The Wider Contexts

(We use the acronym ‘CHEPS’)

The cultural, historical, economic, political and social contexts.

The cultural context can be to do with poplar culture, the culture

inherent in a particular country or group within society, youth culture
etc… For example, popular culture consists of texts that have been
created for consumption by mass audiences. Most TV programmes are
examples of popular culture, as are most newspapers, magazines and
music. Popular culture is sometimes referred to as low culture, used to
distinguish it from supposedly ‘high-culture’. This is linked with the value
that people put on texts; some people think that cultural value is a matter
of elitism; others think that high culture is innately superior to popular
culture, e.g. the differentiation between pop music and classical music,
between opera or ballet and reality TV. Clearly programmes like Big
Brother and I’m a Celebrity and the like satisfy a huge appetite for
reality TV amongst audiences. It is interesting to explore some of the
economic, social and cultural forces that gave rise to the popularity of
this genre, which has been dismissed by such noteworthy commentators
as John Humphreys as ‘mediocre, pointless, puerile even’. Culture can also
be related to the culture of a society or group within society, for example
gun/knife culture; gang culture; the current moral panic regarding the
culture of binge-drinking prevalent in the UK.

The historical context is easy to cover as we are always analysing texts

from different, earlier eras (and these reflect some of the social change
that has taken place). For example, if you look at a sitcom which was
produced in the 1970s, you may well be surprised at the amount of racism
and sexism it contains in comparison with a contemporary sitcom. If you
watch an older wildlife documentary you’ll be astonished at the lack of
technical effects involved. Historical films and documentaries are both
interesting and educative. One of the most popular genres of historical
documentary is the war documentary, which we have compared for this
unit.

The economic context is hugely important too and links well with the KC
of institution. Every media product costs money to produce, whether it’s a
high or low-budget production this context is always relevant. For
example, wildlife documentaries are the most expensive to produce as
highly technical equipment is used, a large film crew is needed and exotic,
expensive locations are used. On the other hand, a ‘reality TV types’ of
documentaries such as Big Brother and many others are relatively low-
budget as there is no need for a script-writer, they are incredibly popular
and so have high ratings, audiences often vote contestants on or off
providing a huge profit for the producers etc.

One area that some students find difficult to grasp is the political
context in which media texts exist. It is useful if you equip yourself with
a basic grasp of political systems; e.g. at its simplest, left or right-wing
politics. You can easily relate it to most texts; look at news programmes
and it speaks for itself; documentary, for example, Jamie Oliver’s
campaign to improve the quality of school dinners has been taken on board
by the government, who have changed legislation to provide more money
for school dinners. Another example for documentary involves Michael
Moore and his agenda to change gun law in the USA in Bowling for
Columbine, and his agenda to expose George Bush and the US
government’s policies regarding Iraq in Fahrenheit 9/11. The extracts
form Spooks and Mission Impossible, Sense and Sensibility and Four
Weddings…, these all cover political issues.

The social context can also be seen in a range of texts. If you look at
films from the 60s you’ll see how they reflect the social shift. Films of
this period reflect prevalent social issues and are often gritty and
realistic, covering topics like teenage pregnancy, homelessness and so on.
In the 1960s, the hard-hitting documentary Cathy Come Home explored
issues such as teenage pregnancy and homeless people and it actually
instigated the charity Shelter, to provide homes for the homeless, to be
set up. Think about the documentaries we have recently watched for Med
6 on The World at War and the extract from the Nazi’s propaganda
newsreel, which bear relevance to social, cultural, historical and political
contexts.