Gilroy's Theory Applied To Television Drama

Evaluate the relevance of Gilroy's ethnicity theory to a long form television drama?




Gilroy's ethnicity theory argues that the African culture has, thanks to the British Empire, composed a culture where all the African, America, Caribbean, and British are referred to as the 'Black Atlantic'. The limits of this theory being applied to a television drama surrounds itself on how it was first made and applied in relation to the British Empire. Neither America or Iceland has ever been an Empire before in their history.

Gilroy's theory can be applied to one of the long form television drama shows I have studied, Homelands. Gilroy's theory talks about the way in which possibly white people are more so in power. This could be applicable to Homelands in the way that the show is completely racist in the way it spreads unfair and unjustified propaganda surrounding many regions of the middle eastern society. As the theory suggests, generalising and grouping a quite diverse society as one strict set of Muslim people, who as the show suggest one have one goal. Homelands is caught generalising the middle eastern society many times through their first season of the show. And in recent history, Homelands ran into another controversy in regards to their set being de-faced with a response to the realism from the point of view of someone coming from the middle eastern society. Homelands is a long form television drama that was made popular from the very first season. Overall the theory that Gilroy has suggested, it defiantly fits into the main aspects of this.

In Trapped, another television drama I have studied, is much more subtle in the way that they approach race and ethnicity. The way that Trapped explores Gilroy's theory is through the lack of major black character in the first season. This could be taken up one of two ways. Either Trapped was trying clearly state white people as more of a supreme race. this could be further applied to roles that black people play in Trapped, the chef is the only black male in the show and he takes orders from the captain, a white middle aged male. Other black characters in Trapped include two girls found in the back of the camper van, two venerable children helpless and scared. However, the produces for Trapped  could have been giving an accurate representation of Iceland and how there is 95% margin of white people living in Iceland today. This could be taken either way and therefore may or may not fully fit into Gilroy's ethnicity theory. 

In conclusion, the way in which Gilroy's theory can be fully applied to both television dramas is a clear representation in his theory being correct and present in the media today. He states that the generalisation of black people is present ever since the British Empire.

Gerbner's Theory

Link to weather it could be applied to the theory.

How Can Gerbner's Theory Be Applied To Homelands And Trapped?

Gerbner argues his theory using three main points. Gerbner's first part to the theory would be his 'Mean World Syndrome', this involves the way that because of the way violence is shown through the mainstream media and film, the audience become a lot more used to seeing that and might believe that the world is a lot more violent than it actually is. The second part to the theory is how people are more likely to use stereotypes in the real world due to how they are consistently used in American and other films and television. And finally, the last part to Gerbner's Theory surround the fact that audiences might be more likely to describe themselves and politically neutral. For this question I will be referring to two of the case studies I have looked at. One being the American television drama Homelands, and the other being the Icelandic television drama Trapped.

In reference to Gerbner's first theory, being the symbolism of his 'Mean World Syndrome', Gerbner argues that the way violence is shown in the film and media industry sides peoples views in the direction to feel as though the world is a much darker place than it actually is. This could be applied to Both of the television dramas I have studied. Starting with the American television drama, Homeland. Homeland promotes a lot of unjustified violence and negative representations of the middle eastern society. This fits in quite nicely to this part of Gerbner's theory. In fact you could even apply it to a specific scene in Homelands where Carrie is in the park about to meet up with who she thinks is Tom Walker, and instead it is a suicide bomber who triggers his bomb right in plain sight, next to the fountain. This is a representation of the types of scenery viewers of Homeland have come to become accustom to. And therefore is something that would have a Homeland audience feeling like there is a lot more violence around them than there actually might be. Trapped audiences could also be accustom to violence as the Icelandic television drama picks up on these violent tendencies and seems to exaggerate them. The body with no head or limbs being found in the very first episode of season one could be a great example as to what sort of imagery the audience will see as they continue to watch on. Also the links to the middle aged male characters seeming to be a lot more corrupt, and it also lays mistrust on local business men or people of higher authority. In tern this part of Gerbner's theory is relevant and applies to Both television drama shows I have studied.

The second part to Gerbner's theory is about how people are more unlikely to use unjustified stereotypes in there own real lives. For Homelands this is something that applies to many scenes for the first season. Homelands, season one, stereotypes people form the middle easters society as one that is untrustworthy and corrupt. Homelands also promotes the stereotype of not being able to 100% trust a female lead role. This is seen many times, the most notably the scene where Carrie sets up hidden cameras in the house of Brodie and his family. This could be seen as Carrie abusing her position for her own gain. In Trapped, the stereotypes are very well disguised. The casting of an overweight lead detective immediately breaks the stereotype of characters in that field of occupations and therefore doesn't fit into Gerbner's theory. However there are elements for this part of Gerbner's theory in the way that the police force arresting Hjörtur, a typically edgy looking character, would fit very well into Gerbner's theory. Something which could also be classed as stereotypical is having Hinrika as a classic sympathetic character. This is shown in many ways, one being the way the takes care of the two girls found in the back of the camper van in the first episode. Another example of this in full swing is the scene in the final episode, where Carrie is looking through the warehouse, when Ásgeir gets shot the scrip was wrote to have  Hinrika one of the fist people to find him. Steyotypicaly women are seen having more empathy than men. A stereotype promoted by the narrative of Trapped.

The pros and cons of Gerbner's theory surround the reasons of casting and scrip writing. The way that Gerbner's theory fits better into Homelands as it does Trapped is due to the Americanisation of film and how most American films are the same, because it gets the viewing figures that a programme like Trapped doesn't' get. The pros about applying the theory are that the American television drama does and will fit into this. Its shows a lack of individual and unique ideas surrounding the genre, something which I think Trapped thrives on.

In conclusion, having looked at both Trapped and Homeland and the way in which Gerbner's theory can be applied to these two television dramas. I think elements for the theory can be put into the shows narrative and also think certain scenes can advocate the different parts to Gerbner's theory.