We prove lower semicontinuity in
L
1
Ω
for a class of functionals
G
:
B
V
Ω
⟶
ℝ
of the form
G
u
=
∫
Ω
g
x
,
∇
u
d
x
+
∫
Ω
ψ
x
d
D
s
u
where
g
:
Ω
×
ℝ
N
⟶
ℝ
,
Ω
⊂
ℝ
N
is open and bounded,
g
·
,
p
∈
L
1
Ω
for each
p
,
satisfies the linear growth condition
lim
p
⟶
∞
g
x
,
p
/
p
=
ψ
x
∈
C
Ω
∩
L
∞
Ω
,
and is convex in
p
depending only on
p
for a.e.
x
.
Here, we recall for
u
∈
B
V
Ω
; the gradient measure
D
u
=
∇
u
d
x
+
d
D
s
u
x
is decomposed into mutually singular measures
∇
u
d
x
and
d
D
s
u
x
. As an example, we use this to prove that
∫
Ω
ψ
x
α
2
x
+
∇
u
2
d
x
+
∫
Ω
ψ
x
d
D
s
u
is lower semicontinuous in
L
1
Ω
for any bounded continuous
ψ
and any
α
∈
L
1
Ω
.
Under minor addtional assumptions on
g
, we then have the existence of minimizers of functionals to variational problems of the form
G
u
+
u
−
u
0
L
1
for the given
u
0
∈
L
1
Ω
,
due to the compactness of
B
V
Ω
in
L
1
Ω
.