1. A2 MEDIA: MS4: KEY THEMES AND TOPIC AREAS
The paper is synoptic, i.e. you have to refer to all 3 areas in the questions – so the actual text, the audience responses and the industry
issues behind them.
FILM –
TEXTS: This is England (2006) – Skyfall (2012) – Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Key themes
Genre and Narrative:
This is England Zero Dark Thirty Skyfall
Genre:
Social realist
Thatcher’s Britain, 1983.
Directed by Shane Meadows – British
director known for low-budget but gritty UK
films.
Key mise-en-scene: A gritty style of film-
making. Mise-en-scene is real and authentic
– real news clips are shown at the start to
create a context of the events for the
audience.
Realist style is created through use of:
Ø Ska music,
Ø hand-held camera (Combo’s attack
on Miky),
Ø filming on location in Grimsby
Ø Lack of special effects and theme
music
Genre:
A real mixture of social realism, action and
Hollywood blockbuster.
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Key mise-en-scene:
Uses a mixture of social realism camera
work and traditional Hollywood action with
the end sequence.
Torture scenes create verisimilitude – but
have been criticised for their depiction of
American CIA.
Realism – how is the audience put out of
their ‘comfort zone’?
o Torture scenes
Genre:
Action, adventure and also Bond – a genre
perhaps in its own right.
The first Bond film was 1962 and Skyfall
is the 23nd
film of the franchise.
Bond genre traits include: A ‘gun-barrel sequence’
where Bond is viewed through the barrel of a gun
by the audience, as if by an assassin
An action-packed prologue sequence that grabs the
audience and establishes an element of the plot
A title sequence using artistic cinematography
and/or graphics and a subtle introduction to the
film’s themes
A reliance on gadgets/technology
Female characters whose roles reflect changes in
society (including sexual conquests, active
assistants, and even enemies)

2. o Bomb blasts at the hotel restaurant
o The failed ‘meet’ at the airbase
Does the film challenge the stereotypes of
America as the hero?
Women characters are shown as hero
figures and challenge perceptions – Maya
and Jessica. Director’s intention – to ‘a
cinematic work with the sweep and human
emotion of a historical novel’.
It has also been described as a ‘reportage
film’ by Bigelow.
Bond represents a classic hero who is battling
against chaos and anarchy in order to restore social
order
Bond’s persona is consistently ruthless, detached,
egotistical, athletic, quick-thinking and acting, and
good looking
Much of the action takes place in exotic locales (or
occasionally more gloomy, war-torn foreign
countries)
Fast-paced action sequences – the opening in Italy
through the lakeside roads to the Palio horse race
in Siena.
The genre is mainly escapist and
glamorous.
Representations of main characters –
females are strong and feisty (think of M
ruthlessly saying shoot to Eve), but M
becomes vulnerable and is considered too
old for the job.
Bond sleeps with 2 women (one on the
island when he is ‘dead’) and Severine,
Sliva’s mistress.
Stereotypes of villains – Silva is foreign
and cultivating the cultural imperialism of
the US and Britain.
Narrative: The film follows an emotional
journey of 13-year-old schoolboy Shaun
Fields who has moved to Grimsby following
his father’s death in the Falklands War.
Narrative: Maya is a CIA operative whose
first experience is in the interrogation of
prisoners following the Al Qaeda attacks
against the U.S. on the 11th September
2001. She is a reluctant participant in
Narrative: Bond is chasing a stolen disc
containing the information on a list of
secret agents. M is being targeted by an
old enemy, who has a score to settle with
her. Lots of traditional binary opposites,

3. Shaun’s journey:
o Being picked on at school.
o Getting his Skinhead outfit and
shaving his head.
o Coming of age with Smell
o Initiated into Combo’s gang
o The violence in Combo’s gang
o Reacting to Milky’s attack
extreme duress applied to the detainees,
but believes that the truth may only be
obtained through such tactics. For several
years, she is single-minded in her pursuit
of leads to uncover the whereabouts of Al
Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden. Finally,
in 2011, it appears that her work will pay
off, and a U.S. Navy SEAL team is sent to
kill or capture Bin Laden. But only Maya is
confident Bin Laden is where she says he
is.
interestingly M and MI6; M & Silva; Bond &
Silva.
Silva orchestrates his own capture and
escape from MI6, leading to a final
encounter with Bond and M at Bond’s
Scottish childhood home, Skyfall.
Marketing and Production
This is England
Critics gave the film positive praise and
helped raise its profile. The film opened in
62 cinemas and thanks to word of mouth
and good reviews, the film was expanded to
150 cinemas in its 4th
week.
The film was made by Warp Films, set up in
2002 and had a budget of £1.5m and they
received £668,000 from the New Cinema
Fund (UK Film Council)
Awards: Best Film at the Berlin Film
Festival 2007 & Special Jury Award at the
Rome Film Festival.
The poster
suggests an
ensemble
cast and
refers to
the fashions
and politics
of the
Zero Dark Thirty
Budget: around $40 million (£23.9
million).
Produced by Annapurna Pictures;
Columbia Pictures and First Light
Production.
Gross
revenue:
$138.7
million
(£83
million).
Nominated
for 5 Oscars including Best Picture,
actress and screenplay. Won one Oscar
for sound editing. Nominated for 4 Golden
Globes, Jessica Chastain won best actress.
Released in the UK on January 25, 2013,
it took $5.7million at the UK box office
(around £3.4million). It was the 74th
most popular film at the British box office
that year.
Skyfall
Budget: around £97m
Produced by Eon Productions – started by
film producers Albert Broccoli and Harry
Saltzman.
Heineken, the beer company, paid £28
million towards the marketing budget,
estimated at around £49.5M
The marketing had to capitalise on the
marketing of both Casino Royale and
Quantum of Solace. The teaser poster
sees Bond in iconic suit and with the
iconography of a gun.
The teaser trailer has enigmas relating to

4. 1980s. This is England suggests the themes
are as relevant today as in the past and the
text is red, white and blue – representing
the national flag and the right-wing racism
featured in the film.
The trailer markets the nostalgic elements
of the film, with Ska music and the sense of
fun surrounding the time period. But it also
shows the attack on Milky and the darker
side of the film.
The marketing was helped by £90,000 from
the UK Film Council’s Prints & Advertising
fund.
The trailer gives hints of thriller, torture
and violence. Bigelow’s past success with
The Hurt Locker is highlighted.
Close up shots of Maya and her work. Lots
of shots of US operatives, dark shadows,
espionage, wealth and explosions.
Melancholy piano music at the end.
death (coffins, guns, Bond is ‘done’;
‘Some men are coming to kill us’). Lots of
action sequences, fast paced montage at
the end and the iconic theme tune.
Marketing and tie-ins: Lots of synergy
with other products linked to Bond such
as Land Rover cars, the Aston Martin,
Heineken beer, Omega watches, Macallan
whisky and Tom Ford suits.
Distribution: In the UK, the film opened
in 587 cinema screens on October 27th,
taking £20,180,369 on its opening
weekend. To date (February 2013) it has
taken £200.5 million in the UK and £725
million across the world ($1.1 billion).
Audience Appeal
This is England
Successful film – making a healthy return of
£4.3m in the UK and abroad.
Because the film is social realism its target
audience may be mixed. Filmgoers fed up
with Hollywood and escapism could be
drawn to the gritty storyline and
challenging themes.
2 main target audiences – older (30+)
audience who remember the time period
and have a sense of nostalgia for the time
and clips of fashions, music etc of the time.
Teenagers and younger would enjoy the
sense of rebellion and subculture
(Skinheads) in the film.
Zero Dark Thirty
You could argue that the appeal of the
film is its mixture of social realism &
classic Hollywood narrative.
The producers wanted to show the ‘truth’
of events, so there is an element of
verisimilitude but the finish of the film has
a high Hollywood narrative, as the
protagonists hunt for Bin Laden.
Critics have mentioned ‘torture porn’ in
relation to the scenes where suspects are
interrogated.
Perhaps the appeal is through the America
represented as the hero country that
saves the world – yet again. Despite its
Skyfall
Appeal lies in the franchise and an
established audience.
Bond has changed his persona as time
evolves but he is still at the heart a
macho, violent assassin – appealing to
men in an escapist way and to women –
who could be his sidekick or lover.
He is an object of female gaze.
There is a mix of genres – thriller, action,
romance.
High speed chases, fight scenes, exotic
locations all appeal to the audience.

5. o Appeal includes the hand-held
camera work
o Long takes and use of establishing
shots on location in Grimsby
o The Britain show is authentic – real
news footage and social references
are all through the film (Falklands
War, Margaret Thatcher)
o The film switches from dry humour
(‘Harvey’ etc) to challenging and
emotional scenes (Milky’s attack)
o The attack on Milky is filmed using
hand held camera creating an ultra-
realist stye and puts the audience
right in the thick of the attack
o The film has themes which are similar
to issues relevant today – the
racism, unemployement, war and
backlash against immigration
Regulation issues – the film was
granted an 18 certificate – objected to
by director Shane Meadows and film
producer Mark Herbert who thought its
gritty rite of passage storyline directly
spoke to 15 – 17 year olds.
realism and attention to details, the film
ultimately reinforces hegemonic values
about the cultural and global dominance
of Western and American values.
The representations of the Middle East
and Arab nations are simplistic, creating
obvious binary opposites between East
and West.
Questions have been raised as to whether
torture of US detainees led to information
which helped capture bin Laden, as the
film implies. CIA sources say much of the
intelligence came from outside sources,
not from prisoners.
Main target audience is young men – who
gave it an average rating of 8.6 on the
IMDB poll.
The 12A certificate means the film can be
viewed by a wide audience.

6. Television: Key texts: 999: What’s Your Emergency? (Ch 4), Bluestone 42 (BBC Three) and CSI (Five)
Genre & Narrative
999: What’s Your Emergency? Bluestone 42 CSI
Genre: Fly-on-the wall documentary, part of
a breed of new human interest documentaries
focusing on real life events.
Broadcast on Channel 4 – has a remit to
provide programmes of an educational nature
and to offer diversity in viewing. Channel 4 is
not-for-profit, so all money made goes back
into future programmes, commissioned for
Channel 4.
999 follows many of the conventions of the
documentary format – a voiceover, face-to-
face interviews, real life footage (using CCTV,
static cameras in ambulances, police
stations).
Genre
Situation comedy, set in Afghanistan,
following the exploits of bomb disposal squad
Bluestone 42.
It is broadcast on BBC Three (soon to be
available online only) and it focuses on a key
target audience of 16 to 30-somethings.
It uses typical situation comedy conventions
such as:
- The same characters appear in each episode
and rarely develop or change
- Characters often reinforce stereotypes
(often of race, class, sexual and regional
differences)
- The narrative is situation led (using a comic
event, or visual humour or a linguistic pun)
- Characters often have catchphrases or
sayings, repeated once or more in each
episode
- There are often disruptions to aid the
humour but the primary plot is
resolved in each episode
- There is a ‘re-familiarising’ of a recurring
situation (resolved at the end of
each episode and redefined, So the situation
is not allowed to change but is subjected to a
recurring process of de-stabilisation – re-
stabilisation in each episode
Genre: Sub-genre of the cop show, CSI
features a group of crime scene investigators
working alongside the police. The programme
is on CBS in America and is broadcast on Five
(the terrestial 5th
channel in the UK). The
show is one of Five’s biggest rated ones and
the centre of its weekend evening schedule.
Although it isn’t a traditional crime show, CSI
still has typical genre conventions, including:
o Binary opposites – police vs criminals
and in CSI sometimes the forensic
team vs the police
o Ideology of the police as there to
protect us
o There is a hero figure, in earlier CSI
Grissom and Langston in series 10
CSI first broadcast in 2000, and is now
watched in 200 countries worldwide – making
the cultural values employed very powerful. *
Key point – globalisation – as the world has
become smaller thanks to technology such as
the internet, our cultural experiences have
become globalised as well.
Critics of this global village argue that our
values and ideologies are constructed
through our shared viewing of news and
drama. Reception theory argues we are active
in choosing our values and ideologies and
programmes reflect our actual ideologies, not
create them.

7. Narrative:
Episode 6: If you want to blame
anyone, blame the Spice Girls
This episode focuses on the females working
in the emergency services in Blackpool –
police, ambulance crews and call service
operators.
It also looks at the role of alcohol in the way
women behave today.
5ft PC Beckie Herbert is knocked unconscious
by a teenager in the Bonny St police station.
Paramedic Erica Reynolds talks about women
drinking like blokes nowadays. Intoxicated
Sharna thinks her drinking exploits are funny –
we see her throwing up the back of the
ambulance. There has been an 80% increase
in violent crime and women in the last
decade.
Pc Claire Van Deurs Goss – ‘Lipstick is more
effective than a taser’
Sgt Lisa Dunne is the duty desk sergeant – a
woman has been brought in after a fight on
Queen Street – claims she could take her out
with one punch.
Context: Pc Beckie Herbert explains that
women now marry later, have their own
disposable income and drink like the men.
Amanda, 15, was stabbed in the head by her
friend – over a boy. The two girls are still
friends. Her foster mum, Sharron Wade, says
knives are all to common and kids don’t take
the dangers seriously.
Domestic violence is considered – Luke
Walker is stabbed with a knife by his ex-
Narrative:
Episode 1: This is used as an establishing
episode for the comedy, introducing
characters and stereotypes.
We have the American CIA agent, loud,
typical ‘Yank’, doesn’t get irony, but is shot
in the head after removing his safety helmet.
Creates the catchphrase for Mac of ‘When I
was in Fallujah’.
We are introduced to Nick, the boss of the
unit, who fancies himself as much as he
fancies the new Padre, Mary.
Mac and Rocket fulfill stereotypes, working
class and fairly stupid.
Bird is the female ‘macho’ soldier, belching
and making crude jokes to be ‘one of the
lads’.
The Bluestone 42 team are called out on
routine ops with their CIA liaison officer
Carter (Michael McShane), where things take
a drastic turn.
Back at base, they are introduced to Mary
(Kelly Adams), the new padre, who Nick
(Oliver Chris), the Ammunition Technical
Officer, takes an instant shine to. How will
she react to his advances?
Meanwhile, Simon (Stephen Wight) grapples
with Millsy (Gary Carr) over the report that
Nick has forced him to write on his behalf,
and the young Privates - Mac (Jamie Quinn)
and Rocket (Scott Hoatson) - enjoy winding
up Bird (Katie Lyons) who may or may not
This has led to the CSI effect in real-life
courtrooms where juries are more likely to
believe forensic evidence.
o CSI fits into the Psycho-drama sub-
genre, focusing on the
psychological causes of crime and
the forensic details.
Narrative:
Episode 1: 73 Seconds:
New boss DB Russell takes over the CSI team and causes
friction amongst the staff.
A shooting on the subway near the Palermo hotel in Vegas
leaves 2 dead and 3 injured.
The team have to unravel the order of the shootings –
they find out one of the victims, Tom Finnerty was
stabbed first and was dying of cancer. He was in Vegas
with his brother Jimmy. Jimmy ran to help him and pulled
out the knife that was stuck in his side. A cowboy on the
tram, assuming that Jimmy was attacking Tom, pulled out
a gun. An off-duty security guard from the Palermo pulled
his gun as well, and that’s when the bullets started to fly.
The cowboy shot the security guard in the shoulder, and
the security guard got off three shots—one hit the
cowboy in the chest and killed him, and the other two
injured a woman riding the tram with her son nearby.
DB and Nick talk to the injured woman’s son, Emmett,
who admits that he found money on the tram platform
before the ride and took it. The money has blood on it,
proving that Tom was already injured—but they know it
didn’t happen on the platform or in the casino because
there’s no surveillance footage of the attack. The
restroom wouldn’t have a camera, though, and they find
Tom’s blood on one of the stalls.
Fingerprints lead back to Allen Krick, a man who was in
the next tram car during the shootout. Krick worked with
Jimmy at a chop shop, and Krick has spent the past few
years in jail while Jimmy stayed free. Tom was trying to
pay Krick off to protect his brother, but Krick stabbed him
and took his money anyway. Tom staggered onto the
tram to be with his brother when he died.
Meanwhile, Sara and Greg work a strange case in Brime

8. girlfriend.
Episode 7: ‘I can speak drunk quite
fluently on a Saturday night’
Alcohol related deaths are a serious issue –
alcohol is a factor in half of all crimes and in
70% of violent crime.
Starts narrative off with humour and hen-dos,
Blackpool’s Golden Mile. Tone turns serious
one third of fatal fires are alcohol related –
death of an elderly man in a house fire – he is
found slumped behind the back door of his
bungalow. Firefighter talks of the man’s skin
all melted and burnt. Emotion as you can
smell the burning flesh on your tunics.
PC Mike Royle speaks of his South Shore beat
as deprived with lots of domestic & alcohol
related problems.
Possible murder – in Blackpool, violent crime
rates are twice the national average. Turns
out the man on Hill Street, South Shore has
bled to death and died alone in his flat from a
nose bleed. Neighbours are interested in what
happened – sad aspect his death.
Pc Kris Beesley, some people just ‘exist’.
Ivan Edgerton, 47, alcoholic has called out
multiple ambulances – we see him throughout
the episode and find out he was a promising
footballer in his youth. Paramedics Sue
McGrath and Laura Dickinson deal with him.
Links to wider social problems – no hostel
beds etc.
Sgt Lisa Dunne says it is hard seeing how
alcohol takes over. She describes Bonny St
station on a Saturday night as a mixture of a
have named the bomb seeking robot 'Arthur'.
Episode 2: Features the lizard for tea; Mary
being seduced by Nick and Simon’s old man
habits being ridiculed by the team.
Bird is disappointed by her shower gel
present from home, but Simon’s delighted by
his slippers and so is Rocket with his plastic
turds.
Nick has grown tired of eating the same food
every day and is desperate to find something
tastier. He's intrigued when the Colonel tips
him off about a local delicacy - the Afghan
Tiger Gecko.
When Simon makes a mistake out on roadside
ops, Mary encourages Nick to let Millsy run a
re-training exercise. Millsy is ecstatic and
ensures he does a very thorough job, much
to the disdain of the team. Nick meanwhile is
pre-occupied with searching for the lizard,
which he plans to use in his latest efforts to
attract Mary.
County. Dale Hartley is found dead with a puncture wound
in his side, but there’s very little blood on his body. The
man isn’t old, but his chest looks loose and wrinkled. The
skin was stretched when the nozzle from an air
compressor was inserted into the stab wound. Hunters
use this method to separate a deer’s skin from its
carcass, and the dead man’s hunting partner, Ross Gibbs,
explains that a deer they’d killed wasn’t quite dead.
It cut Dale with the tip of one antler, so he tried to clean
the wound with the compressed air. Unfortunately, the
nozzle got stuck, and he died before Ross could yank it
out. Ross disposed of the body in the woods because he
has a business to run and can’t have dead bodies around,
and he didn’t want to get in trouble for hunting deer out
of season.
Episode 2: Tell Tale Hearts
The team is called out to an environmentally friendly
neighbourhood when blood starts spraying out of a
sprinkler in front of one of the houses. The sprinkler is
part of a grey water system, which means water from the
house is recycled into the sprinkler, and the blood has
been draining from the body of a woman found in the
shower. She is one of four victims, and she was stabbed
24 times with the sharp edge of a towel bar yanked from
the wall. The woman’s husband was shot three times while
watching football on the couch, and an older woman in a
wheelchair was stabbed 12 times with a knife right inside
the front door. The fourth victim is a little girl, Fiona, who
was shot once in the head, and there is evidence that she
was cleaned up and redressed.
The window in Fiona’s room is broken, and the team sees
blood on a jagged edge of glass. Blood drops lead around
the house and across the street to the home of John Lee,
and they find him holding the little girl’s bloody
nightgown. The man’s bedroom is set up in the exact
same arrangement as Fiona’s room, including the same
dollhouse on the floor beneath the window. There are
pictures hidden inside the back panel of the dollhouse, and
Morgan finds bootprints outside Fiona’s bedroom window
that have been there for a while. John has been watching
her for quite some time.
At first, John says he didn’t kill the girl. He looked in and
saw her dead, but he couldn’t leave her like that, so he
broke in and cleaned her up. After a bit more pressure,

9. ‘zoo & Jeremy Kyle’s waiting room’. however, he confesses to all four murders. Things get
more complicated when a woman named Leslie Gitig
comes into the precinct and claims that she is the real
killer. She was having an affair with the husband, Cal, and
he promised he’d leave his wife—but he didn’t. Leslie was
sitting in front of his house, like she always does, and she
went to the door. When the old woman wouldn’t let her in,
she killed her and made her way inside to kill the others.
She describes the deaths accurately.
Leslie tells the team where to find the gun she used, and
they find the right type of gun in that exact place—but it
isn’t a match. She also reveals a lie by saying she stabbed
the mother with a knife. The footprints outside Fiona’s
window match John’s shoes, but bloody footprints inside
the house belong to a man with larger feet.
The Chambliss family was selling drugs to pay the bills.
There is a fake electrical panel in Fiona’s bedroom, and the
team finds drugs and money inside. John says the family
let strange men into the house and into the girl’s
bedroom. They find a fingerprint in the niche behind the
electrical panel that leads back to Lonny Gallows, who has
prior drug arrests. John saw that man in Fiona’s room a
lot. When they go to arrest Lonny, his father Maurice runs
over and says his son is innocent. Maurice killed the
Chambliss family himself because he blames them for his
son’s drug use; the young man was clean after rehab until
he met Cal and Susan Chambliss.
Maurice’s confession gets Leslie out of jail, and John got
out on bail. The team tries to figure out which one of their
suspects is the actual killer, and DB points out that all
three confessions start out exactly the same: “I did it. I’m
the one who killed the Chambliss family.” They all had a
reason to want someone in that house dead, and they
worked together. Leslie came up with the idea after
stalking Cal and seeing John and Maurice at the house.
She intentionally got into an accident with Maurice and
took their cars to John’s shop so she could meet both
men and set her plan in motion.
The team heads to Leslie’s house, but they hear a
gunshot. John has shot her, and the truth comes out. She
talked him into going by telling him he could have Fiona.
He didn’t know what was going to happen. Leslie told him
to kill the child, but he couldn’t do it. Leslie shot her, and
John came back later to clean her up. He shot Leslie for

10. taking Fiona away from him, and he kills himself before
they can arrest him.
The real gun traces back to Lonny. If Maurice doesn’t say
what really happened, his son will get arrested. He tells
the truth, saying Leslie set it up, but she said only Cal
would die. She killed the grandmother at the door, and he
had no choice but to go in after Cal. Leslie went after the
mother and then the little girl.
Audience Appeal:
999: What’s Your Emergency? Bluestone 42 CSI
Target audience is probably 25 to 60 years.
The show features many issues relevant to
the UK (culturally close to Britain [News
Values], such as the issues of binge
drinking, domestic violence and alcohol
dependency.
The episodes use both humour and
juxtaposition of serious issues and pathos to
appeal to audiences.
It manages to educate and also entertain
viewers by the careful editing and selection
of people featured in the show, such as the
story of Ivan, the homeless alcoholic who at
the end of episode 7, we find was a promising
footballer in his youth.
We are shocked (the charred remains of the
victim of a fire); positioned to have sympathy
for characters featured (the policewomen;
firemen etc.); and amused (drunken woman
falls into the lamppost as facts about binge-
The first episode reached over 969,000
viewers for BBC Three and was the top rated
show for viewers for BBC Three that week.
The 2nd
episode on March 12th
had 652,000
viewers and still made the top 10 for the
channel. By episode 3 the show had 676,000
viewers, showing a loyal following. Series 2
was broadcast this year and the BBC has
commissioned a third series.
Appeal is the universal themes of the comedy
– falling out with your mates, fancying
someone and getting along with a group of
people, despite their social and cultural
differences – all themes that the target 16 to
30+ audience of BBC Three can identify with.
Sources of humour and repeated
catchphrases also appeal. The crude comedy
and slapstick nature of scenes also appeals to
Five has a 5.3% average share of the
average weekly viewing for all channels in the
UK, including digital ones which account for
44% of the weekly viewing.
CSI pulls in on average of 3.9 million
viewers, with 400,000+ on Five USA
for the repeats of the show.
Audience appeal: The crime genre is the most
watched genre of TV in the English speaking
world, and is one of the most long-running
crime shows on TV.
CSI’s use of quick cuts, graphic
reconstructions and gory close ups of
bullets and wounds are all part of its
appeal. The glamorous lead characters and
sense of escapism for the audience are key to
its appeal. Its success has led to spin off
series set in Miami and New York. Indeed
Miami has bigger viewing figures in the USA.

11. drinking are relayed to us via the narrator).
It fits into the surveillance part of Uses &
Gratifications theory and also many viewers
may identify with the issues raised in the
programme.
Audiences from the Blackpool area may have
an oppositional response to the
programme, as it depicts residents as benefit
dependent, drunken and with serious
domestic and social problems.
The representations don’t add to the tourist
image of the resort either.
a younger audience. Audiences can also become part of the CSI
team whilst watching the show – creating
personal relationships with key characters
featured in the series. Because the audience
is watching the team unravel the forensic
clues, you are invited to work out the
enigmas with the forensic investigators.
The programme has been criticised by real-
life police because of its unrealistic take on
what forensic officers do - not only do they
conduct scientific work in CSI, they also take
on the role of the police, interviewing
suspects and arresting people (shared with
the UK drama Silent Witness, which follows a
similar narrative pattern).
Hegemonic values are still evident in CSI – the
US law enforcement is seen as a force for
good and so the audience get the sense of
equilibrium and social order as crimes are
solved and the streets are made safe.
Guardian article on the appeal of CSI states:
What CSI does so well is to combine the old-
school values of dedicated crimefighting with
a new school of state of the art televisual
language, including reconstructions and CGI.
Those with a weak stomach be warned, there
are grisly scenes on the mortuary slab and
graphic anatomical detail, but it's surprising
how aesthetically pleasing an internal organ
impacted by a bullet can be on screen.

12. Marketing and production
999 is commissioned by Channel 4 and made
by production company BlastFilms. It was
filmed over a 6-week period in Blackpool.
Viewers can rewatch broadcast programmes
through the website link and on the Channel
4 catch up service.
The show was heavily marketed in the press,
and received a mix of reviews from national
newspapers.
The Daily Mail were scathing about its
negative representation of women ‘despairing
documentary shot with the emergency
services in Blackpool is that the gravest
danger facing young girls, right here in
Britain, right now in 2012, is not from a
stranger or a violent partner, but from
themselves’;
The Guardian said: ‘we're shown a compelling
mix of moments of crisis, a social context for
what we're watching, and the odd cheery
yarn to provide some light relief.’ Blackpool’s
council leader complained about the town
becoming a ‘refuge for the dispossessed’.
Bluestone 42 is produced by the BBC and
filmed on location in South Africa (doubling
up as Afghanistan).
The critics in the press were mixed in their
responses, many questioning the choice of
setting (in Afghanistan where British troops
are still working and dying on duty).
“Too soon?” one character asks in
¬Bluestone 42 after he makes a tasteless
quip about the death of a CIA officer.
That’s the question you might be asking after
watching BBC3’s new sitcom about a bomb
disposal team in Helmand Province. After all,
it’s usually polite to wait until a war is
actually over before you start making jokes
about it. – Jane Simon, The Mirror
‘And, like Miranda, a lot of its watchability
comes not from actual laughs, but from
enjoying the company of the nice people.
Inevitably, however, this means that it never
gets anywhere near the bone’ – Zoe Williams,
The Guardian.
CSI is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and
Anthony Zuiker.
Five uses CSI and its spin-off shows as a
mainstay of its schedule.
The channel made a special trailer, The Drama
Continues, focusing on their crime dramas to
promote Five, which featured CSI cast
members alongside stars of other crime
shows on Five, including The Mentalist, NCIS
and FlashForward. It is the first time that rival
US networks have agreed to their stars
appearing together.
CSI’s CBS website also features a lot of
interactive content for fans of the show, and
audiences can rewatch key scenes and
episodes, join fan forums and find out extra
information on their favourite characters.
There are related games and links to other
social networking sites.
Similarly on Five’s website, there is extra
information and interactive content but not
as detailed as on CBS.com.
Other spin-off merchandise includes books,
toys, and PlayStation games, where users
receive emails and updates on crimes,
creating a real virtual world online

13. Music Industry: Key texts: The Saturdays, Lil’ Wayne and the Gorillaz
Genre and Narrative
The Saturdays Lil’ Wayne Gorillaz
A manufactured pop band, signed to
Fascination Records, part of the Polydor
group which is owned by Universal Music.
The five members of the group are: Frankie,
Vanessa, Una, Rochelle and Mollie.
The band supported the successful Girls
Aloud on their Tangled Up tour.
Released their 1st single, If This Is Love,
which peaked at Number 8 in the UK charts.
1st album Chasing Lights released Oct
2008, and went to number 9, eventually
going Platinum. 5 singles in total were
released from this album.
The girls are sexualized in their
representations through their videos:
Born Dwayne Michael Carter Jnr, he grew
up in the infamous New Orleans
neighbourhood of Hollygrove. He took the
name Gangst D and began writing rhymes.
He convinced the Cash Money label to
take him on, aged just 11. He released
material with 14-year-old BG and his
debut album as part of the BG’z was in
1995. In 1997 he accidently shot himself
in the chest with a .44, and the
partnership broke up. He took the
moniker, Lil’ Wayne. Cash Money signed
up with Universal in ’99. Wayne had joined
the Hot Boys rap group – they got to
Billboard number 1 with their Guerilla
Warfare album. Wayne’s first solo album
Tha Block is Hot was released in ’99.
Hip-hop music originated from the street
Created by former Blur frontman Damon Albarn
and graphic artist Jamie Hewlett in 1998.
The music comprises of multiple musical genres –
including: hip-hop, dub, alternative rock, electronic
and pop.
The band are virtual, a foursome of comic book
characters, drawn by Hewlett and given their own
personalities, based on rock clichés and irony.
2-D – the spoilt boyband member.
Murdoc Niccols – the old rocker (like Keith
Richards from the Rolling Stones).
Noodle – lead guitarist and the mysterious one
with Asian style.
Russel – the hip-hop hardman, who has lurking
phantoms inside which often escape in the music
videos.

14. Ego (2010) has the girls dressed up as
superheroes. The text could be polysemic as
they may be seen as positive role models
for girls (they are strong and powerful and
show friendship) but also are seen as sexual
and this is how they are empowered.
In the Notorious (2011) video they are
dressed as ‘sexy’ secretaries, with many
close up shots of their lips, ankles and
pouting to the camera. The video shows
young women living for the weekend but
also there is a suggestion that they are not
interested in their career, just having fun.
Notorious uses product placement for the
Barry M lipgloss (affordable for their core
target audience).
The band has been criticized for being very
sexual but also appealing to young girls (see
below). There could be an inherent
hypocrisy between the 2 representations.
The band has a strong brand identity, which
is constantly referred to in videos and album
covers.
sounds and featured 4 main elements:
MCing, DJing, graffiti and breakdancing.
Prominent black stars in the US have
criticised the hip-hop genre for negative
stereotypes of young black men, including
film director Spike Lee and talk-show host
Oprah Winfrey.
Some rappers play up to the stereotype
of the black person as uncultured and
ignorant for the entertainment of a mass
audience (Richard Dyer’s theory).
However, many rappers have argued they
are simply reflecting the reality of life in
inner city areas.
6ft 7ft (Aug 2010) – Lil’ Wayne’s
masculinity is asserted through his
disguises as a dictator, businessman and
king (he is saved by a woman).
There are many male fantasies, lesbian sex
intimated, women dressed in tight fitting
gold clothing. Close up shots of bottoms
and breasts. Women wearing corsets to
emphasise shape and suggest control,
licks provocatively at the camera.
Violence and women as commodities
hinted at in the lyrics ‘Married to the
money, f***k the world’
Lollipop (2008)
Wayne is in a mansion, full of opulence
and excess. He is picked up in a limo,
crowded with girls, all African-American,
shapely and compliant.
Gorillaz came out of Albarn and Hewlett’s loathing
of the MTV generation of music performers. They
also called American Idol a ‘sickness’.
Damon Albarn: ‘the paradox is that by being
completely artificial, Gorillaz is a lot less artificial
than a boy band or any of these other
constructed entities we’re all used to.’
Videos: All have elements of intertextuality.
Clint Eastwood (2001) refers back to the Western
film genre and has a clip with references to
Michael Jackson’s famous Thriller video as the
Gorillaz recreate the famous graveyard sequence.
The video starts with a quote from the 1978
zombie film Dawn of the Dead.
The phantom escapes from Russel.
Dare (2005): This features Noodle singing in her
apartment where a disembodied head is kept in
the closet, which is the head of former Happy
Mondays frontman, Shaun Ryder.
The video has many references to Japanese
culture, including lanterns and silhouette screens.
Noodle is now nearly sexualized, as she has grown
up, but could be said to be androgynous (neither
male nor female).
Stylo (2010): Promoted through the internet and
Twitter posts, the 4 cartoon characters are now
3:D. They are involved in a high-speed chase
across the Californian desert in a 1969 Chevrolet
Camaro. Their ‘antognist’ is Hollywood start Bruce
Willis. The video broke the record for most hits on

15. Lots of CU shots of pouting to the
camera, low cut tops, sexual suggestion,
sighting etc.
Women are commodities to be looked at.
We are positioned as voyeurs, as the
camera objectifies the women as sexually
available.
YouTube, with 900,000 visitors in 24 hour period.
Audience Appeal
The Saturdays Lil’ Wayne Gorillaz
The Saturdays have many different
audiences, primarily younger teenage fans,
to whom they may be seen as ‘aspirational’
figures. For example, they recently came
14th in Capital FM’s Best Role Model In Pop
2011 online poll, with one fan who voted
for them adding, "Vanessa and Rochelle
aren't your typical stick thin popstars and
we need more role models like that."
The Impulse synergy reflects this more
innocent representation of the band.
But they have been criticized in the media
for sexualizing young impressionable fans: A
Panorama investigation into the
sexualisation of children will be screened
tonight amid fears that children are being
bombarded with sexual images.
The show will be presented by newsreader
Sophie Raworth, who says she was inspired
to look into the issue after being disturbed
by what her daughter was watching.
She described her reaction to viewing a pop
music DVD featuring popular acts the
Saturdays and Girls Aloud that her six-year-
Lil’ Wayne has a wide audience appeal –
his macho style and gangster street
credentials mean white, middle class
audiences can experience the gangsta
lifestyle without the consequences.
The feuds he has created with other
rappers adds to his notoriety.
His fanbase is multi-cultural and diverse,
allowing him to become a big influence on
mainstream music – Boston Globe, 2003 –
70% of hip-hop is bought by white kids.
He is the hegemonic version of hip-hop –
Lil’ Wayne is now a middle class,
successful businessman – the epitomy of
the American Dream.
The videos and misogynistic style could
be appealing to some men – offering a
sense of escapism. Copying Lil’ Wayne’s
style (phasing) gives different social
classes a taste of the gangsta lifestyle.
His appeal is as much about his looks and
Being a virtual band, Gorillaz use the internet as a
main piece of their promotion.
The official website is distinctive and original. But
also offers typical features, such as watching
videos, buying tracks, mailing lists and links to
MySpace/Facebook and Twitter.
The website does break with convention in places:
The Plastic Beach experience. The fans who
purchased a special edition of the album got extra
content including an album e-booklet.
You can enter the virtual world of Plastic Beach
and explore the island using an interactive game.
Fans have to sign up and can become part of the
‘virtual world’. This gives the fans a sense of
community and loyalty to the band (Uses &
Gratifications of personal relationships and
identity).
Reject False Icons campaign encourages the
audience to be politically active and actually rebel,
and create anarchy (defacing walls etc.)

16. old daughter had been given as a Christmas
present.
“Within minutes I felt deeply uncomfortable.
As I watched these videos through the eyes
of a young child, I saw heavily made-up girls
with huge false eyelashes in really skimpy
clothes with lots of cleavage and sexy
dance moves. My gut reaction was to switch
it off.
A wider, secondary audience is males, and
the tie-in with FHM magazine online shows a
more sexualized version of the band (male
gaze theory).
image as it is about the music and lyrics.
Critics – Oprah Winfrey and Spike Lee
have condemned his stereotyping of
young black men. He can be seen as a
negative representation and role model
for other disaffected kids in urban
America.
Lil’ Wayne emphasises negatives in black
urban culture – misogyny; exaggerated
materialism, feuds and guns.
Marketing and promotion
The Saturdays Lil’ Wayne Gorillaz
The Sats have an internet site with the
usual links to social networking sites and
videos and downloads.
Unlike the Gorillaz and 50 Cent this isn’t as
interactive.
The group have used the internet to
promote themselves through the use of
synergy – Rimmel sponsored their All Fired
Up tour, the Impulse body spray adverts,
Barry M lipgloss (featured in the Notorious
video, Nintendogs for Nintendo. They have
also linked up with charities such as Marie
Curie, The Dogs’ Trust, the Poppy Appeal
Comic Relief.
The band also uses the media online and in
print to keep their profile high – they are
regularly seen in OK! Magazine, have many
Uses the internet to interact with his fans
personally.
The fans are encouraged to give feedback
on his new material, gain exclusive tracks
and information via his website. You can
learn about his prison experience on his
website, he encourages fans to like and
comment on Facebook and share links
with other fans.
As a marketing tool, the website allows
fans to spend lots of money on
merchandise. Leaks of upcoming albums
have helped secure higher sales than his
rivals (he outsold Kanye West and Jay-Z
with Carter IV).
He has linked up with lots of major
brands, including Trukfit clothing line; link
with Mountain Dew; trainer line with
The internet is the main part of the group’s
promotional activity. A virtual world for a virtual
band.
Innovative use of the web, as outlined above, has
been the mainstay of the band’s promotion.
The group took over the Guardian’s music
pages for 5 days to promote Plastic Beach.
Murdoc became a ‘real’ character, being
interviewed by Guardian journalists.
The fact the band is at the forefront of digital
technology means they are pushing the
boundaries of how the internet can be used
to market a band.
The Reject False Icons website gives the band

17. articles in gossip magazines and on websites
such as the Daily Mail, thus widening their
target audience further.
In addition, they sell a lot of merchandise,
downloads and ticket sales through their
website.
Fans can become part of Team Sats
therefore creating a sense of personal
relationship and identity.
Their Flip video links on YouTube and the
website give fans a close-up and personal
view of the band.
Supra; voiceover for Gatorade in ’09;
customable t-shirts on Zazzle.com;
Feuds with other rappers help fuel
publicity such as Pusha T & 50 Cent and
Wayne continues to use his gangsta
image and representation sell records,
despite becoming mainstream and a
businessman.
another side – political and encouraging
interactivity with the audience.