Representation, media language and representation - TV industry ultrapost

Please note: this is a big old post combining lots of disparate aspects about the TV industry. However, there's lots of excellent material here that is perfect for revision material! 

Explore how representations can position audiences

• The complex representations used throughout these TV shows are highly effective in positioning audiences, in order to maximise audience engagement 
• Audience positioning refers to the many ways in which audiences are placed within a media product by the producer to further anchor and align the audience, and to help them relate to complex themes. Representation refers to the re-presentation of a particular group, issue or event, by the producer, in order to reflect their ideological position. In this essay, I shall argue that the producers of TV shows often use complex and even challenging representations in order to engage and position audiences who expect more from television in the 21st century. In order to explore this idea, I shall refer to San Junipero, an episode of the British sci-fi anthology show Black Mirror, originally created by Charlie Brooker and subsequently internationalised and distributed by Netflix. I shall also refer to Les Revenants, a French horror/drama hybrid, produced and distributed by French conglomerate Canal +, primarily targeting an alternative and niche audience.
• An excellent example of how representations can position audiences in les revs can be found in the highly postmodern representation of the town itself. In the open credit sequence, a hyperreal representation of a French rural town is constructed through the alarming MES of…
• ..in fact, due to being funded by a notable French tourist board, in many ways it is significant that the episode resembles an advert for the Rhein Cotes Alps region, with the montage…
• The audience is positioned in a confusing mode of address, through the hyperreal representation of the middle class Seurat family. Their muted reaction to these extreme and bizarre events is stereotypically French, and may puzzle and alienate British audiences 
• One way representations can positions audiences 
• One excellent way in which a producer uses a highly stereotypical representation to position audiences
• A further way in which a complex representation can position audiences 

Judith Butler argues that gender is constructed through a series of performative actions. Evaluate this theory of gender performativity. Make reference to the TV shows you have studied to support your answer

What is the difference between sex and gender? 

• Sex = a biological categorisation, eg male/female/intersex
• Gender = a cultural categorisation, based on personal identity 
• Gender fluidity = the idea of an individual’s gender changing over time, or gender as a concept eg gender stereotypes changing over time 
• Gender performance = the rituals performed on a day by basis that act as a performance of gender. For example, men may on any given day, visit the gym, attend their masculine job, go to the pub, wear trousers, watch football, shave, spit on the floor, swearing, regularly get a haircut
• Gender performativity: how the world is shaped by your performance of gender. Gender performativity gets its strongest results when an individual challenges dominant hegemonic ideologies 

Examples of gender performativity in the set TV episodes

San Jun

• Kelley is overtly feminine. Her costume codes are highly feminine, and her makeup and jewellery demonstrate a glamorous and extroverted personality. She is able to make people nervous through her confidence, in particular Yorkie, who in a particularly effective montage, frets and panics over her own gender performance 
• Yorkie dressed as a range of different intertextually related feminine characters from a variety of different films and music videos from the 1980s, including the ‘weird girl’ from The Breakfast club and the seductive and glamorous makeup from the backing dancers from Addicted To Love . By trying out a range of different feminine performances, Yorkie is attempting to investigate her own identity, and her own performance as a woman. Ultimately Yorkie decides to ‘be herself’, and dresses in oversized glasses and a cream coloured cardigan. 
• In the opening club scene, Kelley assertively rejects the attention of a pushy man, before pushing herself assertively on Yorkie, sitting directly next to her in a scene reminiscent of many 80s comedies. However, Kelley chooses instead to romantically engage herself in another woman, a subtle difference from the largely heteronormative romantic narratives of the 1980s. Instead of their sexuality., the overwhelming binary opposition that exists between Kelley and Yorkie is their respective sexual experience 

Les Revs

• Julie dresses in an unconventionally masculine way for a woman. As a result, she is never the object of an intradiegetic gaze (where one character looks at another character), and her role is not romantically encoded 
• Camille is not romanticised or eroticised, which is unconventional for a TV show. For example, she is fixated on eating a sandwich. An unconventional representation of a teenage girl 
• Lena is conventionally attractive and fits many stereotypical assumptions of teenage girls. She assertively demands Simon to buy her a drink, and flirts in an over the top way that challenges conventional hegemonic assumptions about women 
• Simon is hegemonically conventionally attractive, and dressed in a fashionable suit. Simon has an immediate effect on Lena, yet shows no interest in her romantically. This highly complex representation of gender performativity subverts traditional assumptions about romantic narratives. 

Paragraph starters

• In San Junipero, an excellent example of how characters performatively assert their gender can be found in the dressing up scene
• This contrasts somewhat with Les Revenants, which presents often subversive presentations of gender. A perfect example of this can be found in the character of Julie, who..
• A further example of a subversive gender performance can be found in San Junpero through the stereotypical feminine performance of the character Kelley. 

Henry Jenkins argues that audiences are ‘textual poachers’, and actively manipulate media products in ways which best suit them. Evaluate this theory of fandom. Make reference to the Black Mirror episode San Junipero and Les Revenants to support your answer. [30]

• San Junipero - t-shirts (unofficial)including the San Junipero logo, presumably made by fans. Audiences can poach images from the TV show, use photoshop to recontextualise it and then construct a fictitious brand identity that audiences can then use to reflect and to reinforce their own identity. This highly complex and active form of fan mediation is actively encouraged through the structure of the TV show. The mainstream potential of Black Mirror, which has grown from its initial niche audience to a show which is now distributed on Netflix demonstrates its potential . Furthermore the mode of the episode is reliable and hopeful, with a positive representation of a queer relationship that is both surprising and unconventional. 
• Les Revs - fan art including moody portraits of the main characters. There are comparatively few active audience examples for Les Revs, partly because it is so niche and partly because ideologies of the show are so resolutely ambiguous. Furthermore, it is much harder for the audiences to root for or identify with any of the characters. The show has a mature mode of address, and potentially targets older audiences who may deal with the themes in a more serious way. A perfect example of this is the limited availability of Les Revs fan fiction, which focuses on expanding the narrative, as p=opposed to ‘shipping’ characters for sexual gratification

An analysis of the final montage

• The selection of the song, ‘Heaven is a place on earth’ by Belinda Carlisle, is highly symbolic and poignant. Both diegetically and non-diegetically situated, the song plays pleonastically over the montage. The lyrics ‘heaven is a place on earth’, vehicle in actuality a trashy and meaningless pop song here hold a special poignant that is emphasised through the opposition between empty pop aesthetics and intense, almost religious emotion.  
• The overtly science fiction shot of the MES of a robotic arm placing a component into a circuit board presents an intensely emotional response to the science fiction fan audience. While it is not made explicit, we can contextually deduce that one of the nodes represents Kelley, and the other represents Yorkie. This shot is placed in stark opposition to Kelly’s name being etched on the family grave of her husband, which itself represents traditionalism, conservatism and heteronormativity. This extremely complex and conflicting set of narrative constructs a highly subjective and personal mode of address for the target audiences. 
• Additionally, the intense themes of suicide, euthanasia, the illegality of gay marriage...
• The final sequence of San Junipero is masterful not only in its technical and narratological perfection, but also in its unprecedented ability to encourage active fan responses. Like many works associated with Charlie Brooker, the episode interweaves the end credits with the final narrative flourish, a technique that he has been using since the broadcast of Nathan Barley and Dead Set on Channel 4 
• The MES of the scenery constructs an explicit intertextual reference to 80’s arcade games, most notably Sega’s 198 racing game Outrun. While the vast majority of audiences will not explicitly get these references, fans of arcade games and retro games will do, and will enjoy this exclusive and highly gratifying mode of address. Brooker is vocal in his love of video games, and his public persona as a nerd and fan himself is essential for many fans' enjoyment.
• The politics of the final sequence are both provocative and highly likely to encourage debate. The clear representation of euthanasia as a positive and affirmative act directly positions the audience in a highly uncomfortable mode of address. Anchored by the exceptional use of editing, the audience sees the montage of a car driving down the highway and of liquid flowing down a tube, together combining to create a powerful ideological message about death being a release. This beautiful mode of address further emphasises the discomfort, and constructs a particularly emotional and overwhelming set of meanings for the dedicated science fiction fan. 
• Additionally, the audience can also interpret the scene as a straightforward escapist fantasy of cheating death and overcoming trauma
• The ending is open, which means in the minds of the fan, there is no clear conclusion and lots of opportunities for both shipping these characters and imagining their relationship develop beyond the end of the narrative. This is a classic example of fan theory, where simply watching until the end of the product is just the beginning
• Fulfils the social interaction aspect of uses and gratifications, by encouraging audiences to actively debate the ending. For example, Yorkie manipulating Kelly into killing herself to spend her (after)life with her is the very definition of a toxic relationship, and is cult-like in its unpleasantness. This deliberately ambiguous ending is designed to polarise audience
• The final song, Heaven is a Place On Earth by Belinda Carlisle is not only a poppy and anthemic 80’s song, the lyrics also help to construct and to anchor a cyclical narrative. It helps to explain to the audience the cruel and complicated narration of the conclusion, by using the throwaway binary of ‘heaven is a place on earth’ constructs a hyperreal fantasy where a meaningless lyric suddenly has a deep and complex meaning. Further anchored through the use of neon and utopian colours that connote a hyperreal, almost imagined 80s, a fascinating representation of pop songs as salvation is constructed. 
• Finally, we are entered into a dialogue with the ultimate fan, Charlie Booker himself, who shares through intertextuality his own favourite films, songs, and videogames. We are encouraged to identify with his enthusiasm and to engage with what he loves 
• The sequence focuses on notions of overcoming trauma, a powerful and affirming experience. The MES of Yorkie confidently jumping into the sports car demonstrates her symbolic conquering of a trauma that can only come through her assisted suicide. The sense of the real world being a hellish obstacle while the simulation is a heavenly manifestation of freedom presented in the form of of a glorified version of America presents a complicated relay of information for the target audience 
• Themes of existentialism are introduced and emphasised through the blunt and nightmarish binary opposition between the bright and glorious Tuckers and the nightmarish hellscape of the server room in the bleak grey warehouse. Making explicit intertextual relay to simulation narratives such as The Matrix. However, the symbolic code constructed through the rotating and blinking LED lights construct, through a highly sophisticated montage, now represents dancing, romance, sex, and life
• Yorkie, now wearing a combination of blue and pink, has gravitated towards a more stereotypically feminine costume, while Kelly’s costume has also changed subtly 
• The ending is deliberately problematic by presenting a number of contentious ideologies. Essentially, the scene ideologically communicates that true love is only attainable through death. Additionally, we are led to believe that true love only exists as a hyperreal representation of an eternally young couple dancing forever. With no limits on time, or no threats of illness or other issues, is true passion even attainable? Ultimately these thoughts do not matter, because “heaven is a place on earth”

How does the opening sequence construct a hyperreal simulacra? - A representation of something that never even existed in the first place

• The scene constructs a hyperreal and even idealised version of a club. Completely lacking bouncers and security, the establishing shot constructs a perfect club night. Patrons are drinking alcohol, and every individual is both young and hegemonically attractive, as each individual is able to construct their own avatar. A completely unified sense of community is constructed, where no one is excluded. People are behaving appropriately, the club is adequately populated

A bit of theory, as a treat

• Roland Barthes - semiotic theory - the study of meaning
• Connotations and denotations - the deeper meaning and the surface meaning of an element 
• Symbolic codes - What something symbolises, the deeper meaning of something. A red rose is symbolic of love! The MES of the curtains billowing in the breeze is symbolic of an orgasm 
• Proairetic codes - Action codes, something that suggests that something is going to happen. For example, the CU of the liquid flowing down the medical tube is a proairetic code for Kelly’s imminent death 
• Hermeneutic codes - enigma code a mystery or a question posed by media language. For example, the sudden use of 90s iconography constructs a hermeneutic sense of mystery for the audience. The preferred reading of this montage is that audiences ask themselves why this is happening, and an answer is quickly given
• Referential codes - Intertextuality, where a product makes reference to another product. This episode, being fixated on nostalgia, makes extensive use of referentiality 
• The function of myths - A myth is an established story that teaches us a lesson about the world. Barthes argues that the world is built on myths. Eg, SJ is a love story about two women who cannot be together 
• Claude Levi Strauss - Structuralism - the idea that everything has an underlying structure
• Binary oppositions - two concepts in total opposition that make meaning  
• How binary oppositions construct narrative - Tuckers and The Quagmire, creepy guy and Kelly, Kelly and Yorkie, life and death, simulation and reality, night and day, men and women, gay and straight…
• How binary oppositions construct ideological perspectives
• All narrative is conflict