Applying Fiske to The Inbetweeners

After observing Fiske's theory I can understandably relate it to the Inbetweeners. 

T.V Drama centrally concerns the representation of the characters, usually through stereotypical characteristics. E.g Jay lying about his sexual conquests to impress his friends and Will wearing glasses coining him as the 'Uncool Nerd'.  The use of stylistic conventions allows the audience to develop a sense of familiarity with the programme's characters and possibly being able to relate to their characteristics; as all four characters are diverse, but the generic stereotypes are understood by the mixed audience of adults and young people. 

As opposed to Althusser's idea that the ISA are prominent in society or in the Media this is seen through the adults and older generation. The Inbetweeners almost conveys a role reversal of this, making the youth seem to be the dominant ideology. In S1Ep3 Simon is seen taking a driving test, his Middle Aged female instructor begins to touch and attempts of seduce Simon, however his naive and nervous personality sees him as a victim. This role reversal essentially mocks the adult generation as the character of the instructor is seen as attempting to dominate the youth but not succeed, and Simon's innocence over rules this as the T.V Dramas incentive is to show the life and friendship between four teenage boys in suburban London, using the real experiences of the writers and directors. Furthermore, making it humorous and a positive representation for young people as it does not portray them in a way to create a stigma about the youth. 

Applying theory to Harry Brown (Adorno and Althusser)

Harry Brown is a film created to provide a negative representation of young people, thus reinforcing the dominant ideology; Harry Brown (representing adults) and The Police. 

The audience can grasp a sense of realism which can be seen trough Adorno's theory of repetition of realism and sameness. The footage shot in Ayelsbury Estate depicts a realistic outlook and essentially the behaviour shown by the youths who like there; this is shown mainly through Noel. Therefore, we can understand through using real life locations we can almost feel threatened an fearful of the behaviour being demonstrated to us, therefore inforcing a negative portrayal of the younger generation. 

Moreover, Althusser's ideology surrounding the ISA can also promote Harry Brown's violence as being justified I the film, despite the fact he, like the youths takes part in murderous activities. Harry Brown reinforces the dominant ideology due to being represented as a 'hero' who eradicates the danger and violence created by the young people, bringing a sense of moral code back into his area of residence. This is frequently shown in the film as there are several occasions where there are over the shoulder shots of Harry looking over the violence. This use of camera allows the mature audience to side with Harry ie to feeling encouraged by his position on the estate. 

Media created by young people

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ZmM7zPLyl 

'Why I hate school but love Education'

- Has over 4million hits

- By British teens, and is in spoken word form

- Viral success on social media: Facebook/ Twitter 

Making is Connecting

Making is Connecting:
When you put materials you make something new, you make something innovative and you make something different.

Creativity begins with people, new ideas and new forms of doing things connects people, it fuses people together when you've made something and want to put it out into the world.

when you make something, you put it out into the world, fusing you in the world, participating in the world and becoming part of the environment.

The internet in modern day has now created a big part in connecting. Social networks and other platforms on the internet bring people together that don't necessarily live close to each other.

John Ruskin: Criticised for loving these quirky art sculptures, the reason he liked them was the originality, the unfinished pieces show a makers productivity, 'the spirit of a maker', someone that wanted to show something to the world and did it.

Motivation: People like to have the sense of themselves within the world, being part of something bigger, making themselves known to possibly produce an impact in the world, being recognised: someone that likes to contribute to world in knowing something.

Example of Media by Young People

Swearing upon swearing, but i can't lie, I have a soft spot for Ayy Online. His videos are crude but I guess it is relevant to what we are doing as it does show a teen reacting to news about another teen (or child) getting pregnant.




This video also gets me everytime. Nothing better than pranking your dad to think he got burgled, and of course, filming the results. Great acting skills btw.

Examples of Media by Young People

 Singing about love  
Singing about a girls beauty which is really nice
  singing

Example of media products by young people

An Example of Online Media Productions Created By Young People

3,261,388 Views

Popular Online Media Production by British Teenagers

Online media productions by young people

Caddicarus - Video Games - EXPLICIT, YO

Caddicarus is a 19 year old who has been making comedic video game reviews since 2012, but has been on YouTube since 2011. His editing is very professional, even though it is all done by him, and he even has t-shirts, and is doing well getting his name out there.


The Unusual Suspect - Movie Reviewer - Lil bit EXPLICIT, YO

The Unusual Suspect is a northerner who reviews movies (and sometimes videogames but shhhhh) who although having few videos, has a wide fanbase. His videos are very comedic with clips from other movies and forms of media.

Arctic Monkeys - Musicians - First LP released age 20


Although being much older and much more arrogant these days, the Arctic Monkeys released their first album in 2006 when their band members were only 19 and 20.

Collective identity of Skins

Examples of online media productions created by young people

Most viewed fashion blog in the U.K

 Susie Bubble known as 'Stylebubble' was born in London to Asian parents from Hong Kong. Although she is know currently 30 she started her blog in 2002 and since has grown in popularity. Her blog consists of the latest fashion trends 'susie faves' and creative ways of recycling clothes such as adding materials, cutting away etc. She has written articles for Teen Vogue, appeared on womens hour. She currently has 225,000 followers of her blog.

 Youtube channel: BubzBeauty

 Began her youtube channel at the age of 21, currently has just under 3 million subscribers. Although she now resides in China she was born and brought up in Northern Island until 2 years ago.

 Youtube Channel:KSIOlajidebt

 Olajide Olatunji is a British youtuber based in London. KSI began his channel in 2009 when he was 15, it consists of him playing fifa games and commentating whilst playing various video games. His channel currently has 5.5 million subscribers.

YouTube Vlog by British Twins

This is a vlog of a twins that upload popular videos on youtube. I have watched this one before in which they meet another youtuber from America.

Waterloo Road - Independent Research

Representation of Teenagers - One Direction

My GoAnimate


Little Things by Candi Media Student on GoAnimate



My Voki

 



(She says there are 4 members in One Direction but  i forgot one member so sorry there are 5)

Harry Potter and the Representation of Teenagers

Harry Potter Prezi Intro by Candi Media Student on GoAnimate

Fiske's Theory and The Inbetweeners

Apply Fiske Theory to the Inbetweeners:

Fiske argues that in TV series the representation of the characters lives beyond the end of each episode, he calls this 'plot development', where the plot usually runs over several episodes. We see this in the Inbetweeners S1E3 - Thorpe Park - the end of the episode doesn't tell us whether Simon gets his car door fixed or not, and whether he gets in trouble with his dad about it, in later episodes we find out he gets his door replaced. Another example of plot development in the Inbetweeners is the relationship between Simon and Tara which carries on in more than one episode.

Fiske's second idea is the 'repetition' of characters which makes them appear to live in the same time scale as us (the audience) this is due to the fact that characters have a past, present and future. We see an example of this in The Inbetweeners S1E3 - Thorpe Park episode, we find out about Neil's past: he used to work at Asda, and also about Wills past: he once cried when he was 5 on a ride. in 'The gig and the girlfriend' episode S3E2 Tara mentioned the accident Will had during his exam where he did a number 2 in the exam hall, which is an example of Will's past.

Fiske's third idea is characters representations which are constructed by the writers and producers of the show, the characters physical appearance and social values portray their individual representations. An example of this in the Inbetweeners in both episodes we looked at is Wills representation: he dress very smart at school, his tie is always perfect and he tucks in his shirt and wears his blazer, he also carries a brief case, this represents him as responsible and smart, it also makes us view him as a mini adult, unlike the other characters who don't do their ties properly, have their shirts un-tucked and don't wear their blazers.

Fiske calls his fourth idea 'polysemic reading' which means audiences are diverse and so how they read a representation of a certain character will depend on their own experiences, the audience will also imagine how they would behave if they were in the characters same situation and how they would deal with certain problems. For example in S1E3 when Will is shouting and swearing at the disabled people for sitting in the front row seats on the ride, he calls them 'inconsiderate arseholes' some viewers may judge him to be selfish and thoughtless for being so rude to them, and other people may find this funny. 

Research of Top Boy

Independent Research

My Mad Fat Diary

Collective Identity - Critical Perspectives

Collective Identity Activity Waterloo Road

Another Brick in the Wall

Episode One


Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2 by Poopsie2000 on GoAnimate

Episode Two



Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2 pt. 2 by Poopsie2000 on GoAnimate

Outnumbered

Outnumbered: S05E01 - Jake Get's a Tattoo.

This text I think overall represents a teen in a negative way.
This text follows the form of identity, and what it means to be individual. Gauntlett and Buckingham have many theories about subculture and the reinforcement of collective identity.
In this sequence we see Jake admit to having a tattoo to his parents, who are disguested and disappointed in him, he backs himself up by saying his friends were there too and it was an impulse thing, he also said that he did it as a 'fashion choice', this suggests that he did it to fit in with his friends and a teenage subculture, so he is conforming to the stereotype that adults have about teens. This is also backed up by the dad, Pete, who talks about how he sees so many tattoo's and that when they all grow up he'll be surrounded by people with tattoo's and how thats a negative thing, calling people 'human billboards' and talking about being the most 'unattractive nation on the planet' this shows a negative towards tattoo's from the dominant ideology, because Pete is a middle aged white man.
Another representation of identity, is his need to be older and do that he wants, which is a common teen rebellion trait, he shows this by saying he is 17 and he can do what he wants, this shows us how he actually isnt an adult and still has to follow his parents rules but he wants to be older and feels like he doesnt need his parents permission, this is negative in the eyes of the dominant ideology because it means that the teens are being independent instead of conforming to their rules.

At the end of the sequence we see Jake storm off which is a stereotypical teenage action, and behaviour therefore he is doing the same as every other teenager is and creating that collective identity of unruly teenagers who get tattoo's and rebel.



Fiske also applies to this media text, the idea of polysemic reading is quite apparent, this is because as a teenager watching this you admire Jake's tattoo and don't necesarilly see it as a bad thing, all teenagers have a different opinion about the tattoo and they relate it back to themselves and what they would do in the same situation or what tattoo they would get. However, the dominant ideology see's it as a negative thing and really stands with this viewpoint, both the mum and dad see it as a horrible thing and they dont like it. But, when Jake's brother enters the room he isnt phased by the tattoo and actually praises it and compliments it, this suggests that for teenagers this kind of sight or behaviour is normal, but for the dominant ideology it isnt. This helps the audience to interpret and rebel against the dominant ideology because they view this form of identification in different ways.