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| Promotional image for Humans' premiere in America. Humans is a UK/US co-production, and a remake of an already successful Swedish TV show. This is a classic example of how the TV industry, like all media industry, minimizes risk to maximise profit! |
In this session you will be using a key scene from Humans to build up an important and useful case study for your upcoming assessment.
Question: In what ways can the television industry uniquely convey issues, events and representations? Make reference to Humans in your answer
OK, so this one seems a little tricky, because it's phrased a little differently from other questions we've done so far. Basically, it's combining two different types of question:
Representation: how groups, issues and events are re-presented by the producer of the media product for ideological purposes, and
Industry: the unique and specialised ways in which media industries (eg TV, newspapers, film, advertising ETC) make money.
So, before you jump in to this one, let's take a little detour.
How is the television industry a specialised industry?
Chat with the person sitting next to you, and answer the following questions:
- How is the television industry a specialised industry?
- How is the TV industry different from the film industry?
- How do television shows make money?
- How are Humans and Les Revenants distributed to their target audiences?
- Could these shows be considered to be successful? Explain your answer
- Who made Humans? (hint: it wasn't just Channel 4! Who else got involved, and why?)
- How did the makers of Humans ensure it's success? (think cast, genre, iconography, soundtrack, marketing, etc!)
Wait, this question seems really hard! - mapping representations
It looks tricky, but it's honestly not. When we read between the lines, this is what it is asking:
TV exists to make money, yeah? So how does Humans use representations to make money?
So, right now, jot down at least ten representations (white middle class, working class East Asian, London, the elderly, cyborgs, sex workers etc...), and write down next to each one a target audience who this representation may be likely to appeal to.
That's a lot of target audiences! It's almost like... the representations in Humans are able to ensure the financial success of the show... right (yes)?
Key scene analysis
Now, select a key scene from the Drive. I shared the key scenes with you, they should be in your Drive under 'shared with me. Pick any scene apart from the brothel scene, simply because I've already recorded a video on that (see above).
Rip the scene apart, and make sure you cram in as much media language as possible
- Underline the key terms
- Come up with a 'knee-jerk reaction'
- Make a plan: just spew words on to the paper! One could literally be just 'captions!'
- Write a DAC introduction (that's definition, argument, context!)
- And finally, get stuck in to the nitty gritty of you PEA paragraphs
- And finally finally, write a short conclusion, which just sums up your argument
Sample introduction
Definition: The television industry is a specialised industry, and like all media industries, it works in a unique way to minimise risk and to maximise profit. Representation refers to how the producers of media products 're-present' issues, events and people, in order to demonstrate their ideology, and to influence the ideology of the audience
Argument: By manipulating the ideology of the audience, producers can therefore ensure maximum financial success, carefully cultivating ideological perspectives and provoking intense and polysemic audience discussions. I shall argue that the effective distribution of Humans on a variety of platforms, including 4OD and Netflix, have allowed these complex representations of issues and events to be spread as far as possible, to a diverse range of niche audiences.
Context: In order to explore this idea, I shall make reference to the Channel 4/AMC co-production Humans, a science fiction drama hybrid that ran for three series from 2005, appealing to a cult audience of science fiction fans, as well as a broader audience who found appeal in the casting of Gemma Chan in the lead role.