Deutschland 83 and Capital

Capital:

Media Language:

– A complex mainstream television product in which the codes and conventions of crime drama are intertwined with aspects of social realism

Media representation:

– Capital provides a wide range of representational areas to explore; the family, place, nation, class, ethnicity, race and issues.

– Explore the Steve Neale’s representation theory

– It is within the hybrid genre – drama, social realism and
crime genres

– Representation of place – London and by implication, the nation

– Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world

Media Industries:

– Capital is a BBC programme

– It fulfils the demand of public service broadcasting

– It has a purpose to ‘inform, educate and entertain’ and could be seen as part of the need to represent different groups, nations and regions.

– Capital is a Kudos production for the BBC, an independent company which also produces
successful programmes for other broadcasters.

– Kudos specialises in TV series which can be sold or remade for the US market, making it
typical of contemporary media institutions which operate globally rather than nationally

Media Audiences:

– The production, distribution and circulation of Capital shows how audiences can be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and platforms, moving from the national to transnational through broadcast and digital technologies

– Follows Gerbner’s cultivation theory

– Follows Hall’s reception theory

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

– The advertising campaigns (trailers, websites at home and abroad) for the series demonstrate how media producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences

Deutschland 83:

Narrative:

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

– The narrative of Deutschland 83 has been controversial – particularly in Germany -through its use of binary oppositions to contrast East and West Germany

– The role of the hero and effect of audience alignment with Martin Rauch, a Stasi Officer

– The narrative of Deutschland 83 can be defined as postmodern in its self-reflexive style

– Narratology including Todorov

Genre:

– Conventions of the TV series and the way in which this form is used to appeal to
audiences

– Definition of the series as belonging to the spy thriller genre

– Conventions of the period drama and reasons for its popularity

– Analysing the use of specific genres to discuss wider issues in society

– Genre theory including Neale

Media Representations:

– Representation of national and regional identity (East and West Germany (Europe))

– Representation of gender: male hero and spy, the female ‘love interest’ etc., the way
characters signify wider issues in society.

– Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world –
both contemporary and past.

– Theories of representation including Hall

– Feminist theories including bell hooks and Van Zoonen (role of women)

Media Industries:

– It is a co-production of AMC Networks’ SundanceTV and RTL Television (German and
American), positioning it to exploit the national and global market.

– Bought by C4 in Britain as part of their ‘Walter presents…’

– Cultural industries including Hesmondhalgh

Media Audiences:

– The production, distribution and circulation of Deutschland 83 shows how audiences can be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and platforms, moving from the national to transnational through broadcast and digital technologies.

– 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.

– The reception of the series in Germany, Europe and the US

– The advertising campaigns (trailers, websites at home and abroad) for the series demonstrate how media producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences.

– Cultivation theory including Gerbner

– Reception theory including Hall

Research

– Commercial media = organisation that makes or distributes products for economic gain. Media is usually made for entertainment purposes

– BBC creates a total revenue of £115 million = https://www.bbc.co.uk/annualreport/2014/executive/finances/commercial.html

– Kudos creates £5m in commercial interest rates = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudos_(production_company)

– Horizontal Integration = BBC has horizontal integration with BBC News, BBC radio 1

– Endemol Shine Productions UK bought out and now own Kudos the production company

– Vertical integration = BBC has vertical integration with CBBC, BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3 and BBC news

– Media concentration/convergence = describes the reduction in the number of media organisations that produce products

– Media concentration/convergence = Kudos is owned by Endemol Shine Group UK, who are under the News Corp, who are then under Murdoch and his empire.