East Germany Background Data

HISTORICAL CONTEXT – EAST GERMANY  

By the end of the Second World War, the entire country was in a state of absolute devastation, which contained a seriously damaged economy, and disrupted infrastructure. In August 1945, after the holding of the Yalta Conference, it was officially declared that Germany would essentially be divided into four areas, controlled by the UK, US, France and the Soviet Union. Berlin was also divided between the four countries, and the German Democratic Republic formed. East Germany was essentially a satellite state which belonged to the Soviet Union, and therefore, much of the operational principles and ideology of the country’s top officials was identical to the Soviet Union. The country formed a part of the Eastern Bloc, alongside the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Much of the state was strictly controlled by these top officials, including having a generally negative viewpoint upon the west, which was forced upon the citizens.  

The Berlin Wall was established in 1961, in order to stop and prevent any East German citizens from fleeing to the western areas, where many people were imprisoned, and in most cases, killed at the border, however there were official areas where supervised crossing of the border were allowed, such as Checkpoint Charlie.  

Towards the latter portion of the establishment of East Germany, there was an increasing presence of peaceful protests against the country, and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, which began after the introduction of free elections into the country. The government opened the wall in November 1989, and the famous destruction of the wall began in June 1990, where the Unity Party fell, and the country was re-unified with the rest of Germany.  

THE STASI 

The Stasi was the Ministry for State Security within East Germany, and the operation of the Stasi was controlled by the overall main government body within the country, the Socialist Unity Party, and was primarily set up to solidify and establish their rule. They had an objective to be the ‘secret police’ and to have a watch on what everyone was doing within the country, and to investigate any possible breaches against the country’s regime. They had a significant network of intelligence, ranging from insiders, and wiretapping. Overall, they had intelligence of over a third of the entire country’s population. The organisation was disbanded shortly before the reunification of Germany in February 1990, and the Unified German Parliament passed a law to ensure that East Germans could view their Stasi records.  

LIFE IN EAST GERMANY – ACCESS TO MEDIA, ETC.  

Most of the events within the country were completely state controlled. I.E., the country adopted a centrally planned economy, and the prices and supply of different products, such as food and housing were set by the government, and not through the laws of market forces. The country adopted a very large agricultural economy, as well as working on assembly lines, which was also common in the area.  

The East German media was similar to that of the Soviet Union, essentially meaning that most of it was based around, and contained communist themes. Lots of investment was placed from the central government into the recreation of classical German music. In the 1980s, whilst East Germans were listening to mostly orchestral music, western Germans were listening to more of the popular music at the time, featuring electronic elements and synthesisers.  

Film was also enjoyed in East German, with most home-grown movies also being centred around the theme and idea of communism, and movies about general daily life within a family were largely popular.  

VOD Industry Research

Regulation topic	Relevant information
Topic 2 - The regulation of media and long form drama in the UK  https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/14/video-on-demand-ofcom-atvod  https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/advice-for-consumers/television/video-on-demand  https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/25/netflix-and-amazon-must-guarantee-20-of-content-is-european   http://www.chillglobal.com/blog/posts/netflix-and-the-eu-content-regulation	The first article explained the new regulatory position that the UK’s Ofcom is taking to provide stronger regulations within the VOD areas. It is worth noting, that the previous ATVOD only covered UK based VOD services, however, the new approach will also include regulation of services provided internationally, such as in this example, Netflix.   The second source explains how Ofcom actually regulate the VOD content. It is found that it is actually similar to what is required of TV stations within the UK, with regards to hate speech, adult content and so on. Two important things here. The first, is that it details how people are to go about making complaints, and the second, is how people who have complaints on content shown on the BBC’s VOD service, iPlayer, should be directed to the BBC first.  The third source explains how these popular services, when in the EU, should also place good visibility on shows and content produced in Europe. This is intended to bring the services closer to the kind of regulation that TV programmes are subject to.  The fourth source is a further elaboration of the above, stating that Netflix is not happy with the new rules being introduced, and has tried several times to point out how the service is already compliant with this. For example, The Crown being based around the British monarchy and so on.
Topic 3 - The impact of new media technologies on regulation  https://9to5mac.com/2017/02/08/new-eu-rules-will-remove-geoblocking-so-customers-can-use-online-subscription-services-like-netflix-abroad/  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/26/the-eus-plans-to-regulate-content-on-streaming-services-are-a-mi/	The first article explains how the issue of availability of different streaming services are present across countries.  For example, the US form of Netflix has different content to the UK form, and vice versa. The article also explains how this will also impact users watching abroad. For example, if someone from the UK went on holiday to the US, and wanted to watch Netflix, they would now be allowed to do so, but they would only have access to the US content.   The second article also touches on the issue of prevailing European-based drama, but goes on to mention how the programmes are going to be funded, either they pay for them themselves, or place a fund into a central fund.

ST Essay Question HW

It is noted that Season 1 Episode 1 of ‘Stranger Things’ is a show which mostly conforms to the conventions of a long form TV Drama. A good example of this, is that we note that there are many times within this episode there are many different things going on at the same time (multiple strands of development). 

Within the narrative, there are four main locations where the episode’s main action takes place, this includes, the woods where the boys carry on their search for Will, Benny’s dinner where he meets Eleven, Nancy’s house where she is with Steve, and finally, Joyce’s house. All the action is taking place simultaneously. The first point that is prevalent, is the show’s conformity to the sci-fi genre, and there are some places where we see this. For example, there is a use of editing with the telephone in Joyce’s house. The fact that we can hear the odd sounds could be interpreted as some sort of possible communication with the missing Will (and this is something we even hear Joyce exclaiming to Jonathan moments later). If we combine this with the effects of the loud crash of lightning which comes through the phone, we are immediately presented with several different conventional areas of a sci-fi program. The telephone also helps to create and build the mise-en-scene within the area. It is yellow, and clearly stands out to the audience.  

It is also worth noting that within this portion of the episode, the audience will notice that despite the story being fragmented, there is always a connecting factor between the scenes. This is being completed by the mise-en-scene within the setting, more specifically, the weather conditions. Within all areas, especially in the outdoor, and woods scenes, it appears to be raining heavily, and there is also thunder. Audience members would notice that the common weather conditions help to provide them with a good idea of how close together these different events are. Despite being a fragmented story, the common weather conditions help to bring them together into one main story. This is also achieved through the usage of multiple sound bridges, especially when transitioning between different areas of the sequence.  

There are also several important areas of character development within the episode. The most prevailing of these is the changing emotions and thoughts of Joyce and Jonathan, especially after Will goes missing. One of her dialogue lines towards the beginning of the episode is how Jonathan needed to be more responsible for Will, instead of working. Here, we see some conventional representations of both teenagers, and mothership. I.E. Jonathan being somewhat irresponsible, and Joyce trying to correct that, and educate him on this. If we skip forward towards the end of the episode, some iconography appears. This is in the form of a close-up shot of some pictures of Will scattered around the table, and a mid-shot of the two of them sitting together. We note that the expressions of Jonathan have become more compassionate, and accepting of the situation, and Joyce has also started to use some more passionate dialogue towards Jonathan. We hear her saying that this disappearance is not his fault. From the perspective of the audience, we can note that there is a definite change of character from both, one that an audience member might not have expected.  

It is also worth noting the very high level of intertextual references to the time period of which the LFTVD product has been set in, which will go on to provide the audience member with a true feeling of being within the period. This has been mostly achieved through the usage of sound, in both diegetic and non-diegetic forms, both of which are presented as being interestingly contrapuntal to the happenings going on at the time. For example, during the chase scene, where Eleven is being chased around the diner by the government officials, there is the non-diegetic song, White Rabbit playing in the background. This happens again in a diegetic form in Nancy’s room, when Africa by Toto is playing in her bedroom. Both helps to solidify the time period in which the show is being presented in to the audience, almost sparking a ‘I remember this song’ moment with them. What is more interesting though, the similar editing technique with the volume of these songs. In almost both situations, the song begins as a diegetic event playing in the area, but as the action commences, the detail and volume increase, and the song becomes non-diegetic. This happens where the main action of the scene is taking place, I.E. when Nancy is making out with Steve, or when Benny is shot in the diner. All of this helps to consolidate the action, but it also makes the scene more realistic and relatable to the audience. The fact the song is still playing helps to create an eerie contrapuntal sense of mystery, especially when in the diner.  

Finally, we see some meanings in the relationship between the three boys. This has been done with the use of the camera shots, and leveling within the scene, which is most prevalent within the area within the sequence where they go out together as one to try and find out where Will is. What is important here, is despite the fact that Dustin tries to shy out, and leave the group because it is dangerous, we do see a lot of long shots of the group from the front, presenting the group members on a similar level, portraying to the audience, that despite their differences, they still remain excellent friends, and are united as one, and showing their equality. This is not the only place where this takes place though. It is also worth noting that Nancy and Steve are also frequently shown on the same level, but this is using mid and close up shots because of the smaller environment. This universal perception of the teens, and younger members of the cast is consistent, and help to create this unifying state.  

To conclude, meanings within our portion of ‘Stranger Things’ have been created, and communicated to audience members through a wide range of different media language techniques.