酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

Cops: Packing and Policing the Real was accepted and published in the January, 2008 Issue of Cultural Studies Monthly. You can read the full text of this article posted at http://hermes.hrc.ntu.edu.tw/csa/journal/76/journal_park765.htm


Cops: Packing and Policing the Real

Abstract

Nowadays it is undeniable that reality TV has moved to the center of television culture. Various criminologists also note that western society is fascinated with crime and justice. The extent of programming on television that has content dealing with some aspect of crime is overwhelming, and the number of reality crime shows has increased over the past decade.

Cops, debuting in 1989 and flourishing in the early 1990s and still remaining on the schedule, is one of the most popular and long-running reality-based crime shows. Moreover, numerous copies of it have been created. It has been called the "prototype" for the new reality-based genre of programming.

Cops consists of so-called "real-life" crime events, and is filmed in ride-along fashion with law enforcement officials, providing rather a voyeuristic, video-cam perspective on police work. It uses a variety of mechanisms to naturalize its footage as "reality": "unpredictable and unscripted" reality to ready-to-air "stories" with "thematic unity." This "reality" is constructed from the viewpoint of frontline officers immersed in cop culture, which resonates well with "law and order ideology." Cops represents the illusion that viewers get from its program instead of objective slice of reality. Thus, getting a critical understanding of how Cops constructs mediated reality and reinforces "law and order ideology" are the main foci of this paper.

Methodologically based on the cultural studies approach and Fiske’s concept of codes of televison, this paper will first explain the conception of reality TV, the popularity of the reality-based crime program Cops, and Fiske’s concept of codes of televison; then closely look at its new program format, blurring the distinction between informational and entertainment programming, to understand how it represents "raw reality", its own version of "the real"; then focus on exploring how, while Cops purports to present "raw reality", it reinforces "law and order ideology" through various techniques that prompt viewers to identify with and share the point-of-view of the police; finally conclude by engaging in a struggle for meaning, which fights against the values of the dominant ideology and of the social system.


What follows is an excerpt which focuses on the mediated reality constructed by Cops:

Packing the Real: Mediated Reality Constructed by Cops

Cops shows are often broadcast before the nightly news, and they feature a single American city each time. At the beginning of each program, a voice-over, the only one heard during the program, announces that Cops shows "the real men and women of law enforcement." This is heard while one views shots of both upcoming scenes and unused scenes. These scenes differ nightly because each show features a different police department in a different American city, and each night's crimes are new (Consalvo, 1998). Cops’ montage title sequence uses the most dramatic footage already gathered in that city with a reggae-like theme song (Bad Boys, bad Boys – what’s chu gonna do? what’s chu gonna do? when they come for you?).

The basic format for Cops is that the TV camera "rides with" the police and films a story as it unfolds. There is actual footage of the police in action – breaking down a door in a drug bust, or chasing and wrestling a suspect to the ground. Viewers see and hear what the police see and hear. While this approach is touted as "the real thing," the programs are edited to air the most action-packed sequences. Typically, hundreds of hours of footage are edited each week to produce a single half-hour episode (Cavender and Fishman, 1998:4).

Each thirty-minute episode is divided into three segments of equal length, separated by commercials. Each segment deals with one specific crime, although if the problem is wrapped up quickly, another may be included before the commercial break. There is no narration to the show except by the police officers, who explain things to each other and viewers. At the beginning of each segment a superimposition appears on the screen that lists the time and type of problem. These graphics are often ambiguous, using terms such as "fight," "domestic disturbance," "man with gun," and "shots fired." (Consalvo, 1998)

Each segment opens with a focus on a specific cop. The host officer’s name, rank, and department are flashed on the screen as an introduction. Noncops remain nameless. He, or rarely she, usually describes his/her motives for joining the force; then he answers a radio call. This leads to a pursuit and usually the capture of a suspect. The segment concludes with the officer’s commenting on the events that just unfolded (Turner and Jeffords, 2003).

Debuting in 1989, Cops was the first reality TV program to use actual video footage as opposed to reenactment, and it put a new spin on the observational documentary form4. Offered by the police voluntarily and with massive cooperation as part of a strong trend toward increasing self-promotion in the media (Ericson et al., 1989), the Cops video and sound team can "ride with" police officers in action in dozens of American cities, and it films a story as it unfolds. Program producer John Langley calls Cops an "unfiltered television program", and he describes it simply as "raw reality" (Doyle, 1998:98 ) .

However, the "raw reality" of the video footage undergoes considerable processing before it airs. As Langley states (Doyle, 1998:98 ) :

"… All the material comes back to Los Angels, with the field staff tagging what look like potential stories . Then our editorial staff cuts together the most interesting material, whereupon I determine what goes in the shows after recutting or refinessing if needed. Basically we try to put together interesting combinations. For example, an action piece (which hooks the audience), a lyrical piece (which develops more emotion), and a think piece (which provokes thought on the part of the audience)…"

Based on Langley’s words and the narrative structure of Cops as discussed above, we can firmly conclude that Cops uses a variety of mechanisms to naturalize its footage as "reality": "unpredictable and unscripted" reality to ready-to-air "stories" with "thematic unity". It employs reality-claims largely rooted in the pervasive cultural understanding ("seeing is believing"), the veracity of firsthand experience, and emotional authenticity (it "feels real"). Cops, this media text, constructs a mediated reality, which is a selection from a processing of the real world. As media critic Ang (1989:37) claims, there can never be any question of an unproblematic mirror relation between text and social reality: at most it can be said that a text constructs its own version of "the real".

Cops blends information and entertainment. It is about actual events and real people, but it often emphasizes action, sets events to music, compresses time, speeds up action, and uses camera angles typical of action movies. The entertaining aspects of Cops are concentrated in the arrest vignette, which takes one of three forms (Turner and Jeffords, 2003):

 1 group of cops burst into a house, guns drawn, tackling an often half-naked suspect and throwing him to the ground; or
 2 group of officers point their pistols at a suspect from some feet away, forcing him to lie on the ground, face down, and then creeping closer until they loom over the suspect’s prone figure; or
 3 officers finger their weapons while suspect is forced to bend forward over the hood of a police cruiser, legs spread in preparation for a frisk

These arrest vignettes are the genre’s equivalent of the "money shot" in pornography, and they draw upon traditions of crime fiction. They are designed to make Cops more exciting and to increase its rating.

Although Cops claims to present a newslike reality, in many ways, it resembles crime fiction, thus gradually blurring the distinction between information and entertainment programming: infotainment. Doyle (1998) argues that Cops is part of a cultural trend toward "hyperreality." It is implicated in the blurring of different ways of representing the real, and the blurring of mediated representations and the "real" world itself.

Cops shows present crime as rampant, violent, and easy to spot, suspects as criminals, and the police as America's best line of defense against these challenges to a decent society. Turner argues that those arrest vignettes are the moments when the full masculine potency of the leading character is revealed. The camera in the arrest vignette "draws the viewer toward the suspect along the trajectory of an imaginary bullet" – in this way, the viewer isn’t just watching but he/she is directed to experience personally the power of penetration embodied in the weapons of the police officers (Turner and Jeffords, 2003). Viewing may thus be an act of domination and of the assurance of an illusion that everything is under the control of law enforcement officers.

According to Fiske (1987:4-12), these conventional representational codes and the televisual codes brought to viewers are deeply embedded in the ideological codes of which they are themselves bearers. Ideological codes work to organize the other two codes into producing a congruent and coherent set of meanings that constitute the "common sense" of a society. The process of making sense involves a constant movement up and down through the levels of Figure 1, for sense can only be produced when "reality", representations, and ideology merge into a coherent, seemingly natural unity. Another focus of this paper is to explore how Cops reinforces "law and order ideology" through various techniques that prompt viewers to identify with and share the point of view of the police.


Note:

The official Cops website is located at http://www.cops.com
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Cops: Packing and Policing the Real was accepted and published in the January, 2008 Issue of Cultural Studies Monthly. You can read the full text of this article posted at http://hermes.hrc.ntu.edu.tw/csa/journal/76/journal_park765.htm


Cops: Packing and Policing the Real

Abstract

Nowadays it is undeniable that reality TV has moved to the center of television culture. Various criminologists also note that western society is fascinated with crime and justice. The extent of programming on television that has content dealing with some aspect of crime is overwhelming, and the number of reality crime shows has increased over the past decade.

Cops, debuting in 1989 and flourishing in the early 1990s and still remaining on the schedule, is one of the most popular and long-running reality-based crime shows. Moreover, numerous copies of it have been created. It has been called the "prototype" for the new reality-based genre of programming.

Cops consists of so-called "real-life" crime events, and is filmed in ride-along fashion with law enforcement officials, providing rather a voyeuristic, video-cam perspective on police work. It uses a variety of mechanisms to naturalize its footage as "reality": "unpredictable and unscripted" reality to ready-to-air "stories" with "thematic unity." This "reality" is constructed from the viewpoint of frontline officers immersed in cop culture, which resonates well with "law and order ideology." Cops represents the illusion that viewers get from its program instead of objective slice of reality. Thus, getting a critical understanding of how Cops constructs mediated reality and reinforces "law and order ideology" are the main foci of this paper.

Methodologically based on the cultural studies approach and Fiske’s concept of codes of televison, this paper will first explain the conception of reality TV, the popularity of the reality-based crime program Cops, and Fiske’s concept of codes of televison; then closely look at its new program format, blurring the distinction between informational and entertainment programming, to understand how it represents "raw reality", its own version of "the real"; then focus on exploring how, while Cops purports to present "raw reality", it reinforces "law and order ideology" through various techniques that prompt viewers to identify with and share the point-of-view of the police; finally conclude by engaging in a struggle for meaning, which fights against the values of the dominant ideology and of the social system.


What follows is an excerpt which focuses on the mediated reality constructed by Cops:

Packing the Real: Mediated Reality Constructed by Cops

Cops shows are often broadcast before the nightly news, and they feature a single American city each time. At the beginning of each program, a voice-over, the only one heard during the program, announces that Cops shows "the real men and women of law enforcement." This is heard while one views shots of both upcoming scenes and unused scenes. These scenes differ nightly because each show features a different police department in a different American city, and each night's crimes are new (Consalvo, 1998). Cops’ montage title sequence uses the most dramatic footage already gathered in that city with a reggae-like theme song (Bad Boys, bad Boys – what’s chu gonna do? what’s chu gonna do? when they come for you?).

The basic format for Cops is that the TV camera "rides with" the police and films a story as it unfolds. There is actual footage of the police in action – breaking down a door in a drug bust, or chasing and wrestling a suspect to the ground. Viewers see and hear what the police see and hear. While this approach is touted as "the real thing," the programs are edited to air the most action-packed sequences. Typically, hundreds of hours of footage are edited each week to produce a single half-hour episode (Cavender and Fishman, 1998:4).

Each thirty-minute episode is divided into three segments of equal length, separated by commercials. Each segment deals with one specific crime, although if the problem is wrapped up quickly, another may be included before the commercial break. There is no narration to the show except by the police officers, who explain things to each other and viewers. At the beginning of each segment a superimposition appears on the screen that lists the time and type of problem. These graphics are often ambiguous, using terms such as "fight," "domestic disturbance," "man with gun," and "shots fired." (Consalvo, 1998)

Each segment opens with a focus on a specific cop. The host officer’s name, rank, and department are flashed on the screen as an introduction. Noncops remain nameless. He, or rarely she, usually describes his/her motives for joining the force; then he answers a radio call. This leads to a pursuit and usually the capture of a suspect. The segment concludes with the officer’s commenting on the events that just unfolded (Turner and Jeffords, 2003).

Debuting in 1989, Cops was the first reality TV program to use actual video footage as opposed to reenactment, and it put a new spin on the observational documentary form4. Offered by the police voluntarily and with massive cooperation as part of a strong trend toward increasing self-promotion in the media (Ericson et al., 1989), the Cops video and sound team can "ride with" police officers in action in dozens of American cities, and it films a story as it unfolds. Program producer John Langley calls Cops an "unfiltered television program", and he describes it simply as "raw reality" (Doyle, 1998:98 ) .

However, the "raw reality" of the video footage undergoes considerable processing before it airs. As Langley states (Doyle, 1998:98 ) :

"… All the material comes back to Los Angels, with the field staff tagging what look like potential stories . Then our editorial staff cuts together the most interesting material, whereupon I determine what goes in the shows after recutting or refinessing if needed. Basically we try to put together interesting combinations. For example, an action piece (which hooks the audience), a lyrical piece (which develops more emotion), and a think piece (which provokes thought on the part of the audience)…"

Based on Langley’s words and the narrative structure of Cops as discussed above, we can firmly conclude that Cops uses a variety of mechanisms to naturalize its footage as "reality": "unpredictable and unscripted" reality to ready-to-air "stories" with "thematic unity". It employs reality-claims largely rooted in the pervasive cultural understanding ("seeing is believing"), the veracity of firsthand experience, and emotional authenticity (it "feels real"). Cops, this media text, constructs a mediated reality, which is a selection from a processing of the real world. As media critic Ang (1989:37) claims, there can never be any question of an unproblematic mirror relation between text and social reality: at most it can be said that a text constructs its own version of "the real".

Cops blends information and entertainment. It is about actual events and real people, but it often emphasizes action, sets events to music, compresses time, speeds up action, and uses camera angles typical of action movies. The entertaining aspects of Cops are concentrated in the arrest vignette, which takes one of three forms (Turner and Jeffords, 2003):

 1 group of cops burst into a house, guns drawn, tackling an often half-naked suspect and throwing him to the ground; or
 2 group of officers point their pistols at a suspect from some feet away, forcing him to lie on the ground, face down, and then creeping closer until they loom over the suspect’s prone figure; or
 3 officers finger their weapons while suspect is forced to bend forward over the hood of a police cruiser, legs spread in preparation for a frisk

These arrest vignettes are the genre’s equivalent of the "money shot" in pornography, and they draw upon traditions of crime fiction. They are designed to make Cops more exciting and to increase its rating.

Although Cops claims to present a newslike reality, in many ways, it resembles crime fiction, thus gradually blurring the distinction between information and entertainment programming: infotainment. Doyle (1998) argues that Cops is part of a cultural trend toward "hyperreality." It is implicated in the blurring of different ways of representing the real, and the blurring of mediated representations and the "real" world itself.

Cops shows present crime as rampant, violent, and easy to spot, suspects as criminals, and the police as America's best line of defense against these challenges to a decent society. Turner argues that those arrest vignettes are the moments when the full masculine potency of the leading character is revealed. The camera in the arrest vignette "draws the viewer toward the suspect along the trajectory of an imaginary bullet" – in this way, the viewer isn’t just watching but he/she is directed to experience personally the power of penetration embodied in the weapons of the police officers (Turner and Jeffords, 2003). Viewing may thus be an act of domination and of the assurance of an illusion that everything is under the control of law enforcement officers.

According to Fiske (1987:4-12), these conventional representational codes and the televisual codes brought to viewers are deeply embedded in the ideological codes of which they are themselves bearers. Ideological codes work to organize the other two codes into producing a congruent and coherent set of meanings that constitute the "common sense" of a society. The process of making sense involves a constant movement up and down through the levels of Figure 1, for sense can only be produced when "reality", representations, and ideology merge into a coherent, seemingly natural unity. Another focus of this paper is to explore how Cops reinforces "law and order ideology" through various techniques that prompt viewers to identify with and share the point of view of the police.


Note:

The official Cops website is located at http://www.cops.com
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[dundas]

[[dundas]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[christine]

[[christine]]

[christine]

[[christine]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]