WaterAid Sample Question

How do media producers meet the needs of specialised audiences? Refer to Water Aid to support your points [12]

WaterAid targets specialised audiences by showing them things that they like. Firstly, the advert applies some hierarchy at the beginning from showing a very wet day in Britain and then the next scene shows a dry location, this transition simply connotes how us the audience in Britain can help these people in this dry area as we have water and are higher in power, we have more options than them. Showing this to the audience makes them remember how easy access they have to water and should help others in not so easy access. Supported by Gilroy's theory of past colonies still affect attitudes to race and ethnicity which constructs a hierarchy and binary oppositions, meaning that Britain who has power can help others and are independent whereas countries like Africa doesn't have much power and needs help.

The producers of the WaterAid advert show complex stereotypes of women to make the advert more relatable to the British audience. The main character, Claudia is represented in a complex way as she is an active, not passive character and she looks happy and healthy, this is complex as the stereotype of people in Africa is being sad and unhealthy because of the repetition of conventional adverts. More complex stereotypes is the other women who are collecting clean water and are looking independent which is breaking the regular convention of women in Africa. The women are not sexualised either which breaks the convention of how women are presented on the internet. They present women in these complex ways to create connections with their online audience, teenager girls can relate to Claudia, and parents can relate to the other women and feel bad for Claudia. Supported by Hall's theory who says that the idea of stereotyping tends to occur when there is inequalities of power which can be applied to the WaterAid advert.

PAPER 2 Online Media Exam Question

EXAM QUESTION: What techniques do your chosen texts use to effectively target and maximise their online audiences? (30) Refer to both Zoella and Attitude.

  
Firstly, online audiences have changed over the time, caused by social media making things much easier to do. I am talking about how audiences interact with content creators has changed to audiences becoming a content creator themselves. For example, YouTube, you can watch your favourite youtuber and comment in the comment section to interact with the youtuber and other fans, same applies to other apps and websites like Instagram and Facebook. But now, many of those online audiences have decided to create their own content and become what they were entertained by. This is because YouTube and other media have made it easy to create your own content and people decide to create instead of just watching, supported by Shirky's theory of fans creating their own texts instead of just consuming the texts. Another reason fans are starting to become content creators now is because when YouTube and other medias first came out, no one saw it as a job with good income but now, fans see how much money content creators make from it and want to be as successful as them. For example, Zoella doesn't like to tell her audience her income, you can see in her videos which show what type of house she lives in with what items show how wealthy she is which encourages some viewers to be a youtuber.

  

One-way Zoella and Attitude effectively target and maximise their online audience is by focusing on the gender they want to target. Zoella focuses on targeting females shown by her content which shows what stereotypical females would like, for example, Zoella mainly focuses on female-based activities like fashion, make-up, pets and relationships which female viewers can relate to more which leads to them liking Zoella more. Also, her content appeals to female audiences through emotional narratives and Zoella continuously tells us how she feels about the problems she faces which allows the viewers to relate even more which maximises Zoella's online audience. However, her content has changed over the time and is more grown out of using bright pink colours to now warmer colours with more activities that target all genders to maximise her target audience even further. On the other hand, while Zoella targets simple stereotypes of females, Attitude targets complex stereotypes of male audiences. This is shown by how they represent their website; the writing style is very factual with using lots of statistics and uses more images than text as there are short paragraphs which is male coded liked things as males generally like visuals and stats. The reason it's a complex stereotype of males as they target gay males, the visuals show men in a very sexual way which goes against the conventions of sexual representations as its usually females who are represented sexually however to appeal to the gay male audience, they need to break this convention. Another convention they break to maximise their audience is by not showing male coded things, if Attitude focused on only male coded things, then it may not effectively target their audience so what they do is show female coded things like fashion as gay males generally like female coded things so it would successfully target and maximise their online audience. Both Zoella and Attitude target their audiences by showing them what that gender generally likes so they can relate to it, this is supported by Hall's theory that media language is used to create stereotypes, Zoella and Attitude show what they think the stereotypical gender that they target should like which refines the stereotypes they focus on. 

 
Another method that Attitude and Zoella use is targeting a specific age range to fully maximise their audience while still focusing on the gender. Attitude not only focuses on gay males but the age between 26 to 55, their website shows many examples, a heavy use of Facebook and Twitter as supporting social media which are the primary sites used by this age group however Attitude has started to use other social media to probably maximise their online audience, most stories on their website features celebrities that the target audience would of grown-up liking in the late 20th century. Another way to make their website suitable for 26-55 is what they don't do, there is no audience feedback on the website anywhere whereas websites and social media for younger audiences uses a lot of audience feedback as younger audience like to talk about the subject whereas older audiences don't as much, another reason for an absence of audience feedback is  so there is no discrimination on their website topics like gay and LGBT aren't supported by everyone so Attitude keeps feedback out for now. Zoella's targeted age range has changed over the time, before it was 13-24 females Zoella used Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube which are mostly used by this age group, fans can interact with Zoella and other fans through comments to create connections and fans connections are shown in her videos to make fans feel appreciated, also showing everyday activities create connections with her fans as well. All these are ways Zoella maximise her young online audience, but she had a secondary target audience which were parents and advertisers as they were engaged by content that is safe in terms of sexual content however, Zoella has changed her target audience now as not only as she has grown up but so has her fans, now she focuses on slightly older audiences as her website does have some sexual content which wouldn't be appropriate for her old target audience and secondary target audience. Now her content is more mature while still showing most of the same content but in a separate way and added content which relates to older audiences. Gauntlett's theory of people using the internet and other media to help create their own identity links to how Attitude and Zoella makes their content suit their targeted age range like Zoella showing just showing her everyday activities may influence female viewers on how they do their everyday activities which could create or change their identity.

  

Socio-economic group is another area that Zoella and Attitude target to maximise their online audience successfully. Zoella uses language which is moderately formal with some extended language and Standard English to mirror lower class values and educational backgrounds, Zoella's house is represented as an ideal youthful environment which is a place of fun and socialising. These two points suggests that Zoella focuses on BC1C2 which is middle middle class as Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional to skilled working class as skill manual workers, this is because Zoella uses language used by these classes and items that only these classes would use. More evidence of the socio-economic group being BC1C2 is that Zoella has partnerships who also focus on the same group as companies who represent high street fashion at value prices, as well as Zoella being allowed to upload about lucrative advertising as BC1C2 is most associated with lucrative advertisements and would make sense to target this demographic for maximisation of her online audience. However, Attitude aims higher in class than Zoella by targeting ABC1, this is proved by the language they use which is very formal and complex with extended language but mostly Standard English to mirror middle class values and educational backgrounds, and Attitude includes relatable activities for this demographic in their narratives to create connections with the target audience. ABC1 is from upper middle class as higher managerial, administrative or professional to lower middle class as supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional, this would make sense for Attitude to target this demographic as they partner up with companies who also target ABC1 like companies who advertise premium products, furthermore, stories are aimed at graduate/professional readership through direct reference to ABC1's professions like Managers, Designers and etc.  

Lastly, the other area in how Attitude and Zoella target their online audience is through psychographics. Attitude targets both the aspirers and the reformers, the aspirers are people who want status brands that show their place in society, evidence from the Attitude website showing that they target aspirers is in the style section where it is very saturated with premium fashion brands while the travel section highlights expensive travel options, this is perfect for aspirers as they are happy to invest into luxury goods and always wants to be on the trend to seek status. The other psychographic Attitude targets is reformers who are defined by self-esteem and self-improvement, proof from the website is in the narratives that mainly political, commenting on social issues which is mostly about LGBT but also including homelessness, voting rights, etc., all this is for trying to change society which again, is perfect for reformers as they always seek enlightenment and are socially aware. Like Attitude, Zoella also targets the aspirers but on the other hand also targets the mainstreamers. We know that aspirers seek status and like to show it off, the way Zoella targets them is by showing her own aspirational lifestyle by just showing her house, cars and possessions. The other psychographic she targets is mainstreamers who like tried and trusted brands, Zoella sometimes reviews products after testing them out which shows that she is targeting mainstreamers and she is reassuring her online audience about that product unless it's a negative review then she may recommend her audience to avoid this product as mainstreamer like to keep it safe and save money. Another smaller psychographic that Zoella might target is the explorers who are people who like to discover new things, Zoella also likes to try new things out so showing these new products encourages the explorers to try them out.  

In general, both Zoella and Attitude target their audiences very specifically by looking at different areas of their target audience and showing them things, they like to effectively target and maximise their online audience. 

Exam Question : targeting audiences

Firstly, the gender of Attitude is male and they make the Attitude website fit with what males generally like. On the main page, there are many photos, more than text as men like to see visuals instead of text, if the reader does want to read more, clicking on that article will bring up more text however the text is in short paragraphs and lacks in emotional content to appeal more to the Male audience. 

The age range is between 26 and 55, this is shown from the way Attitude targets their audience. A heavy use of Facebook and Twitter shows that the age age range is between 26 and 55 as they are the age group that tends to use Facebook and Twitter, however they do use Instagram as well which does fall under a different age group but could still work as it could widen their current target range using Instagram. Attitude has articles mostly focused on politics, TV shows and celebrities, the celebrities are usually celebrities who were popular in the late 20th century or gay celebrities who are popular now, for example Elton John and Alan Carr who are famous gay celebrities are on recent articles. Another reason on why the age group is 26 to 55 is that there is no audience feedback, younger audiences has a heavy use of feedback like a comment section to express their feelings about the topic, they may not have any audience feedback on their website to not only avoid any discrimination but also, older audiences dont really use feedback sections as much as younger audiences.

The socio-economic group for Attitude is ABC1, the first reason is that Attitude has sponsorships with companies which advertise premium products like Calvin Klein and Jaguar which socio-economic group ABC1 are interested in. The second reason is that the langauage is formal and complex and is written in standard English to mirror middle class values and educational backgrounds of an ABC1 demographic. Articles also refer to the jobs that ABC1 demographics do like teachers, managers, designers and etc.

Attitude also depends on the psycho graphics of their audience to know how to present their website. The psychometric grouping of Attitude's target audience are Reformers and Aspirers. The website mainly is about politics, commenting on social issues which are mainly LGBTQ focused but does look at other topics too, this is for the reformers in Attitude's target audience who seek enlightenment. For the aspirers, the website has a style section which shows off premium products in a very saturated way as aspirers are concerned with looking good, material acquisition and brand awareness, also the travel section highlights 'boutique' hotel options at the expense of budget travel which definitely fits in with aspirers needs.

ONLINE MEDIA : Key text 2 ATTITUDE : Intro to text and audience

Attitude is a British gay lifestyle magazine owned by Stream Publishing Limited. It is sold worldwide as a physical magazine, and as a digital download for the iPad and iPhone via the App Store, and for Android devices via the Android Market. The first issue of attitude appeared in May 1994. 

A hyper sexualised representation of men - Most images of men are topless, and often in provocative poses. Articles have a critical lack of representation of different body types as on Attitude, a singular, muscular build seems to be favoured. Articles are generally focused on grooming, holidays, fashion and celebrities: a heavy emphasis on appearance and extrinsic - reinforces a gay stereotype. Normalisation - majority of articles feature gay and LGBT related issues. Articles featuring prejudice and attacks on gay men reinforce the ideology that to be gay still means being in a marginalised and threatened group - close up of mans injured head. Even straight actors are represented and codified in a way that specifically appeals to a gay male audience, for example, the voyeuristic shots of Cristiano Ronaldo in tight fitting underwear presents an appealing fantasy to the gay target audience, an escapist fantasy for a gay audience. Stereotypically attractive gay men, hyper masculine and strong, even if an audience lacks this body type, they are able escape in to a homoerotic fantasy, it offers the audience an escapist fantasy where everybody is gay, a hyper real fantasy, a utopia. Advertising - targeted to gay male audience. Advertorial "your dream home awaits" helps to normalise homosexuality. "your dream home awaits" is perhaps stereotypically feminine, reinforcing  a gay stereotype of enjoying interior design. Conformity to stereotype of vain men: article specifically on weight loss and improving muscle definition is a focus on aesthetics represented as vulnerability. References to the 'coming out' narrative, big focus on openness and 'out-there' sexualisation however, the magazine and website have a definite target audience, and may go 'hidden' in the general populace. Extravagant and with exotic lifestyles, its proud and self-confident. Gives audience the confidence to come out and to live with pride Singular and stereotypical representation of men.

ZOELLA : Audience in detail

Heavy use of Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube - these sites fit with the social media applications most prominently used by 13-24 . Deliberate amateur aesthetic suggests authenticity to this media saturated audience segment. Everyday activities of this demographic are incorporated into narratives to create connections with the target audience (shopping, stopping at drive-through, eating at fast food restaurants). Fan connections showcased in uploads - fans represent the real target audience. Use of YouTube commentary to create intimate connections with the target audience. Emotive content - the show appeals to its female audience through narratives that engage with subject matter emotionally. Zoella continuously tells us how she ‘feels’ about the problems she faces. Zoella foregrounds stereotypical female based activities in her presentation: fashion, make-up, relationships. Costume stereotypically female - female colour palette deployed in mise en-scène. Use of pets and pet orientated references. Presenter constructs a version of ideal beauty - highly stylised, lots of makeup, attention paid to costume. Intimate confessional tone - creates a relatable female character. A quiet/passive presentation style that fits with target audience expectations and female presenter stereotypes.

All the previous points show how Zoella shows off as a quite simple stereotypical girl, maybe influencing her fans on how they should be. Her fans are mostly girl based who like girl coded things like make up, fashion and positive things, their is usually no complex genders or stereotypes in her content. However, a stereotype of a man is usually strong, hard working who likes men coded things however, the men in Zoella's content are represented with the stereotypes of a girl, as they are trying out make up and fashion. Gauntlett's theory of people using the internet or other media texts to help create a identity for them, today we have more of a variety of representations to identify with which relates to Zoella as her fans are influence by her and choose to be like her and some boys choose to be like how the boys are represented in her content which is different compared to the main stereotype of men.

Many social media's have made it easier to create your own content. Fans not only can interact with the person in the comments of their post or their youtube video, but can create their own channel/page and post their own stuff. Their content may be influenced by who they follow or could be completely different. This point is reinforced by both theories of Shirky and Jenkins, where fans use the internet to gather and create their own content and easily share it, instead of just consuming the texts, as fans get inspired by creators and want to try it out to.

PAPER 2B ONLINE MEDIA : Introduction to Zoella

Zoella is a fashion and beauty vlogger with 11.6 million subscribers on YouTube, Zoella's videos are about fashion, beauty and her life. Zoella has an estimated wealth of £4.7million, earning £600,000 a year from her two lifestyle channels. Their research predicts she can also earn upwards of £12,000 per sponsored Instagram post, also £250,000 per video for a video partnership. Companies want to place their products in her videos for new customers. Zoella and the youtuber she is collaborating gain views from each others channels. 

On the website, the first thing you see is her most recent post, her content is focused on 20-30 because of the certain articles that aren't suitable for younger ages anymore. Her target audience used to be pre-teen and early teenaged girls, the evidence is in her older youtube videos, the reason the target audience has changed is because Zoella knows that her fans have grown up and she wasn't very popular now so she raised the target audience to get her old audience. The audiences are encouraged to participate in her brand through comments, subscriptions and followers. 

Zoella offers a sense of entertainment and escapism to consumers who also feel a sense of personal identity. Also on her website is a preview of her instagram which shows both the brand @Zoella and her personal @ZoeSugg, the difference between the two is very big as the personal one shows more realistic normal posts of her life whereas the brand one is focused on her products and for her target audience. The representations feel less constructed and therefore more real. She makes a real effort to keep her vlogs as authentic and ‘real’ as they can be, showing all of her life rather than just the positive aspects. With it being a self-representation there is obviously a sense of biasness as she is unlikely to present herself in a negative light. However she is representing herself as the way she would like to be portrayed.

Her website is now controlled by Team Zoella, an instagram post shows her with her team, with young white women with expensive laptops, all healthy and happy. That matches the rest of her posts as she tries to be positive and healthy all the time and influences followers to be as well. Even though she doesn't like to show off how much money she has, you can often see how much she has like her house, or expensive items in her videos or posts. Her channel is mostly white people, the only time there is someone who isn't white is on her website or instagram to show off clothing or another type of product. The Bell Hooks theory focuses mostly on feminism but also factors in that race and class determine the extent to which an individuals are exploited, discriminated against or oppressed, meaning if Zoella represented herself differently and with different people, fans and followers probably won't like it as most of them are white and may discriminate her or the other person. 

On Instagram and Twitter, they both just repost the same articles that are on her website so more people can see them. However, her personal account shows off her life, they all have a warm theme to them to show that Zoe is a welcoming kind person, she doesn't sexualise herself at all and keeps it very positive. Her posts are usually about herself but some show who she is partnering up with, her most recent partnership was with MINI, and the rest of her posts is related with events going on.

MOCK EXAM QUESTION PAPER 2A Television Crime Drama ( TEXT)

Even though 'Life on Mars' is a sci-fi crime drama and 'The Bridge' is a nordic noir crime drama, they both follow or subvert genre conventions to appeal more to audiences. In 'Life on Mars' it starts off like a generic crime drama with a car chase, running chase, fight and interrogation with all the normal conventions too like police officers with uniform, police cars and tape etc. with no signs of sci-fi conventions until the investigator "Sam" travels back in time. He travels to 1973 which changes all the modern conventions of crime drama to match with 1973 like the uniform police wore, police cars and equipment they had in 73 etc.. The reason they used very generic crime drama conventions at the beginning was to make the change more transparent for the viewer but also is more interesting for the viewer as its a change from repetitive crime dramas. Steve Neal's Theory of genres being recognisable but will change over time so it helps institutions to market their texts, supporting my point of 'Life on Mars' follows and subverts the genre conventions to appeal to audiences more. However, 'The Bridge' only follows its nordic noir conventions throughout the whole episode, its set in between Sweden and Denmark with bleak landscapes giving off a dark mood with all the generic crime drama conventions as well like 'Life on Mars' but there is no change or idea taken from another genre. It still does appeal to audiences though as the use of nordic noir itself is a change in crime dramas as its very different and successful because of the distinctive and appealing style, realistic, simple, precise and stripped of unnecessary words makes it much more relatable to real life.

The same character archetypes are used in both crime dramas but are used differently. In 'Life on Mars', the main character is Sam Tyler who is the investigator and, like generic crime dramas, he has personal problems to deal with and struggles with his work at the beginning. Tyler's first sidekick was Maya but we didn't see much of her so his main sidekick is Chris Skelton who is quite clumsy and not very professional but when Sam sorts him out then he works well. Their boss, Jean Hunt is quite different compared to other generic crime dramas as the boss is usually supportive or strict and stays in the office however Hunt is violent and is almost like a sidekick to Tyler as he always go to the crime scene with him. The villain isn't explored much in the first episode as it concentrated more an introducing all the characters. Now on 'The Bridge', the main character is Saga Norén who like Tyler, is an investigator and has personal problems which effect her work positively and negatively. Norén's first sidekick is Hanne Thomsen who is quite good at her job however doesn't stay long because of an accident and at the end of the episode Hendrik Sabroe is going to be Norén's new partner. The boss is very different compared to 'Life on Mars' as Hans Petterson is supportive and calm and stays at the office. Similar to 'Life on Mars' the villain isn't explored much as they focus on characters and the start of the investigation but as the audience, we slowly think Morten Anker is the villain because they give us hints with showing him being suspicious and stressed in a few scenes so we know but other characters don't know about it. 

'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge'  represent women very differently in terms of showing them in a stereotypical way or interestingly different. 'The Bridge' represent women depending on their character, for example, the main character Saga Norén is suggested, but never stated, to have Asperger's syndrome, she is portrayed as completely oblivious to social norms, but a brilliant and devoted police investigator because it makes her character more interesting by breaking the ordinary stereotypical of women but Natalie Anker, the wife of the victim is a stereotypical woman of being overly emotional and weak. However, 'Life on Mars' does stereotypically represent all women as they were in 2006 and 1973, in 2006, it is mostly men in the work spaces however there are a few women, one example is Maya Roy, Sam Tyler's partner who takes danger into her own hands however she ends up becoming a victim of another crime showing that she is weak even though she tried to be brave, in 1973, there is basically no women to be found in work areas unless its a feminine job. Women are stereotypically represented even more as their either a housewife or works a traditional female job but Annie Cartwright who is Police Constable which is quite a rare job for women in 1970's is portrayed as strong and independent but the men in 1973 still don't treat her positively as they objectify her and push her around as men didn't like females working 'men jobs' in 1973. Liesbet Van Zoonen's feminist theory of the idea that gender is constructed through discourse, and that it's meaning varies according to cultural and historical context, meaning that because 'The Bridge' and 'Life on Mars' is set in different times, they represent women differently, and in 'Life on Mars' they had men sexually objectify women as that's what men actually did in the 1970's whereas ;The Bridge; is modern and represents women of the contemporary time which definitely has more variation of women.

Both 'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge' use similar narrative structures. Firstly, 'Life on Mars' starts off with Sam struggling to figure out a crime while looking quite depressed like he doesn't want to to this job anymore, then he is sent to 1973, throughout the whole series, he sorts out problems he had in 2006 like loving his job again and being good at it again, while getting new problems but sorts them out in each episode, then the end of series 1 is him waking up and killing himself so he can return to 1973 which is his new life now. 'The Bridge' starts off with Saga who is very good at her job but not good with social skills, she gets a new partner who doesn't like her but gets replaced anyway because of an accident. Saga's new partner Hendrik helps her solve the crime for the whole of series 3 until they do solve it and sort it out, however the crime brought back some bad history for Saga and caused her to try to kill herself but Hendrik stopped her as he needs her to find his missing kids. They end up falling in love for the end of the series. Both 'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge' follow Todorov's narrative structure which starts off with equilibrium which is their life with many problems, then the disruption which is a big problem or change which effects the main character a lot but they sort it out which actually sorts out most of their previous problems leading to their new equilibrium, their new life with no problems or new problems.

The two crime dramas, 'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge' use open endings as both end with the story continuing to the next episode and still many unanswered enigmas at the end. 'Life on Mars' finishes with Sam still being in 1973 with not many questions answered and the investigation carrying through to the next episode, same with 'The Bridge', as it ends with the investigation still going on, with new characters and enigmas. Both crime dramas are restricted meaning that both 'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge' let the audience know all of what the main character knows and maybe some extra information that the other characters don't know. Most scenes in the two crime dramas are Sam Tyler and Saga Norén as we are following them so we would know as much as them but there are a few scenes where the main character isn't in and we find out a bit more. For the first episode, both dramas seem linear as there are no flashbacks however 'Life on Mars' could be considered non linear as he goes back in time however we don't see much of 2006 so anything that happens so far in 1973 is linear and 'The Bridge' is realistic so they keep it linear. Both are also multi-stranded meaning they both have multiple plotlines, In 'Life on Mars' we have the modern plot but isn't as important, in 1973 we have the plot of Sam Tyler figuring out if this is all real or not and the main plot of solving the crimes in 1973. In 'The Bridge', you have the main plotline of the crimes and investigation, another plotline with Henrik Sabroe and his wife and smaller plotlines like Lise Frise Anderson and her life.

Enigmas are used frequently in 'The Bridge' and 'Life on Mars' to keep the narrative alive and entices the audience to continue their interest with the plot. The first enigma of 'The Bridge' is why has the murderer set out a scene like this and who is it. There will always be lots of questions about the main case but also about the characters as well, if the viewer hasn't watched the first two series then they would have more questions like why does Saga Norén act like that for example. 'The Bridge' has more enigmas but the most effective enigma in episode 1 which keeps the viewers watching is the cliff-hanger at the end with Hendrik becoming Saga's new partner and us as the audience wonder why he wants to work on the case which is actually an enigma for the whole series and is finally answered at the end. 'Life on Mars' starts off with many enigmas as it puts you straight into an action scene with no explanation, the audience slowly figures out what is going on but still with questions like who is the real suspect as their chosen suspect isn't the right one. Then 'Life on Mars' throw more enigmas at the audience as Sam travels to 1973 creating questions like why and how is he there and many more with many of them being only answered till the end of the series. Again, like 'The Bridge', the most effective enigma in the episode 1 is the cliff-hanger where Sam is tricked into thinking its all fake and he can get out by killing himself however Annie talks him out of it confusing Sam but also the audience as no one knows if is real, fake and something else. This is all supported by Roland Barthes theory that enigma codes are designated to help understanding structuralism of narrative, meaning without enigmas then, one, the narrative would be less interesting for the audience and two, keeps the audience actually watching as we cant just stop watching while we have all these questions in our head.

THE BRIDGE : Introduction to the programme and earlier series

The Bridge is one of the most popular of the Nordic Noir crime dramas that were made in Scandinavia and broadcast globally, with a large British audience. The setting is the bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden and it often features as a setting as well as a metaphor or iconic object.

Saga Norén is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Danish/Swedish TV series The Bridge. Saga is introduced as a member of the Malmö County Police Department in the first episode of the series. Suggested, but never stated, to have Asperger's syndrome, she is portrayed as completely oblivious to social norms, but a brilliant and devoted police investigator. Her poor social skills, her difficulty in empathizing and her inability to channel her emotions make her appear cold, insensitive and blunt but she is completely honest and forthright in all aspects.

In the first two series, she develops an unlikely friendship with Danish cop Martin Rohde, who is in many ways her complete opposite. In the third series she has another Danish detective, Henrik Sabroe, as her partner, who understands her complex nature and accepts her for who she is. Lindhardt says that: "Henrik is a man who has lost everything and he needs somebody like her who does not judge him." 

Little is known about Saga's background at first, although in the second series, Martin looks into her family history, discovering that her sister Jennifer committed suicide. In the third series, her mother appears at her apartment, telling her that her father is on his deathbed, and wishes to see her. Saga refuses, but Marie-Louise persists in trying to rebuild their relationship. 

When she is first introduced, Saga has almost no personal life; her spare time is shown to be largely spent alone; she is seen reading a book in her apartment in the second episode, and several other episodes have her making references to things that she has read. It is shown that she partially uses books to try and better understand social conventions, often unsuccessfully. 

Due to Saga's devotion to police work, she does not have many out-of-work relationships, preferring one-night stands such as Anton from the first series and initially Henrik in series three. It is revealed later in the first series that she has always lived alone, except for a period when she lived with her younger sister.

Series 1

When a body, apparently cut in half at the waist, is discovered in the middle of the Øresund Bridge, which connects Copenhagen with Malmö, placed precisely on the border between the two countries, the investigation falls under the jurisdiction of both the Danish and Swedish police agencies. It is not one corpse but two halves of two separate women: the upper-half being that of a female Swedish politician, the lower-half being that of a Danish prostitute. 

Saga Norén from Sweden and Martin Rohde from Denmark lead the murder investigations. Martin has had a vasectomy. August, the nineteen-year-old son from his first marriage is now living with Martin and Mette, his current wife, with whom Martin has three children. Mette discovers that she is expecting another set of twins. 

The investigation quickly escalates as a journalist, Daniel Ferbé, whose car was used in the crime, begins receiving phone calls. The caller, who becomes known as the "Truth Terrorist", claims to be committing crimes in order to draw attention to various social problems. A social worker, Stefan Lindberg is an early suspect; his estranged sister Sonja is a poisoning victim. 

Working together, the Danish and Swedish police conclude that the killer must have a connection with them. After the killer has murdered several people, his true motivation begins to seem personal. They discover that he has been planning his campaign over a period of several years. 

In the midst of the investigation, Martin has an affair with one of the victims of the Truth Terrorist during a home visit. This affair reaches Mette, who ousts Martin from the Rhode residence. 

The ties between all the Truth Terrorist's targets are pinpointed to an ex Danish police officer, Jens Nielsen, who has supposedly killed himself. This spirals into the fact that Jens is still alive, masquerading as Mette's colleague under false pretences along with using plastic surgery. Jens has meticulously crafted a plan of revenge for Martin, after Martin cheated on his wife several years prior. The subsequent death of Jens's wife and children on the bridge in an accident leads Jens to believe that Martin is the one to blame. 

As the investigation is seemingly wrapped up, Jens kidnaps Mette and Martin's children (sans August), forcing Martin to save them. Back in Denmark, Saga uncovers that the real target is August, who Jens catfishes to gain access to information about the case and his location. Jens kidnaps August and traps him in a coffin. 

A standoff occurs between Martin and Jens on the bridge, with Jens planning to blow himself up. As Saga arrives, Martin demands Saga to state if August is alive. However, August has been killed. Upon hearing this, Martin attempts to kill Jens, but Saga wounds the both of them. The series ends as Martin grieves in the hospital and Saga drives back to Sweden.

The Bridge Genre Analysis

Nordic noir, also known as Scandinavian noir, is a genre of crime fiction usually written from a police point of view and set in Scandinavia or Nordic countries. Plain language avoiding metaphor and set in bleak landscapes results in a dark and morally complex mood, depicting a tension between the apparently still and bland social surface and the murder, misogyny, rape, and racism it depicts as lying underneath. Some critics attribute the genre's success to a distinctive and appealing style, "realistic, simple and precise... and stripped of unnecessary words". Their protagonists are typically morose detectives or ones worn down by cares and far from simply heroic. In this way, the protagonists' lives cast a light on the flaws of society, which are beyond the crime itself. This is associated with how this genre often tackles a murder mystery that is linked with several storylines and themes such as the investigation of the dark underbelly of modern society. A description of Nordic noir cited that it is typified by a dimly lit aesthetic, matched by a slow and melancholic pace, as well as multi-layered storylines. It often features a mix of bleak naturalism and disconsolate locations, with a focus on the sense of place where bad things can happen. The works also owe something to Scandinavia's political system where the apparent equality, social justice, and liberalism of the Nordic model is seen to cover up dark secrets and hidden hatreds. 

The term "nordic noir" is also applied to films and television series in this genre, both adaptations of novels and original screenplays. Notable examples are The Killing, The Bridge, Trapped, Bordertown and Marcella. Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, for example, deals with misogyny and rape, while Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers focuses on Sweden's failure to integrate its immigrant population.