Shift in TV viewings

• Shifting audience- lack of channel loyalty and identity 
• Loss of large mass audience except for 'event TV'- world cup, olympics, X-factor final etc
• Loss of national audience- niche channels and programming on interest - Sky witness 
• Need for consent- imports; outsourcing programming; new formats.
• Need for 'stars' and glossy production values 
• Mining of black catalogue- exploits nostalgia- e.g. dads army
• Remakes of old shows- e.g. poldark
• Move to TV shows as programme brands for marketing 
• Striving to produce 'on trend' products or competing with popular genre formats
• Use of trailers and cross channel programming- BBC2 programmes centred on Strictly, Apprentice, You've been fired, channel 4 bake off/extra slice etc 
• Use of pre title hooks to entice, keep viewers
• Serials rather than series- recurring narrative strands etc 
• catch up TV
• Streaming TV
• Box sets via streaming (sky, iplayer, amazon, netflix)
• External sourcing of product contexts 
• Search for 'big bang theory'

Cuffs practice questions

Why was the pre-watershed scheduling of 8pm significant in terms of the representations they could offer? (3 marks)

The opening scene of Cuffs was a nudist beach in which you see the backsides of some people therefore some people would have complained about a show with a nudist beach being on at 8pm as kids would be up at this time. Another reason why this being significant is important is because there was a suicide in which you actually see a body hanging and before this there is an explicit scene where you can see where the same man cutting his wrist. In this episode there is also the representation of sexuality and many parents would have not liked there kids to see gay scenes because people are still not accepting of gays and other sexualities.

How were the following areas represented in the episode:

. Ethnicity 

. Gender 

. Sexuality            (10 marks)

Cuffs was written and produced in 2010-2011 and this reflects the time in terms of political, social and cultural climate. Ethnicity was represented in a good light because there is a man of colour working on the police force and acting as the hero as he is the best officer on the force, which is a big jump from the 1980's when people of colour was always acting as the bad guy in TV show. However there is still the interpretation of racism because of one of the main storylines is a white male murdering a black male and being racist to any person of colour he comes into contact with so this is showing us how the race issue is still a problem in the UK even in todays society. 

Gender was represented in a bad way towards women because within the show there is a scene of two female police officers chatting and gossiping about the new police officer (Jake) saying how fit he is and while they're chatting there is a robbery going on behind them, once they realise this they do hardly anything to prevent it from happening apart from getting people to move backwards which is representing how women supposedly can't do anything and are prissy, one of the woman gets on the radio to a male officer getting them to help showing how woman supposedly still need to rely on males. Another example of poor gender equality towards woman is when we see a higher up female officer having an affaire with her boss while he is married to a woman who is dying of cancer, this suggests woman are cheating, deceiving and horrible people. 

Sexuality was written and produced in a good light because it shows us how sexuality is a normal thing. However there is a flaw within this because the new police officer Jake is gay and they present him as none alpha male and more of a girly girl rather than a male. Although there is a gay lawyer who is presented in a alpha male way however he has the stereotype of caring about what he looks like and caring about fashion. So within this episode there is a good side to the way sexuality was shown but also a bad side to how sexuality was shown. 

How did the changes practise of institutions and audience impact the success of cuffs? 
(6 marks)
1

Cuffs episode 1

Narrative-

• Opening scene- attack on nudist beach by male stag party
• Parallel editing 
• Jake becomes policeman

Storylines- 

• drugs- Man who kills himself + group of white males who attack a black man
• mental health issues- Man who kills himself + dad who kidnaps his daughter 
• racism- Group of white racist males who kills a black male in a shop
• marriage dispute- Mother and farther who have a daughter 
• kidnap- Farther who kidnaped his daughter 

Setting-

• Brighton/Hove

Main characters-

• Jake Vicors- 22, gay, single, just became a part of the police force through his dad, no police qualifications, not cut for the job, representing 'girlie' features 

• Kilo- police officer of colour, best officer on the force, mentor for Jake, representing alpha male 

• 
  
• Jake's dad- police commissioner, cheating on his wife who has cancer, representing alpha male

• Jo- police investigator, married to work, single, having an affaire with Jake's dad, representing single woman 

• 2  female officers- 1 wearing muslim turban representing religion 

Television in the 2010s

L/O- research the 2010s (UK) in terms of social, cultural and political climate of the decade, research TV usage in 2015.

2015 key events-

• David Cameron was prime minister 
• Donald Trump running for president 
• Hatton Garden heist 
• Alton Towers crash 
• Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader
• David Cameron legalised gay marriage (2014)
• Paris terrirost attack 
• Caitlyn Jenner becomes a woman 
• Queen Elizabeth II becomes Britian's longest-reinging monarch 
• China ends one child policy after 35 years 
• Zayn left one direction 
• Youth group- chavs
• Ireland legalised gay marriage 

1. Which political party was in power in 2015? Who was PM? What was the relevance of UKIP being so popular?

• The conservative party was in power during 2015
• David Cameron was prime minister 
• 
  

2. What were the major fears and issues of the post 9/11 era?
The major fears was terrorism alongside a specific group of people which were Muslims because it was people of their religion who created the disasters which was 9/11. The France terrorist attacks which happened in 2015 impacted this further.

3. What wars were being fought around the world?

• Houthi insurgency in Yemen
• Operation Shader
• Afganistan war
• Isis
• Syrian war

4. What were people protesting about in the UK?

• Blackberry Riots 

In what ways have these key events/cultural issues shaped the era?
The events have impacted and shaped this era in many ways because there has been a rise in drugs which has resulted in more 'chavs' and teens involving themselves with drugs. As for politics David Cameron was the UK prime minister during 2015 and he legalized gay married and Ireland then legalized gay marriage which was a big step for Ireland as they were known as a Catholic country, also within 2015 Donald Trump started running for president of America. 2015 was a big year for the LGBTQ+ community as formally known Bruce Jenner (a world wide known American Olympic athlete who won many Olympic medals) trans-gendered into a woman now known in Caitlyn Jenner which shook the internet and the LGBTQ+ community.

Explain the differences you would expect to see from a police drama in 2015 compared to one from 1965.
One of the main differences would be race, back in 1965 there was a racial divide whereas in 2015 everyone had equal rights and there was no racial divide because people are more accepting however there are still people who think people of colour should be a lower class and less privileged than white people although the percentage of these people are very minimal, with this information we know there would be no people of colour acting in a police drama in the 1965 whereas in any type of televised show there is always people of colour in 2015.
Another difference would be sexuality, as we know people within the LGBTQ+ community during 1965 would've had a hard time because people were nowhere near as accepting as they were in 2015 because of this many people during 1965 would not express there sexuality or true selves and keep quiet this was because people were not very accepting of the LGTBQ+ community therefore it would not be televised or shown in any TV shows. However in 2015 people were a lot more accepting of the LGTBQ+ community therefore it was shown a lot in TV shows and it was most likely included into some type of police drama during 2015.
One other difference is class, because during 1965 there was a class divide whereas in 2015 this class divide was no longer as big of a deal however it was still there, although in TV dramas and especially police dramas during 1965 they would make class divide very clear so people would continue to agree with class divide however in 2015 there is still class divide just nowhere near as serious as 1965 therefore in TV shows and police dramas they don't include class divide however if they do include class divide they will do it subtly.
Another difference is religion, now this one is more similar however people are more accepting of different religions in 2015 whereas in 1965 different religions was not accepted. in 2015 i believe people were more accepting however i think terrorist attacks will always continue to make people less accepting of different religions because most terrorist attacks are religion related, therefore its going to push people back instead of making them more accepting and terrorist attacks are more frequent compared to 1965 however it is important to remember not everyone in a different religion wants to hurt people. As a result of this people of different religions in 1965 were not regularly televised or put into police dramas however in 2015 different religions are televised and put into police dramas however i feel people can argue that TV are painting religions in a bad light.
As a result of all these differences i feel the story lines will be a lot different because of all these factors for example i feel all the points i made like race, LGTBQ+ ect... would be included into 2015 police dramas whereas i feel in 1965 police dramas would not even mention these points let alone include them into there story lines.