Demographics
Paul said that the demographics of the show would be a good indicator towards the reasons why gender stereotypes were portrayed. He said that he read about some secondary research into the enthic viewer demographics of Friends. The results from the study were that white people put Friends second or third amongst their 100 favourite TV shows and black people put it at 98th place.
Tuesday, 25 November 2014
Monday, 17 November 2014
Saturday, 15 November 2014
Update - 15/11/2014 (Paul Marchbank Chat)
In this update, I am going to talk about an interesting reseach tip/idea that Paul Marchbank gave me which I plan to use and research over.
The overall tip was to basically focus my hypotheses and conlcusions around typical "childhood fairytales we tell our children". What he meant by this was that in terms of gender representations and the evolution of them, one could say they have never really completely changed. For example, Monica in Friends can be seen as the mother and caregiver of the show and Rachel can be seen as the daughter. And also that the series ends once Monica and Chandler have children, Rachel and Ross get back together and Phoebe is married to Mike. Likewise, fairytales always end with their "happily ever after" of marrying "Prince Charming". The reason for Friends to end in this way could be because of this happily ever after and the satisfaction this kind of ending would give to the target audience.
This brings me to another one of Paul's points about who the target audience of the show actually was and knowing this will then show me why a fairytale ending works. Paul also said that including actual facts and satistics about the show would help create a good essay. Because of these things I am planning to do some internet research about the actual viewer numbers and demographics for Friends and I will write a blog post about it for my reference.
There is still a lot more I will post about my chat with Paul Marchbank, however writing it down in seperate blog posts like this is really helping me go into detail more about what he said and what this will help me to do in terms of further research.
Friday, 14 November 2014
Update - 14/11/2014 (Rebecca Feasey Conversation)
Since my last update, I send a message to Dr. Rebecca Feasey to ask about her opinions on gender and Friends. A screenshot of the message I sent her is below.
She replied a few days later:
Although this was not the response I was hoping for, it was still a response and helps reassure me that the topic has been analysed by many experts in the field so it is a good topic for my EPQ. The book that Rebecca Feasey is referring to in the email is one I have already found through my internet research, however I have yet to read the chapter on Friends in more depth.
Because of this response, I have printed out the Friends chapter from her book "Masculinity and Popular Television" and I have started to read and highlight it. The 3 things I have highlighted for are: structure elements (for example where she has included a reference to another show, I have highlighted this so that I reference in this way or a similar way in my essay - helping me to start thinking about how to write my essay), definitions (for when there is a key term I am unsure about, I look up the definition and write it down so that I could maybe use this in my essay) and key points (which I write my own thoughts around). (See the chapter of the book below)
I think this has been a really useful way to read the chapter so far as it really makes me pay attention and focus on what I am reading (which I often find difficult) and because of this I plan to go through some more of the articles I've found and analyse them this way. It has also helped to print it out so that I can physically write and highlight it, and I plan to do this more for my research.
Sunday, 9 November 2014
Update - 9/11/2014 (Paul Marchbank Chat & Further Experts)
Since my last update, I have received an email from Paul Marchbank, a lecturer at Southampton Solent University whom I emailed about his expert knowledge on Friends and gender. We decided that it would be best if we spoke on the phone so that it wouldn't be a long essay (as most of my other research is) and I can pick and choose the opinions and pieces of advice that I want to do further research around and that can include in my project.
During the discussion, I realised that my project so far and at the moment has been mainly focused on the representations in Friends and not American society even though I have tried to research these two topics in relation to each other. Because of this, I believe that maybe this means that there isn't much of a link between the two and I need to discuss this further with my supervisor. This may lead me to re-evaluate my question.
Paul said that Friends' representations were and are extremely typical of the sitcom genre as this is both a way of adding to the comical element of the show and also a way of encouraging viewer identification. This reinforces my own opinions and thoughts as I was thinking this too, and he also added that this is very important in terms of viewer demographics of Friends and why this was chosen/why it works.
Another interesting point he also raised was that gender representations (although having minor changes) have been pretty much the same for at least 100 years in popular media platforms and that it may be highly unlikely they will change over the course of Friends, however may still be possible. We also discussed how the female characters are represented it a far more stereotypical way than the male characters (this may point to the main demographic being a female audience - having mostly feminine characters to relate to, even the men themselves). This also could suggest that even if there are an even split of male/female viewers (need to research demographics), this is likely to show that male stereotypes are difficult to enjoy watching on a unisex level and that they are more strong when represented.
A further interesting point that Paul made was the relation of the storyline's to classic fairytales that people tell their children and that everyone is forced to conform to. He pointed out that, as all show's do, Friends ends when Monica and Chandler have had a baby CHILDREN, Ross and Rachel get back together LOVE/MARRIAGE, and Phoebe and Mike get marriage LOVE/MARRIAGE. This is a classic way of ending a series and it is done because the audience is made to feel as if that love, marriage and children are the only goals in life - especially for women (proposed demographic) - and this makes the show more satisfying and fulfilling in their eyes.
Paul went into a lot more detail and added a lot more information than just this and so I will do another blog post about the discussion in the near future. Below is a copy of the notes I made during the phone call, they may not make a lot of sense so (as I have done here) I will breakdown different course of discussion in another blog post.
I have also found another "expert", Dr. Rebecca Feasey, that I am going to email about my project in the same way I did here. I found this person by attending Bath Spa University open day and her name being mentioned as a "gender representations in popular television" expert. In my next update I will mention my progress with this.
During the discussion, I realised that my project so far and at the moment has been mainly focused on the representations in Friends and not American society even though I have tried to research these two topics in relation to each other. Because of this, I believe that maybe this means that there isn't much of a link between the two and I need to discuss this further with my supervisor. This may lead me to re-evaluate my question.
Paul said that Friends' representations were and are extremely typical of the sitcom genre as this is both a way of adding to the comical element of the show and also a way of encouraging viewer identification. This reinforces my own opinions and thoughts as I was thinking this too, and he also added that this is very important in terms of viewer demographics of Friends and why this was chosen/why it works.
Another interesting point he also raised was that gender representations (although having minor changes) have been pretty much the same for at least 100 years in popular media platforms and that it may be highly unlikely they will change over the course of Friends, however may still be possible. We also discussed how the female characters are represented it a far more stereotypical way than the male characters (this may point to the main demographic being a female audience - having mostly feminine characters to relate to, even the men themselves). This also could suggest that even if there are an even split of male/female viewers (need to research demographics), this is likely to show that male stereotypes are difficult to enjoy watching on a unisex level and that they are more strong when represented.
A further interesting point that Paul made was the relation of the storyline's to classic fairytales that people tell their children and that everyone is forced to conform to. He pointed out that, as all show's do, Friends ends when Monica and Chandler have had a baby CHILDREN, Ross and Rachel get back together LOVE/MARRIAGE, and Phoebe and Mike get marriage LOVE/MARRIAGE. This is a classic way of ending a series and it is done because the audience is made to feel as if that love, marriage and children are the only goals in life - especially for women (proposed demographic) - and this makes the show more satisfying and fulfilling in their eyes.
Paul went into a lot more detail and added a lot more information than just this and so I will do another blog post about the discussion in the near future. Below is a copy of the notes I made during the phone call, they may not make a lot of sense so (as I have done here) I will breakdown different course of discussion in another blog post.
I have also found another "expert", Dr. Rebecca Feasey, that I am going to email about my project in the same way I did here. I found this person by attending Bath Spa University open day and her name being mentioned as a "gender representations in popular television" expert. In my next update I will mention my progress with this.
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