Media EdU model answer - Sec A UKIP Labour Party Extended Exemplar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt9uDZF24x8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41_zFHcG1R0

The first clip is a UKIP Party Electoral Broadcast entitled Common Sense on Immigration, first shown on British
television April 2014 and featuring their controversial party leader, Nigel Farage. UKIP represent the far right wing
of British politics.
The second clip is a party electoral broadcast by the Labour Party for the European Parliament Elections in May
2014. It was first shown on British television on 22nd May, 2014. Traditionally, Labour represents the left wing of
British politics.
1. How do the broadcasts use narrative and audio-visual representations to persuade audiences into
understanding values and ideology? (8 Marks) Extended response to Question 1 to develop a full
understanding of textual analysis.
Using Stuart Hall, the audience are positioned into a dominant preferred reading by the UKIP broadcast in the
hope that they (the audience) will share their values and ideology UKIPs values represent a far right wing
political ideology which encodes nationalist sentiment and belief in Britain for the British. The broadcast
emphasises notions of inclusivity through mediation with talking heads representing a range of age, social class,
gender and to a lesser extent, ethnicity.
The opening establishing shot of the broadcast has connotations of Britain as an island nation with a wide shot of
the shoreline and repeated shots of water lapping up against the shore. An upbeat non diegetic soundtrack
anchors a direct mode of address which sees the camera constantly panning and zooming suggesting a form of
electoral dynamism use of words like we and our ensure audiences understand the values and ideologies
encoded but also create the myth of speaking to them personally as individuals in a direct mode of address e.g.
If you agree with us.
The first interviewee is with an elderly, middle class Asian businessman that attempts to offset accusations of
racism within UKIP which is echoed in the line you dont have to be racist to care about immigration. The miseen-scene shows the businessman sitting in a comfortable, modern, affluent environment, wearing a pinstriped
suit with its traditional connotations. All interviewees are framed centrally in medium shot suggesting their
importance as ordinary people equality of gender representation is foregrounded on several occasions
including a young farmer, an attractive Asian woman, a pensioner and a middle class, middle aged woman. Each
location is deliberately diverse e.g. rural England, a northern city (evidenced by a wide shot of a northern
industrial town with smoking factory chimney), London and what seems to be a wealthy town furthering the notion
that UKIP finds its support from all over the country. London is anchored by a talking head represented by the
iconic, working class black cab driver.
Direct address continues in the broadcast with lines like If youve got a skill, you should be given a chance to live
here..we can gain control of our borders. The speed of the editing builds towards the climax of the broadcast,

suggesting almost a Todorovian narrative with Nigel Farage offered in a piece to camera as the
solution/resolution. Again, framed centrally he appears in a traditional, working class pub setting using a
traditional, de-saturated colour palette using browns and yellows. Objects and props as part of the mise-en-scene
that anchor this traditionally British representation include a pint of bitter and a flat cap. Farage uses the term we
three times in the scene as he touches on a moral panic fresh in the mind of the audience, eastern European
immigration.
The Labour party broadcast in contrast represents values and ideologies more commonly associated with the
working class, left wing electorate. Like UKIP (on occasion) the broadcast focuses on the ordinary family, one
family in particular to ensure audience identification throughout the broadcast. At the beginning of the broadcast
the camera tilts down to reveal a stereotypical image of normality, a 3 bedroom semi detached house (as
establishing shot) and inside the family. A narrative voice over leads the audience into a preferred reading while
the visuals anchor normality with early morning shots of the family at breakfast including close ups of milk
pouring and cereal. Emotive shots of the young son ensure that audiences are manipulated into a sympathetic
reading while the voice over identifies the key focus of the narrative ordinary families in financial difficulty.
Narrative disruption (again Todorovian after the early equilibrium) comes in the form of close up shots of bills
falling on the doormat, shots of stereotypically the father whose concerned facial expression encodes fear while
reading the latest household bill the voice over and non diegetic music parallel his concern and touches on a
recent media debate and concerns over high, and increasing gas and electricity energy bills. This emotive
representation continues with shots of the young child at nursery and concerns over rising childcare costs. This
then cuts to stereotypically the mother (the broadcast exploits the hegemonic nuclear family) in a supermarket
while deep focus reveals recognisable high street brands that the family may be struggling now to afford.
Faster paced editing changes the tempo of the broadcast as it starts to offer negative criticism of big business,
classic old Labour values and ideologies. Speeded up film shows the city of London skyline and a close up
reveals a higher end saloon car as binary oppositions are developed between the ordinary family and tax cuts
offered to higher earners the rich and the poor. Tilts and low angles are used to show the power of the city of
London with again emotive language like weighed down and lifetime of debt linked to a university education.
Simple intercutting to shots of statistics reinforces a subjective epistemology with a long take of the whole family
towards the end of the broadcast particularly pertinent.
As the music changes to a more upbeat tempo like the UKIP broadcast, a solution or resolution is suggested
visuals are now more of smiling faces with promises of one nation and the taxing of bankers and controlling of
rip off energy companies.
2. Why does the media rely so heavily on conflict? You may also refer to other media texts to support
your answer. (12 Marks)
The media relies on conflict for commercial reasons, for purposes of entertainment and for purposes of audience
identification Reality TV shows like Big Brother deliberately create hype and controversy to generate, and
maintain interest in a show when ratings may be falling. In turn, high ratings have a positive impact on advertising
revenue. Hybrid talent shows like the X Factor and Britains Got Talent will also ensure that a conflict of opinion

between the judges will be a source of entertainment for an audience who thrive on this form of communication
e.g. Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell.
Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader was in February 2014 seen in a televised debate arguing and going head to head
with the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg over Britains involvement in the European Union. These series of
live debates received high ratings and served to publicise the political role of both men in the run up to the
European elections. American Presidential candidates take the same approach, turning political ideologies into
theatrical farce at times that makes an election campaign more of a battle of media personalities rather than a
debate on important political values and ideology. In the same way, the BBC political panel show Panorama
mediates opinion by selecting panellists who views conflict and who represent different political parties and
pressure groups for example. It is as entertaining and voyeuristic to see argument as it is to take part in an
interactive debate on the issues of the day.
Using the uses and gratifications model as a framework, conflict can be an entertaining diversion from everyday
life whether as a character based narrative in Eastenders or Coronation Street or a tabloid or mid market
tabloid headline deliberately constructed to create controversy, conflict and viral talkability. Personal relationships
can be developed in terms of web 2.0 e.g. blogging and conflict via social networking feeds. Facebook and
Twitter have become popular platforms commonly used as a voice to vent the personal opinion of the user on a
wide range of issues from political matters to trivial popular culture related topics. The act of being in conflict with
somebody else on a blog for example ensures that interactivity through personal relationships is furthered. In the
same way, conflict allows audiences to identify with protagonists in more traditional media e.g. in the James
Bond franchise with antagonists like Raoul Silva in Skyfall or Trevor, Michael and Franklin in the iconic action
adventure video game GTA V. Conflict positions the audience into a dominant preferred reading in the same way
a narrative voice over leads the audience by the hand Bond films. Through conflict used to offer a metaphor on
who were seen to be the real political villains in society through the fictional characters seen on screen.
Surveillance, as part of the same theoretical model provides audiences with information through conflict. News
broadcasts, film and television documentaries like Nick Broomfields Aileen Wournos: Portrait of a Serial
Killer, printed and online news media give information to audience while at the same time presenting media
representations as a source of conflict, allegedly encoding objective epistemologies by reference to data,
experts and facts and figures. Notions of We Media have been a challenge to traditional forms of news
reporting with non-professional journalists using digital media to report news and offer at times subjective
epistemologies on events and issues. Conflict by its very nature is a form of interactive communication but at
times it is often used as key focus for commercial exploitation used by media organisations.
Hollywood film narratives rely on character, narrative and conflict to generate audience interest as part of the
promotion and marketing of a film the binary opposition of good versus evil is historically embedded into
mainstream film narratives like X Men: Days of Future Past and The Wolf of Wall Street to ensure a directed
reading through conflict between character. Filmic narratives are also often written into video games like
Bioshock: Infinite released in March 2013, the controversial first person shooter has been argued to have an
extreme, right wing macro narrative that deliberately marginalises ethnic minority groups, promoting instead pro
American ideologies. Even as a micro narrative, conflict determines outcome with Booker DeWitt, Elizabeth and

Comstock engaging in battles and skirmishes. In this regard genre perhaps also has a role with the whole idea of
FPS and RPG games for example dependent on the completion of tasks and quests that are only achieved
through conflict. Even games with the most simplest of USP and format, e.g. Angry Birds rely on the concept of
conflict between birds and pigs.
Genre is crucial in understanding narrative, arguably one of the conventions of action, science fiction and fantasy
but also more realist genres like documentary. The media is all about conflict as true verisimilitude provides
limited entertainment for audiences.
3. We are moving towards an era of media deregulation. Should media forms be regulated? You should
refer to other media products to support your answer. (12 Marks)
Regulation arguably exists to prevent vulnerable audiences becoming victims of passive consumption, but the
concept of regulation evolves and changes this reflects changes in technology, societal values, cultural
competences and legislation. David Gauntlett in Moving Experiences: Media Effects and Beyond (2005) would
argue that the effects debate that constantly rages relating to media regulation is far less relevant now because
of the above changes stating: It is clearly the arguments about violence on screen which tend to dominate the
mass media coverage. Certainly, deregulation is evident as the UK and US begin to adopt a model more
commonly found in European countries like Holland, France and Italy reflecting liberal cultural regulation the
BBFC review and consult with the public every five years and every five years approaches to classification
become more liberal with many violent films, films with nudity and sexual references and films with significant
swearing releasing with a 15 certificate instead of an 18. The HBO television drama, Game of Thrones contains
a large amount of nudity, sexual scenes and sexual references but has achieved a mainstream audience. Digital
technology and convergence has questioned the concept of regulation and censorship with media forms
produced and distributed on a range of platforms and made available to audiences on demand.
Digital technology has dramatically changed what we perceive as media and how this in turn has opened up
debate on the concept of regulation in previous times, even 10-20 years ago and certainly going back much
further to the first acknowledged media artefacts the media was subject to much tighter regulation and
censorship. This is to the point that many contemporary films like the Saw franchise simply would not have
received a certificate we have moved into an era of desensitisation however where audiences are saturated
with media from a very early age and are far less shocked or effected (so the argument goes) by what they see
and hear. The institutional result of this is that media regulatory bodies like Ofcom, the ASA, BBFC and the PCC
have recognised this social and cultural shift and have responded with the concept of deregulation; moving away
from the cultural straightjacket of media regulations by the relaxation of codes of practice and the liberalisation of
approaches to the regulation the media.
The concept of whether media should be regulated or not has become a political and a moral issue. The Leveson
Inquiry has spent millions of pounds of public money debating whether there should be statutory regulation of the
press this in many ways would be the binary opposition of deregulation with some suggesting a tighter, more
state run media model where newspaper editors would face prison for transgressing guidelines and rules laid
down. This is what places print regulation in binary opposition to audio-visual media; while films, television and

computer games have become a more deregulated format, debates rage on the future of the press. ASA
advertising guidelines have become more relaxed, Ofcom deals mainly with trivial complaints relating to
programmes like the X Factor while statutory print regulation remains a possibility.
The incumbent print regulators, the PCC are set to have a shortened life span with a new regulatory body set to
be established, replacing it focussing on recommendations made by the Leveson Inquiry. The probability
however, is that statutory press regulation will not be their remit and instead, the new body may in the end have
the same toothless narrative that the PCC is often accused of having. Most complaints currently made to the
PCC involve accuracy and rarely are they seen to intervene in what are perceived to be serious issues. The
problem for the press and regulation is while important issues may be publicised and very much seen to be in the
public interest, many stories are exploitative and are published for commercial reasons e.g. the current phone
hacking controversy still being dealt with in the British courts and invasive paparazzi photography and journalists
seeking to write voyeuristic articles on celebrities to please a public who apparently are engaged by titillation,
gossip and personal stories.
What underscores the regulation debate however is the need to protect vulnerable sections of society e.g.
children. In this regard, the question on whether media forms should be regulated is yes but with reference to
Gauntletts argument that audiences are more sophisticated, and literate readers of the media than a nanny
state would suggest.