Comparing Grange Hill and Skins

Grange Hill, a television drama series which was published by the BBC and its opening sequence is a 'comic like' montage that has the function of persuading and appealing to its target audience. The target audience for Grange Hill would most likely be teenage school-kids as the characters that are introduced in Grange Hills opening sequence are all school-kids representing the busy lives of teenagers in the late 1970s and referring to the uses and gratification theory by Bloomer and Katz, teenagers would would appeal to this series as they can identify and relate with the characters that are being portrayed. Even though Skins opening sequence is also aimed at teenagers and school-kids, the representation of the teenagers are completely different as today's society has changed largely since the 1970s. Skins is published by channel 4 which identifies their target audience as channel 4 are known to appeal for young trendy teenage audience. The opening sequence of Skins also has a function of introducing the film and persuading its target audience to watch the rest of the series in fact, Skins uses similar techniques and conventions to the opening sequence of Grange Hill and this is expected as both drama series portray teenage school0kids and their daily lives.

Firstly, the non digect sound in Grange Hill can be described as happy witch is parallel to the video and the lives of the teenagers as they seem to be enjoying life and being young. This is the complete opposite in Skins as the music starts off very innocent and childlike which contrasts with whats happening in the video as you see references to drugs and sex. Drugs are highlighted in the title of the drama series 'Skins' as it is another word meaning 'rizzler' which is what is used for smoking marijuana. The title also has sexual reference to sexual intercourse which raises very important social issues in today's society such as underage pregnancies. However, near the end the music starts to change from being innocent to a more upbeat rhythm which has a narrative to tell such as the loss of childhood in the 21st society and the fact that the teenagers that are portrayed are growing up too fast. Instead of the music, the comic effect told the story for Grange Hill as is it told a story and represented the teenagers hectic lifestyle as well as the fact that comics were very popular in the 1970s and more people would have read them than in today's society.

Moreover, The representation of males and females in the Grange Hill opening sequence is significant as we can see how women were portrayed in the past compared to today. In the mese en scene, we can see the boys doing all the sporty activities such as playing football and swimming where as the girls are just sitting in the side watching. This implies that women are portrayed as passive where as on the other hand men are active and we can see that in the opening in the sequence where the boy swimming is actually moving his arms while everything around him is still. This connotes the male dominance and power which took over in the 1970s even after the women movements that were meant to bring equality between men and women. According to the Reception theory, an oppositional reading to this opening sequence would be the fact that women are being degraded and treated as sexual objects as we see a girl sitting in the side of the pool in her bikini in a very promiscuous way which implies her sexuality and how sexually active she is.

Furthermore, another similarity that these two texts have is the fact that both opening sequences suggest the multicultural society we are living in as in Grange Hill the photo we see in the mese en scene in the end shows different races and ethnicity's which is identical to Skins where we see an Asian actor in the opening sequence. This is more significant in Grange Hill as it was first made in 1978, an age where racism very much existed and was a major social issue as well as a political issue as the government uses the power of the media to ensure that there are massive improvements in society in order to get elected again in future elections.

three paragraphs on comparing the two magazines

The most obvious point to make is the fact that Angelina Jolie is wearing revealing cloths. The costume she is wearing shows a lot of cleavage which implies that Angelina Jolie is promiscuous. This could also link with the audience as it would appeal to the male target audience. This is because of Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze as the half naked women in the front page will attract the males to read more of the magazine as it promises more sexy women. This is seen in the tagline ‘100 most beautiful’. This front cover will also appeal to female audiences as they would take a preferred reading and aspire to be just like Angelina Jolie. However, an oppositional reading could be taken by radical feminists arguing that in this front cover, women are being negatively presented to be ‘bimbos’. The white top Angelina Jolie is wearing can also identify her purity.

We can also see that social issues such as alcohol and drugs will be mentioned in this magazine as we can see in the front cover Carnies’ revealing her problems with alcohol. Another social issue is the ‘new man’ and how it is increasing in today’s society, we can see this from Brad Pitt’s photo with his son. This shows how the media has changed in today’s postmodern society as in the 20st century, the ‘new man’ would have been frowned upon.

We can see the sophistication of this magazine from the title which could connote the fact that the target audience for this magazine are older people. It is very obvious that this is a women’ magazine not only from the fact that it is the ‘#1 women’s magazine’, it also has a women in the front cover and the contentious topics on men. Furthermore, just like Angelina Jolie in the other cover, the costume that the woman is wearing in this cover shows a lot of cleavage which represents her as promiscuous and sexually active. This also appeals to the male gaze.

Channel 4

Launched 2 november 1982

Owned by channel four television corporation

Sister channels are E4, More4, Film 4 and 4music

The first voice ever heard on Channel 4's opening day of Tuesday 2 November 1982 was that of continuity announcer Paul Coia, who introduced the channel by saying, "Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be able to say to you: Welcome to Channel Four", before heading into a montage of clips from its programmes set to the station's Lord David Dundas-penned signature tune, Fourscore, which would form the basis of the station's jingles for its first decade. The first programme to air on the channel was the teatime game show Countdown, produced by Yorkshire Television; it is still running as of 2008 and is contracted until 2009.

Upon its launch, Channel 4 committed itself to providing an alternative to the existing channels, an agenda in part set out by its remit which required the provision of programming to minority groups. Its new style of programming often drew critical attention, with some, such as the public-decency campaigner Mary Whitehouse, claiming the station had overstepped the boundaries of acceptability whilst others argued that the new style of broadcasting had led to a liberalisation of the UK television industry

The Channel 4 service was established under the Broadcasting Act 1981 and was originally provided for by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (the then broadcasting regulatory body which no longer exists). The Channel Four Television Corporation was established under the Broadcasting Act 1990 and all its publisher/broadcaster functions were transferred over to the new Corporation in 1993.

Channel Four Television Corporation was set up by an Act of Parliament. It is a publicly owned corporation and does not have any shareholders. The board is appointed by the television regulator - OFCOM - in agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport. The Chief Executive is Andy Duncan.

Unlike the BBC, Channel 4 receives no public funding. It is funded entirely by its own commercial activities. Most of our income comes from advertising revenue.

From the sun: ‘CHANNEL 4 faces a MULTI-MILLION pound bill after watchdogs said angry Big Brother fans could be refunded phone-vote cash. The premium-rate phone regulator ICSTIS is studying 2,700 complaints over BB plans to allow evicted housemates back on the show.Furious fans are demanding their money back after voting people out — and Channel 4 could be forced to pay back £3MILLION. ‘

This report in the sun explains the big brother scandal that channel 4 got in trouble for. When fans of big brother voted off the housemates that they did not like, big brother organized another vote to bring back housemates that have been evicted which angered fans as they paid for no reason. They rebelled and asked for their money back.

Alan rusbridger

Job: editor, the Guardian, executive editor, the Observer

Age: 53

Industry: publishing, new media

Circulation: Guardian 371,754, Observer 451,363 (May 2007)

Salary: £355,000 (including £17,000 benefits)

2006 ranking: 35

- Rusbridger joined the Guardian as a reporter in 1979 and was appointed deputy editor in 1993, joining the Guardian Newspapers board a year later.

-Alan rusbridger is the sone of G H Rusbridger.

- He is the editor of The Guardian and has been since 1995.

- His dad is the director of education of Zambia.

- Alan first joined the guardian in 1979 as a reporter.

- He wrote the paper’s diary column and was a feature writer.

- Editor of the guardian since 1995 and the executive editor of the observer.

- The guardians websit the guardian unlimited beat the wallstreet journal online and the new york times to win the webby awards as the best newspaper website of the year for the 3rd consecetive time.

- Alan Rusbridger is also the executive editor of The Observer.

- In addition to journalism, he has written three children's books as well as being the co-author (with Ronan Bennett) of a BBC drama, Fields of Gold.

-Alan Rusbridger was educated in Cambridge university and he did BA on English literature. Alan is known to be interested in music and golf.

- Alan Rusbridger lives in London with a family that includes, a wife, two daughters, a dog called Angus and a cat called Retro.