Representation and Ideologies in 'Educating Essex'
Throughout the extract I have gathered that a secondary school in Essex is being represented and it depicts what progressing GCSE students are doing during the day according to timetable. This already indicates what the director's ideology could be for this documentary which I believe could be that the scenes throughout the extract suggest that this is genuinely what a single secondary school in the UK towards an older demographic whilst a younger demographic may argue upon the subject as there are schools around the UK that do not depict the same scenes as in Educating Essex.
Furthermore, I would also believe that there is a mix between a both positive and negative representation shown in the extract. I think this because whilst there are scenes which show a calm, positive working classroom with a teacher explaining a subject, there are also scenes in the extract which can draw a negative representation. An example of a positive representation I picked up on was that the first two scenes (0:01, 0:08) show that of a standard secondary school in the United Kingdom, the positiveness in the scenes is that the students are following orders from that of the teachers and that a student is shown trying to figure out what the teacher is explaining which again is something you would expect in any normal secondary school. Although on the other side of things, an example of a negative representation would be that students can be seen as immature and inappropriate by disrupting the class in several scenes (0:14, 0:21, 0:24, 0:28).
Following this I will also analyse the extract through its micro elements to determined how people are being established/framed, focusing on areas which are more important to creating representation within the extract. As well as this I will also be focusing on two micro element areas and discussing how they are more important to creating representation.
Cinematography
The two camera techniques within the extract that I believe shows how the teachers and students of the school are would be the use of establishing shots and two shots. The establishing shots capture the misbehaving of the students and the nature of the school, which seems to be almost entirely based being immature and happy whereas for the two shots, they frame how both teachers and students are in the extract. This is one of the two areas which are important to creating the representation seen within the extract as it shows how the students and teachers behave during different times of the school day.
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| Two shot showing a teacher and a student discussing something. |
Another area of the cinematography in the extract which helps create representation would be the uses of close ups, mid shots and long shots. These camera techniques help establish the people being shown in the extract and show how people are reacting to things whilst in class, giving the audience member a representation of their own to apply to the extract whilst he/she is viewing it. The close ups show the teachers and students going through their daily experiences at the school, the mid shots and long shots also establish the teachers and show to the viewer what the teachers are doing about trouble being caused within the establishment and also shows to the viewer that the teachers are doing what they can to stop bad behavior in the school.
Mise-en-scene
An area of mise-en-scene which helps create representation within the extract would be its depiction of teachers doing their job and the confusion of students in class. Nearer to the beginning of the scene a teacher is doing a maths lesson and there's a student being shown in the frame being confused on the subject, asking herself about what is being explained. This establishes representation in the extract as the audience member viewing the extract would represent the teachers and students as well behaved and focused on the subject as a first impression for the audience member, being unaware of anything else that would further occur in the extract for the time being.
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| Establishing shot showing students' immaturity in the frame. |
Another area in mise-en-scene which I found that creates representation in the extract would be where a student is shown being told off by a teacher and where students in the corridor are constantly misbehaving. This could create a negative representation from the audience member which could also suggest that Channel 4 has put the school in a sort of negative light as the students misbehaving doesn't give the school a good image whereas for the student being told off by a teacher, it shows to the viewing audience member that the teacher is doing his job properly and is addressing to the behavior issues within the establishment, representing the school in general in a positive way.
After looking at mise-en-scene and cinematography I gathered that these elements are more important to creating representation in the extract as I found more in these areas than I did in sound and editing. I could only find two things in sound and editing whilst I found more elements in cinematography and mise-en-scene.
Is this what the audience would expect?
For a documentary which is based around a school I would believe that it certainly is what the audience would expect of a setting like this. The setting is in an environment of students who sometimes misbehave and get into situations with teachers (e.g. students running around in the corridor, teacher getting annoyed over a laughing student etc.) which could create a bad image for the school though despite the negativity shown in the extract there are also scenes of positivity which could subvert the negative light being put on the school (e.g. students happily dancing to music, teacher jumping around the room etc.)
What ideologies are suggested by this representation?
I would think that two ideologies have been suggested by the representation that has been picked up on and discussed whilst viewing the extract.
The first ideology in the extract would link to how the extract shows positive scenes as mentioned before, the message that Channel 4 would want to get out of the positive scenes is that the school is like any ordinary secondary school with a bright community and that they have students who are determined to get their GCSEs.
The second ideology that I've picked up reflects the negativity in the extract, where students are being immature and teachers are not very happy, the message I found in this that Channel 4 might be trying to send to the audience is that as well as the school 'being like any ordinary secondary school', it could also be a place where the people in it aren't 100% bright or determined as shown in scenes where the students are laughing and messing around and where a teacher is telling off a student.
Media Theories
A media theory that I found that I could apply to the extract was Levi Strauss' theory on binary opposition and I also found that I would be able to apply this theory to my product as it may depict scenes of good/bad (a lot more focused on the good) and I also thought that it could depict scenes of dark/light as the cameraman would be going through different parts of the setting (which I believe is a secondary school, just like the extract).
Representation - Is it stereotypical?
I think that the representation in the extract being stereotypical could be an arguable subject. It could be argued that Educating Essex depicts how a normal secondary school would be like to older demographics though however it could also be argued that the representation is not stereotypical in accordance to younger demographics, that of which consists of students at different secondary schools/colleges in the UK and that Educating Essex was just how one secondary school is being depicted as, this could also apply to an older demographic for those that are members of staff in secondary schools.
Representation in the extract - Fair and/or accurate?
From my view of the extract I would say that the representation is fair but not really accurate. The reason being is because I think the representation being on a both positive and negative side is fair but not accurate as in comparison to other secondary schools. The behavior in the extract of the students shows that it could just be the school that has students who act like this as there are other schools in the UK that do not accept the sort of behavior, hence my view of the representation not being accurate.
Representation in the extract - Conventional or subversive?
The representations in the extract (again in my own viewing of it) would be conventional. I mentioned about arguing that it may not be how different secondary schools are though however I do agree on the fact that the representation is both fair and conventional - but not accurate.
The reasoning for this is because a lot of secondary schools can relate to such behavior of students being depicted in Educating Essex and the teachers are shown being mostly professional which is also something a lot of secondary schools or secondary school staff could be related to. Reflecting from my experience at secondary school, I would say that the representation is conventional because I have seen that students do not behave well in a secondary school at some given times (when teachers aren't around - as seen in the corridor of the school in Educating Essex).
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