GDB A-Level Media

Why representation is important: allows audience to relate to characters allows the producer to construct a text easier coveys the ideology in a more idea way for the producer gives insight into other cultures etc that people otherwise wouldn't know about they are NOT REAL - they are a construction of reality, but also constructs reality!!! a type of bias they aren't the world itself, but a recreation of the world CAMILLE - she is representing young girls, and therefore her long hair and pale skin make her seem delicate and gentle - atypical as she is not in hoodie or jeans, and quite complex - her complexity mirrors the complexity of the show - the red hair seems unconventional, and as one of 'The Returned' she is meant to stand out - the target audience may feel sympathy towards her as she is going through a confusing time being alive all of a sudden SIMON - he is supposed to represent young men and he looks very youthful - th...

Introduction structure - DAC D efinition - key term analysis A rgument - argue one way and stick to it (choose your point of view) C ontext Paragraph structure - PEA P oint - related to the media product E vidence - use media language and theory from key scene analysis A rgument -   how this links to your argument Key Key Key terms -  intertextuality ideology hegemony negotiated polysemy Question - "'In the 21st century, it is essential for TV shows to offer multiple meanings' - evaluate this claim with references to Les Revenents" Knee-Jerk reaction - yes, due to repetition and difference, as well as reaching a wider audience - relates to cult TV and how a product is made for a more devoted and niche cultural audience - reception theory  - bring in links from the TV show that relates to this (i.e. opening scene, with butterfly smashing out of the glass case) Scene: -long cut to black emphasises the audience's own sudden...

Genre Les Revenents doesn't fit into purely one genre, and is an example of genre hybridity . It is a supernatural drama series with elements of things like crime and mystery, due to it's range of story arcs . What this enables the producer to do is reach a wider target audience . However, the show does not really match up to Todorov's theory of equilibrium as the normality of the French town is disrupted, which makes it's narrative unconventional . Because of this, it doesn't give the audience what they want as the show never comes to a proper resolution . What this show also displays is repetition & difference , due to the way it regurgitates genre conventions however it creates something much more different and more diverse to the rest of the genre. Supernatural elements -  - narrative of people returning - the body language of the characters - mise-en-scene or pathetic fallacy of night time and rain Mystery elements - - entire show is based...

Differences - - Robots are much more fake, and much more like current AI robots, with USB ports - A different storyline with the 'Real Humans' group alongside - Much more violence and horrible imagery, such as dead couple - The main family doesn't actually want a 'hubot' in the Swedish version - George/Odi are known to the family whereas it's a separate storyline in the British version - Mathilda is much less of a bitch in the Swedish version, but there is still an element of rebellion - Leo and the group of synths is much less in the British version - More focus on the technology and underground bot market Similarities - - The main family are all exactly the same - Laura dislikes the synth in both episodes - There is more focus on sex robots in the Swedish version but both feature it - The robot sales floor is similar - Anita is of asian descent in both episodes

In the UK, television has a 'watershed' period which has been agreed that inappropriate content is shown only after 9pm , and this prevents young children from being exposed to things like extreme violence and nudity . This also means that the channels get less complaints. Ofcom   is the regulatory service in the UK which oversees the regulation of British TV. It helps reduce harm and offence by limiting it. It is "required to assess the likelihood of material encouraging or inciting the commission of crime or of leading to disorder", which could be something which portrays racial hatred and encourages things like hate crimes. The mass media can be used to manipulate groups of people, and a main concern with this is the hypodermic syringe theory . This is a passive audience theory, which means that people just take in and copy what they see. Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lundt theorised that regulation very rarely works , and this is because the internet m...

What are the genre conventions of this product, how do they work, and how have they developed? - Use of the bright green eyes - Use of diegetic sound when the synths are turned on - Awkward, robotic movements of the synths - Mise-en-scene of the synths being clean cut with blue clothes, no blemishes on their faces, smooth hair - Blue and white colouring is unnatural and connotes to sci-fi due to the setting being conventional of other sci-fi / dystopian films In the show 'Humans', the genre has been developed to display an alternate reality, or an utopia world which is littered with dystopian connotations - for example, the family and the synth warehouse and their world is bright and happy and displays the synths in a stereotypical way, however Leo's search for Mia is much more dystopian and dark in comparison. There is very little sci-fi within this series however the conventions within it make it more familiar, and the other elements make it more interesting. On...

UK drama tends to be 6-8 episodes long, UK comedy series tend to be around 6 and Humans has 8 episodes per season - it is a sci-fi/drama series. The original show was Swedish. The BBC started out as a non-commercial venture, made to educate and inform it's audience. However, TV has become more global and this means that it has had to adapt its structure, role and function in order to achieve global success. HBO (home box office) is a company who uses things like streaming to get around regulations in America. This means that they can also distribute their shows worldwide. The TV industry is very fragmented, because there are so many channels and cable options and streaming services which people can use. This makes television much more diverse and it can be confusing to know when we are actually watching television. Documentary - on November 2nd 1936, the BBC's first broadcast in HD - countries all over the world were competing with one another to create TV - John Bai...

hyperreality = beyond reality The premise of hyperreality is that the representation of real life is actually more real than what people actually consider 'real life'. "it is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real" - Jean Baudrillard Simulacra - a representation of something that never existed to begin with. Examples of SIMULACRA in 'Humans': - the synths are simulacra because they are not the same as robots that exist now - the parallel world to our own POSTMODERNISM includes making media which is deliberately outrageous and grabs the attention of their audience by being particularly daring. An example of postmodernism is 'bricolage', where things are just thrown together and some of the time it is purposefully bad. It's anti-theory, as in that the world should not rely on what is theoretical because the world is meaningless.

Humans has an ensemble cast - and this means that it is hard to tell who the protagonist is due to the fact there are so many people within the cast. This also means there are a lot of character arcs within the show. The closest we could get to protagonists within the first episode are Leo and Anita. Different story arcs/character arc ep1: - Joe's struggle within the household and buying Anita - George and Odi's relationship - George's declining health - Laura's insecurity of Anita - Matilda's struggle with the Synth - Leo and the synths being taken - Leo trying to find Anita - Niska in the brothel - Detective Drummond and the synth - Anita stealing Sophie 'Humans' starts "in medias res" - in the middle of a story. This means that hermeneutic codes are created much more easily and the characters develop in a much more interesting way. The stories intertwine and flow in a more interesting way. Van Zoonen suggested that gender is c...

HUMANS is highly polysemic - it has many meanings.  This means that it appeals to a wider audience and that it it very dense. However, this means that it is quite hard to understand. Donna Harraway - "we are all chimeras, theorised and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism" : here she is saying that people's lives are so influenced by the technology we use, and things which help us to become more advanced. The use of technology in society helps us within life in order to improve the way we think, feel and do things in order to make our lives more convenient. Globalisation is something that we rely on a lot in the modern world because products are made and imported from other countries to our own. In the other countries, they are made using technology (i.e machines) and transported using technology ( i.e. trucks). This displays how much human beings rely on technology and that it truly is becoming a part of us. WHAT DOES BEING HUMAN MEAN? - we are much mor...

AUTONOMY - having control over your own life AUTOMATON - a robot which is controlled by someone else Representation is used to show something again, often the way something is represented is chosen by the producer. This emits and ideology to the audience. They are manipulating the audience to think in a certain way, and challenges what the audience normally thinks. The ideology will slowly grow within the audience and cultivate their own beliefs. What roles do 'synths' and women  play in Humans? slaves cleaners prostitutes workers mother housewife children a friend or companion professionals Early on in the episode, the young girl says to her father, "I hope she's pretty", and this adds to the element of Anita being almost like a doll, and the young girl wants to aspire to be like her. She also wants to have something she can show off like a pretty posession. The Closing Montage -  both Anita and Laura show affection towards the chil...

Allegory - a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one Zeitgeist - the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas a beliefs of the time An example of an allegory would be Godzilla (Japan 1950, Ishiro Honda), which is an allegory for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The monster represents America, and the fact that he is a mutated species represents the nuclear/toxic waste and the way that it was unnatural and inhuman. It also was a little less raw to them, and appealed to more people. When America had overtaken Japan, they made them become more left wing and more westernised. What makes 'Humans' Sci-Fi?? - use of word 'synth' to describe them - the old man who fixes his synth makes it obvious he is a robot, along with the glitches - robotic speech and some head movements - computer generated music, glitch sounds - stock footage for titles involving robots and al...