BIS

Introduction

This week you will be watching an episode of Caribbean Life from HGTV. The format of this television program is probably familiar to you. Lifestyle Television has existed for a long time, but, like many genres of reality television, it really came into its own at the beginning of the 2000s.

As we saw in the last class, all forms of popular culture provide insight into the society that creates it. Scholars have explored Lifestyle TV for the various roles it plays in making certain class, race, and gender relations hegemonic. For example, a quick look at the title of the scholarly essays in one book about lifestyle television, Gareth Palmer’s edited collection Exposing Lifestyle Television: The Big Reveal (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. highlights the power relations that can be analyzed if we pay very closely to the messages constructed in television.

Caribbean Life Connecticut to St Maarten Play media comment.

Better versions of the video are also available on the HGTV website (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Go to the Full Episodes part of the website, go to Season 1 which is free to watch and scroll down to Episode 4

Task

Now, it’s your turn. Take notes on the information below and then, using that information as evidence, write a THREE to FOUR page, double-spaced paper in which you respond to the following prompt:

Describe how Caribbean Life relies on colonial tropes about the Caribbean. How do you think using these tropes positions the Caribbean in relation to the United States?

Write your essay as an integrated essay. Make sure that your essay includes clear and identifiable evidence from the film. In other words, draw on specific examples from the film. Those examples can include, not only what you see, but also what you hear. You can indicate where in the film an example can be found by referencing the 'story' and/or the counter at the bottom of the screen.

Note Taking

· Story Structure

· Map out the story arc of each of the episodes

· What does the opening sequence (the first 48 seconds) define Caribbean Life to be?

· Characterization

· How are we introduced to the main people in the show?

· What do we learn about their lives?

· What do we know about what they want?

· Even though this is a form of reality TV, people on reality TV shows are encouraged to perform as types of character - what types of characters are the couples in this show?

· Are there any local, Caribbean, people in the show? How do you know they are local? What are they doing?

· Techniques

· What techniques do the TV producers use to make the location appear visually attractive?

· How is music used in the shows?

· What historical facts are referenced in the show? Why do you think those historical facts are referenced?

· If you have watched lifestyle television shows before - in what ways is this similar/different within the genre?

· Context

· in what ways does the show rely on ideas about the Caribbean that were referenced in Mimi Sheller's article?

· In what ways does the show rely on ideas about the Caribbean that were referenced in the lecture.

Format Requirements:

· Typed, double-spaced.

· 12-point font, three to five pages

· One-inch margins

· Correctly use APA citation format for all citations

· Must include

· A title

· Section headings that indicate

· Introduction

· Theoretical frame

· Findings

· Conclusion

· Should be saved using and uploaded using the following convention Last name First name Caribbean Life 2019

· So if Robyn Fenty was in our class her assignment would be saved in the following manner

· Fenty Robyn Caribbean Life 2019