CATEGORY	SIMILARITIES	DIFFERENCES	THEORY
CHARACTERS	the detective who has a ‘natural’ instinct for law and order Both the Victims are young helpless females- this is reactionary	The Killing, The missing has the main detective as female	PROPP
NARRATIVE	the first episode often introduces a lot of different characters	There can’t be a resolution in the missing for the victim because they’re dead.	TODOROV
THEMES	the use of binary oppostions around familiar themes: family, community, law and order, justice.	The missing has a lot of deceit whereas the killing is a lot of action and brutality.	LEVI-STRAUSS
REPRESENTATION	reactionary representations of police, family, law and order, urban/rural	Radical representation of the father figure he should be with his family being supportive but he’s just cheating.	SEMIOTICS
TECHNICAL CODES / LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE (music, setting, props, lighting, use of camera, editing etc)	opening montage sequence that often gives clues as to the whole series – themes, locations, characters, events etc.	The killing music is more upbeat.

What is it about?- Tony and Emily Hughes go to France on a holiday with their five-year-old son Oliver. However, when their car breaks down one night in a small town, Tony suddenly loses sight of his son.

Tertiary audience: is when a person is only listening to the station because they are familiar with the guest that is on. This could also be a friend, sister, a particular celebrity and others. Primary audiences are those who receive the communication directly and are also known as the target audience. The person is also usually the decision maker. Secondary audiences are those readers who are not the primary addressee, but are still included as viewer

The Missing is an international co-production between the BBC and Starz. The first eight-part series, about the search for a missing boy in France. It’s fiction.

Theorist	What does it mean (in your own words)	How does it apply to the advert (in your own words)
Equilibrium	The state of being at equilibrium is being constant and fine with nothing bothering you e.g all stories will have a exposition, complication and resolution. Equilibrium would be at the beginning then the complication happens and ruins it but the resolution brings it back to equilibrium.	The advert starts off at equilibrium when they’re happy and feel comfortable with what they’re wearing and how they look then the mascara is the complication because they want to be ‘bossed up’ and once they’ve used it they’re happy and comfortable again therefore at equilibrium.
Binary Opposition	Binary opposition is a pair of related concepts that are completely opposite e.g white&black, North&South or the could be a neutral balance e.g a product only for women and not for men has been made available to both genders.	This advert has made a product genuinely associated as a product only for women and made it neutral for men and woman by having both genders in the same advert. They have also used a black woman and a white man to make it neutral. The opposites are they’re in New York to show how extravagant they are as opposed to St. Helier a small Jersey parish that isn’t very glam.
Character Types	There are certain types of characters which are always within stories e.g they may have different personalities but they play a role like a hero, villain, victim, princess, dispatcher.	The heroes were MannyMUA and MakeupbyShayla as they’re the main characters and they use the product and are magical and special. The suitcase man is the dispatcher as he gives them the product and the other makeup brands are the villains as they’re trying to defeat and beat them.

The Missing:

The Missing is a complex mainstream television product in which the codes and conventions of
the crime drama are recognisable but they are also challenged and sometimes subverted.

Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings

narrative techniques are used to engage the audience

How does the use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas,
binary oppositions, restricted narration etc. – position the audience?

e narrative structure of The Missing offers gratification to the
audience.
• Narratology including Todorov

Conventions of the TV series and the way in which this form is used to appeal to
audiences; how it is distinct from, but related to series and serials.

belonging to the drama and crime genres

The relationship between Genre and Myth
• Genre theory including Neale

Negative and positive use of stereotypes

e representation of gender in
The Missing – Judith Butler

Feminist debates – Violence and the representation of gender. This could include the
controversy around using violent crime against women as popular entertainment
• Representations of family and their ideological significance

The Missing is the BBC’s response to the success of ITV’s Broadchurch which reintroduced the
English language extended serial format to UK drama schedules following the success of foreign
language series such as The Killing and the The Bridge. It is an example of co-operation between
the BBC, STARZ (USA) and the Belgian government’s Tax Shelter scheme.

production, distribution and circulation of The Missing shows how audiences can
be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies
and platforms,

a producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences.
• Cultivation theory including Gerbner
• Reception theory including Hall

Witnesses

Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
• Postmodernism: Use of pastiche and bricolage

narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas,
binary oppositions, restricted and omniscient narration etc -– position the audience?

narrative of Witnesses can be defined as postmodern in its self-reflexive style –
particularly in its narrative about the family.
• Narratology including Todorov

series as belonging to the drama and crime genres
• Conventions of the TV series and the way in which this form is used to appeal to
audiences; how it is distinct from, but related to series and serials.

Representation of national and regional identity (Northern France)

Representation of gender: The woman as detective, the male boss, gender stereotypes
etc.
• Feminist debates – Violence and the representation of gender. This could include the
controversy around using violent crime against women as popular entertainment
• Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world
• Theories of representation including Hall
• Feminist theories including bell hooks and Van Zoonen

Witnesses is part of a recent trend – which really started with BBC4’s showing of The Killing – for
foreign language series to perform well critically and commercially with particular UK audiences.
Witnesses, as an example of French Public Service Broadcasting provides the opportunity to
study PSB in a different national context. Originally broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK, Witnesses
was also part of the new online channel ‘Walter Presents’ providing an example of the influence of
new technology and convergence on media industries.

The way in which different audience interpretations reflect social, cultural and historical
circumstances is evident in the analysis of the series which are explicitly linked to
contemporary issues

demonstrate how media producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences.
• Cultivation theory including Gerbner
• Reception theory including Hall

Witnesses is part of cultural phenomenon of the early twenty-first century which for the first time
saw TV series not in the English language become part of mainstream UK broadcasting. That
these series were dominated by the crime genre was part of a wider cultural phenomenon which
saw the crime genre become the key form for exploring social and cultural contexts. The series
used the genre to explore – amongst other themes – society’s fear of and desire for violence,
social isolation and changing gender roles. The debate around the representation of violence
against women has become particularly controversial and is part of the political context of the
series. The economic context can be explored through patterns of ownership and production and
how the product is marketed nationally and globally

Commercial media – starz for the missing

Public service broadcaster – BBC for the missing

horizontal integration – starz and BBC for the missing

 The series was co-produced by New Pictures, Company Pictures, Two Brothers Pictures and Playground Entertainment 

vertical integration –  The distributor is All3Media who sold the series at MIPCOM,

Media concentration/ convergence : companies working together i.e starz and bbc for the missing

media pluralism : different companies making different sorts of production and culture instead of one company making all the productions

Hesmondhalgh researches what it’s like for media workers and media concentration.

media bussiness are reliant upon changing consumption patterns.

reliant upon marketing and publicity

internet is dominant by a relatively small number of providers

internet increasingly dominated by commercialized activity