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Notes, Postmodernism, Theory

POST-MODERNISM

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Postmodernism is a theory that looks at how the world is transforming into a place that is populated by a culmination of signs which are neither truthful nor fake.

Postmodernism is an almost re-imagining of what has came before. A copy, bricolage of past creations.

‘the concept that the meaning of a text does not reside in the text, but is produced by the reader‘

Postmodernism can be seen as a sort of parody, confusing and deliberately existential concept generated to create a confusion between simulation and reality.

TERMDEFINITION
PasticheWork of art, drama, literature or music that imitates a previous work.
Parody Work that uses irony or ridicule to imitate a previous work/performance.
BricolageA French term that translates to ‘do-it-yourself’. The idea looks at how to create art from any materials that are available.
IntertextualityReferencing other work in new works. Copying elements of literature, film, art etc. as influence for something else.
Referential
Surface and style over substance and context
MetanarrativeMeta = Big
Narrative = How a story is structured
Hyper-realityThe idea that we live in a world that is “beyond reality”, an illusion or simulation far from the truth.
Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) Something that replaces reality with its representation
Consumerist SocietyWe currently live in a society that survives off of advertising, buying, selling and consuming. This level of consumption leads to the feeling of a simulation.
Fragmentary IdentitiesThe idea that we often construct different identities dependant on where we are, who we are with etc. This is fragmented.
AlienationThe idea that we are disassociated to the world we live in.
ImplosionThe idea that meaning is now meaningless. Due to a combinations of signs within society.
Cultural AppropriationTaking properties and characteristics from other cultures and appropriating them to another.
Reflexivity

‘The Love Box in Your Living Room‘ is a parody. It is structured using the codes and conventions of a documentary: a mockumentary of the BBC and how it originated.

Actor and comedian Paul Whitehouse plays a parodied character of Lord John Reith – the first Director General of the BBC. It is clear that this is a parody due to his caricature appearance.

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Notes

PostModernism

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What is postmodernism?

Postmodernism is when individuals copy each other to form a similar version of what they are trying to portray and change into a more different style to form a different truth.

Definitions of Key terms

  1. Pastiche – it imitates an artistic style of another person’s work
  2. Parody- when a performance imitates and is used for a comic effect
  3. Bricolage – ‘do it yourself’ the creation of work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available. ‘involves the rearrangment and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’
  4. Intertextuality – it seeks the connections between media texts and social life. It suggests signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding with individuals both taking and creating meaning in the process of reading texts. In other words 
  5. Referential
  6. Surface and style over substance and content
  7. Metanarrative
  8. Hyperreality – This happens when you can distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. For example, in the movie we can not tell which is the movie or the game that is happening.
  9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) – it is where the model mimics the operation of an existing system that provides evidence to make decisions for process changes. The simulation of total mediation without meaning. Their are many layers of the game so we can many different copies that is perpetrated from the real world.
  10. Consumerist Society
  11. Fragmentary Identities
  12. Alienation – when you reject a person’s position of former attachment / becomes isolated from their environment or from other people. A form of separation or distance.
  13. Implosion
  14. cultural appropriation
  15. Reflexivity

Postmodernism works in terms REITERATION, so in the example of The Love Box in your Living Room it is a reiteration of the documentary work by Adam Curtis. 

The process of fragmentation is a key element of POSTMODERN CULTURE. The notion of separating, splitting up and dividing previously homogeneous groups such as, friends, the family, the neighbourhood, the local community, the town, the county, the country and importantly, is often linked to the process of fragmented identity construction.

 Rather than forming mass centres of communal, shared living, such mega-cities often create more isoloation, more individualism, more fractured and alienated individuals struggling to survive and keep alive.

For many this is reflective of the new global economy (globalisation), which has created a high polarized class division between the rich / the really super rich and the poor / underclass (ie the really, really poor) made possible through the rapid increase of new forms of technological developments.

As such, another characteristic of POSTMODERN CULTURE is the emergence of FRAGMENTED COMMUNITIES.

slavoj zizek says postmodernism is a sham, that it’s really just modernism in disguise.

Fredric Jameson is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmodernity and capitalism, in the expression of a new phase of capitalism.

The desire to consume just for the sake of consumption (ie there is no real need to consume more) creates a society that focusses on surface and/or style over substance.

Surface and style over substance

 ‘in a postmodern world, surfaces and style become the most important defining features of the mass media and popular culture‘

the fragmentary, decentred nature of music videos that break up traditional understandings of time and space so that audiences are ‘no longer able to distinguish ‘fiction’ from ‘reality’, part of the postmodern condition’

As Shuker notes, two points are frequently made about music videos: ‘their preoccupation with visual style, and associated with this, their status as key exemplars of ‘postmodern’ texts.’ 

Alongside their similarity to adverts (essentially the music video is a commercial tool to sell music products) ‘making them part of a blatantly consumerist culture‘. And of course, the ‘considerable evidence of pastiche, intertextuality and eclecticism‘

This links to Jean-Francois Lyotard’s proposition that postmodernism holds an ‘incredulity towards meta-narratives‘, those overarching ideas, attitudes, values and beliefs that have held us together in a shared belief.

Notes, Radio, Regulation, Revision, Television

COMPARING NEWSBEAT AND WAR OF THE WORLDS

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THEMENEWSBEATWAR OF THE WORLDS
OWNERSHIP
[Institutions]		– BBC
-Owned by the UK public
-Funded through TV Licenses [paid yearly by public]
-Paternalistic approach
-1st Director= Lord Reith
-Public Company [PLC]		-CBS [Colombia Broadcasting Service]
-Owned by a multi national conglomerate [Paramount Global]
-Funded though adverts on air
-Private company [LTD]
-vertical / horizontal integration ???
HABERMAS-Transformation of the public sphere – media is constantly changing BBC keeping up.

-BBC ethos= to inform, entertain and educate.

-Cecil Lewis- “Opening up new worlds to people”

-Quality is important. They don’t make money to profit, it is put back into the BBC to make programmes

-Fits into Habermas notion of transforming the public

-Therefore the BBC is more paternalistic – what you need not what you want		-Most private business are aimed at making a profit

-They care about profit more than their audience.

-Just for profit is the commercial ethos

-Commercial broadcasting is not supported by Habermas
CHOMSKY
CURRAN-Ideas that underpin The Liberal Free Press, but much can apply to transformation of Public Sphere (Habermas) which in turn connects to ethos of PSB
-Linking to Habermas’ theory of transformation of the Public sphere

-BBC is being taken over by light daytime programmes= “peak-time tv are dominated by light entertainment		1. concerns about the commercial interest of big companies
(prioritising profits over social concerns)

2. concentration of ownership – although not monopolies, the small number of big companies is not good for

3. competition

4. Diverse range of voices (plurality)

5. audience choices

-CBS used the ‘moral panic’ as an advertising technique?

–
SEATONSeaton makes us aware of the power of the media in terms of big companies who own too much.
commercial Seaton also makes clear that broadcasters selling audiences to products NOT audiences to programmes (ie no adverts on BBC)
therefore BBC not chasing big exaggerated stories
Newsbeat seeking informed citizens who want knowledge

accountability – ie who looks after the BBC and makes sure it does what it is supposed to do: Annan Report 1980 “on balance the chain of accountability is adequate”
independence – ie keeping free from state control “without a commitment to public service, broadcasters are increasingly vulnerable to political interference”		Seaton talks about rise and inevitable need for competition with new technologies – which provides choice
Provides more entertainment for wider audiences ???
WoW targets mainstream entertainment seeking audiences

the allusion of Choice – “Choice, without positive direction is a myth, all too often the market will deliver more -but only more of the same”
REGULATIONlicense fee regulates BBC as well.
New technologies mean BBC faced with more competition
NO advertising!

-OFCOM
-BBC Charter
-BBC ethos- ‘educate, inform and entertain’
-The license fee regulates the BBC 		Federal Communications Commission as regulator for private business ie not necessarily in the public interest
AUDIENCE (ACTIVE / PASSIVE)Newsbeat encouraging active ‘uses and gratification’ model
personal needs
escapism, entertainment, self esteem
and social needs.
information, knowledge about the world, connecting with family, friends and community		War of the worlds raises the debate around audience as passive or active (ie Lasswell, linear model of communication like a hypodermic syringe) ie without thinking or reflecting on what we are told
AUDIENCE (LAZARSFELD)-2 STEP FLOW~ Use opinion leaders such as Princess Kate and Prince William to speak up about Mental Health. Audience listen passively and will more likely believe it if it is from an opinion leader-Orsen Welles unregulated opinion leader.
-If audience seeking facts / truth about space and war they would seek opinion leaders from govt or science.
AUDIENCE (HALL)
NEW TECHNOLOGY
SPECIFIC TEXTUAL EXAMPLES-Prince William and Kate presenting a special newsbeat edition on mental health

-Kanye article		-Timestamp 39.30- radio goes silent. Maybe to create an eerie setting to scare audience?
Exam Prep, Notes, Radio, Theory

CSP – WOTW + NEWSBEAT

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COMPARISIONWOTWNEWSBEAT
OWNERSHIP (INSTITUTIONS)– CBS (Columbia Broadcasting Service)
– Owned by Paramount Global (“multinational mass media conglomerate”)
– Funded mostly through advertising time on air
– War of the Worlds episode was the 17th in ‘The Mercury Theatre on the Air’ series in 1938.
– Key terms: Globalization, conglomerate, multinational, vertical integration, ‘risky business’
– BBC (British Broadcasting Corperation)
-Owned publicly by the general public of the UK
– Funded through TV Licenses (paid annually – £159 per year)
– Paternalist approach (giving audiences what they should have/ need)
– First Director General was Lord Reith (he created original ethos) – “provide impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain“

– Key Terms: Populist VS Paternalist, public service broadcasting, funded publicly
AUDIENCE (Demographic)– Listeners of CBS Radio Network. Those in the USA. – Young people
– Listeners of BBC Radio 1, 1 Extra and Asian Network.
– Ages 15-29
HABERMAS– Commercial broadcasting goes against Habermas’ ideas.
– Commercial broadcasting focuses on profit and entertainment rather than audience.		Transformation of the public sphere.
– The BBC values transforming knowledge through entertainment. They provide a paternalistic approach as a way of informing their range of audience on diverse, current and important issues. (quality programming)

– Cecil Lewis said that the BBC “opens up new worlds to people”.

Discussion VS Directorial – “arena of public debate”
HESMONDHALGH– “the creative industries are a risky business”
CURRAN

– The role of public service broadcasting is to ‘diversify voices’
– Plurality		“profit -driven motives take precedence over creativity in the world of commercial media” – Perhaps CBS used the notion of a “moral panic” across the USA as a marketing approach following the broadcast. Commercial broadcasting (especially CBS lacks a public service remit – it can slightly subvert regulation/ enforcement) – Taking a risk

– Media of the “Victorian era” were “engines for social and political change” (linking to Habermas’ ideas on the transformation of the public sphere)

– “peak-time television schedules are dominated by lighter entertainment formats”
– The BBC is now being overthrown by the rise of social media/ commercial broadcasting due to profit.
SEATON– Power of the media
“commercial broadcasting is based on the sale of audiences to advertisers” – CBS were selling ‘War of the Worlds’ to listeners 		“the work of broadcasting should be regarded as a public service for a social purpose” – BBC has a remit to inform, entertain and educate (a social purpose).
“public service” – Something to serve the public, “social purpose” – Something to help transform our society for the better – Her ideas imply that commercial broadcasting is more of a money making product rather than important to making a change.

– “to lead public opinion”


“catering for all sections of the community, reaching all parts of the country” – Linking to their Royal Charter:

ACCOUNTABILITY
REGULATIONFederal Communications Commission regulates privately. Not for interest of the public– The BBC is overseen by the government through the ‘Royal Charter’. This agreement is proposed in parliament and is reviewed annually. First established in 1927, the Charter provides a remit that the BBC must accustom to.
– As well as their charter, The BBC is regulated externally by Ofcom. Ofcom closely monitor the BBC through their Broadcasting Code. They provide a yearly report on their findings.

– The emergence of new technologies/ generations today means that the BBC is challenged. Perhaps, the BBC is struggling to keep up with the needs of a changing society.
CHOMSKY

– Manufacturing consent.
TEXTUAL EVIDENCEWar of the Worlds:
– “We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man’s”
– “out of character”
– “the war of the worlds has no further significance”		– Inclusion of relevant news stories, similar to ones featured on BBC News but delivered in a way that is easy to follow/ is more engaging and interactive.

– Stories very much focused on ‘young people’ and how current issues are affect the youth:
– ‘Young people face surge in homelessness’
– ‘The young NHS workers who voted yes to striking’

A range of articles focus on celebrities/ pop culture. A way of providing entertainment through a multi-media form that also informs.

Debbie Ramsay (Newsbeat editor) said that reporters do not “dumb down” a story. They summarise it without any “airs or graces”
EVIDENCE (EXTERNAL QUOTES)“Radio 1 is about giving young people a voice” –

Notes, Research, Revision

Comparison between ‘war of the worlds’ and ‘newsbeat’

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THEMENEWSBEATWAR OF THE WORLDS
OWNERSHIPBBC, (PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING) GOVERNMENT, BBC BOARD (TRUSTEES) DIRECT GENERAL , FIRST BEING (LORD RITHE),MULTIMEDIA, CROSS MEDIA, TRANSNATIONAL TRANSGLOBAL, NOT A MONOPOLY, THERE IS A CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP SMALL NUMBER OF FANS WHO OWN TV AND RADIO EVEN THOUGH THEIR ARE A LOT OF DIFFERENT STATIONS. I THINK THE BBC COMES FROM A LEFT WING LIBERTARIAN IDEOLOGY.PRIVATE COMPANY, TRANSNATIONAL, IT IS AN EXAMPLE OF CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP E.G. A COUPLE OF COMPANYS THAN OWN A COUPLE OF CARTERS. VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTERGRATION.
HABERMASTRANFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE, MEDIA IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING WITH THE BBC KEEPING UP. BBC INTWENTIONS TO ENSHRINED IN THEIR ETHOS TO INFORM, ENTERTAIN AND EDUCATE. DOESN’T MAKE A PROFIT. THEY PUT SOME MONEY BACK INTO THE PROGRAMME AS HABERMAS EXPLAINS THE NOTION OF TRANSFORMING THE PUBLIC. IT IS PATERNALISTIC.PRIVATE BUSINESS’S ARE AIMED AT MAKING A PROFIT. THEY TEND TO CARE MORE ABOUT PROFIT RATHER THAN THE PUBLIC SO THEY ARE MORE CONCERNED WITH ENTERTAINMENT THAN EDUCATION. COMMERCIAL ETHOS IS NOT IN THE SPIRIT OF HABERMAS.
CHOMSKYCHOMSKY TEACHES THE CAPACITY TO LEARN AND USE LANGAUGES AS THEIR ARE STRENGTHS AS HUMANS GROW AND DEVELEOP WHICH LINKS WITH NEWSBEAT AS THEY ARE TRYING TO ENTERTAIN BUT INFORMING THE AUDIENCE FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT. FOR THE WAR OF THE WORLDS THEY ARE INFORMING THE AUDIENCE TO MUCH WITH KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING RATHER THAN ENTERTAINING THEM. THIS IS BECAUSE DIFFERENT PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT LANGUAGE UPON OTHERS AND FIND IT EASIER TO REACT CALMLY AND DISTUINGISH WHAT IS TRUE OR NOT. THIS IS KNOWN AS UNIVERSAL GRAMMER.
REGULATIONOFCOM, BBC CHARTER GOVERNED BY PARLIAMENT , LICENSE FEE REGULATES BBC AS WELL. BBC/PSB ETHOS TO ENTERTAIN, TO INFORM AND TO EDUCATE (REITH), NEW TECHNOLOGY MEANS BBC FACES MORE COMPETETION.FEDREAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AS REGULATOR FOR PRIAVTE BUSINESS WHICH IS NOT REALLY IN THE PUBLIC INTERESTS.
AUDIENCE (ACTIVE/PASSIVE)NEWSBEAT ENCOURAGING ACTIVE ‘USES AND GRATIFICATION’ MODEL PERSONAL NEEDS ESCAPISM, ENTERTAINMENT, SELF ESTEEM AND SOCIAL NEEDS. INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE WORLD, CONNECTING WITH FAMILY, FRIENDS AND COMMUNITY. WAR OF THE WORLDS RAISES DEBATE AROUND AUDIENCE AS PASSIVE OR ACTIVE ( E.G. LASSWELL, LINEAR MODEL OF COMMUNICATION LIKE A HYPODERMIC SYRINGE) E.G. WITHOUT THINKING OR REFLECTING ON WHAT WE ARE TOLD.
AUDIENCE (LAZARSFELD)THE 2 STEP FLOW / OPINION LEADERS HOW WE GRAVITATE TO PEOPLE WHO SHARE THE SAME IDEAS AS OURSELVES. SO THE BBC IS AN UNBIASED, INFORMED OPINION LEADERR ( E.G. BBC CHARTER FOCUS ON IMPARTIALITY, ACCURATE, TRUE.ORSEN WELLS UNREGULATED OPINION LEADER. IF AUDIENCE SEEKING FACTS OR TRUTH ABOUT SPACE AND WAR THEY WOULD SEEK OPINION LEADERS FROM GOVERNMENT OR SCIENCE.
AUDIENCE (HALL)THE BBES IS ALSO THE WORLD’S LARGEST NATIONAL BROADCASTER WITH A HUGE INFRASTUCTURE, SUCH AS CAMERAS, STUDIO SPACE, LIGHTING RIGS AND PORTABLE PRODUCTION UNITS SITUATED ACROSS THE COUNTRY. IT IS CERTAINLY HAS THE NECESSARY MEANS OF PRODUCTION TO INVESTIGATE THE ISSUES AND DEBATES HITTING THE HEADLINES SO EDITORIAL DECISIONS HAVE TO BE MADE ON WHICH STORIES SHOULD FEATURE IN THE NEWS PROGRAMME.
THE RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION REFER TO DIFFERENT CREWS INVOLVED IN THE PROGRAMME.
HALL IS DRAWING ATTENTION TO HOW MESSAGES ARE ENCODED BY THE PRODUCER, NEWSCASTER, CONTENT EDITOR, CAMERA OPERATOR AND OTHER TECHNICIANS WHO HELP BROADCAST THE NEWS. ACCORDING TO HALL’S RECEPTION THEORY, THE MESSAGES BEING ENCODED AND THE SIGNS USED TO DELIVER THIS INFORMATION WILL BE INFLUENCED BY THE PRODUCTION PROCESS. 		PREFERRED READING: AUDIENCES UNDERSTAND THAT THIS BROADCAST IS CONSTRUCTED AND IS AN ADAPTATION FROM THE BOOK.

OPPOSITIONAL READING: AUDIENCES BELIEVED THE PODCAST WAS REAL AND THEREFORE REACTED NEGATIVELY.
SEATONSEATON MAKES US AWARE OF THE POWER OF THE MEDIA IN TERMS OF BIG COMPANIES WHO OWN TOO MUCH. COMMERCIAL SEATON ALSO MAKES CLEAR THAT BROADCASTERS SELLING AUDIENCES TO PRODCUTS NOT AUDIENCES TO PROGRAMMES ( E.G. NO ADVERTS ON BBC) THEREFORE BBC NOT CHASING BIG EXAGGERATED STORIES. NEWSBEATS SEEKING INFORMED CITIZENS WHO WANT KNOWLEDGE. SEATON TALKS ABOUT RISE AND INEVITABLE NEED FOR COMPETETION WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES WHICH PROVIDES MORE ENTERTAINMENT FOR WIDER AUDIENCES. TARGETS MAINSTREAM SEEKING AUDIENCES.
THE ALLUSION OF CHOICE – “CHOICE, WITHOUT POSITIVE DIRECTION IS MYTH, ALL TOO OFTEN THE MARKET WILL DELIVER MORE – BUT ONLY MORE OF THE SAME. “
CURRANJAMES CURRAN WRITES ABOUT THE IDEAS THAT UNDERPIN THE LIBERAL FREE PRESS, BUT MUCH CAN APPLY TO TRANSFORMATION OF PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAN) WHICH IN TURN CONNECTS TO ETHOS TO PSB.CONECERNS ABOUT COMMERCIAL INTEREST OF BIG COMPANIES (PRIORITISING PROFITS OVER SOCIAL CONERNS), CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP ALTHOUGH NOT MONOPOLIES, THE SMALL NUMBER OF BIG COMPANIES IS NOT GOOD FOR COMPETITION, DIVERSE RANGE OF VOICES (PLURALITY) AND AUDIENCE CHOICES.
GERBNERCULTIVATION THEOYR SUGGESTS TELEVISION INFLUENCES ITS AUDIENCE TO THE EXTENT THAT THEIR WORLD VIEW AND PERCEPTIONS START REFLECTING WHAT THEY REPEATEDLY SEE MEANING TV IS CONSIDERED INDEPEDENTLY TO THE WAY PEOPLE PERCEIVE SOCIAL REALITY AND WILL HAVE AN EFFECT ON THE AUDIENCES ATTITUDES AND VALUES. GERBNER WOULD STATE THAT THE AUD8ENCES THAT BELIEVED THE BROADCAST ARE LIKELY TO HAVE BEEN FREQUENT LISTENERS OF THE RADIO. THIS IS BECAUSE HIGH – FREQUENCY VIEWERS OF TELEVISION ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO MEDIA MESSAGEES AND THE BELIEF THAT THEY ARE REAL AND VALID.
Notes, Radio, Revision

csp- War of the worlds

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Quick notes:

  • 1930s
  • Early example of a hybrid radio form
  • It adapts the H.G. Wells story using news and documentary conventions
  • Broadcast and initial response to it has a historical significance
    • example of the mass media apparently having a direct effect on an audience’s behaviour
  • Academic research was put into the broadcast
    • Provided some of the early media audience research
    • Findings are extremely influential in the media, advertising and political campaigning
  • timestamp 39:30 the audio goes silent. this is unusual in radio, trying to add to the eeriness and trying to make the story more believable?

WHAT IS IT?

  • A radio play about Martians invading New Jersey.
  • It fooled people

MEDIA INSTITUTIONS:

  • Broadcasted by Colombia Broadcasting Company
    • an institution still in existence
  • Radio broadcasting was a direct competition to newspapers
  • The broadcast= good example of institutions branching out to attract new audiences
  • The broadcast is a good example to consider the effect of individual producers on media industries [the work of Orson Welles]

REGULATION

  • Radio broadcasting was regulated by the Federal Communications Commission
    • It investigated the broadcast to see if it had broken any laws

AUDIENCES:

  • External factors that influence audience response:

HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS:

MEDIA LANGUAGE:

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Audience, Institution, Notes, Radio, Regulation, Revision

CSP- NEWSBEAT

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https://media-studies.com/newsbeat-analysis/#demographic-profile

  • Newsbeat also exemplifies the challenges facing the BBC as a public service broadcaster that needs to appeal to a youth audience within a competitive media landscape.
  • a transitional media product which reflects changes in the contemporary media landscape
  • a traditional radio programme with regular, scheduled broadcast times, but it is also available online after broadcast
  • The broadcast itself and the use of digital platforms provides opportunities for audience interaction

MEDIA INDUSTRIES

  • Newsbeat as a BBC News product with bulletins are broadcast on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1 Xtra and BBC Asian Network
  • The funding of BBC Radio through the license fee, concept of hypothecated tax
  • Issues around the role of a public service broadcaster within a competitive, contemporary media landscape
  • The distinctive nature of the programme connected to its public service remit
  • Arguments on the need for addressing a youth audience already catered for commercially
  • The influence of new technology on media industries – Newsbeat as multi–platform media product. eg
    • Website
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
  • The regulation of the BBC via Ofcom and the governance of the BBC
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Notes

bbc

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Press Opinons

  1. good acting
  2. good scripture
  3. hidden meaning – representation of media
  4. accurate representations
  5. relatable situations
  6. variation of character
  7. good cinematography
  8. good use of lighting
  9. suspenseful
  10. good plot twists

Broadcasting – presenting something to a wider, larger demographic

Narrowcasting – presenting something to a lesser audience with a more specific interest

Ethos of BBC – to inform, entertain and educate

Popularism – What the public want to see

Advantages: freedom

Disadvantages: no regulation

Paternalism – what the government want the public to see

Advantages: Regulation

Disadvantages: lack of freedom for public

Charter of BBC – A set of rules and regulations that are signed every year by media companies

Lord John Reith – a British broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom.

Grace Whyndam Goldie –  a British producer and executive in television for twenty years, particularly in the fields of politics and current affairs. During her career at the BBC, she was one of the few senior women in an establishment dominated by men.

There was a fear of new technology as it was unknown.

The BBC was acting as a social cement due to its importance of connecting society

How the BBC transformed the public sphere…

  • We know in the future that all media – newspapers, books, music, video, games – will converge online. 

Notes from Seaton:

‘broadcasting should be regarded as a public service for a social purpose’ as supported by Pilkinons report

Annan Report/committee – Pluralist view – ‘broadcasting should cater for full range of groups and interests in society rather than seek to offer moral leadership.

Hunt review ‘willingness to pay for cable television simply constituted a new source of revenue’

Notes from Curren:

‘were engines for social and political

Institution, Notes, Theory

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING

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Standards for Quality Programming

Qualitative elements:

  • Believable acting/ character performance
  • Seamless editing
  • Quality camera work/ angles/ shots
  • Good lighting and sound quality
  • Believable and relevant ‘mis-en-scene’ elements/ setting/ costume etc.
  • Followable storyline/ plot and something that is also unpredictable
  • Professional marketing

Broadcasting = Producers target a wider, mass audience.

Narrowcasting = Producers target a niche audience.

The BBC

  • Publicly owned (funded through TV licenses by the public and overseen by government)
  • The BBC was founded in 1922, it started with radio – television broadcasting came later.
  • Lord John Reith was the first ‘director general’ of the BBC
  • He set out an ethos (a belief/ mission statement) for the BBC. This ethos had 3 main principals; to inform, to educate and to entertain.
  • To oversee due diligence and regulation, the UK government reviews a charter: The BBC Charter, to ensure the BBC stay inline.

The BBC took up a PATERNALIST approach rather than a POPULIST approach. In other words, rather than providing ‘normal’ content to their audiences, they provide alternate ideas and what is ‘good’. Cecil Lewis said that the BBC began to open up “new worlds to people”, meaning that audiences are given access to new content.

Populism = Giving people what they want.

Paternalism = Giving the people, what some people think they need.

  • British culture is centered around the BBC. It is the ‘social cement’ that gives us a shared experience and exposes us to new culture/ ideas (Habermas’ ideas on the Transformation of the Public Sphere –> The uneducated have access to education with entertainment)

Grace Wyndham Goldie says that the most significant thing regarding broadcasting is the ability to change time and space. Many have fears revolving around new technologies.

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Audience, Notes, Theory

GERBNER

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George Gerbner

https://www.mediaed.org/transcripts/Mean-World-Syndrome-Transcript.pdf

“Today, a handful of global conglomerates own and control the telling of all the stories in the world”

“The effect is supposed to be an imitation, a kind of monkey-see-monkey-do effect”

Gerbner’s research took place in the 1950’s/60’s, he primarily looked at television. His theories look at how audiences are PASSIVE.

Gerbner – Media MagazineDownload

Cultivation Theory

  • Those who consume the media are more susceptible to messages.
  • Repeated exposure to the media can subtly manipulate viewers’ perception of reality and influence our perception of the real world.
  • If we consume something repeatedly, soon enough we will become assimilated to what we are being ‘fed’ (parallels to the hypodermic needle theory).

Mainstreaming = The idea that, if we all consume the same messages, they become the mainstream ideology. Audiences are passive and become assimilated to the views they are repeatedly told to believe.

Ideology is created by the elite who have power (straight, white, christian men).

Mean World Syndrome (World Mean Index)

  • TV programmes are saturated with violent content that generates fear.
  • If we continually consume violent/mean content, we will have a narrow view on the world: suggesting it is more violent than it truly is.