media audiences

Censorship Debate
At One Extreme
- the media are not sufficiently regulated in this country
- there are things shown on tv that shouldn't b allowed
- sometimes films are given a 12 certificate when they ought to be a 15
- People need to be protected from the media

At Another
- There is too much regulation in the this country
- If people dont like what is on TV they can switch it off
- Sometimes films are given an 18 when they should be 15
- People should be able to read and see and listen to what they like

BBFC - British Board of Film Classification
Criteria
- Theme
- Language
- Sex & Nudity
- Violence
- Imitable Tecnhiques
- Horror
- Drugs

Jamie Bulger Case:
1993 - toddler abducted, tortured and murder by 2 10 year olds
tabloids linked the murder to a scene in Child's Play 3
Both 10 years olds came from rough backgrounds
So it was either they watched the film or the rough backgrounds were the reasons for abducting toddler

Christa Van Raalte
tees.ac.uk
Secondary Source

Realism: Casualty

Set in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department of the fictional Holby City Hospital, the programme was devised as a more authentic take on the US series St. Elsewhere and from the outset Casualty shied away from sentimentality and unrealistic success rates for treatments and cures.

A study published by the British Medical Journal illustrates the point. It revealed that a quarter of patients in Casualty who suffered a cardiac arrest survived after being resuscitated - a similar proportion to real life - while in American medical soaps like ER an over-optimistic three-quarters of patients pulled through.

Former Casualty producer Johnathan Young says that the programme's medical consultants ensure scripts are accurate. "We know very well that the audience wants to see our characters as doctors and nurses, and we also believe very strongly that it is the realism of it which makes the show sustainable," said Young. "If we didn't make it real, it would become melodrama very quickly."

Source:http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/481713/
Evaluation: This source compares the differences between Casualty and American dramas such as ER. comparing the 2 british dramas show more realism compared to American ones but there are some unrealistic features that british dramas like casualty are still evident

Sources

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/05/26/1179601737383.html

HEALTH experts are following Hollywood's lead and setting up a unit to encourage popular TV shows such as All Saints to present more accurate health messages to viewers.

Academics at the University of Sydney will target writers and producers of local dramas and urge them to create storylines based on timely health issues such as obesity and HIV/AIDS.

The Public Health and Media Research Network met for the first time last week to discuss how to establish closer working relationships between television production heads and health professionals.
"The blue lamp was the first film to show the police with some degree of realism...its difficult for people nowadays to understand exactly what was new because they have been so accustomed to police series, but it was literally the first film that took people behind the scenes in a police station......It was the first film that showed the kind of humdum day-to-day life of a policeman behind the counter of a police station or on the beat in his relationships with his clients, as he called them in those days"

Keating, HRF, Crime Writers, BBC, 1978

http://student.bmj.com/search/pdf/06/11/sbmj427.pdf
Realism in TV dramas

American - Realism is very effectively done when it comes to american TV dramas because very unrealistic and dramatic story lines are used. Mise en scene is very important when it comes to realism because the setting has to look as real as it possibly can in order to make the audience believe that was they see is happening.

British - When it comes to British TV dramas the producers use very realistic story lines, which doesn't make the show quite as effective as the american TV dramas.

CSI Realism

The main lack of realism in the show is the way the police deal with the crimes, the show's characters do the usual things that the real life police would by investigate crime scenes, but they also conduct raids, engage in suspect pursuit and arrest, interrogate suspects, and solve cases, which falls under the responsibility of uniformed officers. Comparing to real life, these events don't often happen unless it is very serious

Hypothesis 1

How much realism is shown in tv dramas

most dramas involve characters or indicidents that deal with things like alcohol, drugs, poverty, crime and corruption

dramas vary from hospital/cop shows like casualty, csi and wire in the blood to drama-comedy shows like skins and shameless

Sources: tv shows, internet, newspapers

key things

hypodermic syringe
injects attidutes, beliefs into the audience who has a powerless mass have little choice to be influenced

two step flow
more likely to be affected by someone you see on tv talking about their beliefs

culmination theory
while media text does not have effect, watching more violence makes you become less sensative

uses and gradifications
we all have different uses for the media, whatever is there, the aim is for you to get something out of it

reception analysis
the audience can have their own individual way of taking what they see or read.
David Morley "Nationwide Study" 1980
theory.org.uk