AQA A-Level Media Studies - No Offence

Production

AbbottVision - Paul Abbott

Channel 4 - a commercial channel but still receives government funding - remit: innovative programming, alternative points of view and cultural diversity of UK

Hesmondhalgh - cultural industries

Star/brand power - audiences will recognise Channel 4 and abbottvision (creator of popular and unconventional shows like Shameless)

Accessible on ‘All 4’ streaming service

Steve Neale - repetition and difference

Conventions of a crime drama but changes aspects - black comedy and mainly female lead cast

Representation - gender

Women often presented as strong and independent - Dina has a chase sequence in the opening while running in a dress (very traditional hardened detective type stuff), Viv is a large woman and is very explicit, Joy is quiet and seeking reassurance from colleagues

McClaren - Could be seen as stereotypical but it’s clear that Viv does not follow his orders and defies him

Representation - race/ethnicity

McClaren is a black man and is in a position of power

Representation - disability

Missing young women with down syndrome - could be argued that by having them be the victims is a negative representation

But once the audience is introduced to Mikey (someone with down syndrome who was the partner of Joceyln (dead)) it’s clear that they have a fully fleshed out autonomus character - they even had a career as sex workers (unconventional and positive)

Judith Butler - gender perfomativity

Dinah - Detective and ‘lone wolf’ side VS taking in cathy at the end of ep1 shows ‘motherly’ behaviour - DInah is showing that gender is a performance defined by certain actions - example of gender trouble

Uses and gratifications

Escapism - police procedural and dark comedy draws audience into engima and entertainment

Identity - Location of Manchester as well as abduction of girls - violence against women

Enigma - finding out who is responsible for the murder as well as finding the victims in time

Target Audience

Pre-existing fans of police procedurals as it’s an alternative take on the genre conventions

BC1C2D and explorers

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory

Intended - an alternative take on police procedural with a lot of innovative representations of certain groups of people

Negotiated - can appreciate the alternative vision and representations, but feel that the plot and characters aren’t strong enough

Oppositional - feels that the representations are inaccurate and that it strays too far away from police procedural conventions