House of Cards - Representations & Media Language

How Long form dramas came into being:

Terrestial TV

Schedule content was fixed (reliant on analogue (radio wave technology as pre the internet)

Viewing experience was communal (families watched the same/similar content) as content was transmitted via Radio waves.

Dramas developed to encourage regular viewing

Program content with high audience numbers secured revenue via advertising.

Advertising revenue or PSB income (TV license) pays for drama for e.g. a typical Eastenders episode costs £141,000

•There is a clear shift towards SOD (subscription on demand viewing of television)

•This has been enabled through the Technological change i.e. the provision of streaming

services

•(2017) Netflix receives an income of 2.5 $bn from UK subscribers.

•Their income is used to fund “high end” television content such as the HOC

Historical cultural and economic contexts.

•HOC belongs to a genre called Long form television drama. (LFTVD)

•LFTVD (Game of Thrones, HOC, etc.)  are characterised by high production values.

•Series one and 2 of the HOC costs an estimated  $100 Million for the first two series (26

episodes) to produce.

•By comparison Eastender’s costs  £29.9 million a year for 212 episodes. (source:

https://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-feature/1207916/eastenders-bbc-one-time-cost-per-episode

year)

•Referring to the revision notes page 146, the cost of production of this High end Drama

(HOC) is linked to

-Sourcing highly skilled actors - Kevin Spacey

-Cinematic styling camera work - wide shots, 

-Lighting and editing - low-key lighting

-Complex narratives (multi-stranded) (Barthes) - 

-Composed music - Commission music

Digital (streaming)

•Netflix  - In just a decade, Netflix has grown from a video service with seven million U.S.

subscribers to one that reaches 93 million people worldwide.

•The company's now worth about $60 billion

•2016, Netflix spent $5 billion on original programming.

•The income from subscribers has allowed them to commission highly rated long form TV

dramas such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.

•2017 sales rose to $2.48 billion. With a global presence in 190 countries.

Influence of technological change and Economic contexts

•Long form TV is an American concept which effectively is a hybrid of a serialised drama
with the high production standards of film. 

Long form TV Drama (genre) conventions:
Drama that runs in a series they start with an intense beginning to grip their audience.
They contain cliffhangers to maintain interest they conclude the episode until the end where
they conclude the episode, very much dialogue led.
Production values are higher than TV drama (funded by subscribers)
High budgets permit high end actors and high end production

Analysing the Ideological contexts:

Ideology:
“A set of beliefs values and assumptions shared by a social group and embedded in social,
cultural, political and economic institutions.”
Usually thought to reflect the interests of powerful groups.
Consumerism, freedom, equality and individualism are often considered dominant
ideologies in free market capitalists societies as they reflect the economic basis of these
societies 

The prime contexts influencing medium language in television dram may be ideologies such as:

•Individualism: e.g. focusing a drama on an individual protagonist- Follows Frank's

narrative and the story of his and Clare's revenge.

•Consumerism: e.g. judging characters on their possessions or desirability of their lifestyles

- for example when there was the 2 ball scenes and everyone judged each other.

•Patriarchal: power and the challenge to this by feminism e.g. using or refusing to use

women’s bodies as objects, or narratives that present a male, female or gender neutral

perspective - shown when Zoe is denied access to Franks house and then uses her body to

try seduce him, yet he denies it. Also Clare goes against the patriarchy as she has power

over Frank.

•Racism and ethnocentrism and the challenge to those from multiculturalism and

internationalism, e.g. narratives that present a monocultural, multicultural or minority

perspective - Lack of black representatives and most of it is dominated by white middle

class and the only black man owns a chicken shop which is a stereotype. 

(page 156 OCR revision notes)

Character Representations:

Francis:


Claire:


Zoe:


Peter:

Todorov:

Stereotypes: masculinity, femininity (p172)

Feminist theory: van Zoonen ( p 180)

Feminist Theory: bel hooks (p180)

Levi Strauss: (p 162)

Representation of Men:
Frank uses his intellectual strength as well as physical, he has and uses his power to get revenge and he's independent as he makes his own money, yet he also works with his wife.  

Female Representation:
Claire goes against stereotype of being emotional as she shows little emotion and acts very strong and independent, although she does find her relationship with Frank very important. Zoe uses her beauty to blackmail Frank into speaking to her as she shows him a picture of him looking at her bum, shows how shes recognised due to her looks and physique.   

•Levi Strauss's: idea of the binary opposition – that the system of myths and fables

•(narrative) was ruled by s structure of opposing terms  such as male/female, good/evil.  

This narrative structure can be applied to LFTVD’s such as the House of cards as follow.

House of Cards
Power/money- frank&Claire	Service
Cynical ambition-frank	Authenticity
Washington (elite)	The street (Freddies bar)

Todorov’s theory: (Equilibrium and Dis-equilibrium)

Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages:

•the equilibrium,

•disequilibrium,

•acknowledgement,

•solving

•and again equilibrium.

The theory has its limitations when applied to LFTVD as the restoration of equilibrium may not be realised due to the serialised nature of the drama

Intertextuality:

Discuss how elements of the drama are linked to other famous political texts.

Create an essay Analysing the main characters:

•Frank Underwood

•Clare Underwood

•Peter Russo

•Zoe Barnes

Apply theory/academic arguments showing how the characters are represented.

Discuss the underlying ideologies which apply to the House of cards and the characters

Identify specific examples (of media language) which support your arguments

Use appropriate terminologies in discussing the media language

The House of Cards consists of four main characters, Frank who is part of congress, Claire who is in charge of the Clearwater charity, Peter who is also part of congress and Zoe who is an aspiring journalist.