Primary Research

Use the historical stuff as a way to understand the range of representations - so analyse some clips of older stuff such as Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars or The Sweeney, but SPEND THE BULK OF YOUR TIME ON STUFF WHICH IS ON TV NOW. You will be saying "Having understood the historical range of representations, I now needed to see what was on offer on television today".

Look at tv listings and decide on three. Compare their reps of cops with what you have learnt from your historical analysis.

Choose some extracts which illustrate your analyses and work out a way to use them with a target audience or members of a target audience to explore what pleasures they offer/anxieties they address etc.

The Cops (1998)

This show was an extremely controversial portrayal of the policeas as, basically, as bad as (if not worse than) the villains. It situated crime in a social context of poverty and portrayed the police as drug users, holders of grudges, back stabbers etc.

http://www.world-productions.com/wp/content/shows/cops/info/production.csp@series=1.htm

Hypothesis...

After reading some source material and conducting some research online, i think that i am going to change my hypothesis slightly to something along the lines of:

How has the repesentation of the British police force changed throughout the years and what is it that makes this genre so popular?

Possible shows to use:

DIXON OF DOCK GREEN [50's]

Z CARS [60's]

THE SWEENEY [70's]

JULIET BRAVO [80's]

THE BILL [80- ]

SPOOKS? [00-]

Idea for research...

I found these audience reviews on bbc's hompage of Spooks:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/spooks/yourreviews_series6_episode1.shtml


from this i am thinking about either puuting up a quesitonnaire or open question up on a crime show fourm asking their views on why they enjoy that particular programme [or crime shows in general] .

Hypothesis

Steer clear of "the media is to blame for" stuff - you won't prove anything as the underlying assumptions about behaviour and the media's role in it are too simplistic (hypodermic syringe theory).

Instead:

Why is our culture so keen on fictional crime narratives?

This would be interesting and allow you to develop it in a ragne of ways, after you have done some background reading.

Key academic texts are three chapters on crime series which I will give you.

New Tricks
Silent Witness
Dexter
The Bill

Sean

First Ideas....

"With the depth some crime shows are going into about murder and committing crime, will this have a negitive impact on society and lead to people beleiving they can freely commit these crimes?"

This idea came from a article i found on the internet about juries and forensic science

http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/csi_effect/1_index.html

Your first ideas

Crime and the Media.
Representations of criminality and justice is UK and US crime tv, and how they relate to their cultures.

This is a bit broad and you will find it hard to prove anything solid. What about adapting it a bit - look at a range of contemporary cop shows from both US and UK and ask the question "why are we so interested in narratives of crime?" - ie what does the fact that our culture constantly seems to want to tell itself stories about criminals and police suggest about that culture? (Base it on British culture, not US). Do we watch them to sooth our anxieties? To experience transgression (stepping over the boundaries of the law) in a fantasy context? Or what???
There has been a fair amount of discussion about this area and I can point you in the direction of initial reading. Start with the chapter on the crime series in Teaching Popular Television by Mike Clarke. Ask me for it.

For primary research one idea could be that you get fans of the genre to discuss the pleasures of watching and see if it fits any of the ideas you come up with from your reading.

Sean