Grange Hill and Controversy

http://www.grangehillfans.co.uk/history/believe.php

Grange Hill, 1978. Phil Redmond

•The first episode broadcast on Wednesday 8th February 1978, audience of 9 million at its peak.

•Tucker Jenkins, aka Todd Carty, became the first heart-throb who wasn't a pop star.

•"He's a nut job","Flippin' Eck Tucker!" were national catchphrases.

•Every week BBC received sackloads of letters from youngsters wanting to appear in Grange Hill. It still does!

•But parents were positively shocked and the BBC was inundated with complaints. A branch of the Womens' Institute in Somerset called for Grange Hill to be banned. Some of the cast were even withdrawn by their parents.

•It wasn't until Series 2, and a change to a twice-weekly format, that Phil Redmond fulfilled his desire to make Grange Hill an issue-led show. This was what the young audience wanted; to the parents Grange Hill was a bad influence. The canteen desktop protest caused particular fury and even led to a debate in Parliament.

•Phil Redmond had to "agreed" future series would be toned down - or there would be no further series.

•Other issues covered in the series, such as dyslexia, were praised.

•As the late 80s moved into the 1990s, society’s views changed but Grange Hill maintained its notoriety, uncovering more taboo subjects.

1970s Additional Notes

1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.
1971: Beginnings of English Punk
Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren open a shop on London's King's Road
Dec 1978: Winter of Discontent
Widespread strikes by the trade unions brought the country to its knees, rubbish went uncollected and event the gravediggers were on strike. The Labour government fell in 1979, ushering in Margaret Thatcher and a long stretch of Tory rule.
1977: Sex Pistols denied number one spot
God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols is kept off the no. 1 spot in the week before the Silver Jubilee, sparking rumours of a Conservative conspiracy.
1978: Grange Hill
Phil Redmond’s school drama causes controversy for the next 30 years
1979: Life Of Brian causes controversy
The Life Of Brian is Monty Python's take on what it would be like to be an ordinary, every day bloke and find out you were the Messiah.
1979: Viz is born
First 150 issues of Viz go on sale in a Newcastle pub for 20p.

Mods, Beatniks, Rockers 1965 short film

1960s Additional Context Notes

- London at the heart of international style and cultural revolution
- End 1960- end of compulsory national service
- Iconic new superhero arrives: James Bond!
- Fab 4 and the Rolling Stones
- Times changing: angry young man in cinema
- Social comment: ‘Cathy Come Home’ and ‘Alfie’ – sexual revolution
- The Pill and the sexual revolution
- By end 1960s- 95% owed TV set
- BBC2 added 1962
- 1967 Radio 1 launched.
- Emergence of new sub-cultures:
Teddy Boys
Modern Jazz kids
Trad Jazz kids
Beatniks (Mods, Rockers, Bikers, hippies)
Skinheads

1950s Additional Context Notes

- Post –war era
- Booming economy
- Change in social expectations- education, financial freedoms
- New media – TV and AM radio
- First Generation Gap
- New consumers: 1959 Mark Abrams' ‘The Teenage Consume’r outlines the potential of youth as a new consumer group.
- Huge American influence: Rock and Roll idols including Elvis Presley (1957), Bill Hayley, Jerry Lee Lewis and film stars James Dean and Marlon - Brando set fashions: 'What're you rebelling against?' : 'What've you got?‘ (Brando)
- By end 1950s- over ¾ population have access to a TV set
- Originally there was only one channel, the BBC. ITV started broadcasting in 1955
- First reporting of Teddy Boys in the UK media.
- First UK youth TV broadcast, Six-Five Special, on national TV.

1950S - 1960s teen subcltures- Steph/ Mikey, Mark/ Catherine, Tim and Nicky

1950s 1960s teen subcultures

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Collective Identity Intro ppt

Collective identity 2011

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Collective Identity intro ppt

Collective identity 2011

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A Clockwork Orange

If you click on the image above it will take you to Blur's interpretation of the film.

A landmark film in terms of British censorship, this Kubrik adaptation of Anthony Burgess' novel of the same name deals with morality and psychology. Controversy has dogged the film since its creation, Kubrik himself removed the film from circulation following physical and legal threats from apparent copy cat crimes. A Bletchley boy of sixteen, pleaded guilty after telling police that friends had told him of the film “and the beating up of an old boy like this one”; defence counsel told the trial “the link between this crime and sensational literature, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established beyond reasonable doubt” Despite Burgess's continued efforts to point out that A Clockwork Orange was being carried away on a storm of hysteria by commenting, "The notorious murderer Haig who killed and drank their blood said he was inspired by the sacrament of the Eucharist - Does that mean we should ban the Bible?", people in positions of authority were loathe to agree.

The film (and novel) deals with stereotypical 'youth issues' crime, drinking (why milk?), sex (why call it the old in out in out?), gangs, fashion, slang (argot), parents, authority, rebellion, drugs

You need to focus on the representation of youth in the film. The nihilism displayed by Alex (a 15 year old boy) and his brothers, the states reaction and solution to this issue as well as the ultra violence which is graphically and unquestioningly displayed.

Collective Identity Research Task

Task – Youth Culture Research

Select a media text of your choice and prepare a fact file for the rest of the class on the way youth culture is represented through the characters it features. Select at least 3 characters

Part One

Using the statement below identify which elements of American Culture are either present in the text you have selected (if it is a NON AMERICAN text) or in British society. Think about all elements from music, fashion, activities, speech, attitudes etc.

When I was 14, I wanted, more than anything else on earth, to be an American. More accurately, I wanted to be an American student. I wanted to go to high school. I wanted the tuxedo to wear to the prom. I wanted the photograph in the yearbook. I wanted to date the cheerleaders. Everything I thought I knew about young Americans came from Hollywood films.
- Sarfraz Manzoo


Now give specific examples where these influences can be seen and felt in British texts.

Part Two

Select at least three characters and highlight how the representation is constructed. Break your points down into

1. Appearance
2. Behaviour
3. Medium.
4. Comparison

Part Three

Using the same characters now decide which of the following categories your characters fall into. You must explain using clear and specific examples from the text

Dominant the main way a group are seen in society.

Alternative a different way to show a group, either by the group itself or by the maker of the image.

Redundant when a group is shown often enough, in the same way, the image no longer has any power.

Absent When a group is not really shown in society.

Entropic

Next evaluate how an active audience might interpret this representation using the active audience categories of

Preferred
Oppositional
Negotiated

Part Four

Use this Marxist view of representation to assess the purpose behind the representations in the text you have selected

“generational relations are planted in traditional standards that support the authority and capacity of adults to socialize [sic] adolescents into adult roles.” Richard Rosenfeld

Write a 250 word response to this task either in support of or against its supposition.

Part Five

Jurgen Habermas didn’t agree with Rosenfeld. He thought the media sought only to entertain

“Mass culture has earned its rather dubious name precisely by achieving increased sales by adapting to the need for relaxation and entertainment on the part of consumer strata with relatively little education, Jurgen Habermas

Do you feel your text ultimately has no influence over your behavior? Explain your answer.

How you will be marked

• 20 marks for Explanation, analysis, argument


• 20 marks for use of examples


• 10 marks for terminology (including ‘theory’)

'Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you're gonna miss it.'

"the most sophisticated teen movie ... ever seen," Almond

Roz Kaveney notes that what "Ferris Bueller brings to the teen genre, ultimately, is a sense of how it is possible to be cool and popular without being rich or a sports hero. Unlike the heroes of Weird Science, Ferris is a computer savvy without being a nerd or a geek—it is a skill he has taken the trouble to learn."

Teen Film

"Adolescence emerged as a social class in twentieth century America, largely as a product of industrial society and popular culture. The evolution of the youth culture film provides considerable insight into the changing power and status of young people in society and the role of popular culture in shaping and defining social class...generational relations are planted in traditional standards that support the authority and capacity of adults to socialize [sic] adolescents into adult roles." Richard Rosenfeld


Teen films (also called teen movie or teenpic) is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst, and alienation. Often these normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped or trivialized way.


When I was 14, I wanted, more than anything else on earth, to be am American. More accurately, I wanted to be an American student. I wanted to go to high school. I wanted the tuxedo to wear to the prom. I wanted the photograph in the yearbook. I wanted to date the cheerleaders. Everything I thought I knew about young Americans came from Hollywood films.
        - Sarfraz Manzoo


Films in this genre are often set in high schools, or contain characters that are of high school age. Sexual themes are also common, as are nudity and crude forms of humor.


The classic codes and conventions of teen film come from American films where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotypes and social groups. The wide range stereotypes most commonly used include:

The Jock/Cheerleader

The Princess

The Geek/Nerd

The Rebel
The Misfit, or The Outcast
The Average Girl/Boy (the boy/girl next door)
The New Girl/Boy
The Loner
The Band Geek


Films for the teenage demographic are terrified of romance and intimacy between the sexes, and shyly specialize in boys plotting about girls and girls plotting about boys, with as few actual scenes between boys and girls as possible. Roger Ebert

Hegemonic Marxist theory

The hegemonic approach argues that media industries operate within a structure that produces and reinforces the dominant ideology via a consensual 'world view'. Rather than the owners having direct control, they have established an order within which to produce values and ideas that appear to be 'natural'. This world view is produced predominantly by white, middle class, middle aged, heterosexual men. These are the people who write the television shows, report the news, direct the cameras or commission others to do this work. It is their ideas and values that infiltrate media texts and insure that 'other' voices do not get heard.

Political Economy: Classic Marxist thought

Majors can control the development of independent media enterprises that might challenge their dominance. (Why not buy the independent and incorporate their products into the mainstream, reducing the risk of alternative voices being heard).

Majors concentrate on the largest markets for their cultural products.

Majors avoid investment risks. (So may not back subversive or challenging products)

There is a tendency to neglect smaller/poorer sectors of the potential audience (minority groups).

Ultimately as consumers we have less choice as the media is provided by few.

Media coverage and products as such become bias and reinforce the status quo.

The four parts of a media stereotype

1. Appearance


2. Behaviour


3. Medium.


4. Comparison

Some Representation Terms

Dominant the main way a group are seen in society.


Alternative a different way to show a group, either by the group itself or by the maker of the image.


Redundant when a group is shown often enough, in the same way, the image no longer has any power.


Absent When a group is not really shown in society.


Entropic When there is a really challenging or v. different, or controversial image of a group

Tessa Perkins Rethinking Stereotypes

Perkins argued that we needed to rethink our views on stereotypes and to acknowledge the 'truth' contained in them. She wanted us to think whether


1. Stereotypes are always erroneous in content
2. They are pejorative concepts
3. They are about groups with whom we have little or no social contact; by implication they are not held about one's own group.
4. They are about minority (or oppressed) groups 
5. They are simple
6. They are rigid and do not change
7. They are not structurally reinforced
8. The existence of contradictory stereotypes is evidence that they are erroneous but nothing else
9. People either 'hold' stereotypes (believe them to be true) or do not
10. Because someone holds a stereotype of a group, his or her behaviour towards the group can be predicted.

Mode of address

Mode of address

Still in line with the active audience idea is the concept of mode of address. This refers to the way that a text speaks to us in a style that encourages us to identify with the text because it is 'our' kind of text. This does not mean that other groups are excluded, merely that the dominant mode of address is targeted at one specific group. Mode of address can even be applied to entire outputs, as in the case of Channel Four which works hard to form a style of address aimed at an audience which is informed, articulate and in some ways a specialised one. Newspapers, too, often construct their presentation to reflect what they imagine is the identity of their typical readers.

The Active Audience - Collective Identity

The active audience

More recent developments still suggest that there is a decoding process going on among the active audience who are not simply using the media for gratification purposes. Morley's view of dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings of texts is a semiological approach because it recognises the importance of the analysis of signs, particularly visual signs, that shape so much of modern media output. In this model, at its simplest level, the audience accept or agree with the encoded meanings, they accept and refine parts of the text's meanings or they are aware of the dominant meaning of the text but reject it for cultural, political or ideological reasons.

Preferred/dominant reading The preferred reading is the reading media producers hope will take from the text. For example, an advertisement for a McDonald’s Big Mac is intended to encourage feelings of hunger and a desire to buy a McDonald’s. Assuming the majority of the audience share this reaction then this is also the dominant reading.

Oppositional reading

Audience members from outside the target audience may reject the preferred reading, receiving their own alternative message. The health-conscious, anti-globalisation campaigners and vegetarians will most likely respond to the McDonald’s advert with frustration and annoyance.

Negotiated reading

The ‘third way’ is one in which audiences acknowledge the preferred reading, but modify it to suit their own values and opinions. A negotiated response to the McDonald’s advert might be “I love Big Macs – but one a month is enough as they aren’t good for me.”

1950's re-presentation of teens

Although these short films are from the US they offer a fascinating insight into how the media mediated teenagers and the role gatekeepers played in controlling the message.




Girls Beware







What to do on a date







Going steady

Collective Identity MPS + KKS Homework 2

Look at your completed collage and answer the following questions

1. Discuss your decision making process of which images, language, colours you chose to have on your collage.



2. Do you feel that the collage allowed you to express all aspects of your life and identity? For example: your age, gender, race, status, where you live, your lifestyle, interests/ hobbies, personal beliefs/ philosophies? Explain.


3. What did you deliberately choose not to place on your collage and why?


4. How aware were you, when choosing key images, of how they might be received/ read? How far did this impact on your choices?


5. What comments did the group make that you agreed or disagreed with?


6. If you were to do this exercise again, what would you change?


7. How ‘mediated’ do you feel your peers charts were? Explain.

This work is to be submitted to Mrs Somel in Friday's lesson. Any imcomplete collages MUST by emailed to me.

Collective Identity Collages MPS KKS Homework 1

Look at the images below and identify to whom they belong. Leave a comment in the comment box below briefly explaining which student created which collage and why.

Number 1



Number 2



Number 3

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

Number 7





Number 8

 

Number 9

Number 10 (both)

Number 11

Number 12

Collective Identity Theory Sheet 1 Mr Smith

Theoretical background to Collective Identity Lesson One

Collective Identity - Mr Smith's Introduction

Collective Identity Introduction on Prezi