Background research & Objective

Background Research

The television series, Gossip Girl was first originated from the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. It was then developed from a novel base story to a hit popular television series by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Gossip Girl basically stories about the lives and romances of fortunate teenagers attending a leading private school in New York’s Upper East Side, followed by their lives through their graduation and moving on to college. The target audience of Gossip Girl is mainly the teenagers and young adults. However, the show is known to have received some very negative feedbacks especially about the culture that is portrayed on screen. One of the aspects of this negative culture is the amount of materialism that is displayed through the characters on the television series. As an example, most of the girls from the Upper East Side are more into branded goods and they travel all over around the world with their private jet planes.

The story revolves around Serena van der Woodsen who is best friends with Blair Waldorf in the series. At the beginning, conflict happened between them. Serena van der Woodsen is said to be having affairs with Blair’s boyfriend. Nate Archibald, a guy whom Blair was dating at that period of time. Blair whose mother, Eleanor Waldorf owns the brand “Eleanor Waldorf” which was said to be a famous designer brand in the series spends most of the time on work. Nate Archibald and Chuck Bass are also good buddies themselves. They all come from wealthy family backgrounds and they live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

On the other hand, Daniel Humphrey and Jenny Humphrey who are siblings came from Brooklyn. Rufus Humphrey, who’s the father, sends them both to educate in Constance Billiard School which is where the main casts of the story meets each other. Daniel and Jenny Humphrey were often looked down by the other teenagers in school because most of them were from rich families.

I think Gossip Girl influences many teenagers in Malaysia. For example, the way they dress. For one period of time, everyone was dressing like Blair from Gossip Girl. Her signature hair band for instance. Most local shops and online shops were selling them. My objective is to study how the television series influences the teenagers in Malaysia.

Objective

The main objective is to study how the television series, Gossip Girl influences the teenagers in Malaysia. First and foremost, clothing and accessories. The casts in Gossip Girl often set a new trend and fashion after each episode especially in their dressings. For instance, Blair and her signature hair band as an example. Most shops were selling the inspired hair band at one period of time. Not only were our local stores, our local blog shops was selling the hair bands too. The clothes manufacturers had the chance to manufacture many inspired clothes worn by the casts from Gossip Girl.

The attitude of the casts also influences the teenagers. The western cultures are often more open-minded compared to us, eastern culture. There are certain issues that the western culture practices but we may not be able to accept it. Some of us might think that calling our dad by his full name is rude but for the western culture, they might not think it that way. Some of them are used to calling their parents by their name.

The love and sex which were shown in the television series has obviously brought a bad influence to all audience especially the younger generations. Gossip Girl has often received critics by the viewers for the explicit scenes from underage drinking to sexual threesome. This would have leaded the teenagers to repeat the same doing as them.

Vivian Tan