The producers of television programmes use a set of codes and conventions to communicate with their audience. These codes and conventions help to reinforce the ‘myths’ about British society.
Semiotics or the study of signs, demonstrates that when anything is represented, it acquires additional meanings. Whether these additional meanings are deliberately used to signify others or not is irrespective, the fact that these meanings can be contributed to a sign holds the importance. Using an episode of the British soap-opera, “Eastenders” as an example, this reading will identify these additional meanings and show credence to their existence. The main area that will be concentrated upon will be power and the stereotype of the British villain and the myths that are associated with it.
Throughout the years, film and television have often used the stereotype of the British villain to add credence to a dubious character. Fifties and sixties fashions often reinforce this, the use of dark-coloured suits, slick hair styles and loyalty to family members can all be interpreted by the audience as attributes of the British villain. Although the characters portrayed in the programme are often a far cry away from the images of The Kray Twins and other legends from the history of British crime, the similarities visible when the tokens are identified are more obvious.
Steve Owen, the businessman who owns the local nightclub in Albert Square, is portrayed as a typical British villain; he is an icon to this image. His clothes are a connotative signifier to this belief. The sharp, dark suits which he wears evoke a mental image of power. He is male, strong and tall, the suit that he wears accentuates this, giving him the aura of all things powerful and masculine. Not only do his clothes signify power but also wealth. He is a businessman, and will only portray himself as a successful one. As Marx suggested, “what makes them representative of the petit-bourgeois class, is that their minds, their consciousnesses do not extend beyond the limits which this class has set to its activities” (1852). If the producers were to make him walk the streets, for just one scene, in ordinary jeans and t-shirt, the reaction from the audience would be considerable. This example would only serve to show Steve’s decline into an ordinary life, far from the shady, intriguing life that the audience has become accustomed to.
His hair also serves as a connotative signifier.
This essay will discuss how national attitudes towards the working-class and the impoverished are represented in American Television. The purpose of this paper is to comprehend that television shows are not solely designed to entertain consumers but also contain a hidden agenda whose task is to protect certain ideological perspectives and therefore constant framing strategies take place. The paper will commence the analysis by discussing how males and females are represented in the television show Friday Night Lights, secondly it will look at the
All forms of literature consist of patterns that can be discovered through critical and analytical reading, observing and comparing. Many patterns are discussed in the novel, How to Read Literature like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster. Among these patterns, he discusses the use of symbolism and the representation something can have for a different, underlying aspect of a piece of literature. These symbols tend to have multiple meanings and endless interpretations depending on who is reading and analyzing them. No matter
Steven Johnson wrote an article for the New York Times in which he argues that back in the days, television shows use to have a very simple plot which was easy to follow without too much attention. It was just an other way to sit back and relax. However, throughout the years, viewers grew tired of this situation and demanded more complex plot lines with multiple story lines that related to recent news topics. He takes the example of the television show “24”. “24” is known for being the first show which its plot occurs in “real-time”, it is also known for not censuring the violence of its topics. It is a drastic change from what Johnson states as an example “Starsky and Hutch” where basically each episodes was only a repetition of the last one. Johnson also believes that there is a misconception of the mass culture nowadays where people think the television viewer wants dumb shows which in response makes them dumber. Johnson does not agree, for him, television shows such as “24” are “nutritional”. He also states that sm...
Fiske, John. Television Culture. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1987: Chs. 10, 11. Print. 5
Between World War I and World War II, England was a very different place than it had been in the past. Art and music were changing, and the country was filled with young, modern people, who began to go against the typical rules of society. Thinkers were emerging after the First World War, thinking of ways to keep something that large from ever happening again. Yet, while the country was experiencing so many new things, there were still a number of difficulties that hadn’t gone away. While many people were desperate to get rich, others were barely getting by. Evelyn Waugh, in his novel Vile Bodies, portrays a group of “Bright Young People,” who all place the value of wealth above everything else. On the opposite spectrum, George Orwell, in his book The Road to Wigan Pier, argues the reasons why England must do away with the class system.
Popular culture is often referred to as being produced by the mass media ‘for’ the public, who are seen as consumers. An example of this would be the television programme ‘The X Factor’. The X Factor is produced by a large television company which is owned by a multi millionaire music mogul. The programme is shown extensively throughout the winter months, when people favour staying indoors to going outside. The concept of the show is that it entices people in during the first couple of week. This is done by showing the contestants’ auditions. The reason for t...
Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven the most durable and popular of American broadcasting genres. The sitcom’s success depends on the audience’s familiarity with the habitual characters and the situations
Tikkaken, Amy, Erik Gregersen, Swati Chopra, Darshana Das, and Grace Young. "Television (TV)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 01 Dec. 2006. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Stereotypes are cultivated in mass media, Burton (2000, p.172) demonstrates that, of course, television channel is full of stereotypes.’ The media materials are full of stereotypes, which is characterized by continuous repetition.’
From looking at various historians opinions regarding E.P.Thompson’s book The making of the English Working Class, it is quite evident that there are many opposing views about his work that have led to many criticisms as well as many appraisals. The topic of class is highly debatable due to the fact there is no specific definition of it. It is also debateable where it originated from and so we cannot just look at one historian’s interpretation of the subject but we need to look at many in order to come to our own conclusions of the concept of ‘class consciousnesses and ‘class identity’. Thompson has produced an ‘outstanding’ interpretation of his theories on what made the working class and many historians have made valid criticisms that allow us to question some of his main arguments within the book, meaning that the notion of class is still a contested concept for which there is no specific answer.
Thompson, Robert. "As the TV World Turns." Interview. The Mark News. The Mark (21 June
“A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” argues that the application of film and literary genre theory do not fully translate when analyzing television, because of “the specific industry and audience practices unique to television, or for the mixture of fictional and nonfictional programming that constitutes the lineup on nearly every TV channel. 2” The goal of media genre studies, Mittell asserts, is to understand how media is arranged within the contexts of production and reception, and how media work to create our vision of the world.
Ross,K.,(2001) White Media, Black audience: Diversity and Dissonance on British Television in Ross, K. & Playdon, P.(eds.) Black marks : minority ethnic audiences and media, London: Ashgate
Nightingale, V & Dwyer, T 2006 ‘The audience politics of ‘enhanced’ television formats’, International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, vol. 2, no.1, pp. 25-42
Gauntlett, D. Hill, A. BFI (1999) TV Living: Television, Culture, and Everyday Life, p. 263 London: Routledge.