Media theory application to long form tv drama.

Theory set 2: 

• Neale - Genre
• Gauntlett - Identity 
• Jenkins - Fandom
• Livingstone and Lunt - Regulation

• Neale's Genre theory:   the idea that genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation and change
• the idea that genres change, develop, and vary, as they borrow from and overlap with one another
• the idea that genres exist within specific economic, institutional and industrial contexts.

Stranger Things: sci-fi genre with a mix of supernatural and horror, This is because it does include the six common characters found in a traditional horror movie. These are character types like: the jock, the dumb cheerleader, the nerd / stoner, the token minority, the nice guy and the last girl / the virgin. Stranger Things does in fact include all of these conventions of the horror genre but it subverts them to be different. For example the jock, who is normally focus on one thing only and doesn’t treat others well, becomes a sensitive caring guy who proves he deserves the girl. Or the last girl / virgin, the one who normally survives to the very end, she ends up being the one who dies quite soon into the series. Stranger Things reflects his theory because of the way it does subvert and change the characters seen within a traditional horror or sci-fi movie. His theory means that it is important to follow some of the conventions of a certain genre so that people know which genre the show falls in. However it also states that something must be changed within the genre to make the show new and exciting for audiences to watch. Stranger Things did this by taking the traditional 80s theme of a movie and twisting it.

Deutschland 83:   historical genre. Reflects this theory as it is a historical TV drama, 

• Gauntlett's Identity theory:  The idea that the media provide us with ‘tools’ or resources that we use to construct our identities The idea that whilst in the past the media tended to convey singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities, the media today offer us a more diverse range of stars, icons and characters from whom we may pick and mix different ideas.

• Jenkins - Fandom:
• The idea that fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings The idea that fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully authorised by the media producers (‘textual poaching’) The idea that fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and inflecting mass culture images, and are part of a participatory culture that has a vital social dimension.

• Livingstone and Lunt - Regulation:
• The idea that there is an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need to further the interests of citizens (by offering protection from harmful or offensive material), and the need to further the interests of consumers (by ensuring choice, value for money, and market competition) The idea that the increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk