SMST10206B: Media and Society 2006

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SMST102-06B Media and Society 2006

• Geoff Lealand
• Audiences and the Audience Business Film and
  Television

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The Film Audience and The Television Audience

• The audiences for film and the audiences for
  television are constructed and described in
  markedly different ways ie box officefilm
  audiences ratingstelevision audiences. This is
  a consequence of
• The nature of the medium
• The nature of the audience

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The Cinema Experience

• public, time-tabled event
• formal, social ritual
• fee payment
• single, coherent text
• cinematic/rhetorical mode of address
• audience gaze
• larger than life (MS LS)
• past tense (record)
• The audience as temporary phenomenon
  (non-permanent)
• box office as audience measurement
• OHT New Zealand box office

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The Television Experience

• private, domesticated flow
• casual or habitual use
• free or subscription
• segmentation and continuity
• cinematic mode of address direct address
• audience glance
• life size (MS CU)
• past tense present tense (live)
• Permanent, continuous audience
• ratings audience ethnography as audience
  measurement
• New Zealand television ratings

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but it is not always a simple dichotomy

• Television and film have a long-established,
  mutually-beneficial relationship eg films on TV
  films based on TV shows (Miami Vice, 2006)
• These days, the most talented playwrights write
  for television. And not for cinema Lauren Bacall,
  The Independent 13/4/05
• Film has become increasingly domesticated (VCR,
  DVD) whilst TV has become increasingly public (eg
  TV in pubs and shopping malls TV to mobile
  phones)
• cinema has become highly age-specific (target
  demographics), whilst TV continues to service
  both broad (mass) audiences niche audiences

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academic analysis and criticism

• As a result of the marked differences in the
  audience experiences of film and television,
  academic analysis and criticism has tended to
  take different route, in respect of both.

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Film

• Emphasis has been on textual analysis (eg
  narrative or stylistic elements), historical
  analysis (eg film history, censorship) or
  examinations of production (eg the studio system,
  the film star, national cinemas)
• The temporary, difficult nature of film audiences
  has led to a long neglect of this aspect of film,
  with a continuing dependence on the b.o. as the
  dominant model of audience behaviour OHT
• Film analysis remains strongly influenced by its
  antecedents (literary theory, cultural theory)

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Television

• Emphasis has been social, cultural, political
  and economic impact(eg political economy,
  effects research the relationship of audiences
  to both the medium and content)
• Access to identified, measurable audiences has
  privileged reception studies over textual
  analysis
• Television analysis has been primarily influenced
  by cultural theory--particularly by theories of
  popular culture

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• Nevertheless, it is possible--and instructive--to
  apply established methods of film analysis and
  structural analysis eg semiotics, narrative,
  genre, to television
• more of this in SMST216 Television Medium,
  Narrative and Audience

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Television Models of the Audience (1)

• Institutional Models
• Ratings (Peoplemeter self-reporting)
• Ratings are a myth we all believe in.
• (Bettina Hollings, former TV3 scheduler)
• Audience demographics (eg Household Shoppers)
• The audience discourse (eg Your news, We bring
  you the news, Welcome back etc)

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Television Models of the Audience (2)

• Academic Models
• The effects model Assumptions of uniform,
  predictable effects on individual viewers,
  through a one-way process (ie sender--message--rec
  eiver)
• Uses Gratifications Emphasis on what individual
  viewers do with television (rather on what
  television does to viewers)
• Encoding/decoding model (closely aligned to
  Reception studies) Meaning and understanding is a
  consequence of negotiation between producer
  intent and audience readings OHT

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• In academic research and writing, there has been
  a gradual shift from regarding television viewers
  as passive (or acted upon), to regarding them
  as active (or actors). In addition, there has
  been a shift from regarding viewers as automous
  individuals, to acknowledging their membership of
  social, cultural, gender, class-based groups or
  communities eg television viewing within family
  dynamics

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• Nevertheless, in the public discourse,
  simplistic, often ill-informed attitudes still
  persist eg television violence makes children
  violent.
• Such attitudes are fostered by rival media
  (especially print media), lobby/religious groups,
  some politicians.

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some final quotes

• The audience is never wrong
• Television actress Carol Burnett
• Television is the only way I know to entertain 20
  million people at one time
• Television actress Imogene Coca
• Karl Marx is wrong. Television is the opiate of
  the masses.
• Tony Follari
• Television is basically teaching whether you want
  it to or not.
• Jim Henson (The Muppet Show)
• Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover
• Homer Simpson
• Sex on television cant hurt you unless you fall
  off (anon)
• Famous last words Ive seen this done on TV