Coursework representation Analysis

Writing Style Analysis Parts

In this Investigation, I will be analysing how my chosen 2 programs, 'Sun, Sex, and Suspicious Parents' and 'Shoplife', infuences the audiences judgements/conceptions of young adults, and explain how the Cultivation Theory, along with Jaques Lacan's Gaze Theory and the development of this, Laura Mulveys Gaze theory. I aim to explain how these theories apply to the texts and explore how the representation of young people, portrayed through these 2 programs, shapes these perceptions.




The History of Reality TV is something which has crept into our national culture and rooted itself in the domain of national identity, with endless formats and ideas thrown about and watched by Millions of the British public. Reality TV, or similar forms, can be dated back to 1940. 'The American Family', a 12 part docuentary, focussed on the marital tensions and issues experienced in family. Coupled with the fact that this was revoloutionary in media terms, it expressed the first forms of hybridity, acting also as a documentary, which is echoes in modern time with examples being my chosen texts.

It is evident now that reality television has slithered into our. Whether it's our fascination with the "Bachelor" or "Mob Wives," reality TV dominates our lexicon, our water-cooler gossip and even the way we dress.[1]

It is obvious that this influence on our lives has demonstrated the cultivation theory. Invented by Professor George Gerbner, who began the 'Cultural Indicators' research project in the mid-1960s, to study whether and how watching television may influence viewers' ideas of what the everyday world is like. HE found that people who watch a lot of television are likely to be more influenced by the ways in which the world is framed by television programmes than are individuals who watch less, especially regarding topics of which the viewer has little first-hand experience.[2] Linking to my chosen texts we can see how this theory can apply to the audience of ‘Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents’ and ‘Shoplife’, who without experience of growing up in the past 10 years make judgements based the dominant Ideology and their perceived views collected from watching such reality TV. Further enforcing the view of Culitivation was Baudrillard, who argued that reality in the modern world canot exist. The media saturation of society means that ll presentations of truth or facta re actually representations that are mediated selected and filtered. This leaves us in the Hyperreality, where what

Whilst Reality TV has captured the nations viewing habits and interests, the representations of its participants have evolved, particularly young people. The representation in these shows, in specific, Sun, Sex, and Suspicious Parents, are overwhelmingly derogative and like a leech saps all credibility from the young people of today. Reality TV of this sort furthermore demonstrates the way in which the Gaze Theories, most prominently Jaqques Lacan. His theory encapsulates why we have the fascintion with tv and television represention, and aprminent elemt to this theory was the ‘Mirror Phase’. He suggested that when a small child sees his/herself in a mirror, what it sees is the perfect being, and his translates to our fascination and idolization of realty TV stars, who we see as the ‘Perfect Beings’. This then leads to people emulating and acting as the program presents its protagonist. Hyper-Reality is now the phenomenom we are experiencing, where what we see on TV is barelt a copy of reliaty whichwe mirror, therefore we end up emulating a hypothetical world on TV which we perceive as reality. This theory as much can apply to the influence that Sun, Sex and Suspicious parents has on young people in particular, by glorifying and focusing on cheap alcohol fuelled holidays we being to emulate this.

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[1] -[1] http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/tv-and-culture/reality-tvs-influence-on-culture.htm , John Perritano

[2] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/cultiv.html  , Daniel Chandler

1.  One could say that toung adults are represented in sun sex and suspicious parents as being stereotypically lazy, being over-cared for by their parents and lacking the independence they need to progress into adult life. With my chosen text particularly depicting a young male as particularly dependant.

However there is evidence for this statement, a investigation done by BPHS in 2008 found “For young adults completing full-time education, it has become commonplace to return home. More specific to males they found that ‘Men remain more likely to be living in the parental home than women’.

It is visible to see that sun sex and suspicious parents’ representation complys to this stereotype, and this is proven by a scene in which we see the young male character Ronnie summon his mum to cut his toe nails whilst in the bath, and the narrator also back this view by saying “the only downside (referring to going on holiday), is leaving his doting mum”.

2. A further representation generated by Sun Sex and suspicious parents would be the sexual nature and the importance of Sex in young peoples culture and identity. We are shown images of various sexual acts being performed between boy/girl, and are constantly reminded that this is the reason, predominantly boys, go on holiday. The Girls are seen as over suaxual, aiming to appease the boys by wearing skimpy revealing outfits.

One quote explains this representation and enforces the stereotype of young adults being sexually obsessed. When questioned by his parents, he spoke out for his ‘generation’, claiming “I’m just doing what every lad does…This is what people our age do.” - http://www.concrete-online.co.uk/sun-sex-and-suspicious-parents/ . However it is not just the males stereotype which is reinforced, the subject of teenage sexuality is equally as discussed.  In an article written, ‘Why do teenage girls dress so provactively?’, the author wrote…’They want to cut a slit in their t-shirts so that their cleavage shows.   Girls want to cut holes in their jeans to show a little skin or a trace of their underwear.’ http://www.chicagonow.com/good-bad-parents/2012/01/why-do-teenage-girls-dress-so-provocative/

It is evident that the male and female characters overwhelmingly comply with the stereotypes. It is proven by one scene in which we see Sophie, the female character, saying how she refused to allow her mum to repack her suitcase due to the fact she had hidden condoms in the bottom. This proves the representation the program aims to create of teenage empahasis on sex. Another piece of prrof to back this statement is a short shot of one of Ronnies friends humping his bed, stimulating sex. Overall, from the vidence we can see clearly that this represenatation has a solid foundation and is proven to be reinforced.

3. One huge issu/representation that featres massively in the construction of the program is teenage drinking. As soon as the credits orll we ar lambasted with images of drunken misbehavior, and copious images of alcoholic beverages. This is a stereotype which has been developed and exploited by programs as such, and whether this representation is wholly true or only partly is irrelevant to the producers; tey want to present teenage drinking in its most prominent and irresponsible forms.

Statisticas gathered from a website called ‘Teenage binge drinking’ back up this idea of xtreme alcohol consumption within young adultsn and the fact that ‘90% of the alcohol consumed by teens is consumbed in the form of binge drinking.’ Reinforces the representation. Statistics also found that On average, young people have about 5 drinks on a single occasion, which can be considered binge drinking.

One of our first insights intp the girls holiday experience is when they have just unaced in the paartmeant, and Sophie is heard saying, “ I aven’t even been here 10 minutes and already I want to go out and just drink some cocktails”, and late on she is quoted saying “ I wan to get fucked”. The theme of drinking also relates to the boys, and inparticular we are shown a shot of Ronnie taking a shot of liquer up his nose.

4. However the antics displayed in Sun Sex and Suspicious parents cannot be applie to Shoplife, which gives a much better representation of the same age group. Th stereotype of teenage over depedance and binge drinking is not highlighted in Shoplife instead we witness a struggle in which young people are desperately trying to find employment or trying to increase their employability in some cases.