The Relationship between Television Comedy and Identity
Critically assess the relationship between television comedy and identity: 'Comedy has potentially a unique ability to be political in that it operates so frequently by transgressing boundaries' (Andrews, 1998) In this essay I will analyze how television comedy is the ideal medium in which to challenge the confines of representation. Comedy is the second most popular genre of program on British television. It tolerates the expression of ideas that are restricted in other contexts, playing 'a critical part in reflecting our national culture and the way we live now' (Mark Thompson, BBC, 2004). In addition, this reflection of society is most deliberately played upon with the representation of gender and race. Both of these representations in comedy tend to form crucial elements from which humour is essentially derived. Gender acts as a comedic tool where social norms can be broken. Furthermore, the changing of contexts can create odd perceptions of typical behaviour, while stereotypes of masculine and feminine identities are often exaggerated and mixed. Similarly race allows us to laugh at our prejudice by amplifying the behaviour, accents and social situations that we see, hear and experience everyday. Situation comedy's enforcement of stereotypes allows the viewer to recognise personality traits, creating pleasure through decoding identities and forming a type of abstract
UK Media Markets.
UK Media Markets It is an expanding and lucrative media market in today's society, where media takes advantage of the choices it can give. Media is different from other industries its competitive framework has a purpose - it guarantees proper competition in the economic cycle and also sustains the well being of society through the range of information made available. Competition is the driving force for diversity. Ofcom - (the Office of Communications) is built to end years of confusion for viewers surrounding broadcast regulations, which had been run by five different watchdogs. The new watchdog will be one giant organisation replacing all five, and it is hoped should help lift the weight off the shoulders of all the other combined watchdogs. The five watchdogs they will be replacing include Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, Radio Authority Office of Telecommunications and Radiocommunications Agency. This has been debated by some saying that they will not be able to handle the different sectors as they don't have enough experience in the different fields. The Broadcasting Standards Commission will cease to exist on 29 December 2003 The UK's consumer watchdog, the National Consumer Council, has criticised Ofcom plans to relax the way TV and radio advertising is regulated. According to the Guardian newspaper, Ofcom, the new communications
Big Brother is less interesting the epitome of boredom.
Big Brother is less interesting the epitome of boredom Television used to be like the movies, an escape from reality. A unique story, specially crafted, either funny or exciting or intelligent or emotional. Now the television set, once so idealistically thought of as our window on the world has become a dime-store mirror. Reality TV is talking over our screens and so yet again in Big Brother we have to put up with Davina McCall shouting through the whole the series while we observe every movement of a group of simply normal people. But the public do seem to find this appealing as millions of Britons continue to watch this mind numbing television programme. These people never stop to ask themselves why they care about who is going to get evicted on Saturday night or why they bother watching things they see every. Thus if you look at Big Brother intellectually you see that there is in fact nothing interesting about the show. In regular life, watching the intimate details of a stranger's life is called spying, or "voyeurism," and is frowned upon to the extent of being illegal with a penalty of up to five years imprisonment. But Big Brother indulges and seems to project a glorified version of voyeurism. Views can avoid all semblance of having a life and spend their time watching someone else do it for them. I may be missing the point but surely the whole idea of watching
How BBC World(TM)s World News Today and CNN International(TM)s World News Asia produces their evening news shows
Jennifer CHUNG Hiu Kei (2005654208) JMSC0046 Intro to Television - Laurie 9 Dec 2007 Research Project How BBC World's "World News Today" and CNN International's "World News Asia" produces their evening news shows Every time I watch the evening news and see the lead story, I wonder what other news also occurred during the day around the world but missed out the winning title of being the most important piece. I also ponder over what other news events happened but weren't featured in the limited news time there is for each show. These thoughts lead me to investigate as to how editors and producers make the tough yet crucial decisions every day when deciding what kind of stories they run in their news broadcasts and how they prioritize the news events. I also want to explore what other factors may contribute to the decision for designing the run down each night. Understanding that if there's a continuous thriving supply of a product, there must mean there is a steady demand for it as well. In the case of evening news programs, this must mean there is a specific target audience demanding the news broadcasts. Who this target audience is and how the role of the audience plays out in the chaotic world of decision makings under time constraints, are some of the interesting questions that I intend to investigate. I also intend to explore how producers balance between journalistic
Active audiences have a mind of their own and they inject their own meanings into media messages that they receive via different mediums.
Active audiences have a mind of their own and they inject their own meanings into media messages that they receive via different mediums. As an active audience, they have the freedom of choice in their selection of media and its content. They may also have different responses to the media. Over time research studies have shifted in focus to study audiences as having an active nature rather then a passive one. Different arguments have thus been brought up to support the idea that audiences are active. This essay will aim to study the arguments for the active audience. An active audience is one who interprets media messages by constructing their own meanings to it. They question the media messages that they receive, agreeing only with what they believe in while they criticise and rejecting others based upon their past experiences or knowledge that they have. Active audiences do not allow themselves to be manipulated by the media and media itself also does not have any direct influence on audiences because they interpret media messages differently and have different responses to it. According to Viola (2002), audiences who actively interpret a programme will bring to a text different subjectivity and readings due to different social backgrounds as well as knowledge resources of the programme and life. Audiences are therefore not 'sponges' who simply absorb media messages just
Explain how either broadcasting or the press are regulated in the UK.
Explain how either broadcasting or the press are regulated in the UK. In terms of the media, the broadcasting section of it is relatively 'new or recent' particularly when we compare it's life span (from around 1900 to present) to that of the press, which has had a long illustrious history dating from around 1702 (England's first daily newspaper). Most theorists, authors etc. will date the broadcasting media as coming into existence around (1900, when radio technology was being developed). Broadcasting (to broadcast) is essentially defined as 1: to transmit by radio or t.v. 2: to tell many people n: a radio or television programme or transmission. In definition being very simple, the regulation of the broadcasting media diverges away from simplicity. There are a number of regulatory bodies, that alone control and maintain standards within television. These include the independent television commission (ITC), the broadcasting standards council (BSC), OFTEL and The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) which also has a 300-page booklet of producer's guidelines of which oversight is invested in a four-person editorial-unit. When we think of Broadcasting, generally speaking we associate the term with Radio, Television and now through advancements in technology, the Internet. Regulation is termed as 1: a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority in accordance with
Describe The Dominant Features That Characterise Different River channel Patterns. Is Channel Pattern Easily Classified or a Continuum?
Describe The Dominant Features That Characterise Different River channel Patterns. Is Channel Pattern Easily Classified or a Continuum? A basic way of defining channel pattern is to say that it is, "a term to describe how a river looks from above." (Leopold 'A view of a river' pp56.) However for this essay I feel that it is more appropriate to use the view of Knighton and Nanson who describe the term as "one of the means whereby a natural river can adjust to its channel form to imposed flow and sediment." Leopold and Wolman (1957) classified channel pattern into three types; straight, meandering and braided. As time has progressed several other patterns have been defined. These include 'wandering channels' (Carson, 1984) and 'Anastomosing channels' (Smith and Putnam,1980.) This essay will describe the characteristics of each of the 5 major types of channel pattern and will further attempt to answer the question of whether river channel patterns are distinctive in that they are easily classified or whether they remain in a continuous transitional state whereby one type progresses into the next. Most of the literature that I have read concerning channel patterns have classified that there are 5 major types; straight, meandering, braided, anastomosing and wandering. There is however some reference to schumm and his 14 types of channel pattern that are catergorised by the
textual analysis of SATC
ASSIGNMENT 2 After going through all of the material covered in the last Semester of Researching Culture, I decided that the theoretical material which appealed most to me was the work of Judith Butler in the topic Sexuality and Subjectivity. In 'Gender Trouble' (1990) Butler describes gender and sex as being performed, as opposed to natural or essential. I decided to choose to analyse an episode of the HBO sitcom 'Sex and the City' as I believe it demonstrates Butler's theories of how the repetition of a discourse about femininity, masculinity, sexuality and desire exemplify the idea that we 'perform' gender and sex. Before beginning to analyse my chosen episode of 'Sex and the City' called 'What's Sex Got to Do with It?' I looked through the approaches available to me from the module material. I found the approach which was most suited to my way of thinking and looking at various texts, was that of textual analysis, in the model of Roland Barthes: Texts as Sign Systems - Mythologies. This is most likely my preferred way of thinking due to my years as a English and Media student, where textual analysis was dominant in the material covered. However I believed this was the best way forward as it was the approach which I understood most clearly in my mind. Although most people will have seen the world famous, award-winning 'Sex and the City' at some point in their lives, I
Disney and the BBC - Media institutions often determine what way the audience interprets the meaning.
Media institutions often determine what way the audience interprets the meaning. The domination of big institutions like Disney and the BBC in their respective markets is often met with resentment from their competitors. The BBC has clashed often with governments over what is acceptable broadcasting most recently over Andrew Gilligan's claim that the government 'sexed up' the dossier presented to the house of commons as a vindication for war. Disney is one of the biggest media corporations in the world. It's estimated value is put at $23 billion. Disney does not make this fortune solely from characters like Donald, Mickey and Goofy but from the diverse range of markets it has entered into. Disney is however expected both by consumers and Disney shareholders to stand for the traditional family values, which are seen in Disney films. Disney's business interests include Miramax films as well as other film houses and television stations like ABC the Disney ideals have to stay separate from association with these other companies as many of them directly clash with Disney. Miramax is best known for producing films like Quentin Tarantino's 2003 gore fest 'Kill Bill'. Disney's family values mean that films like 'Kill Bill' would never be made with an attachment for Disney. It makes good business sense to keep their distance from such movies even though they are directly responsible
University/Biological Sciences/Biology/Ecology
Maria Moskovakis 6339516 Some humanitarian crises make the front page while others wait in vain for their turn in the spotlight because Whilst others make the front page because of the connection between them and other countries, such as Hurricane Katrina which viciously destroyed the New Orleans region. It made front pages around the world for weeks where as other crises such as the crisis in Africa and the slaughtering of Somalia's did not make headlines worldwide. According to studies conducted people see, humanitarian crises as a "disaster", and a threat to the health and safety of a group or communities over a large area. Whether it is an epidemic, conflict or a natural disaster, this term of "crises" applies to all. Some humanitarian crises make the front page whilst other events are not completely covered; this is because of the media events, that take place and could mean better coverage and more viewers, for example, Hurricane Katrina. On the 29th of August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the city of Orleans with winds over 90 kilometers an hour destroying houses, taking out electricity and leaving people deserted; with up to 17 metres of water covering the majority of the city. Two days later, on the 31st of August 2005, 80 percent of the city was under water. The people of New Orleans were left without any food or water supplies, left to fend for themselves, with no