Compare the representation of Britishness in the Metro Notting Hill Carnival article, the clip from Notting Hill movie and the magazine This England.

Britishness Coursework

In this essay, I will be writing about three different media texts, which we have studied and analysed in class. I am going to compare the representation of ‘Britishness’ and what it is like in Britain, using the three texts. The key terms in the title is to compare, because we are going to talking about each of the texts that we have looked at. Representation means that something stands for another thing, so it represents something in the text- a

The three texts that I will be writing about are Metro Notting Hill Carnival article, the clip from the Notting Hill movie and the magazine This England. First, The Metro Notting Hill Carnival article is dated last year in 2008 and the second one is dated in 2009. For the Metro the target audiences are ABC1, urban workers, 1.7million readers daily, 78% aged 15-44, busy lives- short newspaper meets their needs. The clip from Notting Hill movie was set in our times. This film is more likely to show how it is like in Britain now. The main target audience for Notting Hill the movie is American audiences so it is an American actor that plays a big part in the movie primarily, and females who like romance. This movie is targeted to the audiences between the ages 18-40, with the focus on adults. The Notting Hill film was made in 1999. The magazine This England was probably like the olden times, because you can see all the black and white pictures and the pictures show the wars, evacuation and the queen and royal family. It also shows countryside places and the thatched cottages that used to be in Britain. This magazines target audience is definitely for the older generation. Royalists, traditional thinkers, ex-pats, people who remember parts of the war (bye-gone era), the age of 60+ male and female predominantly white, middle-class.

Britain can be represented in different ways. One thing that represents Britain is the flag. I think this is the main representation because it stands out, and every country has their own flag to represent their country. Another thing that represents Britain is the people and how they are. Like in Britain when you’re in shops or going to buy something, you have to queue up to pay, you can’t just push into the line and get through to the front, because the people behind will start arguing with you and then it could lead to a fight, or even more than that. Many things like food, the people, and others can represent Britain. People mostly have fish and chips, which is the tradition for people who live in Britain. There is also the Christmas dinner, where British families around the world gather and have a meal, they give presents to each other and play games. The Royal Family represents Britain because they are the main people who decide everything. The Queen decides everything that happens in Britain like an agreement. The government has to get acceptance from The Queen before they go and do something, or if they want to change something. Britain has many things that represent it, like there are tourists around, who come and visit the monuments in London like Tower Bridge, London Eye, Big Ben etc.

Furthermore, to me I think that Britishness means to be apart of the British culture. The British Flag is one of the main aspects of British culture because it represents Britain. The colours of the flag also represents Britain, because when it comes to special days or occasions that’s to do with Britain, people usually do wear the colours. All three of the texts, represents Britain, and what it was like in the past, present and what it can be like in the future.

In each of the three texts, they use images or pictures that represent Britishness. First of all The Notting Hill Carnival coverage has a main picture that stands out, it shows ‘5 policemen trying to protect themselves when they see a rioter hurling a bottle towards them in clashes at the end of the carnival’, and the other Notting Hill Carnival coverage deals ‘a 15 year-old boy stabbed and others getting attacked by bottle.’ I think that this shows Britishness because now in Britain it is quite common for newspapers to have reports about a bunch of gangs around who start fights for no reason sometimes. They like to start trouble with people for no reason at all, but also some gangs just have a thing with some people since so long, so they try to get them back, by starting trouble. I think that sometimes it can be a common experience for people in Britain because there is more bad behaviour going on and you will see older and younger people getting hurt. Notting Hill film clip is more like how Britain is now, because you see markets and people buying stuff from their and there’s friendly neighbours who already know each other. This clip shows a friendly environment unlike The Notting Hill Carnival Coverage. This clip represents Britishness by the characters. This film clip also shows that it is clean, well kept, shows the expensive houses, and well-dressed people. Last of all the magazine This England has an inaccurate picture. I think this because this picture shows a quiet place, like a country village image, with the red phone box that people do not use anymore, the thatched roof-houses made from straw, which are not common anymore, because now the houses are made from bricks in Britain. There is also a quiet setting; you do not see many people around, like in the countryside. This image does show Britishness, but it is not accurate of what Britain is like today, because this probably was back in the olden days, typical and peaceful. They have an old-fashioned white van in the picture, which also suggests the picture is old.

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The connotations of the image from Notting Hill Coverage, is that it suggests the policemen cannot cope and defend the public because they are getting hurt by the youths who are throwing bottles at them. There are also the people who are being stabbed by the youths and the police officers are not even stopping them, or are probably scared to even try to help them, because they might be stabbed. This image is constructed by a long shot of parts of the people in the image, who are by the side just watching what is going on in the carnival, and then there are the youths who are throwing bottles and other stuff, injuring people. Some bits are left out like the actual carnival that is going on. It does not show the good parts of the carnival, it just shows the bad parts, when the youths are attacking people and causing trouble. The connotations of the images from Notting Hill film clip are that it is a very friendly environment, clean and well kept with expensive houses. It is a nice friendly place to live in because everyone knows each other and it is a small community. Most of the images in this film are long shot. The film starts from a bird’s eye view of William, the main character in the film walking through the market. Then after that, all the images are long shots. You do not really see much close ups of the characters. I think they do this so that the audience can see the characters and the view of Notting Hill Market in the film.

The use of sound in Notting Hill film clip constructs the meaning for its audience, by letting us hear what is happening. We will know how the environment is, by the use of the sound, because it helps us to feel the atmosphere of the characters and Notting Hill market, it shows the difference, between the place and the carnival. It also shows that it is busy and full of London voices. The connotations of the magazine This England, is that it shows the ‘olden days’, typical, peaceful, not modern. This image from This England magazine shows that it is for the older generation, because it is the countryside and mostly older people would live in quiet places like that. It does not have many houses around, just one thatched house by a post office and you can see the spire from the church. There are other houses around, but they are quite far from each other. This image is constructed in a long shot as well as the other two texts. This shot type is used to show how the image is, to take in all the features of the village.

The Notting Hill Carnival coverage is not that typical, because generally the police are there to defend us, and to help us out with any bad behaviour or whatever the situation is. However, this carnival coverage was an unusual occasion, because the police were not even defending us or doing anything about the youths who were throwing bottles at others and the people who were being stabbed. The year that this Notting Hill Carnival coverage came out was in 2008 and there was more in 2009, but still even though this coverage does not show an accurate representation of Britishness. The Notting Hill film clip does show some accuracy of the setting of Britain, with the friendly people and environment, who have nice clean and expensive houses. Nevertheless, from the demographic of society is not accurate because it is not always like that; there are some places which do not have a friendly environment, and many people who know each other. This film was made not long ago, but it does show a bit of how Britain could be. This England Magazine does not show an accurate portrayal of Britain today, because the image shows that it is quiet and that there are not many people there, and today you see many people and it is not that quiet, and there are many houses and cars around, not just fields. We are meant to think that it is taken today, because of the way it looks. This was probably taken long time ago, back in the olden days where it was quiet then. It does affect the representation a little bit, because it is not like that now.

I think that the message that the Notting Hill Coverage is giving the audience about Britain or Britishness is that the police are under attack from British youths. It will go to the target audiences and let them know what it is like, because they do need to stop the bad behaviour, and if they show it to many people then they will get the message eventually. The people with busy lives who take a metro everyday after coming in or out of the stations, they get to see what is going on, especially the people who do not like reading about politics. People who work expect security from the police, but the police are not always there to protect them because they are too scared themselves.

The Notting Hill film clip is giving the audience a message about Britain or Britishness by showing us that sometimes it can be friendly, it does not have to be like the Notting Hill Carnival coverage. This film clip shows more of what it should be like to be Britishness, because it appeals to the target audience as they have American stars like Julia Roberts, people like to see them, because it shows the image of Britain and how it’s like using the American stars, it also shows that Britain is also a friendly environment, with people who might know each other. Last of the message that This England magazine is giving the audience about Britain or Britishness is that it is quiet and that there are not much things going on around Britain unlike what it shows in the Notting Hill Carnival coverage and the Notting Hill film clip. For the target audience which is mostly ex-pats, it reminds them of how it use to be back in their days, and they remember everything like the wars (bye-gone era).

The uses of language that are used in the three texts that we studied are more formal, violent, and friendly. The Notting Hill Carnival coverage has more of a violent language. The article form the metro shows strong language like “attacked”, mob, chaos, violence, youths etc. This shows that there must have been a lot of violence in the carnival. The language of this gives a bad name to Britain, because there are so many strong language to describe how the carnival was. “A man suffered facial wounds”. This suggests that there were more then people being attacked, most people was hurt violently and injured brutally. When the audience reads this, they would think badly about Britain. They use persuasive language to grab the audience’s attention and to read and understand what goes on for example, hearing about what happened in Notting Hill Carnival Coverage it shows that there were bad behaviour and it probably also ended in a bad way, with people getting arrested and people dying. The language used in The Notting Hill film clip is friendlier compared to Notting Hill Carnival coverage because the film shows that Notting Hill the place is a goof place to be in. You can see a clean friendly environment and you don’t see any bad behaviour going on or any stabbing or anyone getting attacked by youths. In the film you can see people saying hi to each other and greeting each other in a good manner. The language in the Notting Hill film clip is used to send a message about Britishness or Britain culture to its audience, by showing us the way people are with each other and how nice some people can be and that nothing bad can always happen. The audience would take this message to be useful, because it will give them an answer whether Britain is a good place or bad by looking at the Notting Hill Carnival Coverage and the Notting Hill film clip. By looking at the Notting Hill film clip it should persuade the audience about how it is like there. The language that is used in This England Magazine is more formal like the Notting Hill film clip. It reminds people of a green and pleasant land. They use religious references like ‘God bless the Prince of Wales’ and it’s a reference to the royal family, because you see lots of pictures from the magazine. They use olden times language because it’s in the 1940 our year to remember, which is a historical reference, remembering a time long ago. I think that language is used to send a message about Britishness or British culture to its audience is by trying to persuade us about how it is like to be British and showing us by the way they use the language. Overall, Notting Hill film clip and This England Magazine use more formal language than the Metro. The Metro uses more slang words, to link with its large young target audience. All of the three texts use persuasive language to get the audience to agree with what the author/director is saying.

The target audience for all three of the texts are very different from each other in a way. There are some similarities which are that Notting Hill Carnival coverage and the Notting Hill film clip has the same age as a target audience which is from the age of 18 and over. There are not really that many similarities, but there are plenty of differences, like for example they all have a different background to each other. This England Magazine has like an olden time picture so that people can remember the past; The Notting Hill Carnival Coverage has a more violent background, with the youths starting trouble and attacking others with bottles. Last of all The Notting Hill film clip has more of a peaceful, quiet and friendly background. All three of the texts have different audiences to each other. The target audience for This England Magazine might respond to Notting Hill or The Metro article by the way it is set. The target audience for This England Magazine is more for the older generation so it is more different to the other two texts.

However, there are some representations that are missing in some of the texts. This England Magazine needs to show more Britishness, because it shows more of the olden days, when there were wars and evacuations with the kids and it shows the Royal Family. They should show more of what it is like now in Britain, they are missing those parts of Britain. The Notting Hill Carnival coverage misses out the good things. It shows the youths attacking and fighting with the police and hurting other people, but it doesn’t show all the good parts, where people are enjoying themselves and having fun in the carnival. This is why people might be thinking Britain is a bad place rather than a good place to be in. last of The Notting Hill film clip shows the good parts of Britain but obviously it is not always like that. You would see people being friendly neighbours by saying hi to each other but it is missing the other people who are not from the area and what it is actually like.

In Conclusion, the main social and cultural messages of The Notting Hill Carnival coverage is that there are mainly youths and police who are around. The police are trying to stop them and others from getting hurt. They use urban workers, quite a young audience between the age of 18-35, and people with busy lives, because a short newspaper meets their needs. The aspects of British culture that the text focuses on are that there are unrest and violence in the society and that the police are losing control because the youths are causing too many problems. The aspects of British culture that the text leaves out are the fun of the carnival, the success and the good parts of the experience. The fact that it was a very small minority of ‘youths’ who created the chaos. The main social and cultural messages of the Notting Hill film clip are that the place sounds nice and friendly, with a clean and good environment. It is made for an American audience and it appeals to them more because it paints an image of Britain and what it is like. It has a target audience for 18-40, focusing mainly on the adults. The aspects of British culture that the text focuses on are that it shows the beauty of Notting Hill, and the friendliness of London. It also shows the wealth of the people who live there, and there are more adults than young people. The aspects of British culture that the text leaves out are that there are other aspects of London life, like crime, diverse ethnicity and young people. The main social and cultural messages of This England Magazine are that it is all about what England was like before back in the days, they want the older generation to remember the things that use to happen then. The target audiences that they use are Royalists and traditional thinkers, ex-pats, and mostly people from the age 60+ male and female. The aspects of British culture that the text focuses on are that it has preoccupations with the war, and mainly to do with the royal family, history, countryside and the beauty of England. It shows it has happened a long time ago the bye-gone era. The aspects of British culture that the text leaves out are modern life, it doesn’t show what is going on now in Britain. Also the technology, some of the photos are black and white, doesn’t show the reality of living in 2009, and it leaves out the young people like the ‘youth’. Overall I think that some of the texts are accurate in way, but mostly The Notting Hill film clip, because it shows more of what it is like in Britain, even though there can be youths who like to start trouble often. Not all of them are accurate either especially This England Magazine as it shows more of the wars that happened back in the days and it doesn’t really show what is going on now in Britain. I think that The Notting Hill Carnival coverage is a bit accurate because things like this can happen and it ain’t really that pleasant. Britain has changed a lot since the olden days, there are not many wars, but in other countries there are. You do see a lot of youths these days who like starting trouble and attacking others, but there are also friendly neighbours and nice people around In Britain.

Wahida Begum