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Audience, Genre, Institution, Narrative, Television

television csp: No Offence and The Killing

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No Offence

No Offence - Rotten Tomatoes
About:
No Offence scored 8 out of 10 on IMDb.
83% liked this TV show

“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.”

  • First episode date: May 5, 2015
  • No. of series: 3
  • Production company: AbbottVision
  • AbbottVision is a British independent television production company, established in 2008 by the writer, creator and producer Paul Abbott. Founded: 2008
  • Abbott Vision Profiles in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube
  • Original network: Channel 4
  • Genre: Police procedural; Drama; Black comedy
  • Black comedy, also known dark humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss
  • Executive producers: Paul Abbott; Martin Carr; Paul Coe

Series 1, Episode 1

The first series focuses on the team’s investigation into the serial murders of young girls with Down syndrome. It was renewed for two further runs

In the UK, the first episode of No Offence launched with 2.5 million viewers, Channel 4’s biggest midweek drama launch for more than three years. Although subsequent episodes lost overnight viewers, dropping as low as 1.2 million, the weekly consolidated series average remained at 2.5 million and finished 47% up on Channel 4’s slot average

  • In France, the first episode of No Offence aired on 29 February 2016 on France 2 and was watched by 5.46 million viewers, 20.4% of the TV audience
  • France 2: is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4, and France 5.
Pages: 1 2
Institution, Television, Theory

recap: media institutions

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Hesmondhalgh- it’s difficult for media companies to make every product successful however they rely on a few main products to get revenue by using star names and easy to follow narrative. Companies have to make a lot of money out of their products initially, because they don’t often resell the same product repeatedly. 

  1. Products exist as a result of their economic context
  2. The media industry is a high risk business- only a few products are successful and take all the money in the business

Ways media companies expand:

  • Horizontal integration- acquiring media companies that operate in similar sectors (achieves scale-based cost savings and maximise profits)
  • Vertical integration- one company takes control over one or more stages in the production or distribution of a product (achieves significant cost-saving efficiencies)
  • Multi-sector integration- buying companies across the culture industry (allows for further cross-promotion and employment of brand across media platforms

Primary audiences are those who receive the communication directly. Secondary audiences is anyone who may indirectly receive a copy of the communication. Tertiary audiences are audience is almost unaware they are consuming for example adverts in a magazine they are reading or on a billboard they walk past

Link to CSP’s

  • No Offence is produced by Abbottvision and broadcast on Channel 4. Abbottvision is a production company
  • Channel 4’s commitment to be innovative and distinctive.
  • Prior to No Offence, Abbott’s most successful programme had been Shameless which was a realistic representation of the lives of people at the lowest end of the socio-economic scale
  • Channel 4 buys programming from production companies
  • Having a distinctive production background and being a ‘Channel 4 programme’ adds to the branding of No Offence itself and helps audiences know what to expect from the programme
  • Channel 4 uses series such as No Offence to add value to the channel through the availability of the ‘box set’ on All4

  • The Killing was the catalyst for the wider distribution of foreign language crime programming on UK television
  • was produced the Danish national public service broadcaster DR
  • specialised nature of media production, distribution and circulation within a transnational and global context
  • it was broadcast in the UK nearly five years after its success in Denmark (doesn’t follow Hesmondhalgh’s theory that media companies make products as a one time thing)
  • 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.
  • The character of Sarah Lund is a familiar detective stereotype
Advertising, Genre, Institution, Narrative, Television

Television

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 Capital (Series 1, episode 1) and Deutschland 83 (Series 1, episode 1)

Needs reference to all four elements of the
Theoretical Framework (Language, Representation, Industries, Audience)

Media Languagecodes and conventions of the
crime drama are intertwined with aspects of social realism. Analysis should
include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
Narrativenarrative techniques used to engage the audience

Audience, Genre, Moving Image, Television

Capital and Deutschland

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Deutschland 83

Production company: UFA Fiction

Genre: Cold War espionage

1 season 8 episodes

Was most popular foreign-drama in Britain upon release.

Deutschland 83 is a 2015 German television series starring Jonas Nay as a 24-year-old native of East Germany who, in 1983, is sent to West Germany as an undercover spy for the HVA, the foreign intelligence agency of the Stasi.

Narrative
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the spy thriller and crime drama – use of
enigmas, binary oppositions, restricted and omniscient narration etc. – position the audience?
• The narrative of Deutschland 83 has been controversial – particularly in Germany -through its
use of binary oppositions to contrast East and West Germany.
• The role of the hero and effect of audience alignment with Martin Rauch, a Stasi Officer.
• The narrative of Deutschland 83 can be defined as postmodern in its self-reflexive style.
• Narratology including Todorov.

Capital

Production Company: Kudos

Genre: British drama television

1 Season 4 Episodes

Capital is a three-part British television adaptation of John Lanchester’s novel Capital. The series was written by Peter Bowker, directed by Euros Lyn and produced by Matt Strevens for Kudos Film & Television Company. The story centres on the residents of a road in South London as the value of each house in the street is approaching £2 million. They all begin to receive repeated postcards with the message “We want what you have”. The first episode was broadcast on BBC One on 24 November 2015.

Narrative
• Which narrative techniques are used to engage the audience in the opening episode of Capital?
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas,
restricted narration etc. – position the audience?
• Capital is characteristic of contemporary TV narrative style in its use of multiple story structure.
• The ways in which the narrative structure of Capital offers gratification to the audience.
• Narratology including Todorov.

Pages 6-9 in the CSP booklet 

Audience, Genre, Institution, Narrative, Television

Capital and Deutschland 83

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Capital is a complex mainstream television product in which the codes and conventions of the crime drama are intertwined with aspects of social realism. Provides a wide range of representational areas to explore; the family, place, nation, class,
ethnicity, race and issues. Summary: When the residents of an affluent London street receive a strange note they dismiss it as a marketing campaign, until things begin to escalate. When the residents of an affluent London street receive a strange note they dismiss it as a marketing campaign, until things begin to escalate.

Deutschland is visually interesting, constructing a stylised representation of ‘real’ places which transmit meanings about characters, places and issues. A detailed analysis of different aspects of mise-en-scene will provide students with a strong foundation to build on in terms of analysing representations, ideological meanings and audience positioning. Summary: The drama follows Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) as the 24 year-old East Germany native is pulled from the world as he knows it and sent to the West as an undercover spy for the Stasi foreign service. Hiding in plain sight in the West German army, he must gather the secrets of NATO military strategy.

It is a co-production of AMC Networks’ SundanceTV and RTL Television, positioning it to exploit the national and global market.
• Bought by C4 in Britain as part of their ‘Walter presents…’
• Cultural industries including Hesmondhalgh

Audience, Genre, Institution, Narrative, Television

capital and deutschland 83

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DEUTSHCLAND 83

Media Language
The series is visually interesting, constructing a stylised representation of ‘real’ places which
transmit meanings about characters, places and issues. A detailed analysis of different aspects of
mise-en-scene will provide students with a strong foundation to build on in terms of analysing
representations, ideological meanings and audience positioning. Analysis should include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
• Postmodernism: Use of pastiche and bricolage

Narrative
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the spy thriller and crime drama – use of
enigmas, binary oppositions, restricted and omniscient narration etc. – position the audience?
• The narrative of Deutschland 83 has been controversial – particularly in Germany -through its
use of binary oppositions to contrast East and West Germany.
• The role of the hero and effect of audience alignment with Martin Rauch, a Stasi Officer.
• The narrative of Deutschland 83 can be defined as postmodern in its self-reflexive style.
• Narratology including Todorov.

Genre:
• Conventions of the TV series and the way in which this form is used to appeal to audiences
• Definition of the series as belonging to the spy thriller genre
• Conventions of the period drama and reasons for its popularity
• Analysing the use of specific genres to discuss wider issues in society
• Genre theory including Neale

Media Representations
Deutschland 83 provides a range of representational areas to explore from the national and
regional to political structures and gender roles. All of the areas tend to overlap with
representations of a nation’s historical past allowing students to consider how representations
reflect social, cultural and historical circumstances:
• Representation of national and regional identity (East and West Germany (Europe))
• Representation of gender: male hero and spy, the female ‘love interest’ etc., the way
characters signify wider issues in society.
• Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world – both
contemporary and past.
• Theories of representation including Hall

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

CAPITAL

Media Language
Capital is a complex mainstream television product in which the codes and conventions of the
crime drama are intertwined with aspects of social realism. Detailed analysis of this media form
including the process through which media language develops as genre will provide students
with an opportunity to understand and reflect on the dynamic nature of genre. Analysis should
include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
Narrative
• Which narrative techniques are used to engage the audience in the opening episode of
Capital?
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas,
restricted narration etc. – position the audience?
• Capital is characteristic of contemporary TV narrative style in its use of multiple story structure.
• The ways in which the narrative structure of Capital offers gratification to the audience.
• Narratology including Todorov.
Genre
• Conventions of the TV mini-series and the way in which this form is used to appeal to
audiences; how it is distinct from, but related to series and serials.
• Definition of the series as a hybrid genre, belonging to the drama, social realism and crime
genres
• Genre theory including Neale.
Media Representations
Capital provides a wide range of representational areas to explore; the family, place, nation, class,
ethnicity, race and issues.
• Negative and positive use – or subversion – of stereotypes.
• Representations of family and their ideological significance – Capital constructs its
representation of nation in part through contrasting images of the family.
• Representation of place – London and by implication, the nation.
• Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world.
• Theories of representation including Hall.

When the residents of an affluent London street receive a strange note they dismiss it as a marketing campaign, until things begin to escalate. When the residents of an affluent London street receive a strange note they dismiss it as a marketing campaign, until things begin to escalate.

Audience, Television

TELEVISION

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Product: Capital TV series


What needs to be studied? Key Questions and Issues:

This product relates to the theoretical framework by providing a focus for the study of:

Media Language
Capital is a complex mainstream television product in which the codes and conventions of the crime drama are intertwined with aspects of social realism. Detailed analysis of this media form
including the process through which media language develops as genre will provide students with an opportunity to understand and reflect on the dynamic nature of genre. Analysis should
include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings

Narrative
restricted narration etc. – position the audience?
• Capital is characteristic of contemporary TV narrative style in its use of multiple story structure.
• Narratology including Todorov.

Genre
• Definition of the series as a hybrid genre, belonging to the drama, social realism and crime genres
• Genre theory including Neale.

Media Representations
Capital provides a wide range of representational areas to explore; the family, place, nation, class, ethnicity, race and issues.
• Negative and positive use – or subversion – of stereotypes.
• Representations of family and their ideological significance – Capital constructs its representation of nation in part through contrasting images of the family.
• Representation of place – London and by implication, the nation.
• Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world.
• Theories of representation including Hall.

Media Industries
The central way into an institutional approach is to consider Capital as a BBC programme and to examine how it can be seen to fulfil the demands of Public Service Broadcasting.
• Capital is a Kudos production for the BBC, an independent company which also produces successful programmes for other broadcasters.

Media Audiences
Issues of audience are also relevant throughout the other theoretical frameworks. In media language, the use of different formal structures to position the audience to receive and interpret meaning is central, while the study of representations has at its heart the reinforcement of social and cultural values for audiences.
• The production, distribution and circulation of Capital shows how audiences can be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and platforms, moving from the national to transnational through broadcast and digital technologies.
• The way in which different audience interpretations reflect social, cultural and historical circumstances is evident in the analysis of Capital which is explicitly linked to contemporary
issues.
• The advertising campaigns (trailers, websites at home and abroad) for the series demonstrate how media producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences.
• Cultivation theory including Gerbner.
• Reception theory including Hall.

Product: Deutschland 83 TV series

What needs to be studied? Key Questions and Issues

This product relates to the theoretical framework by providing a focus for the study of:


Media Language
The series is visually interesting, constructing a stylised representation of ‘real’ places which transmit meanings about characters, places and issues. A detailed analysis of different aspects of mise-en-scene will provide students with a strong foundation to build on in terms of analysing representations, ideological meanings and audience positioning. Analysis should include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
• Postmodernism: Use of pastiche and bricolage
Narrative
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the spy thriller and crime drama – use of enigmas, binary oppositions, restricted and omniscient narration etc. – position the audience?
• The narrative of Deutschland 83 has been controversial – particularly in Germany -through its
use of binary oppositions to contrast East and West Germany.
• The role of the hero and effect of audience alignment with Martin Rauch, a Stasi Officer.
• The narrative of Deutschland 83 can be defined as postmodern in its self-reflexive style.
• Narratology including Todorov.


Genre:
• Conventions of the TV series and the way in which this form is used to appeal to audiences
• Definition of the series as belonging to the spy thriller genre
• Conventions of the period drama and reasons for its popularity
• Analysing the use of specific genres to discuss wider issues in society
• Genre theory including Neale

Media Representations
Deutschland 83 provides a range of representational areas to explore from the national and regional to political structures and gender roles. All of the areas tend to overlap with representations of a nation’s historical past allowing students to consider how representations reflect social, cultural and historical circumstances:
• Representation of national and regional identity (East and West Germany (Europe))
• Representation of gender: male hero and spy, the female ‘love interest’ etc., the way
characters signify wider issues in society.
• Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world – both
contemporary and past.
• Theories of representation including Hall
• Feminist theories including bell hooks and Van Zoonen (role of women)


Media Industries
Deutschland 83 is part of a recent trend – which really started with BBC4’s showing of The Killing – for foreign language series to perform well critically and commercially with particular UK
audiences. It can be argued that Deutschland 83 was a deliberate attempt by the German media industry to develop a prestige series which could take advantage of the new openness to ‘foreign’ products abroad.
• It is a co-production of AMC Networks’ SundanceTV and RTL Television (German and American), positioning it to exploit the national and global market.
• Bought by C4 in Britain as part of their ‘Walter presents…’
• Cultural industries including Hesmondhalgh

Media Audiences
Issues of audience are also relevant throughout the other theoretical frameworks. In media language, the use of different formal structures to position the audience to receive and interpret meaning is central, while the study of representations has at its heart the reinforcement of social and cultural values for audiences. The study of institutions is also indivisibly linked to the need to define and attract specific audiences.
• The production, distribution and circulation of Deutschland 83 shows how audiences can be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and
platforms, moving from the national to transnational through broadcast and digital technologies.
• The way in which different audience interpretations reflect social, cultural and historical circumstances is evident in the analysis of the series which are explicitly linked to contemporary
issues.
• The reception of the series in Germany, Europe and the US
• The advertising campaigns (trailers, websites at home and abroad) for the series demonstrate how media producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences.
• Cultivation theory including Gerbner
• Reception theory including Hall
Social, political, economic and cultural contexts
Deutschland 83 is part of cultural phenomenon of the early twenty first century which for the first time saw TV series not in the English language become part of mainstream UK broadcasting. It deals with the political past of Germany through the setting of the last decade of the cold war.
This political past is explored through a revisionist approach to German and European history which questions some of the previous certainties about that period. This is a useful product to
explore the vital issues of how nations explore their past through popular culture and how this is also a way of commenting on contemporary society. The economic context can be explored
through patterns of ownership and production and how the product is marketed nationally and globally.

Audience, Genre, Institution, Narrative, Semiotics, Television

Television CSPs

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Capital

`Capital’ is a drama adaptation of Peter Bowker’s best-selling novel of the same name. The story follows the impact of gentrification in a city, particularly focusing on a fictional Pepys Road, in South London. It was released in December 2015 and directed by Euros Lyn. Matt Strevens produced it and it originated in the United Kingdom.

Deutschland 83

Deutschland 83 is a 2015 German television series starring Jonas Nay as a 24-year-old native of East Germany who, in 1983, is sent to West Germany as an undercover spy for the HVA, the foreign intelligence agency of the Stasi. It premiered on the 17th of June 2015 and was directed by Edward Berger and Samira Radsi. It originated in the United States, and also partly in Germany.

Television

Television

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No Offence (Series 1, episode 1) and The Killing (Series 1, episode 1) watched with 12D (pages 15-17)

No offence

A British television police procedural drama on Channel 4 created by Paul Abbott. It follows a team of detectives from Friday Street police station, a division of the Manchester Metropolitan Police.

First episode of No Offence launched with 2.5 million viewers, although subsequent episodes lost overnight viewers, dropping as low as 1.2 million. Average remained at 2.5 million views and finished 47% up on Channel 4’s slot average. The plot revolves around the investigation of 3 cases, a drowning, a murder and a disappearance. Origin is United kingdom and genre is police procedural, drama and black comedy,

The killing

A crime series that follows the police investigation of the murder of a young girl, created by Veena Sud. It interlocks three different stories and is based off of a Danish series called Forbrydelsen (“The Crime”). It premiered on April 3, 2011.

Genre is Crime Drama, Psychological Thriller, Mystery and Scandinavian Noir. and origin is Denmark

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.