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

Show knowledge of the changing media regulatory landscape and the shift towards globalisation

Globalization is the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

Present your own CSP case studies (with institutional details) as illustrations and explorations of this issue

Deutschland – Co-produced by Sundance TV and RTL Television, distributed by Freemantle that has global recognition

Capital – By BBC and conglomerate of Kudos (large US market), Public Service Broadcaster of UK Endemol Shine UK

Highlight Hesmondhalgh’s propositions for the way in which the media industry mitigate this ‘risky business’.

He argues ‘Independents…provide a useful means of engaging audiences’ – Capital uses Kudos to seem as an independent company when it is actually part of the BBC. To other cultures, a German/American company may seem independent.

‘reduces risk by recycling archived material’ – Using 80’s setting such as 99Luftballons gives nostalgia to those in the 80’s

‘The use of sequels..are deployed to maximise audience engagament

They migate risky business by:

• Both are on popular streaming services through amazon prime and channel 4
• Deutschland- Reinhold heil- uses German musician created soundtrack- soundtrack is also on spotify – horizontal integration

Touch upon Currant and Seaton’s arguments for a more diverse media landscape.

They are media pluralists –

‘the pursuit of mass audience appeal…[produces] format-driven products’ – suggest that companies want to appeal to main audience and so create similar products – both are spy/mystery orientated to please global audiences.

‘profit-driven motives take precedent over creativity’ – large companies rather make profit and so attempt to target mainstream audiences – by using repetitive narratives as the spy genre is overpopulated.

Present your CSP case studies (with specific textual reference) as examples that either support or refute Curran and Seaton’s ideas.

Coupled with some reference to audience theory.

Two Step Flow Model

Conclude your essay with a summative paragraph.

both the missing and witnesses target similar audiences with similar strategies for example when looking at Young and Rubicam’s psychographic descriptors both TV episodes are targeting the struggler personality that is motivated by escapism needs as they both provide the audience with an escape from their own life.

the missing

in terms of the theory of preferred reading the missing is much more successful in targeting a wider global audience due to the mix of languages used and foreign settings however in an oppositional reading this can be found as off-putting for English audiences as having to read subtitles gives the audience extra work to do when they are attempting to relax ad gain a sense of escapism.

witnesses

in terms of the theory of preferred reading for witnesses the dominant reading is that it can reach a global audience due to the use of subtitles and translated titles however similarly to the missing the language barrier and use of subtitles can be offputting to the audience.

Two step flow model- Walter presents- opinion leader

Uses and Gratifications- social interaction, entertainment, escapism- developed for audience satisfaction

hall- encoding decode,theory of preferred reading Deutschland- white audience

Cultivation Theory- Gerbner- television shapes the way individuals within society think and relate to each other- ‘watching television over time adds up to our perception of the world around us‘ 

capital- post colonial, hall

 Hypodermic model (passive consumption)-

• The media is spoon feeding the people what the media wants wants them to know through propaganda and messages.

Two Step Flow of Communication

“the way in which mediated messages are not directly injected into the audience, but while also subject to noise, error, feedback etc, they are also filtered through opinion leaders, those who interpret media messages first and then relay them back to a bigger audience.”

Cultivation Theory 

• the relationship between violence on television and violence in society
•  “watching television doesn’t cause a particular behavior, but instead watching television over time adds up to our perception of the world around us” 

• Audience is an important element to consider when creating/distributing media products. This is because the media need to know who their target audience is and what they need to do in order to reach this target audience
• The Missing and Witnesses have a target audience of people who are into crime dramas so the producers will try do distribute their products where this audience will see the products
• By following the genre conventions of a crime genre (often includes a murder of an innocent victim in an isolated setting) people like to watch these sorts of shows so there will generally be a large following for The Missing and Witnesses as people enjoy watching crime dramas.
• Uses and gratifications theory can be considered here as people’s needs need to be met in order for people to enjoy a show or movie. An audience may watch The Missing or Witnesses as it doesn’t reflect real life and are fictional TV shows; this will create a sense of escapism for the audience as they can relax and watch something that doesn’t resemble real life. They can suspend their disbelief and just enjoy watching something for a while
• Trailers are used to draw in an audience and to get people excited about a show or movie that will come out soon, this will create a sense of mystery for an audience and will make people want to watch the movie or show more as they have seen the trailer and will want to know what will happen

Cultivation Theory

• George Gurbner created this theory named cultivation theory which suggests that people who are regularly exposed to something over and over again, the longer someone sees this the more likely they will be to agree with what they’re seeing or being told
• For example, the more people watch crime dramas then the more likely they will be to like this genre so will continue to watch shows within this genre.
• If you are watching a series and you aren’t sure if you like it or not, if you continue to watch it then you will be more likely to start enjoying a show
• Say someone didn’t enjoy the first episode of The Missing because they don’t really want to watch a TV show that’s based in a foreign country and based off a missing child, they could continue watching the show to see if they would start to like it more

Witnesses

Guest Diversity- it presents a range of different backgrounds and cultures to promote the wide range of feminist viewpoints. This links to witnesses because of the female detective, who is trying to solve the case and find out who is committing the crimes. It has diversity as there are many languages but it is mainly in french.

Commercial Media

it is an organisation that makes or distributes products for economic gain. Commercial media usually makes products for entertainment purpose

Public Service Broadcasting

a media producer who is not reliant on advertising to fund production made by different or does not make products for commercial gain. Public service broadcasting products usually seek to inform and educate their audiences as well as entertain

Horizontal Integration

ownership of subsidiaries that produce similar types of products

e.g The Missing because it is filmed in places such as Germany, Belgium, France etc

Vertical Intergration

ownership of subsidiaries that enable a media producer to produce, promote and distribute products.

e.g Witnesses because it goes through Acorn Production to Amazon Prime, so viewers are able to view who have this subscription.

Star Formatting

Star Formatting is when an organisation who is producing a product, includes well known stars in that industry to gain attention from viewers. This is seen in The Missing because the main detective is named “Baptiste” who is a french well known actor.

Internationalization

Internationalization is the process by which the ownership, structure, production, distribution, or content of a country’s media is influenced by foreign media interests, culture and markets.”This is seen in The Missing because there are many languages and cultural involved such as Morocco, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and a bit in London. This is also seen in Witnesses because it is a french series which then viewed in the US and later in the UK

Genre Formatting

Genre formatting is promoting products using the genre which helps audiences to understand the narrative satisfactions that a product can offer prior to consumption. This is seen by the advertisement in The Missing where a lot of advertisement was done prior to the release of the program such as in articles and blog posts of the story line and genre of the show

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

The difference is that a consumer based media regulation system is giving people what they want and a citizen based regulation system is thinking about what would be better for culture and society. Example the BBC- license fee. Consumers might not what to pay if they are not interested in what is playing.

What impact did the 2003 Communications Act have on media regulation?

It promoted independent television production by requiring the BBC and Channel 4 to commission more content from smaller production companies. It was to help UK television industry which they did not achieve. It introduced Off com and they made more commercial programs such as detective and crime programs. The 2003 communications act did not have a positive effect on the media regulation

What is the drawback of a Self-Regulated System?

The drawbacks are it is not a successful factor, it lacks sufficient strict and dissuasive measures. Accordingly, the many problems and challenges in the practice of media self-regulation, in general, and press councils. It is often have to face severe criticism is obviously not new.

Lazarsfield- 2 Step Flow

It was developed by Lazarsfield together with Eihu Katz in the book Personal Influence (1955). It is a model hypothesis that ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders (certain individuals) and from them to the wider population. It recognizes that most people watch media as part of a social network. The disadvantage is communications may involve many steps, not just two. Communication moves both ways, not just one.  Their opinion is not influenced by other factors, the message they receive from the mass media is not filtered by the OL. There is only one source. The audience is passive.

When looking at Paul Lazarfeld for my TV programmes it is possible to see Amazon Prime and other on-line entertainment delivery services as mass targeted, transnational algorithms that work as opinion leaders for individual consumers, beyond linguistic, geographic and cultural boundaries to suggest new programmes for consumption, usually based on a ‘match-rating’ from previous purchases.

CATEGORY	FAMILIARITIES: from your chosen CSP’s	DIFFERENCES: from your chosen CSP’s	THEORY
CHARACTERS	In the Missing & Witnesses the main detectives have a ‘natural’ instinct and ethics for law and order / good and bad	In the Missing & Witnesses the main detective is not the typical ‘male hero’ Missing French, old, retired, limping. In Witnesses young, bold, female, French, immigrant, single mother	PROPP, presents the idea of STOCK CHARACTERS, inc ‘hero’, ‘false hero’, ‘princess’ (Witnesses), ‘father figure’, ‘despatcher’ (Missing)
NARRATIVE		Missing = son goes missing Witnesses = murder of a child	CHATMAN / FREYTAG /TODOROV
THEMES			LEVI-STRAUSS the use of key themes to structure stories and characters around familiar themes: family, community, law and order, justice. Often set up as binary oppostions: right/wrong urban/rural, young/old, good/bad
REPRESENTATION			PIERCE / BARTHES / SAUSSURE: SEMIOTICS radical and reactionary representations of police, family, law and order, through a range of signs (visual, graphic, audio, narrative, thematic etc)
TECHNICAL CODES / LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE (music, setting, props, lighting, use of camera, editing etc)