Product: The Missing TV series (season 2 episode 1)

Media Representations:

The Missing provides a range of representational areas to explore; gender, the family, place,
issues, events, class

• Representation of place – northern Europe and the Middle East

• Feminist debates – Violence and the representation of gender. This could include the controversy around using violent crime against women as popular entertainment

Media Industries:

The Missing is the BBC’s response to the success of ITV’s Broadchurch which reintroduced the English language extended serial format to UK drama schedules following the success of foreign language series such as The Killing and the The Bridge. It is an example of co-operation between the BBC, STARZ (USA) and the Belgian government’s Tax Shelter scheme.

Media Audiences:

The production, distribution and circulation of The Missing shows how audiences can be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and platforms, moving from the national to transnational through broadcast and digital technologies

Product: Witnesses TV series (season 1 episode 1)

The production, distribution and circulation of Witnesses shows how audiences can be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and platforms, moving from the national to transnational through broadcast and digital technologies.

The advertising campaigns (trailers, websites at home and abroad) for the series demonstrate
how media producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences.

Social, political, economic and cultural contexts:

Witnesses is part of cultural phenomenon of the early twenty-first century which for the first time saw TV series not in the English language become part of mainstream UK broadcasting

The series used the genre to explore – amongst other themes – society’s fear of and desire for violence, social isolation and changing gender roles

Audience:

Hypodermic model (passive consumption):  in which the SENDER is transferring a MESSAGE, through a MEDIUM (eg Print, radio, TV, etc) that has a direct effect on the RECEIVER. OR WHO, SAYS WHAT, THROUGH WHAT CHANNEL, TO WHOM, TO WHAT EFFECT.

Can be traced back to Harold Lasswell 1927 who wrote “propaganda technique in the world war.”  ‘subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers . . . knocked them into submission’

This approach was later adapted by Shannon and Weaver in 1949, as the Transmission model of Communication, which included other elements, such as NOISE, ERROR, ENCODING and FEEDBACK.

Industries

David Hesmondhalgh describes the media industry as a risky business.

PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, CONSUMPTION. – write about those.

Mergers, Globalisation, Regulation.

Language

Genre, semiotics, narrative, structure, codes and conventions,

Representation

Post colonialism

Key words

1. Hypodermic model (passive consumption)

Early theoretical work on the relationship (or effects) of media consumption are often traced back to Harold Lasswell, who developed the theoretical tool of ‘content analysis’ and in 1927 wrote Propaganda Technique in the World War which highlighted the brew of ‘subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers . . . knocked them into submission’ (link). As Martin Moore notes, Lasswell, as a behavioural scientist researching areas connected with political communication and propaganda, believed each government had ‘manipulated the mass media in order to justify its actions’ in World War 1 (2019:122). 

2. Two Step Flow of Communication (active consumption)

At the same time Paul Lazarfeld recognised that a simple, linear model may not be sufficiently complex to understanding the relationship between message sent > message received. As such, in 1948 he developed the Two Step Flow model of communication, which took account of 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.

As Martin Moore suggests, ‘people’s political views are not, as contemporaries thought, much changed by what they read or heard in the media. Voters were far more influenced by their friends, their families and their colleagues’ (2019:124).

3. Uses and Gratifications (active selection)

The distinction is this approach is rather than categorising the audience as passive consumers of messages, either directly from source, or from opinion leaders, this theory recognises the decision making process of the audience themselves. As Elihu Katz explains the Uses and Gratifications theory diverges from other media effect theories that question: what does media do to people?, to focus on: what do people do with media?

1. information / education
2. empathy and identity
3. social interaction
4. entertainment
5. escapism

It is suggested that much of this research was informed by Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs (1954), which argues that people actively looked to satisfy their needs based on a hierarchy of social and psychological desires. Maslow’s thinking was centred around Humanistic psychology According the web page ‘Humanist Psychology’ (link here) the basic principle behind humanistic psychology is simple and can be reduced to identify the most significant aspect of human existence, which is to attain personal growth and understanding, as ‘only through constant self-improvement and self-understanding can an individual ever be truly happy‘.

Metanarratives- Provides audience with moments that draw attention to the idea that they are watching a story.

Frame stories- Stories told inside stories, testing Todorov’s ideal narrative structure through the presentation of nested moments of equilibrium and disequilibrium.

The difference between the culture industries and other industries is that the fact they run off/ adapt towards the majority/dominant culture to appeal to them more.

Public service broadcasting

Public service broadcasting is a non profit organisation which is independent but relies on the government for money. Its an organisation for everyone.

The ethos of the BBC is to inform, entertain and educate.

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Poster 1-Titanic

• Name of actors starring in the film
• Title
• Small print displaying key companies and people
• Information on previous films
• Titanic ship in the centre (dominant signifier)
• Strapline

Poster 2-Scream

• Title
• Strapline
• Mask placed in the top centre.
• Release date
• Name of actors starring

Poster 3-Oceans Eleven

1. Cultural industries  – Distributing cultural goods and services on industrial and commercial terms.
2. Production – The making of a video such as a commercial.
3. Distribution – promoting content to online audiences in multiple media formats through various channels.
4. Exhibition / Consumption – Retail branch of the film industry.
5. Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) – the worldwide integration of media through the cross cultural exchange of ideas.
6. Vertical Integration – When a media company owns different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution.
7. Regulation – Mass media regulations are rules enforced by the jurisdiction of law
8. Free market – The free market is an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control.
9. Diversity   – Diversity in the media is, more than a matter of professional ethics, a matter of questioning that given power.
10. Innovation  – Media innovation can include change in several aspects of the media landscape – from the development of new media platforms, to new business models, to new ways of producing media texts.

The Nationwide Project was an influential media audience research project conducted by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham.

Charlotte Brunsdon is a professor of film and television studies at the University of Warwick and researcher.

Nationwide is a former BBC current affairs television programme which ran from 9 September 1969 until 5 August 1983. It was broadcast on BBC 1 each weekday following the early evening news, and included the regional opt-out news programmes.

1. Cultural industries – The different types of popular media’s production, distribution and consumption
2. Production – How a piece of media is created
3. Distribution – How a piece of media is sold
4. Exhibition / Consumption – How a piece of media is watched/read etc.
5. Media concentration – Few individuals owning mass amounts of media
6. Conglomerates – A group that owns multiples companies which specialise in different types of media e.g. audio-visual or written
7. Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) – Owning companies throughout the entire globe
8. Cultural imperialism – The practice of promoting the culture or language of one country in another
9. Vertical Integration- A way of expansion via acquiring different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution
10. Horizontal Integration – A way of expansion via acquiring media companies that work in similar sectors e.g. a company owning a magazine, radio and newspaper
11. Mergers – merging 2 existing companies into 1 new company
12. Monopolies – Owning several companies all in one business
13. Gatekeepers
14. Regulation – Laws that prevent certain things from happening e.g. creating monopolies
15. Deregulation – Removing or loosening restrictions on media outlets
16. Free market – A market in which voluntary exchange and the laws of supply and demand provide the sole basis for the system
17. Commodification  
18. Convergence  
19. Diversity  – individuality of viewpoints or content
20. Innovation  – change and individuality in several aspects of the media landscape, from developing new platforms, to new business models, to new methods of production

1. Hypodermic model (passive consumption)

The hypodermic model was theorised by Harold Lasswell, who wrote “Propaganda Technique in the World War ” in 1927 – highlighting the “subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers… knocked them into submission”. Lasswell developed a linear model of communication in 1948, breaking down the line of communication from point A to point B (in which the SENDER is sending a MESSAGE through a MEDIUM which has an effect on the RECIEVER)

2. Two Step Flow of Communication (active consumption)

Paul Lazarfeld recognized that the simplicity of the linear model may not be sufficiently complex in understanding the relationship between sending a message and receiving the message. Due to this, he developed the Two Step Flow model of communication in 1948, taking into account of the way that messages are not directly “injected” into the audience, but go through “opinion leaders” first – people that the public trust and believe in. These opinion leaders exert influence onto the public, making communication subject to bias, interpretation, rejection, amplification, support and change

Katz, Gurevitch & Haas put forward research showing that individual audience members are a lot more active than was previously thought and were key to the processes of selection, interpretation and feedback. Individuals sought particular pleasures, uses and gratifications from individual pieces of media as shown above. Or categorised as: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs argues that people actively looked to satisfy their needs based on a hierarchy of social and psychological desires, as shown below

Psychographic Profiles

Approaches towards the audience will either adopt a QUAUNTITATIVE (objective, amount of sales/costs/viewership) approach or QUALITATIVE (interpretive, why audiences consume media) approach