- Who is the primary, secondary and tertiary audience for this product? The Primary audience is the viewers of the show that want to watch it for no reason other than enjoyment. The Secondary audience would be for the people that want to analyse it eg. Critics and students learning about it. The tertiary audience would be people that only watch it because they can relate to what’s happened or have a specific reason and then they don’t watch it again.
- What audience theories can you apply to which help you to develop a better understanding of the potential target audience? It tries to reinforce certain aspects and ideologiea so that people know what’s good and what’s bad.
- What organisations (rather than individuals) are involved in the production, distribution & exhibition of this product? An organisation that was involved in production was the ‘Danish national public service broadcaster DR’. It was distributed by the BBC4 on and exhibited on television and streaming sights.
No Offence
What needs to be studied? Key Questions and Issues
This product relates to the theoretical framework by providing a focus for the study of:
Media Language:
No Offence is a television series in which the codes and conventions of the police procedural crime drama are intertwined with aspects of social realism. Detailed analysis of this media form including the process through which media language develops as genre will provide students with an opportunity to understand and reflect on the dynamic nature of genre.
Analysis should include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
Narrative
• Which narrative techniques are used to engage the audience in the opening episode of. (theory and theorist)
No Offence?
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas,
restricted narration etc. – position the audience?
• The ways in which the narrative structure of No Offence offers a range of gratification to the audience. such as enjoyment (self satisfaction Primary audieneces)
• Narratology including Todorov Genre
• Conventions of the TV drama series and the way in which this form is used to appeal to audiences.
• Definition of the series as a hybrid genre, belonging to the drama, social realism and crime genres
• Genre theory including Neale Media Representations
No Offence provides a wide range of representational areas to explore; gender, place, class, ethnicity, race etc.
• Negative and positive use – or subversion – of stereotypes, particularly around the representation of women and the police.
• No Offence is unusual in popular television series due to the dominance of female characters.
• Representation of place – Manchester – by implication the nation?
Media Industries
The central way into an institutional approach is to consider No Offence as a Channel 4 programme and to examine how it can be seen to fulfil the demands of its Public Service remit. No Offence can be studied in the context of Channel 4’s commitment to be innovative and distinctive.
• No Offence is an AbbottVision production, an independent company founded by the writer Paul Abbott who also wrote Shameless.
• No Offence was a critical and commercial success in the UK, it was also a ratings success in France where it was shown on the national broadcast channel, France2.
• Channel 4 uses series such as No Offence to add value to the channel through the availability of the ‘box set’ on All4.
Media Audiences
Issues of audience are also relevant throughout the other theoretical frameworks. In media language, the use of different formal structures to position the audience to receive and interpret meaning is central, while the study of representations has at its heart the reinforcement of social and cultural values for audiences. The study of institutions is also indivisibly linked to the need to define and attract specific audiences.
• The production, distribution and circulation of No Offence 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
• No Offence was broadcast on Channel 4, can still be accessed on All4, it was also broadcast in France.
• The way in which different audience interpretations reflect social, cultural and historical circumstances is evident in the analysis of No Offence which is explicitly linked to contemporary issues.
• Audience positioning through the construction of characters who are morally ambiguous.
• 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 Social, political, economic and cultural contexts
No Offence deals with a range of social, cultural and political issues arising from contemporary contexts. The Manchester police force is used as a microcosm of society through which to
examine changing gender roles, the focus of the case which features children and adults with Down’s syndrome examines the position of people with disabilities in the wider society. Political
contexts are evident in the nature of the approach to police work which refers to a history of corruption and the role of police power in society. The economic context can be explored through
patterns of ownership and production and how the product is marketed nationally and globally.
The Killing
What needs to be studied? Key Questions and Issues
This product relates to the theoretical framework by providing a focus for the study of:
Media Language
The use of a noir visual style, conventions of the police procedural and multiple narrative strands.
The Killing provides a rich area of study for media language, which would form the foundation for work on the other theoretical frameworks.
Analysis should include:
• Mise en scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings Narrative
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas, binary oppositions, restricted and omniscient narration etc. – position the audience?
• A narrative approach to crime drama could include analyzing the appeals of the structure as reassuring and predictable – even when dealing with difficult subject matter.
• Focus on multiple plot lines related to the central crime.
• Narratology including Todorov Genre
• Conventions of the TV series (The Killing had three series which had links but were also stand-alone 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.
• Definition of the series as belonging to the drama and crime genres
• Analysing the current popularity of the crime genre
• Genre theory including Neale
Media Representations
The Killing provides a range of representational areas to explore, including gender roles, family
structures and the political class. It can be argued that these are innovative representations which have been influential in the development of the genre. Part of The Killing’s original appeal was in its representation of Danish culture to a UK audience.
• Representation of gender: The woman as police detective, representation of marriage, 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
• Representation of national identity – Denmark including issues of multiculturalism.
• 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
Media Industries
The Killing was the catalyst for the wider distribution of foreign language crime programming on UK television, its unexpected success influencing BBC4’s scheduling but also that of other UK
channels. The Killing was produced the Danish national public service broadcaster DR, providing the opportunity to study PSB in a different national context.
• The regulatory framework of contemporary media, with the focus on PSB
• The Killing provides a case study for the specialised nature of media production,
distribution and circulation within a transnational and global context.
• The Killing personifies a successful transnational, contemporary media product with long duration (it was broadcast in the UK nearly five years after its success in Denmark) has been shown in its original form across Europe and remade by Turkish and US TV (AMC)
• Cultural industries including Hesmondhalgh
Media Audiences
Issues of audience are also relevant throughout the other theoretical frameworks. In media language, the use of different formal structures to position the audience to receive and interpret meaning is central, while the study of representations has at its heart the reinforcement of social and cultural values for audiences. The study of institutions is also indivisibly linked to the need to define and attract specific audiences.
• The production, distribution and circulation of the Killing 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 – often related to gender and feminist issues
• New types of characters to construct alignment for the audience/audience positioning.
• The advertising campaigns (trailers, websites at home and abroad) for the series
demonstrate how media producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences.
• Audience behaviour in response to the series – the interest in Scandinavian culture and lifestyle.
• Cultivation theory including Gerbner
• Reception theory including Hall
Social, political, economic and cultural contexts
The Killing 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 contexts – particularly changing
gender roles. The Killing was also a key factor in the surge in interest in Scandinavian culture in the UK. The Killing also uses the crime genre to explore contemporary political contexts of multiculturalism and debate the effects of immigration. The economic context can be explored through patterns of ownership and production and how the product is marketed nationally and globally
Curran and Seaton links
- Radical free press- links to The killing as there is a female detective which supports feminism which is a radical ideology.
- Public service broadcsting- The killing is on DR, public serice broadcatser
Commercial Media
PSB-Public service broadcasting
The killing- produced the Danish national public service broadcaster DR
No Offence-Chanel 4
Horizontal integration
The Killing- DR, produced by BBC
No Offence-
Vertical integration
The Killing-
No Offence- AbbottVision an independent company
| Hesmondhaughl | Case Studies: |
| Genre-Based formatting “Genre based media allows audiences to identify potential rewards” | Both shows “no offence” and “the killing” are crime based Thrillers, which will attract a primary audience of those who watch these genre type of shows for enjoyment. |
| Television “hybridisation of television and internet to produce on-demand services” | The killing was produced by DR and broadcast on the BBC and can also be found on prime. No Offence was produced by Channel 4 (terestrial and online distribution) |