Working Title
To what extent do texts like Citizen Khan suggest that the representation of Asians in British television and film is changing? Does comedy featuring Asians/Muslims help balance out negative media coverage in the news (terrorism, ISIS etc.) How does it impact the audiences?

Angle
Positive impact on the audience as audiences feel more equal especially Asians- sense of being accepted in society and have a lot more connection with the characters. Kats and Blumler: Personal identity people are able to relate themselves to the actors on the screen,

Stanly Cohin- Moral Affect IF negative..

Hypothesis
Watching texts like Citizen Khan make Muslims even more Islam phobic. In some of the scenes of the episodes there is racist content to white and black Africans, this is done in a serious of events when Mr Khan makes fun out of the black people, eg 'go eat your banana and rice' etc. This challenges the way other race colours. The theory of Saieed come to mind, civilised and uncivilised. Also a black race theory as they are being stereotypical of races. Other audiences watching it preferably middle class working as it is after Ofcom hours (after 9pm) non pre-watershed, they may develop different thinking and attitudes towards Asians as a whole. For example they may be looked upon as sly, and sneaky, as for example Mr Khans daughter is wearing a scarf in front of him, however behind his back she takes it off, ie when she’s going out. Another example is when she is always on her phone and she used the excuse that she is reading the 'Quran' or she is studying about her religion just to stay on the good side of him. However she is using her phone for social reasons.

Linked production

For the linked production piece, I have three different ideas. Firstly creating a news report that covers all different aspects of how representations of Asians in British Television and film is changing. Including others opinions about the different programmes and films, ie Citizen Khan, Goodness Gracious me - having several people speaking about how they feel when watching programmes as such. The news reporter can start off each with an example and speak about the one point consistently so the point of the report gets into the audiences head. This idea however could be a bit too short as news reports can be quite short. The second idea I have is creating a little show - similar to the first idea, allowing different people from different backgrounds to express the way they feel about programmes and films as such being broadcasted on British Television. This would be a better option in comparison to the first one as it is a lot longer and I would be able to work on it more. All these different ideas link back to the question as those on the news/tv show would be able to answer as to what extent they believe that the representation of Asians in British television and film is changing? Allowing them to express their views. The final idea I have come up with is an approximately two minute long trailer for a documentary film called PROVOKED. The narrative will be an Indian girl who gets married with a white guy and creates so much controversy with the community and family, this shows the journey of how she overcomes it. But also how there’s moral panic for younger generations who may follow her and Indian families hate that, This will unfold traditions and voice Asian British woman’s rights to marry whoever they want as long as they are happy without having to do it behind their parents back. I will also show a clip of how her family force her to marry a guy from India, this links to Citizen Khan because the representations of women in today’s society are related to this, as in my critical investigation I will be debating about Asian women and how they are not allowed to do what makes them happy. There’s also a clip shown in Citizen Khan which I will be discussing about. Therefore it links to my production.

Secondary texts:

- Yasmin (2004)

- East is East(1999)

- Four Lions(2010)

- Kumars at no 42(2001)

- Bend it Like Bekham(2002)

- Goodness Gracious Me(1996)

Media languages and Forms

The denotative meaning of this would be a comedy created. This is evident from online as the director and creator himself has stated that he did this to make a comedy for the audience and no offence was intended, he himself is a Muslim too, which backs this up. From the series itself it is quite evident looking at the way Mr Khan acts, ie like a complete bimbo, with a constant throat full of flem and always raising his voice and taking the mick out of people he doesn’t like.

The connotations however, of Citizen Khan are that Mr Khan (Adil Ray) intends to offend and be racist with the comments he says, and as a whole the way the narrative is of the series. Such as the way in which the female girls are represented in it, with Shazia always removing her headscarf when away from her father. This shows disrespect and rudeness – as she is doing what she shouldn’t be doing. This could potentially offend the audience as they may feel that Muslims are being represented in the wrong way and because of what is being shown, they may think more and more people who are watching it are going to be influenced and as a result stereotype their behaviour.

Media Values and Ideology

The actual value that is being presented in this is the representation of Muslims and the way they are being conveyed throughout these series. And how they reinforce stereotypes of how Muslims behave and act on a daily basis.

Genre

The genre for Citizen Khan is Comedy. Based on a Muslim Family in Birmingham – always bringing problems upon himself, he has to sort out. Creating a drama for the audience to view, and with the costumes they are wearing, they represent the Muslim family correctly, ie traditional dresses, hats, scarfes, etc.

The generic conventions that present that Citizen Khan is a comedy is the fact that it isn’t conveyed as a serious programme, however is split up to several hilarious scenes, which do not fail to make the audience laugh. Therefore – bringing laughter to the audience is a general convention. Another generic convention that this is a comedy series, is the fact that it is located in a very bright area with a lot of people in it and the title sequence shows the scene of them in the car and Mr Khan parking the car half in his alley way and half on top of the actual road. This is something unusual however after this occurs he smiles. This therefore shows that it isn’t a serious show/series, and conveys the fact that there will be humour to extent. Also throughout the series, Mr Khan isn’t a very series character, and neither are the rest of the characters, which again shows that it is a comedy. This all fulfils the audiences expectations because with all these factors and the correct costumes and the way in which one character communicates with another is what makes it a comedy.

Media Representations

Males in texts similar to Citizen Khan, are always represented as the main person, and the boss of the place. They are shown to have a stronger position in comparison to the Female. They are given much more respect than the rest of those in the family. For example, in Citizen Khan, Shazia refers to him as ‘Papaji’ which is a respectful way of calling him dad. She also tends to do as he says most of the time, again showing more importance and respect shown towards him. Women however are shown to have less power in the house and represented as house wives, and never out of the house as they are always cooking and cleaning. Citizen Khan itself shows the mother figure to be in the house all the time, looking after the mother in law, cooking and cleaning and only ever out when she is visiting the mosque. Women are also represented with less freedom than the male in these kind of texts.

Media Audiences

Citizen Khan is mainly targeted at those who enjoy comedy and understand it. The demographic target is of females that are age ranged between 15 – 35 year olds, belonging to B, C1 and C2. As the BBC are a very well-known institution and there are millions of people watching on there, I believe the target audience are mainstreamers.

The way in which the viewers are most likely to receive this text would be in a good way as it is something funny and full of humour and that is what the intending reading is. A comedy for all and something to enjoy. However the possible reading would be that it has been made in order to offend Muslims and the way they are. Due to the representations of them in the series, and their behaviour. Despite the fact that the director himself is a Muslim and he made it for the purpose of enjoyment and not to create a conflict.

Narrative

The narrative for texts similar to Citizen Khan are mostly about an Asian family or two based in the UK. As the audience we watch these and get thinking and come to believe that what goes on in these texts is true and is based upon how Asian families are in reality. This begins the stereotypical views and thoughts of the audience. For example, audiences could begin to actually believe that the way Mr Khans daughter removes her headscarf when she is not in-front of him, is the way every Muslim girl is. Each and every episode is based upon something that goes wrong for Mr Khan, but then he resolves it in any and every way he possibly can, no matter what. Linking to the equilibrium theory. The most important theme of the narrative is the representation of Muslims as a whole.

SHEP;

Socially;

- How representations in programmes similar to Citizen Khan effect the audiences and how it is socially spoken about and spread. Negative/Positive representations.

Historically;

- Goodness Gracious Me is an example of a series similar to Citizen Khan, and was first aired on July 5th 1996, 18 years from now. This was shot with an Indian family, full of humour and portrayed what an Indian family would be like. There were 5 Series, 2 broadcasted through the use of radio and 3 of them through television. There were a total of 39 episodes aired, 19 being on the radio and 20 being on the television. They were 25 minutes long in total. Originally running from 5th July 1996 up until 19 February 2001.

Economic;

- BBC is paid for via television licence fees, if one is not able to pay these, or during periods of on going recession when one hasn't got the money to pay for it, it will result in not being able to watch it.

Politically;

- The issues are that representations of specific religions in the Asian backgrounds are being represented in a way that looks negative to its audiences, causing conflict and sending out the wrong idea. Citizen Khan to be specific, politically is believed to show the wrong side of Muslims therefore causing unhappy viewers and online debates.

Issues/Debates

Representations and Stereotyping - This relates to the issue with Citizen Khan, as it represents the way in which Muslims act, dress, and in general how they are. The way they are portrayed is what begins stereotyping, for example, throughout the way Mr Khan lies about small things, and the daughter Shazia lies about reading the holy book and studying her religion, could lead to stereotypes as the viewers may believe this is how every Muslim family is

Media Effects - as the audiences look at and identify the texts, it may change the way they think and do things. In programmes such as Citizen Khan, Shazia removes her headscarf when leaving the house behind her fathers back, this could give ideas to other muslim girls and could make them re-evaluate what they do and make them thing of this as an idea to get away with what they want, ie not wearing a headscarf. Additionally, the audiences could also change their view on Muslims, and label them as 'liars'.

News Values - this relates to Citizen Khan, because as soon as the first episode aired on August 27th 2012, it wasn't such a long time after when Adil Ray - the director, hit the headlines about having created an offensive series, aimed to offend Muslims. With debates going on every were online and news reports going viral this spread every were in the world.

Moral Panics - There are moral panics for more of the younger generations who watch the series and similar series, because the representations of the characters could impact one, the way they think and believe. This is because after watching the daughters behavior in the series and what they do and the way they talk to one another, shouting and screaming, could make those that belong to an Asian/Muslim family that it is okay to do this.

Theories

Structuralism

The relationship between objects and its meaning - a generic understanding used in all texts. This links to semiotics, for example the colour red has so many different meanings such as anger or love, and this is differently interpretated by the different people who consume and view the text.

Audience Theories

Hypodermic Needle is the way in which different texts in media injects messages into the audiences head. This is similar to the effect Citizen Khan had on its audiences, as it put in negative messages into some and positive into some. As people took it as something intending to offend, however some took it as it should be; humour.

Dyers entertainment and Utopia

This is the fact that audiences want to consume specific media texts as they are going through their own problems and are full of tension, but consuming this media - they recieve energy. And this is one of the reasons, audience watched texts such as Citizen Khan, as it was humorous and full of entertainment.

Post Structuralism - This totally rejects the idea of structuralism, ie nothing can be represented as the real or the truth, meanings can not be fixed; polysemic. So what has been shown isn't always how it is meant to be, as scenes are cut off and the script is all written.