Textual Analysis 4 Lions & Citizen Khan

4 Lions

Media language

What techniques are being used to make meaning in the text?

In this clip the camera used is a handheld camera which gives the audience the view of that the character is wanting you to watch his actions. The clothing of the male is typical Muslim clothing which allows the audience to feel that the character is an extremist and radical. The prop of the gun in the hand gives a negative representation on Muslims making audiences feel that he is violent the setting around him has been set out to look like a camp which can be associated with Afghanistan and the Taliban.  His accent also is a northern accent which gives a negative representation on northern Muslims. The use of the word “paki” is reminding audiences that the character is Muslim and it can image all Pakistanis to be extremist violent people.  The camera shot slowly zooms out which shows the whole picture. The other character runs out screaming words in Arabic which again associates with another bad Muslim, wearing the same type of clothing which makes the audience feel that they are all one group. the character makes a joke about James bond which is associated with the western world and can mean that Muslims shouldn’t act like James fuck bond.  Also when he says you are giving out signals it shows that all Muslims should be under cover and not let the non Muslims find out what we are up to. 

Institution

Who produces, distributes, regulates the text?

Directed by Chris Morris

Produced by Mark Herbert

Written by Chris Morris

Studio Film4 Productions

Wild Bunch

Optimum Releasing

Warp Films

Distributed by Optimum Releasing

Release date(s) 7 May 2010 (2010-05-07)

 Country United Kingdom

Language English

Urdu

Box office £2,892,209

Marketing strategy was television broadcast adverts and print broadcast media.

Genre

The genre is comedy.

Representation

Muslims are being represented negative example the character is shown with a gun and is firing it into the sky with the Islamic clothing on; this film shows that all Muslims are on an undercover mission to be terrorists. The representation being made is what the media have represented all Muslims to be. Non-Muslims would say this representation unfair and challenges the real representation which should be peaceful and a loving religion. Secondly non-Muslims would say this is a fair representation especially of Muslims not living in the western world.

Citizen Khan source taken from Shazias blog ... all copy rights from shazia adats media blog page.

The techniques used to make meaning in the text is by using the main character Mr Khan as he uses the newspaper as prop but the newspapers carries meaning / semiotics( Barthes) as the newspaper connotes damaging or professional look. The camera work used through the whole text is mainly wide shot of the kitchen to show where the discussion of immigration is taking place, they also use a medium shot at the beginning of Mrs Khan cooking to show she is providing for the family, another medium shot is of Mr khan picking up the newspaper to show he is the man of the house this is showing the roles of a British Asian family. Throughout the text the actors wear clothing such as Indian clothes/English suits with a Pakistani twist to help the audience find a sense of personal values or even identifying or gaining insight of themselves. They use high key lighting including in the text to show it is a happy environment to show it is family eating breakfast together this shows how westernised Asian have become throughout the the post-colonial era. The sound used is diegetic which is included in the show which is dialogue which is mostly spoken by the man of the house Mr Khan and there is also non-diegetic sound of people laughing in the beginning as it is a comedy. They used edit such as cuts to move quick from one shot to another.

The people who produce,regulate and distributed the text are as it is is a Non-Hollywood production it is regulated by OFCOM as it is a sitcom made in Britain by the BBC. The show was promoted through short trailers on BBC which last usually around 30 seconds, it had gained publicity after it was shown through social networking such as twitter and Facebook as people were furious of the stereotypes of Muslims Broadcasted through public broadcasting as there BBC mission statement was to ' inform, educate and entertain.'

The type of text it is a sitcom, it is a parody of the writer's life as he has been through this personally, the setting is mostly in public and personal places such as the mosque & the house ( set in sparkhill, Birmingham), The narrative (todorov) is that Mr Khan who thinks is a community leader is always trying become top and pulls in his family e.g. is wife who serves him domestically 24/7 as you see in the text and his two daughter one who is Shazia and is getting married to Amjad and the other Alia who seems to be a practising Muslims but that is her disguise as she is always outgoing. This brings a social aspect of today's changing society as Muslims women are going out to work as the growth of feminism ( judith bulter).

The message they are trying to get represented in the text is a negative representation of Muslims as it shows west vs east take (Edward Said) and this shows that Mr Khan can't decided what side he is on . They also stereotype challenges Islam as whole as they make fun of what goes n in the mosque. The audience in which consume the text are mainly the psychogrpahics ( young & rubicam) mainstreamer as they want to stick to BBC as BBC's Mission Statement is to 'Inform, Educate & entertain' in which people get pleasure out of. Demographics category of B,C1 nd C2 and the ages of 16-35 as it is after prime time The narrative pleasure in which the audience gains from this text is dramatic irony , identification, alienation and entertainment, they are getting entertain by the comedy which leads to them getting identified with the actors as they related to them. The way this text is received Hall's theory) is oppositional as they see the stereotype of Europeans/Pakistanis as he discuss that they are immigrants taking over their jobs and the preferred reading is that Immigrants are stealing jobs.

The values that are underpinning the text are liberal values that are multi-culturalism and positive values from BBC of their mission statement to educate, inform & educate to meet to their television needs ( Maslow hierarchy needs) and it has sense of a matriarchal and patriarchal society as the women are seen as domestic goddess and the men are the ones who go out to work.

The narrative in the text is organised and structured as it has a open narrative which they can discuss any topic through the series, most the trailers has enigma code (Barthes), the linear narrative is chronological order as they show it from a narrative structure as equilibrium (introduce to the family) -disequilibrium 9 Mr Khan does something crazy to upset his family)-new equilibrium ( resolves it by making his family happy). In the text there are many Binary opposites such as Mum vs Dad and Love vs Haterd.