Texual analysis for 2 texts: Regency house party (text 1) and SAS: are you tough enough? (text 2)


Text 1 and text to both belong to the same genre of reality television. The function of reality television is to provide the audience with reality as it happens shown on television.

Both texts show reality television in different forms. Text 1 which is regency house party; a period drama lives in the nostalgic memory of the time in which Jane Austin lived in having the elements of intertexuality making it a post modern text whereas text 2, SAS: are you tough enough takes a different approach in presenting reality. This text could be seen as a propaganda text in which they persuade the audience to join the army. The hypodermic needle model is reinforced as passive audiences are injected with ideologies about the army.

On the other hand, the uses and gratifications theory could be applied as they audience could be shown in an active role where they pick the text they consumes and both these texts provide different elements to other reality television texts but also provides the audience with escapist entertainment.

The entertainment for women would be that a couple of women are shown in the army, a stereotypical place associated with the male gender challenging patriarchy. The reason for this could be is due to feminism that arose during the 70’s in which women fought for equally and this text clearly shows them in an active role subverting these stereotypes. However, text 1, regency house party reinforces these stereotypes as women are shown in stereotypical roles of house keeping and passive nonetheless, this stereotype reflects the zeitgeist of that era.

These stereotypes are reinforced in text 2 as the main gender shown in this reality television is the male gander. This suggests that the contemporary society is still patriarchal making women subordinate to men. The use of phallic objects in both texts suggests that Mulvey’s theory is reinforced for men as well as women.

The audience are made to identify with the characters in both reality shows through iconography, part of the repertoire of elements suggested by Steve Neale. The use of high angle shots make the audience sympathise with the tortured army members giving authority to the main person supervising them.

Additionally, the pleasure it provides the is intellectual pleasures as understanding the texts background such as for text 1, having knowledge of the time in which Jane Austin lives and for text 2, knowing what the army is and what they do. The contradicting colours also help reinforce this intellect ability as text 1 has a dark, dreamy colours reflecting the past and texts 2 has bright colours to reflect the atmosphere in that texts creating identification and so audiences do not feel alienated.

The use of hand held cameras used in texts 2 in absent in text 2. The use of hand held camerawork could signify realism, this being an important aspect as this text is meant to present reality and so this will benefit the representation of what is being shown to be true and accurate. On the other hand, reality television is never as accurate and a fair representation it is made out to be. The version is mediated and constructed to form into reality so therefore it is a re-presentation of the truth.

The contrast of broadcasters means that these texts are aimed as different however mainstream audiences as these two channels are the most popular out of the 5 terrestrial channels. BBC is a public service broadcaster with a remit of educating, informing and entertaining the audience and is successful in doing this however the channel 4, also public service broadcasters aims to inform audience on different matters to the BBC. Text 2 is from the BBC and this texts informs the audiences of the atmosphere surrounding army life but also provided entertainment as watching reality in terms of men being as equal to women because males are shown crying, something males deny presented reality to the audiences. The use of personalisation also creates identification for texts 2 which is absent in text 1.

In conclusion, the use of non diagetic music is important in creating the scenes along with the establishing shot and reflecting the themes both texts try to get across to the audience such as the calm classic music for text 1 as it reflects zeitgeist and the heave drums in texts to.

Analysis of 2 texts

Text 1: Friends
Text 2 Hope and Faith

The functions of both these texts are that they provide the audiences with entertainment.

The first text is Friends. This is a sitcom as is Hope and Faith however they the lifestyle they live in are different to each other. The narrative for Hope and Faith is family life and what they get up to however, for Friends; the main focus is on friendship amongst a group of friends. This will attract similar audiences as they like to see images of happiness, in particular it will attract a mainstream audience and the certain of group of preferred target audience will be as aspirers according to the psychographic profiling. This is because they will want to aspire to the characters and the life they live in as everyone likes happiness.

Some of the characters will attract different audiences such as hope and faith will attract family/teenager audience whereas Friends will attract a more working class audience and teenagers. This is because the teenagers will be able to identify with the characters such as in hope and faith. This sitcom will also appeal to audiences who aspire to characters. An example is Rachel who is pretty and has a good job at Ralph Lauren, a successful designer institution appealing to teenagers to want to become like her character.

The similarity for these two sitcoms is that they have used the stereotype of the blond ‘bimbo’. An example is when Rachel sister is introduced, who was represented as a bimbo; a stereotype. This was then used in hope and faith, faith being represented as the blond bimbo. The reason this stereotype is reinforced is because it creates identification with the audience. The audience like seeing these stereotype and they also create humour to keep the audiences entertained. This makes the two sitcoms successful apart from them being another American sitcom.

Both texts also reinforce stereotypes of women. Hope is represented as a housewife, a role they were labelled as before the first wave feminism. Feminism is when fought for equality. In addition, another stereotype is reinforced with Monica. She is represented as the super clean freak that is very tidy and like things perfect and new. This is a stereotype of woman cleaning. The males are also stereotyped such as Ross having a job as a palaeontologist. Having stereotypes help the audience identify with the sitcom and don’t feel alienated. It also helps them understand as they are presented on a daily basis, audiences feel comfortable with what is being shown even though it is mediated. There is also a himbo; male version of the bimbo however he is not blond challenging the blond hair colour stereotype.

The genre of both the sitcoms is a comedy. Comedies attract a mainstream audience because they feel entertained and the visceral pleasures such as laughter are provided. The sitcoms provide escapist entertainment, which is part of the uses and gratifications theory. This is because the spectators are given the sitcom that is different to the soaps and other programmes because it follows a narrative and both these sitcoms have key locations that make it recognisable and part of the sitcom that when they hear it, the audience can automatically identify the sitcom as Hope and Faith or Friends. An example is the café at central perk in Friends or Hope’s house in Hope and Faith.

In addition, Friends challenges patriarchy because there are equal number of friends in the group with three females and three males reflecting equality in the society between males and females. On the other hand, Hope and Faith is different. This sitcom reinforces patriarchy because the husband is working and bringing in the money whereas the mother is the housewife. This means that they are still living in a patriarchal society where women are subordinate to men.

In conclusion, these two films both has similarities and differences and attract different audiences however the genre is the same for both the genres.