Textual Analysis-
I analysed the first episode of Love Island, I looked at bits from the first 20 minutes of the show.
The episode follows a documentary narrative, since the show is 24 hours condensed into 40 mins, viewers only get to see what the producer allows. The target audience would be 70% female and 30% male, C2DE wokring-class aged around 16-35+. In terms of psychographic groups, this show would appeal to mainstreamers, explorers and strugglers. This is due to the colloquial language used, e.g. swearing etc. therefore this type of audience would be familiar with it.
The episode starts with close-ups/medium shots of the villa and these shots also show the arms and legs of a women which already objectifies women as they're using these close-ups to potentially attract a male audience. The episode consists of continuity editing. There is a voice-over of a women who appears to be the host of the show, this sound is non-diegetic as we can't see her speaking directly to the camera. There is also non-diegetic music being played alongside the voice-over which is parallel as it sounds very sexual which fits with the nature of the show. The host says: "It's a beautiful villa for beautiful people.", this comment is controversial as the aim of the show is to bring in people from the public and this comment makes us imply that the producers of the show are specifically looking for: "some sexy singles" which was another comment made by the host. This further emphasises that the show is merely concerned about the appearance of the people within the show.
After the shots of the villa and the host, there is a medium shot of a boy and girl in bed half naked which gives the impression that they have been engaging in sexual activities which then reveals that the show is not only about "sexy" people but also about sex. There is also a long shot of a girl working in the office surrounded only by men and then she gets up, strips into just a bikini and walks off while the men just look at her in approval. This relates to Mulveys theory about the male gaze as it appears that the woman is presented just to look at. This scene also relates to Perkins theory about stereotyping being partly true as she is in an office working however she is only acknowledged for her sexuality and beauty therefore portraying her as a sex object. Also, according to Marxism, The sexist representation of women in the media, advertising and popular culture is no longer limited to the presentation of women as dutiful wives and mothers. It now encourages women to be seen, and aspire to be seen, as sexually available and attractive to men at all times. At work, women continue to earn less than men and tend to be concentrated in lower paid, female-dominated and highly casualised industries and jobs.
The opening scene introduces the contestants of the show and they are all good looking, fitting the dominant reading of the show being for "beautiful people". This is shown through close-up shots of abs, medium shots of male contestants working out, girls in bikinis just lying down and then there is a close-up which zooms out into a medium shot of a the contestants kissing. This sequel scene sums up the dominant reading of the show being simply about attractive people coming on a show to find love, aka engaging in sexual activities. The host once again confirms this reading by saying; "lets meet the group of gorgeous young singles".
The female contestants arrive wearing bikinis which is followed by close-ups of their bodies to potentially attract a male audience due to the male gaze. The first contestant is Miss Great Britain and instead of talking about her career in order to be an inspiration to the younger girls watching, she chooses to talk about her assets: "my boobs are real, 32 DD". This portrays her as a sex object and according to the hypodermic needle model, this representation of is injecting information into young females and also young males that a women is merely acknowledged due to her physical appearance. This is damaging and rises concern for moral panic as younger females begin to feel insecure about the way they look and also aim to have this 'perfect body' that the females on this show all have and show off in bikinis majority of the time in the show. Feminists have spoken out against the objectification and stereotyes of women and male domination of society/patriarchy.They also argue that sexual objectification can lead to negative psychological effects including eating disorders, depression and sexual dysfunction, and can give women negative self-images because of the belief that their intelligence and competence are currently not being, nor will ever be, acknowledged by society. Additionally, young male audiences also may be injected with the idea that a woman is merely beneficial due to her sexuality. This is also a moral panic as men objectify women.
There is many binary oppositions visible in this scene, the first would be 'men vs women' and 'masculinity vs femininity'. This is shown as the female contestants stand in a line while the men come in one by one. You can tell from some of the female contestants body language that they are trying to gain the attention of the male contestants and they do this by standing in a seductive manor. The female contestants have to stand forward if they like the way the guy looks but ultimately, the male contestant gets to pick one. This is objectifying them along with making the men seem superior to them since they are the ones picking and not the girls. This relates to Levi-Strauss's theory that representations are formed by ideology and in this case, the producer clearly holds the view that men are dominant and emphasises on patriarchy as they are picking girls as though they are an item in a shop or an object. This also relates to Medhurst's theory of using stereotypes to tell the audience that men hold dominance while women are subordinate. One of the female contestants is not chosen by any of the boys and is paired up with a guy she didn't like which is obvious through her facial expression which shows distress, this relates to Katz and Blumlers uses and gratifications theory of personal identity. In this case, young females could see themselves being reflected as they may also experience rejection. Finding themselves reflected in texts and learning behaviour could also produce negative role models for young girls.
The genre of the show is reality TV therefore in terms of the uses and gratifications theory, diversion means that it is a escape from everyday problems and personal Relationships means that they use reality TV shows like Love Island for emotional interaction. The show is produced by ITV and is featured after the 'watershed' due to its age rating since it contains swearing and sex. Having the show feature after the watershed is significant since it allows the show to explore mature themes without too much regulation. However, an article by daily mail focuses on two contestants who have sex before the lights go off infront of other housemates who then applaud. Malin Andersson and Terry Walsh couldn't be bothered to wait until the lights were off and decided to get intimate with an audience. Viewers couldn't hide their disgust at the public sex antics on the ITV2 show, Ofcom said they had received 10 complaints during the current series of Love Island, relating to swearing, glamorisation of smoking and inappropriate sexual activity. Similarly, ITV's Love Island was investigated by the television watchdog over complaints about a sex scene involving two contestants which was broadcast just 10 minutes after the watershed. Ofcom launched an investigation after eight viewers complained.
The representation is accurate in some aspects due to the fact that female celebrities usually exploit themselves in the sense that they dress quite revealingly or openly engage in sexual relationships and since its a reality TV show its expected since similar behaviour is seen on other shows, e.g. Geordie Shore, Towie, Big Brother etc. However, the female contestants are members of the public but they still visually look like celebrities. On the other hand, the representation isn't fair as its producing a wrong role model for girls to look up to. Younger females watching the show will assume that in order to gain attention they need to look/dress a certain way. Some of the main themes in the show is that in order to be with someone you have to be willing to engage in sexual activities, its acceptable for a man to have sex with more than one women however when a women does shes spoken about and another major value in this text makes the audience assume that relationships are all about sex, being physically attractive and having trust issues.
