Hesmondhalgh

HesmondhalghCase Studies
maximizing costs and minimizing risks – horizontal and vertical integration Capital -> produced by KUDOS which is a part of news corp, horizontally integrated through partnering with BBC for broadcasting and production
SerializationCompanies are likely to continue serials if they are successful as it minimizes risks of losing out on profits. For example Deutschland 83 has 3 seasons and one sequel from 2018 ‘Deutschland 86’
Star Formatting The use of popular stars in order to lure in a certain audience that possibly enjoys seeing that particular star. Capital uses a famous actor called Toby Jones, who is likely to reel in a certain audience to the show

Hesmonhalgh & TV

Star formatting – foregrounding of star power in order to gain an audience – Sarah Lund (The Killing)

Genre formatting – genre is the category of a certain type of media (film, book, etc..), the format is how the genre is structured – crime, mystery, thriller, drama (The Killing)

Steralisation – includes a prequel/sequel – No Offence has 3 seasons and The Killing has 4

Multi-sector integration – vertical & horizontal integration – The Killing was originally shown on DR (a Danish broadcasting corporation) but is now available on Amazon Prime and BBC (and was shown on Netflix)

Hesmondhalgh theory

TheoryQuoteKilling / No offence
The media is a high risk business“the cultural industries constitute a particularly risky business”cultural references, ie locations filmed in, native language/actors
Media businesses rely on changing audiences consumption“audience tastes continuously adapt making it difficult to produce material that guarantees satisfaction”The Killing was originally an American Tv show, DR (Dutch) and ZDF Enterprises (German) made their own version
Remakes“the media industry further reduces risk by recycling archived material that has enjoyed successes” ^
The media is resilient on marketing functions“controlling messages delivered by reviewers or publicity partners of other companies is very difficult”

Hesmondhalgh

  1. Read the Hesmondhalgh H/O
  2. Fill in the table on Hesmondhalgh
  3. Read the Livingstone and Lunt H/O (think about the 3 questions)
  1. Hesmondhalgh
  2. Livingstone-and-Lunt

Q: What is the difference between a consumer based media regulation system and a citizen based regulation system?

Consumer oriented regulation encourages media plurality and diversity. It is designed to offer a broad range of content, ideas, opinions and icons to its audiences. On the other hand, a citizen based regulation system focuses on the continuity of accuracy and that programmes deal with issues in a fair and objective manner. Civic-minded media providers also ensure not only to entertain their audiences but also to inform and educate them.

Consumer based – content produced FOR the audiences. Media makers are given a lot of freedom to make media that audiences want to consume.

Citizen-based regulation – where media producers make content that contributes to social and cultural health of the societies in which they operate.

What impact according to Livingston and Lunt did the 2003 Communications Act have on media regulation –

  • Promoted independent television production by requiring the BBC and Channel 4 to commission more content from smaller production companies.
  • Although this led to the production of content and media that was more commercially viable, it also resulted in the production of programming that lacks civic-minded interest or republicanism.
  • Communications Act introduced OFCOM, OFCOM tried to ensure that independent media organisations didn’t dominate (good). e.g Capital was produced by the BBC and Kudos. However, Kudos is owned by Endemol and another large conglomerate. In reality Kudos isn’t a small company and is part of a larger structure.

Q. What is the drawback of a self-regulated system?

It doesn’t work.

Céspedes Family BBQ on Twitter: "It's like the Spiderman meme, except with  the best players in baseball… "
Self-Regulation

Less government control means that media organisations are mostly free to create their own ‘codes of conduct’ which can vary drastically. Self-regulation is reliable as companies are unlikely to ‘own-up’ to something that may be deemed offensive by some. Neo-liberalist culture.

Q. How do you regulate media content and organisations on a global scale?

You don’t.

One way to regulate media is to regulate technology alongside media as technology currently cannot be regulated.

HesmondhalghCapitalDeutschland 83
Changing audience consumption patternsThe representation of multiple identities, cultures and people of different socio-economic statuses will allow for a broad demographic composed of multiple different people to relate or be interested/ attracted to the show. The show incorporates features of multiple genres such as crime, mystery but also contains some elements of humour. (It is a co-production of AMC Networks’ SundanceTV and RTL Television by the production company, UFA Fiction, with international distribution by RTL Group’s FremantleMedia International and North American distribution by Kino Lorber). As the show was originally aired in America, the audience consumption pattern may be diverted to more foreign produced or related shows.
Multi-Sector IntegrationKudos Film & Television Company. Kudos was  Formed in 1992, since 2007 it has been part of the Shine Group. In 2007 it also set up the film unit, Kudos Pictures. In 2011, the Shine Group was 100% acquired by News Corporation[1] and was part of the 50-50 joint-venture Endemol Shine Group. On 3 July 2020, France-based Banijay Group bought the studio through former’s acquisition of Endemol Shine Group. It has produced television series for the BBCITVChannel 4SkyAmazon and Netflix UFA Fiction was created through the merger of the UFA subsidiaries teamWorxPhoenix Film and UFA Fernsehproduktion in the context of a restructuring of UFA and the strategic goal to bundle all companies under one brand in the future. AMC Networks Inc. is an American entertainment company headquartered, Deutschland 83 is a co-production of AMC Networks’ SundanceTV and RTL Television. AMC operates the cable channels AMC (its eponymous brand), IFCWe TVBBC America (through a joint venture with BBC Studios), and SundanceTV; the art house movie theater IFC Center in New York City; the independent film companies IFC Films and RLJE Films; and premium streaming services Sundance Now and Shudder. In addition, the company operates AMC Networks International, its global division.
Star formattingToby Jones is a fairly well know British actor, appearing in productions such as Captin America, Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. Therefore, with him as one of the main characters in Capital, with an already developed following and reputation, many would be attracted to watch the show initially because he is in it. Jonas Nay ([ˈjoːnas naɪ], born 20 September 1990) is a German actor and musician known for starring as Martin Rauch in Deutschland 83, the first German-language TV series shown on American television, and its sequels, Deutschland 86 and Deutschland 89. As this show first aired in America, many viewers many have been persuaded to watch some of the other shows or films the actor has appeared in.
Genre based formattingLabelled as – Crime Drama and Social Realism Labelled as – Drama, Romance, Thriller
SerialisationCapital is a three-part British television adaptation of John Lanchester’s novel Capital.  Those who were fans of the original novel means that the show already has some form of audience, even prior to its production and release on the adaption. The Sequals to Deutschland 83 are Deutschland 86 and 89, via these latter productions, an audience has already been created therefore, limiting advertisement costs whilst increasing profits through consumers.
Independent Stylising For Capital, however, there is a less noticeable aesthetic due to broad range of characters. However, one common theme aside from the postcards, would be the cinematography and how the camera or audience is positioned multiple times behind characters, appearing to follow them, linking to the people or person who keeps sending the postcardsDeliberately shoes multiple non-stream aesthetics as the show is based in the 80s. There are two key aesthetic used to distinguish between the capitalist West, and Socialist East. Positive representation of German culture despite prejudices that may have been held due to WW2.
InternationalisationEndemol Shine Group B.V. is a production and distribution company. The show was originally commissioned for the BBC however, it is now available to purchase and watch globally on sites such as Acorn TV via Amazon Prime TV.This show was originally screen in America by the production company UFA fiction. The show was later distributed by the companies
FremantleMedia International

Kino Lorber
In Germany, Deutschland 83 began to air after the U.S. run on RTL 26 November 2015.[77] There, the series lost viewers over the course of its run; the series finale had 1.72 million viewers, or approximately half of the series premiere’s viewers. As a result, German newspaper Bild called the show “the flop of the year”.[65]
It premiered in Ireland on 29 November 2015, on RTÉ2.[78] All episodes were added to Australian streaming service Stan in December 2015.[79] On 14 January 2016, the series was made available for streaming in The Netherlands via Videoland.[80]
It premiered on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 3 January 2016, with the final two episodes shown back-to-back on 14 February. It has since become the most popular foreign-language drama in the history of British television with an audience of 2.5 million viewers as of January 2016.[81]
The series was aired for Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan by BBC Persian in October 2017.

Television programmes and hesmonhalgh

Hesmondhalgh: ‘The media is a risky buisiness

How do media companies maximise profit and minimise risk.

HesmondhalghCase studies
Star formatting – Using a star to gain an audience. The Killing (Sarah Lund)
Genre based formatting – This provides familiarity for audiences The killing and no offence: Crime/police drama
Remakes – reduces risk by recycling old successful material. Provides an element of nostalgia. Using a female detective.
Independant stylising – does the product invoke a non-mainstream aestethic?No offence: Using people with downsyndrome is representation of a disabled cast.
Serialisation – Includes a prequel or sequel which maximises audience investment.No Offense: 3 series
The Killing: 3 series
Multi-sector integration – Vertical and horizontal integration are used. The killing: Originally broadcast on Danish DR1. Then on amazon prime, BBC and was on netflix.
HESMONDHALGHCASE STUDIES
Reliant upon changing audience consumption patterns No Offence – Weekly episodes
The Killing – Originally Danish but translated for foreign audiences.
Serialisation No Offence – created 3 series, the 3rd did not do as well as series 1
Genre-based formatting Both TV programmes have the same genre of true crime.
On demand servicesBoth The Killing and No Offence are available on online streaming services (Channel 4 Player & Amazon Prime)
Internationalism Both TV programmes are available in English
Creative Symbol MakersNo Offence did not do well in their 3rd season – maybe the creators didn’t have much of a say when making this season as they wanted to stick to what they knew the audience liked previously and made them successful. Not keeping up with changing audience interest.
Star FormattingNo Offence – Included stars like Will Mellor and Paul Ritter who have already made themselves known in British TV
(Mellor – Broadchurch)
(Ritter – Friday Night Dinner)

HESMONDHALGHCASE STUDIES
maximising profits and minimising risksNo Offence used the concept of serialisation as they tried to reduce risks by producing a range of series in the hope that some will be successfull.
internalisation
star formattingThe Killing uses the Canadian actor Evan bird who is best known who playing in Maps to the Stars (also gets more Canadian audiences – increasing the global internalisation of the film)
No Offence used the Irish actress, Elaine Cassisdy, who was also best known who playing the lead character in the american tv series Harpers island ( could also gain audience from Ireland )
genre-based formattingThe killing has orignally danish film, which was then reproduced into an english film. This was unabled them to reshape the “product” for a new audience, a different language (danish to english)
serialisationNo Offence created a 3rd series, however it wasn’t successful
remakes
independent labelling

HESMONDHALGH AND TV

How do media companies maximize profit and minimize risk

HESMONDHALGHDEUTSCHLAND 83 AND CAPITAL
Star formattingCapital stars Toby Jones, who goes on to star in many other different episodes that the audience may recognise.
Television HybridisationCapital is a program that is a hybridisation of crime drama with social realism
SerialismAn spin off prequel of Deutschland 83, called Deutschland 89 was released in 2020.
GlobalisationDeutschland 83 is an American-German program that was shown locally on German TV, the BBC4 and a partnership is currently being created with Netflix.
RemakesThe program is being remade with Netflix through Anna Winger on a spin off which tells the story of a Jewish woman who flees her arranged marriage and religious community to start a new life abroad.
InternationalismDeutschland 83 is a German TV program, that became very popular in America and has been translated for these purposes.
Technological AdvancementsDeutschland 83 is available on BBC 4, which is on TV as well as a website, so it can be accessed on any device.
Artificial ScarcityDeutschland 83 is only available on the local German network and BBC 4, which will make the audience go onto the channel and discover new, similar channels, thus creating more awareness of other programmes published by the media institution.
Publicity functionsCapital has been widely advertised, such as the starts were included in interviews and other media sources, such as newspapers focused very heavily on the programme.
Independent StylizingIn Deutschland 83, the Germans are presented in a very positive way, although the programme was set in 1983, way after WW1/2, where a pejorative viewpoint has been held among the Germans.

Hesmondhalgh:

  • Media businesses are reliant upon changing audience consumption patterns” – Relates to The Killing because audience consumption patterns have been changed as there is a female lead character which in a crime show was not all all common.
  • Internationalisation – Relates to The Killing because it is produced by Danish company DR and advertised as an American TV show and therefore has global audiences.
  • Independent stylising – Relates to No Offence because it is a TV show that is described as “extraordinary” and in terms of genre doesn’t fit into a box and has a mixture of British police drama, comedy and action that is often satire and/or crude in humour.
  • Television – Relates to The Killing which was broadcasted both on Satellite TV and also able to be found on Netflix.

hesmondhalgh

Star Formatting Capital-Toby Jones
Genre FormattingCapital-Crime Drama
Independent stylizing
Re-make
Key words and relation to TV shows

Star formatting: this process is hard to make someone a star but when you do you guarantee customers of the loyal fans who are simply consuming for the star

Genre Formatting: This is when you try to get consumers by luring them in with a genre to categorize their media to which they could be interested in with the pre-promise of enjoyment

Independent Stylizing: This is when the media will try to make itself more independent to which consumers who don’t like mainstream media are more likely to the consumer under the pretense that it is alternative or niche when in reality it isn’t.

Re-make: This is when you re-make a typically old shown again which was popular to try to revitalize the said media to get the consumers who would want the nostalgia aspect of the remake