1. AIM: By the end of the lesson, you will…
• Understand the requirements of your exam
•Distinguish TV Drama from other genres
•Be able to analyse representation in a range of media texts.

2. ASSESSMENT
 G322: Key Media Concepts (TV Drama)
 The exam is 2 hours (including 30 mins for viewing and making notes on the
clip) .
 Candidates are required to answer two compulsory questions - each question is
marked out of 50.
There are two sections to this paper:
 Section A: Textual Analysis and Representation (50 marks)
 Section B: Institutions and Audiences (50 marks) - see the case studies for
The Inbetweeners Movie and John Carter. You should have also
researched your own examples of an independent British film
and mainstream Hollywood film.

3. SECTION A
 Section A: Textual Analysis and Representation
 You will watch an ‘unseen’ TV extract from a TV drama (a one-off drama series or serial
drama programme scheduled on British TV, including some sourced from other
countries).
 You will answer one compulsory question dealing with textual analysis of various
technical aspects of the languages and conventions of moving image media. Candidates
will be asked to link this analysis with a discussion of some aspect of representation
within the sequence:
 Camera Angle, Shot, Movement and Composition
 Mise-en-Scène
 Editing
 Sound

4. SECTION B
 Section B: Institutions and Audiences
 One compulsory question to be answered by candidates based upon a case
study of a specific media industry (we will study Film and Video Games).
 We will choose one of the topic areas in advance and prepare you for it. You
will need to know contemporary institutional processes of production,
distribution, marketing and exchange/exhibition at a local, national or
international level as well as British audiences’ reception and consumption.
There should also be some emphasis on the students’ own experience of being
audience.

5. What is TV Drama?
YOUR TASK - Starter
1. Write a list of the TV Dramas that you know!
2. Put them into groups and label them appropriately.
3. How have you decided to group them? Why?

6. TV Drama is…
A story that is presented in a dramatic way and
explores a range of genres
Dramatic programming that is scripted and
normally fictional

7. TV Drama Sub-genres
A ‘sub-genre’ is where genres are subdivided into even more
specific categories.
What sub-genres can you think of?

8. Teen Dramas
These depend entirely on the target audience
empathising with a range of authentic characters,
age-specific situations and anxieties.
E.g. Skins.
Watch a clip from 4OD or on Youtube:
Think about the target audience.
Who are they? How do you know?

9. Period/Costume Dramas
These are often linked to ‘classic’ novels or plays
and offer a set of pleasers that are very different to
dramas set in our times.
E.g. Downton Abbey
As you watch this clip
think about the target audience.
Who are they? How do you know?

10. Medical/Hospital Dramas
We witness trauma and suffering on the part of
patients and relatives with a set of staff narratives
that deploy soap opera conventions.
E.g. Holby City, ER, Scrubs.
As you watch this clip
think about the target audience.
Who are they? How do you know?

11. Police/Crime Dramas
These work in the same way as medical/hospital
dramas but we can substitute the health context for
representation of criminals and victims.
E.g. The Bill.
As you watch this clip
think about the target audience.
Who are they? How do you know?

12. Remember
It is rare to find a TV Drama that fits all.
Audiences like choice and different audiences find
appeals in different types of media texts (Uses and
Gratifications, Blumler and Katz)
What is in each TV programme has been constructed
to appeal to those audiences.
Representation is constructed – your task is to
deconstruct how it has been created using technical
language.

13. Representation
The process by which the media present to us the
‘real’ world.
Okay, that’s harsh –
I’m stereotyping!!

14. Representations can change over
time…
The Sun, 1998
Headline ‘Banished
Beckham’
The Sun, 2001 Headline
‘Glorious Golden Balls’

15. Other factors that affect
representations:
Audience positioning – consider how different
categories of audiences will react to you.
Interaction between other groups (important when
looking at characterisation within TV Drama).
Cultural ideology – we hall have expectations about
how certain characters and groups should react,
behave and operate within society.
Exam spec has changed – no longer is the extract
exclusive to UK but can be an imported TV drama
shown in the UK. How does the above affect this?

16. Key points
For many of us, the media are the key source of our
understanding of the world.
For example, what is it like to live in Australia? If you
have not been there, how do you know this?
Many people believe that the media are a powerful
means of shaping our attitudes and beliefs – what does
this mean?

17. 7 groups of representation
Class
Sexuality
Disability
Regional identity
Age
Ethnicity
Gender

18. How accurate is the media?
Can we trust the representation that is being made
to be an ‘accurate’ portrayal?

19. STEREOTYPING
What does ‘stereotyping’ mean?
“The portrayal of people or places through a few
obvious characteristics”
What is the stereotype of British youths?

20. YOUR TASK
Look at the images on your table.
Answer the following questions on the images.
You will be required to feed back your answers!

21. Things to think about…
How accurately do they represent young people in
Britain?
Are the images a positive or negative
representation?

23. YOUR TASK
1. Research examples of the following TV Drama sub-genres:
•Teen Drama
•Period/Costume drama
•Police/crime drama
•Medical/hospital drama
2. Look for representations of the following within each genre:
•Class, Sexuality, Disability, Regional identity, Age, Ethnicity, Gender
YOU WILL FEED BACK YOUR FINDINGS TO THE REST OF THE
CLASS!

24. Homework/independent study
Choose a TV Drama to watch before next lesson
(Monday)
Choose a specific representation to analyse
Make notes and be ready to feed back to the class on
Monday about what you have found!
END OF SESSION 1

25. AIM: By the end of the lesson, you will be
able to deconstruct a TV Drama extract.
STARTER: Watch the following extract…
(Put your homework on your desk ready for collection)

26. Deconstructing
What is it?
Looking at the choices made in production. Picking
them apart. We will ‘deconstruct’ the text.
What should we look at?
Camera (angles and movement)
Sound (dialogue, effects, music)
Editing (pace, transitions)
Mise en scene

27. YOUR TASK
Time to deconstruct another extract!
You will be either a 1, 2 or 3…
If you are a 1, you will focus on camera (angles and
movement).
If you are a 2, you will focus on editing (pace,
transitions).
If you are a 3, you will focus on sound (dialogue,
effects, music).
FEEDBACK

28. Future Focuses
There are more areas to focus on. You
should also be looking at shot types, special
effects, props, costume, hair and make-up,
setting, colour, and lighting.
See other presentations on editing, camera
and sound.

29. AIM: By the end of the session, you will understand realism
and apply this to extracts from a range of TV dramas.
STARTER: Complete the terminology test!

30. CAMERA
Let us recap what we know about camera.
ACTIVITY: Match the camera shots, angles and
movements to the definitions. Write the correct
term above each definition.
Now tell me, what shot is this?

32. CAMERA: ACTIVITY
Watch the following clip from 24.
Note down (in a list) every camera shot, angle and movement
you see!
Now, in pairs, discuss the use of these shots and answer the
following questions:
WHY was that shot used?
What effect does it have?
Write an account for the significance of each shot (and
sequence of shots used) in explaining the setting/location and
social context.
This slide assumes you’re a 24 fan or can have access to any of
the amazing episodes.

33. REALISM
WHAT IS IT?
A style that attempts to represent the real
world.
TASK:
Read the extract on your worksheet, then
watch the following clip. Consider how the
narrative, mise-en-scene, camera and sound
are constructed to represent reality.

34. REALISM
Characters and narrative are plausible – they help to
convince audiences and provide the effect of reality;

35. REALISM
Mise-en-scene – designed to look realistic
(appropriate sets, locations, dress and lighting);

36. REALISM
Camerawork – although stylised and contemporary,
aimed at conveying realism;

37. REALISM
Sound – mainly diegetic but non-diegetic sound is not
intrusive.

38. MISE-EN-SCENE (RECAP)
What is mise-en-scene?
Everything that appears before the camera.
What can be included in ‘mise-en-scene’?
Set, props, actors, costumes, composition, lighting.
ACTIVITY: Watch the following extract and describe
the mise-en-scene of the scene.
GIVE AS MUCH DETAIL AS POSSIBLE!

39. Answer the following question…
Discuss the ways in which the following extract from
Shameless constructs the representation of social
class using the following:
• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise-en-scène

40. HOMEWORK
KNOW THE APPROPRIATRE TERMS
USE THE CORRECT ONES!

41. AIM: By the end of the lesson, you will have analysed the
representation of gender within a range of TV drama extracts.
STARTER: Complete the terminology test.

42. ACTIVITY
Using the worksheet, analyse the following
extract from Primeval.
As in the exam, you will see the extract four
times.
During the first viewing, you will not be able to
make notes.

44. http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/

45. ON YOUR OWN
Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the
representation of gender using the following:
Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
Editing
Sound
Mise en scene

46. AIM: By the end of the lesson, you will create your own character representation.
STARTER:
Look at the still images from TV dramas and answer these questions:
•What sub-genre of TV drama does it belong to?
•How do you know?
•Who is being represented?
•How are they being represented in this image?

47. ON YOUR POST-IT NOTE…
Write YOUR definition of representation (and your name) and go and
stick it on the whiteboard.
Watch the following video and be ready to discuss.

48. Stuart Hall – Key Points
Hall emphasises the importance of visual representation –
the image seems to be the prevalent sign of late modern
culture.
Representation – to present/to depict.
The word suggests something was there already and has
been represented by the media.
Representation is that which stands in for something else.
Representation is the way in which meaning is given to
the things which are depicted that stand in for something.

49. REPRESENTATION
What questions do we need to ask ourselves when we
look at representation within an image (or an extract)?
WHO is being represented?
IN WHAT WAY are they being represented?
WHO is representing them in this way?
WHY are they being represented in this way?
In the representation FAIR & ACCURATE?
ACTIVITY: Go back to your still images sheet – answer
all of the above questions about each image.

53. QUESTION
Representation is not present just in people… it’s
in places and ideas too.
Does representation in media texts alter how we
see the real world around us?

54. SEMIOTICS
WATCH THE FOLLOWING
VIDEO…
The study of signs.
Developed by Ferdinand de Saussure (1974).
We make meaning through the creation and
interpretation of signs.
Signs can be words, images, sounds, odours, flavours,
acts, objects.
The word sign is used to describe anything that
carries meaning - whether it’s a word, a
symbol/image, or a sound.

55. SIGNS
Because of their nature, we have to view signs as
having two distinct parts:
The signifier - the physical sign itself
The signified - the meaning carried by the sign
Alternatively, we can think in terms of the denoted
meaning (what the thing is), and... the connotations
carried by the thing.
It is important to remember is that signs are
polysemic: open to many interpretations.

56. ACTIVITY
Look at the following images and make a note of:
The Signifiers
The Signified

57. YOUR TASK
You will be given a character from the list. You must create a storyboard (minimum 5
slides) to tell the story of them taking a trip to the shops. How would you represent them?
Use all the technical codes to add understanding to your storyboard.
Characters:
Things to think about:
•A teenager
•How would they get to the shops? Technical
codes:
•What might they buy?
•Middle class,
middle aged man •What would they wear? •Camera work
•Elderly person •How would you frame it? •Editing
•A disabled person •How would you edit it? •Mise en scene
•Housewife •What would we hear? •Sound
•Doctor •Would they go on their own?

58. ‘A trip to the shops…’
PRESENTATIONS

59. You should continue to look at TV
Drama clips and practise analysing
them.
Presentations on the other key areas are on a separate
presentation.
Visit www.alevelmedia.co.uk for more ideas and
suggested activities.