Collective Identities- Byker Grove

Byker Grove is a British television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 and was created by Adele Rose. The show was broadcast at 5.10pm after Newsround (later moved to 5pm) on CBBC on BBC One. It was one of the few television series to air on CBBC that was aimed at an older teenager and young adult audience, as it tackled some controversial storylines.

The show ran between 1989 and 2006, and was set in a youth club in the Byker district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Byker Grove was the original idea of lthe TV executive Andrea Wonfor. In 1987, she approached soap writer Adele Rose. Together they created a single pilot episode featuring children aged 8–11 at an out-of-school club (transmitted on Tyne Tees TV in 1988). In autumn 1988, Wonfor gained the backing of Anna Home, then Head of the Children's Department at BBC Television. Home gave the go ahead for a run of a series of six 25-minute episodes to be broadcast by the BBC. The age of the main characters was raised to 12-16 after support from first producer-director, Matthew Robinson. The first series therefore centred on young teenagers crossing the bridge from childhood to adulthood. Although some of the action took place outside the youth club, the series was unusual among dramas in that the characters were rarely shown in school. One of the major settings was the foster home run by the kindly but strict Lou Gallagher, the longest-running character.
          

Collective Identities Case Study- Grange Hill

Grange Hill is a British television dram series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest-running programmes on British television when it ended its run in 2008. It was created by Phil Redmond who is also responsible for the Channel 4 dramas Brookside and Hollyoaks; other notable production team members down the years have included producer Colin Cant and script editor Anthony Minghella.

http://www.grangehill.com/


 First ever episode of Grange hill 1978 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdI1kWkl-N4 
This portrays the youth to have innocence, naivity, curiosity, respect for elders etc,

 Last episode of Grange hill 2008- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7iSNV0NAUg
This portrays the youth to be less smart (personalised uniforms), less respect for elders, looking for relationships (dating) and their use of technology (internet)

Samuel 'Zammo' Maguire - 1981-1987

It is impossible to think about Grange Hill in the 1980s without mentioning the character of Samuel ‘Zammo’ Maguire, the cheeky chappy whose life spiralled into heroin addiction in one of children’s television’s most ground-breaking storylines. Actor Lee MacDonald played Zammo for six years and helped to make Zammo one of the iconic characters of the 1980s. The 1986 cast released Grange Hill: The Album, with two singles: "Just Say No" (tying in with a character's heroin addiction)
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkrAmH6H5eU

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Andrew Goodwin theory

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
   (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).    [this is also known as iconography]
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.
   (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
   (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

Usher- Burn:-

Genre characteristics- RnB flashy car, designer clothing, nice location 

Lyrics relate to the visuals "Let it burn" the trees start to burn and the pool bursts into flames

Communicating to the audience using metaphors

The car relates to James Bond

Usher's hat represents his origin 

Voyerism- womens chest and usher's topless body 

Red Light Race Car Driver:-

Genre characteristics- musical instruments, cars, indie rock dress code

"Runaway with me"- shows protagonist getting ready to runaway with a boy 

Close-ups of the band members playing the guitar and drums

Voyerism- protagonist applying lipstick and fixing her hair

"Stay with me"- boy and girl hugging  

Introduction to Semiotics

Semiology is an attempt to create a science of the study of signs, systems and their role in the construction and reconstruction of meaning in media texts.

The theorists of this Semiotics are Rolan Barthes, Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Pierce.

Semiotics is "the study of signs that help us deconstruct Media Texts". What this means is that we look at representations within media texts (any outlet of media), and we use them to understand the subtextual meaning of that media text.

Codes
A system of signs, languages or symbols that allow audiences to decode meaning. In simpler terms, this is a collaboration of signs to implement a meaning behind it. Examples usually derive from technical and symbolic codes, or narrative codes. In our trailer, we will collaborate a variety of shots to ensure that it is known that the girl who commits suicide is the killer. This will include running shots, distorted shots, and possibly an eerie voiceover.

Connotations
The various meanings/suggestions produced by the sign. For example, in our trailer, we could use destauration of shots to show the colour and vibrance being sucked out of life. We could further evaluate and say that this is the life of the protagonists that are suggestively being abducted. It could be said that they become much more weary of their surroundings, and become cautious of their own well being rather than enjoying life as they did before.

Decoding
The Process where meaning is deconstructed or 'read' by audiences

Denotation
The physical form of the sign.

Collective Identities Theorists: Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall- Born: Kingston, Jamaica 1932 is a cultural theorist and sociologist.

Stuart Hall states our personal cultural background influences the way in which we consume media.

Collective Identities: David Gauntlett

" Identity is complicated- everybody thinks they've got one"- David Gauntlett

 

 

 Representation: the way reality is 'mediated' or 're-presented to us.

Collective Identity: the individuals sense of belonging to a group (part of personal identity)

                   Mediation
         Reality  ^^^^ Media
                   (Exaggeration
                               Sterotypes)
                               
David Gauntlett a professor of media and communications at Westminister Univeristy, author of several books including Media, Gender and Identity (2002) In 2007 he was shortlisted for young acdemic author of the year.

He believes you can express your identity in a creative form. For example the lego pieces

 

 

Uses and Graification theory

The theory emerged in the early 1970's by Elihun Katz, Jay Bulmer and Michael Gurevitch.
We all have different uses for media and we make choices over what we want to watch.

Four key uses:

1) INFORMATION- find out about society, to satisfy your curiosity

2) PERSONAL IDENTITY- people watch television in order to look for models for our behaviour

3) INTERGRATION and SOCIAL INTERATION- use media to find out about the circumstances of other people

4) ENTERTAINMENT- for enjoyment or relaxation

Two Step Flow Theory

Two Step Flow Theory

In 1944 Paul Lazarsfeld, (1901-1976) an American Social Researcher, Bernard Berelson (1912 – 1979) and Hazel Gaudet was introduced The Two-Step Flow of Communication in the book called “The people’s choice: How the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign. New York: Columbia University Press”.

Theory Introduction:
The purpose of the study was focused on Presidential election Campaign and the people decision-making process towards the campaign. All three researchers were wanted to find out practically whether the mass media messages affect direct influence in voting decision among the people. Unexpectedly they found the media messages (like radio and newspapers) are very less influence then an informal, personal communication on voting behavior. Based on this researched data, The Two Step Flow Communication Theory of Mass Communication was developed by Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld.

Opinion Leader:
Opinion Leader is a leader for a certain group who gives details and information to lesser active persons in the group. In office, the managing director is an opinion leader and in public, a political leader is an opinion leader. They interpret the information to their own group. But one thing the Opinion leader is a leader only for their own group not for all.
In Public, Political leader is an opinion leader. Here few people are not influenced by the leader and their political views and thought. These people won’t support opinion leaders and isolated from the population.
Katz and Paul seems “the flow of media messages from radio and print to opinion leaders and then the leaders leads the messages to lesser active users in the population”. Through this transformation of message, the leaders may add their opinion on the actual content which may affects the low active users. In some cases the Opinion leaders are filtering the actual content ensures the information is needed by the people. Mostly the opinion leaders are selective and they pass the messages to the group. (Low-end media users: Poor, Worker and People who are not affordable for getting information directly).
Note: The Opinion leaders have enough voice only in structured social groups not in an isolated individual in the population.
Example:
Carol watching News in ANB Channel they flash the headlines with “Research reveals some toys are leads the children’s aggressive and Violent”. That day Carol calls her little son and went for shopping and carol warn her son some toys are not good and made skin allergy which leads her son to avoid those toys.

• Opinion leader: Mom
• Audience: Her Son
• Added information in actual content: Skin Allergy

Critics:
-Researchers found substantial evidence that initial mass media information flows directly to people on the whole and is not relayed by opinion leaders.
-The two-step hypothesis does not adequately describe the flow of learning. Lazarsfeld and his associates in the 1940 election study were unable to determine the specific flow of influence.
- Today most of the advertising researches are based on this theory. Especially opinion leaders role in the society as well as in home to which helps to improve the market with less efforts.

Collective Identitites Theorists: Stanley Cohen

To understand the basics of Stanley Cohen 'Moral Panic' theory.


Stanley Cohen- 1987
"When a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as threat to societal values and interests."




Stanley Cohen looked at societal reaction disturbances involving the Mods and Rockers, which took place in Clacton over Easter Bank holiday in 1964.
Mass Media presented the disturbances as a confrontation between "rival gangs"- "hell ben on distruction".
Cohen discovered that the amount of vandalism and violence was not that great. In fact Mass Media exaggerated the confrontation and the cameras didn't even get there till the day after.
The Mods and Rockers created threat to norms and values fights between their vespers and motor bikes.
The media helped plan the next incident in Whitton, by asking "when will this happen again". It was believed that the Mods and Rockers only made the headlines because there was nothing else to cover that day. The Media coverage led to public concern with the Mods and Rockers, this set in motion a deviance set in motion spiral.

The 5 stages leading to moral panic:

1) Someone or somthing is defined as a threat to normal values
2) Threat is depicted as a sterotype by the media
3) A rapid build up of media interest arouses public cocern
4) Authorities respond to threat
5) The panic results in social change

According to Goode and Ben yemuda (1994) the major characteristics of moral panic are as follows;
-Concern
-Hostility- "them and us" Devision in society
-Concensus- agreement through society
-Disprorpertionality
-Volability - the moral panic blows up but quickly short lived

Other moral panics =
1970's- Mugging
1980's- Football hooliganism/skin heads
1990's- Rave Culture, paedophile
2000's- hoodies, binge drinking, terroism