REGIONAL IDENTITY
I watched both the first episodes of Made in Chelsea and The Only Way Is Essex and noticed a strong difference in their regional identity.
In Made in Chelsea, there seems to be some slight sense of competition to be the most classy, wealthy etc. The characters I saw were engaging in activity stereotypically viewed as for the rich. This would include Polo. Furthermore, the establishing shot at the beginning of the episode showed us where they live, which is the upper class side of London. This automatically shows us that they are rich. The music played throughout the episode is played by an orchestra. The males and females that are presented to us are wearing designer labels and the shops they shop in are all exclusive or expensive. This clearly shows their class as being high. Since we do not see them working and only enjoying luxuries, I can assume that they come from money and have wealthy families.
In The Only Way Is Essex, we are shown things that oppose Made in Chelsea. Firstly, the way they speak and the words their use are very contrasting. For example, in Made in Chelsea, they are very well spoken and do not use any slang or abbreviation. However, in TOWIE, the characters we see use words such as "Birds". This could portray a less classy setting. Further opposing Made in Chelsea, the music played in TOWIE is pop music you would hear on the radio, I heared them play Frisky by Tinie Tempa. The shots of Essex we see look much less classy than it does in Made In Chelsea. Rather than shown big designer shops, we are shown high street salons. Lastly, the clothes we see the characters of TOWIE wear are much less sophisticated than they are in Made in Chelsea. We see the men wear baggy jeans and hoodies and the women wear unlabelled tshirts and jeans with a lot of makeup. Both the males and females in TOWIE are evidently wearing alot of fake tan.
Overwll, although the cast of both Made in Chelsea and The Only Way Is Essex are from the same country, the fact they are from different cities is clearly presented through their regional identity.
Another example of regional identity in a programme could be in Gossip Girl season 2 episode 11 when it is thanksgiving and the White American Families are all coming together to celebrate traditions of their country and the Polsih Maid, Derrota, is alone and wants to go and feed the ducks because something so small like that is what makes her thankful and happy. This shows regional identity because it shows how someone from a less privileged family who has had to come over to work for another family is very lonely and nowhere near as selfish or greedy as the upper class American, white family.
