To what extent do television producers attempt to target national and global audiences through subject matter and distribution?
Refer to both of your television Close Study Products to support your answer:
Capital and Deutschland 83
OR
Witnesses and The Missing
OR
No Offence and The Killing
Capital (UK):
• commissioned and originally broadcast by the BBC which gives the
series brand identity internationally – particularly through its
subsidiaries BBC America and BBC Worldwide
• Kudos, the independent producer of the series, specialises in TV
series which can be sold or remade for the US market, making it
typical of contemporary media institutions which operate globally
rather than nationally
• Freemantle (international production and distribution company), Pivot
TV (US) and BBC Worldwide all in deals to distribute the series
globally
• promoted in the UK as a ‘state of the nation’ event series
• themes and setting are also constructed to appeal to an international
audience: setting includes recognizable London iconography, familiar
to an international audience from film and TV. Themes span the
domestic and global – family melodrama, romance as well as
reference to the economic crash, terrorism and migration
• the series combines the national style of social realism with the
generic conventions of the crime drama and the focus on a crime to
be solved
• multi-cultural, multinational cast of characters address an international
audience with diverse cultural experiences
Deutschland 83 (Germany):
• distributed by Freemantle, a British production and distribution
company, subsidiary of RTL media, a global company which is
designed to target an international audience
• it is a co-production of AMC Networks, SundanceTV (US) and RTL
Television (German and American), positioning it to exploit the
national and global market
• AMC and RTL 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
• focuses on German – and European – history and politics
• the cast of relative unknowns – even in the country of production – were still used to promote the series through the focus on young,
visually appealing male and female leads
• themes and setting are constructed to appeal to an international
audience through the familiar narrative tropes of an ‘innocent abroad’
and the “Romeo and Juliet” romance. The series is visually stylish
using a familiar postmodern style which exploits the current popularity
of retro styles in fashion and music
• exploitation of social media; part of the Sundance TV marketing
strategy was the use of historical sliders, live tweeting of the
programme by the actress who played the lead character, playlists of
1980s music linked to Spotify and through Twitter account.
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 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
• how media organisations reflect the different needs of mass and
specialised audiences, including through targeting.
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
• how media organisations reflect the different needs of mass and
specialised audiences, including through targeting.