Homework, 25th November, 2015

This week, you are going to revise for a test on television comedy. Everything you need to know is below:

Television Comedy

Benidorm

·         First aired on February 1^st, 2007 (a Thursday). Repeats go out on ITV 2 and ITV 2+1 at 9pm (right on the Watershed). Must be broadcast after the watershed because of language and sexual references.

·         Aimed at a working class audience and is an alternative to ‘safer’ middle class comedies such as My Family.

·         Set in the Spanish resort town of Benidorm, where thousands of British tourists go every year for cheap holidays in the sun.

·         Actors in the show include Steve Pemberton, who was previously in the comedy show The League of Gentlemen, the stand-up comedian Jonny Vegas and Janine Duvistsky, who was in One Foot in the Grave.

·         Shot almost entirely with hand held cameras on location with no laughter track, so in this sense reflects more modern, edgy comedies like I’m Alan Partridge and The Office, although in terms of the content, has more in common with the ’80s sitcom Hi-de-Hi!, which was set in a fictional Butlins-style holiday camp.

·         Audience pleasure comes from situations which people who take holidays in resorts can relate to, like avoiding paying for things and parents using foul language around their children. 

Have I Got News For You

·         The original panel show, first aired in 1990 on BBC 2. Switched to BBC 1 in 2000 due to its popularity (BBC 2 is generally for programmes with smaller audiences). Now goes out at 9pm on Friday nights and old episodes are repeated on the Dave channel, which specialises in programmes aimed at men (hence the name). The show must be broadcast after the watershed because of language, although because of the style of humour (political satire), does not generally appeal to children anyway.

·         Has a fairly broad appeal, reflected in the range of guests such as Reginald D. Hunter, a black American comedian, Grayson Perry, a male cross-dressing artist, and Germaine Greer, a female writer and broadcaster famous for her feminist politics.

·         The regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop, represent contrasting sections of society. Hislop, whose day job is to edit the satirical newspaper Private Eye, was educated in a private boys’ school and always wears a suit, therefore representing the middle and upper classes. Merton, by contrast, is from a working-class background and spent many years on the stand-up comedy circuit before moving into television.

·         Audience pleasure comes from seemingly improvised jokes about topical events, although some are prepared before the show is recorded. 

Homework, 18th November, 2015

This week I would like you to write an answer for Question 3, using the guidelines below. You should try and do this within 20 minutes. 

Question 3 guidelines

3. Discuss how people and lifestyles are represented in the extract. Refer to stereotypes in your answer. Use examples from the extract (20 marks)

There are (STATE HOW MANY) main areas of representation in the extract: (LIST THE DIFFERENT AREAS OF REPRESENTATION, e.g. GENDER, ETHNICITY, AGE, etc. THE QUESTION MIGHT ASK YOU TO REFER TO A SPECIFIC AREA OF REPRESENTATION, IN WHICH CASE, MAKE SURE YOU ONLY REFER TO THAT ONE).

IN TERMS OF GENDER, YOU CAN SAY:

·        Females are presented as attractive, stereotypically feminine, wearing makeup, wearing revealing clothes. They are shown as sex objects.

·        Men are shown in positions of power, physically strong and attractive.

IN TERMS OF ETHNICITY, YOU CAN SAY:

·        Black people are shown in a stereotypical way as subservient and inferior.

·        Oriental/Chinese people are shown in a stereotypical way as being good at martial arts and/or as slightly nerdy.

·        South Americans are shown as being poor, doing jobs such as gardening and decorating, or as wealthy drug dealers.

·        Indians/Pakistanis are shown as being quite nerdy, doing jobs such as doctor or dentist.

·        Muslims are shown as being very religious, possibly even extremist, wearing robes and head scarves.

·        White people are shown as superior, successful and good at what they do.

IN TERMS OF AGE, YOU CAN SAY:

·        Elderly people are shown as inferior, incapable of looking after themselves, interested in reading, going to the opera and watching documentaries.

·        Young people are shown as dynamic, fun-loving and independent.

IF ANY GROUP IS BEING SHOWN IN A DIFFERENT WAY, EXPLAIN THAT THIS IS COUNTERTYPICAL. FOR ALL OF THESE, YOU WILL NEED TO GIVE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FROM THE EXTRACT.

Homework, 11th November 2015

On Monday, I am going to give you a test on the key terms you will need to know for the exam, so you need to revise them. You don't need to memorise the definitions word for word, but you will need to be able to define each term in a way which makes sense. 

Key terms megalist!

So, we're no longer going to do the exam which uses a film clip, as it is too difficult. Instead we're going to do the exam where you have to analyse an extract from a lifestyle magazine. Because of this, I have created a brand new version of the key terms megalist.

MEDIA STUDIES KEY TERMS MEGALIST!!!

Anchorage text	This is the piece of text which explains who the person on the cover is.
Aspirational	We can use this word to refer to the overall tone of a magazine if it makes you aspire (want) to improve your life.
Composition	This is basically another word for layout, but it refers specifically to camera shots.
Coverline	This refers to all the bits of text on a magazine cover which aren’t part of the anchorage text, masthead or skyline.
Direct address	If the model on the cover of the magazine is looking directly at you, this is direct address. If a coverline says something like ‘101 ways to spice up your sex life’, this is also direct address because it is as if the magazine is talking directly to you.
Generic convention	This is something we expect to see in a particular genre of magazine, for example, we expect to see advice on how to improve your life in a lifestyle magazine.
Masthead	The title of the magazine, as it is presented on the cover. Can usually be found at the top of the page.
Register	This refers to the text. The register can either be formal or informal/chatty.
Saturation	If a colour is very bright, we can say that it is highly saturated.
Serif	These are the little extra bits you see on letters in fonts such as Times New Roman. Serif makes text look classy and sophisticated, whereas text without serif could be described as sleek and modern.
Skyline	This is the line of text you sometimes find above the masthead on a magazine cover.
Stereotype	An attractive female being presented as a sex object, or a Chinese man being shown in a Karate outfit are both stereotypes.
Tagline	This is a sentence that sums up the ethos of the magazine, for example, the tagline for GQ magazine is ‘Look sharp, live smart’. Not all magazines have taglines.
Typography	This refers to what the text looks like in terms of the font and whether or not it has serif. It does not refer to the size of the text or where it is on the page; these are covered by layout.