TV industry revision MEGAPOST

media language

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of semiotic approaches to television analysis. Refer to Roland Barthes’ theory of semiotics and the set editions of Black Mirror and The Returned in your response. [30]

Knee jerk reaction - Barthes theory is generally extremely useful to the analysis of TV, though there are some alternatives that help analysis 

Barthes’s theory:  a deep dive

• Codes are aspects of a media product that create meaning

• For Barthes, everything is a code. Gesture, costume, narrative, queer…

• Barthe’s symphony of codes include

• Symbolic codes (a deeper meaning)

• Proairetic code (something is about to happen)

• Hermeneutic (mystery, ask question)

• Referential code (intertextual, references something else)

• Myths - a device used to impart a lesson. Help us to understand the world. Eg: the patriarchy, religion, marriage, the TV industry, beauty standards… etc…

Why is Barthes so important to the analysis of media?

Explains the way we perceive the world and how important media is in this 

His theory of codes is incorporated into many other theories. In works with binary oppositions, and forms the foundation of Neale's genre theory, postmodern theories of gender, and especially Stuart hHall’s theory of representation 

It is relatively straightforward, and can be used almost anywhere

Barthesean convention	Eg from San Junipero	Eg from Camille
Referential codes	The dress up montage utilises a stunning range of referential codes to not only appeal to the young, intertextually aware target audience, but also to distract from the upcoming plot twist. The first song selected is Girlfriend in a Coma by The Smiths. This tiny snippet of music was extremely expensive to licence, yet the symbolic function proairetically tips the target audience off for many upcoming events. Simply put, Yorkie IS the girlfriend in the coma. However, the rapid fire montage also refers to The Breakfast Club, the video for Addicted To Love and so on, constructing a rich intertextual tapestry, allowing the target audience to understand Yorkie's intentions and inner struggle	The sequence makes extensive use of classical horror archetypes in order to construct a series of important and exciting meanings for the audience. Firstly, Camille is a young girl, stereotypically cast as a terrifying threat in horror films. In Heredity, Poltergeist, The Shining, The Exorcist and many more, little girls function as terrifying symbolic codes, as they subvert stereotypical expectations of the role of young women in patriarchal society. Indeed, Camille subverts gender expectations through her practical costume and her incessant chatter
Symbolic codes	The costumes that Yorkie wears are symbolic of nostalgia and desire and aspiration. In particular the fetishistic black dress worn in the montage references the video to Brian Palmer’s Addicted to love. Yorkie here plays the role of a highly hegemonically attractive backing dancer, performatively utilising her gender in order to seduce Kelly. This helps us to understand Yorkie’s internal thoughts	The upper middle class, elegant, and performatively rich kitchen not only symbolises the wealth and status of the Seurat family, but it is also segregated into two sections through the MES of a stylish concrete pillar. This functions as a symbolic code, dividing both the characters and the diegetic realities that both of them exist in. Simply put, Camille should not be, a fact that is subtly stated through set design
Proairetic	The montage itself functions as a proairetic code, suggesting that Yorkie intends to impress Kelly. Yorkie’s motives are sexual, positioning the target audience as a gay woman. This surprising situation challenges hegemonic and heteronormative assumptions of sexuality, positioning the target audience in an exciting and interesting mode of address	The sequence uses proairetic codes in a variety of highly manipulative and ultimately misleading ways. Firstly, the extremely suspenseful soundtrack, composed by Scottish metal band Mogwai is highly atypical, situating the target audience in a highly unpleasant and anxiety producing mode of address. The editing anchors this sense of anxiety through a montage of CUs of Claire's face, positioning us with the middle aged, middle class French woman, and therefore in a position of vulnerability. However, our proairetic expectations are subverted when Camille launches into a disarmingly normal monologue about her day. The confusion for the audience is emphasised.

In San Junipero, the mirror is used as a symbolic motif for introspection and the consideration of the self. It also draws attention to the hyperreal, of an idealised projection of the self that can never live up to scrutiny. In the dress up montage, Yorkie rejects various intertextual simulations and instead assumes the role of ‘herself’. Yet, demonstrating the alarming complexity of the episode, the Yorkie we see in San Junipero is herself a simulation, a digital and idealised avatar of a long disabled and elderly woman… Here, Barthe’s notion of semiotic analysis, in combination with ideas of the postmodern, helps us to understand exactly how complex notions of identity and selfhood truly are!

While Barthes’s semiotic theory is extremely important in understanding Les Revenat’s often obtuse usage of the symbolic, it is through the binary opposition that we truly begin to understand this esoteric and complex narrative. Here, the symbolic code constructed through the MES of the dividing column constructs a visual dimatric opposition not only between mother and daughter, young and old, but also between different genre expectations. The emergence of Camille from the roadside, apparently ‘from the dead’ and the mother’s stultified, frightened reaction utilises the generic codes of the horror film.The panicked confusion contrasted with Camille’s nonchalant teenage boredom situates the audience in a highly confusing mode of address, where the traditional interpretations of the symbolic order no longer impart the meaning that they should do.

Representation

How useful are feminist theories for analysing the representations in The Returned and San Junipero? Refer to at least one of the following theories in your response:

• van Zoonen’s feminist theory

• bell hooks’ feminist theory [30]

Knee jerk reaction - due to both episodes being predicated on notions of the female experience, both of these theories are extremely useful 

Representations reconstruct reality 

Deep dives 

Van Zoonen’s feminism

• The role of women in media products

• Women function as spectacle for perceived heterosexual male audience

• Men and women are represented and reconstructed through media language 

• Heavily based on Roland Barthe’s theories of semiotics 

• Gender expectations have shifted over time. They are fluid

bell hooks’s feminism 

• Intersectionality: the idea that there are lots of different parts of our identity, not simply ‘male/female’

• Rejects gender binaries

• Some groups more vulnerable than others eg queer black disabled women 

• Experience of women will be different

• Feminism is political. We should challenge

• Feminism is for  everybody: toxic expectations of women also apply to men 

• Beyonce is a terrorist. Media images can cultivate manipulative ideologies, and can even damage audiences. 

	San Junipero	Camille
Women as spectacle for a male gaze	Yorkie is constructed as a spectacle for the male gaze in the opening montage, when she is approached by a stereotypically nerdy guy. His glasses, his intense fandom of arcade games and his timid, unconfident performance all construct him as such. Yorkie is constructed similarly, with glasses, non-gender conforming outfit (connoting awkwardness), and her performance as she excitedly plays the game. However, this example of a classic meet cute is subverted when Yorkie is triggered by the image of a violent car crash. This extremely complex representation of gender expectations positions the audience as Yorkie, an atypical positioning as Yorkie is a queer female protagonist.	The audience are positioned not as Simon in this sequence, but instead as the female characters. As Simon and Lena walk through the underpass, we are positioned as Lena, feeling frustrations as ASimon rudely rejects her advances. Furthermore, as Adele stands in her new build house admiring herself in her wedding dressing, we are positioned as her as Simon emotively bangs on the door. This positioning as two heterosexcual women and their relationship to a mysterious and hegemonically attractive man subverts traditional notions of the male gaze.
Gender is constructed through media language	THe deep focus tracking shot that follows Yorkie around the room constructs a binary opposition between the stereotypically awkward and distant Yorkie, and the integrated, excited, happy, and exclusively hegemonically attractive dancers. The club itself ios a hyperreal version of reality. Yet Yorkie clearly does not fit in to this perfect world, constructing a reality where Yorkie feels ostracised as she she lacks the hegemonic normative qualities of a woman	Adele’s reaction to her ex husband apparently coming back from the grave is conventional, even stereotypical. The CU of her face emphasises her distress, anchored through the ECU of the door handle being rapidly pulled. This intertextual reference to the horror film situates Adelle as apparently the emotional victim. Simon, conversely, is constructed as stereotypically masculine, the MES of his black suit anchored through the ECUs of his hegemonically dark and mysterious face. However, Simon simultaneously is subversive of this stereotypical assumption. Simon is hysterical, possessive, intense and hyperemotional, all subverting stereotypical assumptions of a hypermasculine man.
Gender roles and expectations	Both episodes explore themes of gender roles, in particular stereotypical and archetypal female roles that exist in media. For example, Yorkie dresses up as a range of different female archetypes from popular culture who have all functioned as spectacle for a hegemonic heterosexual male audience. Additionally, Les Revs uses classic slasher archetypes to situate women in a context of threat and danger against a powerful, aggressive and sexually coded male threat. Therefore, both shows use these stereotypical assumptions to subvert and challenge hegemonic, patriarchal expectations of women.

In the opening montage, as in the rest of the episode, Yorkie performatively demonstrates a complex and intersectional representation of female identity. By simply playing videogames and wearing glasses, she is constructed as a stereotypical ‘nerdy girl’ archetype, which in turn has a performative effect on our cocktail sipping nerd. However, Yorkie’s perceived performance here is complex and misleading. In actuality, this queer woman has no interest in this particular sphere, and her character is significantly more complex than a simple archetype, as she pursues a toxic, manipulative and ultimately fatal relationship with the obscure object of her desire. This is not only a perfect example of the potentiality for gender roles and values being shifted through modern media configurations, but also the vastness and complexity of the intersectional identity, that extends beyond simple value judgements. 

Les Revenants plays with gender expectations throughout the series. Simon resembles a dreamy fantasy from a paranormal romance narrative. With his sleepy eyes and grumpy attitude, he resembles Edward Cullen from the Twilight narrative. 

Industry

‘Television is a global industry.’ To what extent do Black Mirror and The Returned support this claim? [30]

Knee jerk reaction - Both TV shows very much support this claim, as both are clearly international productions that have been constructed, shaped and marketed to appeal to a global audience

• Hesmondhalgh - international productions minimise risk and maximise profit

• However fans may claim this makes TV shows too mainstream 

• San Jun - mainstream!

• Camille - niche 

• LES Revs - Debuted on More 4, a secondary channel targeting a more niche audience. 

• Les Revenants won an Emmy in 2013 - international critical recognition!

• Mogwai, a scottish postrock band scored both series of LR, targets niche, cult, global audience 

• Budget of approx 6 million dollars million for San Junipero, big budget!

• 1.4 million domestic viewers for Les Revenants

• Black mirror won an Emmy for San Jun!!!!!

• BM moved to Netflix in 2016, previously produced and owned by channel 4 

• Netflix buying BM and commercialising it solely for profit is an excellent example of C+S’s power and profit theory

• LR had such a huge Niche audience a US version was made. Assumptions about American audiences were made, and the remake used American actors, and simplified the narrative

• LEs Revs was dubbed in to different languages, for example Italian, yet remained subtitled in the UK, reflecting different national tastes

• Black Mirror had a ride at Thorpe park, targeting a younger audience 

• Netflix created a poster for each episode in a 1970s style comic book, commissioning a Brazilian illustrator to create the striking images, targeting a niche audience of comic book fans

• Black Mirror & Friends | The One Where Ross Invents San Junipero | Netflix - this video creates a cross media promotion that only Netflix could manage, simply because Netflix has the rights to both Friends and Black Mirror. Additionally, this promotional video also targets a Gen Z audience through its simple and straightforward approach, short runtime and use of subtitles

• Black Mirror | Nosedive Featurette [HD] | Netflix - This short feature explains the episode in simple and straightforward language to a mass, younger and perhaps naive mainstream audience

• In Black Mirror, VR was used to map out the 3d set for Tucker’s Bar. Considerable access to technique 

• LEs Revenants is an adaptation of an earlier film by a different director, a proven cult classic

• LEs Revs has an established cult fanbase in Italy

• It was promoted with a lavish internet campaign, including an immersive 360 degree simulation of the town https://www.commarts.com/webpicks/les-revenants 

• THe budget for les revs was significant, with approx 1million/episode

• A cult TV show, with links to other established successes like Twin Peaks, The X-files, Buffy THe Vampire Slayer, Riverdale, Stranger Things, Smallville…

However, both shows, in addition to their clear international potential, also target a ‘domestic’ American and French audience respectively…

American appeal in San Junipero	French  appeal in Camille (opening credits)
Modeled on America, with an American, hyperreal construction of a town that will be familiar with American audiences  The feeling of nostalgia and vintage media, enticing a target American audience Western coded. The setting, themes, concepts, intertextuality all favouring a particular western cannon of culture	Quintessentially French setting of the French alps. Familiar to French middle class audiences  A chic, classy, stylish opening sequence, appealing to ba sophisticated french audience An exploration of sex and death, le petit mort, with the iconography of the couple making out next to a grave Moody, depressing, serious. Appeals to producers, allows a specific audience to be targeted

Audience

To what extent do social and cultural contexts influence audience interpretations of TV programs? Refer to the set editions of Black Mirror and The Returned to support your answer. [30]

Knee jerk reaction: To a huge extent! Social and cultural contexts are ESSENTIAL in influencing audience interpretations, and Stuart Hall’s reception theory helps us to understand this complex relation 

Plan 

Negotiated readings are affected by audience circumstances

Stuart Hall - reception theory

David Gauntlett - audiences use media products to construct identity 

Euthanasia - themes of a progressive and contraversial ideology, received differently by different audiences 

Jenkins and fandom: organised and motivated!

San Junipero - fan art shipping the main characters

Hegemonic norms

Preferred reading - supportive of the relationship

Oppositional reading - it’s a toxic relationship!

Deliberately polysemic

Themes of afterlife and religion - deliberately polarising 

Queer representations - problematic to some older audiences, challenges hegemonic norms

A circumstantial queer representation 

Representations of teenage sex in LES Revs will again polarise audiences. 

Frank and mature themes 

Les revenants: a representation of migrants explored in a symbolic way 

An allegory of migration, racism, sexuality, small town living…

Potentially highly offensive: oppositional reading: migrants as subhuman, different, other 

Feminist theory - SJ hegemonically attractive characters: Yorkie is constructed as being different, other, yet is played by an attractive actor, reinforcing hegemonic norms of attractiveness

Black Mirror: highly polysemic, allowing for complicated postmodern readings

Hyperreality - the sex scene in SJ is stereotypically constructed through crashing waves, billowing curtains and white sheets will appeal to a mainstream audience

Cultivation theory. Les Revs cultivates ideologies and themes of the supernatural. This unconventional representation challenges religious orthodoxy, conventional horror film narratives and the ways in which we deal with grief. It is deliberately complex…

Deliberately complicated to appeal to a niche and cult audience

However, the use of horror/scifi conventions appeal to a broader audience

Both shows situate themself within a context of popular music (The Smiths and Mogwai)

The horror genre, the crime genre….

Twin Peaks and cult television: a presold audience

Pick and mix: pick and mix the representations of the afterlife. Does it confirm or deny a christian god? 

Pick and mix - in SJ, queer audiences can construct a positive, fashionable lifestyle based on these representations!

Dystopian narrative - in a world with increasing technological invasiveness, SJ presents audiences with a relatable exploration of technology

Butler’s theory of gender performativity: increased freedom of women to challenge hegemonic norms will resonate with a younger female queer audience, and confirms the changing values 

Shirky and end of audience: based around the genre of simulation. A critique of audience agency 

A complex social context that is explored in the opening scene of SJ is that of the simulation. Baudrillard argues we live in a simulated world, with all representations a reconstruction of a reality that never existed in the first place. The nostalgic 80s is a comfortable world for the target audience, where everything was good and there were no problems. Yorkie therefore escapes into a hyperreal simulacrum in order to escape her own circumstances 

LR features a similar bar scene that also functions as a hyperreal simulacrum; an american style dive bar where cool teenagers hang out and shoot pool, just like an American drama. However, The Lake Pub scene in the first episode draws attention to another contextual concern. Firstly, it constructs a reality where young people are represented as fun and exciting only when drinking. Secondly, this scene LEna subverts traditional, patriarchal and hegemonic expectations, as she is the one attempting to instigate a sexual relationship. It constructs a reality where actual, real world issues are 

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One way in which social and cultural contexts influence audience interprets

A further context that certainly influences audiences in San Jun is….