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Exam Prep, Moving Image, Television

Revision – Television

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Witnesses – French tv program. BBC program. Dead bodies appear in houses that are for sale

The missing – a woman reappears after being missing. BBC program

Potentially a question about audience? Or representation.

Witnesses is aimed at a young adult audience with mature themes within the program itself

The missing is also aimed at a young adult audience with mature themes and scenes within the program.

Language Of both tv programs

Genre – Crime, Drama

Narrative of moving image – propp – character development through out the story/moving the story along and steve neale -genre theory

Witnesses – propp – lead detective develops through out the progrsam as he is under attack for a start and as he uncovers more he discovers more about himself and the place he is in.

The missing – propp- the girl who was missing readjusts to the normal life moving the story along and developing her characteristics into normal life.

TELEVISION LANGUAGE –

Character types

Todorov

Propp

Steave Neale

Genres of order

Representation (very unlikely to get in tv question) –

Syntagym

Hall

INDUSTRY –

psb – public service broadcasting

BBC

conglomerate – surviving as a multinational conglomerate (tv)

transformation of the public sphere

the public sphere

James Curran

AUDIENCE

Stuart hall

Encoding/decoding

Hyperreality (if applied correctly)

social needs

uses and gratifications

McQuail, Blumer & Brown

KEY FACTS

The missing

season 2 had 8.06 million viewers whereas season 1 only had 7.37 million – social needs,

an average rating of 8.4/10 out of 28 reviews. – psb

The daily telegraph described it as “supremely compelling” – transformation of the public sphere , psb

 second series has earned a “Certified Fresh” score of 100%, with an average rating of 8.55/10 out of 15 reviews. – psb, social needs , public sphere

production – new pictures

Witnesses

production company – cineteve

Not popular – public sphere

around 1 million people watched season 1 and season 1 – social needs, public sphere

its difficult to find things about it online suggesting its not known – psb

Narrative, Television

Television CSP – Revision

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Key Words/Ideas:

  • PSB
  • Horizontal/Vertical Integration
  • Identity (Constructed, Collective, Fluid) David Gauntlett
  • Preferred Reading
  • Encoding and Decoding
  • Diversity
  • Jurgan Habermas – Transformation of the Public Sphere
  • Personal Needs (Escapism) – Uses and Gratifications, Bloomer and Katz
  • BBC
  • Marginalisation

No Offence

  • No Offence was produced by ‘AbbotVision’ and created by Paul Abbot.
  •  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.
  • 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

New Media, Television

CSP: The Voice

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The Voice, founded in 1982, is a British national African-Caribbean newspaper operating in the United Kingdom. The paper is based in London and was published every Thursday until 2019 when it became monthly. It is available in a paper version by subscription and also online.

The Voice newspaper is “committed to celebrating black experience” and aims to deliver “positive change” by “informing the black community on important issues”. With its news stories, in-depth interviews, opinion pieces and investigations, The Voice remains “Britain’s most successful black newspaper”.

Editor: Lester Holloway – British journalist and editor, as well as a campaigner and local politician.

Stats:

  • The circulation of the paper peaked at 55,000 in the early 1990s with young women being a substantial majority of its weekly buyers.

Other significant points:

  • How McCalla secured funds for this ‘risky business venture’ – McCalla secured £62,000 from Barclays with the backing of the Loan Guarantee Scheme which was part of a series of initiatives set up by Margaret Thatcher’s government to help unemployed people start their own business. The Voice enterprise was a success and the bank loan was paid off within five years.
  • Paying over £3m, The Gleaner Company took ownership of the newspaper in 2004. They are a Jamaican newspaper and media enterprise
  • The company then moved from print to online and changed to only monthly editions. Production costs for online newspapers are generally cheaper. For the website the main running costs are for hosting, maintenance and security.

Representation:

Before the introduction of The Voice, the black press in Britain targeted first-generation immigrants. Newspapers, such as The Caribbean Times and West Africa, kept the diaspora up to date about news about the old countries. The Voice was different. It wanted to publish stories which were relevant to the second generation who were born and raised in Britain.

Theorists:

  • David Hesmondhalgh believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting. No one was going to invest in a newspaper which targeted a niche audience unless it was going to make money.

However, the social and political context of the early 1980s offered the founder of The Voice, Val McCalla, an opportunity to raise the funds needed for such a risky venture.

Clay Shirky and the End of Audience

Old Passive Audience VS New Active Audience

Old – Broadcast media used to deliver their products to a mass audience who were mostly disconnected from each other. It was a linear flow of communication with carefully crafted messages intended to entertain and inform the audience.

New – The internet was the beginning of the end of the traditional audience. For example, readers seemed to prefer digital copies of newspapers because they could respond to the articles by adding their own comments and interact with other commentators.

In We The Media, Dan Gillmor (2004) explored the changes in the news industry. He argued grassroots journalists were a serious threat to the monopolies enjoyed by big media conglomerates. The “official” news organisations are no longer writing the “first draft of history” because “the audience is learning how to get a better, timelier report”.

This sort of citizen journalism is a good example of Clay Shirky’s concept of mass amateurisation.

The Voice will struggle to be heard by an audience who prefer the quick and easy comment culture of social media rather than long-form journalism.

Advertising, Audience, Exam Prep, Feminist Critical Thinking, Genre, Narrative, Notes, Postcolonialism, Postmodernism, Regulation, Representation, Research, Revision, Semiotics, Television, Theory

THEORY REVISION

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SEMIOTICS

ROLAND BARTHES – Concept 1: Denotation and Connotation

Barthes’ tells us by using a ‘denotative reading’ is how viewers decode media products. This occurs when a reader recognises the literal and physical content, e.g. an older man with his fist in the air, the style and colour of clothing. After this, readers quickly move beyond the recognition of the product and engage with what he calls ‘cognitive decoding.’ This refers to the deeper understanding prompted by advertisers to the emotional, symbolic/ideological significances, e.g. the older man’s fist may suggest defiance or aggression, the clothes may suggest a class.

WHEN LOOKING AT A MEDIA TEXT:

Image Features:Look out for:
POSE
(Subject positioning, stance or body language)		Breaking the 4th wall creates: confrontational/aggressive or invitational feel.
Off screen gaze: Right side – adventure/optimism. Left side – regret/nostalgia.
Body language: strong/weak/passive/active/open/closed
Subject Positioning: Where the person/people stand.
Proxemics: Their distance from people/things.
MISE-EN-SCENE
(Props, costume and setting)		Symbolic Props: rarely accidental
Pathetic fallacy: weather connotations to add meaning – character’s thoughts/tone
Costume Symbolism: Stereotypes help to decipher a character’s narrative function
LIGHTING CONNOTATIONSHigh-Key lighting: no shadows – positive and upbeat with a lighter feel
Low-Key lighting: Serious/ sad/moody connotations.
Chiaroscuro lighting: contrast lighting (light sharply cuts through darkness) – hopelessness/mystery
Ambient: infers realism
COMPOSITIONAL EFFECTS
(Shot distance, positioning of subjects in the frame)		Long shots: dominated their environment
Close-ups: intensifies emotions/impending drama
Open/closed frames: open- freedom, closed – entrapment
POSTPRODUCTION EFFECTSColour control: Red- anger, white – innocence
High saturation: Vibrant colours – cheerful
Desaturation: Dull colours – serious/sombre

Barthes’ recognised that text also gave meaning. He says it helps to ‘anchor’ image meanings in advertisements. Without anchorage, media imagery is likely to produce polysemic connotations (multiple meanings).

“a vice which holds the connotated meanings from proliferating”

Concept 2: The media’s ideological effect

Barthes’ suggests media replaces/replicates functions of myth making. The press, television, advertising, radio – convey the same sort of authority as myths and induce similar ideological effects. Anonymisation of myths shows it’s a collective view rather than singular –> media replicates this.

Naturalisation: Media products present ideas as natural/fact/common sense. When a range of media texts repeat the same idea, audience believe it is a fact rather than perspective, social norm.

Media myths are reductive: Media simplifies and reduces/purifies ideas to make it more digestible. – message reduction discourages audiences to question and analyse thoroughly.

Media myths reinforce existing social power structures: “the oppressor has everything, his language is rich, multiform, supple.” Those who have power tend to control the myth making process through the privileged access – maintain illusion that the system that benefits the powerful is naturally ordered and unchangeable.

C.S PEIRCE:

Peirce did not believe that signification was a straightforward binary relationship between a sign and an object, he viewed this innovative part of his triad as how we perceive or understand a sign and its relationship to the object it is referring to. The representamen in Peirce’s theory is the form the sign takes, which is not necessarily a material or concrete object. Peirce theorised that we interpret symbols according to a rule, a habitual connection. ‘The symbol is connected with its object because the symbol-user and a sign exists mainly due to the fact that it is used and understood. Peirce’s triad of signs concludes of:

Icon – A sign that looks like an object/person, e.g picture of a lamp.

Index – A sign that has a link to its object, e.g smoke and fire.

Symbol – A sign that has a more random link to its object, e.g colour, shape

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE:

According to Saussure theory of signs, signifier and signified make up of signs. A sign is composed of both a material form and a mental concept. The signifier is the material form, i.e., something that can be heard, seen, smelled, touched or tasted, whereas the signified is the mental concept associated with it. C.S Peirce based his research off of Saussure.

Signifier – Stands in for something else.

Signified -Idea being evoked by signifier.

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Postmodernism, Television

POSTMODERNISM

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Definitions of Key terms

  1. Pastiche =  a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist.
  2. Parody =  a work of art, drama, literature or music that imitates/mocks the work of a previous artist with ridicule or irony.
  3. Bricolage = In art, bricolage is a technique or creative mode, where works are constructed from various materials available or on hand, and is often seen as a characteristic of postmodern art practice.
  4. Intertextuality = can be a reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style.
  5. Referential
  6. Surface and style over substance and content
  7. Metanarrative
  8. Hyperreality = It is a threat to contemporary society in association with reality and its copies. Illusions of reality are always formed, and they pretend as the originals.
  9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) = Baudrillard claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is a simulation of reality.
  10. Consumerist Society = A society in which people often buy new goods, especially goods that they do not need, and in which a high value is placed on owning many things.
  11. Fragmentary Identities
  12. Alienation
  13. Implosion
  14. cultural appropriation
  15. Reflexivity
  16. Deconstructive postmodernism = expresses the consequences of an idealism that has taken the linguistic turn and then has seen through the language

Postmodernism:

The rework and copy of other works that may or may not be adapted to differ slightly. An emphasis on ideologies as a motive to maintain political power.

It may even be ironic, joking, or literally, ‘just playing’. However, it is always a deliberate copy (of the old). Therefore, the old has been re-worked into something new, which clearly entails a recognition (a nod and a wink) to what it was and where it came from.

An example of this postmodernism is through the parody “The Love Box in Your Living Room“. Proven through quotes such as “this was the olden days”, an ironic description of the timeframe being mock-documentarized. A purpose to entertain as well as inform.

“And the generals realised that if they had these devices, they would no longer need telephones to ask their men to kill millions of Germans… after breakfast” dysphemistic humour, dark descriptions of the introduction with non-wired radio transmitters.

Fragmentary individuals:

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.

Fragmentary communities: In 1959, Richard Hoggart (Uses of Literacy) noted the shift in modern societies particularly the impact on our ‘neighborhood lives’, which was ‘an extremely local life, in which everything is remarkably near‘.

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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?
Radio, Regulation, Television

Public Service Broadcasting

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A state-related institution which broadcasts TV, radio etc… to provide information, advice, or entertainment to the public without trying to make a profit. Often has no adverts and uses tax from TV licenses to fund their organisation.  It ensures diversity in the media and plurality in news, and creates programming which reflects and examines wider society.

Broadcasting – targets mass audiences

Narrowcasting – targets smaller niche audiences

The BBC

  • Lord Reith’s founding principles still shape the BBC
  • Grace Goldie saw the potential in broadcasting and enhanced its influence through her journalism
  • BBC initially was rejected by many organisations out of fear of new technologies eg sports companies would refuse to let them broadcast their matches/events
  • The BBC became the center of everything

Royal Charter

  • sets out the BBC’s Object, Mission and Public Purposes
  • outlines the Corporation’s governance and regulatory arrangements, including the role and composition of the BBC Board
  • Our mission is “to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain”.

Ethos of the BBC:

  • “opening up new worlds to people” Cecil Lewis
  • looking at opening up (and sustaining) the Great Tradition of progressive Western academic thought
  • essentially to inform, educate and educate

Populism – political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups

Paternalism – the policy or practice on the part of people in authority of restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate to or otherwise dependent on them in their supposed interest

Habermas defines the public sphere as a virtual or imaginary community which does not necessarily exist in any identifiable space – The BBC changed the nature of modern communication by transforming time and space

transformation of the public sphere  created a new public engaged in critical political discussions – the BBC is government owned, paid for by TV licenses, accessible to the entire country, available to the poor, uneducated, lower class – “opening up new worlds to people” Cecil Lewis
Seatonthere has been a ‘deterioration between the state and broadcasting institutions’
early British broadcast reports show ‘there is a consensus that state regulation is the best guarantee of broadcasting independence and accountability’, therefore ‘only the state could license the BBC to be a ‘public corporation acting as a trustee for the national interest”

debate surrounding the independence of broadcasting – some argue ‘independence is functional and must be extended to guarantee accountable broadcasting’, others claim ‘ independence poses a serious threat to political institutions, whose control over broadcasting should be strengthened

‘broadcasters have come to see the state as their enemy… Yet broadcasting institutions ultimately depend on the state for their legitimation’
Curran
Livingstone
Chomsky
The Frankfurt Schoolfocus on the negative effects of populism in the culture industries
people should spend their time understanding themselves (paternalism)
Radio, Television

Public Service Broadcasting (PBS)

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Broadcasting – To a mass audience

Narrowcasting – To a niche audience

10 Key elements – Press
The storyline was properly structured and easy to follow.
Key plot points happened for reasons.
Connections could be formed with relatable characters.
Editing was done to a professional standard

The Royal Charter is the constitutional basis for the BBC. It sets out the BBC’s Object, Mission and Public Purposes. The Charter also outlines the Corporation’s governance and regulatory arrangements, including the role and composition of the BBC Board. The current Charter began on 1 January 2017 and ends on 31 December 2027. The Government will carry out a mid-term review of the Charter, focussing on governance and regulatory arrangements. This review is not a full Charter Review and so will not look at the BBC’s mission, purpose or the method by which it is funded. The Agreement between the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the BBC sits alongside the Charter. It provides further detail on many of the topics outlined in the Charter including the BBC’s funding and its regulatory duties. The Agreement runs coterminous to the Charter but can be amended during the Charter period subject to the agreement of the Secretary of State and the BBC.

Lord Reith was a founding member of the BBC. His founding principles still define the BBC today.

Radio was now the ‘Centre of Everything’ (Habermas transformation of the public sphere).

The Frankfurt School was a German school of theory.

The BBC was the first of its kind and people could connect with others around the world.

Broadcasting was initially a public service, however its growth was funded by the licence fee, advertising and tax. The ‘public service’ became unfashionable in the 1980s

Radio, Television

public service broadcasting

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Broadcasting – For a mass audience

Narrowcasting – A niche target audience

10 key elements that make press a quality television:

  • Convincing acting
  • Character development
  • Editing that keeps flow of the production
  • Quality of sound
  • Good lighting
  • Keeps the audience wanting to know more
  • Unpredictable and unique
  • Camera angles
  • Able to form an emotional connection
  • Captivating story line

The Royal Charter is the constitutional basis for the BBC. It sets out the BBC’s Object, Mission and Public Purposes- began on 1 January 2017 and ends on 31 December 2027.

Ethos of BBC– to inform, entertain and educate

POPULISM– appeals to ‘the people’ (want)

PATERNALISM– what people should have- against or regardless of the will of a person

Links to Frankfurt school- Theodor Adorno, a part of the Frankfurt school, talks about the culture industry and the fact that we need to use our leisure/free time productively, meaning to develop ourselves rather than do what we want. Paternalism^populism

  • Habermas – Transformation of the Public Sphere– The idea that the media such as BBC transforms people’s (audience) lives in a way to help them make connections with people in the media, such as the royal family.
  • Jean Seaton – The concept of Public Service Broadcasting–
  • James Curran – Power and Responsibility– using power and responsibility throughout media to ensure that the ethos is rightly represented.
  • Sonia Livingston – regulation of media organisations– regulation is important in the media to enable the ethos to work, if the media isn’t regulated then audiences will not be informed, entertained or educated
  • Noam Chomsky – manufacturing consent–

Lord Reith– Did not know what broadcasting was until he developed the ethos= Founding principles still influence BBC today

  1. Lord Reith and early days of BBC 10:41 – 13:05
  2. The start of BBC Television 14:00 – 16:00 Grace Wyndham-Lewis changing nature of modern communication, essentially by transforming time and space.- Links to Habermas transformation of public sphere, helping audience to make connections
  3. The fear of new technology 16:00 – 16:30 what are the fears around new technologies?
  4. The centre of everything 18:40 – 19:58 – is that still the case now? ‘BBC is social cement’- 29 mil people watched Queen’s funeral

Transformation of the public sphere

-BBC acts as a social cement

-Allows connections within the media between different people such as audience and royals or audience ands politicians

-Allows connections with events such as the Queen’s funeral

-Forms a centre of a person’s life

Seaton

-“a flexible means of managing and developing an important utility which has been commercially successful and also served the public“

–

Radio, Television

public service broadcasting

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Broadcasting

Broad- to a mass audience

Narrow- to a smaller audience/niche audience

Key elements of quality broadcasting:

Sound

Lighting

Camera

Storyline

Acting quality

Does it intrigue the audience?

Editing

Character

Props

Emotional conection

hidden message

BBC charter: a royal charter setting out the arrangements for the governance of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It sets out the BBC’s Object, Mission and Public Purposes. Also outlines the Corporation’s governance and regulatory arrangements, including the role and composition of the BBC Board.

The ethos of the BBC is to inform, entertain and educate.

Populism: No limits. what they want. Refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of “the people” and often juxtapose this group against “the elite“. It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment.

Paternalism: Against what they want. an action that limits a person’s or group’s liberty and is intended to promote their own good. Paternalism can also imply that the behaviour is against or regardless of the will of a person, or also that the behaviour expresses an attitude of superiority.

  • Habermas – Transformation of the Public Sphere
  • Jean Seaton – The concept of Public Service Broadcasting
  • James Curran – Power and Responsibility
  • Sonia Livingston – regulation of media organisations
  • Noam Chomsky – manufacturing consent

Lord Reith- His founding principles is still the framework and ethos for the bbc.

The BBC is like social cement that connected us all together. We’re now less connected and more fragmented.

1922- First BBC radio station launched

1933- First woman announcer- Sheila Borrett

1944- D-day- Landings are broadcast on June 6th

The Frankfurt School– They said that we should use our leisure time productively. The task of the Frankfurt School was sociological analysis and interpretation of the areas of social-relation that Marx did not discuss in the 19th century – especially the base and superstructure aspects of a capitalist society. Theodor Adorno- rejected a classical interpretation of Marxism as an economic determinist theory.The transformation of the public sphere

Media transforms the public sphere:

new technologies

The BBC is like a ‘social element’ without having to communicate back.

the BBC allows audience to listen from their home, transforming their space

transforms time and space

links between individuals and famous people/news/upcoming events

connections towards major events like wars/football/royalty weddings, coronations, funerals

Seaton and the BBC

Broadcasting and the theory of public service

“We consider such a potential power over public opinion and the life of the nation ought to remain with the state“

“the collapse if the principle of psb has been the deterioration in the relationship between the state and broadcasting institutions”

“Broadcasting needs to find a new relationship to the state and a new form of commitment to public service, and indeed a new definition of public service that will work in the conditions of increased populations”

“The significance of broadcasting independence is also disputed.”- one side suggests that independence is functional and the other argues that this independence poses a serious threat to political institutions.

Possible questions:

  1. How is the BBC regulated/controlled?
  2. How does new technologies affect the radio station?

What to include in the essay:

  1. Haesmondhalgh- risky business
  2. Newsbeat is broadcasted in central London
  3. Newsbeat was created by Telefís Éireann
  4. Newsbeat was launched on 10 September 1973
  5. Smaller details: Target audience= 15-29 year olds. Broadcasting time= 12:45 and 17:45 in 15 minute stints
  6. Funded through TV licence fee.

I understand…

I want to argue that newsbeat reflects popularity from the other BBC channels.