• thousands of new events happens everyday
• stories come from the PUBLIC, PUBLICISTS, PR (Public Relations), News agencies – e.g. Reuters, leaks & tips offs (e.g. police/politics), research.
• the popular press use NEWS VALUES to decide what news is going to be printed.

1. Negativity – bad news. It attracts the public more!
2. Proximity – how close is the story to yourself. Making the news sound like that could of happened to you.
3. Unexpectedness –  making the story sound FRESH, like it just happened
4. Frequency –  Making stories never go away e.g. HATI

Evaluation of my own Original Sitcom

For my practical production, I decided to do a sitcom script. I based my sitcom a family arriving to London from Nigeria. They are very unfamiliar with their whereabouts and go on a journey to understand how to live in London and to adjust to the British lifestyle. I decided to do a scene on their arrival to London. I added some comedy to the script, as it is a key feature to sitcoms like Friends. The codes and conventions I have used in my sitcom are having a small number of characters in my sitcom, having a main character and supporting characters. My sitcom is a DomCom (Domestic Comedy) because setting would usually be at the home or in a working environment. What makes my production recognisable are the characters in the sitcom. I have two parents, husband and wife, and their 3 children. What makes my sitcom original is where my characters originally came from. They’ve come to a new country, have a new start and each series show what problem or subject they have to go through.  I think my sitcom could fit into a subgenre like Dramedy because maybe there could be a number of series on serious everyday issues.

My target audience could be all age groups, because I have a range of characters at different age groups which can appeal to my audience. My target audience will watch my sitcom and relate to it because it is very common in the UK to have people from other countries and start a new lifestyle here and the comedy side to it could be the understanding of how the UK works.

I have used stereotypes in my sitcom by having family roles within the family. For example, the dad goes out to work, while the mum stays at home and maintains the house whilst the kids are at school. My reasons for this, is because it was common in the 19^th century for women to become house wives and look after the children and but it is quite rare now in the 20^th century, but most African’s believe in old tradition. The effect of this is that now it portrays women as only house wives, not independent women work to also provide for their family. Race on the other hand, race is the biggest barrier I am breaking in British sitcom, because in most British sitcoms there are usually white characters that play a typical British family, for example, My Family.

The channel I think I should sell my sitcom to is BBC1 or BBC Three, because my sitcom is the type of sitcom that can be viewed by all ages, considering it is the type that is only shown for half an hour and is broadcasted at times around 7pm or 8pm on a Friday night. I think these times would be suitable for my sitcom, because it is usually a time when the family tend to sit around together and watch TV.

Fresh off the Boat 1×03 “The Arrival”

Waiting for the Cab

Ext. Heathrow Airport

The Ogunawobi family; Suzie (Mum), Emmanuel (Dad), Timmy (oldest son), Vivian (daughter) and Glory (youngest son) are stressfully waiting for a cab as it starts to rain. They arrive wearing summer clothing and complain that it is too cold, even though it is the summer in the UK. Little Glory won’t stop running around and they are given weird looks from the citizens of the UK and they also have very large suitcases with them. The cab driver arrives and explains to them that he may not be able to take them were they need to go because there’s too much luggage.

EMMANUEL

(ANGRILY SHOUTS OUT) AAAAHHHHH! Where is this truck to take us to our new village?

VIVIAN

Father, there is no truck to come and pick us up, we have to wait for a black cab.

(PAUSE)

And there is no village for us to go to.

EMMANUEL

(SHOCKED) No village! So where are we staying?

TIMMY

In a house, in Harrow

EMMANUEL

Oh hello to you too son but I have been with you all day today.

TIMMY

(FRUSTRATED)NO…Harrow.

EMMANUEL

Oh…that is a place?

SUZIE, TIMMY, VIVIAN

(SHOUTING) YES!

EMMANUEL

Well sorry. So where is this black cab? (LOOKING AROUND)

(A drop of rain falls on the top Emmanuel’s head)

AAAAAHHHHH! What is that?

VIVIAN

It’s rain.

EMMANUEL

(Looking confused) What the acid water?

TIMMY

Yeah!

SUZIE

(Disappointed) OH NO! MY HAIR!

VIVIAN

(ANNOYED) Mum can you please stop worrying about your and tell Glory to stop running around like a headless chicken.

(SLILENCE)(Glory still running around)

(SHOUTING) And can some please call a cab.

(It stops raining)

EMMANUEL

Ok Miss Temper, Temper. You see the water from the sky has stopped now.

VIVIAN

I’m not worried about the weather. It’s like this all year around.

SUZIE

(SHOCKED) WHAT! Oh Lord, please have mercy on my hair.

TIMMY

(RELIEVED) Finally, here’s a cab. (TIMMY REACHES OUT WITH HIS RIGHT HAND AND WAVES TO SIGNAL THE CAB DRIVER)

A cab slowly pulls ups and the gives the family a slightly weird look.

CAB DRIVER

Where you guys off to?

EMMANUEL

Hello…no I mean Harrow (AND SMILES)

CAB DRIVER

What all of you?

EMMANUEL

Yes all of us. Is that a problem?

CAB DRIVER

Well I don’t think I’ll be able to fit all of you and your luggage.

EMMANUEL

Don’t worry driver, the goat can hold our luggage.

(PAUSE)

(EVERYONE LOOKS AT EMMANUEL)

SUZIE

(SMILING) Don’t worry, I know how to fit us all in … African Style!

END OF OPENING

CD Cover Evaluation

I have designed a CD cover called “Cameron” and on the CD cover are two pictures of artist. The idea behind the CD cover is to show how big and successful Cameron (the artist) has become. I used a big spotlight in the background to show that he could he now a raising star. I used graffiti text for his name and the album name to give an urban feel to the album, considering that the artist talks about him growing up in a ghetto (urban) area and talking about the streets. The name of my artist is “Cameron”. I named him this because this is the name my artist is best known as. The title of the album is “I’m That Boy”, I have named it that because on most album covers, the album if named by one of the songs produced on the album. The title “I’m That Boy” could relate to my target because if has some sort of slang to it. I have used the codes and conventions of an urban music album cover (grime) by making the design of my CD cover very urban, using graffiti, bright colours and have a “Bad Boy” body language position.

The target audience for my CD are young teens or people who favour British hip hop or grime. To appeal to my target audience, I used graffiti for the font. This is very common on most rap albums because graffiti seen in most urban areas. The effect of this makes viewers more conscious of the music genre, being grime. Also, the body position my artist is showing is quite similar to known rap album covers. The semiotics of this is that he maybe trying show that he is confident chilled out and “cool”. My target audience my respond to my artist in a positive way because my artist and his music relate to my target audience and also I have made it suitable for ages as he doesn’t swear or used any unsuitable language so parents will be able to see that it’s not like other rap albums.

I wanted to make my artist represent an independent label because most successful artist in the UK, come from independent labels. The institution is important when creating an artist and album because you can get to know the background of the artist and how they can appeal to their audience. I think that my album would be promoted, played and viewed on TV channels like ‘Channel AKA’, ‘MTV Base’ and other urban music channels. I feel these channels may help promote my artist to their target audience but they are popular urban music channels. But ‘Channel AKA’ may be the best channel for my artist to be seen and heard on because it is a good channel to help promote young upcoming artists. I would want my album to be played on radio stations like ‘Choice FM’ because this radio station is good for urban music and my target market listen to this station the most. The internet is a good way to promote my artist because sites like myspace, where I can share my music with everyone and build up relationships with other artists that may like my artist’s music. This is a good may of building contacts and could lead to some good opportunities for my artist.

I represented my artist as a young urban, street boy, who feels that rapping is he’s passion. The body the language my artist is portraying, is a sort of “bad boy” look. He has his arms folded and with a bit of a positive attitude. Although I have stuck to the classic stereotype for urban music I have also broken the classic stereotype of urban music by having no swearing in the album. I made my album like this because it allows a larger range of other audiences to see my artist.

Sitcom has extremely changed over time, where it used to be broadcasted on radio and then emerged to television. Sitcoms were then seen as slap-sticks to create sitcoms like ” Some Mothers do ave em’ ” and “Faulty Towers”. As time passed, sitcoms became boring and formulaic. Too many sitcoms started to become similar. The effect of this was that sitcoms like “Saved by the Bell” and “The Simpsons” became very slapstick and most sitcoms became quite predictable with having a family themed sitcom. An example is “Cosby Show” and “Moesha”.

Now modern sitcoms seem to use less slapstick, and now have a younger audience, like teenagers and the genre is more diverse because of the development over the years. An example of a young sitcom is “Gavin & Stacy”. Some newer sitcoms like to use the new style of sitcoms over ”ordinary” sitcoms where they use canned laughter. The did this by making it seem quite like a documentary, on location, an example of this is “The Office”, “Flight of the Conchords”.

Representation has also changed over time, because places like Britain became very diverse in race (ethnically) by the 1980s. This meant that the stereotypes of race in day time sitcoms had to change, for example “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum in the 1970s and the “Desmonds” in the early 1990s. Also, in places like America, sitcoms like “The Cosby Show” struggled with harsh comments from the public saying that “The Cosby Show” wasn’t the average black family. Some African American families in the early 1980s were not usually financially well-off and “The Cosby Show” being a black family, showed how black people could live the other half. They weren’t trying to show up un-financially black people, they were trying to portray that this is the life that black people could live.

Gender in the early TV sitcoms like “I Love Lucy” in the 1950s showed women as housewives and this was often true like in “The Simpsons” but representations of gender have changed in the 1990s because in sitcoms like “Friends”, they represent characters like Rachel as a single, independent woman, who can earn her own money by herself working.

Representation of family has changed over time, where as families used to be always white and nuclear like “Roseanne” or “My Family” but now there are lot more black family sitcoms and different family types too like “Everybody Hates Chris”, “My Wife & Kids” and “The Royle Family”.

The changes in sitcom audiences have change sitcom over the years. Sitcoms used to be a family show or aimed at women like soap operas but over time the age group of audiences had differed because today there are more sitcoms aimed at youth like “Gavin & Stacey” and “Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisp”. There are also sitcoms aimed for younger children like “That’s so Raven” and sitcoms aimed for much older adults like “The Office”. Now audiences are more fragmented, for example, the “Desmonds” was mainly aimed at black people who had migrated from Africa or the West Indies to London (Peckham). The effect of this allowed the British sitcom industry to have a range of audiences.

I found “Flight of the Conchords” much different to the sitcoms I usually watch because it had different key features in it that i wouldn’t ususally see in the sitcoms i watch. For example, the break out into song, i found this unusual but quite entertaining because it was parody. It  took the mick out of movie musicals but in a way this was a different way of showing humour.