CSP The Responder (Series 1 Episode 1)- Language, Audience, Representation & Industries

Avaliable= BBC Iplayer

- Reflect's BBC's values

- Post-watershed- 9pm.

- Crime based.

- Released May 2021

- Rated 15.

Deals with serious & challenging issues (e.g drug addiction, mental health, violence, police corruption & older character's death, containing repeated swearing.

Semiotics

• Denotation
• Connotation
• Signifier + Signified = Sign
• Icons
• Symbols
• - Indexical signs.

Cover

Targets adult audience- signified through post-watershed airing & being a BBC production, infamous for hard hitting dramas. Contrasting colour usage work together signifying contrasting sides to policeman's life. Cool blue- reason & calming preference, Fire red- conflict & drama. Indexical signs of fire also connotes explosions, further intensifying high drama's possibilities & audience's excitement. Direct gaze- breaking 4th wall= parasocial relationship with viewers, suggesting personal insights into thoughts & experiences; emphasised more by mid-shots. Soft background focus suggests the drama's events are less important than main character, consistent with crime drama (flawed officers serves to stabilize product's narrative.

Defining text

How do we know this is for TV?

- Cinematic shots

- Lack- Breaking 4th wall

- Character development

- Plot based

- TV Budget, not movie.

Who's the target demographic?

- Mature audiences- know what Cocaine is.

- Police training. 

- Middle-aged families.

- Conservative

What's the genre?

- Crime

- Action

Features identifying a text's genre

- Policemen

- Police cars

- Cocaine

- Handheld camera angles

- Good/Bad

- Chases

- Screaming

- Lonely officers.

Genre stretching?

- Scouse

- Humour

- Lower economic settings

- Many genders & coloured people.

- Women's representation

- Black woman- police officer (secondary).

How's the trailer constructed to appeal to audiences?

- Consider audiences, socioeconomic background, Young & Rubicam, political demographics (age, gender, etc). Where are they positioned?

Trailer fits crime genre & uses sections to advertise itself to audiences who enjoy it. Audiences are quite mature/interested in policing (career) from policeman focus & drug crime mentions. Tries being somewhat comedical by making light on crimes.

Attracts adult audiences with clear signifiers of crime genre. Uniforms & narrative established firmly genre & attracts pre-existing audiences. Hermeneutic codes- car chases & indexical signs- fire add to high action & drama narrative; supported by fast pace editing suggesting it's highly engaging. Audience- positioned with Chris & creates a binary opposition between audiences & criminal worlds.

- Consider Barthes 5 Codes

- Consider Levi Strauss's Binary Oppositions- police v criminal

- Consider genre

The Responder- 9.5 million average viewers (2022), crime constantly appears averaged- previous: Line of Duty.

Consistent text features

- Ominous detectives

- Prison Incarcaration

- Killers- crime

- Short time amount

- Humour (some)

- Fights

- Investigators- better than regulars

- Random knowledge about killer's past

- Interrogation/Interviews

- Assistant & investigator

- Family

- Strong duty sense

- Short action shots

- Mystery

- Witnesses crying

- Specialised editing

- Extreme closeups

- Silence

- Wrong policemen

- Handheld shots

- Soft music: peaceful scenes

- Assisstants getting shut down.

- Arguements

- ill familys- dementia/amnesia

- Worried families

- Crying

- Drug…