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television exam prep

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KEY THEORISTS

  • Hesmondhalgh (The Creative Industries)
  • Curran and Seaton (Ownership)
  • Livingstone and Lunt (Regulation)

The Culture Industries: similarities and differences to other industries

  • Cultural industries are for entertainment more than they are functional. They are not a necessity to someone’s everyday life.
  • Just like any other industry, cultural industries have a main focus or earning money.
  • Cultural industries have the power to inform and provoke/influence beliefs/opinions which also helps to provoke popular culture – popular doesn’t always mean good.
  • There is more freedom involved within media – versatile and unpredictable
  • golding and murdoch- ” (media) plays a pivotal role in organizing the images and discourse through which people make sense of the world.”

Capitalist media – corporations content that address humans in various social roles and results in meaning-making.

  • Funded through advertisements.
  • No state obligations, private
  • Audiences don’t have to pay

Public Service media – state-related institutions content that addresses humans in various social roles and results in meaning-making. (e.g BBC)

  • Government is at an ‘arms length’ from the media, they don’t control it but advise and ‘look after’ the content, public.
  • Funded by the public/ tax payer. Through TV License for BBC in the UK.
  • No advertisements shown.
  • Examples = BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation – Regional), Channel 4

Civil society media – citizen-control content that addresses humans in various social role and results in meaning-making.

  • Has aspects of the company worldwide
  • Examples = Netflix, Sony, Apple, Disney

Public service Broadcasting:

Q1) what is it?

– Broadcasting on electronic media outlets (radio, television) with the aim of serving the public.

– Funding usually comes from the government through tax payed by the receivers.

Q2) what’s good about it?

– No ads

– The bedrock is inform, educate and entertain.

– Its very diverse and caters to everyone.

– easily accessible

– its not biased

Q3) is it unique?

– familiar – part of national identity to the UK – trusted and supported by many and is a very unique form of PSB along with channel 4

Curran and Seaton:

  • Commercial broadcasting is based on the sale of audiences to advertisers” – Commercial broadcasters (such as ITV) need to secure long term advertising revenue to survive programming. – Jean Seaton. – need for an active audience. – money wins (profit-driven)
  • ”profit-driven motives take precedence over creativity in the world of commercial media”.
  • “power without responsibility” – book by Curran and Seaton – first published in 1981- explores themes of how the media landscape has fallen under the control of the few global conglomerates.
  • Benefits of Horizontal integration: Production costs can be minimised/ Sharing resources/ controlling the market (influential as they own most of the resources)
  • Benefits of Vertical Integration: production divisions/distribution services/subsidiary support – finance and promotional services. control over all aspects of the production chain/restricting access to competitors/cross-media ownership synergies.
  • Curran suggests that the relationships between big businesses and government – suggesting power of concentrated media ownership has forced political parties and form cosy relationships with the media. in order to get favourable press charge.

Notes, Theory

THEORIST RECAP

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Institution

KEY THEORISTS :

  • Hesmondhalgh (The Creative Industries)
  • Curran and Seaton (Ownership)
  • Livingstone and Lunt (Regulation)

What is the difference between the culture industries and other industries?

The cultural industries “play a pivotal role in organising images and discourses through which people make sense of the world” (Golding and Murdock). The creative industries influence the way we think and look at the world around us.

There are similar processes in which creative industries and other industries work through production, distribution and consumption.

The creative/media industry is a risky business, meaning it is unpredictable. Creativity is not essential to life however there are necessities which are. All industries try to make a profit, this is the primary purpose so if this doesn’t happen, it won’t carry on.

The creative industries are versatile, diverse and don’t always follow a linear process of creativity – Unpredictability.

Media Ownership

Public Service Media/Broadcasting = State-related institutions.

  • Government is at an ‘arms length’ from the media, they don’t control it but advise and ‘look after’ the content. It is critical of the government. –
  • Funded by the public/ tax payer. Through TV License for BBC in the UK.
  • No advertisements shown.
  • Examples = BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation – Regional)
  • Public Service provides impartial news (equal), high programming standards, no need to make a profit so, they can tailor to many different interests with their different channels (Diversity, provide for everyone)
  • What is it? – Broadcasting that involves television, radio, film which is funded publicly (by the government via the general public). Its purpose is to cater to many different people, therefore providing a wide range of different programming. It needs to inform, entertain and educate whilst living up to high standards.

Commercial Media = Corporations

  • Funded through advertisements.
  • No state obligations, privately owned.
  • Audiences don’t have to pay.
  • Examples = ITV (Multi regional)

Transnational Media = Global control

  • “communication, information or entertainment that crosses international borders without the regulatory constrains normally associated with electronic media”
  • Has aspects of the company worldwide.
  • Examples = Netflix, Sony, Apple, Disney

Curran and Seaton

  • “Commercial broadcasting is based on the sale of audiences to advertisers” —-> Commercial broadcasters (such as ITV) need to secure long term advertising revenue to survive programming. – Jean Seaton.
  • ”profit-driven motives take precedence over creativity in the world of commercial media”. – The business function of the media industries take importance over its creative expression.
  • Due to risk, the production of media products has resulted in the organisation of a small number of global players (conglomerates) who use vertical and horizontal integration to control all of the worlds commercial production.

Conglomerate =  A company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises.

Horizontal Integration = When a conglomerate acquires media companies of the same media type.

  • Production costs reduced, sharing of resources, controlling the market.

Vertical Integration = Ownerships that allow a media company to produce and distribute products. Monopolies (companies that produce, distribute and consume) are illegal —-> Companies get around this by controlling the majority and giving an aspect over to another company to control.

  • Production devisions, distribution services (without the need to employ externally, allowing full control)

Curran and Seaton suggest that ‘Culture is controlled by social elites’ who work for the benefit of themselves. They perpetuate the idea of ‘media pluralism’ which argues that the media industry should be populated by a range of companies (commercial and public).

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Exam Prep, Notes, Television

CSP – TELEVISION (ESSAY PREP)

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No Offence (UK)

  •  The show was first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2015. It acquired over 2.5 million viewers. This was Channel 4’s biggest launch of a mid-week drama in over 3 years. It ran for 3 series, finishing in 2018.
  • Channel 4 is publicly owned (owned by the state) and commercially funded (funded through advertisements).
  • From Channel 4’s website; “Channel 4 was created to be a disruptive, innovative force in UK broadcasting.” “We have a unique public service remit to represent unheard voices.”
  • No Offence was broadcast on ‘France2’, the public service broadcaster. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group. The show was first broadcast in February 2016, with 5.46 million viewers.
  • No Offence is produced by ‘AbbotVision’.
  • ‘AbbotVision’ was the independent producer of Shameless (set in Manchester, the programme ran for eleven series and aired from 13 January 2004 to 28 May 2013, it was released in many different countries).
  • The shows creator ‘Paul Abbott’ said, in a 2017 guardian article, said that his previous project Shameless “Became too hysterical. I was glad to see it off”.
  • (Steve Neale) No Offence uses the same genre conventions of Shameless, being a ‘skittish’ show which provides its comedy elements through ‘profane anecdotes’ and ‘rat-a-tat laughter’. Linking to how creatives stick to the same or similar conventions as a way of building up a loyal fan base who will continue to watch and consume
  • Contains all of the codes and conventions of a police drama —> Caution tape, missing people, sirens.
  • Many different narrative strands that help move the main plot line along. Example: The elderly woman accusing her grandson, Down syndrome man talking about his relationship.
  • Perhaps the appeal to an international audience is a deliberate strategy. Not only representing the working class British area of Manchester, the programme represents the polish community in the UK through the female protagonist being from a Polish background and also the use of the language. These identities are also used as a selling point internationally through the appeal of difference.
  • Social Realist films = Films that emphasise the link between location and identity.
  • National style but is also popular in Europe


The Killing (Forbydelsen, Denmark/Germany)

  • Søren Sveistrup, series creator, worked closely with lead actress Sofie Gråbøl, who was stunt casted to aid marketing for the series, throughout the writing process to develop her character.
  • Danish is the official language in Denmark. It is spoke by approximately 6 million people worldwide.
  • The show was originally released in 2007, in Denmark on ‘DR1’ a channel under the ‘Danish Broadcasting Cooperation (DR)’.
  • Produced by DR and German company ZDF, the police drama was created and written by Søren Sveistrup.
  • This allowed more opportunity for global networking and international release, bringing more viewers and therefore, money.
  • Following the global success of the show after being released by BBC4 for viewing in the UK in 2011, production of American and Turkish versions took place.
  • Alike to No Offence, The Killing was designed to exploit the economic possibilities offered by a global market. However, the shows social media presence wasn’t wide spread, only having a Facebook account.
  • Sarah Lund (the protagonist) is presented in both a ‘feminine and masculine sense’, she follows the stock character of the hero and is a familiar detective character.

Representations

  • Female protagonists (Sarah Lund in The Killing and Viv and Dinah in No Offence) with authoritative power and autonomy in high up detective roles at the forefront of both stories juxtaposes the binary norm of men dominating these positions in society or how society perceives how being ‘tough’, ‘masculine’ and showing strength are particularly male traits. Judith Butler expresses how society creates an identity stereotype for which we fall into based on our biological sex which codes for our masculine or feminine gender identity. Gender is performance and is fluid, not fixed. These representations subvert the need for a male detective lead.
Moving Image, Notes, Television

CSP 8: No Offence & and The Killing

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No Offence (Series 1, episode 1) and The Killing (Series 1, episode 1)

No Offence

A group of police officers try their best to keep the streets of Manchester free of crime. When all else fails, they decide to use unconventional methods to teach the perpetrators a lesson.

Language-the codes and conventions of the police
procedural crime drama are intertwined with aspects of social realism
-analysis of the process through which media language develops as genre y to understand and reflect on the dynamic nature of genre
-analysis should include: mise-en-scene, semiotics
Narrative-Which narrative techniques are used to engage the audience
-How the use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas,
restricted narration etc. – positions the audience
-The ways in which the narrative structure offers a range of gratification to the
audience
-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
Representations-Negative and positive use – or subversion – of stereotypes, particularly around the
representation of women and the police.
– unusual in popular television series due to the dominance of female
characters.
-Representation of place – Manchester – by implication the nation?
-Representation of issues – series 1 deals with the disappearance and murder of children with
Down’s Syndrome and raises questions about attitudes to and treatment of people with
disabilities.
-Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world
-Theories of representation including Hall
Industries– AbbottVision production, an independent company founded by the writer Paul
Abbott who also wrote Shameless.
-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.
-channel 4 – 90% income is from advertising – £934m in revenue – however gets reinvested into company
AudienceThe 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, cultural contexts-police force is used as a microcosm of society through which to
examine changing gender roles
-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

Inspector Sarah Lund thought she was going to work one last day in Copenhagen before moving to a remote Swedish town with her boyfriend and young son. She was wrong. When a teenage girl’s body is found in a car with links to a mayoral candidate’s office, Lund begins what becomes a 20-day investigation into the murder.

Language-use of a noir visual style, conventions of the police procedural and multiple narrative strands
– Mise en scene
-Semiotics
Narrative-use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas, binary
oppositions, restricted and omniscient narration etc. – effects the position of the audience
-analysing the appeals of the structure as
reassuring and predictable – even when dealing with difficult subject matter
-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
-belonging to the drama and crime genres
-Analysing the current popularity of the crime genre
-Genre theory including Neale
Representation-f 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
-national identity – Denmark including issues of multiculturalism.
-Theories of representation including Hall
-Feminist theories including bell hooks and Van Zoonen
Industries-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
-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
-e 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)
-remade by Turkish and US TV (AMC)
-Cultural industries including Hesmondhalgh
Audience-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
-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 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, cultural and economic contexts-e first time
saw TV series not in the English language become part of mainstream UK broadcasting
-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
-key factor in the surge in interest in Scandinavian culture in
the UK
-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.
Notes, Television

CSP – NO OFFENCE AND THE KILLING

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Needs to be reference to; Representation, Institution, Language and Audience.

No Offence – Media Magazine Download

‘No Offence’ S1,E1

  • Created by Paul Abbott, Produced by Abbott Media
  • Originally released in 2015
  • 3 Series
  • 21 Episodes
  • No Offence was broadcast on Channel 4, can still be accessed on All4, it was also broadcast in France.

‘No Offence‘ is a mainstream television series in which the codes and conventions of the police procedural crime drama are intertwined with aspects of social realism. ‘No Offence’ is unusual in popular television series due to the dominance of female characters.

The narrative in Series 1 follows follows a team of detectives from ‘Friday Street police station’, a fictional division of the Manchester Metropolitan Police. The plot focuses on the team’s investigation into the serial murders of young girls with Down syndrome.

EPISODE 1 : PLOT

‘Dinah catches sight of a robbery suspect on her way home from a night out, but when she chases him into the path of a double decker bus, her candidacy for promotion to sergeant is thrown into question. Meanwhile, two young girls with Down’s syndrome have been murdered, and a third young girl is missing. Dinah notices a link between the cases, and it’s not long before the team find themselves running out of time to find the latest victim before the killer strikes again.’ – Wikipedia

The Manchester police force is used as a microcosm (the epitome) of society to examine changing gender roles. The focus of the case which features children and adults with Down’s syndrome, examining the position of people with disabilities in the wider society.

Pages: 1 2
Notes, Postcolonialism, Representation, Theory

POSTCOLONIALISM

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Postcolonialism is about where does our identity come from? How is our identity formed? How do we understand our own identity and how is our identity represented in the local, national and global media? 

The slave trade; started in the mid 1400’s as Americans needed workers for the agricultural industry so Africans were sold over to by their own kings. They were brought over by ship and deprived of any legal rights and slave owner had complete power over the blacks. Importation of people ended in the 1800’s but enslavement continued.

postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim

Edward Said

Showed how the West painted a picture of the East

Orientalism is the Link between culture, imperial power & colonialism

“the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism“- Edward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii

‘the East becomes the repository or projection of those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge (cruelty, sensuality, decadence, lazine)’

POSTCOLONIALISM operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘.

Jacques Lacan- The “other”

we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not

Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror in media, why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.

The West uses the East / the Orient / the ‘Other’, to identify and construct itself. 

REPRESENTATIONS of – the East /the Orient / the ‘Other’ – are CONSTRUCTED through the lens of WESTERN COLONIAL POWER.

Letter to the Free, Music Video, Notes, Theory

Letter to the free

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 Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance.

The rapper in the music video is called Common and he wrote the lyrics as a soundtrack to the film The 13th which is about the abolition of slavery.  It was aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects in US society (e.g. Black Lives Matter). It focuses on the history and contemporary experience of African Americans and can explore of the effect of social, cultural and political context on representations of ethnicity.

Cultural hegemony: theory developed by Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s. How social classes come to dominate society (capitalist). Hegemony implicates power into cultural texts by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate ideology.

Theory of communicative action: theory developed by Habermas. Public sphere excluded the poor and uneducated. Habermas argues that the development of early modern capitalism brought into being an autonomous arena of public debate. Where and how is news talked about by the public; democracy depends on a public which is informed, aware, and which debates the issues of the day. Habermas believes the mass media has reduced the effectiveness of the public sphere.

Lyrics

  • Prison is a business, America’s the company
  • Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13’
  • ‘Black bodies being lost in the American dream’

Letter to the Free, Moving Image, Notes, Postcolonialism, Uncategorized

Letter to the free

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Music Video – Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It will invite comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.

His output is highly politicised, existing in the context of a variety of social and cultural movements aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects in US society.

resistance a political protest:

Key idea: the political, personal and cultural are always intertwined, Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.

Cultural Hegemony:

Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s developed this theory.

Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values
● Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.
● The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral,
and social institutions (like the education system and the media).
● These institutions socialise people into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social
group.
● As a result, oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

Key Concepts:
● Cultural resistance: the use of art/literature to challenge or fight oppressive system or power holders.
● Cultural hegemony: domination or rule maintained through ideological or cultural means. It is usually achieved through social institutions.
● Subcultural theory: Cohen’s subcultural theory assumes that crime is a consequence of the union of young people into so-called subcultures in which deviant values and moral concepts dominate. Subcultural theory became the dominant theory of its time.

Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13
Not whips and chains, all subliminal – amendment states that you can still be a slave if you are a criminal even though we don’t see it with whips and chains it is still apparent in society.

We staring in the face of hate again
The same hate they say will make America great again
No consolation prize for the dehumanized- no great version for those that’re dehumanised and treated differently, questioning who the great America is for and wanting it to be elaborated.

Post Colonialism:

-Has a hook or link to empire and colonialism, it occupies the shadow of slavery.

the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialismEdward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii

Overall, POSTCOLONIALISM operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. (Said, 1978:238). Or as Paul Gilroy puts it, ‘a civilising mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive’ (2004:8)

Post colonialism deconstructs and asks how we are measuring good or bad, post colonialism political thought postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’; questioning the notion of a recognised and overarching canon of important cultural texts – book, poems, plays, films etc

Orientalism: The idea of stereotyping the middle east in a way they are exaggerated to be something worse so that the west can stay in power. Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world.

Jacques Lacan: “The Other”.

 we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror. Applying that theory to culture, communications and media studies, it is possible to see why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.

WE can not explore ourselves and will be constantly misunderstood, we are always looking for assurance.

Linking the two together the Other theory can be used to show how people compare others to us to justify a class and reinforced stereotypes.

Letter to the Free, Music Video, Notes

CSP – LETTER TO THE FREE

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Common’s ‘Letter to the Free’

Lonnie Rashid Lynn, known by his stage name Common, is an American rapper and actor. He wrote ‘Letter to the Free’ in 2016.

  • His debut album was ‘Can I Borrow a Dollar?’ (1992).
  • Common won his first Grammy award in 2003 for ‘Best RnB Song’ for the single ‘Love of my Life’.
  • He co-wrote the song ‘Glory’ for the 2014 film ‘Selma’. He starred in the movie and won the Academy award for best original song.

Lyrics

Lyrics from ‘Letter to the Free’

“We ain’t seen as human beings with feelings”

  • The idea that black people living in America are often considered ‘lesser’ to those in political power and even civilians who support the right wing, hegemonic views.

“Black bodies being lost in the American dream”

“Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13“

The 13th Amendment  

Politically, the 13th Amendment states that …

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

  • The 2016 Netflix original documentary film ’13th’, directed by Ava DuVernay explores how slavery and racism is still present in the prisons of America even though it was seemingly abolished in 1865.

The Idea of Resistance and Political Protest

Key idea = The political, personal and cultural are always intertwined.

Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.

Antonio Gramsci talked about Hegemony and Hegemonic culture, the way in which the dominant ideologies are in power.

Sub cultural theories – Subcultures offered young working class people a solution to the problems they were collectively experiencing in society.

Postcolonialism

Looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism under the shadow of Slavery. It is a way of critically looking at culture.

Edward Said

He said that ‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’. The way in which literature, music, art etc. frames the Western countries as the dominant culture and Eastern countries inferior. He has the idea that culture was created by white Europeans to give themselves a privileged position. He wrote a book called ‘Orientalism’ in 1978.

Orientalism = The stereotyping of the east. The assertion of western power over the east.  a general patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African society.

Jacques Lacan “the other”

  • Lacan was a French Philosopher. He came up with the ideology that we never really know who we truly are, our identity is impossible to fully see ourselves.
  • His ideas stem from the way in which children first see themselves in a mirror and make a connection that it is themselves in reflection.
  • We are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.
  • Linking to postcolonialism, this would be to suggest that the West uses the ‘Other’ (East), to identify and construct itself.