Thursday 17 October 2013

Critical Investigation: Next Steps

Research Plan
TV documentaries

Academic texts/books

  • Adewunmi. B. (2012). Why black British drama is going online, not on TV [Internet]. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/02/black-british-tv-drama-online
  • Alia, Valerie, and Simone Bull. Media and ethnic minorities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. 
  • Fanon, Frantz. Black skin, white masks. New York: Grove Press, 1967. Print.
  • Malik, S. (1998). Representing black Britain: black images on British television from 1936 to the present day.. SAGE, 2002: : Open University Press.
  • Lacey, N. (1998) Image and representation, MacMillan press LTD: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, and London. 
Internet Links

Newspapers
Websites


"The big breakout successes with majority black casts have been in the genre of gritty "urban realism", usually focusing on inner-city London, crime and drug deals. The success of one such programme, Channel 4's Top Boy, has seen it recommissioned for a second series."  - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/02/black-british-tv-drama-online 
Quote talking about how black characters have been in the genre of urban realism focusing on drugs and crime in London, something which Luther does. 

 The quote above talks about how majority of black casts have usually been to do with 'urban realism' so always to do with crime and drug deals - it also talks about specific programmes such as Top Boy & Luther. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9051992/Young-black-actors-should-go-to-America.html

"Unfortunately there really aren't that many roles for authoritative, strong, black characters in this country. We just don't write those characters, that's a fact."

Daily Mail article on the Olympics:
“This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but it is likely to be a challenge for the organisers to find an educated white middle-aged mother and black father living together with a happy family in such a set-up.”

The quote above is from the telegraph and the daily mail, where we see how there isn't many black characters with roles of main characters and the daily mail article is about a challenge to find a white and black mixed raced family live together happily.  

Metro Lifestyle/Gossip - 18/10/13 - Idris Elba "Idris Elba admits it wasn’t hard for him to get into character as a drug dealer in The Wire because he’s tried every drug going."

The 40-year-old, who portrayed drug lord Russell ‘Stringer’ Bell in the HBO show, admits he’s dabbled in more than just smoking marijuana, which he confessed he enjoyed between takes on the crime drama.
‘I’m not gonna lie — I’ve tried everything,’ he confessed.
‘I’ve tried it all. I played one of the biggest drug dealers in the world on TV, so you think I’d know what I was talking about.’

 We see in an article from the metro how Idris Elba has lived up to the black stereotype and has done drugs in his past, this would live up to the previous stereotypes and proves that Idris Elba has taken drugs in his past and confessed in doing it very openly. 

"The writer revealed that he was working on a big screen prequel which will look into Luther’s life before the first series of the BBC show."
"He prowls and scowls and indulges in off-the-cuff banter for all he is worth but he’s forever hopping from foot to foot to avoid the plot holes that threaten to swallow him at every turn."
t's impossible to confine "blackness" to a handful of characteristics. Each experience is different. And that experience shouldn't be defined by one's choice of attire, music or religion. It's a fatal mistake made by those who view black culture from afar and even those who live within it.

 We see here a quote about people feel about a protagonist being black and how he/she should be presented, it also shows that a black protagonist must have certain characteristics.  
Hall asserts that ideologies become ‘naturalised’ and ideology, politically constructed representations - such as representations of ‘race’ - are conveyed as being ‘given by nature’
‘The “white eye” is always outside the frame - but seeing and positioning everything within it”
"Media images of ‘race’ do not reflect an accurate portrayal of the spectrum of black culture."


Edward Said’s (1978) principle of Orientalism, functions to construct blacks as ‘Other’

 This is from Said'ds theory of orientalism and how he believes that black people are just trying to be like white males and representations are mainly formed from race. 


Media Magazine - February 2011

 Pg 20,21 - Diversity & identity 
Black people racial hybrid, Overly represented

 Representations of the ghetto culture "Young men from ethnic minorities are the main social group represented in both films (La Haine/ City of God)

  • Black representations - Negative
  • Violent
  • Psychotic
  • Drug dealers
  • Gang Leaders/members
Media Magazine - December 2011 
  • Luther - "Luther is a DCI who leads a private and professional life of its 'maverick protagonist' or his willingness to tear up the rule book."
  • BBC spent $4 Million on the pilot episode - attracting 5.6 Million viewers 
  • Praised for its "long overdue casting of a black male"
  • Usual in America, casts are usually multi-racial
  • Luther offers a more diverse array of female characters than many crime dramas, tend to prevaricate narrow cultural stereotypes representing women as victims or career wheeled professionals.  

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)