Document about the television programme, Eastenders

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Unit 25 & 26 - Task 7
Evaluate television production
I have chosen to analyse and evaluate a British based drama television production,
called Eastenders. I will be covering one episode from the programme, which is
when the characters are celebrating the royal wedding, which had happened a few
days in London, before this episode was broadcasted to the public, and when two
young boys are involved in a crime.
This is the link to the episode that I will be discussing in this document:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b4fb08/eastenders-21052018
Eastenders is a British drama genre combined with the sub-genre of soap opera and
multi-strand. This programme focuses on the British
culture as presenting the characters’ lives and issues,
relating to the audiences, living in England. The
programme is based on drama due to having the
conventions of drama shown throughout the show. The
main convention of drama is having conflict at the heart of
the show, in which arguments or fights are primarily
shown throughout the scenes in the programme. In
addition, Eastenders is known to have at least two scenes
within an episode consisting of conflict presented. Also, there are real-life settings,
such as familiar backdrops like a local pub, cafe and people’s homes used
throughout all the episodes to show the audience that the producers are trying to
create a programme that is as real to the audience’s life, using realistic settings that
the audience would be aware of, as used in their lives. Moving on, the characters are
shown to take part in real-life situations, leading to the audience to relate to some of
the characters. There are cliffhangers at the end of every episode, leading to the
audience to watch the next day episode to find out what happens next from the
previous episode. Furthermore, Eastenders primarily focuses on the demographic
profiles, using a variety of characters covering all the different social classes, skin
colour, age, gender and religion. This causes the programme to be one of the most
popular shows viewed by the public as it uses a diversity of characters in which the
audience can all relate to, as they may have similar features to the characters in the
show. Therefore, this will cause the audience to watch this show as it consists and
presents different features which people see themselves having such as, relating to
the characters, showing characters facing situation that the public may be facing and
showing realistic events, but specifically changed in a way to bring more entrainment
to the scenes in order to attract the audience's attention, but still make it realistic for
people as they relate to it.

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Unit 25 & 26 - Task 7
The narrative of this programme is presented in a chronological order, whilst also,
including multi-strand scenes. This is because there are numerous amounts of
scenes occurring, with one scene shown at a time and then cutting to the next scene
that is happening at a similar time to the other events. Due to the long running show,
as it lasts for 30 minutes, it will allow the audience to be aware of the variety of
events happening to the different characters. Therefore, one of the scenes will end
with a cliffhanger, causing then the audience to watch the next episode shown the
next day in order to continue the scenes from the previous episode. This will then be
repeated every time an episode is created. In this episode that I am analysing, the
episode first starts of people within the community, Walford, celebrating the day of
the royal wedding for Prince Harry and his new wife, Meghan Markle, as this
important event was occurring in England which leads the programme to use this
event to be shown as it uses real life events that audience may be facing as well and
due to the show based on British values. Furthermore, the next scenes show conflict
occurring, between two young boys from the community against with a group of boys
from another community which ends in a negative way, leading to the two boys from
Walford, having been stabbed by the group of boys that are not a part of their
community.
The audience effect theories include theories such as, moral panics, encoding and
decoding and uses and gratifications. These theories suggest different meanings
and are used in order to cause the audiences to develop different feelings for when
watching the variety of programmes and services presented by media companies. It
is beneficial for producers to use any of these theories when creating a programme
as it will allow the audiences to develop interactions as engaging and talking about
the programme with other people as the programme people may be watching is seen
as interesting and has drawn people’s attention to it, as it’s not seen as boring
without causing people to think and feel emotions towards to the episode.
Moral panic (1972)
The moral panic theory was originally developed by Stanley Cohen. He argues that
the there were two opposing youth groups in the 1960s - the mods and the rockers.
The two groups were seen to be involved in some minor acts of vandalism and a few
scuffles between one another. However, the media carried hugely exaggerated
reports of what happened, with front-page headline giving the misleading impression.
This then later caused a generated moral panic with within the public of fear and
hostility towards the mod and rockers, seen as ‘folk devils’ that would pose major
threats to the public. The police were informed to focus and observe these groups in
response to the alleged deviant behaviour, as been exaggerated by the media.

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Unit 25 & 26 - Task 7
Therefore, moral panic is created when the media has exaggerated a situation in
which leads the people viewing the context to feel fear and panic. The moral panic
theory is shown to be used throughout programmes and services in order to get the
audience's attention and raise awareness to a situation. For example, the news may
be seen to exaggerate or be biased towards a situation. Therefore, most media
companies will decide to create fearful scenes in order to cause the audience to feel
anxious and concerned throughout the programme.
The main scene from this episode has shown to use the moral
panic theory, as when showing the two boys from Walford are
stabbed by the other group of boys from another community.
The first image shows two boys standing in front of one another,
with the guy that has his back faced to the camera, wants to
harm the boy (called Keegan), facing the camera who lives in
Walford, as he had stolen a bike from the gang leading to the
gang wanting to punish him due to his actions towards their
bike. Then, the next image shows the camera angle as a close
up to the Keegan’s face after he's been stabbed. Lastly, the final
image shows a hand, which is the other boy (called Shakil) from
the same community as Keegan, covered in blood as the other
boys from the gang had stabbed him before they stabbed
Keegan. Therefore, this scene will cause moral panic to happen
whist the audience are watching what is happening to the young
boys, emphasising that this situation can happen in society
today as crimes have been recently increasing. In addition, the
audience can relate to this situation as some people may have
been involved at a time in their life or know someone that has
experienced a similar situation. Thus, leading the audience to feel scared and
worried as this event is happening in most locations and shown to be mainly
happening amongst young people in real life which will then making the audience
more aware and worried of crime in society.
Encoding / Decoding (1973)
Stuart Hall proposed a theory called, ‘encoding and decoding’. This theory is an
approach of how media messages are produced, disseminated, and interpreted.
Encoding is the process of creating a message from one person to others
(audience).
The sender uses verbal (words, signs, images and video) and non-verbal (body
language, hand gestures and facial expressions) which he/she thinks the receiver
(viewer) will understand. On the other hand, decoding is the process of interpreting a

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message sent by one person to others (audience) and how the audience are able to
understand and interpret the message in a comprehensible form. This theory
emphasises the way that people are not just passive consumers of media, but rather
people can think and understand what the media is really trying to show. People are
able to choose any programmes which will give them gratification from viewing it.
Therefore, different media companies will compete with other companies in order to
make sure that the context they have produced brings satisfaction for people
consuming a certain product that they see it will bring them, understanding that
different media products give different feeling than people understand which one to
use at different times in their life.
This theory has been used in order to create a message to the audiences, that crime
rates are high amongst young people which will lead to the audience to understand
that crime is happening more often and to show the young audiences, that people
should not carry dangerous and harmful weapons, as they may want to use them
against other people. Also, this could lead to the police trying to impose more
observations amongst the youths as the crime rates are mainly high amongst these
age groups and to use the stop and search approach if they are suspicious of
individuals who may be carrying a harmful weapon, in order to decrease the number
of crime rates. Another message has been created in other scenes such as, when
people in Walford are all celebrating together the royal wedding of Prince Harry
marrying Meghan Markle, which had recently happened in London. This message
will be interpreted by the audience as they will be aware of the situation as it is seen
as an important event occurring in England and due to Eastenders presenting the
British values, it will allow the audience to view how people in the country would act
and celebrate the special event occurring. In addition, people may choose to watch
Eastenders as it brings gratification, due to the scene sin the programme are show to
bring entertainment to the viewers. Also, the scenes presented are seen to be
relatable to the audience, as people who are viewing the programme may have
themselves celebrated the royal wedding in a similar way as the characters did in the
programme. Therefore, Eastenders is seen as one of the most popular programmes
viewed by many people in England, as the scenes tend to represent real-life
situations, causing the audience to relate and become loyal viewers of the show as
they will keep coming back to watch more new episodes.
This image shows the aftermath of once the gang has
stabbed the two boys from Walford. The camera has used a
long shot of the gang standing outside the alleyway with
their bike, after they have committed the crime. The
message created for this scene can explain how crime is
happening all the time, mainly amongst the young
generation, and the boys are shown to be smiling or with a

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grin on their face, indicating that they don’t feel any remorse and see that what they
have done is seen as normal from their facial expressions shown.
This next picture shows how people in the community have
come altogether in the local pub to celebrate the royal wedding,
with posters of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and British
flags placed around the setting, happening in London. The
message created for this scene shows how people in England
take the event as an important situation, expressing the British
traditions due to the prince of England is getting married.
Therefore, this event has caused people to gather with one
another to watch the wedding and sing songs such as, the national anthem of
England. Also, due to the celebration taking place in the local pub, this indicates how
England primarily has pubs in which people will meet with one another and seen as
a common environment that the audience may even visit themselves, due to the
programme using reliable locations that the audience may visit themselves.
Uses and Gratifications (1974)
Blumler and Katz suggested that the audiences are attracted to media texts that are
useful or which gives them gratification (pleasure). These include education,
entertainment, personal Identity and social interaction (and integration). The
entertainment element would suggest that people may watch eastenders because
the audience will watch the programme for enjoyment. The entertainment element
would be used to entrain the viewers, people watching the scenes finding them
amusing and interesting. Eastenders has scenes with entertainment. Moving on, the
personal identity content means that viewers can recognise a person or product, role
models that reflect similar values to them and mimic or copy some of their
characteristics. In addition, the audience may reflect their identity to a similar
character within the show, due to Eastenders having different characters with
different ethnicity, skin colour and age etc. this will allow the audience to watch the
show even more because there is a character used in the scenes which the
audience can relate to, form a bond with the character. Social interaction suggests
the ability for media products to produce a topic of conversation between people.
People go back to work or school after watching an episode, causing them to talk to
other people about it, creating conversation with other people in their surroundings.
Therefore, Eastenders covers these functions, allowing the audience to watch the
show for different purposes and keep coming back to watch more episodes from the
programme. For this episode, it has shown to include this theory throughout the

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scenes, featuring all the elements from the theory. The entertainment element has
included numerous conflicts within some scenes, leading to viewers to feel
excitement due to the divergent in scene, not just showing scenes with characters
just talking but argument created. This will cause the audience wanting to know more
about what will happen and bring drama into the scenes, not making it boring. In
addition, everyone have watched the royal wedding, enjoying a special event
happening in England. Also, personal identity is used, as the viewers can relate to
different characters, with the use of a variety of actors from different backgrounds, in
order for the audience to relate to. Such as, young boys can relate to the young
boys, as they too may have been involved in a fight before. Also, parents can relate,
having a son may have been involved in negative situations. Finally, the social
interaction element is used in this episode because the programme has presented
scenes which will cause the audience to discuss what has happened, people will talk
about the royal wedding with one another and then talk about the stabbing scene,
talk about crime and how is spreading and raising in society as negative things are
happening in lives all the time. Thus, making most people affected from watching
these scenes.
Enigma code (1930)
Roland Barthes created the Enigma Code theory, which explained that any texts, in
television, film or posters portray mystery within the context in order to question the
audience and draw them in. The use of mystery within the text will lead to the
audience to question the narrative and causing them to become more intrigue to the
show they are watching.
Eastenders is mainly seen to use this theory in all the episodes they present
throughout the programme, because the programme is based on multi-strand,
showing more than one storyline at a time with another presented after. For instance,
all the scenes shown at the end of an episode will end with a mystery, left with a
cliffhanger, which will then complete the rest of the scene in the next scene shown in
the next new episode. From using a cliffhanger at the ender of a an episode, this will
lead to a mystery at the end of the last episode, causing the audience to watch the
next episode the next day in order to find out what happens next. In addition, they
mystery element can also be shown to be used in scene when they cut from one to
the next. For instance, the main mystery within this episode is when the gang of boys
are looking for Keegan as he had stolen their bike, leading to the audience wanting
to find out what will happen to him next. Then the next scene shows when Shakil and
Keegan are stabbed, the episode ends leaving the audience question whether the
two boys will survive or die, have to watch the next episode the next day. The next
episode will cause people to watch the next episode shown the next day as the new

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episode shows whether the boys survive or not. The episode will not show full story
in one episode, as the storyline is spread out through other episodes created, every
episode ends with cliffhangers, which are then shown every weekday.
Character role (1928)
Vladimir Propp developed the idea that a certain type of character is used in the
narrative of the show or film, whereby its role provides a structure for the plot in the
episode. Propp identified eight different roles in which the characters within the show
are supposed to be like. For instance, a hero, villain, princess, dispatcher, donor,
helper, father, false hero, are all the main roles that characters can be seen to
perform within the show. In the episode of Eastenders, there has not been much use
of this theory as compared to the other theories. This is because, the main
characters acting in the episode of Eastenders, have not be shown to perform the
roles’ from the theory, but only a few certain characters have been seen to use a role
from the theory. For example, the villain role has seen to be performed by one of the
boys from the group of gang as he is the one who stabs Shakil and Keegan. This
role is used for his charter as the boy acts against the boys from Walford. Another
role which has been used is the helper, which is seen to be performed by Shakil as
he is seen to be helping Keegan to do the right thing, to give back the bike he stole
from the gang. The dispatcher role is used by the character, Bex, a girl who is friends
with both Keegan and Shakil. Bex is seen to perform the dispatcher role as she tells
Keegan that Shakil has gone and not returned back to the pub, causing Keegan to
leave the pub as well in order to find Shakil.
Equilibrium (1969)
A media writer called, ​Tzvetan Todorov came up with a theory called Todorov’s
Equilibrium. Todorov’s Equilibrium narrative theory states that most story’s or plot
lines follow the same pattern or path. There are 4
main steps of the theory which are, the equilibrium,
distribution of the equilibrium, recognition of the
distribution of the equilibrium and finally, an attempt
to solve the distribution. The first step is,
equilibrium, this is the first part of the story will that
will display a happy start, where the majority of
characters are content and everything is as it
should be. The second step is a disruption. This
shows that the story will have a problem or

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something will disrupt the happiness. The third step is the recognition of the
distribution. This part of the plot is when everyone realises the problem and it is
chaos. The final step is attempting to solve the distribution. This part of the plot is
when the characters attempt to repair the damage and restore the problem. There is
one more final step that is used in the theory which is equilibrium again, but this step
may not apply to every movie as not all movies end with a happy ending.
Referring to the episode in Eastenders, due to the genre of the programme being a
drama with multi-strand, there is two main narratives happening. One narrative is
created which shows the community, Walford, celebrating the royal wedding in
London and when they two young boys, Shakil and Keegan, find themselves in a
dangerous situation.
The equilibrium occurs as during the first scene in the episode, showing how
everyone in the community, Walford, is getting ready to celebrate the
royal wedding, which would take part in the local pub. The next scene
shows Keegan in a different area from the original community, which
he finds a bike, unlocked in the area, and decides to take and ride it
back to his community. The distribution of the equilibrium element is
shown present during this scene because, Keegan has taken a bike,
which he is not the owner of. Therefore, this has caused a distribution
to the general environment, as Keegan’s actions will lead to conflict
brought to the original community, in Walford. Moving on, the next few
scenes present all the characters in the local pub to celebrate the
wedding, also, a scene shows Shakil telling Keegan to take the bike
back where he taken it from, as Shakil had acknowledged that the
gang of boys who own the bike were looking for Keegan. In addition,
another scene will show a gang of boys who come to the Walford, in
order to get their bike back and punish Keegan for taking it from them,
which will then be shown through the next scenes in the episode.
These few scenes lead to the recognition of the disruption as Shakil
and Keegan are now aware that the gang of boys are looking to get
their bike and come to Walford, in order to get the bike back and cause
conflict to occur between the boys. An attempt to repair the damage,
the scenes shows the gang of boys looking around the pub in order to
try and find Keegan, and the scene shows Keegan hiding in the pub’s
toilets, whilst Shakil leaves the pub in order to return back the bike to
the boys. However, after a while, Keegan notices that Shakil has left
the pub and Bexs, a friend to both Keegan and Shakil, confirms that
Shakil did leave the pub. This causes Keegan to leave the pub as well
in order to try find Shakil, but instead he sees the boys form the gang.
Finally, a new equilibrium is created because, once the boys from the

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gang have found Keegan, one of the boys stabbed Keegan in the neck
and then later shows that they had stabbed Shakil as well, when he
had left the pub. This shows that both the boys have been harmed and
this scene is the final scene shown, meaning that the new equilibrium
will start in the next episode as this episode is left on a cliffhanger, not
finishing this episode, but then the next episode will show what has
happened to the boys the next day.
The main message of this episode explains how people living in England celebrate
the special event, the royal wedding, presenting the British traditions and values.
Also, another is message created explaining that crime rates are increasing and that
people should be more aware of their actions. Overall, due to Eastenders been
known for creating narratives based on similar situations to the audience, it will allow
the audience to relate to certain scenes as they may experienced a similar situation
to the characters in the programme. In addition, specific scenes are included to
make sure that the audience are aware of situations occurring in the everyday life, by
presenting it through the characters acting it out.
The target audience for this programme have proven to be a variety
of people, the audiences, from all different backgrounds, linking to
the demographic profile. The producers of Eastenders have decided
to include actors to play in the episodes of the programme from all
different types of backgrounds such as, some actors who have a
white, black, or brown skin colour, both genders; female and male,
who may be employed or unemployed, some from the middle-class
or working-class and some people who are non-British like, Indian
Asian, black Caribbean, Travellers and many other ethnic minorities.
Also, the producers have included people from young ages to old
ages, therefore, every age is roughly included, mainly 13-65 as these
ages are the target for the public. In addition, this will allow the
programme to attract more audiences to the show as they have
included a diversity of characters covering different backgrounds of
people in which most of the audience can relate to. Although, it is
British based, the programme is seen to also include other
non-British features, as it can show as well that Britain is including non-white and
non-British people, as Britain is becoming more diverse as the years goes by.Hence,
suggesting that more people are coming into Britain, making the country more
diverse, with the show presenting British and non-British cultures, in which everyone
can relate to.

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Unit 25 & 26 - Task 7
The main message for this episode, referring to the encoding and decoding theory,
that was created suggests to the audience that the royal wedding has just happened,
Prince Harry marrying Meghan Markle, which emphasises the British traditions as
this event is seen as important and special due to people living in the country
perceive the royal family changing. The episode has shown how the characters are
celebrating the event, leading to the audience to view how other people in different
areas have celebrated the day of the wedding. Also, people may relate to the
characters as they may have celebrated their wedding as well, causing the viewers
to interpret the message that nearly everyone in England would have been
celebrating the royal wedding. In addition, due to Eastenders primarily including the
British normas throughout its episodes. In addition, due to Eastenders primarily
including the British norms and values throughout the episodes, it will allow the
audiences to view the British traditions and some viewers can relate to the traditions
that they may have themselves, due to living in England. Another message that has
been developed for the audience to understand and interpret, would be showing
conflict between some of the characters with one another. For instance, the major
conflict scene that occurs is when Keegan and Shakil get stabbed by a group of
boys, with both similar ages, causing them to end up in a dangerous situation. The
message from this scene will tell the audience that crime rates are increasing and
mainly happening amongst the younger generation. Therefore, this message will
make people more aware of crime happening and show the young viewers that they
should not carry harmful weapons and/or be careful and tell an adult if they know
that they are in dangerous or are involved in a negative situation in order to prevent
the situation getting any worse.
One impact from this episode, will allow the audience to admire and perceive the
special event occurring in the country, causing people to come closer with one
another to celebrate the important event. Another impact of this episode has caused
the audience to feel worried and more cautious due to the crime scenes presented
amongst the young people. These two main impacts have led to the audiences to
feel in a positive and negative manner as there are scenes included which show
people enjoying and celebrating together a special event. But, also, showing scenes
that show harm and uncomfortable context will lead to the audience feeling in a
negative way, as these scenes can relate to true stories and the audience may even
relate to the audience as they may have been in a similar situation before. Therefore,
Eastenders have proven to create context in which most of the audience can relate
to and view the scenes based on the audience theories.

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Unit 25 & 26 - Task 7
Bibliography
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b4fb08/eastenders-21052018
https://www.slideshare.net/zlorhenley/roland-barthes-6918590
https://www.slideshare.net/Tyrone321/vladimir-propp-theory-59531420

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