Social, cultural, historical contexts

Social context- When you have been influenced or affected by events in society e.g. family births/ deaths.
Historical context- Being influenced or affected by something that has happened in the past e.g. world war, terror attack, new president.
Cultural context- Being influenced or affected by aspects of culture e.g. music, clothing, religion.


What is a social, historical, cultural context and how it might influence a media text (cuffs)? 10marks

Historical context have massively influenced 'cuffs'. In 2013 same sex marriage was legalised in the UK, only a year later the first same sex marriage took place in the UK. Cuffs was written just before 2015 illustrating to us that the writer and editors may have been influenced by the current events of the time. This is presented to us by white British character Jake, who is gay, which relates well to the fact that gay marriage was legalised around the same time. Jake, being an openly gay character, takes pride in his sexuality and feels he doesn't have to hide it anymore as same sex marriage has now been legalised in the UK.

Social context has also affected 'cuffs'. In 2014 in the UK 76% of people who attempted suicide were male whereas on 24% were female. In the extract Lauren's dad tried to commit suicide while in the hotel before the detective police officer came and stopped him, before this the police officer asked Lauren's mum is he had any mental health issues, in which she replied by telling him he has depression. By putting this in cuffs the editors and film creators are proving the statistic right and showing the unthinkable effects off depression and how it is massively underestimated or misdiagnosed.





What is a social, historical, cultural context and how might it influence a media text?

Social, historical and cultural context all refer to something that affects our life, these 3 concepts have and will continue to influence and shape aspects of media texts forever. These may include: setting, character, language and clothing which reflect the time period and social group they are talking about.

Social contexts reflect society and what is happening when the media text is being produced. Britain has seen a major rise in terrorism which influences  media text producers and directors to include social reality in their films, which may also relate to the rise in stereotyping people from middle eastern descent such as muslims being labelled as terrorists.

To help lower the statistics of terrorism in Britain film makers can easily portray the outcome of these inhumane events which in hope will make people more aware of what is going on in society today and send a request to anyone who is willing to help stop it.