News Values

Thousands of potential news events happen everyday.

How do newspapers get their news stories?

-from the public

-tip offs from publicists and PR

-news agencies -e.g. reuters(the moment a news event happens they get it, they are the first response team, they are on the ground first, they will then sell the stories onto newspapers)

-leaks and tip offs (e.g. police/politics), research

How do they decide what is newsworthy?

The popular press use news values to decide what news is worthy for print.

The news values:

-Negativity -far more likely to capture the public interest ‘bad news is good news’ the public are more interested in drama and negativity than they are in positive news.

-Proximity-how close? if there is any relation to Britain? by relating it to britain makes it feel ‘closer’ to home

-Unexpectedness-make a story sound likes it’s ‘fresh’ and ‘new’

-Frequency- make it like it never goes away, e.g. haiti, the earthquake, aid effort, violence on streets etc

There is a massive amount of competitiveness in the press, the newspapers must decide what stories are going to get the most public interest.

newspaper-the sun

What makes ‘The Fear’ by Lily Allen an interesting case study in music video within the pop music industry?

London Records has produced a music video for Lily Allen’s song entitled ‘The Fear’. The song itself seems to be about how the popular music industry represents ‘fame and fortune’ and celebrity culture, the style and techniques used throughout the video helps to support this narrative.  

It is first shown to be a music video by the use of the artist lip syncing; also the edits are all in time to the beat making it flow well. By using shots of a caravan in a field it shows how Lily Allen has links with the festival crowd due to the fact festivals are hosted in fields. Also later in the video the use of butlers dancing around Lily Allen and lifting her makes reference to pop music videos such as Britney Spears’ ‘I’m a slave 4 you’. However instead of the butlers dancing round her in a ‘suggestive’ way they dance around her in a comic style which is less sexually suggestive and less derogatory to women. The dancing butlers could also be seen as making fun of Hollywood musicals such as Annie. This is done to show how the ideologies of Holly Wood have affected the way people think, also it represents the way the media portrays being famous; that it’s harmless and easy. Aspects of the video can be linked to genres such as pop and urban because of the use of dance routines and electronic production style. From the way that the lyrics are sung at the beginning it gives the song a slightly poetic feel, because of the way Lily Allen half speaks and half sings the song.

The narrative taking place in ‘The Fear’ is a classic fantasy fairy tale of ‘rags to riches’. The ideology suggested connects to the American Dream which is projected all over the world. This story is told in a surrealist way. For example, at the beginning of the video Lily Allen walks into what would be a cupboard in the caravan but, similar to Narnia, it opens into a mansion or what could be seen as another world to which she started off. Also later in the video there is another example of surrealism, the dancing presents and balloons. These surrealist techniques make ‘The Fear’ quite satirical; some of the topics it looks at are the way that the media degrades women and how the media manipulates those involved in it. For example ‘I am a weapon of massive consumption, and it’s not my fault it’s how I’m programmed to function’ this suggests that the media brainwashes those involved with it to act and behave in a certain way. The use of surrealist techniques helps to confirm how unreachable and extreme the idea of ‘rags to riches’ is.

Lily Allen’s target audience is a mass audience of mainly women and couples between the ages of 15-30. She also appeals to part of the indie audience because she is quite big at festivals. The video for the fear has been made to appeal to her audience by firstly, setting the beginning of the video in a field showing that she is keeping the link to her festival crowd even though she is quite mainstream. As the audience she appeals to is mainly women, Lily Allen does not have to be degrading to women to keep her audience interested. For example in the video she is wearing a classy vintage dress showing women in a positive way fully dressed unlike in Britney Spears’ video for ‘Toxic’ where at one point she seems only to be wearing a cat suit made of tiny diamonds.

As Lily Allen has a strong following of women, she is able to appeal to them by using ideas that many of these independent and opinionated women have had, and using her ‘fame’ as a way of making these views heard. Lily Allen herself is thought of as an independent yet ‘outspoken’ woman, however it may not be that she is ‘outspoken’, but the media and public are not used to young female artists voicing their opinion compared to the silent, record company controlled female artists in the mainstream. Lily Allen attacks the industry that makes it ‘cool’ to be famous, that makes it ‘cool’ to be naked and ‘cool’ to be an object for men. An example of this attack could be seen during the lyrics ‘I’ll take all my clothes off and it will be shameless ‘cuz everyone knows that’s how you get famous’. During this point of the video, Lily is shown walking towards the camera and saying the line bluntly making the audience question that line and the way artists get noticed. An example of a girl group brought to fame by this type of behaviour would be that of ‘The Pussycat Dolls’, they target both the male and female market, but in very different ways, for women they have brought out a lingerie line and for girls they have a ‘Pussycat doll’ and yet they are wearing very little clothes to be aesthetically pleasing to their male market. 

Lily Allen is signed to London Records which is an ‘Indie’ label. The fact that Lily Allen belongs to an Indie label means that she is able to reach out to audiences that she would not necessarily be accepted by if she were signed by a major, for example ‘NME’ readers that are thought of to be more alternative or indie. However London records is owned by AOL/Times/Warner which is a conglomerate meaning that Lily Allen was also able to break in America because she has the funding of a conglomerate. AOL/Times/Warner is able to saturate the market both by horizontal and vertical integration. This means that they are able to put her in print, on the internet and film, by doing this they are able to ensure that she is globally and immediately well know and successful.

Looking at music videos by using semiotics, one is able to explore the meaning and ideology behind many of the props and actions portrayed in all types of media. In the video for the song ‘The Fear’ there are many different ideas and views displayed throughout. The use of a caravan represents working class; this is because of that caravan holidays used to seem very working class; however the colours of the caravan used have quite a retro feel. The caravan is positioned in a field, the field can be seen to represent simplicity and freedom; also field could be linked to festivals, festivals are seen to be arty, cool and indie.  

The costume for Lily Allen in this particular video, a vintage dress with a bow shows ideas of alternativeness and individuality. Her costume could be thought of as being sexy, however not in the same way as that of Holly Valance in ‘Kiss Kiss’, in a more mature and glamorous way. The costume ensures that Lily Allen is not thought of as an object, but represents women as being independent, stylish and sophisticated.

The caravan opens up into a mansion to clearly show the ‘rags to riches’ dream; this is quite a surreal moment and could be seen as similar to ‘Narnia’. The furnishing in the mansion also seems to link to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for example the extravagant doors, staircases and ceilings. The fact that there is a huge table of cakes and various liquids on her dressing table shows the ‘ups and downs’ that one could have whilst in the music industry. This could be thought because of the significance of the different foods in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for example, when Alice shrank she drank a liquid and when she grew she ate a biscuit. 

As Lily Allen enters the mansion there are two rows of butlers, when she approaches them they begin to dance around her and lift her up. This makes a connection to Holly Wood musicals such as Annie, which is also part of a ‘rags to riches’ dream world. The amount of publicising the rags to riches idea gets id probably due to the fact that ‘The American Dream’ is also very similar and as American companies saturate the market this ‘dream’ is so well advertised and believed. 

When she walks into the room full of large presents, this is yet another reference to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as the presets are larger than life. The presents join in the dance with Lily Allen; this could represent how fake and shallow the music industry is, plus the fact that the presents can dance shows how over the top everything is in the media. Also, this could refer to the uncertainty of the music industry, because these presents now have legs they could be dancing around Lily Allen one day however they can quite easily move away to dance around somebody else. Also, by using fairytales and children’s stories that people know it helps back up the idea of the Holly Wood fairytale and that everyone should grow out of it, yet some of the values are worth remembering or to be taken as a warning.

The ‘indie-pop’ genre and the ‘pop’ genre have a vast difference in the way that they target their audiences. In the indie-pop genre female artists do not use there music videos to advertise their bodies, instead they advertise themselves and their quality of song writing and/or singing. However in some aspects of the ‘pop’ industry female artists such as Holly Valance choose to target their audience, that are of the ‘Zoo’ reading men, by showing off their body as a sex object. In the example of Holly Valance, she has sold as being very ‘sexy’ and throughout her video many different connotations are made to sexualise her. Firstly, her lips at the beginning of the video are shiny and red; this can be seen to represent availability. At points in the video her hair and clothes are also wet, this can be interpreted as suggesting the idea of a shower and nudity or being in a club and the idea of perspiration from dancing.

Whereas, Lily Allen is generally represented as being thoughtful and clever, yet she did use clothing to grab the attention of the media and public by mixing of big fairy ‘prom’ dresses with iconic Nike trainers. These clothes almost define Lily Allen’s role in the pop industry, being part of its madness, with the fairy ‘prom’ dresses, yet remain connected with the issues that all people face, with the Nike trainers. Unreachable and reachable.

I like what the video is trying to say about the ‘industry’ and the people involved; she is clearly unhappy about the way the media is currently and it’s good that she has decided to stand up for what she believes. However, Lily Allen is currently living the life that throughout the video she is criticizing. For example, ‘it’s all about fast cars and cussing each other’, she has been known for having very public bitch fights in the media with people such as Cheryl Cole and Katy Perry. Also, the video encourages audience responses like aspiration, so the audience desire her lifestyle or alternative style, it may be that her video presents some alternative answers, but it could contribute to the problem she has.

Music Video Evaluation

Our music video was for Noah and the Whales single 5 Years Time. Noah and the Whale are an Indie-folk band from Twickenham. The video contains a couple that are shown to be in love, the video expresses the difficulties and perks of such a relationship.

Our music video follows the codes and conventions of a music video in many different ways. Firstly, the video uses a rhythmic edit pace to make the film flow with the music and provide comfortable viewing. Throughout the video montages are used, although they do not always relate directly to the specific scenes taking place. The montages give the effect of ‘the best bits’ of the relationship between the couple, the changes in what is happening between the couple demonstrates the pace and passion of young love. In the video there is no lip syncing, however signs are used in certain places to that are synced with the lyrics. For example, in the chorus the lyrics ‘five years time’ are synced with the banners that read the same, this is also an example of rhythmic editing.

The video also follows the codes and conventions of the indie genre. For example, and acoustic guitar is being played outside during is used to give the feel of live music which has strong links with the indie genre. The majority of the video was filmed in Camden Town, which has strong links with the indie alternative scene, including many venues. In the video the couple used were intentionally dressed in clothes that are associated with the indie genre, such as skinny jeans, hoodies and high-waisted skirts. We purposefully made the video look quite ‘home-made’ because ‘indie’ videos often use this technique. Shots of trees and the sky, used in the video, give the idea of freedom which is similar to what rock videos because they are ‘too wild’ to be kept in a studio.

The video follows the codes and conventions of the music video; it stays within the expected outcome for an indie video. This is because we are aware that there is an appropriate audience for this product and we know what appeals to this audience, by staying with the ‘walls’ of indie we are able to assure that our video appeals to our target market and is successful within that market. The video also shows stereo typical ‘indie kids’ due to the fact they are all white, also all of the video was filmed in north London, where there are large amounts of middle class people, for example, certain areas of Camden, Crouch End and Muswell Hill. However, being able to show a stereotypical ‘indie kid’ defeats the purpose of being ‘indie’; when being an individual there should be no way of putting you into a certain ‘group’ of being a certain ’type’ person, but due to the marketing of how ‘indie kids’ should look, also displayed in the music video itself, we were able to provide suitable cast and costume to fit the genre.

The narrative taking place revolves around the couple; it is a non-linear narrative that is more of a montage of their relationship. One of the themes in our video is existentialism, it shows the couple being reckless and gives the feeling of abandoning the system, and living a hippy lifestyle. The linear sequence of the video is broken by the use of signs; these signs are quotes from the lyrics, making them relevant to the story line.

The target audience for the music video is 14-21 year olds, due to the fact that the genre of this video is indie; the audience for this kind of video is likely to be dominated by white, middle class people. I had to think carefully about the mode of address; this is shown by the choice of using Camden Town as the shooting location, this is suitable because our audience associate it with fashion and alternative culture. I also chose to film this video in Camden because this location is thought of as an alternative place by all cultures and ages. In the video we chose to have a cast dominated by white ‘indie kids’ to enable the audience to respond by relation or aspiration towards the characters portrayed in the video.

We used various props throughout our video to improve our video. For example, the use of the chocolate muffin with the ‘5’ candle and various iced letters to spell out ‘years time’. This portrays the sweetness of ‘love’ but the uncertainty of the situation. From the use of a muffin, it shows the ideology of  the availability of love and part time happiness, however as each person has an individual preference to a type of cake and it’s different flavours, the same an be said for partners, different people prefer different aspects of someone’s personality. Also we use a ‘lady bird umbrella’, the red and black colours can be seen to represent the passion and difficulties that is faced whilst in love, the fact that the umbrella is designed as a ladybird it shows that the love between the characters can change as living things do. We have used bright colours in the video to portray the feeling of youth and draw in the audience specifically to certain characters or lyrics that are the base for the video narrative and lyrics.

We used a range of shots to demonstrate the experience of the audience. For example, some members of the audience will be in the lower brackets of the target audience, so may not have experienced the feelings portrayed in the video, this is shown by the distant shots. However, we realise that the upper bracket of the target audience would have more experience therefore they are also catered for, there are close ups of the couple to show their relationship.

We also use many different levels to represent the levels of love and how they change. Our main example is the use of the cut away from the tree, it returns a series of times and progresses up the tree showing the development of the relationship. The tree represents the growth that is able to take place in a relationship, like a blossoming tree that will live on for many years and never be forgotten.   

The music video is likely to be marketed towards more indie TV institutions such as NME TV, T4, Q or MTV2. This is because these channels are likely to receive the correct type of audience that this music video is aimed towards. T4, for example, is aimed at more of a teenage ‘indie’ girl; however it is able to cross over into the ‘pop’ audience, allowing the video’s audience to grow dramatically, Also NME TV would be an appropriate channel for the video to be shown on due to the large following that The NME has, once again the musicians that dominate the magazine and it’s following are white, however by showing the music video on NME TV and with it being linked with such a legendary brand, it is possible for it to become an international success, due tot the fact the NME is sold all over the world.

Horror Poster Evaluation

The film is called ‘The Cleansing’; its poster depicts a confession box with a slightly transparent white cross in front of it. The background is black and the title, tag line, review quotes and credits are in red; the title of the film is written across the top of the poster and tag line is just underneath it.

After the death of the local village Priest, a new Priest arrives. Slowly his disturbing past is revealed by a series of flashbacks that gradually drive the Priest to madness. He becomes obsessed with the purity of his parish. When people come to confess their sins, he must do anything to keep the village pure, leading to the gruesome deaths of the sinful.

 The horror poster follows many of the codes and conventions of a horror poster, for example its dark background, also it uses red text; red often represents blood or danger. The lighting in the poster is also very important, the confession box is lit up in an unnatural light making it quite unsettling, showing the viewer that there is significance in the confession box before they have any idea what the film is about. Also the confession box is shot from below, using this camera angle it gives the impression that the confession box is of great importance. The confession box also is a very strong link to the catholic religion and as the shot of this image is from below it shows how powerful religion still is and how much influence it has over many people. The fact the confession box seems to tower over the viewer it can seem quite menacing and make the viewer uncomfortable. To show that the poster is for a horror film, it has mainly dark colours, to get across the feeling of doom and uncertainty and it uses a gothic old fashioned font to show the link between the beliefs of the church and that to the modern day.

 The tag line ‘In the name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit’ gives the idea to the viewer that the villain will be someone who is greatly affected by religion. In the Catholic faith only men are able to be leaders in the church, so it is suggested that there may be a male villain in the film. It is very stereotypical for horror films to have men as the villain in horror films due to the fact that society was and still is a patriarchal society; this aspect of the horror film is very formulaic.

 Instead of showing any particular part of the film, the poster instead uses certain images that have a great significance to the film, and that are involved in and lead up to the pivotal scenes. The Confession box, for example, is where the Priest discovers the sins of his future victims. The cross represents the entire control and power of the church which the entire film is greatly effected by.

 The themes involved in ‘The Cleansing’ are murder and religion. The tagline clearly shows the link to religion by using a famous phrase used in many Christian prayers. The issue of death or ‘murder’ can be dealt with by using a cross because of the significance it has to Christians, the cross being what Jesus was killed or ‘murdered’ on.

 The target audience for this horror film is those between the ages of 15-35. The film aims to provide characters to be appropriate for all ages and genders to relate to. The audience that is likely to watch ‘The Cleansing’ are fans of films such as ‘Dead Mans Shoes’.

 ‘The Cleansing’ is an Independent low budget British film. The poster shows this by, in the credits, using all unknown actors and actresses and also using unknown production companies, editors and directors. Due to this the film being low budget it will mainly be advertised through the internet using an internet banner, however it will also be advertised in tube stations using the poster.

 In the poster, the church is represented in the form of the Catholic Church. This branch of the church is based on guilt and punishment, the guilt, which is confessed in the confession box, the punishment being hail Marys’ in most cases. In ‘The Cleansing’ the church is being represented badly, because the film shows a leader of a Catholic Church giving extreme punishment which results in death.

 To make the poster I had to first plan it out on paper to get my initial ideas, after this stage I chose one of my favourite ideas and began to lay it out on photoshop. I did not use my own images in the poster; instead I searched on ‘Google images’ to find pictures of both confession boxes and crosses. I found it quite difficult to find a good picture of a confession box which had good lighting and was shot from the correct angle. I had to edit the photos so that they would layer over each other, and I used the sponge to blur the lines slightly. Also I changed the lighting on the confession box to make it stand out more to show its significance.   

 I think the worked quite well because of the use of quotes from reviews and the credit text which helped it make it look more professional. Also the overlap of the tag line and the cross made a very nice effect.If I were to do the poster again I would try to use my own pictures. When I first began to use photoshop I found it quite difficult because it was not a programme that I was familiar with, however I soon understood how to use many of the functions and found it a lot easier.

I Know What You Did Last Summer Essay

‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ is an effective horror film. It is an effective horror film because of its good use of horror mise-en-scene, narrative, representation and film language.

IKWYDLS follows most of the codes and conventions of the horror genre. For example, there are lots of shadows and silhouettes, slashing weapons, gothic imagery and night time attacks. By having most of the attacks at night, in the dark or when your vision is obstructed, it creates an atmosphere of tension and fear because you can’t see the killer clearly. For example when Helen is stalked by the killer it is both at night and there is a used of shadows and wires to obstruct the viewers vision. Also the killer wears black so he blends into the darkness, this gives more of an element of surprise when he attacks because he has to be quite close for you to be able to see him, this helps emphasise the fear of the unknown.

I know what you did last summer’s target audience is teenagers, you can see this because there is clear representations of teenagers, and the film shows what the average American teenager might do, so the audience can relate to it. The audience may enjoy the film more if they can relate to it because they could see themselves in the place of the characters, therefore making the film scarier.

However this film may not be aimed towards all teenagers because all of the characters are from the stereo typical White America. However most social classes are represented in the film; Ray is shown to be of working class because he is a fisherman and Julie is shown to be from a middle class background because she is able to go to university.

The main characters represent different types of teenagers, for example the film represents the two boys in different ways; Barry is shown as a tough man and the popular quarter back, this is a very stereo typical view of an American teenager. Ray is shown as a quiet, mysterious boy; his character breaks the stereo typical portrayal of the teenage boy. The same thing is done for the girls, Helen is shown to be the blonde beauty queen with the quarter back boyfriend where as Julie is the quieter, smarter girl that is shown to be very innocent. The film does represent some teens in a bad way, Helen and Barry both seem quite obsessed with their image and think very little about others. They both were shown to feel least guilty about the incident on the 4^th July, when they thought they killed the man. On the other hand Julie and Ray seem to have been greatly affected by what happened and have both changed quite dramatically. This film shows the stereo typical characters get killed off and the counter types survive.

The audience of IKWYDLS may respond to the film in many different ways some people may aspire to be like Julie because she discovers who the killer is and in the end helps catch the killer and tries to hand him in to the police. Other people might find gratification in the fact both Helen and Barry die; because they both just tried to forget about what happened and showed little remorse. There fore people may have been quite pleased to see Helen and Barry die.

The narrative in IKWYDLS does in some ways breaks the normal narrative formula, however it still does follow many of the same rules. The characters mainly follow the narrative theory for example, Barry is the false hero, Missy is the doner and Ray is seen as one of the heroes. However something that breaks the structure of the normal narrative theory is that Julie is both the princess and the hero. She is one of the victims however she also found out who the killer was and tried to kill him, however in the end Ray had to come and rescue her from the hook man, so really IKWYDLS returns to the narrative theory. Also Barthes theory says that the narrative should start with normality and end with normality, however IKWYDLS does not do this. The film begins with a man sitting on the edge of a cliff, looking quite suicidal, this instantly breaks normality before we are even introduced to any of the characters and any feeling of normality is established. At the end of the film, just as you think normality has been established, it is once more broken by something jumping through the glass in the shower room at Julie.

‘I know what you did last summer’ uses mise-en-scene very well throughout the film and it is demonstrated particularly well in the dress shop scene. At the beginning of the scene you see Helen running away from the killer and her silhouette is shown against a white house, this shot represents Helens innocence. Later on in the scene you see Helen running towards her sisters’ shop, then you get a point of view shot from Helens point of view, this shot shows Helens urgency to get indoors into a ‘safe’ environment. You can see that Helen is trying to get indoors urgently because the shot is very rough and blurred. On the other hand when you see the scene from the killers point of view, you can see the determination and threat of him because he does not run, he walks with wide strides. This makes him seem more menacing because it shows how confident he is that he will get Helen, because he does not feel the need to run. Also during the dress shop scene Helen is wearing a prom dress that has a split up the leg; the use of this costume shows how vulnerable Helen is.

 In the part of the scene when Helens sister Elsa gets killed, you can see the use of refection. As Elsa is locking the back door you can see an extreme close up of Elsa’s eye, in which you can see the reflection of her killer in her glasses. The audience can then see the killer but Elsa cannot, this builds tension because you know that the killer is behind Elsa but you don’t know when he is going to strike.

Throughout the whole of the dress shop scene shadows and obstacles are used to obstruct the view of the audience. This gives the killer many places to hide and gives the feeling that the killer can see the character but they can’t see the killer.

The part of the scene when Helen is coming down the stairs to find her killer waiting for her, demonstrates the use of shadow, music and lights very well. As Helen walks down the stairs, you get a shot of the dress shop, there are shadows cutting across the whole shot from the fans, the creepy pop music builds up the atmosphere. Then slowly the music turns off, then the lights turn off and all you can hear are the fans spinning. This sequence of shots is quite long; the slow cuts build up tension; when the killer jumps out from under a plastic sheet, the shots speed up drastically creating the feeling of urgency and terror.

The hook used by the killer is the iconography of ‘I know what you did last summer’; throughout the film there are many shots of the hook. In the dress shop scene there is a particular shot that incorporates both the use of shadow and shows the hook. This shot creates a feeling of terror because you still cannot see who the killer is, but you know how he is going to kill the victim. 

When Helen is running away from the killer many different techniques are used, such as the whip pan shot, this shot conveys the urgency that Helen feels to escape her killer. Whilst Helen is running down the alleyway there are flashing strobe lights, these lights make the sequence more uncomfortable to watch. The final killing scene is very fast pace and is done to the sound of fireworks and shown from many different angles, making it very disorientating.

The ideology in I know what you did last summer is that you should not aspire to be the quarter back or Barbie doll; you should aim to be independent and well educated. The characters in the film who were well educated and independent both survived. However Helen and Barry who were shown to be the quarter back and Barbie doll both were killed. IKWYDLS is also about morality; both Helen and Barry wanted to dump the body in the sea and Julie and Ray didn’t want to. Helen and Barry both were killed, and Julie and Ray lived. This could be seen as ‘you reap what you sow’. I think ideology is needed in a film like IKWYDLS because it adds extra strength to the story line and make the film have extra meaning.

Overall I think that ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ is an effective horror film. I think this because; throughout the film there are many different horror techniques used and the narrative of the film sticks to the theory mainly, making it work.

How sitcoms have changed over time essay first draft

How the Sit-Com has Changed Over Time

Sit-com has changed dramatically over time, beginning on the radio and then moving on to be one of the most popular styles of programme on television. The sit-com has developed in various ways, including the representation of the characters, the sophistication of the audience and the developments that the genre itself has taken.

When sit-com began, it used a lot of slap-stick style comedy to engage the audience, this was due to the newly available idea of visual comedy that can be shown on the TV, and this made it very new and fresh. Also the sit-com was usually set within a family’s home and other significant locations, the families were mostly white and consisted of a married mother and father with children. Some of the comedy used may also be seen to be politically incorrect in the modern world because many of the jokes are centred around ‘foreign’ characters. Most of the sit-coms of the period were filmed in a studio and all jokes were accompanied with canned laughter. As time progressed these types of layout for sit-coms became very formulaic and began to bore the audiences, causing figures of those who watched sit-coms dropped dramatically. Many of the sit-coms of the period were relative to that specific period of time therefore as time goes on the sit-com’s jokes will seem out of date and irrelevant to modern society. Some newspapers such as the New York Times went as far as to say that the Sit-Com was dead. It was said by the New York Times that for young people Sit-Com ‘plays like television for Mom and Dad. It’s like black and white movies for them’. This clearly shows how tired the formula of Sit-Com had become, with little to set each show apart from the next.  

The sit-com had to develop and change to suit that of changing Britain and the progression of British humour. An example of this is ‘Gavin and Stacey’; this is filmed in more of a documentary style manor, on location and without any form of canned laughter giving the show a sense of social realism. Also to try and make sit-coms less predictable in many have been combined with other genres creating sub genres, for example ‘Scrubs’ being a Dramedy, this enables the writers to include aspects of both genres to make new, unpredictable but accessible comedies that will engage a mass audience.

The representations in sit-com have also changed along with its audience, for example the representations of race, gender and family. Firstly, the representation of race in sit-coms has changed severely, this was necessary due to the changing face of Britain, it would have been seen as outrageous to many people if sit-coms were to continue to represent people of different races in such a stereotypically offensive way, when by the 1980’s many of the races that were being laughed at were now a strong part of the British community. Sit-coms that have been structured like programmes such as ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’, which involved white actors browning their skin portrayed ethnic minorities in a clownish manor; this had to change so that the sit-com would once again appeal to modern day Britain. Programmes such as ‘Desmonds’ and ‘Everybody hates Chris’ were created to provide a sit-com based on the experiences of Black families, these were sit-coms that involved a mainly black cast and crew.

Since the early sit-coms in the 50s began, women have been seen as wives, mothers or daughters and it has been said by Betty Friedan that television has represented the woman as a “stupid, unattractive, insecure little household drudge who spends her martyred, mindless, boring days dreaming of love-and plotting nasty revenge against her husband.” Sit-com played a large part in this representation, from characters such as Lucy in ‘I Love Lucy’. In this show Lucy is shown to be a clumsy, foolish and naïve, Lucy wishes to pursue a singing career with her husband but cannot sing in tune etc. However since the impact of feminism in the 1970s more women have had leading roles in sit-coms, such as in Friends and Sex in the City all the female characters have their own job and can support themselves independently. However in programmes such as The Simpsons Marge is still shown as a housewife and is treated this way by the other members of the Simpson family, yet Marge is portrayed as a stereotypical housewife for comic effect, the creators realise that more traditional sitcoms did this and are parodying and mocking this.

Sit-com had mainly been a type of show tat women enjoyed watching due to the representation of the lazy husband, badly behaved kids and the mother or wife that has to sort them all out, but now there are sit-coms that have moved away from this kind of layout to formulate sit-coms that are enjoyed by couples, these shows are ‘Extras’, ‘Spaced’ and ‘Flight of the Conchords’. This is due to the fact that few of the jokes are based on the incompetence of the male or female sex.

The representations of gay and lesbian characters are still very formulaic, for example in Will and Grace Jack is shown to be a very stereo typical gay character from his feminine personality and at one point idolisation of Britney Spears. However it is difficult to represent homosexuals without being stereotypical, because if you were to represent gays and lesbians as all being very macho, you would be grouping them, also to represent them all being very feminine you would be doing that once again. In fact by referring to those who are gay or lesbian by ‘them’ we are grouping a particular people assuming they act the in the same kind of way as each other, for example characters aren’t stereotyped by being The Heterosexual.     

The representation of families shown in sit-com has commonly been white middle class and nuclear, you can see this from sit-coms such as Roxanne and My Family. This format of families used to be quite familiar to the public, however as Britain has become more ethnically diverse, the rate of divorce has increased and people live longer, causing the modern family to look a lot different from those in the past. The modern sitcom shows this in programmes such as The Royle Family, where the grandmother lives with the family, and ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ which is based around the lives of a Black family.

The audience to sitcom has also changed considerably over time, going from being mainly watched by families and women, to the audience becoming much more diverse and segmented. Now that there is satellite and cable television there are a wider variety of channels which cater for these audiences. For example E4 broadcasts shows that are aimed teenage audiences such as The Inbetweeners, whilst Trouble broadcasts shows aimed at a mainly Black audience, for example My Wife and Kids and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. There are now also sitcoms aimed at children such as That So Raven shown on the Disney Channel and aimed at adults such as Extras and The Office shown on channels such as BBC2 and BBC4. The idea of the sitcom’s death may have come from the fact that the audiences for sitcom have a wider variety of channels to choose from that cater for their wants, making the audience more spread out and segmented.

A Response to Flight of the Conchords

I am already a huge fan of Flight of the Conchords. Personally, I think that the mocumentary/musical/sit-com mixture that Flight of the Conchordsconsists of really helps to make it different and original. The subtle humour used throughout the shows provide for constant entertainment, even if it only from a ‘Visit New Zealand’ poster ‘Why Not?’ or a parody of a petshop boys song and video.

The fact that the performers of the show actually started in stand up and moved on to do a Flight of the Conchordsradio show for BBC Radio 2 and then make a television sit-com out of it seems slightly strange in the present time. This is due to the fact that stand up seems to be thought of a ‘cool’ right now, with various television programmes incorporating a slot for stand up into their scripts. Where as, articles that have been posted on various blogs show that audiences and critics are beginning to believe that sit-com is a dying art form, so it seems odd for them to progress the way they did, stand up to sit-com.

Sit-Com

British sit-coms have been some of the most popular programmes shown on British TV,

The Oxford English Dictionary definition of a ‘sit-com’ or situation comedy reads:

A television or radio series in which the same set of characters are involved in amusing situations.

Also sitcom.co.uk/british_sitcom say that a British sit-com can be defined as:

A humorous radio or television series featuring the reactions of a regular cast of characters to unusual situations, such as misunderstandings or embarrassing coincidences.

British sit-com’s are usually based around the family or workplace, this enables characters with conflicting personalities to come together each episode and create comic situations. Common comedy devices used in British sit-coms are things such as wit, wordplay, sarcasm and inuendo’s.

Popular Sit-Coms through the decades

1950′s-Hancock’s Half Hour and Army Game

1960′s-Steptoe and Son, The Likely Lads, Till Death Us Do Part and Dad’s Army

1970′s ( also known as ‘The Golden Age’ of British sit-com)- Fawlty Towers, The Good Life, Last of the Summer Wine, Are You Being Served?, Open All Hours and many more.

1980′s-The Young One’s, Red Dwarf, Black Adder, Yes Minister and Only Fools and Horses.

1990′s-Men Behaving Badly, The Vicar of Dibley, Father Ted, The Royale Family and One Foot in the Grave.

2000′s-Spaced. Phoenix Nights, Black Books, Coupling, The Mighty Boosh, After You’ve Gone, My Family  and The IT Crowd.

Personally, i prefer sit-coms that i feel have a fresh and original approach on the writing and performing of sit-coms, for example Black Books, Spaced and The Mighty Boosh. This may be a very common view amongst the younger generation due to the fact that what people find funny differs greatly with age. Programmes that were innovative and seemed to push the boundaries in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s may seem incredibly tame to a modern audience. This is the difficulty in the popularity of sit-coms, sometimes the comedy does not progress and develop as much as the audience needs it to for it to remain amusing and entertaining over long periods of time.

Hello world!

Hello  everyone : )