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MED4104 Television, Film and Video Media Assignment 1: Reading Diary by Fahima Khatun

Week One: History of public service broadcasting.

This week’s focus in the lecture was on the ‘Television and public service broadcasting: Industry institution and history’. To get an over view of histography in the media, I looked at Long and Wall’s ‘Media Studies: Texts, Production’. Histography itself meaning “is literally the act of writing the past… we specifically use the term to refer to the writing of history based on analysis, evaluation”. (Hall, Wall, 2012, P.454) This being important, because from analysis we get details on how certain aspects in media texts were represented and what shaped these representations. It also explained the importance of looking into the history being the fact that history helps scholars better understand the nature of contemporary media practices. (Long, Wall, 2012, P.456)

Following Long and Wall’s idea on how history in itself shaped the future, as the decisions that were made in the past have some impacts on how a broadcasting company became what it is. Glen Creeber’s book ‘The Origins of Public Service Broadcasting’ looks into this mainly focusing on the key characters that influenced the structure of the BBC. One being Lord Reith, who was praised in his time for his approach to broadcasting in 1938 for “making the BBC…. Responsible, reliable.” (Creed, 2003, p.24)

The reading by Brigg’s, ‘The History of Broadcasting In The United Kingdom’, also focused on the on the history of broadcasting in England and looked into certain characters and their opinions on their competitors. Sir Ian Jacob being one, who was the chairman of the BBC governor, did not agree with the new (at the time) Broadcasting company known as ITV. He and his fellow chairman Governors disagreed with what it stood for and refused the invitation given by ITV when it was launched, and described the people in ITV as "simply there for money… and were going to make a fortune out of it." (Briggs, 2000 p.3)

The BBC found its main purpose to inform the world with what it needs instead of what it wants. Shown through Reith’s comment “few know what they want and very few know what they need” (Creed, 2000, p.23) creating this elites idea that the public didn’t know what they want and had to be taught what they should enjoy, while those with ITV such as Roland Gilley who said “We give the people what they want.” (Biggs, 2003, P.9) This comment was reprove by Sir Robert Fraser.

A topic of interest that has grown from these readings and a suggested topic of research could be comparing views of people who ran ITV and the BBC then and now. The appropriate methodology would be to analyse both Broadcasting peak time shows and looking into the publics views of the shows and the people who agreed to run these shows through virtual ethnography mainly looking at reviews and comments from social media.

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Reference week 1:

Briggs, ASA, (2000) The History of Broadcasting In The United Kingdom Volume V Competition, Oxford University Press (2000) Chapter 1 Competition Page 3 – 14.
Creeber, Glen (2003) The Origins of Public Service Broadcasting (British Television Before the War) in Michele Hilmes (ed.) (2003) The Television History Book. London: BFI. Pp.22-26.
Long, P and Wall, T (2012) ‘Media Histories’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2ndEdition), London: Pearson. p 448 – 481.

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Week Two: Political Economy

This week’s lecture focused on political economy, which "in essence concerns the nature of production and the wider social condition in which it takes place" (Long, Wall, 2012 P.172). Political economy has an effect on many things in the media looking into “the range of meanings available in media.” (Long, Wall, 2012 P.173)

All products must have relevance. Ien Ang, ‘Desperately Seeking the Audience,’ states how the BBC’s standards have shaped broadcasting, making sure it fulfils its purpose of being based on “a public service broadcasting system, embodied by state regulation and collecting financed” (Ang, 1991, p.1), so they cater to a wide standard and make sure their products (shows) does that.

From my found reading, “For a Political Economy Of Mass Communication,” by Graham Murdock and Peter Golding, raised importance of exploring into what and why we get certain meanings in media texts, also how this affects the political structures, as it’s an industry that has a lot of power and can weigh into peoples “consciousness and the modes of expression and action which are made available to people.” (Murdock, Golding, online, P.205)

In opposition to the BBC, there are commercial media, which has had many views on it, as some say that the people that run it don’t really care about what is shown on the condition it gets the rating. CBS executive producer said “I’m not interested in culture…I have only one interest that’s whether people will watch the program” (Ang, 1991 p.2) enforcing this idea that ratings are more important. The lecture suggested that commercial media couldn’t take a lot of risks, as they can’t afford it, implying that these views are valid, as the BBC may have standards but they have a definite income, while with commercial television they must make their own.

This is further shown through Murdock and Golding research. When the commercial channel ITV first came out there were worries of standards, however with variety it gave ITV the upper hand, but with the arrival of BBC2 in 1964 “where ITV had over two-thirds of the audience in the early 'sixties this figure gradually dropped to 54% by 1972.” (Murdock, Golding, online, P.212) With another channel, they could experiment more giving it’s audience variety and allowing them to be more diverse in what they show.

A topic of interest that could be studied is looking into the BBC’s structure in political economy due to the License Fee, mainly focusing on The Great British Bake Off and compare it to BBC2’s hit show Top Gear, to find why even though the shows are both popular, they are still shown on different channels. From looking at different aspects, such as the target audience of both shows and channels.

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Reference week 2:

Chapter 2 ("Audience-as-market and audience-as-public") in Ang, Ien (1991) Desperately Seeking the Audience. London: Routledge.
Long, P and Wall, T (2012) ‘Political Economy of the Media’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp. 172-185.
Murdock, Graham, and Golding, Peter, For a Political Econamy of Mass Communication, Online PDF, http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5355/2256#.VtMLKTap4cBLast accessed 18th February 2016.

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Week Three: Meaning

This week’s topic looks into the meaning portrayed from language in Film and Television, which helps the audience engage with the text. As scholars, it’s important to find the reasons for these meanings, from gathering primary research to using past theorists to prove the meaning found and how this affects the understanding of the text. This is reflected in Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, “Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video,” as he mentions how theory has “the aim of bringing to the surface those aspects of meaning, which can be characterised as ideological.” (Nowell-Smith, 2000, P.8)

Nowell-Smith looks into how meaning in films came about through language, which is one of two things he focuses on through the chapter, the second being whether it can be sustained. Meanings can be found through a series of methodologies (Nowell-Smith, 2000, p.8). But mainly outline how film is designed for people of all abilities to access the meanings. (Nowell-Smith, 2000, p.9)

The second reading by John Ellis, ‘Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video,’ focuses mainly on the more technical side of TV and Film and how those affect the audience’s reaction to media texts. The main points Ellis picks up on is the fact that TV and film may have same ideas of being an activity people enjoy, however, he also notes that they have different levels of concentration. (Ellis, 1982, P.128) Suggesting it is this concentration that could affect people on what they pick up from the show/movie, which could lead to the types of meaning they interoperate with it.

Nowell-Smith concludes that cinema is more codes than a language, (Nowell-Smith, 2000 p.13) codes that people use to interoperate into meanings. This is something that I agree on, as for it to be a language I believe it would mean that everyone gets the if not the same then similar, meanings. But Nowell-Smith says through David Bordwell finding, of signification and information, that filmmakers give its viewers information and the spectators piece it together to form, not the exact meaning of what the filmmakers may have put in, but a meaning in which they understand the narrative of how the movie get from point A (the beginning) to point B (the end). (Nowell-Smith, 2000, p.13-14)

Ellis states that meanings from TV need to be more obvious due to the lack of concentration people have when watching. “The TV image tends to be simple and straight forwards stripped… of meaning” (Ellis, 1992, P.129) with exception to some genres of TV shows such as Science fiction.

A research topic focus to look into would be a rhetoric analysis of three key scenes taken from David Fincher's movie Fight Club (1999). Focusing on the use of sound and comparing it to a TV show, along with creating a focus group to compare my own analysis with theirs, to find what meaning was interpreted from different people.

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Reference week 3:

Ellis, John (1982) Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video, Routledge: London - pp. 127-159.
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey (2000) ‘How films mean, or, from aesthetics to semiotics and half-way back again’ in Gledhill, C and Williams, L. (2000), Reinventing Film Studies. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

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Week Four: Censorship

This week’s Topic was on ‘Censorship Media Regulation, Censorship, Effects and Moral Panics’. The most important thing I realised from this topic is that Media has the ability to have mass communication and through what they show people can have some effect. It can lead “to the imitation of violent acts, mainly by younger, impressionable children but also affecting other ‘vulnerable’ adults” (Long, Wall, 2012, p.291) leading to the fact that “threats need to be dealt with and countered in some manner thus instituting calls for…regulation,” (Long, Wall, 2012, p.291) which is why censorship is so important.

Censorship is an ever-evolving idea, as through Jonathan Bignell reading, ‘Television You Don’t See – regulation,’ states censorship is a “product of ideology, the system of beliefs…and attitudes, which change according to the social and political character of a given group or national population” (Bignell, 2004, P.234). The viewer also has an effect on what is shown. Bignell following Long and Wall on children being affected through what’s on TV, so they must be protected, which is why specific shows are shown at “the time in the day (conventionally 9:00pm) after which programs with shows that may disturb children can be shown.” (Bignell, 2004, P.231)

Censorship takes many forms of protection to the public and is ran by certain bodies. In the UK it is organisations such as the British Board of Film Classification, (BBFC) which “operates a system of classification for film release as well as video release” (Nelmes, 1999, P.49) in which they “argue that the primary role of classification is the protection of children” (Nelmes, 1999, P.49). The censorship that is there is also for the protection of adults too. They have taken steps to as far as banning movies in the UK.

My found reading ‘Shadow Economies of Cinema,’ by Ramon Lobato, states how movies that are deemed as bad for the public but can also be “often hailed as an act of free speech, as something to be applauded.” (Lobato, 2012, p.47) Bringing this idea that film and TV are forms of art and by censoring them people are ruining the artists' view. It also brings up how censorship is, in fact, one of the causes of pirate copy DVD. As in “1968 film The Colour of Pomegranates was never legally released… but a pirate 16mm version was circulated in the UK.” (Lobato, 2012, p.47) This in itself being a major issue for the film industry, as the creators don’t get their rightful pay. These two points bringing around the fact that filmmakers who try to be artistic can lose both ways, as either their creation will be altered or they won’t get their rightful credit.

A topic on censorship that can be further researched could be looking at the movie ‘I Spit on Your Grave’(1978), which was originally banned in some places. Through virtual ethnography, analysing the talk of it through blogs and social media, looking into people views and comparing it to the BBFC’s report on the movie, in which creating a focus group to discuss statements made on the BBFC on why it was banned in the UK and getting their views.

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Reference week 4:

Bignell, J (2004) An Introduction to Television Studies, London: Routledge. pp 229-252
Lobato, Ramon, (2012) Shadow Economies of Cinema, Mapping Informal Film Distribution, Palrave Macmillan (2012) pp 47.
Long, P and Wall, T (2012) ‘Producing audiences: what do media do to people?’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp 274-299.
Nelmes, J (1999) An Introduction to Film Studies, 2nd Edition, London: Routledge. pp. 48-53.

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Week Five: Representation: Ideology, Discourse, and Power

This week’s topic was on ‘Representation: Ideology, Discourse, and Power.’ Representation plays a strong part in the media, especially for theorists as it’s a popular topic of debate that can never fully be settled. “Theorists increasingly focused attention… of the representation and language that was used in the reproduction of power and the struggle over it.” (Long, Wall, 2012, p.363) Long and Wall also go into Discourse, which is kind of “language we use to talk about something, and the assumptions that lie behind what we say think and do.” Michael Foucault (1926-84), a theorist who looked into social issues and order states that discourse is in fact what we embed in our communication and is how societies structure is held by what people “do, say and think.” (Long and Wall, 2012, p.364) Linking knowledge and power in discourse.

While the second reading, “How to do a critical discourse analysis” by Machin and Mayr, looks at discourses of language from social and political change. (2012, p.4) Critical discourse analysis (CDA) grew from critical Linguistic, which shows “how language and grammar can be used as ideological instruments.” (Machin and Mayr, 2012, p.2) But they go on to say how “discourse operates above the level of grammar.” (Machin and Mayr, 2012, p.20) Machin and Mayr explore how it is acting that can create meanings. People’s background and choices “can affect the meaning of a text to.” (Machin and Mayr, 2012, p.2) Acts and background that can grow from “when the language forms are played out in different social, political and cultural arenas” (Machin and Mayr, 2012, p.20) suggesting how these areas can have an effect in our language.

Faye Davies on “Paradigmatically Oppositional Representations: Gender and Sexual Identity in The L Word”look into the representation of sexual identity and gender. The drama follows the lives of lesbians, bisexuals, straight and transgender people. The drama takes a different route to most shows, such as Glee, through accepting lesbians through the portrayal of visual communication. (Davies, 2012, P.188) This goes against the mainstream idea from previous shows of lesbians being “tormented and angst-ridden.” (Davies, 2012, P.181) The show suggests that discourse is presented through the action rather than communication through language and the show looks at lesbians in a more positive way, moving away from stereotypical views in society.

Through the readings and as a media scholar, I find that representation is a major issue that will always be up for debate, especially regarding gender equality. However feel that representation of masculinity through emotional issues that male characters face in the media is a little more neglected than research on female exploitation, which is something I want to explore through the film Fight Club (1999) by David Fincher.

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Reference week 5:

Beirne, Rebecca, (2008) Television Queer Women A reader, Palrave Macmillan, pp 179- 193.
Long, P and Wall, T (2012) 'Discourse, power and media’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp 363-369.
Long, P and Wall, T (2012) 'Media Representations’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp 100-129.
Machin, D and Mayr, A (2012) How to do a Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Sage. pp 1-29.

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Week Seven: What do people do with the media?

This week’s topic was on ‘what do people do with the media’, mainly focusing on how the audience can be studied. Also looked into how, now with a range of audience growing and growing technology, it has allowed people who enjoy a text to become devoted to it through societies and fans. The importance of this topic as media scholars falls from understanding trends and fails. This also has an importance to the industry as a whole helps them understand why some media texts are successful while others aren’t.

The Key reading by Marie Gillespie, ‘The Audience Studies Reader,’ looks into the life in Neighbors, an Australian soap opera, when looking at the lives of people in the location of Southall and how the audience can react to the show.

A key way of knowing the audience of the show comes from the genre. The genre conventions of soap are “characterised by speech forms of gossip.” (Gillespie, 2002, p.316) When looking at ‘soap gossip’ and ‘local gossip’ audience can connect with these types of gossip through ‘real events’ creating identity but also relationships through the use of gossip, which can lead to people talking and agreeing about a similar topic can “bond friendships.” (Gillespie, 2002, p.317)

Despite peoples love for soap operas, it has had quite a few negative views on the genre. Robert C. Allen explored this through ‘To be Continued…Soap Operas Around The World.’ As early as the 1940’s soap operas “seemed to critics to be the very epitome of the low.” (Allen, 1995, P.3) Despite the critical reviews soap opera still play, which is why there is an importance to study them, but it wasn’t until 1980’s when people considered it to be a serious text. (Allen, 1995, P.7)

The characters’ life plays a huge role in soaps for audiences, they connect characters lives with their own. (Gillespie, 2002, p.317) This can lead some fans to create fan-fictions or a “symbolic community”(Gillespie, 2002, p.315) making what they see on TV more real to them, as they enjoy talking about it with each other. They do this because “Retelling soap opera stories gives viewers the opportunity to become storyteller” through “extending their repertories as storytellers.” (Gillespie, 2002, p.317).

A topic that could be explored from this weeks reading is looking at the show Doctor Foster (2015) and reading into the reactions made by Gogglebox, a reality show where members of the public show their immediate reaction while watching a show, through using virtual ethnography to observe reaction and through secondary research of comparing these reactions to past theorists, such as Blumler and Katz uses and gratifications theory, to find what could lead people to their views.

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Reference week 7:

Allen, (1995) To be Continued…Soap Operas Around The World pages, Routledge London and New York 1-12.
Gillespie, Marie (2003) “Television, Ethnicity and Cultural Change” IN Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn (eds.) The Audience Studies Reader. London: Routledge.

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Week Eight: Audiences: Technology and the impact on consumption

This week's topic is on Technology and the impact on consumption. Technology is evolving and has had a great impact on the media, as technology evolves so does views and research made by researchers when TV was first aired. This brings forward a concern for a theorist who looks at past scholars, as it could be questioned whether past theorists work have as much impact on present-day technology.

This weeks reading, ‘New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality’ by Anna Everett and John Caldwell. explores how television’s interactivity has increased, by looking into new media through the internet and television, seceding the second shift from the first shift media aesthetics programming, interactivity and users flow by Cardwell, drawing from theorists cyber-theologists.

The first shift being analog, in which it explored how Nick browns' model of Television super text and Raymond Williams' flow have transformed and evolved “in the increasingly digital world of convergence in the media.” (Everett, Caldwell, 2003, p.133) Williams flow theory explored into how “the most significant object of critical research in TV was not the individual program but rather the cumulative succession of program…ads and bumper that could create a single flow on a network across several programming hours.” (Everett, Caldwell, 2003, p.133) While Browns' theory looked more at linking these “flow strategies to several practices including programming dayparts…the political economy of the industry and the ideologies that managed the temporal.” (Everett, Caldwell, 2003, p.133)

The second shift looks into how technology has changed the industry, looking more at specialized and niche audience. Williams’ flow theory also shows issues when applied to present day TV (Everett, Caldwell, 2003, p.134). As although broadcasters want viewers to stay on their channel and by them having multiple channels and access to an audience online, they have a capability to reach a mass audience, but now we have many channels allowing us to switch and create our own flow. (Everett, Caldwell, 2003, p.134)

Now despite digital TV there are so many ways to watch shows. As a university student, I find myself using less TV and more other forms of online streaming, downloads to computers, to mobile phones. This allows me to binge watch and catch up. Due to companies like Netflix, it allows me and others to binge watch, instead of waiting, allowing people to watch with ease and not miss out.

However with all the new ways to watch there are now ways to watch illegally easier. A topic that could be explored from this weeks reading is looking into how technology has had a negative effect on illegal downloads to pirate copies and what has a lead audience to do this.

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Reference week 8:

Everett, Anna and Caldwell, J (Eds) (2003), New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality, Routledge, London and New York - pp 127-144