration and social
interaction
 Escapism
It could be argued that when
someone uses the media
many of these factors are
being pleased at the same
time.
escapism for all that watch it.
and the film will mean
something different for every
person that watches it, for
some it may be about
celebrating diversity and for
some it may be about the
need for change.
Desensitisation The Desensitisation theory
suggest that the more
violence/sex/gore etc we are
exposed to the less effected
we are from it. The theory
states that the longer a
person is exposed to these
things the less shocking or
horrifying they will become if
they happen in real life.
I think this theory is true but
with limits when talking about
the force awakens. There is
violence in the film and the
audience see blood (when fin
gets a bloody hand on his
mask) however the violence
that is witnessed is not real
as the use of laser guns and
lightsabres take away the
realism of the violence.
What are the positive effects of the force awakens on an audience?
A positive effect of the force awakens could be that it teaches an audience to stand up against
evil, the film also shows an audience that all races and all genders are equal and that if we all
unite and come together we can achieve greatness. The film also has a positive effect on an
audience by giving them entertainment and a way of escapism from their normal boring lives.
What are the negative effects of the force awakens on an audience?
The force awakens could make people desensitised to violence and death which is a common
problem in the media in this day and age with more and more blame going towards on screen
violence being blamed for real life violence. The film also teaches the audience that rebellion and
rising against evil is fiction and that it is not real life this makes the general public subconsciously
realise that they shouldn’t rise up against the government or the higher power.

3. What issues of representation might occur?
Who/what is being
represented
Why has the institution
represented them in that
way
Would this be considered a
positive or negative
representation- explain
Race There is a massive diversity
in the cast of The Force
Awakens that includes;
black/African American,
white/Caucasian, Asian and
Latino. The casting agency
chose to make a black man,
a white woman and a Latino
man the three new main
characters compared to the
old trio who were all white
(Han, Luke, Leai). They also
decided to make to make a
white man the villain/bad
character.
The representation of all the
races are positive and show
how the media and the film
industry are becoming more
accepting and including of all
people. I think they played it
safe by making the main
villain (Kylo Ren played by
Adam Driver) a white male, I
think that in today’s society if
it had been any other race
than white there would have
been complaints about how
its racist to make a non-white
person the villain.
Gender They made a real effort to
make the film have some
strong independent women
to expand their target
audience for this film, where
as they made the men in the
film either clumsy, weak,
angry/aggressive or old.
The fact that made the main
character and the ‘new Jedi’
a female shows that they are
really trying to make star
wars for both genders, it is a
really positive thing as it
means that the fan base for
the star wars franchise will
increase meaning there will
be higher demand for star
wars movies. There is a
negative side to how gender
has been portrayed in this
movie though, the majority of
the new male characters
(Finn, Kylo Ren, and General
Hux) are portrayed as either
weak or aggressive. This is
almost a step backwards for
the equality movement as it
makes the women superior to
the men.
Age the institution made sure to
have a large variety of ages
in the film from young adult to
older adults. The reason they
needed the older adults such
as Harrison Ford (Han solo)
and Carrie Fisher (princess
leia) was to make sure the
original star wars fans came
back as they were in the
This is a very positive
representation of the ages as
pretty much all age groups
are represented in a good
light. This will make all ages
want to see the film as they
can relate to one or more of
the characters.

4. original trilogy. The film made
sure to represent all ages
equally and that they were all
capable of the same things.
There were no main
characters that were younger
16 which is expected but odd
because the film will have a
large audience of young
teens.
Sexuality Within the film there seems
to only be straight relations,
such as Finn and Rey, Han
Solo and Leia.
This is a negative
representation as it does not
show include all the different
sexualities that there are
making people feel left out.
However I don’t think it would
have been necessary to have
put a homosexual
relationship in the movie just
for the sake of it because
then the film will just be
pandering instead of properly
representing.
Does the film provide typical mainstream representations or does it offer something that
challenges society?
The Force Awakens challenges social norms and expectations by having a woman being a strong
and independent person, this challenges the mainstream point of view as women are normally
shown as house wives or a receptionist for a man in the media. The film stays very safe by making
the villain a straight white male, as straight white males have no controversy and the media
wouldn’t be angry or upset if they were represented in a bad light, where as if it were a black man
there would be discussion of racism. The film has some aspects of making the army look evil/bad,
for example when all of the storm troopers are lined up they look menacing and scary. This goes
against the typical mainstream representation of the army as they are normally shown to be the
hero’s and the good guys.
What are the current debates in society regarding representation that could be related to
the film?
The main point of discussion in society is the representation of different sexualities. As the world is
becoming much more accepting towards other sexualities it is almost expected to see them
represented in the media, especially films that are going to be seen by hundreds of millions of
people. The film only really represents straight relationships and this is not really good enough for
todays expectations.

5. Legal and ethical issues
LEGAL Explain the issue: Example in relation to THE
FORCE AWAKENS
Discrimination: The judgement or
discrimination towards a
person or a group of
people based on their
sex/race/age/gender etc.
There is no real evidence of
discrimination in the film
except from if you are part of
the first order or a rebel.
Finn is black and Rey is a
woman and there is no
racism/sexism in the movie.
Copyright: the exclusive and
assignable legal right,
given to the originator for a
fixed number of years, to
print, publish, perform,
film, or record literary,
artistic, or musical
material. (dictionary
definition)
Disney is a very large
cooperation with many
lawyers, so there is no
chance that the film would
infringe any copyright laws.
In the film all the music is by
john Williams who would’ve
been payed to wright it for
the film meaning no music
would be used illegally.
ETHICAL –Offensive material Explain the issue: Example in relation to THE
FORCE AWAKENS
Violence/sex/language: The main issue for film
makers with the use of
violence/sex/language is
that it will increase the age
rating meaning there is a
limited audience making
the film a possibility of
making less money.
Another problem is that
people may get offended
or insulted by the use of
these things.
The film managed to limit
the use of these aspects as
the film was given a rating of
a PG-13, the way they
managed to keep this rating
was by the very limited
amount of bad language and
a very small amount of
blood.
Children: the ratings given to films
are put in place in order to
protect younger members
of society from seeing
things that might wrongly
influence them. For
example it would be wrong
for a young child to watch
a movie with a lot of
violence and gore as they
would not be able to
process it the same way
an adult would.
The content in star wars is
mostly children friendly
hence the PG-13 rating it
received. A huge percentage
of the target audience would
have been young children as
well so it would have been in
Disney’s interests to keep
the film child friendly.

6. How do the legal considerations have an effect upon the making of the force awakens?
When making the force awakens the producers had to be very careful about not being
discriminative against anyone as this would make their target audience smaller, they also had to
make sure that the film was as good as it could be while appealing to everyone’s needs. A perfect
example of the star wars franchise reaching out to another target audience was by having John
Boyega (a African/British man) play one of the main male characters, Finn. Once again the
producers chose to make Daisy Ridley play the main character of Rey, making many female star
wars fans feel recognised and made them want to see the film more.
Regulatory bodies
Research the BBFC and find out:
1. Who are they and what role do they perform?
The British board of film censors in a non-governmental organisation are in charge of the national
classification and the censorship of films and television programs and other visual medias. They
supply films with their ratings (U, PG, PG-13, 12, 15, 18) to make sure younger audiences are kept
from seeing anything that isn’t appropriate for them.
2. Why do they exist?
3. What rules does the BBFC set that have to be followed by film makers and companies?
4. How do these rules have a direct effect on how a film is made? Give one legal example,
and one ethical example.