The document analyzes how two media clips convey Britain's celebrity culture. It discusses how Britain's Got Talent (BGT) represents Britain's obsession with talent and reality television shows featuring celebrities. The clip uses techniques like upbeat music and lighting, dynamic camerawork, and focus on the celebrity judges to engage audiences and portray the construction of celebrity. It also discusses how The Showbiz 411 reflects Britain's consumption of aspirational American celebrity culture, reporting on celebrities like Simon Cowell and Beyoncé. Both clips reference their global distribution and encourage audience interaction online to further exploit notions of celebrity culture.

1. Section A BGT Exemplar
1. How is media language used in the two clips toengage the audience? (8
Marks)Extended responseto question 1 to develop a full understanding of
textual analysis.
Both clips explore similar subjectmatter with The Showbiz 411 extract
exclusively focussing on the star marketing of Simon Cowell in the light of the
‘showbiz narrative’ aboutthe birth of his newborn son, Eric. Both clips usehigh
key lighting, saturated primary colours and have an upbeat mode of address to
appeal to a primary audience of young, female fans of celebrity culture.
At the opening of the BGT clip, along with a dynamic mode of address (a
typical convention of talent shows) an upbeatnon-diegetic soundtrack
accompanies and anchors the visualimages. Immediately the iconic brand logo
of Britain’s Got Talent fills the screen, foregrounding British national identity
as a talent show that is globally distributed. The ‘A’ of ‘talent’ is modified to
have connotations of star status appearing in an instantly recognisable five
pointed star format. The purposeof the audio-visuals is to encode a form of
fastpaced dynamismthat is frequently and commonly associated with popular
culture.
Camera movement is crucialto maintaining this rhythm and dynamism with an
initial high angle camera revealing a top shotof the audience in BGT and the
panellists and then titling and panning down from the gantry to the stage.
During this camera movement the panellist names are seen up in lights above
the stagefurther emphasising the star obsessed focus of the show and the
constructed nature of the narrative, based on the idea of the ‘construction’ of
celebity. The mise-en-scenereveals modern, tubular and metallic shiny
décor/surfaces along with the bright colours to emphasisethe
studio/stage/performanceenvironmentin frontof an audience – talent shows
borrow fromthe mise-en-sceneof the game show genrebut hybridiseusing
soap opera conventions via audience identification with character
and BGT adopts this format.
Clear binary oppositions between the ‘real’ celebrities and those aspiring
through performanceare established, not justby the panellists’ status and
how they (the real celebrities) are constantly framed centrally in close up but
also using proximity and space as the table is lowered into whatcould be
traditionally seen an the orchestra pit in a theatre – the panellists have their
own ‘special place’. The hyper real drama and theatre of the occasion is
anchored by shots frombehind the performer in deep focus, revealing the size

2. and scale of the auditorium including banked up seats in the stalls and circle
but also the positioning of the judges.
The first close up inevitably is of Simon Cowell, the unique selling point of the
show in terms of his production company Syco and association with BGT. As
the camera cuts back to the performer in long shot, (a wide shotselection is
evident from multiple camera technology including CU and MCU with the
performer frequently in long shot) the rhythmic intercutting between the
panellists e.g. David Walliams and Amanda Holden, and also audience
members starts. Itis crucial to show significantfootage of the performer but
reaction shots fromthe celebrities are important in encoding meaning for
audiences while shots of the audience legitimise the significant interactive
element to the show. During the performanceAnt and Dec are shown
backstageon a number of occasions – their purposeis to lead the audience
into a preferred reading – if they are laughing then the audience may be seen
to approvee.g. in the case of reaction shots of them deliberately heard to say
“excellent” during the impersonation of Simon Cowell.
Self-referential homage is paid to Simon Cowell by Jon Clegg with the
rhetorical question: “Can I call you daddy?” during his routine – performers are
often shot in low angle with the back stage projection being of lit up, iconic
London landmarks which traditionally would have connotations of power,
status and control but this is subverted to make the performers seem
aspirationaland vulnerable and also reliant on the judges and packed
audience, whose‘full house’ evidence is frequently shown by the swooping
gantry camera.
The brief narrativebuilds to a climactic final impersonation of Simon Cowell
which is greeted by hushed, anxious tones – constructed to ensurethe
ultimate hierarchy of the show is maintained. Ant and Dec appear almost as
‘servants’ to the show during this impersonation while the segment ends with
a direct address to the audience, encouraging them to subscribeto the
YouTube channel. This would encouragefurther interactivity via convergence
and in terms of uses and gratifications allow audience to develop personal
relationships in regards to the show.
The Showbiz 411 also has a constantly moving camera and in reference to this
and the use of font, sound, colour palette and lighting makes clear intertextual
references to talent shows and the Reality TV genre. Neon lighting greets the
viewer as the brand name, ‘The Showbiz 411’ appears in large lettering as the
star itself. Rhythm builds with an upbeat non-diegetic soundtrack accompanied
by a female, expository narrativevoice over that on one level pays homageto

3. celebrity culture while on another is tongue in cheek and critical through a
‘knowing’ spoken word tone. Simon Cowell is framed from the sidein close up
immediately as the unique selling point of this piece with a long take
accompanying the voice over, guiding the audience into a preferred reading
about the birth of Baby Eric.
He (Cowell) is spoken aboutat the same time as other iconic celebrities like
Beyonce who had her baby in the same New York hospital. Cowell is then
framed in a montage of different shots, including during interview but the
channel chooses in the large partto mute his words. This suggests a two-step
flow, opinion based approach to reporting celebrity news to its audience.
Interactivelinks to Twitter appear on screen as the show acknowledges the
importance of convergenceand web 2.0 to its own fan base. As with BGT, the
global distribution of the show/channelis referenced by the mention of the
key cites of New York and London (it is stated that Cowell had to miss the
London auditions to fly back to New York for the birth) ensuring audience
identification with the high profile of the show (or at least its subjects). The
Showbiz 411 is more subtly critical of Cowell (which BGT would struggle to be
because he is the originator and owns the rights to BGT) during the end of the
piece wherethe narrativevoice over makes the point that he still has not given
up smoking after the birth of the baby – this homage, juxtaposed with a mild
critical approach is a genre convention and a common approach to
representations of celebrity culture.
2. How do the two clips convey Britain’s celebrity culture? (12 Marks)
To fully develop a responseto the question, I will explore the idea of Britain’s
celebrity culture and then cross-referencewith the clips of BGT and The
Showbiz 411 (an American entertainment news website with a significant
British demographic). The Showbiz 411 reflects a historically embedded
tradition of British audiences passively consuming glamourous, aspirational
American culture represented at one end of the spectrum by the Hollywood
film industry and at the other by the infamous ‘Kardashians’.
BGT represents a British celebrity obsession with the Talent and Reality TV
show genre, seen in other shows like X-Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, I’ma
Celebrity get me Out of Here and Big Brother. Popular culture, mainstream
programming offers audiences a voyeuristic opportunity to delve into the life
of, as theorist John Ellis described performers who areboth ‘ordinary and
extraordinary’. Using the uses and gratifications framework as a platform to
help understand notions of celebrity culture, audiences develop a personal
identity with specific performers and diversion (escapism) is crucial in
understanding the interface of this culture. Many celebrities are ‘ordinary’

4. people but with ‘extraordinary’ talents/abilities that work to ensureaudiences
often aspire to that celebrity representation.
Personalidentity with specific celebrities is evident across a range of platforms
as well as television with British tabloid news media using celebrity culture as a
way to exploit this obsession by continually running/publishing stories on
popular celebrities or ‘stars’ and online entertainment news media (like The
Showbiz 411) offering the opportunity of convergentlinks to a rangeof rich
media (that printed media cannot achieve). Viral marketing is wholly relevant
in maintaining this celebrity culture through social networking and web 2.0 –
again, using the uses and gratifications model personalrelationships are
developed with other ‘fans’ or interested parties of the celebrity through
Facebook, Twitter etc. BGT is available on a range of different platforms and
the clip itself evidences this by marketing to audiences to subscribeto their
YouTube channel to gain added value, and buy into the myth of getting an
inside track into celebrity culture – this interactivity enables the concept of
celebrity to be exploited on a range of patforms.
Simon Cowell on BGT represents the ultimate, patriarchalmusic industry
mogul – someone who is aspirationalbut also influential in his ability to make
or break careers. Jon Clegg’s routine epitomises audiences’ identification with
notions of celebrity by systematically choosing a range of well known
presenters to impersonate, to the delight of the audience. The clip almost
suggested a formof postmodern self referentially as a wannabestar
impersonates stars and is judged by existing, established stars – everything is a
copy of a copy. In the same way, Noel Fielding’s The Mighty Boosh had
celebrity culture as a key narrative theme with protagonists desperateto
become famous and at the same time, satirising Britain’s celebrity culture. This
is the interface of programmes like BGT in that it has created the idea that
perhaps it is more possibleand more attainable than used to be the casefor
working class performers to achieve fame in a classic ‘rags to riches’ narrative
(working class culturetends to be stereotypically associated with celebrity
culture e.g. through low production value gossip magazineand tabloid
newspapers).
Synergy is very important for The Showbiz 411 and for BGTwith the celebrities
selling the show and the show maintaining the status of the celebrity in the
mind of the public – careers of judges like Amanda Holden are indefinitely
extended, justby their association with the show. On BGT, the status of the
programmein terms of ratings also ensures the secondary personas of the
judges are maintained and further developed e.g. David Walliams has become
significantly more famous as a judgeon the show while many audiences may
struggleto remember what Amanda Holden did for a living before shebecame

5. a celebrity panellist. Magazines like Heat, Now, Reveal and Take a
Break regularly run covers with stories about the Kardashians, Jordan and
Peter Andre foregrounded –without the obsession with celebrity culture it
would be hard to believe how these magazines would still be published with
synergy atthe heart of their funding model.
Celebrity media like BGT feeds off itself while The Showbiz 411 exploits
representation of celebrity culture to sell to an American but also a British
target audience. It is seen as a hegemonic constructby both shows that we,
the audience should be interested in the lives and lifestyle of celebrities, in
binary opposition to perhaps the normality and mundaneness of our own lives.
3. Why is it important for programmes such as Britain’s Got Talent toemploy
new Digital Technology effectively? (12 Marks)
Convergenceculture and interactive digital technology are commonly linked to
youth audiences and this is the primary demographic of Britain’s Got Talent.
Audiences expect their interest in a show, in terms of audience pleasures to be
developed and exploited further on different platforms – the very nature of
interactivity and viral marketing is crucial in maintain the status, success and
‘talkability’ of the show. YouTubehas only been online since 2006 buthas
grown to become a multi billion-dollar business, now owned by Google and
itself making proposed £1bn dollar purchases of live streaming video platforms
like Twitch TV – it is essential for BGT to have a saturation of videos of the
show, and all aspects of the show on this platform.
To fully market the show, BGTneeds to use abovethe line, moretraditional
marketing but also realise the potential of e media like YouTube with social
networking in particular crucial to maintaining and developing interest in the
show, and other Talent and Reality TV programming. Britain’s Got
Talent Facebook page has 3.4 million likes and allows audiences to enter into a
broader discussion, on another platform aboutthe show. The concept of
immediacy is important to Britain’s Got Talent with Facebook interactivity
through smartphones, tablets or online – fans of the show would see as
important the need to discuss aspects of the show during the performance
(the broadcasting of the show) furthering the ‘cutting edge’ reputation
of BGT as being at the forefrontof utilising the latest digital technology to
reach out to audiences.
ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent’s websiteensures thebrand, and identity of the
brand is marketed to its full potential – logo, typefaceand image encode
audience identification while the navigation bar allows for convergentlinks to
live shows, theauditions, how to apply and backstageinformation. The format
of the website is very simple, allowing for interactivity and use – once you start

6. scrolling down the homepage presents a number of embedded videos with
simple sharing options at the bottom to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and
Google Mail, four ways of virally communicating information about the show
to a broader audience. Another ITV brand, The Only Way is Essex uses exactly
the sametemplate on their website for exactly the same reasons butalso to
ensuresynergy with ITV and the two respectiveprogrammes appeal to their
sponsors.
Strictly Come Dancing, Britain’s Got Talent, X-Factor, Made inChelseaand Big
Brother havea heavy reliance on YouTube to publicise their shows butalso to
seed controversy and hype. Challenging the original user generated content
intention of YouTube, videos areregularly uploaded on their YouTube channels
with crucially the HTML element allowing users to sharelinks on any external
page e.g. blogs, in MMS messages and on social networking pages. This form of
viral saturation enables the show to build and create interest in a particular
performer, event or issue – Michael Wesch would argue this reflects the
cultural phenomenon of YouTube in ensuring the success of popular culture,
mainstream, mass audience entertainment like BGT. In contrastto this, the
never-ending clips of the show, according to Andrew Keen, serves merely to
create a ‘world of amateurs where Gauntlett’s prosumer, instead of being
empowered, is downgrading quality music entertainment.
Use of digital technology also breaks down any global barriers that may
prevent broader consumption with users sharing in the emotive, voyeuristic
appeals of the show withouthaving to wait until the time of broadcast – they
can have BGTon demand whenever they want. This ability to stream, Sky Plus
for example a show fits in with the busy lives of the audience who may see the
show and shows like it as an on the surface, light hearted distraction from their
own lives - immediacy without full understanding or the need to understand
narrative. Digital Technology allows an audience to enjoy the surface‘thrills
and spills’ of the show without engaging in any depth. In the same way that a
film’s theatrical release allows for the exchange and consumption of the film
on a range of platforms, so does the broadcasttime of a programmelike BGT.
The show may itself generate high ratings in a multi-channel environment but
in part, this is because of the creative digital marketing beforehand, creating
and generating hypeby way of form a pre echo which then continues post
transmission using the sameinteractive media – this arguably suggests a never
ending, open ended narrativeabout BGT.