stuart hall – encode -> decode

stuart hall – reception theory

two step flow model:

by paul lazarfield

• depicts audience as passive not active in that audience consumption is based on what others think

To what extent do television producers attempt to target national and global audiences and subject matter and distribution?

the missing & AUDIENCE THEORY

Media Language:

• how the different modes and language associated with different media forms communicate multiple meanings
  • the codes and conventions of media forms and products, including the processes through which media language develops as genre 
  • how audiences respond to and interpret the above aspects of media language 
  • the way media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies.

Representations:

• the processes which lead media producers to make choices about how to represent events, issues, individuals and social groups
  • the effect of social and cultural context on representations
  • how audiences respond to and interpret media representations
  • the impact of industry contexts on the choices media producers make about how to represent events, issues, individuals and social groups.

Industries:

• how media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of audiences nationally and globally
  • the relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation
  • processes of production, distribution and circulation by organisations, groups and individuals in a global context.

Audiences:

• how audiences are grouped and categorised by media industries, including by age, gender and social class, as well as by lifestyle and taste
  • how media producers target, attract, reach, address and potentially construct audiences
  • how media industries target audiences through the content and appeal of media products and through the ways in which they are marketed, distributed and circulated
  • how specialised audiences can be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and platforms

With reference to Witnesses (Les Temoins, France) and The Missing (UK).

 Witnesses (Les Temoins, France):

• product of French public service broadcaster – France 2 –  associated with quality, serious drama in continental Europe
  • France 2 were able to develop the series in the context of new opportunities for distribution and exhibition – e.g. the Walter Presents platform in the UK which is a subsidiary of C4, exploiting broadcast and digital opportunities. Series distributed in US, Australia, Europe
  • style, content and characters of the series deliberately designed to replicate international success of Nordic Noir in order to target audiences beyond the national
  • The Missing contains a mix of French regional, local identity with more familiar genre conventions and characters
  • the series was marketed using familiar (to national audiences) actors but focused on the familiar iconography of the thriller and horror aspects abroad
  • the postmodern, hyperreal style is fashionable; internationally recognizable and popular.

hyperreality – the inability to distinguish between fiction and fact (hyper-realism) – the missing

The Missing (UK):

• subject matter is both nationally specific and deals with global issues
• • BBC Worldwide, as a powerful international institution, is able to target a global audience unrelated to the national audience
  • co-production between BBC and Starz as a means of addressing audiences and extending appeal across nations
  • the second series is promoted in the context of the existing popular brand which includes the popular thriller genre and distinctive storytelling based on time slip elements (product identity)
  • the cast is balanced to be familiar and different to both national and international audiences (familiar British and French TV and film stars)
  • themes and setting are constructed to appeal to an international audience: setting Europe and the Middle East. Themes span the domestic and global – family melodrama, fictionalised reference to recent wars and themes of immigration
  • conscious exploitation of global social media landscape to create both anticipation and ongoing interest (especially Twitter: 1000 tweets a minute). – TWO STEP FLOW – PAUL LAZARFIELD – users tweeted about the show to to other people meaning there were thousands of opinion leaders to influence th general public – advertising the show.