TV and Film as Language

This week’s blog post will be continuing on from this weeks lecture discussing how TV and Film can be seen as language. In this lecture I gained an understanding of how both television and film communicate to us an audience.

My first reading is part one of a reading taken from John Ellis, in this reading the importance of sound and image in television is discussed and is compared to the sound and image used in Cinemas.  It seems that the chapter focuses on the quality of television and film, how cinema appears to have more importance than television as cinema is seen as a special occasion whereas television is of a last resort as an activity to do. However it agrees that television is frequently used more, the reason for this appears to be that less concentration is needed and the use of sound is important in this. It’s important as sound allows less concentration from the viewer as momentary lapses can happen as stereo sound lets the viewer’s hear, although it still makes you glance at the screen. The sound in a cinema has a higher quality as the sound system is higher and more concentration is focused as you are in a dark room with lack of movement, therefore less distraction.

The second reading for this week is part two from a reading taken from Ellis, this chapter discusses the narration of television and cinema and appears to agree greatly with the other chapter of sound and image. This chapter about narration discusses how television series are segment’s that follow from one and another that often might not have a connection with each other, in terms of the narration, and features repetition in the story lines.  This makes television easier to follow compared to the cinema and agrees with the previous chapter I have discussed, that it represents television as casual and is used in a domestic form. The narration is very alike to the importance as sound as I stated above as this use of narration means that the viewers can watch without intensity and without their continuity of attention.

The last reading that I will be discussing this week is taken from a book written by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. This reading focuses more on cinema and discusses the idea of representation and how these representations are formed in film, whether these representations were meant to be or whether the audience has created these representations through their own analysis. For instance a film may show a certain representation; however this representation won’t be seen as intended. Sometimes there may not have been a meaning at all, but people want it to mean something and sometimes a film might have a personal meaning to them due to real life situations. This reading also talks about narration, how audiences are given a scene and then they analyse the scene and create a story from this scene. This reading shows the comparisons that television and cinema have as with cinema the viewer has to be concentrated and fixed to their screens, whereas with television the viewer could have on in the background whilst continuing with activities, yet still make sense of the narration.

In terms of my own academic research I would apply a semiotic methodology to undertake an analysis of a particular television show that critiques the signs that are communicated to us, for the reasons that are mentioned in this weeks readings I would research into possibly day time dramas.

References

Ellis, John (1982) Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video, Routledge: London - pp. 127-159

Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey (2000) ‘How films mean, or, from aesthetics to semiotics and half-way back again’ in Gledhill, C and Williams, L. (2000), Reinventing Film Studies. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Political Economy of the Media

This weeks blog post will be focusing on key reading based upon the political economy of the media as this is what was taught to me in the lecture this week. Within this lecture I began to understand the political economy and the public sphere, also the relationship between them that is very much based on who has the power in the media.

The first key reading I will be discussing is a reading by Ien Ang, the discussion from this was focusing on the audience relationship, what I understood from this reading was that the making of commercial television programmes is now purely for profit and for the use of advertising. It makes key points about how advertisers don’t care about the culture or the pro-social value of the audiences of these programmes, but if the programme has a high audience rating. The political economy of commercial television suggests that the audiences are defined as potential customers for these products that are being advertised, these are known as audience-as-market. The other type of audience is audience-as-public, this audience isn’t entirely for profit making but the programmes are made to serve the audience.

The second key reading is a chapter called ‘Political Economy of the Media’ and is taken from the core media text book, this reading focuses on the power relations within the media industry as a whole and discusses how this power generates revenue. This reading is similar to Ien Ang’s reading as it discusses how television and media is now produced to maximise profits, but also how the sale of audiences for the advertising of products, appears to be one of the most important aspects. This again is using the audience-as-market to gain revenue.

The reading that I have found myself is taken from the “Journal of Media and Culture” (2000) and discusses the political economy of the media, using the internet as an example; however this journal is still relevant to the other key readings. This reading discusses both types of audiences similar to the two previous readings, although I found this reading particularly interesting as it agrees with the concept of organisations not seeing their audiences as actual audience, but as a commodity. The reading from the core media text book also discusses the audience as a commodity; both of these readings agree with the importance of advertising. My reading suggests audiences are now made by advertising and are generalised by what products are being advertised, rather than the audience suggesting what products are. In simple form, advertisements are being placed on the most viewed programmes/websites without considering entirely on whether they are the target audience for that product.

In terms of my own research the methodology I would apply a rhetorical analysis as I'd like to look more closely at media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch. The reason for this is to find out how the connection between the political economy and power is so strong.

References:

Chapter 2 ("Audience-as-market and audience-as-public") in Ang, Ien (1991) Desperately Seeking the Audience. London: Routledge.

Downes,D,. 2000. The Medium Vanishes? The Resurrection of the Mass Audience in the New Media  Economy A Journal of Media and Culture,3.1,  [online], 2000. Available from: http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0003/mass.php [Accessed 08 February 2013]. 

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) ‘Political Economy of the Media’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2^nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp. 172-185

Television and Public Service Broadcasting

This is the first of several posts that I will be publishing discussing key readings that I have been given to read, as well as readings that I have found independently on my own. I will be discussing the main points that the readings are delivering and also comparing and contrasting the readings. This week’s blog post will be discussing the historiography of television as we learnt about the history of the BBC and ITV in the lecture. 

However I firstly began to read the set chapters beginning with the Media Studies book by Long, this reading gave me an idea of how to begin to search for historiographies of companies. It discusses how to go about researching and explains what limitations that we as scholars have, when investigating and producing media history. I learnt from this reading that researching historiographies, you begin to have a “broad understanding of the issues we are working with.” (Long,2012: 451)

I then read another reading I was given taken from Creeber, this reading discusses the historiography of the BBC and public service broadcasting which again gave me a greater knowledge on how to research into historiographies.  This reading looks further into the development of television and the stages that television has processed through such as how television was before the War. An aspect that I found interesting was when the reading discusses the Pilkington report that happened in 1962 as this is mentioned briefly in my next reading about the ITV; this report discusses the companies in detail.

I found a reading that explores into the historiography of the ITV by Tony Currie which made me have a further understanding on how to explore into researching the history of media organisations myself. The aspect I found interesting in this reading was that it was very similar to Creeber’s reading, as both reading discuss the history of each other as the BBC was the competition of the ITV who are talked about in Currie’s reading. This reading discusses how this competition was what advantage and disadvantage of the ITV, as it mentions how ITV was more light hearted and fun compared to the much more formal and educated television channel that was the BBC.

In terms of my own academic research I would apply a qualitative methodology to create a historical analysis for a chosen media organisation. After beginning to have an understanding of the BBC and ITV, I would like to explore into the history of one one of these media organisations to understand the development and progress. 

References:

Creeber, Glen (2003) The Origins of Public Service Broadcasting (British Television Before the War) in Michele Hilmes (ed.) (2003) The Television History Book. London: BFI. Pp.22-26

Currie, T,. (2000) A Concise History of British Television 1930-2000 (online), 2000. Avaiable from: http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_concise_history_of_British_television.html?id=rgsbAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y [online], 2000. [Accessed 01 February 2013].

Long, P and Wall, T (2012) ‘Media Histories’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp 448 – 481