Letters to the Free analysis

L.O: Identify historical, social and cultural contexts of a music video.
Context;
Themes;
Representations of;
(Race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality
This is shown through;

How does "letters to the free" use technical elements to achieve its purpose? (use all these but in an essay format)

Narrative
- The story is about racial awareness. Jim Crow mentality amongst the elite and our country itself. Nowadays, the n-word has been politicized to "criminal," but the racial and destructive under-tones are still present. Although the Civil Rights Act was supposed to give equal rights to all races, we still have the same problems. Highest incarceration rate of any developed nation per capita, most of them black or Hispanic. Plus, you have the private prison industrial complex that would rather incarcerate more poor people because it's profitable. They don't want any reform at all. All in a prison and in the end they are outside and free however we still feel as if they are not really free in the world due to racial prejudice.
- It could be argued that there isn't really a narrative but we just follow the life of a black person and see what they see. it shows how black lives are predetermined with racism and things like stop and search which makes it inevitable that they will go to prison and won't be leaving. Exploited by society which prisons do to make money by making them do labour (reminder of how slavery still exists)
- However there could be a story because it shows how the prion is a storyline of their life in prison as a dull, lonely place

Cinematography
Very slow as if there is no angle. loads of zoom in slow motions, trying to very much focus our attention on the big black square in the middle.
there are point-of-view shots with someone holding the camera as its shaking a bit trying to make us feel as if we are there so we can visualise it and understand what black people go through
- Progression of the cause is slow and an aimless quality of the camera which shows it has no purpose
- We don't see anyone's face clearly (no close up shots) so we don't see their emotions . The USA sees black people as faceless and not human. the more unrecognisable they are all viewed the same by whites.
- the use of the long shot makes the artists appear small in the frame, implying their insignificance in society

Editing
The black box is so en-captivating by there just being a fully still black box in the middle, the editing is still and the background is more or less empty with it just floating around
- The video is quite dull and it black and white which suggests separation and their differences. they dont belong together
- The Black box signifys how they are treated like objects. Also, there is a Jesus Cross on it and Jesus was treated unfairly like the blacks are today.

Mise en Scene
- The video is completely in black and white, displaying the seriousness of the situation and shows how old and long this inequality and racism has been going on for. They need equality
- They are dressed in really dark clothes
- Everything is dictated with the writing on the wall which says "no excessive noise". Its contradicting because a basketball court should be noisy. Restricting black people from their rights, treated differently
- A lot of the framing is behind bars

Lyrics
- "institution ain't just a building" Prison is making money out of prisoners about making them work.
- "the caged birds sings for freedom to bring" Reference to intertexuaity of 'i know why a caged bird sings' which is a book about a black women who is fighting for her freedom
- "Prison is a business, Americas the company" Metaphor. Social microcosm for the world

Introduction to feminism

Are we living in a post-feminist state? Do you agree there is still a need for feminism? To what extent does the media contribute to the identity created for women in popular culture? These are some of the questions we need to consider when studying representation in A Level Media.

There is a current debate regarding whether feminism is still required in the 21st century (the idea that we are now in a 'post-feminist' state) against the view that the use of new and digital media to further feminist campaigns constitutes a new fourth waveof feminism.

Key notes

Waves of feminism

First wave:early 20th century, suffragette movement (right to vote).

Second wave:1960s – 1990s, reproductive rights (pill), abortion, equal pay.

Third wave:1990s – present, empowerment, reclaiming of femininity (high heels, sexuality etc. See Angela McRobbie's work on women's magazines).

Fourth wave?2010 – ongoing, use of new technology and digital media (e.g. Twitter) for activism.

Fourth wave?

Many commentators argue that the internet itself has enabled a shift from ‘third-wave’ to ‘fourth-wave’ feminism. What is certain is that the internet has created a ‘call-out’ culture, in which sexism or misogyny can be ‘called out’ and challenged. 

This culture is indicative of the continuing influence of the third wave, with its focus on challenging sexism and misogyny in advertising, film, television and the media.

Key quote: “power users of social media”

The internet has facilitated the creation of a global community of feminists who use the internet both for discussion and activism. 

 According to #FemFuture: Online Feminism, a report recently published by Columbia University’s Barnard Center for Research on Women, females aged between 18 and 29 are the ‘power users of social networking’.

(Source: Political Studies Association. Read more about this: http://www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus/feminism-fourth-wave)

Critics of online feminism

Critics of online feminist movements suggest that petitions and pressure from Twitter campaigns is simply a witchhunt orchestrated by privileged middle-class white women.

They ask: are ‘trolls’ the danger they are portrayed to be?

Everyday Sexism

Watch the TEDx talk by Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates:

1) Why did Laura Bates start the Everyday Sexism project?

She faced sexual assault herself and when she dwelled into the situation of what was happening to her, she found loads of women had this same experience and that it was considered normal 

2) How does the Everyday Sexism project link to the concept of post-feminism? Is feminism still required in western societies?

Allows women to speak out and to show that women are not equal still if they go through the experiences they do. feminism is still required 

3) Why was new technology essential to the success of the Everyday Sexism project?

internet allows people from all around the world to share their individual experiences anonymously  

4) Will there be a point in the future when the Everyday Sexism project is not required? What is YOUR view on the future of feminism?

I think that there could be but it won't be anytime soon. The future of feminism will get better but thats when society's norms and values changes. 

Media Magazine: The fourth wave?

Read the article: The Fourth Wave? Feminism in the Digital Age in MM55 (p64). You'll find the article in our Media Magazine archive here.

1) Summarise the questions in the first two sub-headings: What is networked feminism? Why is it a problem?

Networked feminism occurs when social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are used as a catalyst in the promotion of feminist equality and in response to sexism. ... Online feminist work is becoming a new engine of contemporary feminism. new fourth wave of feminism is also known as ‘networked feminism’. it aims to tackle social equality issues found both on, and using, modern technology. Thousands of campaigns, blogs
and hashtags have been used to spur on the feminist upheaval. Ideologies and communities that were thought to have been extinct have been watered back to life through the roots of the internet.
User-generated content websites. Since the 60s feminism has fought
to recognise the social struggle of women on a number of different levels. Feminists in 2015 still deal every day with misconceptions and prejudice: the idea that rape or sex may be justified if a woman is wearing provocative clothing, the huge gender pay gap despite equality legislation, the ubiquitous representations of women as weak and disempowered, to name but a few. Arguably in the eyes of the law (most) women are equal citizens. It is (at
least nominally) illegal to discriminate against people due to their gender. To
many people in 2015, this means that women have won what they fought for – although many high-profile women in the arts and media would strongly disagree.
The difference in today’s society is that in the fast-paced world of technological
development, feminism can be left behind. New technology is invented every day, digital outlets change and update regularly, and social media platforms make messaging instant.

2) What are the four waves of feminism? Do you agree that we are in a fourth wave ‘networked feminism’? 

Feminism is often divided into ‘waves’ to explain the cultural context in which they began. The ‘first wave of feminism’ began in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, with a main focus on suffrage. The ‘second wave’ began in the 1960s, campaigning for the growth of equal rights and leading to the Equal Pay Act of 1970, amongst other equality laws. Since the late 1990s, we are believed to have entered the ‘third wave’ (often identified as post-feminism). The new fourth wave of feminism is also known as ‘networked feminism’. Yes to an extent i agree but also not since there is still sexism in society it just more forgotten. it still exists because its entrenched within society

3) Focus on the examples in the article. Write a 100-word summary of EACH of the following: Everyday Sexism, HeForShe, FCKH8 campaign, This Girl Can.

Social Media and Feminism: Everyday Sexism and He for She Many thousands of digital campaigns, Twitter hashtags and celebrity identification could be cited to show the current representation, ideologies and transformation of modern feminism. A perfect starting point is the Everyday Sexism campaign. The project was started by Laura Bates back in 2012 as a website which posted examples of sexism that users faced every day. Laura set it up after finding feminism hard to talk about, saying: ‘Again and again, people told me sexism is no longer a problem – that women are equal now’. The response she received proved differently, with 50,000 entries of sexist experiences made by December 2013. Three years later, Everyday Sexism is one of the most high-visibility feminist digital campaigns, arguably due to its user-generated content and its well- used #EverydaySexism Twitter feed. The role of social media has made the campaign much more personal and much more instant. Furthermore, the term doesn’t represent feminism as only for females: ‘This is not solely a ‘make the men wrong’ approach,’ says Lee Chalmers at Feminist Times. This inclusive idea of feminism is nowhere better summarised than by the He For She campaign led by Emma Watson.

One of the most popular digital campaigns is the FCKH8 campaign, and more specifically the ‘Potty Mouth Princess’ YouTube video that went viral. The movement focuses on the modern representation of girls and the huge social inequalities they face, whilst featuring young girls ‘F-Bombing’ to highlight society’s imbalance when it comes to offences. The girls confidently shout: I’m not some pretty fucking helpless princess in distress... What is more offensive? A little girl saying fuck or the fucking unequal and sexist way society treats girls and women? The video is a complete paradigm shift in the representation of young girls, and clearly a representation that audiences enjoyed: after just three months on YouTube the video had gained 1.6 million views. However, FCKH8 is actually a for- profit company, and the video is in fact trying to sell its t-shirts. This exploitation of feminism as an advertising tool created a huge backlash. In addition, the equation of swearing with ‘good’ feminism didn’t play well with a majority in the movement

This Girl Can campaign, which has been described as the first fitness campaign for women which doesn’t shame or exclude them, by sharing photos, videos and quotes of women without the usual sexual exploitation of a women’s fitness advert and without body shaming. You can view it here: but it's worth bearing in mind that this campaign too has been heavily criticised – by feminist activists themselves – on social media fora. The online petition ‘Stop Taxing Periods. Period’ calls for tampons to stop being taxed as luxury items when they are more essential than crocodile steak, which is not penalised by the same tariff. 

4) What is your opinion with regards to feminism and new/digital media? Do you agree with the concept of a 'fourth wave' of feminism post-2010 or are recent developments like the Everyday Sexism project merely an extension of the third wave of feminism from the 1990s?

I think the digital media is very important and the fourth waste is definitely not a waste. I do not think that the fourth wave is just an extension because social media has proven to be a very effective method to improve feminism ad get their voices heard. The 1990 was a better era than the early days but this whole social media awareness from all around the world has only begun recently dawning on a new day and whole new platform meaning the fourth wave is not just an extension of the third. I personally think this new style of media is really amazing as you can get a broader perspective from all around the globe, uniting women and making them not feel lonely. Especially sharing experiences can inspire women and women can see this anonymously .

Music Video: theory

Both our Music Video Close-Study Products contain representations of black Americans. We therefore need to study a range of theories that address the representation of black or minority ethnic people in the media.

Notes from the lesson

Paul Gilroy: The Black Atlantic

Paul Gilroy is a key theorist in A Level Media and has written about race in both the UK and USA.

In The Black Atlantic (1993), Gilroy explores influences on black culture. One review states: “Gilroy’s ‘black Atlantic’ delineates a distinctively modern, cultural-political space that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but is, rather, a hybrid mix of all of these at once.”

Gilroy is particularly interested in the idea of black diasporic identity – the feeling of never quite belonging or being accepted in western societies even to this day.

For example, Gilroy points to the slave trade as having a huge cultural influence on modern America – as highlighted by Common’s Letter to the Free.

Diaspora: A term that originates from the Greek word meaning “dispersion,” diaspora refers to the community of people that migrated from their homeland. [Source: facinghistory.org]

Gilroy on black music

Gilroy suggests that black music articulates diasporic experiences of resistance to white capitalist culture. 

When writing about British diasporic identities, Gilroy discusses how many black Britons do not feel like they totally belong in Britain but are regarded as ‘English’ when they return to the country of their parents’ birth e.g. the Caribbean or Africa. This can create a sense of never truly belonging anywhere.

Additional theories on race representations and music

Stuart Hall: race representations in media

Stuart Hall suggests that audiences often blur race and class which leads to people associating particular races with certain social classes.

He suggests that western cultures are still white dominated and that ethnic minorities in the media are misinterpreted due to underlying racist tendencies. BAME people are often represented as ‘the other’.

Hall outlined three black characterisations in American media:

·               The Slave figure: “the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted to ‘his’ master.” (Hall 1995)

·               The Native: primitive, cheating, savage, barbarian, criminal.

·               The Clown/Entertainer: a performer – “implying an ‘innate’ humour in the black man.” (Hall 1995)

https://youtu.be/Ouhdtrmzenw

Tricia Rose: Black Noise (1994)

 

Tricia Rose was one of the first academics to study the cultural impact of the hip hop genre in her influential book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994).

Rose suggested that hip hop initially gave audiences an insight into the lives of young, black, urban Americans and also gave them a voice (including empowering female artists). However, Rose has since criticised commercial hip hop and suggests black culture has been appropriated and exploited by capitalism.

Michael Eric Dyson: Know What I Mean (2007)

Georgetown University Professor of Sociology Michael Eric Dyson has passionately defended both hip hop and black culture – Jay-Z describes him as “the hip hop intellectual”.

 https://youtu.be/q6rBbT2UktU

Dyson suggests that political hip hop in the 1990s didn’t get the credit (or commercial success) it deserved and this led to the rap music of today – which can be flashy, sexualised and glamorising criminal behaviour.

Dyson states: “Hip hop music is important precisely because it sheds light on contemporary politics, history and race. At its best, hip hop gives voice to marginal black youth we are not used to hearing from on such critics. Sadly, the enlightened aspects of hip hop are overlooked by critics who are out to satisfy a grudge against black youth culture…” Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean (2007)


Hip hop debate - full video
This appears to be the full Google debate on hip hop if you want to watch more from where those extracts came from.


Music Video theory - blog tasks

https://youtu.be/q6rBbT2UktU

Childish Gambino, the musical stage name of writer and performer Donald Glover, has just released a critique of American culture and Donald Trump with This Is America.

Racking up 10m views in 24 hours and already dubbed ‘genius’ and ‘a masterpiece’, the music video is a satirical comment on American culture, racism and gun violence.

Message- In the beginning, the man is shot in the head and then the gun is immediately thrown out to hide the murder. Then when the church is singing, that is representing a all black church ahooting that happened a little while ago. The shooting happened just because the church was an all black church. When the guy is joined by the dancing school kids, it is represented because that is showing how pop culture and music is distracting us from the real world. Everything in the background is what is really happening in the world but everyone is too blind by pop culture and the new things that keep coming out to realize it.

1) How does the This Is America video meet the key conventions of a music video?
It has a story line and good editing. Displays a powerful message. dancing  

2) What comment is the video making on American culture, racism and gun violence?

 Each time Childish Gambino fires a gun in “This Is America,” he hands it off to someone who whisks it away in a red cloth. Viewers interpreted these scenes as a reference to Americans’ willingness to protect gun rights over people, despite the country’s alarmingly high rates of gun violence. In one scene, black teenagers use their phones to record the chaos unfolding below, as their mouths appear to be covered by a white material. Some viewers believed this to be a reference to the rise of viral videos of police brutality and racist encounters to overcome the metaphorical muzzling of black people in a white supremacist system. Childish Gambino does a lot of insane dancing in what appears to be a one-shot onion of a video. As you peel back the layers, you get a beautifully dark portrait of the ultra violence and rage running through America, and, most importantly, residing in the minds of black Americans trying to survive this insanity. The final moments of the video show Gambino running, terrified, down a long dark hallway away from a group of people as Young Thug sings “You just a Black man in this world / You just a barcode, ayy.” Gambino’s sprint goes back to a long tradition of black Americans having to run to save their lives, according to Ramsey, who says one song dating back to slavery in the 19th century was called “Run N— Run.”“A black person running for his or her life has just been a part of American culture dating back to slavery,” he says. 

3) Write an analysis of the video applying the theories we have learned: Gilroy, Hall, Rose and Dyson. 
For Gilroy well her says never quite belonging in society and thats true because of all the racism in society. Hall says that BAME groups are misinterpreted in the media as bad people and thats how they are willingly portrayed in the video to show how the media has such a big impact on us that we forget about all the crime problems and focus on celebs. in addition Rose argues that hip hop has been exploited by capitalism and and we sort of see that in the music video with the way how hip hop looks so different now. like in the video its all happiness but then he kills them and it goes back to happy music. its saying how the media wants us not look at the past but focus on now and now is corrupt. Dyson says that because of the credit hip hop didnt get before it has led to rap and exploitation. this is supported by the video portraying by 

Read this Guardian feature on This Is America - including the comments below.

4) What are the three interpretations suggested in the article?
In the opening scenes, Glover uses grotesque smiles and exaggerated poses, with some on Twitter suggesting this is an invocation of the racial caricature Jim Crow. Another suggested Glover was accusing black performers – even himself – of “coonery”, or saying they are still made to feel like minstrels when they go out to perform their “black” music. One of the lyrics is “Grandma told me: get your money, black man”. Commenters on the lyric annotation site Genius have asked whether Glover feels that he has to take on stereotypically black performance roles (rapper, soul singer, comedian) to be able to earn money. His gunning down of the gospel choir singing the lyric suggests that he’s tired of the pressure to accumulate wealth, to be per-formatively black, and stay spiritually uplifted in an age of gun violence. A little like that video where you’re told to follow a basketball being passed around, and you miss the moonwalking bear in the background, Glover and co’s moves – doing YouTube dance crazes such as the hopping, kicking “shoot” – mask the riots happening behind them. The video’s choreographer, Sherrie Silver, retweeted a comment, perhaps in agreement, from someone who argued: “Childish Gambino’s dance moves distracted all of us from the craziness that was happening in the background of the video & that’s exactly the point he’s trying to make.”
the body was so quickly removed from the scene shows how fast we forget such trauma in our world.

5) What alternative interpretations of the video are offered in the comments 'below the line'

The murders show what life is actually like on the streets right now for average black dudes in America. It isn't meant to shock, just show what things are actually like. A black church congregation was gunned down a few years ago. Black people killed in pais, and groups every day. If you don't show something in compact form, it will not be known by those who aren't a part of the situation.
I don't see the murders as shocking, more than I open a page online to read about YET another shooting of a black guy.  If I'm not shocked at that, I have no right to be shocked at this video.  Violence made this video. The real violence on the street that kills people ( FYI blacks not whites) every minute in America. Are you so sanitized and clean you don't like to see this stuff? You couldn't be black then, or black American. Because it is a daily, real life situation in America.  ANd I guess the many layers of action you see are not trying to confound you. It's clear what they are. This is life on the street. A black man being chased by a police care, someone running as he's being accused of having a gun. It's not hard to understand Trying to overanalyze it all means you have never been in this situation.  As such, you need to watch it a few more hundred times to start feeling the feels that any black baby is going to feel in America right now. Chaos without reason , people running scared, panic in the streets, fear, stupidity. Just accept that this is the status quo.

Have you looked at the news lately? Like, the last five years? More blacks killed by shootings and police than before. Race riots, police attacks against non whites. If course it's important. It's graphic and doesn't paint everything sweet and heartfelt like a lot of pets would do.

So you are saying Murica does not have militarised police, mass surveillance, limited consequences for law enforcement "mistakes", racist power structures, suppressed minorities, unequal access to justice, authoritarian political tendencies, political overreach, imperial or racist laws, arbitrary exercise of power, harassment of dissenters and political dissidents, use of torture to extract confessions, punishment of whistleblowers........ good to know

13th- Documentary review

History is not just stuff that happens by accident. We are the products of history that our ancestors choose, if we’re white. If we are black, we are the products of the history that our ancestors most likely did not choose. Yet here we are all together, the products of that set of choices. And we have to understand that in order to escape from it. — Kevin Gannon, 13th
 ‘The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. – John Ehrlichman, Nixon Administration Advisor.’
DOCUMENTARIES + BOOKS + WEBSITES

What is the likelihood of a black male being incarcerated in America?  1 in 3

What are your thoughts on this quote? Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? 

i do agree with the quote because the police are curropted 

President Lyndon B. Johnson ushered in the War on Crime, Nixon began a figurative War on Drugs that became a literal War on Drugs in the Reagan era. 

Were you surprised to learn about the racial underpinnings of these legislative policies, and the active role of the state in criminalizing and targeting communities of color? Discuss using the quotation below.

yes i was surprised but only to an extent because have learnt of this my whole life of inequality. thats the clever way of putting slaves back into their position by publicly labelled and aiming them, creating a stereotype

Super predator. Criminal.

Think about the power of media and the power of words.

 Discuss media and how words impact the perception and criminalization of people of color, both in the past and the present (animalistic, violent, to be feared, threat to white people, criminals, etc.). 

Give 2x modern-day examples.

PRISONERS FOR PROFIT. 

Were you aware of the Prison Industrial Complex and how corporations are profiting from incarceration? 

 What are the dangers surrounding ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council—a committee of politicians and corporations influencing laws that benefit its corporate founders and pushing forth policies to increase the number of people in prison and increase sentences)?

What is the impact of  CCA? (Corrections Corporations of America, leader in private prisons that is required to keep prison beds filled—the leading corporation responsible for the rapid increase in criminalization) and how that impacts our communities. The film argues that there is a direct link between American slavery and the modern American prison system. What is your take on this argument?

People say all the time, ‘Well, I don’t understand how people could have tolerated slavery. How could they have made peace with that? How could people have gone to a lynching and participated in that? That’s so crazy. If I was living at that time I would never have tolerated anything like that.’ And the truth is we are living in this time, and we are tolerating it.” -Bryan Stevenson

What is the power of media representations and how does this relate to cultivation theory?

N.S.

Find some examples of music, musicians and music videos serving successfully to raise awareness to political issues. Post them to your blog.

 •The House I Live In—www.TheHouseILiveIn.org 

• Broken on All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration and New Visions for Criminal Justice—www.brokenonallsides.com 

• Rikers: An American Jail—rikersfilm.org YOUTH FOCUS:

 • TIME: The Kalief Browder Story—series on Netflix • Young Kids, Hard Time (45 min.)—www.msnbc.com

 • Children Behind Bars: American Youth Violence (46 min.)—www.msnbc.com 

• Children in Prison: Locked Up for Life (55 min.)—www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLrlajvhUaQ 

• Alone: Teens in Solitary Confinement (22 min.)—www.csgjuscecenter.org/youth/publications/alone-teens-in-solitaryconfinement WOMEN FOCUS: 

• “A Nation of Women Behind Bars” 20/20 (30 min.)—http://abc.go.com/shows/2020/listing/2015-02/27-2020-022715-a-nationof-women-behind-bars-a-dianesawyer-hidden-america-special

 • Women Behind Bars (30 min.)—www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2013/09/women-behind-bars201393010326721994.html

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness—Alexander, Michelle. 2012. 

• Just Mercy—Stevenson, Bryan. 2014 

• Are Prisons Obsolete?—Davis, Angela Y. New York: Seven Stories, 2003.

 • The Growth of Incarceration in the United States—Committee on Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration, et al. National Academic Press, 2014. 

• The Collapse of American Criminal Justice—Stuntz, William J. 2013

. • Arrested Justice Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation—Richie, Beth. 2012. 

• The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream: A Collaborative Examination of Connecticut's Criminal Justice and Corrections System—Moran, Brian E, 2014.

 • Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow: An Organizing Guide—Hunter, Daniel, and Michelle Alexander, Veterans of Hope Project, 2015.

 • Monster—Myers, Walter Dean. 1999. (Juvenile Fiction novel) 

• Campaign for Youth Justice: www.campaignforyouthjustice.org

 • The Sentencing Project: www.sentencingproject.org

• Juvenile Justice Information Exchange: www.jjie.org

 • Free America (John Legend’s Org): www.letsfreeamerica.org

 • Just Leadership USA: www.justleadershipusa.org

 • Justice Fellowship:www.justicefellowship.org

• Justice Policy Institute: www.justicepolicy.org

 • Prison Policy Initiative: www.prisonpolicy.org

 • Equal Justice Initiative: www.eji.org

 • Vera Institute of Justice: www.vera.org

Public service broadcasting

Industries - Public service broadcasting

The British television industry is largely driven by public service broadcasting - the traditional TV channels that still account for the majority of TV viewing in this country.
These channels are regulated by Ofcom and have to deliver a certain amount of specific content in order to fulfil the terms of their license.
public service broadcasting: notes
Public service broadcasting refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve commercial interests.
The media regulator Ofcom requires certain TV and radio broadcasters to fulfil certain requirements as part of their license to broadcast.
All of the BBC's television and radio stations have a public service remit.

The history of the BBC
The BBC was created in 1922 in response to new technology – the radio (or wireless as it was called then).
The BBC was set up to “inform, educate and entertain” – which is still its mission statement to this day. 

 The BBC funding model: license fee

 All BBC content (and some of Channel 4’s funding) comes from the License Fee, which costs £150.50 a year. 

 You need a TV Licence to:

 - watch or record live TV programmes on any channel

- download or watch any BBC programmes on iPlayer – live, catch up or on demand.

Some politicians want to scrap the license fee and change the BBC’s funding model.

Channel 4

Channel 4 is an important part of UK public service broadcasting. Read full details of Channel 4's remit here - there is plenty of important information regarding the channel's commitment to public service broadcasting and its unique funding model.

"Channel 4 is a publicly-owned and commercially-funded UK public service broadcaster, with a statutory remit to deliver high-quality, innovative, alternative content that challenges the status quo.

Channel 4 reinvests all profits back into programmes, at zero cost to the taxpayer. A ‘Robin Hood’ model of cross-funding means programmes that make money pay for others that are part of the PSB remit but that are loss-making e.g. News and Current Affairs." 

Opposition to public service broadcasting
Many people in Britain see public service broadcasting as a good thing – but not rival commercial broadcasters.  
James Murdoch, son of Rupert, has criticised BBC news. He says that free news on the BBC made it “incredibly difficult” for private news organisations to ask people to pay for their news.
Some politicians have argued that the BBC should not produce programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing so commercial broadcasters such as ITV or Sky can attract larger audiences in primetime.

Ofcom report
Read the first few pages of this Ofcom report into Public Service Broadcasting in 2017.

1) How does the report suggest that TV viewing is changing? The television landscape is changing; people are increasingly viewing content in a variety of different ways, both on the television set and on other devices. Young adults are watching a substantial amount of non-PSB content, and behavioural changes are happening not just in this group, but among those up to the age of 45. Despite the changes in the ways in which people watch television, overall viewing on the TV set is resilient; each week 85% of people in the UK who have a TV in their household watch PSB channels. Public service broadcasters remain at the heart of the UK’s television viewing experience.

2) What differences are highlighted between younger and older viewers? Individuals in the UK watched 3 hours 32 minutes of measured broadcast TV on a TV set in 2016. This is 4 minutes a day (2%) less than in 2015. However, there are big differences between age groups, and these gaps are widening. Viewers aged 65+ watched an average of 5 hours 44 minutes in 2016, just three minutes less than in 2012; in contrast, 16-24 year olds watched an average of 1 hour 54 minutes in 2016, 43 minutes less than in 2012. Between 2015 and 2016, average daily viewing among children and 16-24 year olds each fell by 10 minutes, whereas viewing by over-64s increased by 2 minutes.

3) Does the report suggest audiences are satisfied with public service broadcasting TV channels?

The majority of people in the UK with a TV in their household watch the PSB channels on a weekly basis. In 2016, 83% of the TV population aged 4+ watched any of the main five PSB channels in a typical week. This increases to 85% when the BBC portfolio channels are included.

4) Public service broadcasting channels are a major aspect of the UK cultural industries. How much money did PSB channels spend on UK-originated content in 2016? 

Although viewing to the main PSB channels has declined over the last ten years, half of all TV viewing time continues to be to these channels. There has been substantial growth over time in viewing to the PSBs’ ‘portfolio’ channels, going some way to offset the decrease in viewing to the main PSB channels. Overall, when all the TV channels of the PSB broadcasters are taken into account, they represent 70% of total broadcast TV set viewing, down from 76% in 2006.

Goldsmiths report

Read this report from Goldsmiths University - A future for public service television: content and platforms in a digital world.

1) What does the report state has changed in the UK television market in the last 20 years?

Television sector has undergone huge changes over the past generation. The proliferation of channels has reduced the market share of the public service broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – although they have largely retained their prominence and developed portfolio services. Sky has emerged as a major force, contributing to the success of pay television. New technology has facilitated on-demand access to television content, and created new services and platforms, while consumer behaviour has started to change rapidly, particularly among the young. The very definition of television needs to be refined accordingly.

2) Look at page 4. What are the principles that the report suggests need to be embedded in regulation of public service broadcasting in future?

The UK’s public service television system is a vital political, economic and cultural resource and should be viewed as an ecology that needs careful protection and coordination. Public service media should not be regulated simply in relation to the impact of their content and services on the wider media market. Principles of independence, universality, citizenship, equality and diversity need to be embedded into the regulation and funding of an emerging digital media landscape.

3) What does the report say about the BBC?

The BBC is the most important part of the television ecology, but the model of universality underpinning its public service credentials is under threat. The BBC has been contracting in real terms and it is hard to sustain the case that it is damaging competitors. The licence fee is vulnerable in the face of changes in technology and consumption, and it is in any case far from an ideal system: it has failed to guarantee real independence and is charged at a flat rate. The BBC’s independence has also been compromised by the insecurity of its establishment by a royal charter and the process behind the appointments to its governing body

4) According to the report, how should the BBC be funded in future?

The BBC should continue to provide mixed programming and cater to all audiences as well as competing with other broadcasters to produce high quality programmes. The BBC needs to demonstrate further commitments to creative ambition and to address shortfalls in specific areas, for examples its services to BAME audiences, its relationships with audiences in the devolved nations, its institutional commitment to impartiality and its willingness to embrace new types of collaborative partnerships.

5) What does the report say about Channel 4?

Channel 4 occupies a critical place in the public service ecology – supporting the independent production sector and airing content aimed specifically at diverse audiences. Its remit has remained flexible and it has moved with the times. But it has cut programme spending; it has largely abandoned arts programming and has been criticised for not doing enough for older children.

6) How should Channel 4 operate in future?

Recently, Channel 4 has been threatened with privatisation, in whole or in part, a proposal that would threaten its public service remit. Channel 4 should not be privatised – neither in full or in part – and we believe that the government should clarify its view on Channel 4’s future as soon as possible. Channel 4 should significantly increase its provision for older children and young adults and restore some of the arts programming that has been in decline in recent years) 

Look at page 10 - new kids on the block. What does the report say about new digital content providers and their link to public service broadcasting?


Final questions - your opinion on public service broadcasting

1) Should the BBC retain its position as the UK’s public service broadcaster? I don't think so as we need the BBC to give us the stuff that netflix doesn't give us such as news. 

2) Is there a role for the BBC in the 21st century digital world? YES

3) Should the BBC funding model (license fee) change? How? Perhaps become more cheaper